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22 Legal Information Alert 1 (2003)

handle is hein.lbr/leinfal0022 and id is 1 raw text is: What's new In legalpubications, databases, and research techniques Volume 22, No. 1 January 2003 Contents Using Technology to Enhance Library Services Database Report 1 8 New Sources 10 Publishers 16 Index 16 Using Technology to Enhance Library Services by Susan Catterall On June 1, 2002, Advisia became the corporate portal for Minneapolis-based Leonard, Street, and Deinard. At the time, Advisia succeeded, but did not com- pletely replace the law firm's intranet in providing the primary access to internal information and external resources. Unlike Athena, who sprang fully formed from the forehead of Zeus, Advisia was born after two years of investigation, analysis, evaluation, and planning. That it evolved beyond the embryonic stage was due, in large measure, to the partnership between the information technologies (IT) staff and the research services (library) staff. It is not surprising that portal construction would involve the IT director and his staff, with their command of cutting-edge technologies. However, it should be no more astonishing that the research services (RS) staff also held a critical role. The time has past when discussions of library services and discussions of technol- ogy are separate conversations. Leonard's research staff has used technology, in an unobtrusive way, to deliver its services for several years. The firm's daily electronic newsletter includes announcements of library-sponsored training op- portunities and notices of practice-enhancing resources, such as tax forms, news articles, and court rules, often with accompanying hyperlinks to the RS intranet pages. The RS staff has long maintained an e-mail box to which requests may be submitted. In addition, twice a week, a staff member downloads and routes state appellate decisions by e-mail, accompanied by a hyperlink to related resources on the RS intranet pages. These efforts epitomized a long-standing commitment to providing desktop access to resources. Background & Development In the mid-1990s, the director of research services charged her staff with creating the RS intranet pages. At weekly meetings, staff members discussed, shared, and evaluated web sites. We scrutinized Internet publications and gleaned suggestions from other librarians, including both the Minnesota Association of Law Libraries (MALL) and the Downtowners, an informal Twin Cities law librarian group. continued on page 3

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