Thing 11 - Mentoring

Funnily enough, I am in a very similar position to Meg who wrote this week's cpd23 post on mentoring - I have 2 mentors also, and again, one is on an informal level, and the other on a more formal level.

The mentoring relationship, however, is not something that I had given a lot of though to, until the time came for me to have an official mentor. My 'official' mentor I had to find as part of the CILIP Chartership process that I am currently involved in. While CILIP state that your mentor does not need to be someone from the same field as you, I decided I would prefer someone from the law library field purely because our kind of librarian roles tend to be worlds apart from that of academia or public libraries, for example, and so I really didn't feel that there would be much benefit in getting someone from another domain for this particular purpose - although on an informal basis it is always very interesting to talk to librarians from all areas!!!

The mentor I have been lucky enough to find to accompany me down the Chartership road does seem to personify everything a mentor should be. He has a tremendous amount of experience, knowledge of the industry and his finger is on the pulse of every new trend and how it affects the information profession. He also plays a very active part in the law librarian community, and indeed the wider librarian/information profession as a whole. Without a doubt he is someone to emulate and frankly, I do not have a clue how he manages to keep all the balls in the air! He is also extremely personable and easy to approach, and always very reassuring/calming when I have emailed him in a tizz over some Chartership-related thing! He is also very honest; I believe that if he doesn't think something I am doing/writing is for the best, he will tell me so - he criticises constructively and gives praise where it's due. Equally, I find I can be honest with him and tell him if I don't understand or agree with what he suggests. I have confidence in his opinions and advice and am happy to be guided through the minefield that is putting together a portfolio by him!

But what of the mentee, i.e. me? What do I bring to the mentoring relationship? Meg talks about how a mentee should do the following:

"...[as a ] mentee, your role is not to accept the advice and assistance of a mentor passively, but to try to give back in terms of gratitude, professional sharing, and enthusiasm. You should be quite clear about your strengths and weaknesses and be honest about what sort of assistance you would like your mentor to provide."

This is quite significant to me, as sometimes I am fully aware that I lack confidence in my own opinions, and so very often I prefer to just ask for someone else's opinion to either back up my own, or just to base my actions on - therefore I have to always consciously work against the notion of just taking the advice passively. I try my best to take on board what he says, but - as I mentioned above - tell him what my thoughts are, and if I am not happy or comfortable enough to go down a particular road.

I hope that I give back in terms of gratitude (not least by writing this glowing testimonial on him...!!) - I always thank him for his assistance, and try to actually action what we talk about, rather than just agree with him on everything, but never actually get anything constructive done after we have met. The one thing that does worry me is professional sharing - sometimes I do feel that really, what is there that I could possibly share with him that he doesn't already know? But then I think, well, we might work in the same field but actually, we do very different jobs, therefore there are probably many experiences that I have that would be new to him, and vice versa.

In terms of being honest about strengths and weaknesses, I must admit this is something I do not struggle with. I am by nature quite an upfront person - if something is bothering me, I prefer to just get it out in the open; equally, I don't pretend to know all about things I actually know nothing of. From the outset I have been very clear about the areas I feel are weak - this is something I need to do anyway, in order to set myself goals during the Chartership period, so it would have been foolish to pretend that I have no major weaknesses! Strengths are equally important, and hopefully my mentor is getting to know what mine are.

My informal mentor is a lady I actually mentioned in my (lengthy!) Thing 10 post. If you didn't quite make it that far, said lady is someone who started a couple of weeks after me in my very first law firm job, although obviously she was at a higher level, as at that point I think she had at least 5 years - maybe more - experience in law firm libraries. I can say with my hand on my heart - I very much doubt I would have stayed in that first job as long as I did if it hadn't been for this woman. She quickly realised that I had absolutely zilch experience in all things legal, and moreover, that no one else in the team had bothered to go through the very basics of law - for example, what a law report actually is; how legislation is made; how to find cases and legislation online - and many other things of that ilk. She took it upon herself to go through a number of topics with me, answered my questions, gave me useful websites to look up...in short, she became my unofficial supervisor.

