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.     

Law School Firms and Incubators and the Role of the Academic Law Library

This article examines the recently developed postgraduate, law-school-supported programs intended to provide recent graduates with a continued experiential learning environment in order to bridge the gap between law school and law practice. Both law school firms and practice incubators are discussed. Specifically, this article looks at what, if any, role academic law libraries have within these programs. Lastly, ways in which these libraries might possibly add or improve services to the programs are explored.     

May It Please the Court: Law Students and Legal Research Instruction in Prison Law Libraries

According to the administrative office of the U.S. Courts, a significant part of the present docket of federal district courts consists of prisoner litigation. This category of litigation, composed largely of habeas corpus petitions, civil rights suits, and suits related to prison conditions, is often pressed by prisoners whose only legal assistance is the resources and materials available in their prison law library. Although prisoner litigation is an essential means of ensuring that our prisons and criminal justice systems operate within the confines of the U.S. Constitution, these often poorly researched and poorly written lawsuits also present special challenges to the federal courts tasked with processing them. This article explores how establishing programs that involve law students in teaching legal research in prison law libraries could help to both ameliorate the burdens that prisoner litigation places on the federal court system and improve prison law libraries’ ability to provide prisoners with meaningful access to the courts. The article begins by discussing the history of prisoner litigation in federal courts and describes four models of legal research instruction and assistance that have been employed in prisons. Based on the lessons learned from these efforts, the article presents a proposal for a prison legal research clinic that could be established by interested law schools and their librarians, and discusses the benefits to law students, prisoners, and the courts that such a program has the potential to deliver.     

Best Practices for Supporting Hearing-Impaired Law Library Patrons

Abstract

This article is written by Mari Cheney, Assistant Director, Research and Instruction at Boley Law Library, Lewis & Clark Law School. She holds a MLIS from the University of Washington and a JD from American University, Washington College of Law.

This article enumerates challenges that hearing-impaired law library patrons may encounter when using the library and its resources, and ways academic librarians can increase accessibility.     

Fostering the Profession of Law: The Lifetime Achievements of Harry Bitner

This article describes the life of Harry Bitner, one of the giants of academic law librarianship. His career serves as a model for professionalism and service to the academy. This article was the winner of the annual Earl Borgeson Award at the University of Washington's Information School, a writing competition for students in the law librarianship program.     

Strategic Planning for Distance Learning in Legal Education

SUMMARY

Distance learning technologies will be used increasingly by law schools both to enhance learning within their existing residential programs and to reach new audiences. For law librarians, the questions involved in serving distance learners are a subset of the questions about the future of the law library that arise from changes in the legal information environment. This article discusses current distance learning alternatives for law schools, and the impacts of distance learning and other technological innovations on the future role of the academic law library in legal education.     

The Well-Furnished Business Law Library

Most business law faculty agree that their students should be exposed to outside reading in order to broaden their understanding of course materials, better relate the law to practical business situations, and become aware of future trends in the legal environment. For these reasons, many business law teachers send their students to the library to research and write reports using various source materials, including cases outside the textbook, historical background material on the various areas of the law and current journals and newspaper articles. For those teaching at large universities with well-stocked libraries, the choices of research sources are many and varied. However, for those teaching at small universities or community colleges, the choices may be quite limited indeed. Often, at the smaller schools, business law teachers may be given a very limited budget and allowed to order only a few books a year. The question arises, then, for the business law teachers at smaller schools: "What are the most important research sources to have in their libraries?" If a priority list could be drawn up, those business law faculties would be able to use the little library money they do have in a more beneficial way. This article will discuss the library materials which business law teachers feel are necessary as resource tools, and the order of priority in which they should be acquired. The information supporting this article will be acquired by a survey of randomly selected teachers of business law in AACSB-accredited schools.     

Joining the Conversation: Law Library Research Assistant Programs and Current Criticisms of Legal Education

Law libraries should play a greater role in addressing the current crisis in legal education. Proponents for educational reform often view libraries as a vehicle for cost savings, while overlooking the ability of libraries to train students in the skills and competencies that are essential for the practice of law. Libraries’ research assistant programs can be particularly effective in imparting workplace values and lawyering skills beyond the traditional law school curriculum. This article encourages libraries to build on the strengths of their research assistant programs as a substantive way to equip law students with essential skills for today's legal marketplace.     

