Law Librarian Blog

Opening: Law Library Director, Riverside County Law Library

Riverside County Law Library is seeking a Library Director to plan, organize and direct one of the larger public law libraries in Southern California.

Interviews can be scheduled at AALL's Portland Meeting. Contact Gayle Webb at gaylew@rclawlib.org

Responsibilities: The Director reports to and serves at the pleasure of the County Board of Law Library Trustees composed of 4 judges and 3 attorneys. The Director leads a staff of 7 FTE staff at its main location in downtown Riverside, 1.5 FTE staff at its branch in Indio and oversees an annual operations budget of $1.3 million. The Director will be involved in the relocation of both libraries and the possibility of establishing a second branch in the near future. The Director will represent the Law Library as an active member of law library professional organizations and local community activities.

Required: M.L.S. from an ALA accredited institution; significant management and budgeting experience in a law library setting; strong leadership and team management skills; excellent written and verbal communication skills; understanding and application of computer-based legal information systems; a commitment to service and outreach to the community.

Preferred: Advanced academic degree, including M.P.A., J.D., or other academic field; understanding of accounting principles for government entities; publications in professional journals.

Salary and Benefits: Competitive salary commensurate with qualifications and experience. Liberal benefits including CalPERS retirement system.

To Apply: Submit cover letter, resume, three references and salary requirements to:

The Honorable Victor Miceli, President of the Board of Law Library Trustees,
Riverside County Law Library
3989 Lemon Street
Riverside, CA 92501

Applications accepted until position is filled. Questions regarding this position may be directed to Gayle Webb at gaylew@rclawlib.org.

Opening: Web Developer/Systems Administrator, Suffolk University

The Web Developer/Systems Administrator is responsible for developing web applications to support the Law School's web site, web based learning management system, other web based systems and for creating interfaces between systems. In addition, this position is responsible for systems administration in both a Windows and Linux environment. This position will also work collaboratively on key projects and initiatives with the other academic computing units, and the central ITS group at the University.

Requires: BS in Computer Science or equivalent education and experience; experience with web development tools using Cold Fusion, Java; experience with Microsoft SQL server; experience in system administration (Windows, Linux, UNIX); experience with HTML, CSS, and Java Script; experience using graphics programs such as Adobe Photoshop and/or Flash; experience with Dreamweaver; working knowledge of website security techniques; good communication skills.

All interested candidates are asked to apply online at http://jobs.suffolk.edu/applicants/Central?quickFind=51033

Opening: Web Resources/Reference Librarian, University of Florida Law Library

The Lawton Chiles Legal Information Center at the University of Florida Levin College of Law seeks a Reference/Web Resources Librarian.  The ideal candidate will be creative, dynamic, and forward-thinking, with a sincere love of teaching.  The normal work schedule for this position will include an evening shift or a weekend work day.

The Legal Information Center (LIC) is one of the largest law libraries in the Southeast.  It is administratively autonomous from the University of Florida Smathers Libraries.  The LIC serves approximately 65 faculty and over 1,200 law students.  In addition, the LIC’s user community includes students in other Colleges at the University of Florida, members of the Florida Bar, and the general public. 

Responsibilities:

The primary goal of this position will be to transform the library’s presence on the Internet from a mere web site into an information resource that will serve all our constituencies.  To accomplish this goal, the Reference/Web Resources Librarian will do the following:

1. Work closely with the College of Law’s Webmaster and Communications Office to keep the library’s web site correct and up-to-date.
2. Optimize and maintain the usability and functionality of the library’s web site.
3. Work closely with the Instructional Services Librarian to improve Internet support services to faculty and to new distance education programs.
4. Act as public services liaison to vendors of electronic resources.
5. Identify relevant projects for digitization.
6. Assist the Legal Information Center’s Archivist in maintaining an online history of the Levin College of Law.

The Reference/Web Resources Librarian will also perform traditional Reference duties as a member of the Public Services team.  Additional responsibilities include the following:

7. Participate in the library’s education program:

• Teach advanced legal research once a year via traditional and non-traditional (i.e., hybrid and distance learning) classes, and design and prepare instructional materials.
• Provide in-library instruction to law and non-law students.
• Keep abreast of trends in adult education, bibliographic instruction and electronic media by reviewing the academic literature and through attendance at conferences.