I definitely believe that a mentor is someone who you should look up to and have as a role model, and this lady remains that person for me today. Over the years I observed a great deal about her that I very much admire - and it's not just about her technical knowledge, she has a wonderful way with people and can relate well to everyone from all levels. She has a natural, warm persona which makes her very approachable, and when you do ask her something, she will explain it very clearly, and answer any questions patiently, without ever making you feel like a nuisance for asking. This is something I admired greatly and have tried to ensure is the impression I give to colleagues. When we worked together, I loved the way she interacted with the lawyers - she is the sort of person who can make friends with everyone, and although I know I will never be quite the same - in short I am probably a lot more shy - without a doubt she remains the best role model I could ever have for doing my job, and indeed I base a lot of the training sessions that I give today on her methods. She has a wonderful sense of humour , probably quite similar to mine, and she has a unique way of keeping training sessions light hearted, but getting the points across clearly and concisely at the same time.

As we got to know each other better, our friendship grew stronger outside of work as well as inside, and she has supported me through many ups and downs over the last 6 years. In fact to this day we still joke about how to me, she will always be 'senior librarian', and although I don't work with her anymore - we both left the firm within a month of each other - I still draw on my observations of her handling of many situations. I believe I am very lucky to have met someone who has had such a strong influence on my career, and even now, I don't hesitate to ask for her advice if something is troubling me at work.

It is only when I think about it that I realise how much I have got - and am getting - out of the mentoring relationships I have, that I realise how important a mentor, be it formal or informal, actually is with regard to your professional development. The experiences I have had with mentoring have definitely made me want to give something back - and I do try to do so when I can with our library assistant, for example. Qualifications are important of course, but you can also learn a great deal from just asking and observing colleagues whom you think do their job particularly well. It would be nice one day to be one of those people!

Image courtesy of: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/images/view_photog.php?photogid=809

Thing 10 - Graduate traineeships, Masters Degrees, Chartership, Accreditation

Having read a few other posts on this topic, and from what I know of other acquaintances, it is amazing how so many of us didn't set out to work in the information profession right from the start of their working careers, but rather found out about it further down the line. Others, of course, studied information or library studies at university, or at least did their library qualification straight after university, and had a clear idea of the type of library/information role they would like.

I fall into the former category - after graduating with a modern languages degree, I had no clear career path, other than that I did NOT want a job involving languages - the last 4 years had well and truly seen to that! What had been a joy at school had ground me down somewhat, and so I had no inclination to study further at that time and get, say, my translating postgrad qual, nor did I have any desire to move abroad and find work there. (I'm something of a home body!) So my first job was actually working as a trainee claims adjuster for a small - and dare I say - somewhat...unethical medical insurance company. Yes, the salary was utterly pitiful and some of the small print of their policies made me cringe on many occasions, but I was working on the iconic (at least to me!) Baker Street and living in London for the first time, so I was deliriously happy nonetheless. I was lucky enough to start this job on the same day as a girl in exactly the same boat as me (21, just graduated, new to London etc) and to my delight we became close friends, and remain as such to this day.

In spite of this, however, my enthusiasm for the insurance world started to dwindle rapidly, and so my roles for the next couple of years took me out of the claims adjusting field and into simply more general admin roles: team secretary, office administrator and PA to a Customer Relationship Manager to name but a few. I grew accustomed to the corporate world, but I still wasn't 100% happy or fulfilled in my roles.

Librarianship was actually a career my dad suggested I would enjoy many, many years ago, mostly because as a child I loved reading and spent hours in the library with my like-minded father. But as I got into my teenage years and my longing for the bright lights of London grew stronger, somehow becoming a librarian quite frankly didn't seem glamourous or exciting enough. Furthermore, I had no idea that librarianship as a profession existed out of public libraries and academia. Working in a law library is just not something the careers officer would ever suggest where I come from!

While at university I did work for a year in my college library after winning a library scholarship to assist me with my studies. I really enjoyed this work, but have to admit I was teased mercilessly by my friends about it, proving yet again the bad press and stereotypes that are given to our profession. This certainly didn't encourage me to look into this field as a potential career - in fact, if anything, it made me shy away from it even more.

In all honesty I don't know if I would ever have gone down the road of librarianship had it not been for the sudden loss of my beloved father, which - and I know this sounds cliched - did make me stop and think about where I was going in terms of my career. So I started doing some investigating, and via the CILIP website, came across a graduate library admin assistant post in a city law firm. It sounded perfect for me, as I had by then a lot of solid admin experience, plus a genuine desire to learn more about what a law librarian role actually entailed.

