Legal research is a fundamental skill for all law students and attorneys. Regardless of practice area or work venue, knowledge of the sources and processes of legal research underpins the legal professional’s work. Academic law librarians, as research experts, are uniquely qualified to teach legal research. Whether participating in the mandatory, first-year law school curriculum or offering advanced or specialized legal research instruction, law librarians have the up-to-date knowledge, the broad view of the field, and the expertise to provide the best legal research instruction possible.
This collection offers both theoretical and practical guidance on legal research education from the perspectives of the law librarian. Containing well-reasoned, analytical articles on the topic, the volume explains and supports the law librarian’s role in legal research instruction. The contributors to this book, all experts in teaching legal research, challenge academic law librarians to seize their instructional role in the legal academy.
This book was based on a special issue of Legal Reference Services Quarterly.
1. Introduction Setting the Stage 2. Commentaries on Hicks’ ‘Teaching Legal Bibliography’: With an Addendum by Robert Berring Michael Chiorazzi and Shaun Esposito Legal Research Theory 3. Thinking Like a Research Expert: Schemata for Teaching Complex Problem-Solving Skills Paul D. Callister 4. Teaching Advanced Legal Research: Philosophy and Context Robert C. Berring and Kathleen Vanden Heuvel 5. A Motivational Perspective on First-Year Legal Research Instruction Kris Gilliland Best Practices in Teaching Legal Research 6. Best Practices: What First-Year Law Students Should Learn in a Legal Research Class Nancy P. Johnson 7. On Teaching Advanced Legal Research Christopher A. Knott 8. The Skills They Need: International and Foreign Legal Research Mary Rumsey 9. State-Specific Legal Research Instruction: Curricular Stepchild or Core Competency? Victoria K. Trotta and Beth DiFelice Best Practices in Teaching Legal Research 10. Tubs, Buckets, and a Variety of Lumber: Developing a Strategic Approach to Legal Research Allen Moye Assessment and Technique 11. Legal Research Assessment Simon Canick 12. “Like Sands Through the Hourglass . . . ”: How to Develop a Good Legal Research Problem Susan T. Phillips 13. Teaching Legal Research Online Susan Herrick and Sara Kelley Burriesci Certification and Bar Exam Teaching 14. Who Gets to Be the Expert?: Legal Research Skills Certification in Legal Education Richard Leiter 15. Testing for Research Competency on the Bar Exam: The Next Steps Steven M. Barkan, Susan M. Case, Michael Kane, and Erica Moeser 16. Great Expectations: New Associates’ Research Skills from Law School to Law Firm Jill L. K. Brooks 17. The Development of the Skills Curriculum in Law Schools: Lessons for Directors of Academic Law Libraries Duncan Alford
Biography
Barbara Bintliff, Nicholas Rosenbaum Professor of Law at the University of Colorado Boulder and former president of the American Association of Law Libraries, has been a leader in legal education for several decades and has written extensively and consulted on law school curricula and pedagogy.
Duncan Alford, Associate Dean and Director of the Law Library at the University of South Carolina School of Law, has held various positions in law libraries along the East Coast, has taught legal research in several law schools, and has published articles on law librarianship and international banking law.
