The simple elegance of Shameless Self-Promotion

April 26th, 2004

I was browsing through the latest issue of AALL Spectrum (GASP, a print resource) and came across a fantastic article (page 6) [PDF] about a librarian who sends out a daily e-mail summary of Stanford faculty/students/staff (basically anyone) who has made news. And how does he do it? By setting up keyword searches on Lexis and Westlaw (the article doesn’t mention any other tools, but I’m sure he relies on blogs and the open web as well). The best part is that not only does he send out the e-mail summary, but the law school uses these updates and displays them on their web page. This information is also used for the alumni magazine. It has become so popular that some of the faculty have started to feed him information to include in his e-mail summary. Also, library staff members act as reporters, looking for news as well.

First off, this content delivery service screams weblogs/RSS. Second, think about the marketing that is being accomplished here. The library (and this librarian in particular) is becoming the parser of information for the law school. They see him as an asset to the school and appreciate the work being done. Kudos to Paul Lomio at the Stanford Law School library.

The article also talks about self-promotion and how everyone can enjoy their “15 minutes of fame”. I’m into self-promotion in a big way, as long as it’s done tactfully and purposefully. Promoting oneself for the sake of promotion is egotism, which is a character flaw.

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