Law Librarianship

by

International Legal Research

Information about Law Librarianship in free legal resources:

Treaties & Agreements

International Organizations

Jurisprudence $ Commentary

European Union

IP Law

Contents

Law Librarianship

Note: for related information, see the entries Law library and Legal Research in this legal Encyclopedia.

Legal Materials

To find articles on law librarianship, check out:

  • The Legal Information Management Index, which I believe is the only index to cover the field exclusively and extensively.
  • Legal Indexes — the Current Law Index (a/k/a the Legal Resource Index) or theIndex to Legal Periodicals.
  • Library Science Indexes — e.g., Library Literature and Information Science (LLIS), Library & Information Science Source (LISS) or Library Information Science & Tachnology Abstracts (LISTA). These three database are available through EBSCOhost, which is available through academic and public library websites.
  • General Periodical Indexes — e.g., the Reader’s Guide to Periodical Literature,Ingenta, Proquest, etc.

Also check out publications by the American Association of Law Libraries and search the archive of postings from the Law-Lib listserv at search the posts in the Law-Lib Archives (click on “Other Users Click Here” for free registration).

Since much of the writing on law librarianship now appears in blogs, you might also want to see if there is a relevant a relevant source on this list of of Law Library Blogs, or search using one of the blog-oriented search engines discussed in the “Search Engines” entry.

Finally, the Primary Research Group publishes a survey called Law Library Benchmarks covering budgets, spending, technology, staffing, etc., and a study on maximizing law library productivity.

Library Management: Resource Guides by the AALL Private Law Libraries section cover management topics such as “Space Planning for Law Libraries” and “How to Hire a Law Librarian.” CRIV Tools focus on vendor relations, such as the “Checklist for the Negotiation of Internet Subscriptions” and “Sample Letters” for returns, cancellations, etc. Also search for articles and Primary Research Group surveys (discussed above) and postings on the librarian listservs (discussed in the “Questions” section below).

Product Reviews: In addition to the sources mentioned above, see the “Product Reviews and Related Information” entry for reviews of legal research tools and other hardware and software products commonly used in law firms.

Questions: The best place to ask a question about law librarianship is on one of the law librarian listserves. The largest of these is Law-Lib, but the regional listservs sponsored by AALL Chapters may be more appropriate for city- or state-specific questions. For Law-Lib, there is an FAQ explaining how to subscribe/post/unsubscribe/etc. For business questions, post to the business librarians’ listserv, BusLib-L.

Before you post, however, you might want to check to see if your question has already been asked and answered by searching the Law-Lib or BusLib-L archives. For Law-Lib, add “site:https://listproc.ucdavis.edu/archives/law-lib/” to a search in Google. For BusLib-L, use the BusLib-L Archives.

Career Information: For information about being or becoming a law librarian, see “Law Librarians.”

Conclusion

Notes

See Also

American Association of Law Libraries
Law Librarians
Libraries
Product Reviews and Related Information

References and Further Reading

About the Author/s and Reviewer/s

Author: international

Mentioned in these Entries

American Legal Institute General Bibliography, Classification of Law Materials, LLSDC’s Legislative Source Book – Title Index by Keyword, Law Librarians’ Society of Washington, Law library, Legal Research.

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