VALL 2013 presentation on the intersection of law librarians, tech skills, and our professional reputation.

1. The Technology Springboard:
How Law Librarians Can
Bootstrap Their Future
Steve Matthews
Stem Legal
VALL 2013

2. Back in time!?!
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3. The finest IT ever built!
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4. Really? Are we still fighting this?
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5. Help! We’ve been typecast!!
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10. The most valued employees are
multi-skilled, and deliver
valued functions within their
business or organization.
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11. What’s your next move?
1. Develop a unique skill that no one
else in your firm has.
2. As a non-billable employee, you
need to align with the projects
valued most by your lawyers.
3. Build a portfolio. But don’t lose
sight (or control) of the research
function.
VALL 2013

12. Part II:
Technologies that MIGHT
possibly become important to
law firms in the near future.
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13. • Massive Open Online Courses
• Goes live in first half of 2014
•Joint venture – EdX & Google
• Preceded by early Canadian online
courseware – remember Moodle?
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14. •“Objective-C is the iOS standard”
• iOS Apps already power information
products. Web => App?
• Are you ready to be a coder?
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16. GitHub members (including Librarians)
sharing project code
Example above from Elmer Masters – Center for Computerized Legal
Instruction (CALI): Web book editor. Forked from another code set, reworked for CALI contracts.
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17. WordPress powers 22% of all new websites
created. 60+ million installs.
Could you act as the webmaster for a WP website?
If you can’t, go start a free Wordpress.com account
& learn how.
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18. Web development skills are incredibly
valuable. No matter what type of information
career direction you choose.
Check out: http://w3schools.com/
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19. Kindle Direct Publishing Program makes
law firms into publishers.
• Firms keep 70% of publishing revenue
• Who will manage your firm’s program?
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20. Thank-you!
Steve Matthews
steve@stemlegal.com
@stevematthews
VALL 2013