Academic Law Libraries: The Future?

Professor Lisa Smith-Butler

SEAALL

March 2008

The Future?

As technology evolves and virtual libraries continue to increase, some question the need for an academic law library.

Often, librarians hear patrons insist that there is no need for a library as “everything is now online.”

Is there a future for academic law libraries?

For more information, check out the 2005 and 2007 West/Infi Law symposia, The Future of Law Libraries.

Academic law libraries…

Is there a future? If so, why?What are the expectations for the future?How has the library’s history propelled it into the future?What is the academic law library’s place?What matters in a law library’s collection?What services will be provided to faculty, students, staff, alumni, and the practicing Bar?Who will provide these services?

While emerging technologies have changed how academic law libraries acquire, organize, classify and retrieve information, they have not eradicated the need for an actual academic law library. With technology, the above tasks can be completed faster, allowing the law library to expand its information and technology services to meet changing patron expectations and needs.

Academic law libraries will continue to exist as these changes enhance libraries.

Yes, there is a future for academic law libraries.

See Lisa Smith-Butler, Administration, in Law Librarianship in the 21st Century (Scarecrow Press, 2007.)

Why?

– an expanding global economy;– the increasing use and development of technology;– the explosion of information resources; and– the need to access these resources at any time from

any place.• All of the above require the space, collection and

services provided by academic law libraries.

See also Claire M. Germain, Legal and Information Management in a Global and Digital Age: Revolution and Tradition in which Professor Germain states that legal information has been transformed both by globalization and the Internet.

In the future, expect:• more high tech collaborative spaces in the law library for faculty and students to

consult and work together;• greater reliance upon electronic resources particularly with indexing and

updating tools while print indexes and citators slowly disappear from library shelves;

• print collections to grow at a much slower pace in academic law libraries than they did during the 20th Century; while print and electronic formats will continue to exist, there will be greater reliance upon electronic resources;

• continuing ownership vs. access issues regarding electronic resources as publishers and libraries determine the most effective way of acquiring and maintaining these resources;

• training faculty with emerging technologies/Web 2.0 so that they can collaborate with students rather than being the “sage on the stage;”

• 24/7 access to information and the law center building;• 24/7 access to reference service; • the delivery of information resources and information via mobile devices; and• distance education to expand and begin impacting legal education per ABA

Standard 306.

What Do Academic Law Libraries Provide?• Academic law libraries continue to provide:

– physical study space for individual and group study for law students, collaborative work areas for faculty and students, and comfortable seating;

– the development in multiple formats, including print, electronic and micro, of a collection that supports the curricular, research, teaching and educational goals of a law school while containing spiraling serial costs;

– services to faculty, students, law center departments, alumni, the practicing Bar, and in house journals that support the practice, learning, teaching, and research goals of these groups;

– technology services to support the law school’s network infrastructure, wireless access, web design and development, video conferencing, and audio visual services that include pod and vodcasting of professorial lectures; and

– services to support faculty, students and the law school with emerging technologies such as distance education and Web 2.0 tools.

– the continuing transmission of knowledge, information and culture to patrons.

For more information, see Margaret Maes Axtmann, Academic Law Libraries 2.0, Spectrum, July 2006, at 14.

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History

• During the mid 19th century, academic law libraries were considered almost irrelevant and were staffed initially by janitors. Later student librarians began staffing them.

• One student librarian, Christopher Langdell, elevated the academic law library, making it central to legal education. Langdell, in addition to being a student librarian, later became the Harvard Law School dean from 1870 – 1900. Langdell is credited with the creation of the 20th century law school curriculum, emphasizing the importance of judicial decisions.

• According to Langdell, the law library was to law students as a laboratory was to science students.

More….• At the same time, publishers such as West, Lawyer’s Cooperative, and

Shepards created print publications such as case reporters, case finding tools (digests), and case updating tools (Shepards) to assist lawyers and legal researchers with locating the law. These publications revolutionized the process of legal research and the practice of law.

• With these new print publications, academic law libraries were born and began developing leaders and collections. Academic law libraries became known as the “heart” or the “center” of a law school.

• Leaders in the profession for academic law libraries who imprinted the profession with their vision included Miles Price (Columbia), Frederick Hicks (Yale), Rosamund Parma (Berkley’s Boalt Hall), Arthur Beardsley and Marian Gould Gallagher (University of Washington), Mike Jacobstein (Stanford), Roy Merksy (U.Texas at Austin), and Morris Cohen (Harvard & Yale.)

• For more information, see Robert C. Berring, A Brief History of Law Librarianship, in Law Librarianship in the 21st Century (Scarecrow Press, 2007.)

