Post for April 20, 2010

Outsourcing legal work is becoming more and more prevalent in large law firms. This is being justified as a cost cutting measure, but is it really ethical? When a client hires a law firm, they trust that their legal matters will either be handled personally or supervised by attorneys authorized to practice law in that particular jurisdiction. Therefore, outsourcing work (whether it can or cannot be classified as practicing law) to individuals from a different country is a violation of that trust. Sending work out into the great unknown and expecting it to be done properly is by no means adequately protecting a client’s interest. I am not saying that all the work done on a file has to be done by an attorney. Law librarians without JDs can often perform legal research more effectively then attorneys. However if they are in-house, the attorneys know their capabilities and can supervise their work. Outsourcing legal work needs to stop before it becomes the norm.

Post for April 13, 2010

Well I always knew that I needed to speak English in order to be a law librarian in this country. But, I never gave it a second thought, because I always thought I spoke English rather well. However, with technology changing so rapidly, it is not only creating an entirely new vocabulary, but a whole new way of communicating. Less than 15 years ago Google did not even exist, now googling is actual word in the dictionary. Only a few years ago the words tweeting, texting and WiFi did not exist as we know them today. But it does not end there, not only is there a whole new vocabulary, there is a whole new way of communicating. Twenty years ago people talked in person, by phone, postal mail and maybe by fax. Now there is e mail, instant messaging, face book, tweeting, blogging, texting and I am sure I missed a few. Now if this isn’t enough, when communicating using IMs, texting and what have you, you have to know what lol, brb, omg and countless other abbreviations stand for. This all makes me wonder if I will be asked if I speak Cybernese in my next interview.

Post for April 6, 2010

In last week’s class we discussed teaching legal research and whether librarians should start by teaching print or electronic resources. When I started law school ten years ago we learned print first and I believe that for us it was the best way to start. However, does this hold true for today’s new students who grew up on computers?
There is logic to starting with print, because it allows the student to actually see the rationale behind how the information is organized. As an example, if someone was looking for a case with the following citation: 123 N.E.2d 456, they would walk to the Northeast Reporters, find volume 123 and turn to page 456. By learning print the students learn the logic behind the organization of legal materials and understanding how information is organized is extremely important when looking for that information.
On the other hand, students who grew up with computers are more comfortable with them and learn to use them with relative easy. So if they understand electronic resources better, then why not capitalize on that? In my opinion, teaching print first makes more sense, but I can understand the logic of starting with electronic materials.

Post for March 30, 2010

The article by Lori Tarpinian, Let Them Know What You Do, addresses the importance of marketing the law library. The author described how by conducting a presentation she was able to clear up misconceptions of what the law librarians actually do. In today’s economy where budget cuts and layoffs are an everyday occurrence, marketing the library’s value is more important than ever. If the users do not know the extent of the services provided, then they will not understand why the librarians are needed.