I must be honest here and admit that it was not an easy decision to make purely on a practical level - the reason being that although I was bored in my admin roles, I had moved up the ladder pretty quickly and so was earning not bad money for a 23 year old. Accepting the role of library admin assistant meant a pay cut of £5500 - not exactly a negligible amount.

Anyway, the upshot is I took the job, and that was the beginning of my career as a law librarian. I spent 3 years at that first law firm - when I started, unlike many trainee positions in law firms, there was no fixed term contract or expectation to study for the Masters degree in librarianship. The role was really open ended, which to be honest was a double edged sword. On the plus side, it meant it was a flexible role - my manager at the time was very good about letting me try and answer basic enquiries - but on the down side, it meant that there was no real focus or goal in sight - and after a year or so, I began to feel restless - I couldn't stay as an admin assistant forever, even if I was getting more legal research experience than many of my counterparts at other law firms. There was simply nowhere for me to aim, and nice as my manager was, she had never bothered to create an official training programme, for example, therefore my learning was very much on the job. In fact if it hadn't been for an older, more experienced colleague who started at the same time as me, I would never have had any training in the fundamentals of legal research - case law, legislation etc. (I shall talk more about this lady in Thing 11 - suffice to say she was my unofficial mentor all the years I worked in that firm, and in many ways remains a role model today)

After being in the job for about 1.5 years,  I decided to ask if I could apply to do my MSc in Library and Information Studies part time. An arrangement was made that my employer would pay for half of my tuition fees, plus let me have day release to attend lectures once per week in term time. A clause was added to my contract that said if I left within so many months of obtaining my qualification, I would be obliged to pay back all or a proportion of the fees they had paid for me. As luck (not sure if that's the right word!) would have it, for a number of reasons, none of which I shall go into right now, things changed very quickly within our team - and not in a good way; and so at the end of my first year of studies, I decided to leave the firm for a new role as a fully fledged Information Officer in another law firm library.

Despite a period of almost crippling financial hardship thanks to the tuition fees debacle with my previous employer, making the move was definitely the right decision for me. I needed a new challenge desperately, and I was very fortunate that this employer was willing to take into account my experience over the last 3 years, and offer me the job - despite only being at that point semi-qualified in an official sense. They were also very accommodating in terms of letting me continue my studies - although without any financial support, admittedly.

I truly reaped the rewards of that role, and I believe this is mostly because it was actually a solo librarian role - the head office of the firm was based up north, and so I ran the London library myself - although with much support from my bosses in the other office, and with whom I was in very regular contact. But I think when you are thrown into a situation like that, you just HAVE to learn, somehow, to cope, and I gained so much more enquiry experience - yes, it was frightening and very stressful at times, but I was also allowed to really get involved with the acquisitions side of things for the London office. I had made some contacts with regard to the main sellers of legal publications, and so I was able to use these contacts to overhaul the book buying process in London. Within a year of being in the role, I could look back on how I was when I first joined the firm and feel quite amazed at the experience I had acquired in such a short time.

For the most part, I was happy in this role, particularly as I took it just as the full force of the recession hit - redundancies were being made in law firms across the board, and I just thanked my lucky stars I got out of my old firm when I did. There was, however, a 'summer of discontent' when we all had to take a period of unpaid leave, as the partners tried desperately to cut costs - but we all went along with it because it was still better than being put out of a job. That having been said, the morale did drop a bit in London, certainly, and so by the time my 12 month anniversary had been and gone, I was feeling a little disgruntled with it all, but nothing major.

However, fate or whatever other forces are at work out there led me to change jobs once again, just shortly after I had submitted my dissertation and so finally finished the MSc studies. It so happened that a recruitment agent I had used previously let me know of a vacancy that had arisen, and thought I would be suitable for. To cut a long story short (although looking at the length of this post thus far, it could be a little late for that!!) I put myself forward, got the job, and that's where I am today, working as the senior analyst in the information centre AKA library of yet another City law firm.

At the start of the year, I made the decision that I would like to at least try and Charter. Prior to this, I had always been of the mindset that after spending 2.5 years working on my MSc, whilst holding down full time work, I would never, EVER do anything remotely connected to workplace study again....but whatever, here I am in the middle of it!

I have to admit that Chartership does seem to be something of a controversial issue amongst law librarians. Some are very enthusiastic about it and say that it is definitely worth doing; others, like some of my former bosses, say that it means absolutely nothing to them and would not recommend it at all to someone in our profession. My current employers are supportive of me doing it, but at the same time, are not going to be giving me a pay rise or any other bonus if I do manage to attain this qualification.

