by Christine Sellers

I figured out I was going to be laid off before it actually happened. Throughout the whole process, my boss at the law firm for which I worked was wonderful and honest with me. As director of information services, he was called before the management committee to justify every position in the department. When he was called back a second time to again justify both of our jobs, the future became clear. He was spared; I was not.

I realize I was lucky in the way I was treated by the firm. It was rare to be given two weeks notice before my departure date. In return, I tried to make my leaving as smooth as possible for everyone in my department and the firm. It was during this transition time that a conversation I had with my AALL Leadership Academy mentor, Lucy Curci-Gonzalez, sparked an idea. She advised me to stay connected to the profession. I called AALL to ask how they were helping laid-off law librarians stay connected. From that conversation came the idea of my starting a blog.

I had created blogs before but had never written much in them. I had also never attempted a professional blog. This was all new territory so there was a bit of a steep learning curve in the beginning. Before starting, I spoke with a couple of experienced blog writers to get advice on issues such as software, technology, and even the potential for ads (though I couldn't really see having them on the site).

Coming up with a blog name was the easy part. I wanted it to be slightly humorous and yet indicative of my situation. Law Librarians of Leisure seemed to hit the right note. I worried that it might appear flip to some, but I was cheered by the number of people who laughed out loud when I told them the name.

From the beginning, I had an idea of what I wanted the blog to be. I wanted to help. I wanted it to be a resource for every law librarian who had been laid off or who was even worried about being laid off. I wanted to post jobs and links to helpful resources.

I also wanted to conduct surveys so that our profession could have a more accurate count of how many law librarians had been laid off. Although AALL had recently done a survey of law library directors, it didn't count numbers of people. It also didn't include me as one of the laid-off librarians. My hope was that there would be lots of discussion–that a community of sorts would form of those who had been laid off and those with relevant advice. I hoped the blog could remain professional while still being personal, because getting laid off is a deeply personal experience. While I have been successful in posting jobs, resources, and the survey, I have been less successful in starting a genuine discussion. I'm currently exploring ways to pursue that goal more actively.

I started the blog before I stopped working, so I can't say how this experience of getting laid off would be different were I not doing it. But I love working on this blog. It keeps me busy every single weekday. (I confess, I do take weekends off.) I enjoy feeling connected to the law librarian community. I have to learn new technology constantly, which keeps my mind working. I feel on top of what jobs are out there, which helps me in my job search. I get to put my research skills to work finding resources that might be helpful. I think it has also enabled me to stay visible in the profession. Because of the blog, I've been invited to speak on a panel at the AALL conference. I enjoy hearing from other law librarians in the same situation, even though I don't like that they've lost their jobs. I enjoy thinking that at least I'm trying to do something good during this precarious time.

Christine Sellers, formerly senior research librarian at a Columbia, S.C., law firm, blogs at lawlibrariansofleisure.com. Her e-mail address is christinesellers@yahoo.com.