Editor’s note: The theme of the British and Irish Association of Law Librarians (BIALL) Annual Conference last week was “Locks and Keys: Safeguarding legal information.” It was designed to assess the impact of Web 2.0 developing technologies on legal information, knowledge management and legal publishing. Sweet & Maxwell Product Strategy & Development Manager Samantha Steer reports from one of the key sessions.
At his BIALL session, Should We Be More Social? Law Librarians and Social Networking, James Mullan, Information Officer, CMS Cameron McKenna, leader of Web 2.0 sessions, a writer on the subject and the voice of the BIALL blog, provided attendees with an expert insight into the world of Web 2.0 tools, and their benefit to those working with legal information.
Mullan took attendees through a range of tools from Twitter (the micro blogging site) to Friendfeed (aggregating feeds from social networking sites), extolling their benefits, and outlining relevant concerns.
Twitter emerged as a clear winner, so much more than a social networking site, offering the law librarian the ability to ask questions, search for information and follow trends. It was noteworthy that the first reports of the terrorist attacks in Mumbai were reported on Twitter.
Slideshare was another tool in James’ list of favorites; offering the ability to make presentations available to a wide audience.
Ning was mentioned for its coverage of law librarian networks, similar to Linkedin, which won praise from Mullan for the number of available groups and the frequency of updating of group sites.
In contrast, Facebook was noted as of limited value to law librarians, due to the focus on social networking, with the only potential benefit being the group function.
As well as extolling the virtues of Web 2.0 tools, Mullan was keen to point out the dangers. Addiction and the cost in terms of resource used, privacy issues and “frolleagues” (blurring the distinction between work and home life by networking with work colleagues).
On balance, though, the benefits in using Web 2.0 tools outweigh the dangers. With 150 million users, the Web presents a huge audience. It allows users to benchmark and, having been appointed Wildy BIALL Law Librarian of the Year - in no small part due to his expertise in Web 2.0 tools - Mullan was a shining example of the professional development opportunities of Web 2.0.
He highlighted the experience in exchanging information that is unique to law librarians and which could be harnessed further with the use of social media tools. As he put it, “Understand the risks, but have no fear and be proactive.”
Mullan can be contacted on his blog and on Twitter.
Posted by Kevin Hunt in:
In Practice | Technology and innovation |
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