Blogs Related to Mine

Now that my blog has been created, the next assignment for my ISAR class is to find a blog related to mine and share it here. My blog is about law librarianship so I wanted to find a blog related directly to law librarianship if I could, or to law libraries generally. I used Google’s service, GoogleBlog (http://blogsearch.google.com), for my search. I tried several different search terms, including "law libraries" and "law librarians," in order to see whether my search results would differ in number of hits or relevance. In terms of relevance, I saw many of the same blogs at the top of the results using each query. I also tried a few other search engines, but in the end, I was happiest with the results provided by GoogleBlog. Many of the blogs were those of law libraries, especially academic law libraries at law schools. These had information which concerned legal developments, legal literature, and issues specific to law libraries in general in a few instances. However, most of these blogs had postings that were concerned with matters related only to the particular host law library (i.e., events to be held at that specific library, new titles acquired there, etc.)

I was happy to find several blogs related specifically to law librarianship or issues impacting law libraries generally. My favorite among these was Law Librarian Blog, (A Member of the Law Professors Blog Network). This is a wonderful blog whose contributing editors are law librarians from libraries and institutions across the country. It is just over four years old and has logged over 1,000,000 page views. There are useful links to legal articles and primary source information of interest to legal professionals, information about new technologies and information resources, upcoming conferences or events for law librarians, law librarian job openings and more. There's even a link to Bonnie Shucha's Directory of more than 100 other law library blogs. (http://library.law.wisc.edu/wisblawg/blogslistpublic.htm) The blog search feature and topical archives were also very helpful. I have posted an excerpt from the blog below which demonstrates the topical relevance of the blog to my own.

Excerpt from Law Librarian Blog webpage located at: http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/law_librarian_blog/

New Report on Emerging Information Technologies In their 2009 “Horizon Report,” EDUCAUSE and the New Media Consortium report on six emerging technologies likely to impact education (and implicitly, libraries) in the near future. The report discusses all-in-one mobile devices, cloud computing, geographic data, personalized Web media, new Semantic Web tools, and physical objects made “smart” by sensors and identifiers. Hat tip to Roy Tennant.

Robert Richards
January 27, 2009 in Information Technology | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Carnegie Report Co-Author Identifies Opportunities for Academic Law Librarians Judith Welch Wegner (North Carolina), co-author of Educating Lawyers: Preparation for the Profession of Law ("Carnegie Report"), writes that "law librarians have an opportunity to enhance their teaching and institutional contributions as part of a broad effort to improve the preparation of lawyers." in Teaching Legal Research: Educating Lawyers, AALL Spectrum (February 2009). She outlines seven challenges and associated possibilities for law librarians.

[JH]
January 27, 2009 in Legal Research Instruction | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

150 Law Library/Librarian Blogs and Counting Bonnie Shucha (UW Law Library) has updated her directory of law library/librarian blogs. As of Jan. 9th there was 150 active blogs. Great job Bonnie!

[JH]
January 21, 2009 in Web Communications | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

A few additional blogs that I found had very good information for law librarians were Law Lib Tech, http://www.lawlibtech.com/ (concerning library technology and knowledge management), and AALL Spectrum Blog, http://aallspectrum.wordpress.com/ (a blog from the monthly magazine of the American Association of Law Libraries). Of the many academic law library blogs, one of my favorites was the "Goodson Blogson" from the Goodson Law Library of Duke University at http://dukelawref.blogspot.com. I am very happy to have found these useful law librarian blogs and to have them stored here for my future reference. I look forward to reading them regularly.

About My Blog

This blog was created for a dual purpose.  Firstly, I have created it to meet the requirements of my Information Storage and Retrieval class (LS 5013) at Texas Woman's University where I am pursuing my Master's in Library Science.  Secondly, I hope to use this blog to document my discoveries and explore my interest in the field of library science, with a particular focus on law librarianship.

I obtained a secondary teaching certificate during the course of my undergraduate studies, but went directly to law school after graduation from college.  I was admitted to the State Bar of Texas as an attorney and enjoyed serving in the profession of law, before taking time off to focus on family.  However, I always was curious about a career in law librarianship and have finally made the decision to obtain a Master's in Library Science to meet this career goal.  In researching this career field, I discovered that law librarians work in law school libraries, government agency libraries, court and bar libraries, and private law firms and corporations. Almost every position for a law librarian requires the MLS degree, very few will hire someone who only has the J.D., and many require both the J.D. and MLS.  The latter is particularly true in law school libraries where law librarians frequently have law professor status on a tenure-track, and in some government libraries where a higher degree in addition to the MLS is required.  Although my teaching certificate and family obligations suggest exploring opportunities in school librarianship, at least for a time, my goal is to ultimately utilize my law background to serve in a law library.

Law librarianship is somewhat unique in that there has been much debate about preparation for law librarians.  There are necessary subject competencies for law librarians, namely knowledge of the law and the US legal system, the legal profession and its terminology, legal literature, and ethics.  This is why many law librarians enter the field already having their J.D.s, or subsequently obtain a law degree, take law school courses or special courses and programs of the American Association of Law Libraries, or in some cases, may obtain a Master's of Legal Studies.  Having the Juris Doctor has provided me with a foundation in the necessary subject competencies.  However, the general competencies of librarianship will be provided by the MLS through the core courses and electives I will take.  I am interested particularly in learning how technical services operate in the law library setting.  I want to explore the issues specific to law libraries that may arise in acquistions, cataloging, serials, and preservation.  My topic focus should narrow as I learn more in my studies. Obviously, most research and reference law librarians are hired for their skills and expertise in the subject competencies, therefore most of these tend to have both the J.D. and MLS.  I hope to end up in a law school as a Reference/Research Librarian one day, aiding faculty and teaching students, and possibly even as a director of a law school library. However, I think a strong grounding in technical services, combined with the J.D., would increase career opportunities and development.

I look forward to using this blog to record what I learn and store helpful information I retrieve along the way.