Faculty Services in the 21st Century: Evolution and Innovation

SUMMARY

Law faculty in the 21st century present new challenges for law librarians. Traditional services such as document delivery and interlibrary loan are improved. New services are developed to meet the needs of law faculty researching in disciplines other than law and facing a changing environment of publication of legal scholarship. Faculty services in 2000 and 2006 are compared and trends for the future analyzed.     

Standing at the Gates: A New Law Librarian Wonders About the Future Role of the Profession in Legal Research Education

ABSTRACT

There have long been complaints about the legal research skills of law school students and recent graduates. In this article the author focuses on the period between the release of two important reports on legal education, the MacCrate Report in 1992 and the Carnegie Report in 2007, examining how law librarians and other professionals involved were engaged in responding to the problem. The author concludes that if law librarians want to be involved more fully in legal research education, some changes or reexamination of our professional culture and positions may be necessary.     

Helping Historians Write Legal History “From Below”

SUMMARY

In the past fifty years, legal history has turned from a concentration on legal texts to a broader view of the social, political, and economic conditions that affected a particular legal system at a given time in the history of a nation. To assist scholars in realizing the potential of these new methodologies, law librarians who work with historical materials must have a firm grasp of the developing trends in legal historiography. This article outlines the information sources that a librarian may use to become familiar with the literature in legal historiography and, using practices at the Harvard Law School Library as examples, suggests ways that a library can form collections of non-traditional genres of research materials that support these new approaches to legal history.     

Teaching Legal Research

ABSTRACT

Questions about the importance and viability of legal research and writing as a part of the law school curriculum are not novel. Confronting these questions head-on, however, is a responsibility that should be handled by law librarians. This article addresses the issue of teaching legal research in an academic law library setting. The reasons why the author has pursued an aggressive approach when dealing with legal research instruction are explored. The methods employed to carry out that legal research instruction mandate are examined. creased as legal research and writing are more and more frequently combined and taught by writing faculty.¹ At the same time, the research skills of law students are on a downward spiral. Howland and Lewis document this plunge in an informative survey.² Law librarian Donald Dunn substantiates this decline and attributes it, in part, to “the increased emphasis in law schools on legal writing,”³ in consequence of which, while “legal writing entered the expressway; legal research took the off-ramp.”⁴ Further, law librarians and legal research have even been pummeled by one of America's most popular authors.⁵ In this environment, it may seem unwise to continue to advance the argument that academic law librarians should teach legal research. Notwithstanding the obstacles that face such instruction, law librarians have an obligation to press forward in this important work.⁶ Legal writing instructors have not demonstrated that they have the expertise to provide this instruc-tion.⁷ Likewise, law faculty have demonstrated that they do not have the interest in tackling the task.⁸ Say two authorities on the subject: “Regular faculty members generally do not teach a research course, and when they do decide to teach one, the results are invariably disastrous. Most law faculty members cannot teach legal research because they do not understand it themselves. If compelled to teach the course, they rebel.”⁹ Perhaps it is time for law schools to cede the stewardship for legal research instruction to those information professionals who have been trained and are qualified to teach legal research instruction -law librarians.¹⁰ And it is time for any reticent law librarians to accept the obligation to take a more proactive approach toward teaching legal research.¹¹     

The Pro Se Patron

Abstract

The author contends, based on articles published in recent years discounting the legal obligation of law librarians to pro se patrons, that law librarians have a paramount ethical obligation not to cause harm, and thus to avoid the practice of law from the reference desk. As a result, the attorney patron and the pro se patron cannot be afforded the same level of legal reference service. The attorney is the conversant intermediary between the legal materials (and the librarian) and the client, whereas the pro se patron is the client with a layman's dearth of basic legal knowledge.     

Law Library Tours in an Information Age

Summary

The virtual library poses challenges for law librarians in developing effective library orientation programs. Survey results from law librarians in academia and in law firms reveal how basic library orientation is conducted in light of the proliferation of electronic resources. The types of additional instruction being required, such as training in computer-assisted legal research and web searching, are examined along with the perceived effectiveness of the initial library tours.     

Perspectives: Changes in Reference Assistance and Collection Development in the Digital Age*

ABSTRACT

Law librarians are well aware that it is difficult to maintain print and electronic collections in today's law library. The author of this article compares his personal experience in reference assistance and collection development with findings from the literature and from responses to an open-ended questionnaire. The author looks for trends and differences in reference assistance and collection development among academic, firm, and government law libraries.     

Access versus Ownership

SUMMARY

This paper discusses changes in the ownership models of intellectual property and how they are shifting the way libraries provide information. The author argues that the main change in intellectual property is the way that owners distribute information, not in the sense of new media, but in the sense of new legal constructs governing distribution. The article discusses the impact on libraries of a move toward viewing information as a service that must be licensed, not bought. The potential effects of protecting intellectual property with contract law instead of copyright and property law are detailed.     

Legal Publishing: Establishing Context through the Lens of Disruptive Innovation

ABSTRACT

As legal research tools come and go, an understanding of the continuing changes in legal publishing can provide a better understanding of those developments. One way in which law librarians can gain insight into the dynamic legal publishing world is by looking through the lens created by the innovative disruption model as proposed by Clayton Christensen almost 20 years ago. This article suggests that the Christensen model can provide valuable context to what is happening and may happen in legal publishing in the future.     