Although I am hoping to be able to submit a portfolio to CILIP at the end of the year, if I am perfectly honest, I think the most important thing to be able to advance in the law library world is the Masters degree. When I was interviewing for my second job, when I was halfway through the MSc, there were SO MANY firms who wouldn't even deign to interview me, despite me having as good as - if not more - experience than the average graduate trainee. All they were interested in in the first instance was me being qualified. I realise that many would agree this is important - I am just looking at it from a different perspective, and think it's a shame when good experience and a person's cultural fit is overlooked because of a lack of one qualification.

Furthermore - and I do realise this may not be the case for librarians in other sectors - but for the most part, my MSc was just a means to an end - it has advanced me up the career ladder, and I had to get it in order to do so - but I would say only a very small part of all I had to learn actually has any bearing in my day-to-day role.

Finally, I studied part time at City University, which basically involved day release every week during term time for 2 years, then I had 6 months in which to complete my dissertation. City was recommended to me by my boss in my first law firm - she felt that the course there was contemporary and more relevant to what we do in a law firm from a technology point of view.

I won't lie and pretend it was a cinch - those 2 years of attending uni once a week and working full time the rest of the week were damned hardgoing! But if you're in that position, stick with it, because it will be worth it later on.

This is surely a record for the longest blog post year! I'll let you have a break before I do my next one on mentoring!

Image courtesy of: http://www.publicdomainpictures.net/view-image.php?image=3858&picture=bored-woman-studying&large=1

Thing 9 - Evernote

I have to admit that until I came to the cpd23 blog post for Thing 9, I had never come across Evernote, so had absolutely no idea what it did, or that such a thing even existed. Therefore my initial reaction was a little sceptical...I was sure that never having felt the need for such a tool, I wouldn't find it very interesting. In fact for a little while I considered skipping Thing 9 entirely! However, I decided to give it a go, and was pleasantly surprised at how it could be put to use.

I just spent some time playing around with it  and seeing what it can do. It is certainly very useful to be able to annotate useful websites - but it did remind me a little bit of Delicious, which I have tinkered with over the years but always forget about and then come back to it - by which time a lot of the stuff on there is irrelevant! Anyway, if I were able to use this at work it would be fantastic, as it allows you to do so much more than just 'add bookmark' - I am forever adding bookmarks to my work PC, but then I forget what the website was used for 6 months down the line, or I forget its name and so can't find what I want in my list of bookmarks! So Evernote would really provide me with a useful tool in that respect. Only problem is - yet again - I am now allowed to download anything like this at work, so I find that I am encountering the same problems over and over; namely that I am trying out a load of different tools, which is great, but workplace restrictions mean that I can't always put them to use in my daily role. It's a pity, because that is where I would probably get the most value from things like this. Unfortunately I can't see me being allowed to download Evernote to my work PC - which is a shame.

I think the capacity to archive pictures is really useful also - if you want to combine all aspects of life, not just your workplace one, then the potential benefits from this kind of program are manyfold. I am not sure if I would ever want to use the sync with facebook/twitter abilities of Evernote, but I can see that a lot of people would find this of great value. Again it's just personal preference.

 There is definitely a lot to be said for having one place to go to where you can pull together all this content, organise it however you like, and the ability to make notes on everything undoubtedly makes life a lot easier when it comes to tracking down that website you came across by accident 6 months ago and that was a lifesaver! I would definitely like to try and use Evernote regularly - and will try and do so at home, and will update you all  here if I have any further thoughts on it. Apologies for the brevity of this post in the meantime!

Thing 8 - Google calendar - Getting organised

So we're moving swiftly on to Thing 8 - using the Google calendar.

I am not embarrassed to admit that it has taken me several years to actually get used to an electronic calendar at work, let alone an additional one! Yes, I am afraid I remain a bit old fashioned and still carry a paper diary in my bag, simply because when I am looking forward at dates for a holiday, for example, I find it really hard to do so using an on-screen calendar - the information just doesn't sink in, whereas if I look back or forwards at a paper diary/calendar, suddenly all becomes clear! Admittedly this might be just a little mental block that I only I have, but let's just go with it. HOWEVER - I am approaching the Google calendar with an element of scepticism that I shall ever actually use it on a regular basis. Not because I don't think it's a great little tool, but just because of my inability to work fully effectively with electronic calendars!

