Doing More with Less? Keep it Simple and EDUCATE! (08/09)
By Dianne Chambers
I consider myself to be an optimistic, glass-half-full kind of girl. However, even I have to admit that I have stood with everyone else and watched in horror as the bottom fell out of the economy. For me (and I am sure for many people), it was like watching a tsunami from afar, and feeling helpless to stop the giant wave. Many of my librarian friends also felt this helplessness, and the subsequent fallout within their organizations.
After getting over the initial shock that the “good days” are behind us, I think it is time for all of us to stand up, dust ourselves off and reshape our thinking. The sinking economy does not have to be a negative thing. It may sound strange, but this downturn may actually be a blessing in disguise. I have some suggestions on how to continue to thrive in this economic climate.
Rather than trying to figure out how to do more with less—my new mantra is—E.D.U.C.A.T.E.! What does this mean? Decide what you really need to do, know or learn, and find creative ways to make it happen. As an information professional, you provide a valuable and indispensable service to your organization, and here are some steps to get you started.
E.D.U.C.A.T.E. is an acronym is that I put together while preparing this topic. It stands for this:
E—Evaluate your organization’s needs. In particular, what is your main objective? Cost-effective research? Increasing your client base? Offering more services to your existing clients?
D—Decision makers. This includes deciding on a person or a group of people to put together a plan.
U—Understand who your audience is. Will you be working primarily with attorneys, students, paralegals, or another segment of your patronage? Understanding who your audience is will go a long way toward creating the right educational program.
C—Craft your plan. Decide if you will be holding hour-long training sessions, mini-Webinars or other types of educational sessions. This is also a good time to decide on topics appropriate to your audience.
A—Analyze your objectives. The objectives here refer to the outcome you would like to see. Some examples of this would be making your patrons more research savvy, or informing them about all of the services your library has to offer.
T—Teaching is the highest priority. Remember that you are the information professional, imparting valuable knowledge to further the goals of your organization.
E—Execute the plan. This is where you take everything you have put together, and put it into action.
What are some other ways to work with what you have and keep costs in line? Utilize your vendors as a valued business partner. In particular, your LexisNexis® Librarian Relations Consultants and Information Professional Consultants can offer many tips and tricks to assist you with keeping costs aligned and increasing awareness of services to your organization. Some suggestions from the field include the following:
Lexis® Web
A Web search tool from LexisNexis. Lexis® Web allows you to search over 4,000 legal Web sites for targeted legal authority. Unlike searching on the open Web, all of the Web sites on Lexis® Web have been validated by the LexisNexis® legal staff, so you can be sure you are getting trusted content. Best of all—Lexis® Web is free to search! Check it out at www.lexisweb.com.
LexisNexis® Analyzer
LexisNexis® Analyzer is a report product that allows you to search many sources at once, for a flat fee. In addition, you get a “free” peek at your results before deciding to pull up a cite list or the full-text of your documents. With LexisNexis® Analyzer you can perform a due-diligence-like search on judges, attorneys, experts, arbitrators and companies. It is a cost-effective way to run a broad search for a reasonable price.
Lexis® Alerts in Mega News
Keeping up with the issues surrounding the financial crisis? Set up alerts in the news to get results automatically. Some of the new combined sources in Mega News include:
- Mega News, Credit Crisis
- Mega News, Financial Crisis Bailout
- Mega News, Toxic Assets
- Mega News, Toubled Asset Relief Program
- Mega News, U.S. Economic Stimulus Plan
- Mega News, Capital Purchase Program
You can use these sources to run a terms and connectors search, or you can run a simple date search to find the latest news. There is a search running in the background for all of these sources, so setting up an alert is very easy.
These are just a few of my thoughts on how to survive and thrive within your organization. Your local Librarian Relations Consultant, as well your Lexis® account team can also provide you with ideas. Remember to analyze and rethink how you work, and success will follow! E.D.U.C.A.T.E.!
