LSC 538                                  Law Librarianship                  Spring 2007

 

 

 

Course Purpose/Objectives

 

 

Purpose of the Course:

 

To provide students with an overview of law librarianship and administrative principles as applied to the functions, organization and procedures of various kinds of law libraries. To offer an introduction to legal materials and legal databases as well as reference services in law libraries.

Prerequisites: LSC 502 and 504, or permission of instructor.

 

Course Objectives:

 

To familiarize students with:

l. the types and functions of law libraries

2. key sources of legal information

3. governance, standards, and policies in law libraries.

4. legal databases and their use

5. the unique features of law library administration.

6. awareness of trends and developments in the law library profession, and

7. the benefits of a career in law librarianship

 

 

 

Instructor Contact Information

 

Pat Newcombe

Associate Director

Western New England College School of Law Library

1215 Wilbraham Rd.

Springfield, MA 01119

(413) 782-1616 (work)

pnewcombe@law.wnec.edu

(413) 567-2455 (home)

 

Course Outline

 

DATE

TOPIC

ASSIGNMENTS

DUE

Jan. 25

Introduction to Law Librarianship;

Introduction to Legal Research,

Balleste ch.1&2;

Berringer ch.1;

Sears article.

Face-to-face class

6:30-8:30 p.m.

President’s Conference Room/Room 242 – Providence Campus

Jan. 26-Feb. 4

Court Reports;

Citators

Berringer ch. 2&3

 

Feb. 5-11

Administration;

Finding Cases (via print)

Balleste ch. 3;

Berringer ch. 4;

Holcomb article.

 

Annotation #1 Due 2/11/07;

Legal Research Ass.#1 Due 2/11/07

Feb. 12-18

Introduction to Online Legal Research (Westlaw);

Finding Cases

Winning Research  Skills (Westlaw);

Peoples article.

 

Annotation #2 Due 2/18/07;

Legal Research Ass.#2 Due 2/18/07

Feb. 19-25

Finding Cases (via Westlaw)

 

Russell article.

 

Annotation #3 Due 2/25/07;

Legal Research Ass.#3 Due 2/25/07

Feb. 26-Mar. 4

Public Services;

Statutes

 

Balleste ch. 4;

Berringer ch. 5;

Arrigo article.

 

 

Annotation #4 Due 3/4/07;

Legal Research Ass.#4 Due

Mar. 5-11

Collection Development;

Legislative History

Balleste ch. 5;

Berringer ch. 6;

Chiorazzi article

Annotation #5 Due 3/11/07

 

Mar. 12-18

Technical Services;

Constitutional Law

 

 

Balleste ch. 6;

Berringer ch. 7;

Briscoe article.

 

 

DESCRIPTION OF PROJECT DUE 3/18/07;

Annotation #6 Due 3/18/07

Mar. 19-25

Spring Break

 

 

 

Mar. 26-Apr.1

Foreign, Comparative, and Int’l Law Librarianship;

Administrative and Executive Publications

Balleste ch. 7;

Berringer ch. 8.

Annotation #7 Due 4/1/07;

Legal Research Ass.#5 Due 4/1/07

 

Apr. 2-8

Technology Trends;

Court Rules and Practice

 

Balleste ch. 8;

Berringer ch. 9;

Sanders article;

Duggan article.

Annotation #8 Due 4/8/07

Apr. 9-15

Government Documents;

Secondary Authority

 

Balleste ch. 9;

Berringer ch. 10.

 

Annotation #9 Due 4/15/07;

Legal Research Ass.#6 Due 4/15/07

Apr. 16-22

Research Strategies

 

Berringer ch. 11;

Edmonds article.

 

FINAL PROJECT DUE 4/22/07

Apr. 23-30

Consortia

Balleste ch. 10;

“Standards for Appellate Court Libraries and State Law Libraries” article.

Annotation #10 Due 4/30/07

 

 

Evaluation & Grading

All assignments will be graded A-F using a 100-90-80-70-60 scale where:

 

A+ = 97-100 is exceptional work, extremely creative, professional and greatly exceeds what is expected.

 

A = 94.96.9 is excellent work, creative, professional and exceeds what is expected.

 

A-    = 90-93.9 is very good work that shows some creativity, is professionally done, and goes beyond what is expected.

 

B+ = 87-89.9 is good work that shows some creativity, is professionally done, and goes beyond what is expected.

