New member glad to be joining

HI, Paul, and welcome to the KM Division.

At this time,  I doubt if you want to undertake any more "formal" courses (I'm sure you have your hands full with your schoolwork) but for making contacts there are a couple of other resources you might look into.That said, SLA's Click U courses in KM/Knowledge Services- which I teach with Dale Stanley - is a rich source of material and ideas, so even if you just look over the course descriptions, you'll get some good ideas and perhaps direction

Also, you might want to link up with some of those who have taken the courses, since many law librarians have participated (either by taking individual courses, which many people do, or by participating in the certificate program).

If you're a member of LinkedIn, there a discussion group you should join: KMKS Alumni & Interest Group. Look it up and check out the members. You'll probably find lots of opportunity for connections there.

For an ongoing discussion about KM and knowledge services, you might want to look at our company's blog SMR Int'l - Knowledge Services Notes. Take a look and please join us and contribute to the discussions.

At the moment these two resources are pretty similar but hopefully as each builds its own constituency, we'll find variations on a theme, that theme being how we think about and use KM/knowledge services in our work.

Best wishes as you pursue your studies. And again, welcome to our great division. You'll make some great connections there as well, of course!

Guy

Welcome, Paul! A handful of us are working on some overview ideas to help people get started in KM as well as a handful of KM Cafes. I'm starting a virtual "book" club as well which I'll post on our wiki site as well as LinkedIn group some discussion questions. Also, several of us have also been posting "favorite" bookmarks to Del.icio.us http://delicious.com/tag/slakm although not sure any of these focus directly to U.S.-based law firms. I may have some contacts I can ask for ideas if there's a way you can "frame" four or five questions. I'm happy to work with you to post as a forum or something that might entice people to respond as well.

Hello Paul and welcome to the DKM,

Although you mention only US law firms in your posting perhaps another firm that would be of interest to you is Linklaters, one of the top international lawfirms which also has a US office. Linklaters has had a KM programme for many years and is seen by many as one of the leading companies when it comes to managing knowledge. A few years ago an article was published in KM Review where the KM strategy was described and you may find it helful in gaining more information about how knowledge can be leveraged in law firms. You can find the article through the link below, hope it proves helpful.

http://www.melcrum.com/articles/knowledge_at_Linklaters.shtml\\

Regards,

Rikke

Hi Paul and welcome,

I work as a Web Services Librarian for the Alaska State Court System.  Yes, there is lots of opportunties for KM in law firms.  I am posting a link to the Adam Smith, Esq. website.  Bruce MacEwen says it well from his keynote speech title "The Law Library of the Future" from the Ark Group Conference. 

http://www.adamsmithesq.com/archives/2007/02/the-law-library-of-the-fu.html

Enjoy and let me know if you have questions.

Ken Wheaton