3 Geeks and a Law Blog

To anonymous "relatively new member": I believe yo...

2009-12-14T15:17:45.730-06:00

To anonymous "relatively new member": I believe your interpretation of events is incorrect. Librarians, at least the ones I know, are not as parochial as you suggest. As it is, I happen to be a librarian in a traditional library setting who has no particular interest in retaining (or discarding) either "librarian" or "libraries" as an organizational name. I also have no objection to or fear of a "bigger tent." My sole objection was to the particular name that was being proffered, which I felt was too broad, too trendy, and too vague. "Knowledge professional" could describe an Accountant, Architect, Banker, or CEO just as easily as it could describe a librarian or information specialist. The issue is not the size of the tent, but an appropriate name for it. The name should be inclusive, of course, but it must also be meaningful. In addition, to the extent possible, the name should be timeless and not so obviously influenced by the latest business buzzwords of the day (like "knowledge worker"/"knowledge professional"). And don't even get me started on the inclusion of the word "strategic" in the name. Let's just say that it was highly reminiscent of a fellow who needs to brag about his prowess because he is secretly embarrassed by his lack of natural endowments.

There were a lot of folks that took that "big tent...

2009-12-14T12:39:25.201-06:00

There were a lot of folks that took that "big tent" approach to this vote. I'm not sure that I really buy into that though. Librarians are not usually 'short sited' when it comes to the profession. There are a lot of subgroups of librarianship, and if you look over the past 20-40 years, most of the technology you have in organizations (private firms or public institutions) there were many professions that got their feet wet within the structure of the library, and then grew to stand on their own. Information Technology, Knowledge Management, Records Management, Archives, and a list of other professions fell under the library tent.
I think one of the issues that caused such an uproar was the fact that people kept pointing to the fact that SLA was supposed to be a temporary name until something better came along. But it was the term "Special" that was the key word that needed to be changed... not "libraries". But, to listen to those wanting to change the name, it was spun in a way that made it sound like the term 'libraries' was the bad term in the existing organizational name. I think that approach backfired because it made it sound like the 'big tent' of the librarian profession could no longer stand if the term 'libraries' was one of the supporting pillars. There was a good suggestion in one of the Twitter comments I saw that said the term Special should have been turned to "Specialized" and there were other comments that said "Knowledge Professionals" could have been added to the name.
If you're going to ask a professional organization to completely drop the core professional title out of the organization, then perhaps there should have been a little more time to debate and explain the issue before bringing such a drastic change to a vote while emotions where still raw.

I am a relatively new member of SLA. I don't neces...

2009-12-14T12:15:21.113-06:00

I am a relatively new member of SLA. I don't necessarily envision myself being a librarian for life, though I do expect to use this skill set as a career foundation. For me the SLA/Askpro debate was about the bigger tent of opportunities and career options. Librarians seemed to prefer the small tent. Too often their position assumed a zero sum outcome. I think it was very short sighted on their part.

Julie, When I was at the SLA-TX conference in Aust...

2009-12-11T12:05:33.991-06:00

Julie,
When I was at the SLA-TX conference in Austin back in October, I heard a great comment from Gary Hoover. SLA spent a lot of time getting comments from C-Level folks on what they thought on the subject. Gary said that the association should be very cautious when getting the opinions from C-Levels because they can be very narrow minded, and that their opinions on such issues tend to not be very good. So, it seems that the process was a little upside down by letting C-Levels define the organization rather than define the organization to C-Levels.

Gotta say I agree with the "Name Change Is Needed....

2009-12-11T11:57:27.408-06:00

Gotta say I agree with the "Name Change Is Needed..." commenter. As someone who was in business school in the 90s, all of those buzzwords got to be a joke (just like that Power Point cartoon of the guy wearing many hats). It reeked of an idea that came from a consultant, but didn't take into account the people who would actually be affected by it -- the members. We should have spent all that time and money on educating these "C-level" executives on what SLA and special librarians do.

Toby, The word that most object to in the current...

2009-12-11T11:54:15.012-06:00

Toby,

The word that most object to in the current name is "Special". So, there is a lot of consensus to change the name and drop that particular word. However, both Special and Libraries were tossed and that set off the firestorm.

