Imaginative advocacy

Amy Affelt customizes the information experience to engage employees and position the library at the center of the company

By Carrie Benseler

Advocacy efforts began more than 20 years ago at one corporate library in downtown Chicago, and have continued to evolve ever since. In the late 1980s, Debbie Zimmermann, Vice President and Director of Research at Lexecon, envisioned an entire online library for her firm. Today, Amy Affelt, Director of Database Research and Senior Analyst at Lexecon, is doing several things to rebrand the library’s services and make them more relevant to the employees she serves.

Amy Affelt, Director of Database Research and Senior Analyst at Lexecon.

“I’m sure that at that time, the idea that a library could be exclusively online was seen as a radical concept and may have been met with some skepticism. But Debbie had the vision that online would be the future. Our research model pioneered a completely new approach,” said Affelt. Lexecon is one of the world’s leading economics consulting firms that employs more than 150 professional economic consultants and analysts who assist with litigation cases. Lexecon has been involved in many of the largest and most visible antitrust and regulatory legal cases of the last decade. Many Lexecon staff members rely on Affelt and her staff to closely monitor the energy, healthcare, telecommunications and transportation industries.

Affelt has been at Lexecon for 14 years and manages a staff of two. The name within the organization for Affelt’s services is not “library,” but Database Research Department, or DRD.

Affelt and her team respond to an average of 100 information requests per week. When requests exceed 100 per week, employees who made three or more requests that week become members of the “DRD Century Club” and are given candy bars. The program has been extremely popular.“We were trying to think of a way to document the DRD’s volume and value as a profit center. It’s nice to offer a metric instead of reciting statistics,” said Affelt.

Hal Sider, Senior Vice President, has worked at Lexecon for 20 years, and is often a Century Club member.

“Amy and her team have specialized knowledge about available information and know how to access it. That enables us to get information more quickly and use information we otherwise wouldn’t be able to put our hands on. That improves the quality of our work product, and is critical in a litigation environment where being a close second isn’t a very good outcome,” said Sider.

Customization of information is key at Lexecon. Affelt and her team do not just send information; they read through it and highlight important points. “Lexecon subscribes to more than 20 databases because we must look at nearly every source to find the ‘needle in the haystack’ that may make or break a case,” said Affelt.

Approaching employees instead of waiting for employees to approach them has been a major success. “If we simply tell people about our services, they may not always see an immediate application. But once we send an example of what we can do, they become interested,” said Affelt. “Even if it is just in the elevator or the employee café, I try to ask people what they are working on. I read six daily newspapers and monitor many Web sites and I try to look for articles of interest. Our economists are so busy; I read the news so that they don’t have to.”

Affelt also created the 15-minute rule, by which research analysts are told to limit their Internet searching to 15 minutes per query. If they spend 15 minutes searching and cannot find what they are looking for, she recommends that they contact the DRD. This allows employees to spend time on other work for Lexecon clients.

Debbie Zimmermann, left, Vice President and Director of Research at Lexecon, says “If the DRD was not here, it would be a huge problem for the company. Amy and her team have been instrumental in changing the way things are done here.”

The DRD has worked to make its branding consistent across all communications, including newsletters, open houses, daily bulletin e-mails, e-mail addresses and subject lines of messages. The DRD name is visible on all of these pieces. The tagline, “The Internet: Free; Your DRD: Priceless,” appears on newsletters and brochures.

Jessica Mandel, Vice President at Lexecon, constantly uses the DRD’s services. “Many times, the DRD sends us information overnight in between days of testimony. Our litigators have even been known to receive a fax or e-mail from the DRD on their Treos™ in the courthouse,” she said.

“Customer service is the crux of our jobs,” said Affelt. “Our requestors take great comfort in familiarity and experience. They know that our goal is to help them get exactly what they need. My staff and I make it a point to be very accessible.”

In addition to finding valuable information for Lexecon employees, Affelt and her team also know how to present it. “Amy and her staff send us information in the format most usable to us. They know how we use data,” said Mandel.

Debbie Zimmermann has been a Lexecon employee for more than 20 years. She now manages 35 people, and encourages them to use the DRD’s services. “If the DRD was not here, it would be a huge problem for the company. Amy and her team have been instrumental in changing the way things are done here.”

Affelt has worked to differentiate her staff as researchers, and to show Lexecon employees that there is much more information available to them than what Google has to offer.“The library industry is constantly changing and evolving, and we must continuously think of ways to stay relevant in the Internet age,” said Affelt.

