Glamorous Librarians: Or Improving Your Law Firm Website

New pic due soon, thank goodness

Lawyers and various support services staff here have embraced new challenges recently; we have been models and copywriters. An artist photographer came in to take our photos last week, whilst Business Development sent us a template so we could write about ourselves, our role and how we can help you, the client. Obviously we are completing these difficult tasks for our firm’s exciting new website.

We are striving to present ourselves as qualified, approachable and trustworthy people who, if engaged, would work tirelessly on your behalf in a legal and business capacity. This is precisely what every other law firm is trying to do with their website, so how do you differentiate between all these legal sites?

What is Sculpture Made Of?

Cava del Braschi, Monte Ceceri

This lecture opened in entertaining style with an immediate reference to the previous one. Dr Dent had practically skirted over material/technique of sculpture but here Dr Jim Harris went straight into this interdisciplinary aspect with the statement (I paraphrase):

Sculpture is what it is we do when we take a memory of people. It goes to the heart and into the very notion of humanity.

We quickly dispatched painting and slammed the door firmly in its face. Painting can be anything but sculpture is better. Materials are as varied as the sculpture they make. Painting tells us a lot but the material of sculpture tells us more. At this point we could have concluded the lecture. But as he says, we would have been rather disappointed. I think what we needed was to be in a quarried amphitheatre, sat amongst the elements of sculpture.

Study: Why it Benefits You and Your Employer

It seems I’ve spent the last few years in one of three states; eagerly anticipating study, screaming because I was in the middle of study, or suffering post-study ennui. As I’m currently in between final course work and at the pre-research/planning stage for my 15000 word dissertation, this is a really good time to evaluate the impact that part time study has on my professional life.

It also doubles as an annoyingly motivational piece for January, given the tradition for resolutions and fresh starts. What more perfect resolution could there be than taking a course of study?

One of my library friends on Twitter asked how I was finding my course - what the workload with the day job/support/etc was like - because he was thinking of doing something similar. I was honest. If I’m being frank, my friends and family get neglected, annual leave is spent in the library, stress levels rise around coursework/assessment time and lecture evenings are reserved, no matter what. Sometimes day to day work is affected because of tiredness and, in my case, total distraction with a subject I love. All this sounds very negative and yet, I advised my friend to go for it as soon as possible. Why would anyone go to such lengths for study? 

What is Sculpture?

Mama mia!

In the absence of any MA lectures this term most people are probably catching up with their friends, revisiting some nice art shows, having facials or watching Celebrity Big Brother or something. Which is why I am taking a sculpture course at the Courtauld. I was having a Christmas dinner with some similarly study addicted friends and during a conversation about how annoyed* with Birkbeck I was, she mentioned this venerable institution at Somerset House. It turns out they do some really excellent non stressy modules there, so I signed up for this term and these are my rough notes.

'Art is painting' many galleries would have us believe. Exhibitions have traditionally focused on the two dimensional, leaving sculpture, architecture, print makers, decorative arts under represented. Now, in my view, this opening gambit is being challenged, with many major institutions widening their scope to embrace other media. A glance at this years planned exhibitions show fashion, jewellery, design, architecture, which makes it interesting to be focusing on sculpture this term. A stroll around any part of London shows that we are surrounded by it - on the fronts of buildings, in our squares and churches, office lobbies and on our streets.