I do think it was a process issue. Yesterday, I happened to run across a great blog post that had nothing to do with the name change, but described how to address incoming changes in IT departments. While I was reading it, I thought that if you removed the "IT" slant from the article, it gave a great formula for how to introduce and bring change into an organization. I think if the name change had been addressed using these 11 principles, then there might have been a much better process and different results all the way around:

1 – Conversation (Vs Broadcast)
2 – Bottom up (Vs Top Down)
3 – Reputation (Vs Hierarchy)
4 – Emergence (Vs Structure)
5 – Folksonomy (Vs Taxonomy)
6 – Agility (Vs Bureaucracy)
7- Transparency (Vs Security)
8 – Intertwined Networks (Vs Silos)
9 – Simplicity (Vs Complexity)
10 – User-oriented (Vs Governance)
11 – Trust (Vs Control)

Interesting debate. It appears that no one has ...

2009-12-11T11:44:50.193-06:00

Interesting debate.

It appears that no one has an issue with the need for a name change, but just about the process. Is that the case?

The only name change that will be accepted will in...

2009-12-11T11:36:02.313-06:00

The only name change that will be accepted will inlude the term "librarian"... ex: "Special Information and Librarians Association"

Oh, you're absolutely right. Look at what happened...

2009-12-10T15:09:50.786-06:00

Oh, you're absolutely right. Look at what happened to Wikipedia. We all scoffed at it, initially, but look at us now.... Google SLOJ will definitely have the same appeal. Whether we like it or not. Or whether it's the righto thing to use, or not....

Rich, First of all, thank YOU for pulling this in...

2009-12-10T09:17:28.150-06:00

Rich,

First of all, thank YOU for pulling this interview together.

As for the comparison, this was really in response to the large number of attorneys, librarians, etc. that immediately started calling Google Scholar a "Wexisberg" killer. I've received a large number of questions from people concerning Google Scholar's entry into legal research and whether or not they could consider cancelling either Westlaw or Lexis and rely on Google Scholar. So, although it really is an apple to oranges comparison, there are folks out there that didn't initially see it as such. I'm hoping that laying out some of the details behind Google's SLOJ project will make people realize what it truly is, and appreciate it for such.

Although the passive voice is often--and rightly--...

2009-12-10T08:53:41.972-06:00

Although the passive voice is often--and rightly--condemned, a little common sense might be introduced. In the example cited, what's more important--the people who gave the award or the firm receiving the award? Of course it's the fact that the firm received the award. That idea should go first, thereby correctly motivating the passive-voice construction. As a further illustration, consider these two sentences:

> John Hinkley shot President Reagan today. (active voice)

> President Reagan was shot today by John Hinkley. (passive voice)

Of course, the passive voice is acceptable and even preferable because no one knows who John Hinkley is, and the President is more important.

The better advice would be this: AVOID the passive voice--like the plague.

Interesting thoughts - and, once again, thanks for...

2009-12-10T08:50:39.416-06:00

Interesting thoughts - and, once again, thanks for being on the show. You and Roger contributed much to the discussion.

One thing, though, that struck me is that comparing it to Wexisberg is like comparing apples to oranges. Google SLOJ is more analogous to "natural language" searching than it is to straight full text searching. And this is partly how/why the results are so good, and, at the same time so weak. When we compare them to straight full-text Wexisberg searching, it's disorienting because they are doing much more analysis than we're used to.

I've been studying Google's search algorithms and methods and am beginning to appreciate that it's almost wholly different from what we're used to - or even need, as lawyers. However, I suspect that once it is fully developed and understood, it may become a very, very useful tool indeed.

And, since they're not really in the same ballpark as Wexisberg, I don't think that the "big three," have much to worry about.

Congrats! That is quite a feat given the panacea o...

2009-12-10T01:04:50.002-06:00

Congrats! That is quite a feat given the panacea of blawgs out there. Some of my colleagues have been at it for years and no one has reached out to them for accolades.

Doug, You are right! I forgot that Kevin updated...

2009-12-09T12:24:59.312-06:00

Doug,

You are right! I forgot that Kevin updated that list this year. I got caught up in the nostalgia of the list that I put out this time last year, and Kevin's that came out about the same time. I thought it would be good to see what happened in the 12 months that followed.