8. Perform liaison services to College of Law faculty, centers and programs.
9. Actively participate in collection management and collection development, with assigned duties as a selector for one or more subject areas.
10. Contribute to the University of Florida Libraries, the University of Florida, and the profession through substantive involvement in such activities as committee work, research, publishing, and participation in professional organizations.

Required Qualifications:

1. J.D. and Masters in Library Science from accredited institutions.
2. Web design skills and experience, including understanding of and experience with usability testing.
3. Skill in the use of electronic legal research tools, especially LexisNexis and Westlaw.
4. Excellent interpersonal, written and oral communication skills.
5. Ability to be a “team player” and to work with people from many different departments, backgrounds, generations, working styles, and skill sets.

Preferred Qualifications:

1. Recent graduate of JD or MLS program with latest knowledge of web tools and technologies.
2. Teaching experience and ability to communicate with a variety of academic audiences.
3. Instructional design skills and experience with technology applications in support of multiple education platforms.
4. Foreign language skills (reading proficiency in another language).

Minimum salary: $50,000. This is a full-time, 40-hour week, tenure track position.

Benefits:

1. Twenty-two vacation days and 13 sick leave days annually.
2. Health, disability, and life insurance benefits, in addition to retirement benefits.  Details at http://www.hr.ufl.edu/benefits/
3. No state or local income tax.

To apply: Visit http://jobs.ufl.edu/ and Search Positions using Requisition # 0800039.  Submit an application using the online system.  Deadline for applications will be July 31, 2008.

Jamaica's Justice Minister Highlights Critical Role of Law Librarians at CARALL's Annual Conference

Speaking at the annual conference of the Caribbean Association of Law Librarians (CARALL) earlier this week, Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Senator Dorothy Lightbourne, highlighted the critical role  law librarians play in providing information required in the legal profession. Read more about it. [JH]

House of Lords Launches YouTube Channel

In a PR move designed to make it appear more relevant, Britain's House of Lords has launched it's own YouTube channel. Apparently it doesn't work for me because the videos I found interesting were virtual tours of Westminster Hall in 1099 and 1400 below. See also: Lords of the Blog, "an experimental project to encourage direct dialogue between web users across the world and Members of the House of Lords." Hat tip to MSNBC. [JH]

Virtual Tour of Westminster Hall in 1099

Virtual Tour of Westminster Hall in 1400

Zittrain on The Future of the Internet: Towards Civic Technologies

In this keynote talk at Personal Democracy Forum 2008: Rebooting the System, Jonathan Zittrain (Harvard) discusses how the Internet is held together by technologies of cooperation; how the openness that has made the Internet and the PC powerful forces of "generative" innovation may not last; and what must be done preserve the future of the open Internet. View the video.

Zittrain's new book, The Future of the Internet--And How to Stop It (Yale UP, 2008), was featured on LLB here. [JH]

Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Online Video

American University’s Glushko-Samuelson Intellectual Property Clinic and the Center for Social Media have released a code of best practices that helps creators, online providers, copyright holders, and others interested in the making of online video interpret the copyright doctrine of fair use. [Press release] The code of practices is organized around six very common situations (listed below) that come up for online video makers.

• Commenting on or critiquing of copyrighted material
• Using copyrighted material for illustration or example
• Capturing copyrighted material incidentally or accidentally
• Reproducing, reposting, or quoting in order to memorialize, preserve, or rescue an experience, an event, or a cultural phenomenon
• Copying, reposting, and recirculating a work or part of a work for purposes of launching a discussion
• Quoting in order to recombine elements to make a new work that depends for its meaning on (often unlikely) relationships between the elements

Hat tip to Alex Curtis, Public Knowledge's Policy Blog. [JH]

Professional Reading: Open Access as a Public Good

Need something to read on the flight to Portland? You can download John Willinsky's The Access Principle: The Case for Open Access to Research and Scholarship (MIT Press, 2005) from the MIT Press site. Also recommended, Danner's (Duke) Applying the Access Principle in Law: The Responsibilities of the Legal Scholar [SSRN] (applies Willinsky's open access argument to legal literature). [JH]

New Titles from Ashgate

Details below the fold. [JH]

