Law Librarian Blog

Reflections: Does it Take a Librarian to Lead a Library

Harvard Law School recently hired John Palfrey as the new Vice Dean of Library and Information Resources (LLB post).  Over at Madisonian.net, Mike Madison considers Palfrey's creds and their potential implications for the future:

Does it take a librarian to lead a library?

Harvard thinks not. I’m guessing that John Palfrey persuaded Elena Kagan, the HLS Dean, that the substantive and methodological challenges that librarians confront these days are not significantly different than the substantive and methodological challenges that any manager of a complex information environment confronts.  Not anyone can manage the Harvard Law Library, but there may no longer be anything distinctively “library-ish” about the position.

Is Harvard right?  And if it is, will other schools and universities agree?

Weighty questions providing much food for thought.  At first glance, it seems simplistic to so easily dismiss the "library-ish"-ness of a position charged with managing the largest law library in the US. [JJ]

The AAUP Reports on Faculty Salaries

From the press release: "After a short-lived recovery in 2006–07, faculty salaries are lagging behind inflation again this year. Yet the salaries paid to head football coaches, presidents, and other top administrators do not seem to reflect an economic downturn. Over the past three decades, the ranks of contingent faculty, nonfaculty professionals, and administrators have swelled while the number of tenured and tenure-track faculty stagnated. These are the central findings of Where Are the Priorities? The Annual Report on the Economic Status of the Profession, 2007–08."  [RJ]

John Palfrey, New Associate Dean, Library and Information Resources at HLS

John Palfrey has been appointed Associate Dean, Library and Information Resources and a tenured professor of law at Harvard Law School. Bios here, here and here. John's name should ring a bell. He is Executive Director of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society and an accomplished author. Among his many works are Access Denied: The Practice and Policy of Global Internet Filtering (MIT Press, 2008)(co-editor and contributor)[LLB post] and Born Digital: Understanding the First Generation of Digital Natives (with Urs Gasser)(Basic Books, forthcoming August 24, 2008)[Amazon]. About technology in the law school curriculum, see his What is Technology's Role, an op-ed that was published in The National Law Journal on November 8, 2006. [JH]

GW's Jacob Burns Law Library Acquires Rare French Law Collection

Acquired from the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, the collection contains 269 titles represented in nearly 600 volumes comprises the classic legal works of France from the 16th through the 19th centuries. Read more about it. [JH]

Drexel Law Receives ABA Provisional Accreditation

As noted in the Drexel press release, it is no small accomplishment that the law school recieved provision accreditation less that 18 months after opening its doors to students:

To reach this milestone less than 18 months after welcoming our first law students to Drexel is remarkable, and a testament to the vision and commitment of our Board of Trustees and the hard work and passion of the faculty and staff of the College of Law and its founding dean, Roger Dennis. Drexel Law has gathered some of the most talented, innovative law faculty, practice professionals and students anywhere, and it shows in every initiative.

Certainly true with respect to the law library staff. In 2005, law school representatives were making some "wild and crazy" statements about the school's law library and the provision of information resources and services to students and faculty. See our posts here and here. Luckily reality set in. Drexel hired Chris Simoni and he, in turn, hired a well-qualified staff. Congratulations to Chris and his team on a job very well done. [JH]

Archiving Oral Arguments

A resource that I have personal experience with and seems to be spreading around the country in law libraries is archiving oral arguments. This resource that a few courts provided in the past is now being taken up by academic libraries with an eye towards preservation. The project related to this that I am intimately familiar with is the Mississippi Appellate Court Video Archive. The Mississippi Supreme Court in conjunction with Mississippi College School of Law has undertaken this project to provide a website for past and future oral arguments before the Mississippi Supreme Court and Court of Appeals for the general public.

This archive contains all of the recorded appellate arguments heard by the Mississippi Supreme Court and Court of Appeal dating back to January of 2004 and is currently updated at the end of every sitting. Each video entry also contains the party’s names, the attorney’s names, date of the oral argument, docket number, a link to the opinion after it is released, a synopsis of the opinion when available, a RSS feed that updates when new videos are added and for future videos the briefs filed in the appeal will also be provided. This archive is similar to those hosted by St. Mary's Law for the Texas arguments and Rutgers-Newark Law for the New Jersey arguments.

Archives such as these can be as teaching tools for law students to see both the good and the bad of appellate advocacy and perhaps more importantly can give a law school library a platform to connect with local attorney who can help a law library in many ways including donations.

