Law Librarianship Commons^™

De-Centering And Re-Centering Digital Scholarship, Ten Years On, Matthew Hunter, Aaron Retteen, Micah Vandegrift

Faculty Scholarship

Ten years after the publication of a manifesto attempting to describe what digital scholarship could do for and within libraries, some of the original authors reflect on the progress of the call-to-action. This article describes areas in which the integration of digital scholarship activities as core parts of librarianship has and has not become commonplace and traces larger-scale developments in the academy and global knowledge landscape that have contributed to the accuracy of the predictions made in 2017.

An Evaluation Of Academic Journal Publishing Stickiness Based On The Ajbr Index, Zhengqi Han, Hongxia Liu, Jianzhong Shi

Journal of Scientific Information Research

[Purpose/significance] To overcome the limitations of traditional, label-dependent evaluation indicators in identifying journal acceptance preferences, this article aims to construct a novel label-free quantitative detection paradigm to more comprehensively and objectively reveal potential publishing stickiness between authors and journals. [Method/process] By introducing disproportionality measurement methods from the field of pharmacovigilance, we proposed the Author-Journal Balance Ratio index, applied it to 86 law journals to measure the potential publishing stickiness between authors and journals, and analyzed the 5 060 identified potential publishing stickiness signals. [Result/conclusion] The results show that the Author-Journal Balance Ratio index is effective at identifying relationships driven by …

Evolving Roles And Realities In Canadian Academic Law Libraries, Yemisi Dina, Sharon Wang, Sooin Kim, Alexia Loumankis

Librarian Publications & Presentations

Canadian academic law libraries are undergoing profound transformation, shaped by shifting university funding models, restructured institutional reporting lines, and the accelerating move toward digital legal information. This plenary session will explore how law libraries across Canada are responding to these pressures while continuing to support legal education, research, and access to justice.

Marketing The Library: Engaging Law Students With Dynamic Displays, Lisa A. Gooden, Ariel Newman

Faculty Works

Academic law libraries increasingly serve as dynamic, student-centered spaces that extend beyond traditional collections. This article explores practical and creative approaches to marketing library resources through engaging, low-cost displays and interactive experiences. Drawing on initiatives at the University of Missouri–Kansas City School of Law Library, the authors highlight strategies for introducing students to multiple formats of legal study aids, promoting faculty scholarship through institutional repositories, and fostering a welcoming library environment with interactive and frequently refreshed displays. Examples include multimodal displays that integrate print and digital resources, the use of QR codes and design tools to showcase faculty research, and …

Law Library Strategy: Positioning For Sustainable Relevance, Gregory A. Smith, Christine I. Dulac, Amy A. Emerson, Sara Y. Gras

Faculty Publications and Presentations

Law libraries of all sorts face evolving environments, presenting both challenges and opportunities. In the face of uncertainty, law library leaders must develop strategy to define and implement a viable mission in the foreseeable future. In this presentation, panelists from four academic law libraries explore how libraries can better understand their competitive environment, stakeholder relationships, and strategic priorities in the face of budget and staffing constraints, technological change, and shifting user perceptions. The presentation highlights four analytical frameworks—competitor analysis, SWOT analysis, the Business Model Canvas, and stakeholder analysis—and illustrates how these can inform strategic decision-making within a law library context. …

Law Library Blog (April 2026): Legal Beagle's Blog Archive, Roger Williams University School Of Law

Law Library Newsletters/Blog

No abstract provided.

Using Westlaw And Lexis: The Many Ways In, Joshua Levine

Library Staff Online Writings

Researching the law depends on finding connections between information. No case or statute exists in a vacuum. The primary advantage of using Westlaw and Lexis is that they point out, on a high level, the connections between individual resources. It is disappointing how often students use natural language search terms or basic AI queries to find all their answers. Within the limitations of class time, it is essential to teach our students as much as possible how pieces of information are connected on these platforms.

Library E-Book Licensing And State Law Reform, Kincaid Brown

Law Librarian Scholarship

Libraries don’t “buy” most e-books the way they buy print books; they license them. That reality is at the crossroads of budgetary constraints and patron satisfaction in modern libraries. With print, a library typically pays once, owns the copy, and lends it until it wears out. With e-books, publishers and intermediaries, like platforms such as OverDrive, commonly offer time-limited or loan-limit-ed terms (for example, a license that expires after a set number of checkouts or after a set period), can impose embargoes, and can set prices far above consumer retail. Libraries argue these terms frustrate their public mission and make …

Law Librarianship And Legal Information Science In The Age Of Genai, Paul D. Callister

Faculty Works

This article examines the relationship between law librarianship and legal information science in the age of generative AI (GenAI), arguing that closer integration between the two is essential to navigating a rapidly evolving legal information landscape. It contends that law librarianship—long grounded in stable classification systems and cognitive authority—must adopt the analytical methods of legal information science to remain effective in the digital era. Together, these fields can reinforce the rule of law by improving the organization, retrieval, and stability of legal information. The article identifies emerging subfields of legal information science that support this integration and develops several concepts …

Making The Most Of Limited Time, Joshua Levine

Library Staff Online Writings

One of the biggest challenges I have encountered as an advanced legal research instructor is getting everything accomplished that I want to during a class session. The most time I have ever had to get through a class session is one hour and twenty minutes – and this includes lecturing, demonstrations, in-class exercises, and going over those exercises. In particular, it’s challenging to balance giving students enough time to complete their exercises with everything else that needs to be done.

