Law Librarian Blog

Happy Birthday Joe

Just happy birthday.  No dates, no numbers.  As co-editor and a friend,  I appreciate the hard work you do to make the Blog a success.  We're closing in on 2 million page hits (hitting the milestone this week?) in the almost 6 years the Blog has existed.  Good work.  Enjoy the day.  [MG]

We Pause For a Moment to Bring You This Message

A number of librarians in multi-state locations would like to take a moment to wish a certain blog editor a Happy Birthday.  We won’t mention his name, though we are referring to the main editor of this blog and the Law Prof blog network.  The actual date in question was Sunday.  We would have posted then, but Sunday posts are viewed less frequently than other days (note to public:  feel free to visit LLB on weekends).  Yesterday was Columbus day and a holiday, almost like a weekend, so we waited.  Here it is, happy birthday from us to you.  [MG et al.]

Spotlight on Law Librarians: Mindy K. Maddrey

Mindy K. Maddrey
National Library Manager
Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal LLP
Washington, D.C.

Like so many of our law librarian colleagues, I started my grown-up life as a lawyer.  I attended law school straight from college, and from the very first day, I wondered if it was the right career path for me.  I should have been more suspicious when I found myself sitting in Evidence, half-listening to a Socratic deconstruction of the hearsay rule and half-drafting a rhymed iambic pentameter prophecy for a novel that I was writing.

I graduated from law school and took a job with a large Washington law firm, working as an associate in the intellectual property group.  After seven years of litigating cases, I decided that I’d had enough of the law.  I wanted more control over my schedule.  I wanted less stress in my life.  I wanted more time to write my as-yet-unpublished novels.  And yet, I could not imagine walking away from the profession that I’d lived, breathed, and dreamed for so long.

One night, eating fajitas and drinking margaritas with a long-suffering friend, I repeated my catalog of job wants and not-wants.  I concluded by saying, “I want to use my law degree, but I want to do something different.  Something like … be a law librarian!”  Cloudbanks opened.  Angelic choirs sang.  My friend ordered another round of margaritas.

After dinner, I walked to the nearest bookstore (libraries were already closed for the night) and looked up graduate programs in library science.  I applied to Catholic University one week later, and I was accepted a month after that.  I power-loaded classes, taking five in each semester, and in a year, I was a law librarian.

In the twelve years since my career transition, I have never regretted the change.  I always loved the “people” side of lawyering, client counseling in particular.  I thrived on the research and writing.  I embraced building teams of paralegals and associates to tackle large cases.  In short, I have been able to apply all my favorite lawyer skills to managing the library for a 14-office national law firm.

And as a pleasant side-effect, I had more time for my writing.  I sold my first novel, The Glasswrights’ Apprentice, two years into my first library job.  Five more traditional fantasy novels followed, and then I sold five contemporary urban fantasies (i.e., comic romance novels about ordinary women in real-life situations who find their lives turned upside down by the supernatural.)

My most recent novel is Sorcery and the Single Girl.  Sorcery is my second book about Jane Madison, a special librarian - in two senses of the word.  First, she works in a collection that specializes in colonial America (and she even "gets" to wear an eighteenth-century costume to work!)  Second, she's a witch.

Sorcery and the Single Girl traces Jane's adventures when the exclusive Washington Coven asks her to join their secret society.  The invitation might be her dream come true, or it could be the most humiliating experience of her life.  Either way, Jane must juggle her insane work schedule, best-friend drama, and a new romance - all while keeping her witchy familiar and astral protector satisfied.  Readers can learn more about Sorcery, including reading a free sample chapter, at my website - www.mindyklasky.com.  (I publish under my maiden name.) 

I had no idea that one dinner of fajitas (and the ear of a sympathetic friend) would lead me to where I am today – but I can honestly say that I would not trade anything to go back to my lawyer life!

Editor's Note: About Sorcery and the Single Girl, Publishers Weekly wrote:

Klasky emphasizes the importance of being true to yourself and having faith in friends and family in her bewitching second romance featuring fledgling witch Jane Madison (after Girl’s Guide to Witchcraft). Young librarian Jane believes getting into the elite Washington Coven, ruled by the prodigious Teresa Alison Sidney, is of major importance. If Jane wants to hold on to her familiar, her valuable book and gemstone collection and David Montrose, her hunky protector and instructor, she has to meet the coven’s standards for knowledge and skill. When slickly seductive Graeme Henderson starts laying it on suspiciously thick, and David insists that friendly coven witch Haylee can’t be trusted, Jane must decide what’s most important: trying to impress the popular coven snobs, or taking control of her power and doing what she knows is best for herself. Klasky’s moral lesson is obvious, but readers who identify with Jane’s remembered high school social angst will cheer her all the way.

Mindy didn't provide a link to Amazon for Sorcery and the Single Girl, so here it is. And don't forget to check out Mindy's blog, Virtual Cocktails. [JH]

Spotlight on Law Librarians: Julie M. Jones

Julie M. Jones
Research Attorney & Lecturer in Law
Cornell Law Library
Ithaca, NY

Like many academic law librarians, my journey into the profession began with a rejection of life as a practicing attorney.  I won’t detail a litany of the woes I endured.  Suffice it to say, I once had a job where every day began with crying at the metro station.   

I am happy to report that I have never once cried at the thought of coming into work as a law librarian.  I haven’t once experienced searing back pain as a law librarian.  I haven’t once worn a sweater inside out and backwards to work as a law librarian. 

Instead, I have laughed at the thought that I get paid for doing things that I love.  I have relaxed into the easy camaraderie of the profession.  I have put my clothes on correctly each and every day. 

But I can’t say the career change was a complete surprise.  It certainly made my mother proud.  She was the San Diego Children’s Bookmobile librarian in the 1960s, and later a prison librarian (brave woman, my mother!).  Before I attended law school, I considered entering librarianship.  But then, a fateful episode of the Young & the Restless changed all that. 