If you know of other schools that are providing this service please leave a comment and let us know. Also, if anyone is interested in learning more detail about how my version of the project came together feel free to send me an email and I might can help if you are considering a similar project. [BB]

Louis Mirando Appointed Chief Law Librarian at Osgoode Hall Law School

From the annoucement:

Patrick Monahan, Dean of Osgoode Hall Law School of York University, today announced the appointment of Louis Mirando as Osgoode’s Chief Law Librarian, effective March 1.

Mirando, who has a Master of Library Science degree from the University of Toronto and has also done post-graduate studies at the University of Cologne in Germany and at U of T, was Director, Library Services at Torys LLP in Toronto for the past 15 years.

Prior to that, he held a variety of library-related positions including Acting Library Manager at Aird & Berlis LLP, Reference Librarian at U of T’s Bora Laskin Law Library, and Special Collections Librarian and Instructor at the University of Western Ontario. He also worked as a Senior Account Executive at LexisNexis Canada and Senior Legal Editor at Carswell Legal Publications.

“Mr. Mirando is extraordinarily conversant about current and emerging developments in legal knowledge as well as the delivery of law library services,” Monahan said. “I am confident in his ability to provide leadership to our Law Library, particularly as we embark upon major renovations to the library as part of the overall rejuvenation of our building.”

Mirando succeeds Yemisi Dina, Head of Public Services at the Law Library, who served as Acting Chief Law Librarian over the past several months while the international search process was under way. In announcing Mirando’s appointment, Monahan also paid tribute to Dina, who has provided strong leadership to the Library prior to and during the search process.

The Law Library of Osgoode Hall Law School has the largest collection of any law library in the British Commonwealth, currently approaching 500,000 volumes, which includes a unique collection of historical Canadian legal texts and primary sources.

A staff of professional librarians, all highly qualified in law as well as librarianship, helps students and faculty access this outstanding print collection as well as a growing range of online resources including Quicklaw, LexisNexis and WestlaweCarswell.

The Law Library, which opened in 1969, is slated to undergo major renovations as part of a $25 million expansion and renovation of the entire Law School building that is set to begin later this year.

UConn Law Library Lawsuit

In an event that would seem like a nightmare to many librarians, suit has been filed by the State of Connecticut over “shoddy and substandard” construction work on the “new” UConn Law Library, a $24 million project, here is a outside picture the gothic styled library. The construction resulted in a new library with leaks, mold and a stone facade that had to be reattached after it became loose in places. Many librarians have had to deal with moldy books on occasion from a burst pipe or derelict patrons but think of having to deal with it on a daily basis like the librarians and staff at UConn Law. May we all hope that UConn’s problems are resolved soon and those of us who get new libraries won’t have similar issues. [BB]

How Well Are American Students Learning?

From the Brown Center on Education Policy, The Brookings Institution: "This is the seventh edition of the Brown Center Report on American Education. As in the past, the report consists of three sections. The first section examines the latest test score data on math and reading achievement.This year the analysis focuses primarily on results of the 2007 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), including a discussion of NAEP achievement levels.

The second section investigates a general theme or trend in education. This year the second section scrutinizes enrollment patterns in private and public schools. Section three looks at an issue of policy relevance. International test data are examined to see whether a relationship exists between national math scores and the amount of time students spend learning mathematics in different countries."  [RJ]

Collaborative Virtual Reference Symposium

Presentation materials are currently available here.  [RJ]

5 More States May Curb Use of Race in Hiring and Admissions

From the Chronicle:

"Political analysts say Ward Connerly has a very good chance of prevailing in his effort to get five additional states to vote to ban the use of racial preferences by colleges and other state agencies."  [RJ]

2007 Global Faculty E-book Survey

From the introduction: 

"In Fall 2007, ebrary worked with more than 200 librarians from around the world to develop an informal survey to better understand faculty experience with e-resources and print materials. The survey focused on the higher education community, and key learning objectives included the following:

• Usage for research and instruction
• Attitudes
• Perceived strengths and weaknesses
• Instruction experience and preferences

Check out the results of the survey.  [RJ]

New Wolf Law Library Impresses William & Mary Law Students with Design, Improvements

Construction on The Wolf Law Library was recently completed and the new facility is drawing great reviews from students.

