Specialized Legal Research Courses: The Next Generation of Advanced Legal Research

This article examines the current state of Advanced Legal Research (ALR) courses and the emergence of Specialized Legal Research (SLR) courses. It surveys the curriculum of all ABA-accredited law schools and provides updated statistics of ALR course offerings. It also identifies for the first time (1) the law schools currently offering SLR courses, (2) the most popular SLR course topics, and (3) the role of the law library in determining whether to implement a SLR course. The results of this survey will hopefully educate law schools about the trends and variety of legal research course offerings.     

Meeting Business Students' Legal Research Needs: A Selected List of Periodicals on Corporation,Securities, and Bankruptcy

Business students and practitioners are expected to understand the legal framework and the legal environment in which businesses function, but not the complicated black letter law and lengthy judicial opinions. In terms of legal research, different from law school students, business students and practitioners need more secondary legal source support from their libraries. This article will bring the unique legal research needs of business students and practitioners to librarians' attention. A list of selected legal periodicals on corporate law, securities regulations, and bankruptcy will be supplied for libraries to better meet those needs.     

Teaching Specialized Legal Research: Administrative Law

In an effort to provide more attention to the legislative and administrative law processes than typical first year legal research instruction can provide, the author created a specialized legal research course on legislation and administrative practice and procedure. Set forth within this article is a very brief background on the substantive law an instructor for a course on this topic would need to know. Also included is an overview of the resources taught, assignments given, and evaluation tools used.     

A Methodical Approach to Legal Research: The Legal Research Plan,an Essential Tool for Today's Law Student and New Attorney

This article lays out an approach to teaching legal research through an examination of historical and contemporary approaches to legal research and research instruction. It discusses creating a research plan and reviews the most commonly used legal research texts. It concludes with sample research assignments and assessment tools.     

Research Analysis and Planning: The Undervalued Skill in Legal Research Instruction

This article describes a method of research analysis and planning for legal problems. It introduces the framework of research plan, log, and product and provides a detailed research plan and log that students can use as a template for learning research. The article suggests how to teach the method in legal research classes, shares some of the author's experiences in teaching the method, and addresses some possible criticisms of this approach.     

English Legal History Research

Abstract

Questions about English law that require some historical research are not uncommon.This article will discuss the sources that can be found in a typical U.S.academic law library to answer these queries.     

Ethics Considerations Related to Legal Research Practices: A Selective Annotated Bibliography

This selective annotated bibliography is a helpful guide to an issue that is regularly encountered by all who do, and teach, legal research: What are the ethical obligations of the legal researcher?     

Playing to Their Passion: A Legal Research Course that Resonates with Law Students

The first year of law school is chock-full of new experiences. Students can become overwhelmed in the face of so much change that they forget why they chose law school as a career path. They often lose sight of their end goal and need a touchstone to ground them back to their initial interests. Legal Research is the ideal first-year class to connect the acquisition of legal skills with interesting topics in a way that encourages students’ engagement in their present and future learning. By adding a student-selected subject context to their class, Legal Research instructors can incorporate contextualized learning and active learning techniques that improve student engagement and student learning. This article discusses the transformation of a generic, required, first-year legal research course into one that divides into four small (18–20 students) classes, each with one of four topics: patent, trademark and copyright, traditional practice, and social justice. In addition, it envisions future innovations to improve student engagement and student learning.     

An Old Problem Needs a New Solution: Incorporating Librarian-Led Legal Research Instruction into Directed Research

This article discusses how Rutgers School of Law–Camden implemented a new pilot program for directed research that was designed to help improve students’ research and writing skills through mandatory research and writing instruction.     

Cost Effective Legal Research

Abstract

Legal researchers need to be able to efficiently retrieve information in a cost effective manner. To do this, they must be familiar with the various information formats and be able to evaluate these formats. This article reviews the various information formats, discusses the advantages and disadvantages of each format, suggests research strategies, and reviews Internet sites that provide legal information.     

Legal Research Boot Camp: One Approach to Meeting the Research Needs of Law Students

This article describes the legal research boot camp offered at the University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law. It is an intensive, one-week course offered the first week of the summer break to prepare students for their summer clerkships. It is also a vehicle to teach law librarianship students how to teach legal research.     

Outcomes Assessment and Legal Research Pedagogy

This article explores application of a taxonomic approach in legal research pedagogy to outcomes assessment based on Prof. Paul Callister's adaptation of Bloom's Taxonomy of Educational Objectives which integrates instructional design and learning activities compatible with formative assessment during the learning process and summative assessment at its conclusion. It reviews the development of outcomes assessment initiatives by legal educators and the development of outcomes assessment standards by the American Bar Association for the accreditation of law schools.     

The Pedagogical Value of an Integrated Approach to Legal Research Instruction: Overcoming Student Resistance to the Use of Print Sources and Striking a Balance That Instills an Appreciation of the Strengths and Weaknesses of Both Print and Online Sources

The ABA Legal Technology Survey Reports from 2006 to 2012 reported that, on average, 51% of attorneys “regularly” used print materials. Given the propensity of law students to default to online research, this article describes the results of a three-year longitudinal study of an integrated approach to teaching first-year legal research. This approach required students conduct legal research tasks both online and in print sources, and to evaluate their experience. The objective of this approach was to transform the legal research experience from a “treasure hunt” into a much higher level of engagement based on Benjamin Bloom's Taxonomy of Learning.     

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.     

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.     

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.     

The Future of Presidential Libraries: Assessing Alternative Models from a Legal Research Perspective

Presidential libraries—each a unique combination of archival depository and historical museum—offer visitors an invaluable opportunity to examine millions of papers, records, and artifacts from the administrations of our chief executives. In response to a congressional directive to consider means of reducing costs and improving the preservation of and access to presidential records, the National Archives and Records Administration has proposed five alternatives to the current presidential library system. This article analyzes these alternative models from the perspective of the legal research community. After discussing the role of presidential libraries in legal research, this article considers the merits of each model and concludes that a central archival depository would best meet the information needs of legal researchers.     

A Guide to Media Law Research

This article is designed to aid lawyers, students, journalists, and others who wish to research the body of law that deals with both the print and broadcast media. Specific subjects covered include first amendment constitutional law, defamation, privacy, obscenity, confidentiality of sources, access to information, and broadcasting law.