Legalsection book library

The law library of today only bears a resemblance to the library of 30 years ago. Gone are the stacks and stacks of legal tomes; many of those are now digital. Today, much of a librarian's day deals with knowledge work and technological research—and demonstrating return on investment (ROI) with those intangible tasks may be a tougher sell without a distinct strategy.

Laying out that strategy was at the center of the “Showing the ROI of Your Law Firm Library” panel at the 2019 American Association of Law Libraries (AALL) Conference, where three law librarians and knowledge managers showed how their departments go above and beyond to demonstrate value to the firm at large.

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 Keeping Knowledge Top of Mind

Vishal Agnihotri, chief knowledge officer at Hinshaw & Culbertson, has now started the knowledge function at two different law firms. And she has found that, while there is some expectation that knowledge work and libraries will be somewhat of a cost center, the reality is that “it is still seen as an overhead, and there is some expectation of some proof of your reason to be.” She added, “Gone are the days where you can simply expect to or sign off on a year-over-year increase without much questioning.”

To answer those questions, her main strategy is gathering, and disseminating, stories. Agnihotri starts with simply asking those she helps for feedback. “Every quarter, if you could go back and interview a handful of people that you felt you provided the greatest value to because of what they're asking… that can be some of the greatest testimonials,” she explained. Quarterly frequency may seem like a lot, but she added that “usually when you've just done the research, that's better, because it's fresh in their memory.”

From there, she draws the firm's attorneys and other workers into the process. Hinshaw, for example, offers an evaluation lab, where technology tools recommended by others in the firm are pitted in a head-to-head battle: “Every quarter, we have a face off of two or three similar tools against each other, and we gather feedback from our own researchers.” This, coupled with constant feedback of pre-existing tools, keeps the knowledge function top of mind.

The knowledge department has also rolled out its own tech tools, including an internal social media tool designed to spur conversations across the firm's offices across the country. But what's important, Agnihotri noted, is to actually take tangible metrics from the tech tools in a way that management can understand. “If you can show that 47% of the associates are using it… that makes it a bit more real. Percentages are much better,” she said.

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Fighting for Positive Perception

At Haynes & Boone, library manager Lee Bernstein has seen perceptions of the library change. He's noticed guides on tours talking about “what's left” of the library, an understandably demoralizing quip from those who don't understand how the library functions. Because of digitization, he noted, “Although our actual footprint has diminished, our actual spend is increasing.”

His strategy is to find natural places where the library can help with outside functions within the firm. One place is with new client intake: “We manage the tools, but to give those tools to someone who's a conflicts analyst, that may not be the best use of their time.” The library has taken on the job as a result—it's not billable work, but “we perceive that as a way to add value for our department.”

Similar to Hinshaw, Bernstein's team at Haynes has also developed internal tools. Haynes' version of HBR Consulting's SpendConnect shows accounts payable and other spend data, shows top users of tools, develops reports for primarily internal use, and more. With this tool and others, the Haynes library acts somewhat as gatekeepers for technologies at the firm. While fielding constant requests for new technology from attorneys “really creates a lot of work for us,” it allows the library to align with the firm's stated mission of becoming more innovative and aligning IT and strategy by 2025.

It also allows, in the end, the library to argue for its own existence at a time when firms are cutting costs and that perception issue persists. It's important to think differently, Bernstein said, and “explain to our own staff, that in an effort to not be outsourced, you have to ask how they're going to demonstrate value.”

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A Library for All

Amy Eaton's title at Perkins Coie is now director of library and research services, but as of three years ago, the library function at the firm was not centralized. Since the move, she said, a large part of her role has been not only making the case for the library to management and attorneys, but also office administrators. “For them it's a loss of control, so there's sort of a back and forth that has to happen,” she explained, adding, “They were unsure how this was going to work when they saw something being taken away from them.”

Eaton's first step has been establishing a series of targeted newsletters, focusing on attorneys, office administrators, and even an internal newsletter for the library department. In each new one, she would focus on one or two articles of news, the goal being “to keep things really tightly focused so attorneys will read them and won't be overwhelmed.”

From there, she focuses on the library's metrics, “but then you have to take those numbers, and you have to tell a story. If you're not using those numbers to tell people why you're important, then you just wasted your time taking those numbers down.” For instance, in 2018 the library's research system served 1,645 unique users, “but what does that mean? What does that look like?” It's better, she explained, to say that it served 87% of attorneys and 74% of all employees.

Using those figures, Eaton ventured to tell her story a number of different ways and with a number of different aims. There was an infographic, developed with the knowledge management team, which displayed how quickly the library could answer research queries. A quarterly report, developed in conjunction with the chief information officer, provided not only info on the library's usage and spend, but also work rate of employees that could make the case for increased funding. And an ROI calculation, borrowed from a library in Minnesota, granularly broke down costs and benefits in an attempt to show the department not as a cost center.

All of these take time, Eaton explained, but the value is evident. “It takes time, and you have to track things and pay attention to the numbers,” she said. “But if you do that, you really have the building blocks to show people how important you are.”