 

B = 84.86.9 is good work that is professionally done and meets the basic requirements for the assignment.

 

B- = 80-83.9 is work that meets most of the requirements for the assignment but not all.

 

C+ = 77-79.9 is work that meets few of the requirements but does include some of the required work.

C = 74-76.9 is work that meets few of the requirements but does include some of the required work.

 

F = 0-73.9 is work that does not meet the requirements as described in the assignment or that is not completed.

 

Assignments submitted after the due date and spelling or grammatical errors on assignments may cause up to a 10% deduction in the final grade.  Please note:  All assignments should be submitted by midnight of the due date to the WebCT email.

 

The grading scheme is shown below.

 

Assignments                                                   Percent of Final Grade

 

Annotations                                                      20%                

Research exercises                                           30%

Discussion                                                        10%

Final project                                                     40%

Annotations Assignment

 

 

It is critical that students stay abreast of the current issues and challenges in the world of law librarianship today. Please locate and read 10 current articles (post 2001) on topics covered in this course and write an annotation for each article. You will cite the article using The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation. Each article chosen should reflect one of the topics in the course outline and should be completed by the date assigned (see Course Outline). Each annotation will be worth two points toward your final grade (total of 20%). I will be grading your annotations based on the overall quality of the articles used, the appropriateness of the articles to the topics discussed, the depth of the articles (not all brief articles), the variety of journals used, and the overall quality of the annotations written.

 

Please attach your annotations to WebCT emails to me. If you are not using Microsoft Word, pleas attach these files in rich text format (rtf).

 

Due: See Course Outline for due dates.

 

 

Required Texts

 

Balleste, Roy, ed., Law Librarianship in the Twenty-First Century (Scarecrow Press, Inc., 2007).

 

Berring, Robert C. & Edinger, Elizabeth A. (2005). Finding the Law. 12th ed. St. Paul, Minn.: Thomson.

 

Winning Research Skills (Westlaw) (provided by Instructor at first class)

 

 

Required Readings

 

 

Arrigo, Paul A. “Taking Time for Legal Research at the Reference Desk.” Legal Reference Services Quarterly 19, no. 1/2 (2001): 75-98.

 

Briscoe, Georgia et al. “The Catalog vs. the Home Page? Best Practices in Connecting to Online Resources.” Law Library Journal 95 (2003): 151-175.

 

Chiorazzi, Michael. “Books, Bytes, Bricks and Bodies: Thinking About Collection Use in Academic Law Libraries.” Legal Reference Services Quarterly 21, no. 2/3 (2002): 1-28.

 

Duggan, James E. “The New Reference Librarian: Using Technology to Deliver Reference Services.” Legal Reference Services Quarterly 10, no. 3/4 (2001): 195-202.

 

Edmonds, Edmund P. & Axtmann, Margaret Maes. “A Law Library in the New Century: The Creation of the University of St. Thomas Law Library.” Legal Reference Services Quarterly 21, no. 2/3 (2002): 177-188.

 

Holcomb, Jean M. “Time Management: Oxymoron or Trainable Skill.” Law Library Journal 97 (2005): 605-610.

 

Peoples, Lee F. “The Death of the Digest and the Pitfalls or Electronic Research: What Is the Modern Legal Researcher to Do?” Law Library Journal 97 (2005): 661-679.

 

Russell, Gordon. “Re-Engineering the Law Library Resources Today for Tomorrow’s Users: A Response to ‘How Much of Your Print Collection is Really on WESTLAW or LEXIS-NEXIS?’” Legal Reference Services Quarterly  21, No. 2/3 (2002):29-54.

 

Sanders, Catherine et al. “Feasibility and Viability of the Digital Library in a Private Law Firm.” Law Library Journal 95 (2003): 369-381.

 

Sears, Dennis S. “Vision: The Essence of Professionalism and Key to the Future of Law Librarianship as a Profession.” Law Library Journal 98 (2006): 81- 97.

 

“Standards for Appellate Court Libraries and State Law Libraries.” Law Library Journal 98 (2006): 189-198.

 

Suggested Readings

 

Kehoe, Patrick E., Lyman, Louisa & McCann, Gary Lee, eds. (1995). Law Librarianship: A Handbook for the Electronic Age. Littleton, Colo.: Rothman.