Many academic law librarians have the opportunity to teach, and for three years I have been teaching an advanced legal research class covering business and tax topics. I created the class, guided it through the approval process, and have been the final decision-maker on what topics will be covered in the course. It has been a great experience and helped me learn more about one area that I dealt with quite a bit as an attorney and another area that gave me nightmares during law school but has proved to be fascinating from a research perspective.
Looking back over these last three years, I often think about the rationale for selecting the material I cover each semester. I consulted excellent resources such as Federal Tax Research and Specialized Legal Research for basic background information, and became proficient with the relevant commercial databases and online resources. But is there something I should be covering that would be particularly useful for the students? Should I spend time on basic substantive issues, such as the types of business organizations or fundamental tax concepts? How much time should I devote to Westlaw and Lexis while also introducing more subject specific databases such as BNA, CCH IntelliConnect and RIA Checkpoint? I have come to the conclusion that it would be worthwhile to ask my fellow librarians for their opinions on these and other questions related to the content of my business and tax class.
In the near future, I will be sending out online surveys to law firm and government librarians in my state to get their opinions regarding the content of the class. This seems like the appropriate audience as many of our students practice in this region. I even asked my students this semester to fill out a detailed survey, and will do so again at the end of the class, to see how they feel about the topics we cover. Overall, I am hoping to find out if the material examined is useful, a bit off course, or completely irrelevant to the daily practice of law. With that as background, I think there are at least two positives that can come from this project.
1. Other opinions can’t hurt – you may even learn something
Why not talk with the people out in the field dealing with these issues on a daily basis? It is always informative to converse with law firm and governmental librarians, as they are often working on different time demands and with cost being an issue. They may tell me that XYZ database is just not that useful for their attorneys, while ABC governmental agency provides a quality web site with current information in a user friendly manner. I could learn that certain searches are exclusively done by paralegals, and it would be helpful if the attorneys were able to do this work themselves.
I have always been very receptive to the opinions of the students in my class. Many of them have some type of law firm experience and have seen the benefits of quality legal research skills. Last year, a student informed me that 123 database was the preferred search tool with his law firm due to the cost certainty provided by their subscription. He was excited to learn more about this database in class, and his comments sparked interest from his fellow students. Why can’t the same thing happen with the information I can gather from other law librarians? They may tell me that a certain database is great for this type of research, and wish that their associates were more familiar with it coming into the firm. I could then add more assignments working with this resource and maybe even work on training sessions for groups beyond the class. It could be a win-win situation for everyone.
2. This is a great opportunity to network with other law librarians
It seems like the only time I see librarians from outside my library is when I have the opportunity to attend a conference. When I have needed to reach out to others, everyone has been kind, interesting and more than willing to help. I see this project as an opportunity to not only enhance the product of my class, but also to become familiar with the other law librarians in my geographic area. There may be a day when they have a certain resource that I need access to, or vice versa, and any minor connection made through a simple 10 minute online survey may make the difference in completing a research project.
The semester is moving along and the faculty and students are getting back into their academic routines. While other projects always come up, I am pushing ahead and working on survey questions, examining the best online survey tools, and finalizing lists of who I want to contact in my quest to critique the subject matter of my advanced legal research class. The entire endeavor may take days, weeks or even months to complete, but I have no doubt that the benefits from learning more about what our students should be learning will prove well worth the time and effort.