6 degrees of legal librarianing

You know that game, 6 Degrees of Kevin Bacon, when you can use Kevin Bacon to link almost anyone in Hollywood in 6 steps or less?

Yes?
Well, it’s got almost nothing to do with this post, but I like the idea of it 🙂
Anyhoo, what was it I was going to blog about…oh yes – the problem of what degree is most useful in a legal information environment. See, I knew there was some reason I’d been thinking of degrees!
Y’see, Robert Gordon University have done something rather spiffing: they’ve launched a distance learning Law LLB, woo-hoo! Studying is part-time as standard, and can be accelerated to full time from 2012.
Now…this is kinda tempting, because as a librarian in law firm, I’m similar to many librarians in this and other specialist areas: I don’t have a degree in the subject I work in. Everything I’ve learned, I’ve either been taught by my previous or current boss (both infinitely patient in relation to daft questions), or picked up through doing the research for enquiries, and self-education in the job. I do have a degree (science), and a postgraduate diploma (information and library science), but they don’t really prepare you for questions about what is a medium filum fluminis, or extinguishing a real burden, or any of the other specialist-area specific stuff.
So what you tend to find is that, if they can afford it, and can fit it into their lives, a lot of law librarians try and get some sort of legal qualification. This helps with two issues: gaining a better understanding of the foundations of what we’re working with, and the processes and systems we work within. And it also helps to remind co-workers that, yes, actually, we are professionals too, just like them. You see, you could have qualifications coming out of your ears (and often, we do: Msc’s, Bsc’s, MAs, PGDips, Charterships), but in a law firm, to a lawyer, you’re not a professional unless you have a law degree – they’re the only degrees that count. And if you’re not regarded as a “proper” professional, then it’s far harder to get your advice and work to be taken seriously.
But there’s no other option for law firm librarians than to come into law qualified in other subject areas: it’s too specialised an area to have a degree or other professional qualification we can do. We come in, we learn and get on with it, and if we have time and money, we increase our qualification level by throwing in a law degree.
So obviously, I went about things the wrong way really, what you want to do is a law degree, THEN switch to being a librarian!
Now, if only I could afford to do that one at RGU…

When silliness becomes real goodness

Well, back in December I thought it’s be fun to put together a gift list for the stereotypical librarian, and this included, of course, library-based options, mainly from GoodGifts.org. I’ve used Goodgifts before (it’s actually now a running joke in my family: if I hand over an envelope for an event, they tend to wail “Oh don’t tell us you’ve bought me another orphan!”), so I though it’d be nice to feature their library idea.

And there I left it – as a nice idea, but one for other people. And of course, the awesome option of buying a full library was just mad – nobody I knew could afford that!
But I reckoned without theREALwikiman, and other fab librarians around the world. Ned saw my blog post, and retweeted the link…and him and others have got together to do something fabulous: they ARE going to buy that library! And if there’s not enough money for that permanent library, then maybe they can fund some mobile ones, or the stock for them…anything will help. They’re working together, needing only a small amount from lots of people, to make a good thing happen.
Now, I’ve done my bit and donated…what good thing have you done today? If your answer is “nothing yet”, then now’s your chance to stockpile some of those Good Karma points, for just a few pennies…
Donate here, do it, do it, do it!

Scotlandshire gets with the times

*Warning, this post uses vicious sarcasm*

You know, apparently, after the age of 65, your brain turns to mush and all your mental faculties just drain away into your toes, leaving you only fit to watch daytime TV, and consider if Cash in the Attic would find anything worthwhile in your house, while thinking longingly of the days when you could eat foods that didn’t get under the plate of your dentures.

Although it is rumoured that occasionally, a faint waft of intellect can remain, enough to make such decrepit wrecks of humanity fit to hold a normal conversation…and sometimes they can even crank the handle enough to wind their brains up to lukewarm. And now Scotland will yank them out of their nice, sensible high-backed chairs with sturdy arms, and throw them into a jury box.
It’s almost like the Scottish Government understands that life and intelligence doesn’t end with retirement. Who knew?

No (Form)spring in this step

Yes, I’m the type of gal who likes to mess about and try new tools and sites. So, nine months ago, Formspring seemed like an amusing timewasting tool – people can ask you questions, either putting their name to them (usually a Twitter name), or anonymously. You then can answer them, and post the responses in your Formspring stream, either for the world to see, or only to your followers (I’m not sure if this was originally an option). You can also follow other people, and ask them questions too, so it can be quite interactive.

Yes, I know it was and still is attracting bad publicity for the fact that school kids use it to bully each other, but school kids can and will use anything to bully each other, from verbal abuse, notes written and passed around, text messages, or messages on various popular sites that over time have moved from MySpace, to Bebo, to Facebook and Twitter. Just because some people misuse it, doesn’t mean a tool is inherently bad. And as an adult, if I didn’t like any questions I received, I could either delete and not answer them, or publish them with a good putdown response.
So, I had fun: I was asked a lot of questions, and in the process actually had to think quite deeply about some things: in daily life you’re not often asked about your aspirations, dreams, or fears, so I learned a bit about myself. I also laughed myself silly at some of the questions, and had great fun thinking up suitably silly responses.
But, after a few months, I got bored. I abandoned the account about six months ago, and recently decided it was time to shut it down – why have that info floating about freely out in the world if I’m not actively using that service? So, I went to close the account.
But no, you can’t shut your account, you can only disable it. Huh? But…erm…I want it gone, and everything on it: there’s no sensitive info in my responses, but it is my choice whether that info stays posted, or not.
Ok, no delete account option? Right – lets delete those questions and answers: surely there must be a “delete all” option? No.
Oh.
Cue me spending a good chunk of time deleting individually (with a pop-up “are you sure?” box for every one) three hundred and eighteen entries. Six hundred and thirty six clicks to delete. Not counting the page refresh every time the page of entries was done, to reload more to delete.
Ok, so they were all gone, yes?
No.
When I deleted the entries, the questions were regarded as unanswered, and went back into my inbox, waiting for me to answer. As the questions themselves still sometimes contained potentially identifiable info about me, I wanted them gone too. Now, this was marginally better: at least the questions could be deleted in chunks of twenty five at a time. So only thirteen clicks to get rid of them. Plus page reloads.
*sigh*
Right, anything else I can do to remove “me” from this site, since they won’t get rid of the account?
OK, the profile picture – I can remove that, yes?
No. There’s no option NOT to have a picture, just to replace a picture. Hmmmm. Right, so I’ve now replaced that with a picture of something else random, but the option to not have a picture at all would have been far better.
What else? Oh look – I can effectively “protect” the account, so anyone who’s currently subscribed to see what I post, and be alerted when I answer a new question is removed, and have to request to “refollow” me. Much like Twitter – a better way of controlling who sees the material you’re posting. Ok, so the account I want to kill is now protected.
Now, after doing all this, clearing everything out that I can and making what’s left as inaccessible as possible, I’ll disable it. And look, there’s an option when disabling it to say why you want it disabled, and add further comment…so I informed them that I no longer wanted the account, and wished for it to be deleted.
Lets see if they get back to me on this point, eh?