SydneyEnterprise is the Law Firm Library Efficiency Engine

Duane Morris LLP is a Philadelphia-based law firm with more than 800 attorneys in 28 offices, practicing in the U.S., U.K. and Asia. The firm serves a broad array of clients worldwide and provides innovative solutions to legal and business challenges.

The Duane Morris library has a staff of 13, located both in the Philadelphia headquarters and in San Francisco, California. They maintain a collection of nearly 7,000 titles, including 2,500 journals and serials, and a growing collection of digital resources. As a longtime Lucidea client, it made perfect sense to upgrade to SydneyEnterprise when the library’s content and services strategy changed; they needed an ILS that would support their emphasis on digital content, is web- based, and allows for customization without dependence on the IT department. The option for software-as-a-service (SaaS) eliminates the need for Duane Morris’ IT staff to provide server space and perform maintenance and upgrades, which means no downtime.

Prior to upgrading, following good business practice they evaluated other products—but a history of productive partnership with Lucidea, the excellent customer service, the many powerful and unique features of SydneyEnterprise, and the competitive price point won the day.

A Single Problem-Solving Venue

Says Russell Rokicki, Library Operations Manager, “We use SydneyEnterprise as the “go-to” for all back-office library workflow; it’s where we keep all our user information, catalog all our materials, and manage our routing—all under one roof. It’s really a single problem-solving venue and it streamlines all our back- office technical services procedures. No matter what we need, we can find it in SydneyEnterprise, e.g., if we want to quickly look for vendor information and find out who our sales representative is, it’s there.”

For Duane Morris library staff, the ability to see and work with everything in a single venue is very compelling. Per Mr. Rokicki, “…the ability to easily make changes in the system and report on them is very important (and eliminates the need for tech support). For example, we’ve created a number of different fields to report on—customizing the templates for our own needs. We’ve created special reports for our yearly ‘State of the Library’ update to leadership, and we’ve created some for operational purposes, including renewing our vendor contracts: now we can generate lists of every single title and every single office copy within 5 minutes.”

Keeping up with Practices and Locations

From a strategic standpoint, the library staff uses SydneyEnterprise to easily locate specific practice materials and resources covering a particular area of law. Per Mr. Rokicki, “This is important when it becomes necessary to enhance or rebalance parts of the collection. It also helps us to identify knowledge gaps, plan acquisitions or cancellations (helpful with budgeting), and monitor information resources across the firm—critically important in a multi-location firm with centralized library staff.” These activities speak to the value of the SydneyEnterprise “deep reporting” that allows you to evaluate data at a granular level, leading to evidence-based decision making.

The Onboarding Specialist

Says Mr. Rokicki, “SydneyEnterprise is key for library onboarding. We use it as a way for new attorneys to see what resources the firm subscribes to and to see what others in their practice group are reading to stay current in the law. This allows us to quickly get new lawyers signed up for targeted print and electronic journal routings so they’re in the swing of things right away. We also use it when attorneys leave the firm to make sure books and office copies are returned, subscriptions are canceled, and routing lists are changed.” Again, this speaks to the value of the “deep reporting” that leads to evidence-based decisions when you can evaluate data at a granular level.

All Roads Lead to the Library

Duane Morris’ use of SydneyEnterprise is both staff focused and end user focused. As the library continues their move to more digital resources, they’ll try to point people toward the digital version from within the catalog, systematically eliminating dependence on hard copies. The public-facing catalog (OPAC) gives the library a strong presence on the firm’s very well trafficked intranet, helping to build awareness of the department and its services, leading to increased usage.

The Bottom Line

The ability to bend SydneyEnterprise as needs change makes it excellent for a law firm, and being able to add, change or take away unneeded elements keeps the team nimble. Mr. Rokicki states, “Library technical services staff are in SydneyEnterprise 90% of the day. It affects every single aspect of what we do and makes it simple.” Yes, that sure sounds like an efficiency engine!