Reading Time: 2 minutes
My websites and apps are behind the Cloudflare firewall. I use the web application firewall (WAF) to block anything and everything that shouldn’t be coming through. One periodic request was the quarterly re-issuance of Let’s Encrypt SSL certificates. These are a free way to secure your internet connections but it was
Law Library
Eating Google’s Takeout from GMail
By David Whelan
Reading Time: 5 minutes
For better or for worse, Google’s constant nagging about my shrinking storage space worked. I had already dropped most of their other products but have been using Photos to share images, and Mail has been my primary address for awhile. I’ll continue to use both products but I used the download…
Dream Work
By David Whelan
Reading Time: 4 minutes
I was still traveling so I missed the AALL announcement about this artificial intelligence (AI) keyword glossary (members only). It was a project I had worked on, so of course, I was glad to see it get shared publicly. But it had also been a great collaboration, which is not something…
A Chance to Mold the Profession
By David Whelan
Reading Time: 10 minutes
I’ve just finished Shaping the Bar by Prof. Joan Haworth. I think it’s a must-read for law librarians in any work context. As I moved recently from a public law library to an academic one, I’ve been trying to get up to speed on changes I’ve missed. This was a…
Dearly Departed
By David Whelan
Reading Time: 8 minutes
I’m at the end of my first full week at a new role in Chicago. I had been in California at a public law library for just over 2 years and it was time to move on. There were a lot of reasons, mostly personal, and I had come to the…
Tell Me About Yourself
By David Whelan
Reading Time: 6 minutes
I’ve spent a lot of time talking to people about myself and my family over the last half decade. It’s not something I was terribly comfortable doing. In part, this was because it was a persona constructed for the purpose of those interactions. I am now at a point where I…
The Distraction of Magical Thinking
By David Whelan
Reading Time: 7 minutes
I am sure I am not alone in my experience with magical thinking in law libraries. I’m sure it’s not unique to law libraries either. We operate in an environment where the people who oversee our libraries often know how to use legal information, perform legal research. There is a danger…
The Warp And Weft of Resilience
By David Whelan
Reading Time: 5 minutes
I had an epiphany while sitting in an AALL conference session. As is often the case, I had heard something and it had sparked a thought that distracted me for a moment. I’ve posted here before that I’m not a huge fan of the concept of succession planning. I think,…
Hold the Reins
By David Whelan
Reading Time: 7 minutes
My brother was a Russian hostage. That is now in the past but I am still processing it. But as his release started to appear on the horizon, and I was preparing for the media, I put a lot of thought into how to maintain some control in these final moments.…
Tailor Your Outcome
By David Whelan
Reading Time: 9 minutes
It is not uncommon to lump similar people together, based on their job titles, or similar organizations, based on their outward facing appearance or context. I tend to avoid this. Even statements as simple as “library directors do X” may be sprinkled with caveats. Do they? Do all directors do X?…