Law Commons^™

Ok, Zoomer: Teaching Legal Research To Gen Z, Olivia R. Smith Schlinck

Library Staff Articles

Generation Z has entered law school. With each new generation comes new education preferences. While research on Gen Z in the legal academy has grown over the past few years, to date none deal explicitly with teaching legal research to Gen Z. This article connects Gen Z’s childhood and resulting peer personality to 10 tangible pedagogical changes for teaching legal research to Gen Z.

Unmasking Aall’S Idea Special Committee: A Closer Look At The Committee’S Process For Creating Aall’S New Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Policy, Ronald E. Wheeler

Faculty Scholarship

The goal of this column is to describe the process used by the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL) Inclusion, Diversity, and Equity Awareness (IDEA) Special Committee, which provided the foundation and resources for AALL to create the new Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Policy. The committee, initially appointed and charged by the 2020 AALL President Emily R. Florio, began meeting in 2020, and started its work with discussions aimed at defining and narrowing the scope of its charge and finding consensus on what we were setting out to accomplish. During this initial stage, our discussions helped us find commonality to …

Creating A More Diverse Workforce: How The Aall George A. Strait Minority Scholarship & Fellowship Program Is Supporting Future Minority Law Librarians, Shamika Dalton

Scholarly Works

The recent addition of a fellowship to the George A. Strait Minority Scholarship offers future minority law librarians a paid internship and mentorship as they embark on a career in law librarianship.

No Jd? No Problem: Aall Annual Conference Review, Rachel S. Evans

Articles, Chapters and Online Publications

This installment of ALL-SIS Newsletter’s short reviews of AALL2020 conference programs is by Rachel Evans, Metadata Services and Special Collections Librarian at the University of Georgia School of Law’s Alexander Campbell King Law Library. It was originally published to the ALL-SIS blog. The session recording is available to conference registrants, and will be available to all members in 2021. The full review will appeared in the fall issue of the Newsletter.

How Intelligent Ci Instruction Gives Law Students A Competitive Edge, Heather Simmons, Beau Steenken, Liz Whittington, Joshua Pluta

Presentations

"Competitive intelligence" (CI) is a term that gets bandied about across many sectors, but how exactly do law firms use it to further their business? Academics are aware of CI as a concept, but teaching students how to conduct competitive intelligence requires a more nuanced understanding of how it is actually used. In a discussion moderated by a newer academic librarian who will be teaching competitive intelligence for the first time, a firm librarian will share insights into how competitive intelligence can and should be used, and an academic librarian who regularly teaches competitive intelligence will offer tips on how …

Cool Tools For Time & Project Management, Rachel S. Evans, Geraldine R. Kalim

Presentations

Student Services Librarian Geraldine Kalim and Metadata Services Librarian Rachel Evans shared their favorite web-based applications and smartphone apps. Tools included Kanbanflow, Google Suite, Trello, Slack, Moleskin Journey, and Voice Notes. Screen captures and specific examples of how each presenter uses the apps in their daily worklife in the law library as well as examples of special projects and best apps for team collaboration were given. There was also a short time for questions and discussion following the talk.

Telling Our Stories At Ifla’S 2019 Meeting In Athens, Greece, Anne Burnett

Articles, Chapters and Online Publications

Anne Burnett summarizes the 85^th World Legal Information Congress (WLIC) and the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions’ (IFLA) annual meeting held at the Megaron Convention Center, located in the Kolonaki neighborhood of Athens, Greece. Specially Burnett reviews two IFLA sponsored programs held August 26 - 27, 2019.

DipLawMatic Dialogues is the official blog of the Foreign, Comparative, and International Law Special Interest Group of the American Association of Law Libraries. The FCIL-SIS serves as a forum for the exchange of ideas and information on foreign, comparative and international law and legal research. This blog is intended …

Calicon Re-Cap, Jason Tubinis, Rachel S. Evans

Presentations

Rachel Evans and Jason Tubinis shared takeaways with other law librarians from the annual Computer Assisted Legal Instruction (CALI) Conference held in Columbia, SC in the summer of 2019.

Conference Recap: #Calicon19, Rachel S. Evans, Jason Tubinis

Presentations

Evans and Tubinis gave a quick review of their favorite sessions from the Computer Assisted Legal Instruction conference in summer 2019 to an audience of law librarians and special library association members.

Data Visualization: Tips & Tricks, Amy Taylor, Carol A. Watson

Presentations

Data visualization has quickly become a fixture in daily life, from presentations of charts and graphs by media organizations to presentations of data analytics and case relationships by legal database providers. This program will walk participants through the four conceptualizations of data presentation, as well as an exploration on using data visualization to persuade your audience. We will present law library examples for each concept, using free and low cost data visualization tools.

Tidying-Up Your Digital Life: Knowledgement Management In Law School & Beyond, Amy Taylor

Presentations

Taylor delivered a session full of tips and tricks for gathering information and keeping it all organized in the age of info-overload. Portions of the session focused on apps, cloud storage, label systems, customizing news alerts and developing your own trusted method for intake and synthesis. Specific applications that were discussed in greater detail included Evernote, Pocket, OneNote and AirTable. Attendee's walked away with ideas about how to best manage their own busy inboxes, news and articles by off-loading working memory anxiety's to a personal system that fits their professional life needs.

Buckets, Kincaid C. Brown

Law Librarian Scholarship

Inspired by “‘A Day in My Law Library Life,’ Circa 1997,” this compilation collects descriptions of a day in the lives of law librarians in 2018. The descriptions provide a current snapshot and historical record of the law library profession, with similarities to, and differences from, the profession of 1997.

