Maiden, C. "From law librarian to digital alchemist: continuity and persistence in a noble and learned profession."Law Librarian. 30 (4) Dec 1999, p.215-18. refs. 1999.
Contribution to special issue on the future for the law librarian in the next millennium, and a look at past developments over the last 30 years. Discusses continuity and persistence in the changing profession of law librarianship. Describes the changing environment, and focuses on a sense of continuity through the persistent paradox of paper, the value of human contact, information literacy, and persistent skill sets. Concludes that librarians' core competences have a formidable resilience upon which they should capitalize. (Library and Information Science Abstracts)
Schanck, P. C. "Mandatory advanced legal research: a viable program for law schools."Law Library Journal. 92 (3) Summer 2000, p.295-304. refs. 2000
Describes the adoption of a mandatory advanced legal research requirement for law students at Marquette University, including the range of courses offered in the programme and the method used to persuade the faculty to adopt the requirement. (Mike Fritch, IU SLIS)
Tunkel, V. "Law-finding for lawyers."Law Librarian. 28 (2) Jun 1997, p.59-60. 1997.
Investigates why lawyers in the UK are so bad at carrying out legal research. The main cause seems to lie in their formal legal education where it is rare for students to need to carry out research or to be taught how to do so. Other reasons given include lack of appropriate library materials and access to relevant online databases; law students not always going into practice; and the lack of time for teaching of research methods. Although the long term aim should be to incorporate such skills into law school courses, in the short term the role of the law librarian will remain vital both in instructing undergraduates and trainees, and in carrying out their own professional duties. PM (Library and Information Science Abstracts)
Staheli, K. D. "Motivating law students to develop competent legal research skills: combating the negative findings of the Howland and Lewis survey."Legal Reference Services Quarterly. 14 (1/2) 1994, p.195-207. refs. 1994.
The results of a 1990 survey by Howland and Lewis indicate that most US law students do not consider learning legal research skills important. The failure of law schools to allot adequate time to legal research instruction and training has prompted librarians and others to come up with innovative ideas for working legal research into the law school curriculum. Suggests ways in which academic law librarians can help counter negative attitudes towards legal research and help motivate law students to develop competent legal research skills. Encourages academic law librarians to assert their role in legal education by reevaluating legal research programmes and, where appropriate, implementing positive change. JP (Library and Information Science Abstracts)
Cuffe, N. and Bruce, C. S. "Information and information technology use in undergraduate legal education." 4th Australian Information Literacy Conference, December, 1999, Adelaide, SA, 2000: 76-88.
Describes Queen's University's program incoming law students. William R. Lederman Law Library provides an information literacy program to first year law students that forms part of their "Legal Skills" program. The library part of the program is a comprehensive series of classes on topics including legal citation, case law research (including case digests and law reporters), statutes and regulations, use of online legal information systems (eg. Quicklaw), and using secondary legal materials (law journals, treatises, and loose-leaf services). The series is meant to provide a solid grounding to law students in the organization and use of legal materials, in both print and electronic formats. There is a heavy element of "hands-on instruction", particularly in the use of online and CD/ROM systems. (Quoted from site.)
