Lindsay Roylance
Electronic Sources
Block, M. (2004). Military Life. Library Journal, 129(15), 40-41. . General (or base) military libraries, unlike their academic and hospital counterparts, serve as public librarians for military personnel and their dependents, in addition to providing information on strategy and placement for commanders and Officers—making the role of a military librarian very different in times of peace vs. war. General libraries serve as a haven for soldiers who live in overcrowded bunks, and are sometimes the only access to reading materials in English for military families who live in foreign countries. Much of a military librarian’s work is done from a distance by providing deployed soldiers with ebooks, online reference, and mailing books (sometimes even interlibrary loans). This work can be highly emotional, such as when Jan Daugherty spent several days passing out books to soldiers about to board planes, knowing that not all of them would be coming back.
Brynko, B. (2013). Knovel: What Engineers Really Want. Information Today, 30(2), 13. Engineers are not just looking for information, they are looking for information to solve a problem. Engineers are especially looking for information they can input into an excel file, as most of them use excel for everything. Information on production standards of products are important when engineers seek information, as there are legal production standards they have to follow when purchasing building materials.
Du Preez, M. (2007). Information Needs and Information-Seeking Behaviour of Engineers: A Systemic Review. Mousaion, 25(2), 72-94. Engineers value “word of mouth” and informal verbal sources far more than text-based sources partially because the barriers to information production among engineers, including the perception that an engineer only writes technical papers if they have a surplus of time (and therefore are not valued enough by their employers to be given time-intensive projects); the project in question is already over and therefore, the information is outdated (there are privacy concerns if an article is published before a completed project); or the information is not important enough to give their employer an edge over other companies if it is kept confidential. Because interpersonal communication is the primary way engineers get information (in fact, aero engineers spend more time communicating information than any other task), “personal knowledge” is important when an engineer does seek text-based information. A text-based source is considered most valuable if the engineer has met and personally liked the author, one of his colleagues recommends the author, the engineer has read something by the author (or in the publication) before that he/she found useful, or if the information is found through a familiar source online. Familiarity trumps the quality or relevance of the information. When an engineer visits the library (as the absolute last resort), he/she will value hobby magazines and trade journals over research publications, while regarding books as a reliable, but outdated source.
Harker, Y. (2013). "Information Is Cheap, but Meaning Is Expensive": Building Analytical Skill into Legal Research Instruction. Law Library Journal, 105(1), 79-98. Despite the fact that lawyers who fail to perform adequate research are subject to discipline, sanctions, and lawsuits, new lawyers are notoriously terrible researchers, primarily because they learn how to research with the keyword method in online databases, which eliminates the organizational structure that is “intrinsic to print-based legal publishing.” Lawyers who use online databases can be “distracted by the superficialities of legal information, such as fact similarities and literal definitions.” Despite this, a new lawyer spends %45 of his/her day researching, spending up to thousands of dollars in one sitting using online databases. Due to rising research fees sometimes caused by incompetence, clients have started to refuse to pay for research.
Heller, H. W. (2009). The Twenty-First Century Law Library: A Law Firm Librarian's Thoughts. Law Library Journal, 101(4), 517-523. The Twenty-First Century Law Library: A Law Firm Librarian's Thoughts. Law Library Journal, 101(4), 517-523. Libraries are highly valued by lawyers. First, as a place to find a research expert, which is important to a lawyer who is beginning a research project or stuck in an existing project, and second as a quiet place to think and write difficult documents. Closing an office door does not necessarily keep visitors away at a law firm, so the physical space of a law library is valuable to the research process and productivity of a law firm. Training new lawyers how to do research well continues to be a priority for most law librarians, both for concerns of cost and quality.
Jackson, D. (2013). Lawyers Can't Be Luddites Anymore: Do Law Librarians Have a Role in Helping Lawyers Adjust to the New Ethics Rules Involving Technology?. Law Library Journal, 105(3), 395-404. New laws in Delaware have required lawyers to learn new technologies and be aware of rising confidentiality concerns in the wake of digital security breaches. Many lawyers are resistant to change and have resisted the need to learn complex database searches, predictive coding, and updated courtroom technology. As a result, law librarians have taken it upon themselves to educate new and veteran lawyers.
Johnson, E. (2012). Rules of Dating. AALL Spectrum, 17(3), 19-25. Reaching out to lawyers at your firm, especially to partners and other management, much as if you were reaching out to a potential date, will help them feel comfortable admitting to you that they need help, which is a difficult thing for high-level lawyers. It is important to establish deadline boundaries with lawyers, respect confidentiality, and let lawyers who haven’t contacted you recently come to you on their own.
Kniffel, L. (2006, February). Military Libraries in a Time of War. American Libraries. p. 2. While military librarians sometimes work in rocket science or engineering libraries, they often are stationed at base libraries, where the work is much like that of public librarian and includes youth services. Military librarians boost morale and provide a broader perspective for soldiers in these base libraries. In hospital/medical libraries military librarians provide patient support.
