Author archives

Sarah Lamdan is a professor and faculty services librarian. She specializes in government information access and transparency, and especially issues related to environmental law and environmental information access. She teaches legal research, advanced legal research, public institutions, and lawyering seminar courses. Sarah received her J.D. from the University of Kansas School of Law with a Certificate in Environmental and Natural Resources Law and a Master's Degree in Legal Information Management from Emporia State University's Graduate School of Library and Information Management. She previously served as research librarian for several international law firms. She is the author of the book Environmental Information: Research, Access & Environmental Decisionmaking, which is published by the Environmental Law Institute. Her writing on the FOIA and information access and environmental justice issues has also been published in the Georgetown Environmental Law Review, Vermont Journal of Environmental Law, Government Information Quarterly and other legal and information science publications. Sarah also facilitates FOIA workshops and seminars on participating in the federal and New York administrative rulemaking process.

Surveillance and Legal Research Providers: What You Need to Know

Legal research companies are selling surveillance data and services to law enforcement agencies including ICE. Their participation in government surveillance raises ethical questions about privacy, confidentiality and financial support: How private is your search history when your legal research vendors also sell surveillance data? Are you funding products that sell your patrons’ and clients’ data to ICE and other law enforcement agencies? Law professor professor and faculty services librarian Sarah Lamdan’s article focuses on how librarians uphold their privacy and intellectual freedom standards when they rely on surveillance companies for their research resources.

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Law Librarians, LEXIS, Online Legal Research Services, Privacy, Social Media, Westlaw