She did do it quickly.. we’d imagine that she was furious yesterday after that email was sent out in the US.
That said here at HOB we believe that although it is right for her to apologise; all librarians in the US should also be receiving an apology from the Global Head of Strategic Marketing and Business Development Rick King and also head honcho Peter Warwick
A company like West should realise that without law libraries they would, in essence, not have a viable business and we hope that legal librarians and KM’s will be reminding their account executives of this fact over the next couple of weeks.
Here’s Anne Ellis’ apology forwarded to us by a law library source.. who rightly adds that the apology was somewhat lame.? Also: we know that Anne Ellis is by profession a law librarian but at the same time we’re not sure starting the email “Dear Colleagues” is the best approach on a PR disaster like this. Each email should have been individually addressed to law librarian clients so that the point is made that West does not think of them as “severe spectacle wearing women” – also the subtext of those spectacles also suggests that all librarians are women and of a certain age.
The more we think about this email the more we can’t believe it was sent out
Here’s the apology
Dear Colleagues,
By now I trust you?ve all seen the unfortunate e-mail from West asking ?are you on a first name basis with the librarian?? and implying that such a circumstance would occur only if you weren?t getting the right information on your desktop.
After reading about it in this forum, I tracked down the e-mail and was very concerned, as have been all the colleagues here at West when I?ve shown it to them. It?s important that you understand that this does not reflect in any way how West feels about and values librarians.
I?ve talked to the people behind the e-mail and can assure you that they meant no harm. They now understand that the marketing piece was in poor taste and I have been assured that this will not happen again.
I appreciate the conversation that happens within this professional forum, even when it?s taking my company to task. We care about the librarian community. We listen. And, as the conversation relates to this poorly conceived marketing piece, we?re very sorry.
Finally, my answer to this e-mail would be that I?m on a first-name basis with more librarians that I can count, and I?m proud to know every one of them.
Anne
