Legal Research and Sourcebook Committee

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Committee Materials:

  • Sourcebook for Teaching Legal Research(AALL Login required) -- Searchable compilation of syllabi, course materials, and research problems used in teaching introductory and advanced legal research.
  • Legal Research Roundtables
    • 2013 Legal Research Roundtable -- Topics for the 2013 roundtable program, jointly sponsored by the Legal Research and Sourcebook Committee (LRSC) and the Task Force on Identifying Legal Skills and Knowledge for Legal Practice.
      1. How many platforms can we teach? Should we still be teaching Westlaw Classic and Lexis.com in addition to WestlawNext, Lexis Advance (and Bloomberg Law)?
      2. Teaching cost-effective research: How to use Westlaw/Lexis/Bloomberg efficiently if available and when and how to use “free” and lower cost alternatives even if they are.
      3. Librarian-taught for-credit research classes.
      4. Complex research exercises: drafting, developing & applying them in law school classes.
      5. Flipping the classroom: What material is best suited for shifting to pre-class student preparation and what are the best ways to use the class time freed up by doing so?
      6. What is the appropriate model for teaching and support of moot court teams, law journal editors, clinical programs, and trial teams?
      7. Teaching legal research to non-JD candidates: Foreign LLM, MLS (Master of Legal Studies), and library (MLIS, and MIS) students.
      8. How practitioners begin and engage in the process of legal research. What do the results of the Task Force survey suggest to us as educators?
      9. Practitioners’ use of specific types of resources and tools for legal research, including free internet resources. What do the results of the Task Force survey suggest to us as educators?
      10. Practitioners’ opinions about the research skills of recent law school graduates and legal research education. What do the results of the Task Force survey suggest to us as educators?
    • 2010 Legal Research Roundtable -- Summary of the 2010 ALL-SIS Legal Research Roundtable discussions about:   1) teaching foreign and international law research; 2) teaching specialized legal research courses; 3) producing CLE programs or courses for CLE credit; 4) students’ use and expectation of technology; 5) the availability and use of technology in the law school and in the classroom; 6) cooperation between academic, firm, and court librarians to effectively teach legal research; 7) what steps have libraries and/or library departments taken to cope with budget cuts and poor financial conditions? 8) will teaching legal research change if it becomes part of the bar exam? and, 9) developing, drafting and application of complex research exercises. Discussions were well attended and special thanks goes to all the volunteer moderators and note takers.
    • 2009 Legal Research Roundtable -- Summary of the 2009 ALL-SIS Legal Research Roundtable discussions, including texts used in teaching basic legal research, sources covered (teach administrative regulations to first year students?), evaluation methods, and best practices for designing legal research courses.
    • 2008 Legal Research Roundtable -- Summary of the 2008 ALL-SIS Legal Research Roundtable discussions, including Teaching Introductory Legal Research, "To Text or Not to Text," Effectively Integrating Legal Research Instruction with Legal Writing, Role of Information Literacy in Teaching Legal Research, Teaching Research to Foreign and LLM Students, and Teaching Advanced & Specialized Research.
    • 2007 Legal Research Roundtable -- Not available.
    • 2006 Legal Research Roundtable -- Summary of the 2006 ALL-SIS Legal Research Roundtable discussions, including Teaching Legal Research to Foreign and LLM Students, Using Instructional Technology in Teaching Legal Research, Teaching Introductory Legal Research, and Teaching Advanced and Specialized Legal Research.
    • 2005 Advanced Legal Research Roundtable -- Summary of the 2005 ALL-SIS Advanced Legal Research Roundtable, including attendees' suggestions for improving various aspects of ALR courses.
  • ALL-SIS Legal Research Survey Results
  • ALL-SIS Legal Research and Sourcebook Committee Chair Handbook 2007

Suggestions -- Do you have a suggestion on how to improve the ALL-SIS Legal Research and Sourcebook Committee web pages - to make things more accessible or user friendly? Do you have any ideas for the upcoming annual conference? If so, please email the Legal Research and Sourcebook Committee Chair. Your suggestions and ideas enable us to make these pages more useful to you. Thank you.