• The European Union and the Culture Industries: Regulation and the Public Interest edited by David Ward
• Law at the Vanishing Point: A Philosophical Analysis of International Law by Aaron Fichtelberg
• Hate on the Net: Extremist Sites, Neo-fascism On-line, Electronic Jihad by Antonio Roversi
• Responding to Terrorism: Political, Philosophical and Legal Perspectives by Robert Imre, T. Brian Mooney and Benjamin Clarke
• Islam Beyond Conflict: Indonesian Islam and Western Political Theory edited by Azyumardi Azra and Wayne Hudson

The European Union and the Culture Industries
Regulation and the Public Interest
Edited by David Ward

June 2008 * 282 pages * 978-0-7546-7018-6

Description: This edited collection brings together leading academics in their respective fields to examine the European Union's impact on media and public policy. It provides an analysis of the broader areas of EU policy and links these together to give a greater appreciation of the nuances and scope of EU regulatory initiatives and their impact on the member states. Under a broad public interest perspective, the authors provide an assessment of the success of EU policy in protecting the public interest in the culture industries and respecting certain normative principles and balancing these with market dynamics.

Law at the Vanishing Point
A Philosophical Analysis of International Law
Aaron Fichtelberg

June 2008 * 244 pages * 978-0-7546-7251-7

Description: Two central questions are at the core of international legal theory: 'What is international law?', and 'Is international law really law?' This volume examines these critical questions and the philosophical foundations of modern international law using the tools of Anglo-American legal theory and western political thought. Engaging with both contemporary and historical legal theory and with an analysis of international law in action, the book builds an understanding and theory of law from the perspective of those who actually use this legal system and understand it, rather than constructing an artificial system from the standpoint of political scientists and moral philosophers. Law at the Vanishing Point provides a fascinating new challenge to those who reduce international law either to ethics or to politics and provides a critical new appraisal of its power as an independent force in human social relations.

Hate on the Net
Extremist Sites, Neo-fascism On-line, Electronic Jihad
Antonio Roversi

June 2008 * 158 pages * 978-0-7546-7214-2

Description: Terrorists, subversive political groups and gangs with violent agendas have found an easy and convenient means to promulgate their messages of hate – cyberspace. Whilst debate about the use of the internet by extremist groups rages around governments and media alike, little has hitherto been presented as analysis of the websites themselves. Timely and topical, Antonio Roversi presents an insightful look at the unregulated, anonymous, and easily accessible nature of the Internet and how it has been used to raise funds, recruit, train and promote acts of violence and disorder.

Responding to Terrorism
Political, Philosophical and Legal Perspectives
Robert Imre, T. Brian Mooney and Benjamin Clarke

June 2008 * 248 pages * 978-0-7546-7277-7

Description: Terrorism and political violence as a field is growing and expanding. This volume provides a cross-disciplinary analysis – political, philosophical and legal – in a single text and will appeal to readers interested in studying this phenomenon from all perspectives. The volume covers the full spectrum of issues, including torture, terrorism causes and cures, legal issues, globalization and counter-terrorism.

Islam Beyond Conflict
Indonesian Islam and Western Political Theory
Edited by Azyumardi Azra and Wayne Hudson

June 2008 * 248 pages * 978-0-7546-7092-6

Description: Politically, Islam in Indonesia is part of a rich multi-cultural mix. Religious tolerance is seen as the cornerstone of relations between different faiths - and moderation is built into the country's constitutional framework. However, the advent of democracy coupled with the impact of the South-East Asian economic collapse in 1997, and the arrival of a tough new breed of Middle Eastern Islamic preachers, sowed the seeds of the current challenge to Indonesia's traditionally moderate form of Islam. This volume explores the extent to which moderate Indonesian Islam is able to assimilate leading concepts from Western political theory. The essays in the collection explore how concepts from Western political theory are compatible with a liberal interpretation of Islamic universals and how such universals can form the basis for a contemporary approach to the protection of human rights and the articulation of a modern Islamic civil society.

Opening: Deputy Law Library Director, Loyola New Orleans

Loyola University New Orleans College of Law Library invites nominations and applications for the position of Deputy Law Library Director, a tenure-track law library faculty position.  The Deputy Director of the Law Library assists the Law Library Director in general administrative duties, including long and short term planning, budget preparation and supervision, collection development, automation efforts, and major purchases.  This individual directs the operation of the Law Library in the director’s absence.  The Deputy Director directly supervises one or more law library departments.  Appointment would be at the rank of Assistant or Associate Professor (Law Library). 