Picture Cricket, legal aid attorney extraordinaire, at a fancy Genoa City restaurant.  Beside her sits Mr. Big Partner trying to convince her to join his law firm.  Cricket asks, “Will I be able to continue my public interest work if I join your firm?”  Mr. Big Partner so sincerely replies, “We have a strong pro bono program.  You can continue to fight for the civil rights of people in need.”  He then goes on to name many areas of law that sounded utterly fascinating to me.

I can’t remember if she took the job, but I was sold.  Unfortunately, the reality turned out just slightly different than the television version.  After getting my degree at Northwestern Law School, clerking for a federal judge, and working in both the for-profit and not-for-profit sectors, I realized that it might work for Cricket, but I ain’t Cricket.

(Note to self: don’t make career decisions based on soap operas.) 

So I inventoried what I enjoyed most in all the jobs that I had held.  Resoundingly the answer came to me: legal research.  I loved the thrill of the hunt for information and sleuthing for solutions.  Back on the path to librarianship I returned. After conducting a few informational interviews of academic law librarians, I enrolled at Dominican University’s Graduate School of Library and Information Science, graduated in 12 months, and relocated to sunny upstate New York to work as a reference librarian at Cornell Law Library. 

July 1st will mark my third anniversary in the profession and at Cornell.  It’s been a whirl-wind of activity.  I have served on two AALL committees and four Cornell University Library committees, created a one unit Law Practice Technology course, taught first-year and advanced legal research courses, published in various periodicals, and, of course, provided lots of reference services to our students, faculty, and other library users. 

Working with law students is easily the highlight of my job.  I thrive on making legal research interesting and relevant to first year students who arrive with no context for the material.  Second and third year students are great because they know from personal experience the value and need for strong research skills and are eager to learn.  I welcome every opportunity to speak one-on-one with students to discuss the “real world” of life as an attorney.  It’s wonderful to be a part of their legal education and, hopefully, help smooth the sometimes bumpy transition from student to attorney. 

To wrap things up in typical Spotlight on Law Librarians style, I give you my hobbies:  hiking, more hiking, traveling, more traveling, and wondering how I ended up with two cats when I’m a dog lover.

Editor's Note: The Spotlight on Law Librarians feature is edited by Lee Peoples, Law Librarian Blog Contributing Editor and Associate Director, Oklahoma City University Law Library. Please feel free to recommend a colleague for this feature to Lee at lpeoples@okcu.edu 

Spotlight on Law Librarians: Jill Fukunaga

Jill Fukunaga

Jill is currently Reference Librarian & Lecturer in Law at the UCLA School of Law but will soon begin a new position as Collection Development Librarian at the University of San Francisco School of Law’s Zief Law Library.  In addition to collection development her duties will also involve reference and teaching.

My path to law librarianship was pretty typical.  After law school, I clerked for a judge at the Intermediate Court of Appeals in Hawaii, and went into private practice.  Nine years later, I was at a large employment law firm in the San Francisco Bay Area.  Tired of the grind and adversarial nature of litigation, I began searching for alternative careers, which ultimately led me to the idea of becoming a librarian. I started hanging out in our firm library, where the librarians seemed happy with their career choices and were extremely supportive of my efforts to learn more about the profession.  In 2003, I enrolled part-time in the San Jose State University master’s program. 

During my first few months of library school, I began gathering as much information as I could about academic law libraries.  I was living in Oakland, so UC Berkeley was the closest law school to me. I recall thinking, “Hmm, I don’t know much about this Bob Berring guy, but he seems to have been around a long time.  I should email him.”  So I did, and asked Bob whether he’d be willing to meet for coffee and talk about law librarianship.  He promptly replied, saying he was out of town but could arrange to meet in the future when he was back in Berkeley.  We never did get together, but I will always remember his courteous response and willingness to meet a complete stranger who wanted to ask him for career advice.  Similarly, I contacted Jenni Parrish, the director of the law library at UC Hastings in San Francisco, and actually met with her on two occasions.  Again, I was struck by how open, friendly and encouraging she was – just like many of the other law librarians I’d met.  Would the managing partner of a big law firm have responded in the same way?  My guess is no. 

In 2005, I decided to leave the Bay Area and pursue my library studies full-time.  I enrolled in the program at the University of South Florida in Tampa.  It was a great gig – I secured a Graduate Assistant position in the main campus library, where I worked 20 hours a week, and in exchange, the university covered most of my tuition.  As a GA, I got a lot of valuable experience in reference, collection development and electronic resources – opportunities that probably would not have been available had I stayed at SJSU.  I also completed an internship at the Stetson University College of Law Library in Gulfport, a small seaside town south of Tampa.  The librarians there are top-notch, and I learned a lot from them.

After completing my degree, I returned to California and started my current position as a reference librarian at the UCLA Law Library in February 2006, where I’m part of a very dedicated and talented team of people who keep our patrons happy and the library running smoothly.  The most enjoyable aspect about my work is teaching and working with the students.  I was fortunate enough to co-teach Advanced Legal Research last fall with our Acting Director, Cynthia Lewis.  Also, since UCLA has a library master’s program, we have occasional opportunities to teach legal bibliography in the library school.

