Survey Roundup

This article compiles the results reported from informal surveys circulated via the ALL-SIS listserv from mid-May to December 2009. Questions posed via the forum which received minimal response or which sought qualitative or narrative responses that could not be readily quantified have been omitted.

In this reporting period, lively discussion was engendered by questions on legal research instruction, and two questions on growing trends relating to “the library as space” – card key access and food and drink policies.

Legal Research Teaching & Materials

Question:  Legal research and writing
Summary:  28 responses; summary below includes only the questions that yielded readily quantifiable responses focusing on first year, basic, or required legal research (LR) courses, disregarding Advanced Legal Research (ALR) or International/Foreign Legal Research (IFLR) courses. All responses below tabulated by compiler; narrative responses in Word document posted to forum –

• At least one law librarian currently teaching LR courses - 24:
• All teaching librarians have dual degree - 15;
• Some teaching librarians have dual degree - 7;
• No teaching librarians have dual degree - 1.
• Relation with legal writing (LW) courses:
• Part of/integrated with/flow from LW - 18;
• Complementary/coordinated with but separate from LW - 6;
• Freestanding/independent from - 4.
• Course duration:
• Portions of one-semester course - 2;
• Full semester - 4;
• Portions of two semesters - 10;
• Two full semesters - 6;
• Portions of three semesters - 1;
• Varies - 2.
• Age of current model for teaching LR:
• Two years or less - 3;
• Three to five years - 6;
• Six to ten years - 10;
• More than ten years - 5.
• Teaching librarians have other public services duties - 24:
• Teaching considered part of full-time workload - 11;
• Teaching is in addition to full-time workload - 13.
• Supplemental elective courses on ALR/IFLR mentioned or described - 13.

Source:  Jeff Woodmansee, Information Services Specialist at University of Arkansas at Little Rock/Pulaski County Law Library.

Question:  Models for legal research/writing instruction integrated with substantive law
Summary:  2 requests to post results, and 1 model summarized:

• First-year legal writing is integrated with substantive Criminal Law class;
• Librarians provide a legal research lab as part of program (7 sessions devoted to hands on legal research instruction and assignments).

Source:  Susan Nevelow Mart, Faculty Services Librarian at University of California Hastings College of the Law Library.
Posted August 19, 2009. Subject:  Results:  Another Question About LW&R

Faculty/Student Services & Programs

Question:  Card key access to library or law school building for students
Summary:  23 responses –

• 24/7 access - 10;
• Staff/security after hours?
• Security (present or make periodic sweeps) - 7;
• Security cameras - 7;
• Security phones directly to campus police - 7.
• Theft prevention (e.g., lock down certain wings or camera triggered by gate alarm):
• 10 reported closing off parts of the collection;
• 1 school specifically mentioned theft problems;
• 11 schools specifically mentioned they had not had theft problems.
• Any positive or negative experiences managing the key access system:
• 3 schools reported technical problems using the system;
• 7 schools said the system worked fine.

Source:  Lee F. Peoples, Associate Professor of Law Library Science at Oklahoma City University Law Library.
Posted June 4, 2009. Subject:  summary of card key access responses

Question:  Fellowship opportunities for experienced faculty on sabbatical
Summary:

