July 2020: Vable's current awareness round-up

We are now half way through 2020 and I'm going to say nothing about the type of year it has been. All I'm going to say is I've enjoyed creating new content for the Vable site and hope you enjoy brushing up on your library management skills. 

Since April and the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, I have explored themes around communication. The frustrations we can face, the importance of branding, how we can improve our training and inductions, and cope with an increasing onslaught of information. 

COVID-19: 8 ways to keep communication channels open

We are all under pressure at work and so it is to be expected that we occasionally face frustrations. As key service providers, information professionals often find themselves managing difficult situations - it's an important aspect part of our library management training. 

For a workplace to be productive, communications need to be as open and positive as possible. So here are eight quick tips to remind us that we are all in this together. Read more...

What is branding, and why is it important to library services (especially during COVID-19)?

Are you out of sight, out of mind? Your library and information services are currently operating away from a physical space within a building, so how do you ensure that you're not slipping out of the minds of your audience? This got me thinking about branding, and why it is so important that you are visible.

Branding is an important subset of marketing, which is a part of your library management skills toolkit. Your end-users, stakeholders, clients etc want you to have a strong brand because they need you as their trusted advisor. Although it is intangible, branding adds value to your product/service because of the relationships it helps develop. Read more...

How can I deliver library training and inductions post-COVID-19?

I recently attended an online panel discussion hosted by City Legal Information Professionals (CLIG). The broad theme was how library services were handling the challenges posed by COVID-19.

Although the agenda was wide ranging, the issue that got me thinking was training and on-boarding. I’ve written about training and trainee lawyer inductions previously, but coronavirus means we need a new approach. Where are we now, and what can we do? Read more...

How can #infopros maintain information integrity in an infodemic?

This is the second post to emerge from the CLIG panel discussion. Aside from training during COVID-19, the panel discussion covered collection management, workload and working patterns, morale and motivation, as well as communication challenges. 

A member of the panel talked about the importance of information integrity, and how it is vital that we maintain the ‘information flow’. Read more...

Law libraries and technology: “The Times They Are a-Changin'”

Here we are at the start of summer and it seems like a long time since any of us stepped foot in a physical law library space. But even prior to this global pandemic, times were changing. The law firm library was moving away from hard copy, and becoming more reliant on a variety of technology solutions. As the latest BIALL COVID-19 Industry Survey 2020 confirmed; 

A vast majority of respondents (91%) predict that COVID-19 will lead to a more pronounced shift towards virtual libraries

This blogpost is inspired by recent tech-related discussions taking place within the legal information community; lis-law, BIALL and various blogposts. I’ve also been creating case studies using information teams’ experiences of transferring from manual to automated news aggregation and current awareness. Tech is here to stay.

Enjoy these and let me have any feedback! Follow Vable on LinkedIn for more updates.