But enough about work.  What’s it like living in Los Angeles, you ask?  Having lived in the SF Bay Area, I admittedly started out with a bit of a bias against southern California when I first moved here.  However, I’ve since learned that, in addition to the near-constant sunny weather and laidback attitude, L.A. has some unique charms.  World-class museums, shopping, restaurants, entertainment and outdoor recreation are all here.  And speaking of entertainment, there’s just no getting away from the “industry.”  Sometimes I feel like the only one here who hasn’t written a screenplay or worked on a film or TV show.  Nonetheless, I am still star-struck whenever I see celebrities around town.  A few weeks ago, Ted Danson and his wife, Mary Steenburgen, approached me during an intermission at the Geffen Playhouse and asked, “Are those chairs taken?”  Sam Malone!  One night in Culver City, I watched the filming of a scene from Spiderman 3 (Tobey Maguire on a moped).  Someone told me that Holly Hunter used our library years ago to research a role, and folks here used to see John Lithgow, whose wife is a professor at UCLA, walking his dog on campus.

Despite the thrill of celeb-watching, I’m not leaving to start a Hollywood blog anytime soon.  Being a law librarian is a lot more interesting and rewarding, so I’m planning on keeping my day job.

Editor's Note: The Spotlight on Law Librarians feature is edited by Lee Peoples, Law Librarian Blog Contributing Editor and Associate Director, Oklahoma City University Law Library. Please feel free to recommend a colleague for this feature to Lee at lpeoples@okcu.edu

Spotlight on Law Librarians: Amy Hale-Janeke

Amy Hale-Janeke
Head of Reference Services
5th Circuit Court of Appeals Library
New Orleans Headquarters

I discovered law librarianship accidentally. During my first two years of law school, I was a research assistant for a couple of professors and worked at a law firm during the summers. I found that I loved the research assignments much more than the endless paperwork at the law firm, and wondered what in the world I was going to do with a law degree that didn't involve being a lawyer in a law firm.

Luckily, during my third year of law school, a friend of mine told me about an opening at my law school's law library as a weekend circulation assistant, and I applied. I was accepted and fell in love immediately. I loved it all- shelving, filing updates, processing materials, checking books in and out, - wow! I even found my first mentor there - Elizabeth (Beth) Schneider. I was also introduced to the wonderful Sharon Blackburn,with whom I would later write articles and create presentations.

Beth first met me when she found me rearranging the reference collection by topic rather than by call number one Saturday. She stopped in her tracks and said, "Excuse me, who are you and what have you done with my reference collection?" "I am reorganizing it for maximum accessibility and usage," I responded. "And who are you anyway?" I asked, feather duster in hand. Turns out she was the Associate Director of the Law Library. Whoops!

She let me down gently. "Wow, that's an...innovative idea," she said as she started putting the books back in the correct spots. "But next time you get the urge to reorganize, you need to get the OK from a librarian ahead of time. See, we have this notion of organization called cataloging and people who are paid to organize things called law librarians...." And with that, a mentoring relationship was born, and I found my answer to the question of what to be when I grew up!

After law school, I attended Beth's alma mater, the University of Arizona. Beth was always in touch to offer advice or an invitation to join her and her family for meals. A hungry library student appreciates both things equally! She remains a close friend and mentor, and we share other interests as well. We both enjoy needlework and can often be found together in needlework shops. We also enjoy "taste testing" products at chocolate stores. Both of our spouses are addicted to NASCAR, so once a year we all meet up in a city for a racing weekend. The guys go off to the race, and we race around and see how many shops we can hit in one day.

Beth's support and advice was invaluable when I got my first professional job as a reference librarian at the San Diego County Public Law Library.Library school failed to prepare me for patrons who wanted to sue invisible people, get restraining orders against the FBI to stop the FBI from tracking them via their teeth fillings, and for those who wanted the Supreme Court to grant their divorce. Beth's counsel on how to deal with these situations was invaluable.

My days working with the public were interesting, but after working the reference desk 40 hours a week for six years, I knew I had two choices: get out or have a nervous breakdown. So I got a new job as Head of Reference Services at the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, which happens to be located in the moist city of New Orleans. I got the job two weeks before Katrina. My new boss, Kay Guillot, pronounced me "brave and slightly crazy" for staying onboard after Katrina, but the people at the 5th Circuit and in New Orleans are great and the food can't be beat! Beth is planning a visit and I can't wait to show her the chocolate and needlework shops!

My other hobbies include teaching American Tribal Style belly dance, playing with my two dachshunds, and going trap shooting with my husband. I also knit occasionally.

Editor's Note: The Spotlight on Law Librarians feature is edited by Lee Peoples, Law Librarian Blog Contributing Editor and Associate Director, Oklahoma City University Law Library. Please feel free to recommend a colleague for this feature to Lee at lpeoples@okcu.edu

Spotlight on Law Librarians: Amy Wright

Amy Wright
Online Research Services Librarian
University of San Francisco School of Law
Zief Law Library
San Francisco

I graduated from UC Hastings in 1997, and I admit that the idea of becoming a law librarian never once crossed my mind during law school.  In fact, I followed a conventional path throughout law school.  I participated in on-campus interviews and worked as a summer associate at a downtown law firm.  I was a member of Hastings Law Journal, worked as a research assistant to a professor, and served as a teaching assistant in the first-year Legal Writing and Research program.  After graduation, I practiced health care law for about five years in San Francisco law firms and also worked as in-house counsel for a large health care system. 

Over time, I grew increasingly dissatisfied with the demands of practicing law and found myself thinking seriously about a career change.  I enjoyed legal research and mentoring junior attorneys, but I struggled with the long hours and the encroachments on my family life.  I read a number of different books on alternative legal careers and found a tiny paragraph in the back of one book about law librarianship.  I don’t remember which book it was, but I do remember that the author didn’t seem to find law librarianship to be a particularly exciting choice.  But that didn’t matter.  As soon as I read the short description, I was immediately intrigued because it mentioned that teaching and research were both primary job duties for academic law librarians.  I loved doing research and working as a teaching assistant in law school, and I thought that it would be great to have a job that involved both activities.  I started to read everything that I could find about being a law librarian.  After two weeks of research and an intensive review of the AALL website, I realized that I had found my calling.