The new library is a combination of newly constructed space and a complete floor-to-ceiling renovation of the 1980 facility. Construction began in the spring of 2005, and was completed this past summer. The new facility came in under its $16.8 million budget, and totals 56,475 net square feet, a 40 percent increase in size from the old library. The project, which will be dedicated in December, was the beneficiary of a major gift from Hank and Dixie Wolf. Hank Wolf, of Norfolk, is a member of the William and Mary Class of 1964 as well as a 1966 graduate of the law school. He recently retired as Vice Chairman and Chief Financial Officer of Norfolk Southern Corporation. Wolf also serves on the College's Board of Visitors where he is Vice Rector.

Virtually every table and carrel seat in the new library has electricity, and library users can access the World Wide Web from anywhere in the library using wireless internet access. The library has 12 group study rooms, and 342 student lockers. A skylight and large windows bathe nearly each of the library's 568 seats in natural light, including more than 90 casual seats spread throughout six different lounge areas, a unique "chess corner," and a recreation room with pool and ping pong tables. The library's generous footprint is large enough to provide office space for approximately 20 student groups, as well as offices for each of the law school’s four journals.

Read more about it and don't forget to check out the photos.

Congratulations to everyone at the Wolf Law Library. Good things happen to good law schools! [JH]

Is There a Crisis in Law Library Hiring?

Check out what Tricia Kasting, Hofstra Law's Reference/Government Documents, has to say in Commentary: Young(er) Law Librarians Wanted. [JH]

Fewer women are seeking law degrees

Interesting article from the National Law Journal:

"The percent of women in law schools has declined each of the past five years, according to the American Bar Association. While the number of applicants overall has dropped in the last two years, the percentage decline in the number of women has been greater. Observers say a variety of factors contribute to the dip, but the prevailing message is that fewer women want a lawyer's life."  (sub. req.)  [RJ]

Beyond Google: How do students conduct academic research?

Interesting article from First Monday:

From the abstract:

"This paper reports findings from an exploratory study about how students majoring in humanities and social sciences use the Internet and library resources for research. Using student discussion groups, content analysis, and a student survey, our results suggest students may not be as reliant on public Internet sites as previous research has reported. Instead, students in our study used a hybrid approach for conducting course–related research. A majority of students leveraged both online and offline sources to overcome challenges with finding, selecting, and evaluating resources and gauging professors’ expectations for quality research."  [RJ]

UConn Law Library Repairs to Cost $19 Million

The Hartford Courant is reporting that the University of Connecticut's law school library is so damaged by leaks and flaws in its granite facade that fixing it will cost $19 million. Repairs include stabilizing the the facade, reinstalling waterproofing and windows and replacing moldy walls and carpets. The 11-year-old library, on the UConn School of Law campus in Hartford, originally cost $24 million. [JH]

New HeinOnline Blog!

From the site:

Welcome!

With so many exciting things happening every day in HeinOnline, we are launching this blog to provide on-demand information to users around the world! This blog will offer insight to our newest products, notify customers of our latest interface enhancements, and share tips to help improve customers research experience. Anyone from students and librarians to professionals world-wide will be able to use our blog to communicate with our development team, share tips with other subscribers, or simply to read what other HeinOnline users are saying.

Additionally, we will be offering Blog giveaways to our faithful readers. Don't miss your chance to win prizes including: ipods, iphones, and much more!

This blog was created for you, our loyal users, therefore we encourage your feedback to tell us what particular topics you would like to hear more about in this blog. We are always looking for ways to better serve our loyal customers.

Sincerely,

The Marketing Department
William S. Hein & Co., Inc.

marketing@wshein.com
http://heinonline.org

College and University Ranking Systems: Global Perspectives and American Challenges

Report from the Institute for Higher Education Policy:

"Supported by Lumina Foundation for Education, this new report by the Institute for Higher Education Policy highlights the ongoing global phenomenon of college and university ranking systems and the urgent need for constructive dialogue about ranking. College and University Ranking Systems: Global Perspectives and American Challenges acknowledges that while college and university rankings are growing in their frequency and popularity, greater understanding about how these ranking systems function is needed to ensure accountability and greater transparency."  [RJ]

Coming Soon...The Journal of Electronic Resources Librarianship

From the site:

"The Journal of Electronic Resources Librarianship is a peer-reviewed journal concerning issues in electronic resources librarianship. The journal is published quarterly by The Haworth Press (Taylor & Francis). Submissions are being accepted for the inaugural and future issue of this journal.

This journal aims to inform librarians and other information professionals about evolving work-related processes and procedures, current research and the latest news on topics related to electronic resources and the digital environment’s impact on collecting, acquiring and making accessible library materials." 