Teaching Cost-Effective Research Skills: Have We Overemphasized Its Importance?

Surveys of law librarians show concern with the lack of cost-effective research skills of law students and new associates. Some commentators call for greater emphasis on the subject in legal research classes. To explore whether the subject merits increased instructional attention, the author surveyed second- and third-year law students at the University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law about their summer research experiences. The purpose of the survey was to find out how much importance summer employers placed on containing online research costs. The student survey results contradict the commonly expressed view that employers are greatly concerned with containing online research costs. The author posits that law library surveys generally reflect the experiences of large firm librarians, whereas the great majority of students and practicing attorneys do not work at these organizations. The concerns of these librarians might not be as relevant for students who work at smaller firms and government organizations. The author notes that the survey results suggest that there is no need for increased emphasis on cost-effective research at schools that do not have a large percentage of students who go on to work at large firms.     

How Law Schools Benefit When Librarians Publish,Teach, and Hold Faculty Status

Many nondirector academic law librarians publish and teach legal research classes. Some hold faculty status as well. Law librarians have expertise in the development and delivery of legal research instruction methodologies and are developing a body of literature documenting their efforts to create and share a pedagogy of legal research instruction. Principles of shared faculty governance entitle library faculty to contribute to the development and delivery of a curriculum of legal research instruction. Encouraging law librarian participation in the shared governance of law schools should lead to increasing opportunities for the successful reform of legal education curricula with respect to legal research instruction.     

Legal Bibliography Presentations Can Be Murder

Abstract

Law librarians are frequently called upon to provide legal bibliography instruction to non-law librarians. The typical, and sometimes tedious, method by which such instruction is given is the lecture. With the application of a little imagination and creativity to the instructional task, one can educate and entertain an audience at the same time. Librarians at Georgia State University' College of Law Library made an imaginative presentation to non-law librarians in Georgia using a play-a murder mystery-which they wrote. The play, which makes extensive use of audience participation, is presented here for the purpose of demonstrating an attention getting, and keeping, alternative to the legal bibliography lecture.     

美国地方性图书馆法研究——以《新泽西州图书馆法》为例

[目的/意义] 通过对美国《新泽西州图书馆法》进行分析和研究,总结出其对我国图书馆立法建设的启示。[方法/过程] 从图书馆的建立和管理、图书馆网络、图书馆经费、图书馆职员、信息资源建设和其他相关规定6个方面对《新泽西州图书馆法》进行全面分析,对比国内6部地方性图书馆法规,发现国内图书馆法规的不足。[结果/结论] 我国图书馆立法建设应注意以下方面的内容:保障图书馆经费,促进图书馆可持续发展;建立委员会管理体制,实行有效的管理;重视图书馆网络建设,促进资源的共建共享;维护读者权益,提升图书馆服务;规范馆员入职要求,提升馆员素质;完善呈缴本制度,促进政府信息公开;科学制定法律内容,增强法律的可操作性;建立绩效评估制度,促进图书馆的发展。     

Innovative Instructional Methods

SUMMARY

Academic law librarians must teach law students the legal-research skills they will need both now and in the future. Furthermore, legal-research instruction should be consistent with a variety of learning styles in order to help all students learn more effectively and efficiently. This article discusses methods and tools that can be used to engage different learning styles, extend the learning environment beyond the classroom without unduly burdening the professor or student, and help students transfer what they learn to future legal research situations.     

Motivating Law Students to Develop Competent Legal Research Skills

The results of a recent survey indicate that most law students do not consider learning legal research skills important. This article addresses ways in which academic law librarians can help counter negative attitudes toward legal research. The article also contains suggestions for helping motivate law students to develop competent legal research skills. The author encourages academic law librarians to assert their role in legal education by reevaluating legal research programs and, where appropriate, implementing positive change.     

Teaching Legal Research in a Government Library

ABSTRACT

Law libraries that serve the public have diverse clientele, types of reference and research requirements, and opportunities for contact that firm and academic law libraries seldom experience. This article explores these opportunities, which the authors take advantage of for providing a “teachable moment.” opportunity to teach something. The specific subjects are diverse: the legislative process, summary dissolution, arbitration rules, or how to use a keyboard's mouse. Our constant goal is to teach or show that libraries and librarians are still an integral part of today's commercial and legal arenas, and to demonstrate that a government agency can actually be a beneficial tax-supported institution.     

An Annotated Bibliography of State Legal Research Guides

Most legal researchers are familiar with federal sources and materials for their own state. Law librarians, attorneys, and other researchers find state legal research guides are extremely valuable when addressing out-of-state law. These guides, in the form of treatises, periodical articles, or short monographs, also introduce the inexperienced researcher to state legal research. Though several bibliographies of state research guides are available, none provide evaluative annotations for all types of guides. This annotated bibliography is intended to benefit legal researchers of all types as well as collection development librarians in major law libraries.     

Taking Time for Legal Research Instruction at the Reference Desk

Summary

This article asks whether the law governing public access to judicial opinions mandates citation reform. An overview of the citation reform issue is provided followed by a discussion of various legal theories that may support the need for citation reform. The author includes considerations of the First Amendment, Substantive and Procedural Due Process, Equal Protection, The Freedom of Information Act and Copyright Law as well as state statutory provisions and the general common law.