I applied to San Jose State University’s School of Library and Information Science and completed the MLIS program in May 2005.  I joined the Northern California Association of Law Libraries (NOCALL) and the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL) immediately upon starting law school.  I attended my first AALL conference in Seattle in 2003, where I quickly found out just how friendly and welcoming the law librarian community could be.  I still recall telling my husband how different this conference was from all of the attorney conferences that I had attended over the past few years – “People will actually talk to me and offer career advice even though I’m just a student, and there’s lots of hugging!,” I told him. “I think I’ve found my people.”

During my final year of library school, I landed an internship at the University of San Francisco’s Zief Law Library, which was my first significant library work experience.  It was particularly meaningful for me to work at Zief because I was a long-time patron of the USF law library as a law student and practicing attorney.  I had always admired the staff and the collection, and it was such a great experience to come back to this law library to begin my new career.  I worked at the reference desk, developed a plan for a new faculty resources web page, and made recommendations about the library’s health law and bioethics collections.  I absolutely loved working there, and I couldn’t wait to find my first full-time librarian position.

In my first job after library school, I served as the Electronic Services Reference Librarian at Santa Clara University’s Heafey Law Library.  I managed the library’s web pages, launched an internal blog for our reference department and an external blog for our patrons, and taught advanced legal research for the first time.  I’m now well into my second semester of teaching Advanced Legal Research, and I’ve found it to be both exhilarating and terrifying at the same time.  My teaching philosophy is simple – I try to teach my students all of the things that I wished I had known before I began practicing law.  I cover traditional legal research topics such as legislative history, secondary sources, and federal and state administrative legal research, but I also include discussions about performance expectations for new attorneys, how to write solid timesheet entries, and cost-efficient research strategies. 

I had a great experience at Santa Clara, but when a position opened this past year at the University of San Francisco closer to home, I decided to apply and was excited to receive an offer a few months ago.  I am managing the law library’s online resources, overseeing our Lexis and Westlaw training, providing faculty research support, and preparing to teach Advanced Legal Research again in 2007.  The USF Law students are inquisitive, friendly, and smart, and I really enjoy working with them at the reference desk and in the classroom. 

I’m also an active member of NOCALL and AALL so that I can take full advantage of the supportive law librarian professional community and work to recruit others to law librarianship.  I currently serve as the Co-Chair of the NOCALL Academic Relations Committee, and I’m a member of AALL’s Recruitment to Law Librarianship Committee.

In a recent tribute to J. Myron Jacobstein, [1] Bob Berring said that Professor Jacobstein once told him that "the best thing about law librarianship was that you could give it your best but you did not have to give it your soul. . . . [y]our soul was for your family."  Professor Jacobstein had it exactly right.  You should be able to love what you do and give it your best without having your job drain you dry. But I have to confess that, even though I don’t spend long nights and weekends at the office anymore, my job has stolen a little bit of my soul – in a wonderful way.  I think about new methods of teaching legal research on my daily walks in Golden Gate Park, formulate new research hypotheticals for my class in the shower, and avidly read other librarians’ blogs on the weekends.  I  market law librarianship to law and library school students through AALL and NOCALL mentoring programs and speaking engagements.   But I no longer resent the time that I spend thinking about my job “off the clock” – instead, I am immensely grateful and honored to be part of such a creative, collegial, and passionate profession.

[1] Robert C. Berring, Mike Jacobstein: Truly a Giant, 97 Law Lib. J. 633 (2005).

Editor's Note: The Spotlight on Law Librarians feature is edited by Lee Peoples, Law Librarian Blog Contributing Editor and Associate Director for Faculty, Research and Instructional Services, Oklahoma City University Law Library. Please feel free to recommend a colleague for this feature to Lee at lpeoples@okcu.edu

Spotlight on Law Librarians: Molly Brownfield

Molly (Mary) Brownfield
Reference Librarian
Rutgers Law School – Newark

I consider myself extremely fortunate to have found my way into law librarianship for several reasons.  For starters, I became aware of this career path fairly recently – during my last semester as a law student at the University of Minnesota.  With only a few months until graduation, I had realized that I did not want to practice law and found myself in dire need of direction.  The study and practice of the law still appealed to me, and I wondered if there was some career path that would combine my interest in the law with my undergraduate degree in French and International Studies.  Inspired by one of my law courses, Foreign, Comparative, and International Legal Research, I started to ask around about law librarianship.  The law librarians at the University of Minnesota were extremely helpful and with the guidance of Joan Howland and Mary Rumsey, I applied for and was accepted into the graduate program at the School of Information at the University of Texas. 

As a recipient of the Tarlton Fellowship (which supports recent law school graduates who are pursuing graduate degrees in information science) I had the opportunity to work part-time as a reference librarian at the Tarlton Law Library of the University of Texas while completing my information science degree.  This provided me with first-hand experience along side first-rate law librarians and left me with no doubts that I was on the right track.  As graduation approached and my search for a full-time position began, I received unwavering support and professional guidance from Tarlton’s Director, Roy M. Mersky.  I also had the advantage of flexibility - my fiancé and I were willing to go virtually anywhere where I found a job.  Ultimately we decided to try living on the East Coast, where we both have some family and where I would have the chance to work under the direction of Carol Roehrenbeck at the Rutgers Law Library in Newark.

As a reference librarian at Rutgers, I get to work with incredible colleagues - people who challenge themselves, strive to assist and educate others, and are always willing to go out of their way to help.  I have been here just over 2 months and love the variety of the work.  My favorite part of my job is that I learn something new every day and am in a role where I can help others to do the same.  I also have time to lead a full life outside of work, which includes spending time with my husband and our numerous pets and enjoying the cultural, culinary, and of course, retail opportunities of New York City. 