Column Editors, Reviews Editor, and Manuscripts wanted.  [RJ]

Freedom in the Classroom (2007)

From the press release:

"Does a teacher of nineteenth-century American literature have the right to ask his or her students whether the character of the obsessed captain Ahab in Melville's Moby Dick could justifiably be compared with President George Bush? Would someone teaching Aristotle's views on moral virtue be justified in asking students to consider President Bill Clinton's conduct as a case study?

Many critics of higher education and opponents of academic freedom would answer with a resounding "No!" They want all class discussion to be limited by the course description.

In Freedom in the Classroom, a challenging new report released on September 11, the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) answers "Yes" to these questions. The report defends the right of college faculty to make comparisons, contrasts, and analogies across the whole range of subjects and historical periods—no matter what course they are teaching."  [RJ]

The Global State of Higher Education and the Rise of Private Finance

New report from the Institute for Higher Education Policy:

"The Institute for Higher Education Policy’s Global Center on Private Financing of Higher Education (GCPF) released a report that explores the growing importance of private capital to nations where governments seek additional resources to share the rising per student costs and increasing enrollment rates. The report, The Global State of Higher Education and the Rise of Private Finance, also provides an overview of international good practices and lessons learned from individual countries where the business of tapping into private finance as a supplemental funding source has increased in the past two decades."

See also:  Worldwide, Financing for Higher Education Is Increasingly Shifting From Public to Private Sources, The Chronicle (for subscribers).  [RJ]

Cornell Law Library Launches New Website

Check out the new Cornell Law Library website. It features two navigational paths:

1. browsing by subject > who we are, what we have, what we do; and
2. link piles by audience > for students, faculty, alumni, visitors.

There are many resources highlighted for visitors and librarians here.

My review: "wow!" [JH]

140,000 CALI Lesson CDs Heading to US Law Schools

CALI is sending 140,000 CALI lessons CD-ROM’s to its 206 member law schools for the schools to hand out to law students – enough for every law student in the United States, not just 1Ls as in the past. Great idea! CALI's Communications/Marketing Coordinator, Austin Groothuis, has indicated that shipments should have arrived at members school by now. If you have not received your shipment, you can email Austin.

See also the Directory of CALI Lessons website. [JH]

ALA's Keystone Intellectual Freedom Documents Plus

Check out ALA’s Intellectual Freedom documents.  [RJ]

Embracing Intangible Law Libraries

Interesting story from Law.com:

"Thanks to technology, law libraries continue to shrink in size as the world of information keeps growing. How does this affect the human capital that makes up the heart and soul of libraries? What does it mean for librarians, other staff and productivity?"  [RJ]

Douglas Lind Appointed Director of Southern Illinois University School of Law Library

Congratulation to Douglas Lind. Prior to his new appointment Lind spent the past 13 years at Georgetown University Law Center's Edward Bennett Williams Law Library, including the last six years as head of the library's Collections Department. He replaces Frank G. Houdek, who is the law school's associate dean for academic affairs. Lind follows Roger F. Jacobs, founding director of the law library from 1973 to 1978, Elizabeth Slusser Kelly director from 1978 to 1984 and Frank G. Houdek who directed the law library since January 1985. Details. [JH]

When 'Digital Natives' Go to the Library

Interesting story from Inside Higher Ed:

"College and university librarians got some unconventional advice: Play more video games. At a packed session for academic librarians attending the annual meeting of the American Library Association, in Washington, the topic was how to help students who have learned many of their information gathering and analysis skills from video games apply that knowledge in the library. Speakers said that gaming skills are in many ways representative of a broader cultural divide between today’s college students and the librarians who hope to teach them."  [RJ]

A Provost and Librarian Walk Into a Meeting...

From Inside Higher Ed:

"Speaker after speaker in the audience posed variations on that scenario Monday at a session of the American Library Association’s annual conference that was part roundtable, part “Ask Amy.” During “The Art of Persuasion: Strategies for Effective Communication with Chief Academic Officers,” organized by the Association of College and Research Libraries, the provosts and vice presidents for academic affairs on the panel shared a list of their do’s and don’ts when approaching new college officials in their positions."  [RJ]

Law-School Accreditor Must Report on Its Diversity Standards to Education Dept.

Interesting article from the Chronicle:

"The section of the American Bar Association that accredits law schools will have to provide detailed reports to the U.S. Department of Education on how it applies standards that are intended to promote diversity." (for subscribers)  [RJ]

ASU's Law School Distributes Content Through ASU's iTunes University

From the press release:

The Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law now has a presence in ASU's iTunes University.  Currently, there are three "subchannels" in the law school channel: Events, Ross-Blakley Law Library, and IT @ O'Connor. Each subchannel will contain audio and video recordings in those areas.

