Introduction
The city of Calgary, Alberta was host to the 2011 conference of the Canadian Association of Law Libraries/Association Canadienne Des bibliotheques de Droit (CALL/ACBD). The theme for the conference was “Scaling New Heights” and this was reflected in the content of the concurrent sessions. The sessions were designed to encourage law librarians to go beyond the familiar and comfortable and venture into new territory. Speakers provided attendees with useful information and anecdotes on how they were successful in achieving new goals.
Martha Facey
One of the sessions that reflected this quest was “Thinking beyond the Law: Effects of Interdisciplinary Research on Law Libraries”. This very informal session incorporated panellists from three different areas of law librarianship: law firm, corporate, and academic. Clare Mauro (Senior Librarian, Torys LLP), Katie Thomas (Law Librarian, Bank of Montreal), and Maryvon Côté (Librarian, Nahum Gelber Law Library, McGill University) were each given the opportunity to answer a set of questions put forward by the moderator, Nadine Hoffman (Natural Resources, Energy & Environmental Law Librarian, University of Calgary). The questions were designed to give the panellists an opportunity to illustrate how the increase of interdisciplinary research by others has affected their own work. Below I have stated the questions and summarised the answers given by each of the panellists.
When did your job become more interdisciplinary?
Maryvon's job became more interdisciplinary when he was previously working in a social sciences library; he discovered that students began seeking out legal resources for their political science degrees. Once working in a law library, he realised that law students began to request materials from various other subject areas, such as sociology and film studies. At this point, the collection and his role had to adapt to the changing needs of the students. McGill University, as an institution, promotes interdisciplinary research and Maryvon explained how McGill's Law School is trans-systemic, and students graduate with both a common law and civil law degree. This jurisdiction-free degree is a form of interdisciplinary research and the collection needs to reflect that.
Katie's role at the Bank of Montreal transformed gradually over the last decade, mostly because of regulatory burdens and requirements. The areas of economics, environment, insurance, and aboriginal culture have become more important both inside and outside of Canada. Embracing interdisciplinary research has been beneficial for her continuing professional development.
Clare felt that interdisciplinary research has always existed and people usually engage it in anyway. Within corporate transactions and litigation, interdisciplinary research is market driven. One example of this was the opening of Tory's Calgary office, when the needs of the firm shifted and the librarians needed information and knowledge of the oil, gas and natural resources market.
Can you name the top subjects that are an asset in your interdisciplinary research?
Maryvon's goal was to provide students the tools to succeed and his legal collection is complemented by material in most subject areas, which benefit both students and faculty. However, he drew special attention to the areas of philosophy, art and literature, for example Franz Kafka's The Trial and Herman Melville's Billy Budd, Sailor: An Inside Narrative are included in his collection.
For Katie, the main subjects that assist her with interdisciplinary research were political science, history, economics and the environment. Politics is useful because she needs to keep abreast with changes in government and policy and needs to know what the ramifications of those changes are, and keeping savvy to politics aids her in making her own policy decisions. Using economics materials allows Katie to see how others cope in similar situations and researching in different areas will provide different views and opinions. Finally, environmental materials have been needed when the bank was investigating the opening of a new branch and needed to know about the environmental impact.
Clare's experience at Torys shows that there is demand for information in traditional subject areas, such as business, life sciences, mathematics, statistics, social sciences, economics and political sciences. However, Clare feels that emerging subject areas such as climatology and mineral sciences are also becoming necessary in her role, especially with the opening of the Alberta office.
How practical is it to support and provide interdisciplinary research?
Maryvon explained that is was practical, and probably easier, to provide support for interdisciplinary research within an academic library than in other types. Maryvon has access to reference materials and instruction within other faculties at the university and has agreements with the other university libraries to access materials. The university has vast online resources which allow users to utilise materials in many subject areas. The main concern with building a legal collection that supports interdisciplinary research is ensuring there is not too much duplication of materials already held at the university.
Katie confirmed that interdisciplinary research is also practical in a corporate library and there are four key factors that assist in making it successful. Inter-library loans and resource sharing using AMICUS Web (Canadian national catalogue) and WorldCat help Katie find materials that she does not have immediate access to. The public library, in Katie's case, Toronto Public Library, is also a huge help as she can use the reference materials and has access to a number of databases that cover different subjects. Within the Bank of Montreal there is an abundance of in-house expertise; the bank's staff with different education and work experience in fields such as computer science and accounting are invaluable. There are also staff members who sit on various NGOs and are very passionate and informed about their organisation. Finally, teaching and training staff to search non-legal databases by subject and keyword encourage them to be more proactive with their own research.