It is hard to believe that only 3 years ago I had no idea where I would end up, and now here I am in an ideal career.  I couldn’t have planned it better if I had…well, actually planned it!

Editor's Note: The Spotlight on Law Librarians feature is edited by Lee Peoples, Law Librarian Blog Contributing Editor and Associate Director for Faculty, Research and Instructional Services, Oklahoma City University Law Library. Please feel free to recommend a colleague for this feature to Lee at lpeoples@okcu.edu

Spotlight on Law Librarians: Lou Lindsey

Louise (Lou) Lindsey, JD, MLS, SLIS
Associate Director
Mabee Legal Information Center
University of Tulsa

After 27 years as a law librarian, one would expect that Lou Lindsey has a pretty impressive collection of convention bags.   Click to enlarge the above right image to see Lou airing out some of them on her backyard Tulsa clothesline to help her pick just ONE to carry to the October 19-21 MAALL/OKLL joint annual meeting in Tulsa!   The MAALL President, Brian Striman, has declared a contest for recycled bags from former meetings or other noteworthy bags of any sort, instead of providing us with yet another convention bag.   Yes, Lou thinks she's going to win the "oldest AALL meeting bag"- and what with this stockpile, she just might!   You who are coming to Tulsa for the Mid America Association of Law Libraries and the Oklahoma Law Librarians meeting need to give her some competition!  Think about it!

Lou's early career was as an elementary school teacher in Colorado & Nebraska, followed by an enviable elementary school librarian position in Virginia where her library had a fireplace with her mom's braided wool rug for a cozy story time!

After 9 years of higher education leading to law librarianship (BA at Earlham; MLS at UWA; JD at UND; & SLIS at IU), she decided it was time to work. As a law librarian, she has worked in academia non-stop, beginning at University of Arkansas in Fayetteville for a dozen years, then University of Connecticut for a couple years, and back to MAALL/SWALL territory at the University of Tulsa where she has served as Associate Director for 10 years now, a mere half of the time Rick Ducey is celebrating in October as Director.  Lou also directed North Dakota's Central Legal Research for a few years as a freshly admitted North Dakota/Minnesota attorney.  This program, which still exists, provides research by law students for court-appointed defense counsel, judges and prosecutors from the state.   She was thrilled to visit CLR when MAALL was in Grand Forks last October, and have a reunion with the same administrative assistant she had hired, and former student workers from her time there (1977-80)!

When not helping Local Arrangements as being co-chair for the upcoming meeting, Lou does general library administrative work, serves on the reference desk, and does the collection development in the area of environmental and energy law.

Check out this website if you're interested in bringing YOUR old bag to Tulsa!   Early bird registration is Oct. 4 and the special MAALL rate at the hotel in Jenks closes Oct. 4.   

Editor's Note: The Spotlight on Law Librarians feature is edited by Lee Peoples, Law Librarian Blog Contributing Editor and Associate Director for Faculty, Research and Instructional Services, Oklahoma City University Law Library. Please feel free to recommend a colleague for this feature to Lee at lpeoples@okcu.edu

Spotlight on Law Librarians: Ron Wheeler

Ron Wheeler
Associate Director for Public Services
Georgia State University College of Law Library

In all honesty, I stumbled upon law librarianship accidentally. 

After completing a degree in accounting at the University of Michigan-Dearborn (I can’t believe I majored in accounting either?), I decided to attend law school at the University of Michigan.  While in law school, I met several students that were in library school.  I remember thinking how interesting their program of study sounded.  Nevertheless, I forged ahead with my legal studies, and after graduation moved to Seattle, WA intent on saving the world. 

While in Seattle I did a number of different things.  I worked briefly as a public defender, I did program coordination for an AIDS services organization, and I coordinated a project for the Seattle/King County Bar Association called the Volunteer Attorneys for Persons with AIDS Project.  But, something was missing from my life.

Finally after almost nine years in Seattle, I moved back to Michigan to attend the Library and Information Science Program at Wayne State University in Detroit.  I loved library school from the very first day.  While in library school, I worked full time as a library paraprofessional at a small Catholic college in Detroit called Marygrove.  That was a great experience.  Working for a small college library, I got to do everything from managing circulation, taking reference desk shifts, and work in acquisitions, to doing interlibrary loans.   Although I had contemplated becoming a general academic librarian, because of my J.D. degree, my teachers and mentors all pushed me toward law librarianship.  I did an internship at Wayne State University’s Neef Law Library working under Georgia Clark, and I really feel in love with law libraries.

My first job after library school was as a reference librarian at the University of New Mexico School of Law Library in Albuquerque.  Over my five year tenure at New Mexico, I worked under two different directors, and held various positions including head of public services, assistant director for faculty, research, and instructional services, and co-interim library director.  I taught advanced legal research classes, supervised staff, participated in collection development, managed faculty services, coordinated outreach programs, and had input on library budgeting issues. 

During this time I also became very active in the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL).  I’ve held various special interest section (SIS) offices including secretary/treasurer and vice-chair of the Social Responsibilities SIS, and member-at-large of the Research, Instruction, and Patron Services SIS.  I’ve served on both the Placement Committee and the Diversity Committee.  I currently serve as the listserv moderator for the Black Caucus of AALL, and I’m an active member of the SR-SIS’s Standing Committee on Lesbian and Gay Issues.  In 2005, I was honored to receive the AALL Minority Leadership Development Award. 

I recently began a new chapter in my career by moving to Atlanta, GA and taking on the position of Associate Director for Public Services at the Georgia State University College of Law Library.  I look forward to both the challenges and the rewards of this exciting position.  My favorite part of this position is teaching 1L students.  I love the excitement of classroom interaction, and teaching inquisitive students really inspires me.