Minimum Qualifications:  Master of Library Science degree from an ALA accredited program and seven years of relevant experience, preferably in an academic or large institutional law library.  Superior oral and written communication abilities as well as demonstrated interpersonal and supervisory skills. 

Competitive salary commensurate with qualifications.

Interested applicants should send or e-mail a cover letter and resume to P. Michael Whipple, Law Library Director and Professor of Law, Loyola University College of Law Library, 7214 St. Charles Ave., New Orleans, LA  70118; e-mail pmwhippl@loyno.edu. 

The College of Law Library encourages applications from women and minorities.  Applicants whose backgrounds or research interests would enhance our faculty diversity are especially encouraged to apply.

China's Perspective on Tibet

China and envoys of the Dalai Lama met last week in Beijing to discuss possibly having more discussions about Tibet later this year after the Olympics. Most Americans who know anything about Tibet know only one side of the story: the Tibetan government in exile's side, whose high-profile backers include politician Nancy Pelosi, actor Richard Gere, and musician Adam Yauch (aka MCA) of the Beastie Boys. Although not well known and lacking such backers, the Chinese side is still worth learning about to get a nuanced understanding of this half-century old international controversy. "Tibet touches a raw nerve for many Chinese, including those living overseas, because of the legacy of foreign intervention in China during the 19th century and early 20th century. British troops invaded Tibet in 1903 and 1904 as the Qing Dynasty was nearing collapse. Today, many Chinese recall the role of the Central Intelligence Agency in Tibet during the 1950s and interpret Western sympathy for the current protests as another foreign effort to destabilize and divide China." –-- Jim Yardley, New Museum Offers the Official Line on Tibet, New York Times (April 17, 2008). For more nuance, check out the following English-language websites: China Central Television (CCTV) documentary: The Past of Tibet; China Tibet Information Center; Chinese Government White Papers (six are specifically on Tibet); and People's Daily: Tell You a True Tibet. [RLS]

Editor's Note: With this post, I'm delighted to announce that Roy Sturgeon has joined LLB as a contributing editor. Roy is Touro's Foreign & International Law Librarian and an Adjunct Professor. He also serves as the library liaison to the Public Advocacy Center. He earned his JD from Valparaiso, MLS from St. John's, and LLM in Chinese Law, with distinction, from Tsinghua University Law School (Beijing). Roy is a member of AALL, IALL and ASIL, and has served as a Jessup Moot Court Competition Judge.

Roy hopes to publish his Tsinghua thesis, The Past, Present, & Future of Free Speech in China, next year. Additional works-in-progress include an article for GlobaLex, One Country, Two Systems’ of Legal Research: A Guide to Finding the Law of China’s Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (with Sergio Stone) and a book, From Lord Shang to Democracy Wall: A Select Annotated Bibliography Exploring 3,000 Years of Chinese Legal History—in English. His published works include Preserving the Past, Preparing for the Future: Modern Chinese Libraries & Librarianship, 1898-2000s, World Libraries 14.1, (Spring 2004) as well as articles in American Libraries (Nov. 2007) and the Texas Hispanic Journal of Law & Policy (Spring 2001).

In addition to attending the Tsinghua University Law School in Beijing during 2005-06, Roy lived in Shanghai while serving as an English Instructor at the Peijia International School (2003-04). He plans on visiting China later this year. The quotation from a famous Tang dynasty poet Roy has on his email sig line reflects both his interest in China and his profession. It reads:

Pagoda tree flowers bright with rain, new autumn in the land; paulownia leaves wind-tossed, sky verging on evening: all day in the back office, nothing to do, the senior librarian, white-haired, sleeps with his head on a book.

From a rapidly greying-haired librarian sleeping on his keyboard, JH

JISC's Libraries of the Future Website

The Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) recently launched Libraries of the Future "to engender discussion about how today's academic and research libraries may evolve to address the needs of future information users."  Check it out. [JH]

Summer Reading Requests from the FBI

According to Solicitation Number 0249804, the FBI must want its agents to catch up on their reading this summer. The Agency wants to acquire multiple copies of some 26 titles, including:

• 180 copies of Terror in the Name of God: Why Religious Militants Kill (published in 2003)
• 150 copies of Understanding Terror Networks (2004)
• 30 copies of Inside Al Qaeda: Global Network of Terror (2002)

Plus two titles one would think the FBI already owned plenty of copies:

• 130 copies of The Koran (The FBI wants the Penguin Classics version, perhaps not the best English translation)
• 150 copies of Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001 (2005)

