Law Librarianship

LIS 641

School of Library and Information Services

University of Kentucky

June 8^th – August 3^rd

Summer 2006

Rough Draft – Subject to Change Before Start of Class

Michael Whiteman

Associate Dean for Library Services & Information Technology

Professor of Law

Chase College of Law

Nunn Hall 211

859-572-5717

859-572-6529 (fax)

whiteman@nku.edu

Office Hours

As an online class office hours are a meaningless concept. In the world of law libraries you will be on call to attorneys, judges and other patrons via a variety of communication methods. This may be via phone, fax, e-mail, online chat, or (heaven forbid!) live. As such those are all methods which I will employ to keep in contact with you. So I will try and be accessible to you in all of the above mentioned ways, whichever is most convenient to our mutual schedules.

IMPORTANT NOTE ABOUT RESOURCES:

In this class you will be required to use both print and online resources. As such you will need to have access to a computer with an Internet connection as well as access to a law library. In Kentucky there are major law libraries located in Louisville, Lexington, Northern Kentucky, Frankfort and Paducah.

Required Texts

Sloan, Basic Legal Research, 3^rd ed. New York, N.Y.: Aspen Pub., 2006.

Online Course Page

This class will not be using Blackboard, we will use TWEN instead. TWEN is an online course page created specifically for law schools. It is very similar to Blackboard but allows for easy access to online legal materials. If you do not want to learn how to use a new online course page do not sign up for this class.

You will need a user name and password to access the TWEN page. Once you have registered for the class I will be contacting you with this information.

Class Calendar:

A course calendar will be created on the TWEN page. Be sure to keep watch of the course calendar. Late assignments will not be accepted. It is up to you to make sure that you follow all the deadlines. I recommend that you print out the calendar so that you can keep track of the timing for the class.

Course Grading

1.         Research Exercises and

            online tutorials.                          50%

2.         Participation in discussions.                   25%

3.         Law Library Visit & Report.                 25%    

Course Objective

The purpose of this course is to introduce students to the field of law librarianship. Law librarians are trained to work with legal materials and conduct legal research for their clients, usually lawyers. Thus students will first examine what law students learn in their first year legal research class. The course will then move into more specialized topics including a look at the various kinds of law libraries (academic, firm and court libraries). Students will be given the opportunity to use print and online sources that are normally used exclusively in the legal world.

The American Association of Law Libraries (AALL) is the professional organization that is devoted to the advancement of the law library profession. AALL has created a core set of competencies for law librarians. These can be found at [http://www.aallnet.org/prodev/competencies.asp]. Please review these competencies so that you can gain a better understanding as to what it is that law librarians do. As you will see many law librarians serve as specialized Jack of All Trades. This class will give you a broad overview of the field. It is hoped that some of you will like what you learn and decide that this might very well be a career path that you would like to pursue.

Class Assignments

(all page references are to the Basic Legal Research textbook unless otherwise noted. It might look like a lot of pages are being assigned, but rest assured that about half the pages assigned are illustrations.)

Section One: Research Modules

This section will introduce you to the basic tools of legal research. You will read about and use the sources that lawyers use every day in the practice of law. You will be assigned a reading and then you will be expected to complete an assignment based upon the readings. In some cases the assignment will require you to use online resources and in other instances it will require you to use print resources that will be available to you at a local law library. Each section will also include some online tutorials, more details on these closer to the actual start of class.

            A) Introduction to Legal Research (Reading: pp 1-14, 23-27)

            B) Secondary Sources (Reading: pp 29-76)

            C) Case Research (Reading: pp 77-128, 129-130, 141-148, 152-153)

            D) Statutory Law (Reading: pp 155-198)

            E) Administrative Law (Reading: pp 239-273)

Section Two: Paths in Law Librarianship

            Students will be assigned to visit a law library (academic, court, firm, or county). They will arrange a tour of the library and an interview. A report based on the interview will then be written up. A series of questions to consider will be circulated prior to the tour and interview is conducted.

Section Three: Special Topics in Law Librarianship

            Students will be assigned a number of readings dealing with various issues currently facing the law library profession. A series of online discussions will follow with input from some guest speakers.