When I’m not at work I enjoy reading fiction, listing to classical music (The Mexican tenor Rolando Villazon is my current favorite.), seeing movies, and attending symphony and opera performances with my partner Harry who is a classical singer and K-12 music teacher. 

Editor's Note: The Spotlight on Law Librarians feature is edited by Lee Peoples, Law Librarian Blog Contributing Editor and Associate Director for Faculty, Research and Instructional Services, Oklahoma City University Law Library. Please feel free to recommend a colleague for this feature to Lee at lpeoples@okcu.edu

Spotlight on Law Librarians: Jennifer S. Marshall

Jennifer S. Marshall
Senior Reference Librarian
Reed Smith LLP
Oakland, CA

In law school, I didn't dress up in a suit and interview with the big firms when they came to campus. I didn't scour Martindale-Hubbell listings figuring out different firm sizes and specialties. I didn't spend one of my summers working at a big firm nor did I clerk for a Judge to see the other side of the bench. I didn't contact my law school's alumni to hear about their experiences working in various firms. And, I didn't spend late nights working on law review articles.

I had no intent of working in a big firm and my activities during law school reflected that. I was active in the public interest group. I was in a Dispute Resolution program and received my Certificate in Dispute Resolution as well as my JD. I spent time sitting in on various mediation sessions conducted by professional mediators where domestic violence may have existed in the relationship, and I wrote a major paper on this. I volunteered at a local domestic violence organization serving on a domestic violence hotline. I occasionally visited the local prison to meet with women who were incarcerated for killing their abusers. I moved to New York City for a summer
mainly to live in New York for the summer! But, while there, I interned at the Environmental Protection Agency and played on an environmental softball league. And, on most Monday nights during my three years of law school, I went to the local yarn store and spent a few hours knitting with a group of women; I was the only legal leaning person in the group, so this can't be justified as a good networking opportunity.

Needless to say, I was not a traditional law student.

With this alternative orientation, I took my law degree and had a satisfying career at a non-profit conflict resolution organization. I was there for four years and then started to crave more learning and growing opportunities in my career. After reflecting that research had been my favorite part of law school, and after meeting a librarian who worked in a public library and raved about her job, I went to Library School, got my Masters in Library and Information Science (MLIS) degree and then was off on another career search.

When anyone asked me at any point during library school about my career and personal goals, I would have said that I didn't want to be a law librarian and I didn't want to date a lawyer.

I had visions of being a news librarian. While I was in library school,I did an internship at National Public Radio in DC and loved doing research for my favorite NPR journalists whom I had listened to for years on the radio. My eyes would light up excitedly when Mara Liasson, Scott Simon or Daniel Zwerdling's name would flash on my phone indicating a call for research help. I took pictures of the NPR building, gave tours to my parents and anyone else who visited, and I still proudly wear my NPR black fleece jacket. Being a law librarian just didn't have that kind of glamour in my eyes.

After a few unsuccessful months of trying to become a news librarian and after a few months of working in a thoroughly unsatisfactory medical environment, I was willing to broaden my goals. I went in search of mentors who saw my resume and asked whether I had considered becoming a law librarian. After resisting and resisting, I eventually gave in. And, luckily, I got a job offer from a law firm that looked good, so I decided to give it a try.

Fast forward to today. I'm now almost two years into my career as a law librarian and I love it. The work I do is just as diverse as what I did at NPR. I don't only retrieve legal decisions. I welcome young attorneys and summer associates into the career and teach them how to be efficient researchers. I locate individuals and companies using powerful databases and intelligent sleuthing. I strategize with our marketing staff and research various companies. I locate practice handbooks and hand them off to grateful attorneys. I find obscure definitions from outdated dictionaries and give them to patent attorneys who are trying to understand a word's meaning at a particular point in history. I move the library forward with intranet projects. I do research for people across the firm, locally, and anywhere including Hong Kong and Washington, DC. The common theme each day is that I learn something new. Other than that, each day is different and interesting. As I often say to friends who ask about my career, it's a cool gig.

And, for those of you curious about the personal side of my life, I'm also now happily dating a lawyer. We didn't meet at work, but that's a whole different story.

Reprinted with permission: Jennifer S. Marshall, From Law School to a Big Firm With Some Non-Traditional Steps Along the Way, San Francisco Daily Journal (March 16, 2006).

Editor's Note: The Spotlight on Law Librarians feature is edited by Lee Peoples, Law Librarian Blog Contributing Editor and Associate Director for Faculty, Research and Instructional Services, Oklahoma City University Law Library. Please feel free to recommend a colleague for this feature to Lee at lpeoples@okcu.edu

Spotlight on Law Librarians: Ann Walsh Long

Ann Walsh Long
Librarian, Fellers, Snider, Blankenship, Bailey & Tippens, P.C.
Oklahoma City, OK

BA: Colorado College
MSLS: Catholic University of America
J.D.: Oklahoma City University, 2009

I have had the pleasure of working in many different law library settings, including law firms, the federal government, and law school libraries.  I have actually worked at four different law firms and worked in five different states.  When I decided to become a law librarian, all I really wanted to do is stay competitive in the Denver, Colorado legal market, so I could remain in Denver and ski.  I’m entering my sixteenth year as a law librarian and in a lot of ways, I think I have almost come full circle. 