Clare is able to provide interdisciplinary research in a number of ways. To find business and marketing information she uses public filings and investment analysis, and for more scientific information she uses document delivery services. Clare is able to navigate basic reference questions but is not an expert in all fields so, on occasion, she may outsource searches in a field she is less familiar with, for example medical health.
How are you, proactive or reactive?
Maryvon is proactive when it comes to his interdisciplinary research and his collection development, requiring him to venture outside of his comfort zone which consists of Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom. He includes materials from France, Germany, Italy and various other countries in the hope that these items will be used by the student and faculty.
Katie finds it necessary to be proactive, as she does not want to be too banking specialised and get caught off guard when someone approaches her with a query in another area, for example, aboriginal culture. Katie reads various industry magazines, columns and blogs to ensure that her knowledge in other subject areas is current.
Unlike the others, Clare finds that she is generally reactive in her approach to interdisciplinary research. In the law firm her work is driven by the work of the fee earners which is client-driven. Clare states that proactivity is dependent on the culture of the firm: are they forward thinking and have they hired subject specialise librarians? If so, they will be likely to have materials and knowledge in other areas. In a sense, Clare is becoming more proactive as she is beginning to purchase older texts and back issues of publications on patent development and she is also becoming more familiar with the free resources available.
List of resources
Maryvon's best resources are colleagues in other departments at the university and subject guides or pathfinders from other departmental libraries. This allows him to identify and quickly access the core resources in unfamiliar fields. He also frequently visits the websites for IGOs and NGOs which contain a vast amount of useful information.
Katie follows Twitter and has set up RSS feeds to help her stay up to date with other fields. Katie is able to tailor her RSS feeds and Twitter to suit her own needs, and finds that it is an efficient way to receive lots of information. She finds the FreePint website particularly useful in keeping up to date. In addition to the RSS feeds and Twitter, she reads specialised blogs, think-tank research, and university websites and will attend Special Library Association (SLA) non-legal meetings. If at all possible she tries to find freely available information, but on some occasions she is required to use low cost or transactional services such as PLC.
The scope of topics at Torys is ever increasing and it is becoming very important for Clare to have some familiarity with these new areas. She relies heavily on aggregate services, wikis and sources like Google Scholar, Social Science Research Network (SSRN) and PubMed. She consistently uses Toronto Public Library and their myriad resources. She has discovered a new world of vendors as she now purchases material outside of the legal sector. Clare, or another member of the library staff, attend SLA meetings, and she has joined various list-serves to keep her informed and to allow her to utilise the knowledge of others. Finally, she also relies on the extensive knowledge of her colleagues at the law firm.
What are the biggest challenges and successes?
The biggest success for Maryvon is seeing the interdisciplinary collection being utilised by students and faculty, as well as through inter-library loans. He also feels that campus-wide access to QuickLaw is a success, especially since students from many other departments make use of it. A challenge for Maryvon is the intense negotiations needed in getting the right products from the different subject areas. He also finds that each faculty have their own preferences and needs and it is near impossible to please everyone.
Unsurprisingly, budget is Katie's biggest challenge in providing materials for interdisciplinary research. If obtaining new materials in various subject areas is not financially viable she is forced to accept that she is unable to provide information unless it is from free sources, which we all know can be restrictive. It is also challenging to stay current with the large number of subject areas she is expected to be knowledgeable in without taking away valuable time from her regular duties. Success for Katie, is getting the answers via colleagues or peers which are quick, simple and free.
Information overload is one of the challenges faced by Clare at Torys. To counter this problem, when she gets new information she systematically digests it, handles it and presents it. This also helps with the limited amount of time she is able to devote to interdisciplinary research. She finds it is challenging to make decisions on collection development. There are always nice-to-have and need-to-have items, and keeping within the budget is an important deciding factor. Replicating earlier successes can be difficult, as well as managing the expectations of others within her organisation. Finally, success is the Firm not being sued because of any research she has done in areas other than law.
Conclusion
After all of the questions were answered, I left feeling as though providing support for, and participating in, interdisciplinary research was not impossible. Nowadays it is not unreasonable to expect requests for interdisciplinary materials in law libraries. In the future law librarians should expect regular interdisciplinary research requests as needs continue to change. Fortunately, as we can see from the answers given by the three panellists, there are many different ways to provide this information.
