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Sourcebook for Teaching Legal Research (login required) — Searchable compilation of syllabi, course materials, and research problems used in teaching introductory and advanced legal research.
Legal Research Roundtable Notes
- 2023 Summary
- 2022 Summary
- 2018 Summary
- 2017 Summary
- 2016 Summary
- 2013 Summary – topics: 1) How many platforms can we teach? 2) Teaching cost-effective research 3) Librarian-taught for-credit research classes 4) Complex research exercises 5) Flipping the classroom 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 8) Teaching legal research in a distance learning environment 9) Practitioners’ use of specific types of resources and tools for legal research, including free internet resources and 10) Practitioners’ opinions about the research skills of recent law school graduates and legal research education.
- 2010 Summary – topics: 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 Summary – topics: 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 Summary – topics: 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.
- 2006 Summary – topics: 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 Summary – topic: suggestions for improving various aspects of ALR courses.
ALL-SIS Legal Research Survey Results
- 2010-2011 Legal Research Survey Results and Report (prepared by a four-member subcommittee of the ALL-SIS Legal Research and Sourcebook Committee) — Gathers data about legal research instruction at law schools across the United States. The report describes the process of developing and administering the survey and summarizes the findings in four categories: 1) general overview information; 2) first-year legal research instruction; 3) advance legal research instruction; and 4) other legal research offerings. Appendices include copy of the survey question and copy of the distribution letter. The report and findings were presented as a Poster Session titled Law Librarians as Educators: A Survey of Our Involvement in Teaching at the 2012 AALL Annual Meeting in Boston, MA.
- 2004 LexisNexis and Westlaw Instruction Survey (by ALL-SIS Relations with Online Vendors Committee) — Covers how law schools teach LexisNexis and Westlaw, including whether it is taught by vendor representatives or librarians, and how much is taught.
- 2002 Advanced Legal Research Survey Results — Covers how advanced legal research is taught (format, credits, by whom, with what technology, etc.).
ALL-SIS Legal Research Committee Materials
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.