AALL  has released  a digital White Paper:  Defining ROI: Law  Library Best Practices.
The white paper provides practical advice on measuring and defining value in  private law firm, academic and government funded law libraries. 

The
role of the legal information professional has never been more critical to
the institutions they support, yet it has never been more at risk. Success
of both lawyers and law firms ride on access to the right mix of precedent
and predictive insights. Information
professionals act as ”Connectors” digital cartographers who help law
students, judges and lawyers surface and synthesize both precedents and
predictive indicators….. Today information is so ubiquitous
and information professionals deliver it so seamlessly that the complexity
of balancing the budgets, the workflows, the technologies, the formats,
the user preferences is often invisible to our organizations.  Librarians
must track and evaluate a flood of emerging technologies and select and
configure tools which change workflow and research methods while supporting the
existing infrastructure. More than ever before librarians need the right tools
and methods for monitoring the pulse of their constituencies while carefully
selecting and managing complex changes in platforms, learning styles, client
expectations and budget constraints.

The
AALL “White Paper” was written to encourage all  AALL members
take on the “value challenge.”  This project is a journey not a
destination. Law librarianship cannot expect to survive as a profession if
members do not engage in honest reassessments of the typos of professional
skills they need to learn and the platforms and services they
provide. They must embrace the need to continuously reassess and recalibrate
services to  optimize  value at the highest strategic level – all
while maintaining an eye on the bottom line. Measuring value across each
environment will not be easy, but it is a task we undertake. Contributors
include thought leaders from across the AALL spectrum, who have mined their own
experience and
Chapters cover issues adapted to each type of library environement addressing key issues such as:   
·        
Creating effective
self-assessments and user surveys 
·        
Modeling value
metrics and methodologies 
·        
Identifying
new opportunities
·        
Communication skills
and methods for effectively impacting the pain
points of    stakeholders.  

Contributors include thought leaders from across the AALL spectrum who have mined their own experience to share their  methods and metrics of success.  Authors include: Roger V Skalbeck, University of Richmond Law School. Joan S. Howland,  University of Minnesota Law School; Martin Korn,  Sheppard Mullin; Coleen Cable, Orrick; Steve Lastres, Debevoise; Jean Wenger, Cook County Law Library;Katherine M Lowry, Baker Hostetler; Mark E. Estes, Alemeda County Law Library  and Kevin Iredell, Greentarget.

The publication  was edited AALL  members Holly M. Riccio, director of knowledge management, Nossaman LLP; Jean P. O’Grady, director of research and knowledge services, DLA Piper; and Gregory R. Lambert, chief knowledge officer, Jackson Walker LLP.

Fastcase, a provider of next-generation legal research,  provided support for production of the white paper.  Ed Walters CEO of Fastcase is quoted in the press release “It’s not enough that the guidance of library professionals is ‘invaluable’—we have to quantify and demonstrate that value. Our team at Fastcase is proud to support this pioneering report that measures the real  returns on investing in libraries and library professionals.”