Hat tip to the recently relaunched The Memory Hole. More about the relaunch here. Welcome back! [JH]

New Book Exposes History Behind Supreme Court's First State Secrets Case

“Claim of Privilege, by Barry Siegel, is an important and exhaustive look at the [United States v. Reynolds, 345 U.S. 1 (1953), the first case in which the Supreme Court recognized the state secrets privilege] and it conclusively demonstrates that the state secrets privilege was built on a lie." -- Adam Liptak, The Case That Led to an Uneasy Shift in the Balance of Government Powers, New York Times (July 2, 2008). Hat tip to Josie Brown (South Carolina), First Amendment Law Prof Blog. [JH]

Claim of Privilege: A Mysterious Plane Crash, a Landmark Supreme Court Case, and the Rise of State Secrets
by Barry Siegel

List Price: $25.95 
Hardcover: 400 pages
Publisher: Harper (June 3, 2008)
ISBN-10: 0060777028
ISBN-13: 978-0060777029

Description: In the tradition of A Civil Action and Gideon's Trumpet, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Barry Siegel unfolds the shocking true story behind the Supreme Court case that forever changed the balance of power in America.

On October 6, 1948, a trio of civilian engineers joined a U.S. Air Force crew on a B-29 Superfortress, whose mission was to test secret navigational equipment. Shortly after takeoff the plane crashed, killing all three engineers and six others. In June 1949, the widows of the engineers filed suit against the government. What had happened to their men? they asked. Why had these civilians been aboard an Air Force plane in the first place?

But the Air Force, at the dawn of the Cold War, refused to hand over the accident reports and witness statements, claiming the documents contained classified information that would threaten national security. The case made its way up to the Supreme Court, which in 1953 sided with the Air Force in United States v. Reynolds. This landmark decision formally recognized the "state secrets" privilege, a legal precedent that has since been used to conceal conduct, withhold documents, block troublesome litigation, and, most recently, detain terror suspects without due-process protections.

Even with the case closed, the families of those who died in the crash never stopped wondering what had happened in that B-29. They finally had their answer a half century later: In 2000 they learned that the government was now making available the top-secret information the families had sought long ago, in vain. The documents, it turned out, contained no national security secrets but rather a shocking chronicle of negligence.

Equal parts history, legal drama, and exposé, Claim of Privilege tells the story of this shameful incident, its impact on our nation, and a courageous fight to right a wrong from the past. Placing the story within the context of the time, Siegel draws clear connections between the apocalyptic fears of the early Cold War years and post-9/11 America—and shows the dangerous consequences of this historic cover-up: the violation of civil liberties and the abuse of constitutional protections. By evoking the past, Claim of Privilege illuminates the present. Here is a mesmerizing narrative that indicts what our government is willing to do in the name of national security.

A Standard is a Standard is a Standard Unless It's Not Enforced By the ABA

The typical requirements portion of a job ad for an academic law library directorship (sometimes also known as an Associate Dean for Library and Information Services or some variant form) reads something like the University of San Diego School of Law's recent ad:

Required: Candidates must have a JD degree from an ABA-accredited law school; an MLS or equivalent degree from an ALA-accredited institution; significant experience in law library administration and information technology; and highly developed leadership and interpersonal skills.

Preferred: Demonstrated experience in an academic law library supporting significant scholarly research; a record of professional engagement and scholarship.

Meaning, of course, that Harvard Law's new Henry N. Ess III Librarian and Vice Dean of Library and Information Resources, John Palfrey, wouldn't be qualified for the San Diego appointment.

Standard 603. Director of the Law Library

(a) A law library shall be administered by a full-time director whose principal responsibility is the management of the law library. (b) The selection and retention of the director of the law library shall be determined by the law school. (c) A director of a law library should have a law degree and a degree in library or information science and shall have a sound knowledge of and experience in library administration. (d) Except in extraordinary circumstances, a law library director shall hold a law faculty appointment with security of faculty position. Interpretation 603-1: The director of the law library is responsible for all aspects of the management of the law library including budgeting, staff, collections, services and facilities. Interpretation 603-2: The dean and faculty of the law school shall select the director of the law library. Interpretation 603-3: The granting of faculty appointment to the director of the law library under this Standard normally is a tenure or tenure-track appointment. If a director is granted tenure, this tenure is not in the administrative position of director. Interpretation 603-4: It is not a violation of Standard 603(a) for the director of the law library also to have other administrative or teaching responsibilities, provided sufficient resources and staff support are available to ensure effective management of library operations.