• American Council of Learned Societies:  http://www.acls.org/grants/Default.aspx?id=354;
• American Society of International Law, Tillar House Sabbatical Fellowship:  http://www.asil.org/job-internship-opportunities.cfm;
• Bellagio Center, by the Rockefeller Foundation:  http://www.rockfound.org/bellagio/bellagio.shtml;
• Berkeley Law Senior Visiting Scholars:  http://www.law.berkeley.edu/62.htm;
• Columbia Law School Visiting Scholar and Research Fellow Program:  http://www.law.columbia.edu/center_program/intl_progs/Visiting_Schol;
• Cornell University Law School Visiting Scholars:  http://www.lawschool.cornell.edu/international/faculty_scholars/scholar_application.cfm;
• Flinders University (Australia):  http://www.flinders.edu.au/ehlt/law/research-activities/visiting-scholar-program.cfm (original link updated by compiler);
• Fulbright Distinguished Chairs Program:  http://www.cies.org/Chairs/;
• Fulbright Scholars (traditional Fulbright program):  http://www.cies.org/us_scholars/us_awards/;
• Georgetown Law Visiting Researcher Program (fee waivers are often granted):  http://www.law.georgetown.edu/intl/vsvr.htm;
• Guggenheim Foundation:  http://www.gf.org/about-the-foundation/the-fellowship/;
• Princeton University Law and Public Affairs Fellows Program:  http://lapa.princeton.edu/fellowships.php;
• Melbourne Law School Visiting Scholar Program:  http://www.law.unimelb.edu.au/index.cfm?objectId=618808F4-B0D0-AB80-E2306D277856CA25 (original link updated by compiler);
• Northwestern Law Visiting Scholars:  http://www.law.northwestern.edu/faculty/visitingscholar.html;
• Swiss Institute of Comparative Law, Van Calker Fellow:  http://isdc.ch/en/institut.asp/4-0-10310-5-4-0/ (original link updated by compiler);
• University of South Carolina, Charles Knowlton Law and Liberal Arts Visiting Scholar:  http://law.sc.edu/knowlton/;
• Resources for finding fellowship and grant information:
• The Community of Science (searchable, subscription-based database):  http://www.cos.com/;
• SPIN (from InfoEd, subscription-based search program):  http://www1.infoed.org/modules/grantsAndContracts.cfm (original link updated by compiler);
• SSRN weekly professional announcements, for example LSN Professional Announcements:  http://www.ssrn.com/update/lsn/lsnann/lsn_ann.html#Grants (sample link added by compiler).

Source:  Karen L. Wallace, Circulation/Reference Librarian and Professor of Librarianship at Drake University Law Library.
Posted July 6, 2009. Subject:  Fellowship opportunities for senior faculty

Question:  Faculty research services
Summary:  ~16 responses (details and narrative in Word document posted to forum) –

• 11 respondents with job titles that included the term Faculty Services;
• Portion of duties devoted to faculty research:  range of 20-100%:
• Varies by season:  3;
• 20 - 39%:  5;
• 40 - 59%:  2;
• 60 - 79%:  2;
• 80 - 100%:  3.
• # of faculty supported:  range of 40-120 faculty; activity level varies from very few to 50%;
• # of adjuncts and level of service provided:  range of 12 - 150+ adjuncts:
• Differences in outreach, including use of liaisons:  6;
• Differences in level of service offered:  5;
• Differences in usage by adjuncts:  5.
• Use of students for faculty research:
• No students:  4;
• 1 - 3 students:  9;
• 5 or more:  1;
• Types of students:  law students - 9; library students - 1.
• Use of faculty liaisons:  Yes, same as reference service - 11; no liaisons - 3;
• Document delivery associated with faculty research:  Yes - 15; no - 1;
• Challenges:
• Staffing and balancing workload:  7;
• Marketing:  4;
• Quality of contact/collegiality with faculty:  3;
• Training/managing students:  2.

Source:  Ellen Platt, Senior Reference Librarian at Heafey Law Library, Santa Clara University.
Posted July 15, 2009. Subject:  Results for Faculty Services inquiry

Question:  Food and drink policies
Summary:  25 responses (details in Excel spreadsheet posted to forum) –

• Drinks allowed, but no food:  8;
• Drinks allowed, snacks allowed:  7;
• Drinks allowed, some foods allowed:  4;
• Drinks, Food Okay:  6.

Source:  Robert M. Linz, Associate Director & Head of Public Services at University of Colorado Law School William A. Wise Law Library.
Posted November 25, 2009. Subject:  Food and Drink Policy Reply Summary

Collection Management & Cataloging

Question:  Bindery policy/procedure changes
Summary:  16 responses (details and narrative posted to forum) –

• Budget reasons mentioned:  10;
• Space/usage considerations:  3;
• Efficiency/redundancy:  3;
• No policy changes (yet):  3.

Source:  Courtney Selby, Collection Development/Instructional Services Librarian at the Mabee Legal Information Center, University of Tulsa.
Posted June 14, 2009. Subject:  binder changes survey--summarized results

New Publications, Resources & Technologies

Question:  Repository or other systems for publishing open access journals
Summary:  7 responses –

• 3 libraries:  their journals are not open access;
• 2 libraries:  journals post issues as PDF files on law school server;
• 1 library:  school uses Open Journal Systems (OJS) for their journals; respondent also thought one other institution may use Sharepoint for online versions;
• 1 library:  project to put all back issues on school’s Digital Commons.

Source:  Michelle Pearse, Bibliographer for Anglo-American Law at Harvard Law School Library.
Posted June 30, 2009. Subject:  FW: law school journals