The Events subchannel contains recordings from special guest speakers, conferences, and other events held at the law school.  The Ross-Blakley Law Library subchannel will soon feature a podcast newsletter chronicling all that is new and exciting at the Law Library.  The IT @ O'Connor subchannel will contain a monthly podcast by one of the IT staff focusing on current and emerging technologies for the law school's infrastructure and for use in the classroom.

Campbell Universtiy Law Library Receives Grant to Acquire The Making of Modern Law Collection

From the press release: "The Law Library of the Norman Adrian Wiggins School of Law at Campbell University is pleased to announce the receipt of a $133,400 grant from the Felburn Foundation that will pay for the addition of The Making of Modern Law to the Library’s permanent collection."

Congratulations! [JH]

What Have You Stopped Doing?

On the Law Library Directors listserv, Carl Yirka posed the question, "What have you stopped doing?" Academic law librarians didn't need an explanation as to "in what context."

Answers, major and minor, included canceling thousands of dollars worth of subscriptions to primary resources (such as regional reporters, state codes, foreign law reports) and secondary resources (including replacing print law reviews with HeinOnline access) not subscribing to new law reviews, eliminating ILL requests for print copies to cite-check when online copies are available, downsizing the reference staff, leaving weekend reference to the circulation staff, stopping all telephone reference, giving up library tours, offering mini-research courses and more ALR courses, scaling back computer labs, no longer creating exhibits, no longer binding serials etc.

"Been there, done that" (and still doing so ... academic law libraries in dire straits). For more, listen to the Jim Milles interview of Carl Yirka, episode 72 of "Check this out!" at http://cto.libsyn.com/index.php?post_id=224745 [JH]

William Mitchell College of Law Library Launches New Online Catalog

From the press release (featuring Law Librarian Blog Contributing Editor Neal Axton):

Some of the most beneficial features of the new catalog include direct links to many of the library’s electronic resources (such as online journals and government documents), RSS feeds for new titles, search results that display relevancy, labels that are more understandable, and easy access to patron records. ... Next, the Law Library will be integrating its directories of free Internet research sources and subscription databases with the new catalog format.

This doesn't happen every day. Congratulations to all involved in the project! [JH]

AAUP Issues Report on Hurricane Katrina and New Orleans Universities

From the press release:

"The Special Committee on Hurricane Katrina and New Orleans Universities of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) finds that there was “nearly universal departure from (or in some cases complete abandonment of) personnel and other policies” by five New Orleans institutions―the Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center, the University of New Orleans, Southern University at New Orleans, Loyola University New Orleans, and Tulane University―as they contended with the disaster that befell the city and its universities.

The report identifies several specific areas of widespread dereliction:

• The number of faculty terminations “exceeded the inescapable or minimal needs of the institution, sometimes substantially.”
• The notice and timing of personnel actions “also failed to meet AAUP standards and created needless, even at times unconscionable, uncertainty.”
• Alternative placement of affected faculty “universally fell below AAUP standards, but also fell short of the institutions’ apparent capacity to mitigate the harshest effects of inevitable personnel reductions.”
• The opportunity for internal review of adverse judgments “failed to meet most accepted standards of due process as well as the institutions’ own established review procedures.”
• Faculty tenure (which all these institutions had previously recognized and by and large respected) “received far less deference than AAUP policy and prior practice [on these campuses] would have required.”

[RJ]

Lee Peoples, Recipient of the 2007 AALL ALL-SIS Outstanding Service Award

Congratulations to Lee Peoples, Associate Director, Oklahoma City University Law Library (and Contributing Editor of Law Librarian Blog)! Lee has been named the recipient of the 2007 ALL-SIS Outstanding Service Award, which honors an ALL-SIS member who has made outstanding contributions to the SIS in areas of section activity and in professional service.

Editor's Note: Lee, by the way, did not toot his own horn by telling me about this much deserved recognition. How rare is that! [JH]

Cornell University Center for Documentation on American Law in Paris to Feature Services by Cornell Law Librarians

The Ithaca Journal is reporting that the Cornell University Center for Documentation on American Law in Paris will be dedicated July 17 before an audience of the world's leading jurists at an international judicial conference. The new legal center is an initiative of the Cornell Law School and the Cour de cassation, the highest court in the French judiciary. The center, which will be located within the court in the Palais de Justice, will house 13,000 law books from Cornell's Law Library and will offer special training and instruction in online research by Cornell law librarians.