Ask A Director: Tackling Technology Competencies, Kincaid C. Brown

Law Librarian Scholarship

Question: What technology competencies do librarians and legal information professionals need to assist their organizations as they grapple with issues such as data analytics, artificial intelligence, etc.?

Everything From Soup To Nuts: The Full Plate Of Academic Law Library Directorship, Ronald E. Wheeler

Shorter Faculty Works

Inspired by "A Day in My Law Library Life,' Circa 1997," this compilation collects descriptions of a day in the lives of law librarians in 2018. The descriptions provide a current snapshot and historical record of the law library profession, with similarities to, and differences from, the profession of 1997.

Telling Your Story: Using Metrics To Display Your Value (H2), Wendy E. Moore, Thomas J. Striepe, Steve Lastres, Joy Shoemaker

Presentations

The American Bar Association, academic institutions, law firms, and governments are demanding more and more outcome-based performance. However, displaying these outcomes is difficult for law libraries. Law libraries possess an abundance of data, but determining which metrics will showcase your law library’s value and performance is difficult. Speakers from a law school, law firm, and court library will explain the different metrics they use to display their value to their stakeholders. After these short presentations, a “fishbowl” discussion will provide participants the chance to share and learn about different metrics and tools law libraries are using to best tell their …

Information Literacy In A Fake/False News World: An Overview Of The Characteristics Of Fake News And Its Historical Development, Carol A. Watson

Scholarly Works

Prior to designing strategies and information literacy programs to combat the dissemination and proliferation of fake/false news, it is instructive for legal information professionals to understand the characteristics of fake news and the context of its historical development.

Securing Professional Development: Getting To Yes, Caroline Osborne, Carol A. Watson, Amy J. Eaton

Scholarly Works

This article provides tips for employees seeking funding and training, and how supervisors can balance priorities and respond to requests.

About Microaggressions, Ronald E. Wheeler

Faculty Scholarship

Professor Wheeler discusses the concepts of microaggressions (including micro-assaults, microinsults, and microinvalidations) specifically against LGBT individuals, and proposes some solutions for preventing microaggressions from occurring within one’s organization.

Discovering The Knowledge Monopoly Of Law Librarianship Under The Dikw Pyramid, Xiaomeng Zhang

Law Librarian Scholarship

Historical debates demonstrated that knowledge monopoly is a key to a profession. This article explores the exclusive knowledge base of the law librarianship profession through the lens of the Data-Information-Knowledge-Wisdom (DIKW) paradigm.

Outcomes In The Balance: The Crisis In Legal Education As Catalyst For Change, Beau Steenken

Law Faculty Popular Media

In this article, the author discusses how changes in the legal education market can force legal research teachers to focus their energies on meaningful assessment.

What Do We Owe The Pro Se Litigant?, Nathan A. Preuss

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

Is This The Law Library Or An Episode Of The Jetsons?, Ronald E. Wheeler

Faculty Scholarship

In this brief essay penned for the inaugural online edition of the Journal of the Legal Writing Institute, Professor Wheeler discusses his vision for the future of law libraries and the future of legal research, legal research instruction, law teaching, and law related technologies.

The Lexis Two-Step: After Two Major Updates In 2014, Lexis Advance Empowers Users With Improved Functionality, Beau Steenken

Law Faculty Popular Media

In this article, the author discusses improvements to the Lexis Advance research platform.

Stereotype Threat And Law Librarianship, Ronald E. Wheeler

Faculty Scholarship

Mr. Wheeler looks at the concept of stereotype threat and discusses ways to confront and combat it in a diverse society. He proposes some simple solutions within the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL) and the law librarianship profession to help diminish the effects of this psychological barrier.

Let's Talk About Race, Ronald E. Wheeler

Faculty Scholarship

Despite other scholars’ suggestions that law librarianship and the American Association of Law Libraries lack diversity, Mr. Wheeler examines numerical and anecdotal data indicating that efforts to promote racial and ethnic diversity within AALL and the profession are beginning to show positive results.

Aall Diversity Redelineated, Ronald E. Wheeler

Faculty Scholarship

There are other types of diversity beyond race, ethnicity, and sexual orientation. Professor Wheeler explores various ways that law librarians experience different types of diversity in law librarianship. Through anecdotes, Wheeler demonstrates that in many ways all law librarians both contribute to and benefit from diversity in our profession.

Seen It All, Heard It All, Done It All. Is It All Worth It?, Julie Lim

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Universal Citation In Sixty Seconds, Anne Burnett

Presentations

A large format infographic describing the system for citation which permits reference to legal or law-related information in any medium without requiring reference to proprietary products. Includes a timeline of the Universal Citation Guide from 1993 to 2012, citation elements, a list of states and territories that adopted the practice and an interactive QR code for accessing AALL's page on this citation format. The poster also encouraged viewers to advocate for adopting Universal citation with judges, attorneys and legislators.

A Research Agenda For International Law Librarianship, Barbara H. Garavaglia

Book Chapters

The goal of the Research Agenda for International Law Librarianship is to suggest research priorities for law librarians around the world. It is hoped that the Agenda, created by the Board of the International Association of Law Libraries (IALL) will inspire creative thinking and stimulate research, publication and educational programmes by law librarians and legal information professionals on the most important topics, issues, trends and developments in the field.

Beyond The Expected: Creating And Sustaining Relationships For Your Institutions, Claire M. Germain

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

In this day of upheaval in the library and information world, many law librarians have found ways to reaffirm their value to their parent organizations. They have created and now sustain relationships for their institutions—law schools, law firms, government entities, and other organizations—because they have the common good of the institution in mind and are there to stay. The purpose of this article is to inform, inspire, celebrate, and provide concrete examples for other libraries to follow. Library initiatives can lead to benefits for the institution that are larger than the library itself. They also reinforce the value of the …