• Eventually ABA accrediting standards arose, attempting to measure the worth and quality of academic law libraries.

• For decades if not nearly a century, volume and title count were considered to be determinative of the quality of academic law libraries. Volume count predominated, and the number of volumes possessed was often viewed as determinative of a law library’s quality and value.

• Little changed in the world of academic law libraries from 1900 – 1973.

• In 1973, the online computer assisted legal research (CALR) system, Lexis, went public in Ohio and began being used by the Ohio Bar.

• Two years later (1975), West released its own CALR system, known as Westlaw.

• Together, these new CALR systems would alter the legal research landscape and ultimately the academic law library.

The Law Library As Place

• As Penny Hazelton reported in her presentation in 2005 at the Future of Law Libraries Symposium at Amelia Island, Florida, traditionally academic law libraries occupied 50% of the available space in a law school building.

• Why? Print collections grew, sometimes seemingly exponentially in the 20th Century.

Place• Today, academic law libraries are competing for space

with others. Faculty offices, student edited journals, expanding clinics, and career development interview office needs are just a few of the other law school departments vying for space.

• Given the competing needs by these groups as well as the increasing reliance upon electronic resources, academic law libraries are figuring out how to live within existing space by choosing electronic resources over print when appropriate, weeding obsolete and rarely used print or microformat materials, and arranging individual and group student study areas for maximum effect.

Place• As more information resources become available in electronic format, law

libraries are often reconfiguring space to provide for the needs of its students.

• These needs include:– individual and group student study areas, i.e. carrels and tables with

lighting and power;– collaborative study rooms for study groups;– comfortable seating and lounge furniture with newspapers and other

current awareness resources;– a seminar room that can double as a large study room and as a teaching

space for library led student lunch and learn events; – computer labs;– printer and copier rooms;– audiovisual & microformat rooms; and – wireless and/ or wired access throughout the library.

For more information, see Virginia J. Kelsh, Build It Right and They Will Come: The Librarian’s Role in Library Construction , 98 Law Lib. J. 269 (2006.)

Law Library Collections

• For decades, an academic law library’s print collection determined its’ status among peer law libraries.

• Volume count was the primary measurement of a library’s collection.

• Eventually many argued that volume count was not an accurate reflection of the strength and breadth of a collection.

Collections• Other changes in academic law library collection development began

occurring in the 1990s and continuing into the 2000s. Why?• Emerging technology changed patron behaviors and expectations. Patrons

expected to have access to a wide array of information resources at any time from any place. This increased the collection of electronic resources.

• Legal publishers began buying each other until there were only two major legal American publishers left by the mid 1990s, i.e., West and Lexis.

• West and Lexis were then acquired by international publishers, Thomson (Canadian) and Reed Elsevier (Belgian).

• The above behaviors and expectations changed the face of American legal publishing as well as the collections and collection development practices of American academic law libraries.

• According to a presentation by Kendall F. Svengalis at the 2007 American Association of Law Libraries, these changes have resulted in 3 legal publishers (Thomson-West, Reed Elsevier, and Wolters Kluwer) cornering 85% of the legal market.

• Svengalis surmises that print serials’ prices began spiraling out of control after 1995.

Collections

• According to Svengalis, the profit margins of these legal publishers rose between 17% (Wolters) and 31% (West) in comparison with similar corporate profit margins of 10.32%.

• Svengalis says that his data reflects that supplementary materials published by West rose an annual average of 14% between 1995-2006.

Collections• Rising print prices, changing patron expectations, and

emerging technologies resulted in the acquisition of a new format, the electronic format.

• Initially electronic formats provided academic law libraries with access rather than ownership.

• Today vendors are offering law libraries ownership of electronic resources while the ABA is changing the way electronic titles and resources are counted as well as removing the emphasis on volume count.

• Recently the library portion of the annual ABA Report was revised to reflect the importance of title count. Title count rather than volume count appears first on the report.

Law Library Collections

• To paraphrase Jim Heller, all law library collections differ and the goal of any library should be to create a collection that meets “the needs of its users.” See James S. Heller, Collection Development, Licensing & Acquisitions in Law Librarianship in the 21st Century (Scarecrow Press 2007.).

• Can electronic formats supplant print formats? According to ABA Interpretation 606-2, a collection that consists of a single format may be in violation of Standard 606.

Services• What services will be available?