Sound Knowledge of and Experience in Library Administration. I've been mulling over John's appointment for some time now. It has caused a bit of a stir inside and outside of the profession because he isn't a professional law librarian. However, I'm not adding blog fodder to any backlash over this appointment. Instead, I'm interested in how ABA Accreditation Standards and procedures can address these situations because, in my opinion, John's appointment does not comply with the ABA's Accreditation Standard 603(c).

Standard 603(c) states

A director of a law library should have a law degree and a degree in library or information science and shall have a sound knowledge of and experience in library administration.

The appointment violates Standard 603(c) not because John doesn't have both a JD and MLS but because he does not have "sound knowledge of and experience in library administration." Under 603(c), the use of "should" clearly indicates that the dual degree is desirable but optional. However, the use of "shall" means that the "knowledge and experience" clause is a requirement because legal codes, something the drafters of the standards certainly know, use "shall" to express mandatory action. If the standards are "minimum requirements designed, developed, and implemented for the purpose of advancing the basic goal of providing a sound program of legal education" [Preamble] the drafters could have used "should" instead of "shall" in this clause to make sound knowledge of and experience in library administration also desirable but optional.

So what? It is not like the ABA enforces its standards pertaining to the appointment of law library directors, the most common violation being law school abuse of the "extraordinary circumstances" provision for tenure. See Standard 603(d); Interpretation 603-3 (faculty tenure, not administrative tenure). If the ABA Standards are not enforced as "minimum requirements," what's the point of having them?

What to do? The ABA is contemplating some fundamental changes to its Accreditation Standards, so fundamental that perhaps all current standards should be reconsidered. See our earlier post. Let's add one proposal to the discussion: Why not let a standing ABA committee of law librarians and law school deans review pending law library director appointments when a law school wants to make an appointment under "extraordinary circumstances" like the qualification issues presented in John's appointment (plus tenure and other matters that may arise). Thumbs up, thumbs down rulings by the committee with a written justification available for all to read might lead some of us to believe that the ABA's Standards actually mean something.

Thumbs Up for Harvard's New Law Library Director. As for John's appointment, I don't think our profession is so devoid of talented academic law librarians that HLS couldn't have found and hired one, but I think most academic law librarians would approve his appointment if given an opportunity to review it in that context. As Dan Filler (Drexel) has written in a post about John's appointment, "a [law] librarian still needs to be...a librarian" and still needs to demonstrate the competencies of law librarianship identified by AALL. Perhaps an academic law library director need not be one when the law library's collection, staff and financial resources are as good as Harvard's.

Welcome to academic law librarianship John. [JH]

H.R. 6388 Seeks to Strengthen GAO Access to Executive Branch Documents

Members of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform recently introduced H.R. 6388, the Government Accountability Office Improvement Act of 2008, [Thomas Resources | OpenCongress Resources] to increase the GAO’s ability to obtain executive branch documents. One key provision of H.R. 6388 repudiates the district court decision in Walker v. Cheney and reaffirms GAO's authority to go to court when agencies or the White House refuse to provide access to records. In that 2002 case the court ruled that then-GAO chief David M. Walker lacked the authority to demand information about Vice President Dick Cheney ’s energy task force.

H.R. 6388 also contains provisions that provide GAO access to proprietary information on Medicare drug prices, FDA "trade secrets” and FTC pre-merger reviews. [JH]

ABA Library Committee Report on Upcoming Changes in the ABA Questionnaires

Download this report (pdf) to read about the ABA Library Committee's efforts to address the issue of collecting data on electronic titles, future changes in the ABA questionnaires, and the Committee’s next task on library services. [JH]

Searchme Adds Stacks Feature

Searchme is a visual search engine which delivers search results as flowing browsable images of the actual web pages that searchers can check before going directly to the sites. [Click on image, left, for a screen shot of a search for "digital rights management or DRM"] In beta, Searchme recently added a stack function that allows you to save selected search results on the fly. As you browse your search results (web sites, images, and also recently launched, videos), you simply drag relevant hits into your stack. You can then view your selected hits from your stack. Check out the stacks and video search demonstration video. Neat. [JH]

Opening: Reference and International Law Librarian, Boston University Pappas Law Library

The Boston University Pappas Law Library has an opening for a Reference and International Law Librarian.  Candidates with appropriate experience will be considered at the Senior level. Training in foreign/comparative/ international legal research (FCIL) will be provided to an otherwise qualified candidate without previous FCIL experience.