My career as a law librarian began with a law school application.  A friend, who worked in the accounting department at Kirkland & Ellis (when K&E had a Denver branch office), told me about an opening in the law library.  I thought I may as well apply and get a feel for what my future life as a lawyer would hold.  I got the job, and in less than two months, I decided the life of a practicing attorney was not for me!  For starters, Kirkland & Ellis has high standards for their associate hires: they interview candidates from only the top law schools and only those students who are in the top of their class.  I knew I wasn’t going to fit into either of these categories and realized that my chances for getting a position with a large firm would be slim.  Not to mention all those late nights and weekends…  Did I really want to spend my life pursuing the billable hour?  Lucky for me, I landed in the right spot.  My boss had her master’s degree in Library Science and the Reference Librarian was getting her master’s degree through the University of Emporia at Kansas (at the time, Denver University’s library school was closed).  It was the combination of interesting work, good mentoring, and a professional atmosphere that led me to apply for a master’s degree in library science at the Catholic University of America.  At the time, I felt I had two choices for suitable library schools: Catholic University of America and the University of Washington.  These schools were the only two schools that offered several courses in law librarianship, instead of just an introduction to legal research course offered by adjuncts like the majority of library schools.  Thinking that I would eventually like to become a legislative librarian, I moved to D.C.

At Catholic, one of my professors was the Director of the Library at Covington and Burling.  I was fortunate to be able to work at Covington & Burling part-time while going to school full-time.  This meant incredibly long days and resulted in many late-nights spent waiting for the bus in Dupont circle.  Oddly enough, after graduation, my first professional job was not in a law firm library.  Instead, I accepted a position as the Water Office Librarian at the Environmental Protection Agency.  The EPA contracted out all of its information services to contractors, and during the three years I worked at the EPA I worked under five different contracts!  Working as a contractor, everything is considered a “deliverable” and everything had a deadline -- a perfect environment for a former law firm librarian.  I wrote a daily newsletter distributed to over 500 EPA employees that involved scanning five major newspapers, weekly, bi-weekly and monthly periodicals to create the newsletter, and sent it out every day by 10:00 a.m.  I worked at the reference desk for up to four hours a day, with three phone lines, walk-in patrons, and EPA employees all waiting their turn for help in navigating through the vast amount of information.  The amount of information one agency can generate and the number of people that information impacts is staggering!  I was promoted to the Head of Reference and the last contract I worked under was disrupted by Congress’ inability to submit an appropriations budget.  After being laid-off for several weeks in November, the supplemental budget ended without a replacement in December, and without a paycheck, it was time to move on.  While the budget was eventually ironed out, I see now that this bump in the road would not be the EPA’s last.  It is hard to believe that President Bush is closing the EPA libraries and removing the most valuable access points to environmental information.  My experience may become only a memory, in more ways than one.  While I was working at the EPA, my fiancé moved to Virginia for law school and I joined him when the supplemental budget ended. 

My job search in Virginia began with a mail campaign to nearly every member of VALL and VASLA with copies of my resume and a plea for a job.  My efforts resulted in a temporary position with the College of William and Mary School of Law Library, and two law firm interviews.  I accepted a position with Hunton & Williams as a Reference/Computer Services Librarian (a new and trendy title at the time) and developed one of the first law firm library Intranets.  I enjoyed my first speaking gig at SEAALL on developing Intranets, and as most things do, this led to more opportunities for articles, presentations, etc.  I loved everything about this job.  I loved the interesting work, I loved my colleagues, and I loved being a member of VALL.  I hated to say goodbye, but when the time came for my husband to find his first job out of law school, we landed in West Virginia and my time as an Intranet pioneer was over. 

This time, my job search was relatively short.  While in West Virginia for my husband’s interview, the WVU College of Law Library had an opening for a Reference and Electronic Services Librarian posted to their web page.  What luck!  The Director did not intend to fill the position until the new fiscal year, and I was looking forward to a new setting.  Working in an academic law library is a whole lot different from a law firm setting and it took me over a year to adapt.  I felt spoiled working in a library with so many resources and could not believe how much time I was allowed to work on projects!  It was fun to work with law students and help them learn how to conduct legal research, and I think these daily exercises really demonstrated how different the training is for future law librarians and future attorneys.  In my experience, law library students are taught to evaluate resources and to fully understand the type of information that each resource will provide, with the ultimate goal being in knowing where to find information.  Law students are typically given a topic for research with the end result demonstrating that the law student understands the issue and can explain the issue in a legal memorandum.  This helps explain why law students come into law firms with only a cursory understanding of legal research – the focus in on writing, not researching.  My job often involved teaching one-hour research sessions on various electronic research tools and databases, and the law students eagerly awaited me to tell them what the answer was, not fully appreciating that I was actually trying to teach them how to conduct research.  I worked closely with the Legal Research and Writing department and presented many CLE sessions on Internet Legal Research (again, trendy at the time) to the West Virginia Bar.  This position also gave me the resources, time, and promotional incentive to publish articles.  It was a good time, but all good times come to an end, and we left four years later for Oklahoma.

OOOOOOklahoma where the wind goes sweeping down the plain…  My husband brought us to Oklahoma for his job at the Oklahoma City University School of Law.  I managed to find a job in yet another law firm library, this time with a local firm, Fellers, Snider, as a solo librarian.  While all law firms are managed differently, all law firms have a common thread: PPP (profits per partner).  Most of my time has been spent trying to increase resources and decrease my 1% of the Firm’s overhead.  It has been an interesting job, but wildly different from my previous positions with large, international firms.  Oddly enough, the best part about moving to Oklahoma has been the professional opportunities the middle of the country offers.  Oklahoma does not have a local AALL chapter, and at the time I arrived, there was interest in building a law librarian community.  I co-founded the Oklahoma Law Librarians group (OKLL) with the Oklahoma County Law Librarian and I am happy to report we celebrated our third annual meeting last November.  I am now serving as President of the Oklahoma Law Librarians group and I enjoy every chance I get to see other law librarians – being a solo librarian is lonely!  Living in Oklahoma has also given me greater visibility within AALL.  A former VALL colleague recommended that I chair the Publishing Initiatives Caucus (PIC) and through publishing a web site that was created by someone else, and by posting articles written by others, these efforts have resulted in my getting recognized by the AALL powers-that-be.  Imagine that.  I am going to have a busy year next year and I look forward to continuing on as the Chair of PIC.

