Changing Attitudes and Showing Value in the Library
Emily Donnellan is a solo librarian who shares her insights and expertise on how to increase both the patronage and the value for customers of the Boise Branch for the 9th Circuit.
Category «Law Librarians»
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.
My Non Life
Zena Applebaum, Corporate Strategy, Competitive Intelligence, Legal Industry Professional speaks directly to all the professionals who serve their respective organizations with many faceted skills and mission critical expertise, delivering transparent and accountable value to internal and external customers, all while shouldering the designation of a “non-lawyer.”
Can Legal Research Be Taught? Part 1: The Relevance Paradox
In the first of a three part series, Paul Gatz articulates the importance of acknowledging the “learner’s paradox” that “legal research is the process of identifying and retrieving the law-related information necessary to support legal decision-making.” Expert legal researchers conduct their work within the territory of the known and the unknown, the facts, the suppositions, and the possibilities that skilled and strategic students seek to learn and thereafter apply within their course of studies, and subsequently bring forward to support their respective practice of law. [Link to Part 2 of this series]
Can Legal Research Be Taught? Part 2: Varieties of Relevance
In Part 2 of his series [see Part 1 here], Paul Gatz takes a deeper dive into the challenges of effectively teaching the “why” of a document’s relevance to assist students to understand the reasons a given document occupies the role it does within the subject literature. Gatz focuses on the concept of how knowledge in a particular discipline is created, disseminated, and organized (subject knowledge relevance). Gatz states that knowledge content of a discipline is helpful in determining the relevance of a particular document, but an effective relevance determination relies upon a theory of what counts as knowledge, or, in legal practice, what counts as legally valid.
The Library – An Indispensable Resource for the Entire Law Firm
Small and midsize law firms are benefiting from a range of agile, expert, value added services increasingly provided by Library team members in collaboration with firm colleagues in Conflicts, Finance and Marketing. Diana Koppang articulates the strategic impact of this multifaceted linchpin work product.
The State of Law Library eBooks 2017-18 Part Two: Brass Tacks
Ellyssa Kroski discusses the range of eBook pricing models that are currently available along with the pros and cons respective to each. Kroski’s article also addresses other critical issues relevant to managing subscription-based, patron-driven acquisitions, short term loans, access-to-own, as well as strategies for controlling costs, and questions to ask before choosing an eBook solution. Also see Kroski’s The State of Law Library eBooks 2017-18 Part One: The Landscape.
The State of Law Library eBooks 2017-18 Part One: The Landscape
Ellyssa Kroski is the Director of Information Technology at the New York Law Institute and an award-winning editor and author of 36 books. In Part One of a three part series for LLRX, she describes the current landscape of eBooks relevant to the law library field, the benefits and challenges of offering eBooks in law libraries, the different ways to purchase law-related eBooks, and how to get started choosing a solution.
The Fight to Bring Legal Research to the Front
Law librarian and professor Brandon Adler identifies core issues to support educating third year law students in a wide range of reliable free and low cost legal resources. Many law librarians acknowledge that there is a lack of awareness and use of alternative legal resources, with the law student community as well across a large swath of attorneys in firms both large and small.
Spotting Fake – Best Practices for Authenticating Trustworthy News Sources
Genevieve Zook’s guide to fake news takes a multifaceted, long view of the history of spreading misinformation, through word of mouth to the acceleration of this activity through social media. Zook identifies examples in which fake news impacts different disciplines, diverse topics and subject matter. She references the survey data gathered by reliable organizations that assist us in better understanding the dimensions of this issue. And vitally, Zook documents actionable resources, many of which are authored by law librarians, to facilitate our ability to make sound decisions, exercise our critical skills, and deliver expert services to our users and customers moving forward.