New "Law Librarians" LinkedIn Group

[Abbie Mulvihill]

I have just created a new "Law Librarians" group on LinkedIn. If you have a LinkedIn profile, you can click on this link to join the group. It's just another chance to network with your law librarian peers.

[Meg Kribble]

Thanks for starting that, Abbie!

[Lyonette Louis-Jacques]

Thanks also, Abbie! I was looking at the list of LinkedIn group members and was thrilled to see all the law firm, court, government, independent, tech/info, etc. folks on it. It's not dominated by academic law librarians. So, question - what is it about LinkedIn that's appealing to private law firm librarians et al.? I haven't looked at all the members on this Ning network, but my guess is that it's heavily academic. So I'm wondering what aspects of LinkedIn do non-academics find useful? And everyone generally? Open question. Thanks! Lyo.

[Abbie Mulvihill]

Hi Lyonette,

I'm sorry for the late response, but we had a massive power outage in our area. Now I'm desperately trying to play catch-up.

When I was at the Computers in Libraries Conference there was a discussion about this. I *think* it was Greg Notess who was saying that academic librarians tend to use Facebook and MySpace more (I think Ning is a little like those) because that's where the students tend to be. He said corporate (I think that would include law) librarians tend to use LinkedIn because it's where the business professionals (lawyers) are. What do you think Jim? Do you think that's a fair statement about academic librarians?

Of course, it could just be that Jim is an academic librarian and I've spent my career as a law firm/government librarian. Then again, all three of us are members of both, so who knows?! ; )

[Abbie Mulvihill]

Above, where I wrote "(I think that would include law)," it should say (I think that would include law firm).

[Lyonette Louis-Jacques]

Thanks for the reply, Abbie. The LinkedIn Law Librarians group has grown since I last checked. 211 members!

So, question - what do we do now? What are some possible professional uses for this network?

Thanks,
Lyonette.

[Abbie Mulvihill]

Well, Lyonette, I guess it's up to the individual members to come up with how they would like to use the group. Basically, you have access to over 200 (and growing) law librarians around the globe. All the contact information is in one place, so it's much easier to find specific individuals and contact them on a more personal level.

There are a lot very interesting people in the group and, as you pointed out, it's a different membership than you see at here at Ning. The people in the LinkedIn group are all individuals who said they are willing to communicate with other law librarians and prospective law librarians. Maybe the group will come in handy for entrepreneurial librarians, maybe it will come in handy when trying to locate a specific document (held only in a physical library). Maybe library science students will want to join and ask questions of law firm, corporate, academic, government, etc. law librarians to decide which route to go. Maybe it will be useful with a global communication system that we haven't yet imagined.

I see it as a start. First, we need to establish a base. Then we need members to ponder the same question you're pondering. This forum is a great compliment to that group. So, how do you think the LinkedIn group will be useful?

[Christopher Woods]

That's a good observation - librarians at academic institutions would more likely favor FaceBook or My Space due to their patron base. I think both Linkedin and Ning are great for professional law librarianship interaction and for business. All of these networks are new to me and I find them confusing but fascinating due to their many potential uses.

Abbie Mulvihill said:

Hi Lyonette,

I'm sorry for the late response, but we had a massive power outage in our area. Now I'm desperately trying to play catch-up.

When I was at the Computers in Libraries Conference there was a discussion about this. I *think* it was Greg Notess who was saying that academic librarians tend to use Facebook and MySpace more (I think Ning is a little like those) because that's where the students tend to be. He said corporate (I think that would include law) librarians tend to use LinkedIn because it's where the business professionals (lawyers) are. What do you think Jim? Do you think that's a fair statement about academic librarians?

Of course, it could just be that Jim is an academic librarian and I've spent my career as a law firm/government librarian. Then again, all three of us are members of both, so who knows?! ; )

[Abbie Mulvihill]

The group is up to 345 members as of today. LinkedIn recently added "Discussions," so people can communicate with each other in the same way we do here.

Lyonette Louis-Jacques said:

Thanks for the reply, Abbie. The LinkedIn Law Librarians group has grown since I last checked. 211 members!

So, question - what do we do now? What are some possible professional uses for this network?

Thanks,
Lyonette.