CALI stands for the Center for Computer-Assisted Legal Instruction (www.cali.org). CALI’s mission is to “advance[ ] global legal education through computer technology, employ research, collaboration, and leadership to assist a diverse audience in the effective use of this technology in legal education, and promote access to justice through the use of computer technology.”
In 1999, a group of academic law librarians met, over a casual dinner, to discuss forming an initiative to work with CALI to foster the creation of CALI lessons specifically devoted to Legal Research. This desire grew out of a concern that with varying approaches to teaching legal research CALI lessons could fill a gap in instruction (or lack thereof) for legal research. By partnering with CALI they could assure an organized approach to creating lessons that today’s law students would find useful. Out of that dinner, and after several follow up meals and snacks, the Legal Research Community Authoring Project was formed as a committee under the auspices of the ALL-SIS.
If you haven’t checked out the CALI legal research lessons recently I think you will be in for a pleasant surprise. CALI now has over 50 lessons covering a variety of legal research topics. The range of lessons covers all basic aspects of legal research as well as advanced topics. For a discussion of how the lessons were used at Georgia State University see: Elizabeth Adelman, CALI Lessons in Legal Research Courses: Alternatives to Reading About Research, 15 Perspectives: Teaching Legal Research and Writing 25 (2006). The Legal Research Group’s most recent project has been to produce CALI Lessons for specific states, divided into primary and secondary sources. Thus far lessons covering Arizona, Georgia, Maryland and Pennsylvania primary sources are available. Look for Ohio, Washington, D.C., Florida, Nevada, North Carolina and New York primary sources in the near future as well as secondary sources for Georgia and Washington, D.C. Another area that the group is looking towards expanding is lessons in international legal research.
The Legal Research Project is always looking for comments from law librarians as to how we can improve the lessons and for new lesson ideas. If you are interested in authoring a CALI lesson, please look at the information contained on the CALI website for the Legal Research Authoring Project. From the “Law Faculty” dropdown, click on “Legal Research Community Authoring Project” and then click on “Apply for the Legal Research Authoring Project” to obtain information about proposed topics from the Legal Research grid as well as deadlines and instructions for submitting an application. You may also contact members of the ALL-SIS CALI Committee for additional information.