MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

Tribute to Newly Retired Member Bess Reynolds

by Linda-Jean Schneider, Electronic Resources Manag er, Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP

Bess may be best known to many of you as the PLLIP "photographer-in-residence" for many our SIS's special events at AALL Annual meetings over the years. To her colleagues at her most recent firm, she is best known as Bess Reynolds, Electronic Resources Manager in the Knowledge Services Department of Debevoise & Plimpton law firm in New York City where she has spent the last 10+ years.

 

When she announced several months ago her plan to 'retire' from this position as of the end of February 2016, those of us who know her had no doubt that this is only a transition phase to yet another productive, interesting and fulfilling stage in her multi-faceted and accomplished professional life. And as per her customary pattern, whatever direction that transition took, it would be with much foresight and thoughtfulness, and would deliver significant contributions from a forward-looking and consummate information professional. In many ways, Bess' career itself reflects the evolution from the so-called 'back office' library operations of Technical Services to the more broadly-reaching legal information systems operations of Electronic Resources Management.

 

As is true of many of our colleagues, the field of law librarianship was a second career for Bess. After working in the field of banking and corporate finance with her MBA degree, Bess spent several years raising her daughters, and volunteered in the Library at her daughters' school. Her experiences as a volunteer led to successive positions as a Technical Services Consultant to perform retrospective conversions of card catalogs to more sophisticated integrated online systems, and as a Library Technology Specialist in a school in San Rafael, CA. In the latter position Bess was responsible for the enhancement and integration of library systems, as well as for the evaluation, selection, installation and maintenance of library software and hardware, and she continued to train students and teachers in the use of the online systems.

 

The summer before her next position as an Assistant Librarian at a San Francisco Bay area high school library, Bess was awarded a Fellowship to work at The Exploratorium, in the Learning Studio (library) during the summer Teacher's Institute for teachers in Math and Science. As a Fellow, she "assisted Staff and teachers with research projects using DIALOG and other online resources." Bess was encouraged by Rose Falanga Director of the Learning Studio, who she met through a US Berkeley Extension course on online searching. Rose was an early mentor who taught Bess about special libraries that led her to the position of Technical Services & Reference Librarian at Bingham McCutchen in San Francisco.

 

 

A return to the East Coast gave Bess the opportunity to pursue librarianship in law firms while pursuing her graduate degree in Information and Library Science at Pratt Institute. While at Pratt, Bess received the Certificate of Excellence award for Outstanding Merit in Law Librarianship-only the first of many recognition acknowledgements she has seen throughout her career. Bess moved on to an Internship at Fried Frank, and then to be the Technical Services Librarian at Cadwalader for three years. Bess credits the internship at Fried to attending a LLAGNY luncheon and meeting Nancy Rine, who served as one of her numerous mentors in law librarianship. Other mentors included Jo Caporaso at Bingham who taught her much about legal research, and Steve Lastres at Debevoise.

 

Their support and the substantial benefits of networking with New York colleagues gave Bess incentive to participate in and contribute to professional presentations and activities. Steve Lastres, the Director at Debevoise, believes strongly in professional development and encouraged Bess (and all staff) to take advantage of those opportunities. Bess made her first of many AALL presentations in 2009, and has presented at numerous professional meetings,

 

 

In particular, Bess expressed finding enjoyment in the implementation and testing road shows with Practice Groups at Debevoise. Her focus on consolidating where info is found (true KM), such as including memberships in cataloging records, highlight her attention to detail while at the same time understanding the global vision of KM delivery throughout the firm. Her varied background has provided the required skills to integrate backstage technical operations with the on-stage tasks working with users, to "ensure they can locate necessary research needs," especially remotely. Bess points out that if a lawyer cannot access what s/he needs to maintain their workflow, firms are wasting prodigious amounts of money.

 

Bess notes that the challenges for all information professionals now include struggling to find sufficient time to pursue the thorough investigation of alternative resources; the increasing demands on attorney and information professional's time which translates into less time for adequate training and familiarity with resources; the complications inherent with licensing and digital contracts; and the basic reluctance of users to adopt new technologies. Bess will continue as a member of the NYLI Board of Directors and will undoubtedly pursue a number of activities on the professional level. We wish her all the best in her future pursuits!