Murphy, E. (2009). Delivery to the Sharp End of the Spear: Responding to the Need for Library Support to the Deployed and Downrange Military Community. Journal Of Library Administration, 49(1-2), 51-57. Many deployed military personnel are currently enrolled in college due to education benefits provided by the government. This means that they may go to the academic librarian of the college in question for information. When students do consult a military librarian, it will likely be online, and their time will be limited because they have to wait in long lines at internet cafes, they have limited bandwidth, and/or they need to use their finite amount of computer time to contact family.
Ward, M. (December 01, 2001). A survey of engineers in their information world. Journal of Librarianship and Information Science, 33, 4, 168-176. Engineers differ from scientists because they value information gleaned from informal contacts over literature-based sources, and because engineers value confidentiality due to the commercial nature of their work, while scientists view knowledge as the end goal, and as a result, are more open to sharing information. Information gathering is not considered to be a project’s most important aspect, and is often assigned to more junior engineers.
Brynko, B. (2013). Knovel: What Engineers Really Want. Information Today, 30(2), 13. Engineers are not just looking for information, they are looking for information to solve a problem. Engineers are especially looking for information they can input into an excel file, as most of them use excel for everything. Information on production standards of products are important when engineers seek information, as there are legal production standards they have to follow when purchasing building materials.
Du Preez, M. (2007). Information Needs and Information-Seeking Behaviour of Engineers: A Systemic Review. Mousaion, 25(2), 72-94. Engineers value “word of mouth” and informal verbal sources far more than text-based sources partially because the barriers to information production among engineers, including the perception that an engineer only writes technical papers if they have a surplus of time (and therefore are not valued enough by their employers to be given time-intensive projects); the project in question is already over and therefore, the information is outdated (there are privacy concerns if an article is published before a completed project); or the information is not important enough to give their employer an edge over other companies if it is kept confidential. Because interpersonal communication is the primary way engineers get information (in fact, aero engineers spend more time communicating information than any other task), “personal knowledge” is important when an engineer does seek text-based information. A text-based source is considered most valuable if the engineer has met and personally liked the author, one of his colleagues recommends the author, the engineer has read something by the author (or in the publication) before that he/she found useful, or if the information is found through a familiar source online. Familiarity trumps the quality or relevance of the information. When an engineer visits the library (as the absolute last resort), he/she will value hobby magazines and trade journals over research publications, while regarding books as a reliable, but outdated source.
Harker, Y. (2013). "Information Is Cheap, but Meaning Is Expensive": Building Analytical Skill into Legal Research Instruction. Law Library Journal, 105(1), 79-98. Despite the fact that lawyers who fail to perform adequate research are subject to discipline, sanctions, and lawsuits, new lawyers are notoriously terrible researchers, primarily because they learn how to research with the keyword method in online databases, which eliminates the organizational structure that is “intrinsic to print-based legal publishing.” Lawyers who use online databases can be “distracted by the superficialities of legal information, such as fact similarities and literal definitions.” Despite this, a new lawyer spends %45 of his/her day researching, spending up to thousands of dollars in one sitting using online databases. Due to rising research fees sometimes caused by incompetence, clients have started to refuse to pay for research.
Heller, H. W. (2009). The Twenty-First Century Law Library: A Law Firm Librarian's Thoughts. Law Library Journal, 101(4), 517-523. The Twenty-First Century Law Library: A Law Firm Librarian's Thoughts. Law Library Journal, 101(4), 517-523. Libraries are highly valued by lawyers. First, as a place to find a research expert, which is important to a lawyer who is beginning a research project or stuck in an existing project, and second as a quiet place to think and write difficult documents. Closing an office door does not necessarily keep visitors away at a law firm, so the physical space of a law library is valuable to the research process and productivity of a law firm. Training new lawyers how to do research well continues to be a priority for most law librarians, both for concerns of cost and quality.
Jackson, D. (2013). Lawyers Can't Be Luddites Anymore: Do Law Librarians Have a Role in Helping Lawyers Adjust to the New Ethics Rules Involving Technology?. Law Library Journal, 105(3), 395-404. New laws in Delaware have required lawyers to learn new technologies and be aware of rising confidentiality concerns in the wake of digital security breaches. Many lawyers are resistant to change and have resisted the need to learn complex database searches, predictive coding, and updated courtroom technology. As a result, law librarians have taken it upon themselves to educate new and veteran lawyers.
Johnson, E. (2012). Rules of Dating. AALL Spectrum, 17(3), 19-25. Reaching out to lawyers at your firm, especially to partners and other management, much as if you were reaching out to a potential date, will help them feel comfortable admitting to you that they need help, which is a difficult thing for high-level lawyers. It is important to establish deadline boundaries with lawyers, respect confidentiality, and let lawyers who haven’t contacted you recently come to you on their own.
Kniffel, L. (2006, February). Military Libraries in a Time of War. American Libraries. p. 2. While military librarians sometimes work in rocket science or engineering libraries, they often are stationed at base libraries, where the work is much like that of public librarian and includes youth services. Military librarians boost morale and provide a broader perspective for soldiers in these base libraries. In hospital/medical libraries military librarians provide patient support.
