Jennifer Loope Selby
International Law Librarian
University of Michigan Law Library
Ann Arbor, MI
How I Became A Law Librarian
AALL Spectrum February, 2003
I first became interested in law librarianship while I was a student at Chicago-Kent College of Law from 1993–1996. I was fortunate to have Gretchen Van Dam, then law librarian at Chicago-Kent, as a professor in a legal research and writing class. Van Dam and I discussed her path to academic law librarianship, and I immediately became interested in librarianship as a career option. However I also felt that practicing law would prove to be important also. And so, I continued on my original path of becoming a patent attorney.
While practicing law, I never lost sight of my interest in academic law librarianship. After several years, I decided that I wanted to continue with a career that would allow me to do what I liked best about being an attorney, such as conducting legal research and working with legal resource materials. I also wanted to pursue a career where I could teach others how to navigate and use legal materials.
So I attended library school at the University of Michigan. While I was student there, I was fortunate to work at the law library. That experience helped to confirm that I had made the right choice about my new career.
For More Information About Law Librarianship or the AALL Recruitment Committee, contact committee chair Sarah Mauldin.