Emerging Roles for Law Librarians

Jordan Furlong, the author of the legal blog Law 21, has written a piece in the July 2003 issue of Thomson Reuter's Practice Innovations newsletter called The Future is Now: Eight Emerging Roles for Law Librarians:

"Law libraries and KM departments have been hit as hard as everyone else by the disruption in the legal market. Law librarians and all legal professionals have witnessed the widespread decentralization of knowledge resources, the relentless pressure to cut costs and shrink physical footprints, and even the incursion of underemployed associates into territory previously inhabited solely by librarians. Now it's time to respond to these changes and gain control over the evolution of functions involving content management and its associated roles in KM, IT, client services, and analytics."

"Starting now, law librarians and KM personnel have the opportunity to integrate themselves into the architecture of the burgeoning new law firm model. The collection, curation, dissemination, and application of knowledge will lie at the heart of profitably efficient law firms of the future, and they are the stewards of that knowledge. Accordingly, here are eight possible new careers with the potential to transform not just law firms, but also the entire profession."