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Info*Nation

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Check out the Law Librarians included on CLA’s Info*Nation!

  • Liisa Tella & Christina Tribe – Law Librarian and Library Technician at Harper Grey LLP, Vancouver

    • Why we love our jobs
    We are a two person library in one of the largest litigation law firms in BC. Our library users are the firm’s lawyers, articling students, paralegals, and secretaries. We help them with their research questions, order articles, assemble case law for legal briefs. We train them to use commercial electronic resources and in-house databases that we build and maintain. In a law library, speed and accuracy of service are essential: we work as a team and try to impress our users with a “magical” reference service.

    We continually update our skills with on-line courses, seminars and conferences, by participating in library associations and by reading library literature and blogs.

    For our efforts we are rewarded with generous salaries and vacation time, great benefits, bonuses, fun perks and the appreciation of very grateful lawyers. Overall, our work is satisfying and fulfilling and we recommend it to organized and energetic people who love working in a team for a variety of people, with a variety of needs.

  • Erica Anderson – Research Librarian, Legislative Library, Queen’s Park, Toronto

    • Why I love my job
    I love my job because I am continually challenged and motivated. The research requests that I work on daily are on such diverse topics that my natural curiosity is engaged to find the answers.

    I like that libraries are global institutions and my skills could potentially transfer anywhere in the world. I also like that libraries cross all subject areas. Law is my specialty and I have worked in law libraries for six years. Now I am working at the Legislative Library, Legislative Assembly of Ontario as a Research Librarian, which serves Members of Provincial Parliament and their offices, and I get to research many timely topics and use sophisticated resources.

    I love my job for the possibilities that I see in the future of libraries. To me, manipulation of information is librarians’ work. The library’s domain and librarians’ skills are becoming more and more recognized. It appears we are at the cusp of a major transformation for functions and services on the Web. I think librarians are in a position to be on the forefront of this transformation. The stereotypical “quiet” work librarians have always done behind the scenes – reference, cataloguing, annotating, indexing, evaluating, connecting people with information and knowledge – is taking centre stage. It is a really exciting time!

    This website is about getting people to choose a career in Libraries, and after bantering with Christina Tribe via email, noting the lack of Special Librarians represented, I submitted my entry this morning. Very cool project!

    Comments

    1. Connie Crosby
      July 19th, 2006 at 12:33 pm

      Erica Anderson is also the current president of the Toronto Association of Law Libraries (TALL).

      Another law librarian on that list is Wendy Reynolds of the OSC, and currently Past President of TALL (listed under “Read More”):

      >>>
      The questions I deal with on a daily basis are interesting, and can come from a huge range of topics – one day, I may help an investigator in Enforcement find news stories about a company, and the next day I may help a student learn how to research legislative history. Since our library is small (a staff of two), there is a huge variety of tasks – I select and purchase materials for the collection, write original cataloguing, answer reference requests, arrange and provide training programs, develop services and manage the budget. My organization is also willing to let me experiment with the type of services I provide – if I want to get involved with an IT project, or stretch the boundaries, they’ll support it.

      – Wendy Reynolds, Ontario Securities Commission

      >>>

      There is also a place for other librarians to submit profiles/comments which may be added in the future since they intend on rotating them – see the submission page.