As the author of How to File Looseleaf Services: A Filing Manual and Reference Handbook, I greatly appreciate the input and positive comments from respondents. I am glad to know that librarians find this a useful book for training their filers.
The book was published in 2004 and not a whole lot has changed, so I think a revised edition is premature. (And orders are still coming in.)
I always welcome comments and suggestions (info@legalinformationservices.com. Anyone seeking information on this title can find it at our web site at http://www.legalinformationservices.com. Thank you very much.
Elyse Fox, BA, JD, MSLS
Law Librarian
Chapel Hill, NC
--- Original Message -----
From: Megan Schulz
To: law-lib@ucdavis.edu
Cc: Cindy Roupe
Sent: Monday, January 07, 2008 12:34 PM
Subject: [LAW-LIB:54407] Summary- "How to File Looseleaf Services"- purchase?
Last week I sent out a request for your opinions on the following publication:
How to File Looseleaf Services: A Filing Manual and Reference Handbook
ISBN 0-941991-01-6 (2004) by Elyse Fox
My summary (anonymous) can be found below:
a.. We use this book here at [ ] as part of the training of our new filers, they're required to read the book (most of our filers are undergraduate students). From a results perspective, the quality of filing has improved since we started requiring students to read the book. Whether that's a result of requiring the students to read *this book, or requiring the students to read *any book, I can't say, but results have definitely improved since we started using this book.
b.. I think this is quite a useful book.
c.. I bought it because I have to frequently train people to do my filing in my 4 offices. First of all as you may know many people view filing as pointless work - hence they do it badly. The fact that there is a book about this task - gives doing it properly much more credibility. The book has about 20 pages of text and a quiz - I tell my people to read the quiz first - so they can see what they need to lean as they read. The book has tips and lots of examples of different types of filing services. The book is well organized. Elyse the author is semi retired MLS/JD law librarian who does filing several days a week - so she speaks from much experience. Finally, there is no other book out there on the topic.
d.. We have it here and we think it's very useful. It’s been my experience that all of Elyse Fox’s publications contain practical, easy to read information. How to File Looseleaf Services is no exception. At $25-$30 per copy, I think it’s a bargain. Our Library has a large collection of loose-leaf titles and we outsource filing but this title proved useful as an introduction (and refresher) to looseleafs both for our acquisitions/collection development staff as well as our Access Services staff many of whom had never previously worked in a law library. (We also use Elyse Fox’s The Legal Research Dictionary for staff training.) How to File was also useful when working with our filing service to plan, as closely as possible, the number of hours needed to ensure that our filing is current. All in all, I believe it’s useful to own.
e.. I am in charge of filing at our library, where we recently began hiring students as filers. I got this book through ILL to review and we ended up purchasing a copy - it helped a great deal in creating a training program for our filers. It's a good practical reference for those who are unfamiliar with filing or who need a refresher course. Some of the material is a little outdated, but not enough to be a real concern. I consider it an excellent value for the price. The only caveat is that the binding is not very sturdy; we ended up having ours hardbound by our bindery.
f.. It's very thorough and great for inexperienced filers.
g.. I haven't put it in practice, but it looks helpful for new looseleaf filers. It actually has examples of pages and instructions from different publishers and different titles that I think would be very helpful.
h.. We have/had the book. It is very, very basic.
I hope that I thanked all of the contibutors personally but if I missed someone, Thank you!
Megan
Megan Schulz
State Library of Kansas
Legislative Reference
300 SW 10th Ave, Rm 343-N
Topeka, KS 66612
(785) 296-4673
Legislative Hotline (800) 432-3924
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Mon Feb 04 2008 - 04:51:28 PST