BIALL Handbook Again

The new BIALL Handbook of Legal Information Management I blogged about recently was just placed in my hands today, thanks to the speedy work of Nick Pengelley. It’s not likely to benefit any Slawyer much — far too basic — and seems directed for the mostpart at information professionals (“IPs” I learn) who have recently turned to law.

But I did find two essays interesting, as a legal academic (“LA”?) who has recently turned to information management: “Knowledge Management” by Sue Doe, and “The Role of Taxonomies in Legal Knowledge Management Systems” by Christine Miskin. The KM piece shunned any theoretical approach and provided a lot of practical advice that seemed to me to make a good deal of sense. And the taxonomy piece would, I imagine, be useful for lawyers to read where the firm is about to introduce knowledge or document management and the subject of metadata comes up; it makes fairly clear the fact that not just anybody can or should fling down a taxonomy and that such things are best left to trained pros. (Don’t try this at home, kids.)

Now for some pull quotes I enjoyed:

An effective law librarian is like high-grade oil in the engine of a top-performance legal organization.
Peter Clinch, “Legal Research – Techniques and Tips”

Knowledge management can be, and has been, theorized to death… Make a vow never to… read another article containing a triangular diagram that shows the blindingly obvious components of the process.”
Sue Doe, “Knowledge Management”

In larger law firms where professional support lawyers are employed, they should be consulted but they should be discouraged from working on the actual contruction [of a taxonomy]… Experience also shows that contstruction by committee does not work.”
Christine Miskin, “The Role of Taxonomies etc.”