When I first started the cpd23 challenge, I managed to add all of the 23 'things' to my Google calendar, so I guess I had access to one already, albeit unknowingly! Other than checking it now and again over the last few weeks when I want to see, for example, what the next 'thing' is, I am afraid to say I haven't used it at all. Nonetheless, undaunted, I read through the cpd23 blog post and followed the instructions on how to add the calendar to my iGoogle page - DONE. I have to admit already it's pretty useful to have it on there, because I do log into my Google page when at work because I use a Google reader to access my RSS feeds. However, I don't actually know anyone who has a Google calendar so I am unable to 'share' mine at this point. Nonetheless, I genuinely can see that there could be a lot of benefit derived from doing this - in much the same way as there is in sharing calendars in the workplace. However, the benefits only work if everyone keeps their calendars up to date! I fear this is where I could come a cropper with the Google calendar - I find it hard enough to remember to update my work calendar - unless someone sends me an appointment, and therefore the event goes into my calendar automatically, I can on occasion be very slipshod when it comes to maintaining it.

In terms of using a Google calendar in our library, I have to admit it's something I had never considered before, and so it was interesting to read the cpd23 post on how other libraries are using it to publicise opening hours, for example. In all honesty, it would certainly come in handy when we run the many training sessions for new trainee lawyers every September - November, but other than that, I am not sure how much it would be used - simply because we are a very different kind of library to one which is in a university, or a public library. Our users are all internal and are well aware of the general time frame that we are in the library. Secondly, we don't run 'events' in the way that another kind of library would, so other than the group training sessions we run every so often, I don't really think it's something we would get a lot out of.

I don't mean to sound like an old-fashioned killjoy - I fully appreciate the benefits of having a calendar online that everyone can access and it certainly makes setting up meetings at work a lot easier, because you can generally see at a glance if someone is free when you are. However, for personal arrangements, I sometimes pop them in my work diary if I am at work when I make them, but I always try and add them to my paper diary too. I think it's just reassuring for me to have that paper diary close to hand, because I can access that at any time and any where - the same can't always be said for online calendars! Secondly, I think a paper version is more reassuring because it's actually tangible...

I think this is definitely an interesting 'thing' to consider, and while it may not be completely relevant to my particular role in the workplace, at least it's provided me with the impetus to sort out my calendar and get it to appear on my Google page - it's a step in the right direction, and I may try to start adding information to it, at least in terms of personal plans and so on.

Having said all that, despite now having a work calendar AND a Google calendar online, I can't quite bring myself to give up my little paper diary quite yet...!


Image provided by: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/images/view_photog.php?photogid=2068

Thing 7 - Face-to-face networks and professional organisations

Slowly catching up with the backlog and even managed to catch up with a couple of my favourite blogs: Joeyanne's posting on networking for introverts (really interesting stuff!) and another fellow cpd23-er's blog (Growth of a Librarian) - really enjoyed reading about how the concept of 'networking' can actually be a little cringey, but once you get past the rather horrendous images it conjures up, then there is a lot to get out of it....

As per my Thing 6 post, I'll just talk briefly about the face to face networking I have done, and then what I would like to do going forward, having read through the latest cpd23 blog - some great ideas there to explore.

1) BIALL
Without a doubt the most important association that I am part of is BIALL - British and Irish Association of Law Librarians. Membership is paid for by our firm as my managers fully support the opportunities BIALL provides in terms of events, seminars and the 'Legal Information Management' journal. I have been a member of this organisation in every law firm I have worked for, and consequently have attended quite a few seminars and other events, such as the annual cheese and wine party and a quiz night. All of these occasions offer the opportunity for networking. I have to admit I have had varied success in this respect, and I agree with many other cpd23 participants - networking as a concept is a daunting thought, and it can be - for many people, myself included - really difficult to walk into a room full of people and get talking to some or even one of them. It is definitely made easier when I attend the events with someone I know - but it's a double edged sword, because if you are with someone, it's all too easy just to talk to that same person all evening (especially in my case when the person I often go with is a close friend with whom I used to work - turns into a chance to catch up on the gossip!) Therefore I am the first to admit that although it's definitely harder to go to these events alone, you probably do get a little bit further in terms of meeting new people. A couple of months ago I attended an event on recruitment organised by BIALL, and because I was on my own, I was forced to make conversation with the person next to me, as well as a couple of other people in the coffee break. It was hard, but also satisfying because you do feel like you are raising your profile.