Read more about it on the Cornell Law School website. Great example of international collaboration! [JH]

Threat to Tenure at Law Schools

From Inside Higher Ed:

"The American Bar Association — at the urging of some law deans and to the dismay of many law professors — is considering an end to having tenure systems be one requirement for law school accreditation. A special task force of the ABA has been working on a set of recommendations about accreditation and will not submit its findings until next month. But reports about what the group may recommend, and what law deans have urged it to recommend, have been circulating in recent weeks — and e-mail has been flying among law professors."  [RJ]

UC Irvine Law School Receives $1 Million Gift to Support the Law Library

The Joan Irvine Smith and Athalie R. Clarke Foundation has made a $1 million gift to the new School of Law at the University of California, Irvine. This, the law school’s first leadership gift, will support the establishment of the law library’s core collection. Read more about it.

If anyone from the Clarke Foundation can spare a dime, please contact me. [JH]

LJ Talks to Fred R. Shapiro

Library Journal article regarding the Yale Book of Quotations.  [RJ]

AALL's Day in the Life Photo Contest

Just leaked to the press (but still unconfirmed), AALL's Day in the Life of the Law Library Community's winning photo is "Middle-age plump male librarian shelves books because student assistants called in sick." Click on the thumbnail to view a larger image.

Doesn't this image look vaguely familiar to last year's winner? If it does, I think you may need glasses. [JH]

Photograph by Mevil.

The Brave New World of MySpace and Facebook

Interesting story from Inside Higher Ed:

"Students view social networking Web sites as private databases that permit them to communicate using a multimedia-based approach, but many don’t realize the potential dangers that accompany this type of activity. Because of this, colleges must provide their students with information regarding three major concerns in sharing information online: (1) the threat of criminal behavior; (2) how they might be seen by potential future employers; and (3) possible violations of their institution’s student code of conduct."  [RJ]

Pursuit of Excellence: Is there any correlation between the reputational rankings of law schools and law libraries?

As Leiter has argued USN&WR law school reputational rankings can't be gamed because the ranking cannot be manipulated by data reported by law schools. Is there any correlation between the reputation of law schools and their law libraries?

(Un)fortunately there is no law library ranking system equivalent to the US News reputational rankings so the objective answer is "no." But intuitively, can academic law librarians identify those law libraries that pursue excellence in collection development, IT and facilities management, staff, and services similar to the pursuit of excellence in scholarship, teaching and public service of law faculties?

I think most of us can identify a small handful of academic law libraries that are the very best at doing what we all strive to do. In my humble opinion, three of the very best academic law libraries are Harvard, Texas and Iowa, all "Top 5" academic law libraries. Where do these schools rank in the 2008 USN&WR report?

School	Academic Reputation	Lawyer/Judge Reputation	2008 Overall Rank
Harvard	2	1-tied	2-tied
Texas	14	14	18
Iowa	23	26	24

Does this prove anything? I doubt it. Which academic law libraries do you think rank in the "Top 5-Top 10-Top-Whatever" by reputation? Compare your list to the 2008 Law School Rankings by US News & World Report. What the hell, it's Friday and your faculty members haven't been doing much real work since the USN&WR rankings were leaked on Tuesday. [JH]

Linda Kawaguchi McLane Appointed Law Library Director at Gonzaga

Congratulation to Linda Kawaguchi McLane, Collection Development Librarian and Head of Acquisitions at the University of California, Berkeley, Boalt Hall School of Law Library, on her appointment as the new Director of Chastek Library, Gonzaga University School of Law, effective June of this year. Read more about it. [JH]

Seto's Understanding the U.S. News Law School Rankings Updated

Seto's Understanding the U.S. News Law School Rankings has been updated. Here's the abstract:

"This Article explores in detail the U.S. News & World Report law school rankings. Its descriptions, analyses, and conclusions are based primarily on U.S. News’ published descriptions of its 2006 computations, telephone conversations with U.S. News’ staff clarifying those descriptions, and a spreadsheet I have written that approximately replicates those computations. The Article’s goals are relatively modest: to help prospective students, employers, and other law school stakeholders read the U.S. News rankings more critically and to help law school administrators get a better handle on how to manage their schools’ rankings. In addition, the Article suggests ways in which U.S. News methodology might be improved. It does not, however, purport to offer a systematic critique of either the U.S. News rankings or ranking in general."  [RJ]