Despite the DRD’s best efforts, when Mandel was asked what she thought of Affelt’s attempts to brand the library’s services, she replied, “I just call it Amy. It works.”

Q+A

Education:
B.A. in History, Phi Beta Kappa, University of Illinois at Chicago
M.A. in Library Science, Dominican University

Best thing about libraries:
I feel like libraries are “the world in your hand.” Every time I enter a library, I am taken on a journey into something I had not known before.

Tips for library advocacy and promotion:
Your current users are the most important. Keep them happy and engaged. Make the library fit into people’s current lifestyles. Realize that different generations of people look for and use information differently.

Top three issues facing libraries:
1) Dispelling the myth that everything can be found on the Internet. There is a huge hidden Web that the search engines do not access. 2) Passing local referenda.  Everyone says that they love libraries, but that does not always translate to the voting booth. 3) Finding ways of delivering information that will be most helpful to people. People do not have time to fight traffic and find a parking space in order to return a book by a specific due date. I believe that the Netflix model would serve libraries very well.

Earliest library experience:
When I was a little girl, I used to “play librarian.” I would catalog all of my books and have my dolls check them out! I also have very fond memories of walking to the public library with my mother in the small town in rural Illinois where I grew up and receiving my first borrower’s card. My mother made it a special, ceremonial experience. 

Favorite books and authors:
To Kill a Mockingbird, The Fountainhead, John Steinbeck, Tennessee Williams, Chekhov, Shakespeare’s tragedies, and on a more contemporary level, David Sedaris and Suzanne Strempek Shea. My first memories of reading independently revolve around the Laura Ingalls Wilder Little House on the Prairie series, the Nancy Drew mysteries, and Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women (I was named after Amy March).

Last non-fiction book read:
Blood and Thunder: An Epic of the American West by Hampton Sides.

Favorite public Web site:
The Drudge Report. I’m a news junkie, and it’s a guilty pleasure that involves news from just about every source you could imagine.

Favorite research database:
Lexis-Nexis, because not only do they have outstanding coverage of both business and legal information, but also they provide great customer service.

Why libraries are important:
Libraries are the last bastions of democracy. They are the great equalizer. Whether you are Bill Gates or a homeless person, you are still getting the same To Kill a Mockingbird.

How your marketing strategy got started:
We started with things that many libraries do, like a newsletter and open houses. However, those ideas only seemed to engage people who were already strong users of the DRD. I soon realized that it is better to tailor information to individual needs rather than do mass-mailings and company-wide events. People seem to really like it when librarians take an interest in their work. Our clipping and alerting services on topics and industries of interest has been very successful. If someone receives daily e-mails from us, containing valuable information that helps them succeed, they are constantly reminded that we are here, willing and able to work with them on their projects.

The world without libraries:
I cannot imagine a world without libraries. What a dark, horrible place! As long as there are libraries—and more importantly, librarians—there is complete and free access to credible information. Libraries are worthless unless there are expert librarians available to make that information accessible.

Lexecon without the Database Research Department:
The information that we provide is the building block for every case for which Lexecon is retained. Without us, there would be no way to get thorough, valuable information that is critical to winning cases for our clients. We know every source to check, and we do it quickly, and with complete accuracy. No stones are left unturned, and we give our economists the confidence of knowing they will not be missing something that an opposing expert may have. 

Tips for librarians to think outside the box:
Ask yourself, what could you offer to your requestors if you charged a research fee? Ask yourself, what experience could you deliver that would be so valuable to requestors that they would be willing to pay you for it? That information experience is what you should aim to bring to your constituents.

What motivates you:
The thrill of the hunt. It is hard to describe the great feeling of satisfaction that comes with solving a complex research problem. People are thrilled and sometimes surprised when you are able to deliver exactly what they need. I can almost hear a sigh of relief on the other end when I open follow-up emails to requests that say “this is exactly what I needed, thank you!”  Our economists are under tremendous pressure and often have very tight deadlines. I feel that in a small way, we are able to alleviate stress.

Ways for special libraries to succeed:
Customize the information experience to the individual. It is critical that you learn what they are interested in and what they need, and be on the lookout for those items and deliver them before you are asked. It is really important to anticipate research and information needs rather than wait to be asked, because if you wait for the requestors to come to you, oftentimes they won’t. They will check the Internet, become frustrated, and give up.

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