PLLIP Summit 2017: Nexus of Knowledge and Legal Tech

The PLLIP Summit pre-conference–always timely and ever-interesting! This year’s day-long meeting was no exception. If there was one takeaway, it would be that change is the only constant in life, and with that change comes new and exciting possibilities for our profession. What we do with those possibilities is up to us. We need to build on our established alliances and push outside of our comfort zones as we navigate the shifting landscape of organizational reporting, new technologies and artificial intelligence. Librarians must remain flexible and rethink how we apply library skills to create knowledge management solutions–solutions which help further the goals of our organizations and aid our users as they face an increasingly competitive legal landscape.

As collaborators and communicators, librarians need to devise new ways to insert themselves into the daily activities of the firm outside of legal research. Utilize your library skills differently to spread your message, and raise library visibility by supporting daily firm activities like client intake, providing competitive intelligence support during the RFP process, portal and dashboard creation, producing curated client newsletters and becoming seen as the go-to place for data analytics. Assist IT as beta-testers and software implementers. When presented with opportunities to change, meet the challenge, and grow as a person and as a professional. Evolution means moving forward, so don’t be left behind.

Follow Monice’s latest takes on the AALL Conference on Feit Consulting’s LinkedIn page.