{"id":64551,"date":"2014-03-14T13:45:49","date_gmt":"2014-03-14T18:45:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/?p=64551"},"modified":"2014-03-14T13:42:12","modified_gmt":"2014-03-14T18:42:12","slug":"adjusting-to-different-cultures-of-information-shifting-orientation-from-freedom-of-information-to-confidentiality-of-information","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/?p=64551","title":{"rendered":"Adjusting to Different Cultures of Information \u2013 Shifting Orientation from FOIA to Confidentiality of Information"},"content":{"rendered":"

Amanda Brooks, Head Editor,\u00a0INALJ British Columbia<\/a><\/p>\n

Adjusting to Different Cultures of Information \u2013 Shifting Orientation from Freedom of Information to\u00a0<\/span>Confidentiality of Information<\/span><\/h3>\n

\"Amanda<\/a>I always felt that freedom of information was core to my professional philosophy while I worked in public and\u00a0academic libraries. In the public library, many people were happy being in their own world (myself included much\u00a0of the time) but most who sought out the librarians wanted to share something about themselves or see guidance. In\u00a0academic libraries, most students focused on getting sources for their coursework as easily as possible. This often\u00a0meant circumventing the physical library in favour of online sources but the principle of accessing information as\u00a0freely as possible remained the same.<\/p>\n

I do not mean to imply that I saw a stark divide between information freedom and privacy. The right of patrons to\u00a0keep their borrowing records and personal information private was paramount. Courses in the art of the reference\u00a0interview made me closely examine how apparently straight-forward questions would be laden with judgement and\u00a0put the patron on the defensive. Still, it was definitely a culture shock to transition into a corporate environment\u00a0where managing information flow largely meant restricting access to that information. When I accepted the position\u00a0of Conflicts Information Specialist in a law firm, I had to sign multiple confidentiality agreements and I learned\u00a0there were different hierarchical levels to use when I sought to give or provide information.<\/p>\n

Ted Tjaden\u2019s article \u201cThe Role of Law Firm Culture in Knowledge Management<\/a>\u201d emphasizes the idea that\u00a0\u201cthe heart of a good KM [knowledge management] culture is trust\u201d. Trust does not have to be conflated with a\u00a0willingness to share all information. Certain information is valuable because the system acts as proof that only\u00a0a select few had access to that information and legal professionals need to know their boundaries so that they\u00a0can work freely and confidently within them. The work of the information specialist builds the trust that this\u00a0confidentiality is preserved.<\/p>\n

Secondly, the legal professionals have to trust that we are not wasting their time when we hold up their requests\u00a0with our own requests for more information. Because legal work means maintaining the confidentiality of their\u00a0client\u2019s information, they tend to maintain this level of secrecy even with the information managers. Without clear\u00a0explanations for why some information is needed, our department can meet resistance to getting the information we\u00a0need to proceed with searches or file openings.<\/p>\n

Drawing on my course work and experience conducting reference interviews, I have reconfigured its principles to\u00a0emphasize brevity of questions and explanations of why the questions are necessary. Understanding the types of\u00a0information and language used by each law practice group is essential to framing those questions. Our department\u00a0has also initiated a new training program for new legal assistants on the types of information we need to conduct\u00a0searches and open legal files. I think this is going to be a great opportunity to see how legal assistants view our and\u00a0to clear up any miscommunication about information requirements.<\/p>\n

When adjusting to a new corporate culture with a different attitude towards information sharing, keep yourself\u00a0focused on the people and the value of information. I was drawn to the library profession because I wanted to help\u00a0people find the information they need and that is still true in my current work. My true clients are not library patrons\u00a0or the firm\u2019s clients but the lawyers and their legal assistants. They need information but also need certain barriers\u00a0to information are necessary to preserve the privacy of the clients involved. Information is far from free but my\u00a0training and skills as a searcher and information manager allow it to be more readily available.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Amanda Brooks, Head Editor,\u00a0INALJ British Columbia Adjusting to Different Cultures of Information \u2013 Shifting Orientation from Freedom of Information to\u00a0Confidentiality of Information I always felt that freedom of information was core to my professional philosophy while I worked in public and\u00a0academic libraries. In the public library, many people were happy being in their own world…<\/p>\n

Read more \u2192<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[145],"tags":[6040,69,3592,6047,6045,3992,1419,6046],"class_list":["post-64551","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","tag-amanda-brooks","tag-article","tag-blog","tag-confidential-information","tag-cultures-of-information","tag-inalj-british-columbia","tag-information","tag-information-culture-changes"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1WoMK-gN9","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64551","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=64551"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64551\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=64551"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=64551"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=64551"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}