An Interview with Erin Murphy, Reference Librarian

Los Angeles County Law Library

Reprinted with Permission

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askSam: Ms. Murphy, what type of information is housed in the Los Angeles County Law Library and what is your role as reference librarian?

ERIN MURPHY: We have over 375,000 law books covering California as well as the other 49 states and international areas.  I am one of 7 reference librarians who help patrons both in-house and via telephone.

askSam: Which askSam products do you use and for what applications?

ERIN MURPHY:    We use askSam for Windows to automate a ready reference file of hard-to-find answers to legal questions.

askSam:   How has askSam made your job any easier, faster or more efficient?

ERIN MURPHY:   Automating the ready reference file has made my job much more efficient in that I can search by any word and come up with the answer instead of trying to guess what topic had been assigned to that question.

askSam: What type of customer support you have received as an askSam user?

ERIN MURPHY: It's such an easy product to use that I haven't needed any support!

askSam: Would you recommend askSam and why?

ERIN MURPHY: Yes, because it is a system that is very easy to learn and yet also allows for sophisticated searching.

askSam:  What applications do you plan for askSam in the future?

ERIN MURPHY:   There are no immediate plans for any further application, but I would definitely look to it for the automation of any text file where full-text searching is desired.

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Erin Murphy

Los Angeles County Law Library

301 West First Street

Los Angeles, CA  90012

Phone: 213-629-3531

Email: erin@lalaw.lib.ca.us