Earlier this month, Law360 featured an article by HBR Consulting’s Fahad Zaidi that provides insights into mistakes to avoid when building a law library. More specifically, Fahad explores common missteps that law firms should be aware of when considering data analytics tools and new software for their libraries.

As Fahad points out in the article, law firms devote a significant portion of their budgets to their libraries – yet inefficiencies in this area continue to exist. “Inefficiencies within libraries not only hurt a firm from an overall cost perspective, but also weaken the value of successful libraries. This poses a variety of risks, including going over budget, paying for duplicate content and missing contract renewals,” Fahad explains. Many law firm library leaders are looking to data analytics to circumvent potential inefficiencies.

To mitigate risk when exploring data analytics and tools, library leaders should:

• Link financial data, contracts and platforms
• Aggregate platform usage data by individual user
• Develop consistent visual reporting techniques and styles
• Organize data to allow for custom metric creation
• Limit need for manual creation of recurring and ad-hoc reporting

Law firms continue to make strides in adapting to an increasingly digital world, and the law library must follow suit. To take advantage of the big data and continue to provide more value for the broader organization, library leaders must embrace change by pursuing new tools that promote better efficiency. To learn more about how law libraries can navigate the complex landscape by leveraging data analytics, check out Fahad’s full Law360 article here.