One thing I do find difficult to understand, however, is what defines successful networking?? Is it simply making conversation with a new person at such an event, or is it only defined as 'successful' if you come away with a business card/email address etc for that other person? Sometimes I feel it's simply not appropriate to start asking for contact details - again it simply feels to cliched and 'obvious'...but should we let that stop us? Is it better to just brazen it out?! It's unlikely the other person will refuse if you have been talking to them for some time - and after all, chances are they are hoping to 'network' just as much as you are!!!


2) CILIP
I think CILIP offers quite a few opportunities for networking, but I have to admit I have very little experience of them - the main reason being that I have only been a member of CILIP for a year or so. My current employer is the only law firm I have ever know who supports CILIP membership. There does seem to be a great deal of people out there in the law library world who don't rate CILIP at all - all of my previous managers included! (We won't go into that now though - save it for another posting!) Anyway, I am in the process of Chartership as you know, and the one CILIP event I attended was one which introduced the Chartership process. I found it really useful, and it was also a fantastic opportunity to get talking to other librarians/information professionals. I was the only law librarian at that session, and I ended up chatting to school librarians, NHS librarians....it was great! Everyone was really nice too and it was so enlightening to talk to people from those fields and hear about how different their jobs are on a daily basis to mine. So the upshot is - I am very 'pro' CILIP and definitely want to get involved in future events - not just those relating to Chartership.


3)CLIG
City Legal Information Group is a forum for legal information professionals that work in the London area. This group is very inexpensive to join, and they offer many events throughout the year, including a spring party and an AGM that members can go along to. I have attended seminars on areas of interest to the kind of research I perform - for example, they arranged a fantastic presentation by people from Bloomberg on corporate debt - not the most scintillating of topics, you might think (and you are probably right!!) - but it gave a really useful overview of the terminology used by lawyers in this line of work. Again at the end of these sessions they usually provide drinks and nibbles and thus the opportunity to network. I have got talking to a couple of other people at such an event - and because they are generally attended by people who are working in very close proximity to me, it does provide an opportunity to make connections at other law firms....and you never know how this might benefit you in the future....


Organisations I didn't know of
I loved reading the long list of organisations provided by Bethan in the Thing 7 post - I have decided to explore LIKE - London Information Knowledge and Exchange and the SLA - Special Libraries Association. I'll let you know my thoughts on these in due course...


Conclusion
I definitely think there is a lot to be said these days for networking, and I find it quite intriguing that the information profession have really picked up on this concept - it totally goes against all the old stereotypes of librarians who don't want to have any contact with others!! Although at times I think it does sound like a very cliched idea, nonetheless I feel that the society is developing in such a way in terms of virtual networking, that face to face networking is equally important - making connections and raising your profile can lead to many other things, be it simply just being able to ask a fellow professional for advice or assistance with an enquiry, or even find out about job leads. It's not something that I would say I actively enjoy at this stage, but this particular Thing has definitely given me a bit of inspiration to really make an effort to do more of it....

Image courtesy of: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/images/view_photog.php?photogid=721

Thing 6 - Online networks

I am on holiday at the moment - forgive me for falling so far behind in cpd23 - can't believe suddenly we're talking about Thing 9 and I am only on Thing 6! Please bear with me as I may not be able to catch up properly until next week. In the meantime...

Having read through the cpd23 blog post on online networks, I was immediately amazed at how many networks there are out there which either a) I knew nothing about or b) had heard of, but never quite got around to exploring. Therefore I have been able to get a LOT out of Thing 6 already, as it gave me some new networks to explore and sign up to. Before I talk about that though, I just wanted to touch on the ones that I was already a member of:

1) LinkedIn
I originally signed up to LinkedIn because it's a very useful tool when I am asked to look for biographical information on potential clients for the fee-earners (I know - not exactly what my reasoning should have been for joining, but hey...) - however since then I have come to realise the value of this particular network. Once on there, I ended up linking to a couple of recruitment agents whom I have used in the past - I thought this was an excellent way of keeping tabs on the job market, especially in the current climate. I also connected to a number of colleagues past and present, and find it amazing that you can share blog content and other such activity.

At present I have not filled in my profile any more than citing my previous and current employment; I realise, however, that there is great scope to add more information and actually provide some narrative about what my job actually is. Having had a look at some of the example profiles, it is pretty impressive to see how people are utilising this network. While it's now a well known fact (!) that I am uncomfortable with putting a lot of personal information out there in the public domain for anyone to access, I do once again appreciate the value of a network like LinkedIn if you do use it in the way it's intended.

