Arnold & Porter

Jim Shelar is the Director of Library Services at Arnold & Porter, a US law firm with a proud history. In his 35+ years with the firm Jim has driven the law library evolution from book and card catalogue to online and automation. 

Jim’s latest project at Arnold & Porter involved revamping the firm’s external information management. In his own words:

"We had been looking for an innovative web-based service to manage the ever expanding universe of digital information generated by publishers, governments, companies, law firms, trade associations, institutes. We needed a way to locate new sources, preview and organize the material, add our users and setup alerts and RSS feeds."

Comparing Current Awareness Services 

"Initially we looked at six companies who offer what I will call aggregating current awareness services. By eliminating those that were too specialized to capture all the information we need, we quickly narrowed that number down to four.

"There were some very strong contenders, but we chose Linex Systems because the service is competitive, if not superior, by every measure we used. Linex quickly added features we requested and material we sought. The Linex team is nimble and we think the administrative interface and the delivery systems are, in a word, 'elegant'."

Customer Service at Linex

"We quickly confirmed that outstanding customer service and speedy responses to our needs are  standard for Linex. As a UK company Linex is now launching a product for the U.S. market. We believe Linex will find a fertile field for growing their customer base. We have found a forward looking, innovative company whose service will equip us with important tools to harness the massive amount of  electronic content that might otherwise overwhelm us."