Trends in Use of Institutional Repositories for Faculty Scholarship in ABA-approved Law Schools

Abstract

Using a population of ABA-approved law schools, this study attempts to quantify their institutional repositories and the types of items collected. I conducted a content analysis of repositories containing faculty scholarship, journal archives, and other collections. I located these collections through searching the Web, checking commercial directories and an AALL directory, and directly searching law school Web sites. Approximately 66% of law schools maintain institutional repositories containing faculty scholarship, journal archives, and/or other documents. This article includes recent research about other academic repositories, reviewing their success factors and general difficulties in implementing institutional repositories.     

Library Exposure from the Prior Years: An Examination of Public High School Library Websites

The frequent occurrence of first-year college students showing disinterest and unfamiliarity with basic library resources is a phenomenon experienced by many academic librarians. This article aims to increase understanding of student exposure to the school library, prior to college arrival, by examining the online information and tools from high school libraries. Four hundred ninety-seven (497) public high schools from New York City were surveyed for 1) online presence of their school library programs and 2) the extent of information featured on these school library websites. Findings indicate that many public high schools have not adequately embraced web development for the purpose of educating students about information literacy.     

Electronic Legal Research Tools: An Examination of the Resources Available,Training of New Attorneys,and Employer Expectations

Information literacy of recent law school graduates is examined from both the academic and professional sector. This article explores the literature on the different types of legal resources, the adequacy of legal research instruction provided to law students, employers’ expectations in regard to the legal research skills of recent graduates, and the information literacy of lawyers. This study consists of two surveys designed to determine the scope of the research instruction and resources available at law schools, and the electronic resources available to new associates at their employment, and to assess employers’ expectations of the research skills of their new associates. The surveys were sent to samples of Massachusetts’ law school libraries and law firms.     

An Empirical Study on the Research and Critical Evaluation Skills of Law Students

Although scholars have explored many aspects of legal education, the fundamental analysis of research behavior and the quality of research skills remains somewhat uncharted territory. There have been assessments of the research skills of incoming law students and the effectiveness of various research programs but little to assess skills and preferences of existing law students. Building on surveys and studies from other disciplines, this article describes an effort to gather empirical data on law students' legal research practices.     

信息检索可视化研究发展规律探析

将HistCite与Bibexcel、UCINET相结合,从一个全新的视角探析国际信息检索可视化研究的发展规律。通过研究,划分国际信息检索可视化研究的发展阶段,发现其发展轨迹中引证关系链所隐含的学术流派,并分析关键词特征向量中心性网络图谱,确定该领域研究的热点。     

The Well-Furnished Business Law Library

"Publish or Perish!" While this time-worn phrase rings equally loud and clear for most business law faculty, the opportunity to successfully publish is many times limited for some faculty members by their lack of access to adequate research material. For those teaching at large universities with well-stocked libraries, the choices of research sources are many and varied. However, for those teaching at small universities or community colleges, the choices may be quite limited indeed. Additionally, the smaller schools may be located at too great a distance from law schools or large universities to make travel to and from those libraries a practical solution. Often, at the smaller schools, business law teachers may be given a very limited budget and allowed to order only a few books a year. The question arises, then, for the business law faculty at smaller schools: "What are the most important research sources to have in the university or college libraries?" If a priority list could be drawn up, those business law faculties at smaller schools would be able to use the little library money they do have in a more beneficial way. This article will analyze which library materials business law teachers have selected as necessary resource tools, and the priority in which they should be acquired. The information supporting this article will be acquired by a survey of randomly selected teachers of business law in AACSB-accredited schools.     

Reaching Out to the Net Generation on Campus

Abstract

The tremendous expansion of online information sources has prompted academic librarians to increase their outreach to undergraduates of the “Net Generation” in an effort to more effectively promote their libraries' resources to these students. Such outreach programs involve identifying library resources that support the information-seeking behaviors of Net Generation undergraduates, as well as establishing collaborative relationships with the individuals and groups affiliated with these students. This article describes an outreach initiative conducted by the Reference Department at the Mississippi State University Libraries, in which the Department worked with staff in residence halls to target undergraduates living on campus.     

Placemaking in the Academic Law Library

Public and university libraries have embraced placemaking theories to develop user-centric library spaces. Placemaking has largely been overlooked in the context of academic law libraries. This article explores the range of space planning choices available to law libraries as they downsize their print collections. The benefits of reimaging law library space using placemaking concepts are explained.