– reference – research classes– current awareness & routing– training– ILL & document delivery– compilation of subject bibliographies, research guides and faculty publications

• For whom will these services be available?– faculty– students– staff– alumni– practicing Bar

• Who will provide these services?– librarians– information professionals/technologists– library paraprofessionals

Services for Faculty• What are the needs of a law school faculty for

information?– research assistance for class and scholarship preparation;– ready reference responses to quick questions;– current awareness resources via Table of Contents, RSS feeds,

Google reader, Alerts or Westclips;– training research assistants;– compiling subject and faculty bibliographies as well as other

research guides;– routing requests for journals and newsletters;– creating and updating of faculty web pages;– training faculty to use emerging technologies, i.e., Web 2.0, for

teaching and scholarship such as blogs, wikis, social bookmarking sites, virtual worlds, and distance education.

Faculty Services

• With emerging technologies, library liaisons are better able to serve faculty.

• Annual interviews with faculty members, conducted at the beginning of the school year, help librarians locate information resources on teaching and scholarship subjects for faculty.

• Routing lists of materials that circulate can be updated.

• Compilation of subject and faculty bibliographies along with the preparation of research guides are also services that can be provided.

Faculty Services

• Current awareness resources can be set up so that faculty receive news on a daily basis on chosen subjects.

• Provide access to the Table of Contents from CILP or other resources.

• Special Legal Bulletins with timely legal news can be created.

• Set up a news aggregator and subscribe to RSS feeds in the professor’s subject area.

• Use Google Reader to create blog aggregators and Google Alerts to scan newspaper and new publications for selected search terms.

Faculty Services

• In addition to research and current awareness, librarians can work and assist faculty, using emerging technologies to enhance scholarship and teaching, incorporate adult learning theory in classrooms, and explore the changing nature of intellectual authority.

• What are some of the new tools?– blogs;– wikis;– social bookmarking and sharing; – podcasts and vodcasts; and– virtual worlds.

Services for StudentsLaw students are another constituency served by the academic law

library.• Who are these students?

– According to the American Freshman: National Norms for 2006, the current crop of college freshman self identify as “middle of the road” in terms of politics. Many expressed concerns about finances, want to obtain well paying and interesting jobs, and want to “do good.” However, they list joining the Peace Corps as one of their last choices. 17.5% indicated that their probable major would be business while 13.5% selected “professional.”

– A recent study of incoming first year law students indicated that they recognized the law library as important but then described themselves as having excellent research skills. The majority stated a preference for “internet research” over “library research.”

– In the recent Princeton Review, law students ranked over 170 law schools, ranking schools on the basis of admissions, academics, professors, career prospects, diverse faculty, best environment for a minority, overall quality of life, and most welcoming of older students.

Services for Students

• SYNK (Stuff You Need to Know) training CD;• research skills learned one on one at the Reference

Desk and in classes;• formal training sessions, such as Lunch ‘n Learn/Glad

You Asked;• individual, group, and collaborative study space;• bar prep materials;• social collaborative learning tools and spaces;• pod and vodcasting of classes;• inter-library loans; &• technology support.

Services for Alumni & Practicing BarAnother group to whom the law library is important involves

attorneys. Both alumni and the local practicing Bar use the library and

expect services.Some services that can be provided include:• access to continuing legal education (CLE) tapes/videos;• document delivery;• continuing legal education programs that include

research skills topics such as Cost Effective Legal Research;

• Westlaw or Lexis public access terminals; and• special office space reserved for alumni.

Library & Technology

Should technology and information resources fall under the same umbrella, the law library? It depends.

• Technologists and librarians are in the information business.

• Their primary goal is to support the information needs of their patrons.

• Librarians assist patrons with acquiring, organizing and retrieving information.

• Technologists assist patrons with the network infrastructure to access electronic resources as well as providing web development and design to help patrons navigate through information resources.

Roles of the librarian

As law libraries continue to evolve, law librarians continue to play a vital role in their institutions’ missions.

• They review and evaluate information resources in various formats, selecting the resources that are most appropriate for their institution in terms of cost, access, reliability, currentness, and authenticity.

• They act as a trainer and a teacher, exploring the landscape of new research methodologies involved in electronic access as well as continuing to assist patrons with the acquisition of traditional research skills.

Role of the Information ProfessionalsIn some cases, the law library director oversees all

aspects of a law school’s technology, including;* network infrastructure which includes the

development and maintenance of servers, email, wireless, and wired connections;

* web page development and design;* audiovisual which includes classroom smart podiums, technologically enhanced courtrooms;* videoconferencing & distance education.

Conclusion

• Academic law libraries are alive and well and will continue to thrive in the future.

• Using technology, skills, and knowledge, law libraries and the individuals who staff them will continue to ascertain and meet patrons’ information needs with a variety of styles, techniques, and resources.

• Recent publications, Educating Lawyers and Best Practices in Legal Education, will also impact both the structure and mission of law schools.

• Ultimately the impacts of these changes will impact the academic law library in as yet unforeseen ways.