Murphy, E. (2009). Delivery to the Sharp End of the Spear: Responding to the Need for Library Support to the Deployed and Downrange Military Community. Journal Of Library Administration, 49(1-2), 51-57. Many deployed military personnel are currently enrolled in college due to education benefits provided by the government. This means that they may go to the academic librarian of the college in question for information. When students do consult a military librarian, it will likely be online, and their time will be limited because they have to wait in long lines at internet cafes, they have limited bandwidth, and/or they need to use their finite amount of computer time to contact family.
Ward, M. (December 01, 2001). A survey of engineers in their information world. Journal of Librarianship and Information Science, 33, 4, 168-176. Engineers differ from scientists because they value information gleaned from informal contacts over literature-based sources, and because engineers value confidentiality due to the commercial nature of their work, while scientists view knowledge as the end goal, and as a result, are more open to sharing information. Information gathering is not considered to be a project’s most important aspect, and is often assigned to more junior engineers.
Print Sources
Allard, S., Levine, K. J., & Tenopir, C. (March 01, 2009). Design engineers and technical professionals at work: Observing information usage in the workplace. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 60, 3, 443-454. Engineers spend 25% of their time collecting information, making them one of the heaviest professional users of information. Despite the large quantity of research their job requires, they do most of their searching informally on the internet, settling for information they find using their limiting searching skills, rather than learning how to collect information in a more efficient manner. Engineers prefer to ask a colleague rather than a librarian for information, even if their firm has a library. The type of project or size of the company had little to no impact on the information seeking habits of the engineers.
Andrews, R. (2014). The Thick of It - being an embedded librarian in a law firm. CILIP Update, 28. Being an embedded librarian, meaning a lawyer who is also a librarian in a firm, can have its advantages when working with lawyers. It increases your ability build relationships with fellow lawyers, and enables you to prove your ability to perform. Relationships in a law firm greatly impact a librarian's effectiveness and position.
Brown-Syed, C. (January 01, 2008). Military Librarians-A Group Overlooked?. Library & Archival Security, 21, 1, 47-56. During times of war military librarians provide information to individuals who make life-or-death decisions. Military librarians are also charged with providing armed forces personnel with "a little slice of home," their positions requiring them to give moral support and an "escape from the daily rigors of combat" to those who are at war. The position of military librarian is both technical and personal, and requires both excellent research skills and people skills.
Mosley, P. A. (January 01, 1995). Engineers and Librarians: How Do They Interact?. Science and Technology Libraries, 15, 1, 51-61. Many of the information-seeking problems come from a lack of awareness and communication problems with engineers. Because information seeking is such an integral part of an engineer's job, education about information literacy can help an engineer perform better. Librarians in engineering firms should offer professional development courses to help the engineers in their firm.
Waters, N., Kasuto, E., & McNaughton, F. (2012). Partnership between Engineering Libraries: Identifying Information Literacy Skills for a Successful Transition from Student to Professional. Science & Technology Libraries, 31(1), 124-132. Many of the databases that student engineers have access to in the academic libraries where they studied as a undergraduate are not available at the company libraries where they get jobs. Academic libraries have a "just in case" attitude toward purchasing databases, where corporate libraries have a "just in time" attitude. Newer engineers will need to be assured by the corporate librarians that while the library may not have the databases they need, this information can be purchased if it is requested.
Andrews, R. (2014). The Thick of It - being an embedded librarian in a law firm. CILIP Update, 28. Being an embedded librarian, meaning a lawyer who is also a librarian in a firm, can have its advantages when working with lawyers. It increases your ability build relationships with fellow lawyers, and enables you to prove your ability to perform. Relationships in a law firm greatly impact a librarian's effectiveness and position.
Brown-Syed, C. (January 01, 2008). Military Librarians-A Group Overlooked?. Library & Archival Security, 21, 1, 47-56. During times of war military librarians provide information to individuals who make life-or-death decisions. Military librarians are also charged with providing armed forces personnel with "a little slice of home," their positions requiring them to give moral support and an "escape from the daily rigors of combat" to those who are at war. The position of military librarian is both technical and personal, and requires both excellent research skills and people skills.
Mosley, P. A. (January 01, 1995). Engineers and Librarians: How Do They Interact?. Science and Technology Libraries, 15, 1, 51-61. Many of the information-seeking problems come from a lack of awareness and communication problems with engineers. Because information seeking is such an integral part of an engineer's job, education about information literacy can help an engineer perform better. Librarians in engineering firms should offer professional development courses to help the engineers in their firm.
Waters, N., Kasuto, E., & McNaughton, F. (2012). Partnership between Engineering Libraries: Identifying Information Literacy Skills for a Successful Transition from Student to Professional. Science & Technology Libraries, 31(1), 124-132. Many of the databases that student engineers have access to in the academic libraries where they studied as a undergraduate are not available at the company libraries where they get jobs. Academic libraries have a "just in case" attitude toward purchasing databases, where corporate libraries have a "just in time" attitude. Newer engineers will need to be assured by the corporate librarians that while the library may not have the databases they need, this information can be purchased if it is requested.