The Latest Trends In Knowledge Services: How the Pandemic Has Reshaped The Role Of Information Professionals

We discuss the most significant trends impacting knowledge and information professionals today, and what we can expect to see changing in this area in the coming years.

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Knowledge services is one of the most valuable roles at any law firm today, whether everyone might realize it or not. Much like all firm functions, however, it hasn’t been immune to the pandemic. We recently sat down with Carolyn Bach, the Senior Manager of the Knowledge & Research Program at LexisNexis, to discuss how the pandemic has created new opportunities in the knowledge services sphere, the most significant trends impacting knowledge and information professionals today, and what we can expect to see changing in this area in the coming years.

Overall, how has the pandemic impacted law firm knowledge and information services?

The pandemic and the work-from-home environment actually created significant opportunities for knowledge and information services. Everyone had to work quickly to adapt, and ensure attorneys and others had access to all the resources they needed. Library services became front and center during this transition.

It also gave firm knowledge services departments time to step back and reevaluate their services at a broader level. Many initiated surveys to better understand what was essential to attorneys and staff on a day-to-day basis and how tools could be improved. Some even took it as an opportunity to develop strategic plans in a way they hadn’t in years, to develop an overarching strategy that would serve practice groups more effectively and better align with the firm’s vision and departmental roadmaps.

What did these structural changes mean for the knowledge services professionals?

In many cases, it meant restructuring staff and changing titles away from Librarian toward titles like Knowledge Manager, Business Intelligence Specialist, or Research Analyst, to better reflect the responsibilities of the job and the value of the services being provided. It also meant not just ensuring everyone had access to what they needed, but also rethinking how they structured their training initiatives, typically to make them both shorter and highly customized.

Knowledge and information departments started getting a much better sense of their own value and ROI. Many started using dashboards and other tools to evaluate offerings like how the firm was utilizing intranet practice area pages and then revamping those pages to focus on premium sources, so it’s quick and easy for end users to access and digest the content. Like the rest of law in recent years, knowledge management became much more data-driven.

Would you say this has resulted in greater workloads?

Definitely. Many saw a significant increase in research requests and workload overall. Increased workloads didn’t necessarily mean they had more resources or people, though. Some firms had a budget to hire more people, but some didn’t. For those that didn’t, the solution was coming up with creative ways to manage additional workload. That often meant adjusting hours to meet work-from-home needs, implementing new collaboration tools beyond email to help with work requests and allow people to communicate more effectively, but also to help maintain team comradery.

Aside from the pandemic, what other trends are impacting knowledge and information professionals today?

They’re increasingly involved with business development and need to collaborate frequently with the firm’s marketing and business development professionals to assist with new business and client retention programs and processes. As firms invest in growing the business, there are opportunities for more tools and products to enhance their business development and marketing efforts. Information professionals at these firms typically know these tools and products better than anyone.

We’re also seeing an increased involvement of knowledge management specialists with Client Services. They’re handling more consulting work directly with clients to develop client portals, sourcing and feeding content into those portals, and more. There is also a greater demand for technical skills.

Most jobs require more technical skills than they used to. Would you say being tech-savvy is now a requirement in knowledge services?

Yes, though it depends on the role that’s being filled. In most cases, it’s definitely evolved over time. Knowledge services professionals now play a leading role in evaluating, adopting, and implementing new technologies at their firm. Many of their responsibilities require the ability to create and understand data analytics and data visualization, have an understanding of AI systems, web design and navigation, Excel mastery, and more. So, while these skills may not be required of everybody, most firms will want certain individuals to have these skill sets going forward.

Looking ahead, what are some of the hot topics you’re hearing about that will be on the forefront of knowledge services in the next few years?

We’ll be seeing more focus on data management and integration to help improve workflows. API has been the buzzword of 2022, with more firms exploring key use cases for APIs and building out their plans to improve integration of data into existing workflows.

We can also expect to see even more emphasis on news and current awareness. Aggregation and dissemination are key challenges and opportunities in this area. As the amount of news content on the web continues to grow exponentially, it’s more important than ever to make sure you have accurate data and news that’s relevant and digestible, in addition to an efficient means of distributing applicable news to internal stakeholders. Knowledge services professionals will be involved in determining the best content and the best way to consume it, in addition to calling out actionable components. This might mean firms need specialists on staff, including those who focus solely on news and current events – the days of being a generalist are largely over. Finally, innovation will be key going forward. We’ll see information professionals more involved in internal think tanks and working groups, with the aim of creating new and innovative ways to serve clients and improve internal services. They’ll be helping to develop new tools and resources, both for internal use and for client services. In line with this, we should expect to see even more new job titles that reflect this innovation component.

It sounds like it’s a good time for the knowledge services community.

Yes, I think it’s an excellent time. Our roles and values will continue to evolve as we increase awareness in the industry of the varied and critical areas and tasks we’re actually handling today. The knowledge and information management area is a very important one for LexisNexis. We’ve had a dedicated team to support information professionals for nearly three decades, and we plan to continue helping law firms in this area for years to come.