Today’s column is devoted to the quiet, unsung heroes of law schools, government libraries, and law firms, the law librarian.
While the job skills and the tasks of the law librarian are many, I have always used mine to aid me in those times when I have epically failed. It is a humbling experience when you are searching for an obscure document for hours, only to have the law librarian produce it for you in minutes. I would sometimes prefer that the law librarian teach me how to fish rather than just giving me one.
They help you avoid rabbit holes and dead-ends. They are far more familiar with the perils of legal research than most, if not all, law professors, lawyers, and law students.
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According to the American Association of Law Libraries, law librarians do far more than that: Law librarians perform tasks such as researching, analyzing, and evaluating the quality, accuracy, and validity of sources; teaching and training; writing; managing; and procuring and classifying library materials.
But wait, you ask. Aren’t law libraries dead? Aren’t books the things of the past? Can’t I just find what I need at my desk in Westlaw?
Um, no. Books are here for the near term, despite proclamations that, decades ago, microfiche would kill them. Databases may be available on your laptop, but sorting through them and knowing which exist can be a daunting challenge in and of itself. And let’s not forget who gets the joy of negotiating licensing fees for those databases (along with having a few of those fees shoved down their throats).
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LawProfBlawg is an anonymous professor at a top 100 law school. You can see more of his musings here and on Twitter. Email him at [email protected].