Law Librarianship Commons^™

A Golden Opportunity: Legal Research Simulation Courses, Leslie A. Street, Shawn G. Nevers

Library Staff Publications

No abstract provided.

The Distractions Of Technology, Kimberly Mattioli

Articles by Maurer Faculty

Since the moment I became a librarian, I have had a problem with technology. It’s not that I can’t keep up with the developments or that I can’t figure out ways to incorporate technology into my work. My problem is much simpler in a way—I find technology too distracting. With my desktop, my phone, and my iPad sitting in my office, how could I not be drawn to the glowing screens and the limitless websites before me? The Internet is never-ending, and so too, it seems, is my ability to be distracted by it. With a little dedication, however, I …

Crossing Borders: Adventures In International Legal Research, Anne Burnett

Presentations

An overview of the resources and processes for researching international law topics in classroom H.

Real Resources For Researching Ip Law, Anne Burnett

Presentations

A presentation on strategies for researching intellectual property law in classroom I.

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

Scholarly Articles

This article uses the Data-Information-Knowledge-Wisdom (DIKW) pyramid to help identify the exclusive knowledge base and practical skills that law librarians must possess to solve practical problems. Paragraphs 4–24 trace the historical debates on whether law librarianship is a profession, which focus on autonomy as a key component of a profession. The consensus is that autonomy boils down to two major issues: identifying problems and providing solutions through exclusive methods that are restricted to a profession. Both require a solid and exclusive abstract knowledge base. Paragraphs 25–77 discuss the epistemological approaches employed thus far to identify a knowledge basis for library …

Using Infographics To Report Research Results, Ayyoub Ajmi

Faculty Works

This article uses infographics to share how cross-departmental collaboration and open communication between librarians and IT professionals can lead to successful implementation of technology initiatives in libraries, and how shared services bring access to specialized personnel whom most law libraries and law schools wouldn’t have access to otherwise.

Preparing Law Students For Information Governance, Susan David Demaine

Articles by Maurer Faculty

Information governance is a holistic business approach to managing and using information that recognizes information as an asset as well as a potential source of risk. Law librarians and legal information professionals are well situated to take leadership roles in information governance efforts, including instructing law students in information governance principles and practices. This article traces the development of information governance and its importance to the legal profession, offers a primer on information governance principles and implementation, and discusses how academic law librarians and other legal educators can teach information governance to law students using problem-based learning or similar pedagogical …

Sailing Through Law School: Assessing Legal Research Skills Within The Information Literacy Framework, David H. Michels

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

In this study I ask the question: Can standardized information literacy tests help assess and benchmark the learning of information skills by Canadian law students? This study replicates an earlier study that found that a standardized test of information literacy competencies, SAILS, was not an effective measure of law student information literacy levels. By applying the same test under similar conditions to another group of law students, I found that while the test did not measure legal research competencies, it was effective in measuring basic information literacy skills in law students with often surprising results. I argue that legal research …

The Quintessential Law Library And Librarian In A Digital Era, Femi Cadmus

Faculty Scholarship

Libraries, like most institutions and industries today, are faced with disruptive technologies that challenge their relevancy in a digital era. As a result, erstwhile notions and nostalgia associated with the quintessential library and librarian are changing rapidly. This is a compelling era to reimagine the library, retaining essential traditions alongside the new technologies, which facilitate the preservation, discoverability, accessibility, and delivery of information. It is also an opportunity for libraries to respond creatively and innovatively to change. The quintessential law library and librarian cannot only survive but can also thrive in the digital era by continuing to demonstrate value through …

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

Faculty 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.

The Corpus Juris Civilis, Frederick W. Dingledy

Library Staff Publications

The Corpus Juris Civilis, created by order of Byzantine Emperor Justinian I to compile the laws in force at the time, would become a vital foundation for both the civil law and common law traditions. Important figures in the development of the United States’ law used principles listed in the Corpus as a guide, and to this day legal scholars and historians still refer to it. As a system of law based on principles, not case law, the Corpus provided the framework upon which France built the Code Napoleon. The Corpus' influence can be seen in the legal systems …

Cu Law Library Launches New Resource For Historical Colorado Statutory Research, Robert Linz

Other Faculty Publications

Colorado legal researchers have a new tool for statutory research. The University of Colorado's William A. Wise Law Library (Law Library or CU Law Library) has completed a digitization project of Colorado session laws. The collection contains PDF files of session law volumes from 1861 (when the Territory of Colorado was created) through 1992. The collection is available at lawlibrary.colorado.edu/colorado-session-laws. This article describes the need for such a collection, how it was created, and how to search it.

Creative Assessment: Connecting Legal Research Training And Instruction To Results (Review Of Aall Program), Kimberly Mattioli

Articles by Maurer Faculty

As academic law librarians, we should all be concerned with identifying whether our students are meeting AALL’s Principles and Standards for Legal Research Competency. I was excited to attend this session on Creative Assessment so that I could learn new ways in which librarians can evaluate their students to see if they are adequately trained in these core competencies. The panelists were Pamela Rogers Melton, Associate Director for Administration at the University of South Carolina, Gail Partin, Interim Director at the Dickinson School of Law Library, and Barbara Gabor, Senior Research and Reference Specialist at WilmerHale.

W&L Law Fall Scholarship Celebration 2015, Brant J. Hellwig

Library Events

On September 30, 2015, the Washington and Lee Law Library hosted a Fall Scholarship Celebration. The event took place in the Law Library's third floor reading room from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m.

On display were dozens of scholarly articles, books, chapters, and amicus briefs authored by the W&L Law faculty and student body during 2014 and 2015, with hundreds of additional works accessible online through the Scholarly Commons institutional repository.