I also think that some of the blogs definitely have ongoing value, and I'm glad that you continue to keep both of your old blogs up for us to find. I also think your suggestion to Kevin keeping and archival version of the blogs available is also a good idea. I'm wondering if the bloggers would allow the archived version to remain, though. I can imagine that some of them would object to it continuing to be available, while others (like yourself) would like to keep it available for others to find well after the last post was written.

Great work. I think you used the November 2008 re...

2009-12-09T12:08:53.127-06:00

Great work.

I think you used the November 2008 report from Kevin instead of the more recent June 2009. http://kevin.lexblog.com/2009/06/articles/large-law/state-of-the-amlaw-200-blogosphere-june-2009/

My two dead blogs were in the earlier one and not in the later one. David Hobbie's Caselines kept the Goodwin Procter entry alive.

As the blogger behind two of the dead blogs (KM Space and Real Estate Space), I thinks its okay to end a blog. Focus changes, careers change. Every story has an end.

What surprised me was how many are no longer available. (To correct your list, KM Space and Real Estate Space are both still available.) Its a doubly hard result to stop blogging and to take all the blog content down.

In my view, if you are going to stop, keep the blog up for a while with a message that you have stopped blogging.

I had the advantage of using the free blogger platform so keeping the content up does not cost me anything. Even if you are hosting your own blog, the hosting fee is only a few dollars a month.

I wonder if Kevin and LexBlog offer an archive rate to keep a blog online but with no new content (or comments) being published?

Check out the Alexa ratings on these blawgs. http...

2009-12-09T09:29:13.893-06:00

Check out the Alexa ratings on these blawgs.

http://southcarolinaappellatelaw.blogspot.com/

remains active, but it's got an Alexa rating over 9,000,000, meaning that it gets maybe a handful of visitors a week.

Great list. As safety consultants, we read legal ...

2009-12-09T09:07:54.120-06:00

Great list. As safety consultants, we read legal blogs for any workplace safety litigation. Although not necessarily legal related, The OSHA Underground blog has been taken down due to workplace safety "legalities". A shame as it was a good thought provoking source for regulatory news.

Interesting update to the list! To me, blogging w...

2009-12-09T09:07:25.803-06:00

Interesting update to the list!

To me, blogging will always be a bit counter-culture. "Firm blogs" (particularly group blogs) are probably fighting an uphill battle. Lawyers at firms may get excited and decide to blog, but that's a different story. Those that have a passion will probably continue to do it, but it will always be driven by individuals (or by relatively small groups..even within a large firm).

At the end of the day, blogs are transient. All blogs, even 3 Geeks ;-)

This is fascinating. There is a terrific discuss...

2009-12-09T08:54:48.495-06:00

This is fascinating.

There is a terrific discussion on menwithpens.ca about the future of blogging.

I guess only the future will tell us if blogging is the wave of the future, or just a wave.

This was great, thanks.

2009-12-08T15:58:50.947-06:00

This was great, thanks.

I'm glad to see you're on the portmanteau bandwago...

2009-12-08T15:21:04.628-06:00

I'm glad to see you're on the portmanteau bandwagon. And despite your attempts to keep folks focused on the very limited nature of SLOJ, I'm pretty sure that over the next year we'll be hearing anecdotes at the conferences (and maybe suggestions in CLE papers) about how lawyers are giving up high priced CALRs in favor of Google. I can smell new ethics opinions already.

I always love writing these and getting busted! Wr...

2009-12-08T13:30:02.937-06:00

I always love writing these and getting busted! Write on ...

Shouldn't you say, "I am the exceptional lawyer wh...

2009-12-08T11:36:19.692-06:00

Shouldn't you say, "I am the exceptional lawyer who can write ... "?

Pardon me. It was in #4 and not #5, also proving ...

2009-12-08T10:13:49.602-06:00

Pardon me. It was in #4 and not #5, also proving how hard it is to read some days. Mea culpa. Aaacckkk.

Great advice, though you were unable to comply wit...

2009-12-08T10:11:48.860-06:00

Great advice, though you were unable to comply with it in #5, proving how hard it can be to keep it simple. Really.