Library Reference Staff Logs Research with askSam

By Abigail F.E. Ross, Reference Librarian - Howrey Simon Arnold & White, Washington, DC

About eight months ago, the Howrey Simon Arnold & White library staff were very pleased to obtain askSam for a trial run of a Reference Question database. We had high hopes of turning our, to this point, disparate and scattered research into a cohesive example of knowledge management.  

Our "little" reference question database trial-run now comprises 670 MB of data we would be lost without: group passwords, research tips, closed client/matter numbers, research logs, pathfinders, bibliographies, obscure websites, citations to articles, books, Internet pages, research trails we certainly could not recreate nor imitate and information we can no longer find anywhere else.

There is one instance in particular that shows how useful this database has been to us: a contract attorney was here for several months working on a special project for one of our partners. He asked me for research, citations, and articles about once a day for several weeks running. One day he called in a panic to tell me that his laptop had crashed and burned and that he had lost everything I had e-mailed him. In a pleading voice he asked if I had kept his original requests or any kind of paper trail so he could recreate his work. I told him I would get back to him shortly, hung up the phone and scoffed at the phrase "paper trail."  I didn't need a "paper trail," I had askSam!  

Ten minutes later I e-mailed him a copy of every request he had sent me, every citation he had asked for, and, in cases where copyright was not an issue, a copy of the item itself that I had pasted into his record. I had even attached PDF copies of his original paper requests to the record in case anything was ever misplaced.  

I have an admirer for life. In the age of the paperless office and an environment that stresses KM, askSam is an invaluable tool in providing the best service possible to our Library patrons. And if the day ever comes when I have to leave this great firm, I will happily leave behind my paper files, my Sean Connery READ poster and all the chocolate hidden in the desk drawers, grab askSam and run for it!

Abigail F.E. Ross

Reference Librarian - Howrey Simon Arnold & White

Washington, DC