Investigating The Relationship Between Noun Classes And Plant Folk Taxonomy In Chasu Language Of Kilimanjaro Region In Tanzania, Peter Rabson Mziray

Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences

The current study investigates the relationship between noun classes and plant folk taxonomy in Chasu (G 22). The study focuses on two objectives: the first objective is to describe the plant folk taxonomy in Chasu and the second objective is to determine the relationship between noun classes and plant folk taxonomy in Chasu. Data were collected from rural villages in Same and Mwanga districts by using free listing, field interviews (jungle-walk-and-identify), and written texts containing Chasu plant names. The findings reveal that Chasu folk taxonomy reflects different ethnobotanical categories; including a unique beginner which is mmea/mimea ‘plant(s)’, and three life …

State-Specific Secondary Sources, Joshua Levine

Library Staff Online Writings

As legal research instructors, we regularly teach students that it’s a good idea to start their research with secondary sources. If the research issue falls under the law of a specific state, it’s especially helpful to consult a secondary source that discusses that law of that state. However, you might not find relevant state-specific secondary sources – they simply might not be available – and that poses a special set of challenges.

Tracking Removed And At-Risk Government Information, Molly Blake, Sanga Sung, Ben Amata, Jenny Mcburney

SJSU Open Access Conference

The current U.S. administration is intentionally undermining public access to information as well as scholarly research by removing documents, reports, datasets, images, and language from government websites. In doing so, this administration is withholding publicly-funded information that we have a right to access, including data from government-sponsored research, historical information about marginalized groups, and speech transcripts. In removing these materials, the government is also deliberately sabotaging research related to topics it does not like, such as LGBTQ health, COVID, and climate change.

It is difficult to grasp the scope of this problem: how do we know when something is gone, …

Access Denied: Defending Research In A Shrinking Scholarly Landscape, Emily Kingsland

SJSU Open Access Conference

In early 2025, the U.S. Department of Education announced a reduction in the indexing of key journals in the ERIC database. As government censorship increasingly threatens the accessibility of educational research, librarians are emerging as critical defenders of open access and research transparency. This presentation reports on the proactive efforts of a Canadian academic librarian who developed actionable workarounds to address the disappearance of articles from ERIC. These missing records pose a significant challenge to researchers conducting knowledge syntheses, who face a reporting and reproducibility crisis when search results fluctuate or shrink without explanation. The implications are profound: systematic reviews …

Navigating Nih’S Revised Public Access Policy: On-The-Ground Experiences From Librarians And Researchers, Anneliese Taylor, Katie Fortney, Tim Vollmer

SJSU Open Access Conference

The U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) rolled out its revised Public Access Policy on July 1, 2025, in accordance with the 2022 Office of Science and Technology Policy Nelson Memo. The Nelson Memo calls on all U.S. federal funders to implement a policy requiring immediate public access to published articles and supporting datasets resulting from federal grants. On the surface, NIH’s new policy is a public good, ensuring that federally funded research outputs will no longer be held back from public access for 12 months after publication. But the implementation mechanisms of this new policy for researchers and publishers …

W&L Law Fall Scholarship Celebration 2025, Andrew Christensen, Michelle Cosby, Brandon Hasbrouck, Jennifer Mitchell, Melanie D. Wilson

Library Events

On October 9, 2025, the Washington and Lee Law Library hosted the fifth W&L Law Fall Scholarship Celebration. The event was co-sponsored by the Frances Lewis Law Center and took place in the Law Library's main reading room from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m.

On display were dozens of scholarly articles, books, chapters, and court briefs authored by the W&L Law faculty and student body between October 2022 and October 2025. Additional works were accessible online via QR codes to W&L Law Scholarly Commons institutional repository. A selection of vintage scholarship by former W&L Law professors was also on display, courtesy …

Law Library Blog (October 2025): Legal Beagle's Blog Archive, Roger Williams University School Of Law

Law Library Newsletters/Blog

No abstract provided.

Ai In Law Libraries: Discussing Ethical Considerations And A Way Forward, Joshua Levine

Library Staff Articles

This review examines the AALL 2025 program “AI in Law Libraries: Discussing Ethical Considerations and a Way Forward,” focusing on the ethical challenges artificial intelligence presents for law librarians and legal professionals. The author highlights discussions on the Model Rules of Professional Conduct, responsible and transparent use of AI, risks such as hallucinations and bias, and broader concerns including environmental impact and the future of human labor. The review emphasizes that the program raised important questions rather than definitive solutions, underscoring the need for ongoing, profession-wide dialogue as AI continues to evolve.

Active Learning And Notetaking, Joshua Levine

Library Staff Online Writings

This past summer, when I attended my third AALL Conference, I signed up to review a program for the ALL-SIS newsletter. I agreed to report on “AI in Law Libraries: Discussing Ethical Considerations and a Way Forward.” I had attended numerous presentations over three years, but this was the first time I analyzed a program in depth. I needed to make detailed notes about what the participants said, as well as what questions were asked and how the speakers responded to them. Then, I had to synthesize my notes and turn them into an effective program review, about 500-700 words …

W&L Law Library Annual Report 2024-2025, The Law Library At Washington And Lee University School Of Law

Law Library Annual Reports

No abstract provided.