2) Facebook
Not much to say on this as I think I have discussed in previous posts that I am not happy at using Facebook in a professional capacity and prefer to keep it purely for personal use. That having been said, I think I shall go along and find the fan page for 23 Things as suggested!  Will probably also add CILIP to my list of pages as well.

I have to admit that I do feel personally that if you use LinkedIn to its fullest capacity, there is no need to use Facebook in a professional capacity as well - I really don't see what else Facebook could do, other than let professional contacts and colleagues have access to your life out of work, which is not always strictly necessary! However I am aware that I am most likely in the minority on that one and maybe goes hand-in-hand with my obsession (!!) with retaining my privacy!


3) Lis-Law
I have been a member of the Lis-Law community for as long as I have been an legal information professional. I guess it qualifies as an online network although it's really more of a forum to which you can post questions and comments - but never mind, I'll include it here anyway! Lis-Law is a forum/network for people working in legal information, be it in a law firm, an academic library, or any other capacity. I have used it on many occasions when I am working on an utterly hopeless enquiry for a fee-earner, and neither myself nor any of my colleagues have any idea where to turn to next for the information! The idea is that you post your query online and it gets emailed to all of the Lis-Law subscribers, any of whom can then contact you with ideas/tips etc. I found it exceptionally useful when I was trying to find legal information professionals to interview for my dissertation, and indeed found 90% of my interviewees this way. For the most part (with the odd exception, but this isnt the place to go into that!!) I have found fellow users to be very polite and eager to help. There have been a few occasions where no one has come up with an answer, but it's a great tool to know is there. I think the only way I could get more use out of this in terms of networking would be to take more of an active part in terms of helping others. There have been occasions where I have seen someone post for help and I have known of a suggestion I could make - but time constraints at work have prevented me from replying to them. I think this is something I should work on...


4) Networks I wasn't aware of/hadn't explored

LISNPN - had never come across this one - just signed up and have to admit it looks pretty interesting - there's some great discussions going on, and I like the fact that you can post a reply to any topic you want or indeed start a new thread. Looks pretty straightforward to use - think will need to come back to you on my thoughts on this one once I have had more of a chance to use it.

CILIP - I had heard of CILIP's networks but this was one which I hadn't really explored in great detail. I am a member of the Career Development Group (CDG) and also CLSIG - Commercial, Legal and Scientific Information Group - but I haven't really done much more other than read the Impact newsletter from CDG and check out the CLSIG updates I get by email. However in terms of forums I have not explored this avenue at all. I'll come back to you on this one!


Conclusion
Thinking about what might be the most useful online network, I would have to say that LinkedIn and Lis-Law appear to me to be the most relevant and potentially the most helpful in terms of making new connections with fellow professionals. I think LISNPN might also be of value, just from my initial browse of the discussions going on. The one I don't feel has so much relevance in the professional world is definitely Facebook. I would have to agree with the Reid Hoffman quote given in the cpd23 post, that Facebook is indeed the 'backyard bbq', while LinkedIn is definitely the office! I don't think the two need to be mixed in all honesty.

Yet again, this particular Thing has given me loads of food for thought on how I can increase my online participation in networks. I think they are a concept that definitely needs to be embraced - like it or not, the way we interact on both a professional and personal level is changing, and so I think it's important to make sure we don't get left behind. I also think we are particularly lucky as a profession - information professionals do seem to be at the forefront of a great deal of the latest social media trends, therefore it's easy to learn from our colleagues.

With regard to the next 3 Things, I promise I shall be blogging on these over the next week, but for now, I am off out to dinner in the sun! :))

Image courtesy of jscreationzs: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/images/view_photog.php?photogid=1152

It's a bit like being a detective - those pesky requests for foreign company information...

If there is one thing that I get asked to do very regularly, it's to find out as much as I can about a particular company, or indeed group of companies. Simple enough, you might think? Ah, if only! The problem that we always encounter is where a company is not based in the UK: unless it's a pretty big operation, the chances of finding out anything authoritative can be very slim indeed. The main reason for this is that filing requirements differ drastically from one country to another - and just to complicate things even more, in the USA, the requirements vary from state to state.

