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continued on back

Katherine K. Coolidge: Law Librarian for Bulkley, Richardson and Gelinas, LLP, Springfield and Boston, MA; Treasurer of the Special Libraries Association Legal Division[By Charisse Dengler]

Katherine K. Coolidge—a lawyer turned law librarian—said she is much happier in her new profession. Working as a solo

for Bulkley, Richardson and Gelinas, she performs all aspects of the law library management, including legal reference,

collection development, budget preparation, contract negotiation for print and online resources, cataloging, and serial

circulation.history of the administration.”

“If you think of it as running a business within

a business—that’s what I do,” she said.

Coolidge first considered changing

fields after she found herself becoming

disenchanted with the practice of law.

After considering some different graduate

programs, she settled on a program offered

through Simmons College’s Graduate

School of Library and Information Science

on the campus of Mount Holyoke College

in South Hadley, MA. The program was a

good fit for her because it allowed her to

pursue her new career while working on her

master’s degree.

“It seemed like a really good combination

for me, where I could continue to use my

education and experience in the law and take

it down a different road,” she said.

Coolidge has been a law librarian for three-

and-a-half years now. She said she had some

initial worries about making the change from

lawyer to law librarian, but the enthusiasm

and pride with which she talks about her new

profession are evidence of the fact that she

made the right decision.

“I thought when I went to library school that

I would probably become an academic law

librarian. I was concerned that if I worked

in a firm, I would be viewed as someone

who failed at practicing law. But that hasn’t

been my experience in this firm,” she

said. “It’s just so much fun to be working

with incredibly smart people and to be

appreciated for what I do.”

“When you’re a lawyer, your client

appreciates what you do; but you’re always

in a litigious mode. Every day, you’re arguing

with somebody,” she said. “This is just so

much more fun because I’m treated very well

here and people respect my education and

my ability. I am learning a lot about various

areas of law that I had never practiced in

because I’m asked to do research in those

areas. It’s really very pleasurable for me.”

Although Coolidge appreciates the

differences between law librarians and

lawyers, she also said that the skills she

learned as an attorney have helped her in her

new profession.

“I have the work ethic of a lawyer, so I don’t

mind if something goes beyond five or if

I’m having lunch at my desk and somebody

needs help,” she said. “I don’t really consider

that to be my time. If I’m here, I’m available

to help people. I think if you view your job

as a nine-to-five kind of thing, people will

not feel you’re part of the team. It is hard

for somebody who hasn’t practiced law

to understand that that’s the way lawyers

think and work. They’re not being rude, and

they’re not being demanding. They just want

the work done within whatever deadlines

are imposed on them by the courts or their

clients’ needs.”

She urges students studying law

librarianship to consider working in a law

library or public courthouse library during

school in order to better understand the

intensity with which attorneys do their jobs.

She also encourages students to work on

their communication skills. She said the

ability to be pleasant and make people feel

like their interruptions are welcome is a skill

that cannot be learned in school.

“I think, more than anything, you need to

be able to get along with people and be

flexible,” she said. “You have to be able

to tolerate interruptions and be willing to

change directions and re-prioritize your work

from moment to moment.”

Another aspect of law librarianship that

Coolidge loves is the interconnectedness of

the profession.

“People in this field are so generous with

their knowledge and their time. That’s

another difference between law librarianship

and practicing law. Being a law librarian is

all about sharing information; whereas, when

you’re a lawyer, you’re really protecting

information and disclosing only what’s

necessary,” she said. “It’s a great field.”

Coolidge is currently serving as Treasurer

of the Special Libraries Association Legal

Division (SLA), a position that she feels has

been beneficial to both her and the firm.

“The nice thing about participating at the

national level is that you begin to collect

colleagues all across the country. I can’t tell

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you how many times that has served to my

advantage,” she said.

Within SLA, Coolidge is also the archivist

for the Connecticut Valley Chapter (CVC), a

position that includes participation on the

CVC board, where she helps put together

educational programming. In addition, she

belongs to the American Association of Law

Libraries; and within that, she is a member

of the Private Law Librarians Division and the

Law Librarians of New England Chapter.

She advises students to get involved in

professional law librarian associations as

early as possible and to start attending

conferences. With reasonable student

membership fees and scholarships available

to cover the costs of conferences, she said

students “almost can’t afford not to join.”

She also encourages law students to

utilize the skills of their schools’ law and

reference librarians.

“One of the things I regret that I never

really appreciated while in law school was

the law librarians, especially the reference

librarian,” she said. “My perception of a

librarian was just somebody who cataloged,

circulated, and shelved books, but not

somebody who could help me do research.

I wish I had known that while I was in law

school, because it would’ve made my life a

lot easier.”

ON THE NET

Bulkley, Richardson and Gelinas, LLP

www.bulkley.com

Special Libraries Association Legal Division

www.slalegal.org

Simmons College’s Graduate School of

Library and Information Science

www.simmons.edu/gslis