Faculty, librarians, staff, and administrators mingled with law students over hors d'oeuvres and wine to peruse the formidable scholarly output of the W&L Law community. Spouses, alumni, faculty from W&L's …

"As If Uttered By Our Own Inspired Mouth": Researching The Corpus Juris Civilis, Frederick W. Dingledy

Library Staff Publications

No abstract provided.

The Lyon Declaration On Access To Information And Development, Anne Burnett

Presentations

A large format infographic presenting key facts about the Lyon Declaration and providing details about IFLA.

The Career Path, Education, And Activities Of Academic Law Library Directors Revisited Twenty-Five Years Later, Michael J. Slinger, Sarah C. Slinger

Scholarly Works

In conducting this new study, our goal is to provide useful information to the profession and guidance to future law library directors. We also think that by examining the director position we can provide a window into how the profession of academic law librarianship is evolving. Some of the changes we uncovered we see as positive. However, other changes are of concern, including an emerging trend at some institutions to remove full faculty status from the director. This is alarming to those of us who think retaining full partnership with the law faculty is crucial for the future effectiveness of …

George Wythe And The Study Of Roman Civil Law In Williamsburg, Linda K. Tesar

Library Staff Publications

No abstract provided.

Mentoring Is Learning, Richard Leiter

Marvin and Virginia Schmid Law Library: Faculty Publications

One of the most rewarding things about growing old is the wisdom that comes with it. Individually, we may deny that as we grow older we automatically or necessarily become wiser. In fact most of us, if we are honest with ourselves, will deny this, but I'm convinced that this is merely humility. As we grow older, we become more aware of our foibles and the knowledge that everyone is flawed and falls short of the glory of God. This kind of self-awareness is the source of our humility: understood appropriately, it is also the source of our wisdom. Many …

Hacked! Lessons Learned From An Url Injection, Ayyoub Ajmi

Faculty Works

Starting in the year 2014, people've seen an increasing number of cyber attacks targeting all sorts of organizations. These have cost the US economy billions of dollars and exposed the private data of millions of individuals. While most of them are designed to steal trade secrets, credit card information, or even celebrities' personal information, there are still other attacks targeting individuals and small organizations with the sole goal of spreading malware and promoting shady businesses. This is URL injection. The big lesson they learned from this experience is the need for a healthy cross-departmental collaboration. Teaming up with the main …

Legal Research Using Technological Tools: Librarians' View, Lauren M. Collins, Susan Silver, Whitney Curtis

Law Faculty Contributions to Books

The technology revolution has impacted every aspect of our daily lives. It is hard to imagine a world without smartphones and the Internet. Where and how we access information has changed dramatically over the last decade. Gone are the days of traveling to the library check out books and read printed journal articles. No longer simply storehouses of print information, libraries but now serve as starting points for searching online information that can be be accessed anywhere, any time and on any device. Library research that used to take hours or days can now be done in minutes. Online materials …

Library Director As Negotiator/Horse Trader: Analysis Two, James S. Heller

Library Staff Publications

No abstract provided.

Libraries And Legal Education, Jonathan Franklin

Librarians' Chapters in Books

Academic law libraries are in the midst of radical change, probably more so than at any time in the past 100 years. Two factors are converging that make business as usual no longer viable for academic law libraries: transition of legal resources from print to digital formats and economic changes in legal education.

Best Practices for Legal Education did not address the role of law libraries in the delivery of legal education. The changes facing law schools suggest now is the time to articulate how libraries can best contribute to the endeavor. How can best practices for law libraries be …

Library Director As Opportunity Identifier, Ronald E. Wheeler

Faculty Scholarship

A successful contemporary law library director should seek opportunities to insert the law library, wherever possible, into projects that benefit the law school and its mission and that draw on the talents and expertise of the law librarians. The goal of the modern law library director should be to make the law library an integral part of each and every undertaking within the law school community. Every facet of the law school and its various departments and offices can benefit from either law library research and instructional services or the creative thinking and analytical orientation that librarians bring to the …

The 2014 Leadership Academy: Six Months Out - How Are Participants Using What They Learned?, Susan David Demaine

Articles by Maurer Faculty

“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.” – John Quincy Adams

These wise words were one of many lessons that the attendees of the 2014 AALL Leadership Academy took home with them following two full days of hands-on learning this past April. Now, a little more than six months later, Spectrum catches up with a few of the Academy attendees to find out how they are using what they learned and the ways that the Academy has affected their professional (and personal) lives.

From Disability To Usability In Online Instruction, Susan David Demaine

Articles by Maurer Faculty

This article is a primer on the work needed to ensure accessibility in online instruction. It discusses different disabilities, reviews relevant laws and standards, and explores the relationship between accessibility and the principles of universal design. The article introduces a number of best practices for creating accessibility in online instruction.

Learning Leadership, Susan David Demaine

Articles by Maurer Faculty

It is hard to talk about leadership without sounding clichéd, but it truly was “a dark and stormy night” that began my recent tr ip to the American Association of Law Libraries’ 2014 Leadership Academy. Fortunately, although the rainy drive to Chicago seemed an ill omen, the Leadership Academy turned out to be engaging, instructive, and replete with networking opportunities.

The Promise And Perils Of Massive Open Online Courses: Moocs And The Role Of Law Librarians, Sara Sampson, Leslie A. Street

Library Staff Publications

No abstract provided.

Collection Development, Acquisitions, And Licensing, Frederick W. Dingledy, Benjamin J. Keele, Jennifer Sekula

Library Staff Publications

No abstract provided.

Race And The Reference Librarian, Mary Whisner

Librarians' Articles

Ms. Whisner examines how race arises in the day-to-day work of law librarians, and discusses how law librarians can foster cultural competence and create more welcoming environments in diverse institutions.