Please note that this is by no means an authoritative guide to looking for company information - this is just to give you an idea of the kind of things we often do when we are asked for this kind of info. Every law library has its own methods/resources/preferences in terms of procedure.

One thing to bear in mind from the outset - whether it's the UK or USA, make sure you establish the correct company name. If you are looking at one little company that's part of a big group of other little companies, they can all have very similar names. Make sure you are looking at the correct entity, and not just a company with a name that's almost the same as the one you were given.

Anyone who does this kind of research regularly will know that in the UK, we are quite lucky when it comes to being able to obtain basic information on a company, because generally speaking, (and I am being VERY GENERAL here -  if it's a partnership for example, there will  be less available - but we won't go into that now!) we can pay for and download a number of documents from Companies House. So if the company has been alive long enough to have filed a set of accounts and an annual return, we can obtain these documents, which give us information like who the company directors and shareholders are, for example. If the company is only recently incorporated then there won't be any of these documents available, but there will be the set of incorporation documents, which will show the directors at the time of incorporation - which is a start at least!

If we're looking at non-UK companies from the outset, then we will often check and see if it is possible to obtain any information free or at cost from the company registry of that country/US state. We also have access to a number of subscription company information databases which we can go to and see if the company is on there. These databases pull their information from a number of sources - sometimes local registry filings, sometimes a wide range of other reports - we try not to rely on them wholly though, as you rarely can be 100% sure that the information is accurate. Where possible we would rather obtain a source document ourselves, but if this can't be done, then databases like this can be invaluable. If we do rely on them, we make it clear to the lawyer where the information has come from and warn him that it may not be 100% authoritative.

If the company is a very large (and if so, it's generally listed on a stock market) then always check the company website. If it is a publicly listed company, then they are required to publicly file annual reports and a plethora of other financial information. So for example, if it's a US public company, they are required to file at the SEC (Securities Exchange Commission) - if you look for a form 10-K for that company on the SEC website itself, OR in most cases on the company website as well, then you will be able access a wealth of information, as the 10-K is an annual report. Along with this report and all the information about the business it does, the directors and so on, if you look at the list of Exhibits filed with it and go to Exhibit 21, you will find a list of that company's main subsidiaries - this can be invaluable for many reasons.

If we are looking into a non-UK, very tiny company, and we can't find anything at the local registry AND there isn't any information on any of our databases, then sometimes there is nothing else to do but general internet searching (ssshhh - obviously we don't encourage taking information from unauthoritative sources, but when all else fails, it's a good last resort!) Press searches are worth a shot too, as by this stage, you are often so desperate to just find anything to prove that the company does - or did - actually exist, that even just a random article mentioning them can make your day! Moreover, this kind of searching may not lead you to the company name you have been given by the fee-earner, but it might just lead you in the right direction somehow - you might find a company owned by the same group, for example, which might in turn provide you with another lead for the company you were looking at originally...

Sometimes after establishing who is behind the company, we then go onto find out information about them - if they are individual people we will try and find out what other companies they are associated with; and if it's another company that owns the company in question, we will try and find out more about it. Often you end up tracing the chain of people/companies involved back further and further until you either reach the top of the chain, or you find that you come across an entity that is registered in somewhere very remote like the British Virgin Islands - and suddenly you will find that your searching almost grinds to a halt!

Companies registered in places like the Cayman Islands/British Virgin Islands and so on, are generally filed there for a reason - the main reasons being that there are various tax benefits AND the filing requirements are minimal - so it's good for the company owner, not so good for us back in the UK trying to obtain authoritative information on them. These offshore types of registries do make it very difficult to obtain any information at all - the process is often extremely protracted and if you do manage to follow it through without losing your sanity in the process, then you often find that all you get at the end of it is little more than an incorporation date!

It's times like this where we can offer our lawyers the services of a specialist company information provider. Most law firm libraries tend to use one - the prices for obtaining information on non-UK entities can be pretty pricey, which does put a lot of our lawyers off using them, but if they are really desperate, there is often no other way. These providers often have links to agents in the very country in which you're interested, so they can obtain information a lot easier than we can back in good old Blighty....

Well - there you have it - a VERY general look at the problems and pitfalls of conducting research on non-UK companies. Sometimes it really does feel like being a detective, as one small piece of information from the most random place can lead you to the very information you need on a particular company.

 Now I wonder what jurisdiction I'll be looking into this week...anyone know the filing requirements in Albania....?!! :)

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