RESPONSIBILITIES:  Under the direction of the Head of Reference Services (the former FCIL librarian), this position participates as a member of the reference department team of five professional librarians.  Each reference librarian provides extensive reference and research assistance to law students and faculty, develops and teaches online and traditional legal research instructional programs, and assists in the development, implementation and evaluation of reference and research services policies, procedures and publications.

In addition, this position will serve as the library specialist in international law, foreign law and comparative law research and the liaison to foreign graduate programs. This position actively assists faculty, graduate and J.D. students, journals and visiting scholars with reference assistance, tours, orientations and research training in international, foreign and comparative law research. This position also participates in law library web site development and the Library Collection Development Committee to review and select print and electronic resources for the library.

REQUIREMENTS: M.L.S. or equivalent from an A.L.A. accredited library school required.  J.D. from an A.B.A. accredited law school strongly preferred.  One to three years of relevant experience required, however experience in FCIL research is not required.  Candidates with more than three years of professional legal reference experience and significant contributions to the profession may be considered at the Senior level.  Substantial knowledge of Westlaw, LexisNexis, Internet and other electronic resources and experience teaching online research.   Strong service orientation, organizational and interpersonal skills essential.

SALARY: Commensurate with experience.  Excellent benefits and professional development funding.

TO APPLY: Send a letter of application, a resume, and the names of three references to Joanne Letty, Office of Human Resources, Boston University, 25 Buick Street, Boston, MA  02215.  Please reference position number 3624/B207 on your cover letter. Applications with the above information may be submitted electronically: http://hostedjobs.openhire.com/epostings/jobs/
submit.cfm?fuseaction=dspjob&id=23&jobid=274335&company_id=15509.

AALL ATTENDEES: We will be meeting with candidates at the Annual Meeting.  Please submit your resume at the Placement Office and hotel/contact information with the times you will be available to meet.

Boston University is an Equal Opportunity, Affirmative Action Employer.

If you have any questions about this job opening, please contact Raquel Ortiz, Associate Director,          (617) 353-8855       , rmortiz@bu.edu.

Foreign, Comparative & International Law Librarian, Foreign, University of Denver Sturm College of Law

Reporting directly to the Reference Services Coordinator, the FCIL librarian provides reference & instructional services in international, comparative & foreign law research to students, faculty & alumni of the University of Denver, including academic units outside of the Sturm College of Law. Additionally, the FCIL librarian:

• Provides basic & advanced instruction in international, comparative & foreign law research to library patrons. Provides lectures, workshops and tours to students from DU and the law school, as well as outside groups.
• Serves as the primary liaison to the International Legal Studies & the International Environmental & Natural Resources Law programs. Creates structured legal research program including presentations, handouts & evaluation. Oversees graduate students’ research work for these areas.
• Prepares bibliographic and other in-house materials for instructional purposes, including organization of www links in international law & natural resources.
• Actively maintains an awareness of current developments in the international law field through print & online sources as well as meetings & conferences.
• Suggests foreign, comparative & international legal & non-legal materials for addition to the law library’s collection.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Working knowledge of at least one foreign language, with Spanish strongly preferred
  Teaching experience
• Experience with managing staff
• Interest in developing digital initiatives that will advance our educational mission, including experience with programs such as Access, Dreamweaver, Adobe Acrobat and Web 2.0 technology such as blogs & wikis

Required Qualifications:

• JD from an ABA accredited law school
• MLIS from an ALA-accredited program
• Excellent oral & written communication skills
• Knowledge of foreign, comparative & international law materials
• Commitment to providing the highest level of service

Application Process:

To be considered an official applicant, you must submit your application, resume and cover letter online at http://www.du.edu/hr/employment/jobs.html. The University of Denver is committed to enhancing the diversity of its faculty and staff and encourages applications from women, minorities, people with disabilities and veterans. DU is an EEO/AA employer. Please see our extensive benefit package at www.du.eu/hr/benefits.

Please note that we will be scheduling interviews at the AALL Annual Meeting in Portland, so applicants should submit a resume to our folder in the Placement Office.