Next year will also bring another new challenge: not working.  After sixteen years, I am back to square one: applying for law school.  As with pursuing my master’s degree, I am going to law school to remain competitive as a law librarian.  Being an eternal optimist, I believe the opportunities for law librarians will increase over the next half of my career and those with dual degrees will be able to take advantage of many more opportunities.  I think law librarianship is one of the few professions where change is constant and expected.  Given this flexibility, our profession is aptly suited to move quickly into new areas and respond to new challenges with flair.  I am certain that the second half of my career will be just as interesting as the first, and who knows?  Maybe I’ll eventually get back to Denver so I can ski!

Editor's Note: The Spotlight on Law Librarians feature is edited by Lee Peoples, Law Librarian Blog Contributing Editor and Associate Director for Faculty, Research and Instructional Services, Oklahoma City University Law Library. Please feel free to recommend a colleague for this feature to Lee at lpeoples@okcu.edu

Spotlight on Law Librarians: David Whelan

David Whelan
Director, Cincinnati Law Library Association

I might be considered a second career law librarian, although I never really had a first career. I was in law school at the University of Arkansas-Little Rock and found that there were a number of other things I'd rather do than practice law. SMU's Underwood Law Library gave me a place to start, where the dean referred to me as the "electric" law librarian. While the name was slightly off, the new opportunity gave me a real charge. It was the confluence of the electronic services and technology that lit up some new career paths. I was fortunate to come under the guidance of two fabulous managers, Gail Daly and Gregory Ivy, who gave me a lot of latitude to try new things as well as plenty of advice and support. It's amazing what a difference an excellent manager can be.

I left Dallas for the American Bar Association soon after getting my MLS at the University of North Texas. Anyone in law school had heard of the ABA and the Legal Technology Resource Center sounded like an unusual information center. It became clear quite quickly that "technology reference" wasn't as strange a concept as I'd originally thought. It also highlighted how many information sharing jobs there are that are well off the beaten library track. Here the CFO gave me some more sound guidance: stay in the mix. It doesn't matter if you're not invited to the party, get out there and stay out there meeting decision-makers and other peers. I had never really considered how much work an information center director had to do just to keep the library's profile high in other people's minds. After 5 years at the ABA, I had been acting CIO, manager of the ABA's Web team, and director of the Legal Technology Resource Center.

I contemplated a return to a more traditional library and moved to the Cincinnati Law Library Association. What an amalgam of things! A law library with over 150 years of history. A court library that has survived 4 court houses. A membership library with hundreds of lawyers seeking legal research help and services. In a time when state support of county law libraries is diminishing, where electronic research causes lawyers to skip using print materials, it is an interesting time to be a librarian. My children cheer when we see a car pulled over by a state trooper for a traffic violation in Ohio because, like Clarence and his wings, some good county law librarian is going to get a bit more money.

In a way, I'm back where I started. From the UALR School of Law Library, a.k.a. the Pulaski County Law Library, I'm in a county law library with a mixed audience. It's a niche library, a truly special library. It's the latest opportunity to explore the varied roles a law librarian can have. I have adopted a much looser definition of what it is to be a librarian and what a library should be. Take advantage of, and give others the benefit of, wide latitude and see what can happen. Stay in the mix, and make sure that the library remains an important, viable resource for your organization and patrons. Who needs a first career when you can start a second one instead?

Editor's Note: The Spotlight on Law Librarians feature is edited by Lee Peoples, Law Librarian Blog Contributing Editor and Associate Director for Faculty, Research and Instructional Services, Oklahoma City University Law Library. Please feel free to recommend a colleague for this feature to Lee at lpeoples@okcu.edu

Spotlight on Law Librarians: Greg Lambert

Greg Lambert
Information Resource and Records Manager,
King and Spalding L.L.P., Houston, Texas.

I’ve always prided myself on trying new things.  So, when my wife (who is also a librarian) suggested that I work on my MLS at the same time I was working on my JD, I said “why not!?!”  Twelve years, two degrees, and five jobs later, I think she picked out the perfect career for me.

In those twelve years, I’ve worked as a computer programmer, academic law librarian, director of 75 county law libraries, webmaster of a state supreme court website, adjunct law professor, project manager of a FEMA project, and last, but not least, a manager of a law firm library and records department.  It definitely hasn’t been boring.

Recently, I remembered something that Jon Schultz told me that really helped me expand my horizons as a law librarian.  I was interviewing with Jon for a position at the University of Houston Law Library when he asked me that inevitable question “Where do you see yourself in 10 years?”  I gave him my stock answer of how I was going to climb the ladder in academia and eventually become a director of a law library.  His very candid response was “Why would you want to limit your goals to that?”  I was stunned, and eventually told him “thanks, but no thanks” on the U of H job.  However, I did take what Jon said to heart and decided that I would take risks and try new things with my career.  The first thing I did was to write a proposal to teach a brand new class at Oklahoma City University School of Law on Computer Law.  When a Property II professor took a late sabbatical, I applied and got the job to teach it in his absence.  I was taking risks that I would have never thought of trying before, and I was having a blast.

Perhaps my favorite job was working with the Oklahoma Supreme Court.  This was an exciting and intellectually (although not financially) rewarding job.  I was given the task to consolidate all of the management of 75 county law libraries, digitize 120 years of state case law, and reconcile a couple million dollars of outstanding bills.  Perfect!!  When I left this position to move to Houston three and a half years later, the libraries were consolidated under the Court Administrator’s office, every single case decided in the State of Oklahoma, the Territory of Oklahoma, and the Indian Territory was online, we had reconciled all outstanding accounts, plus we doubled funding for the county law libraries thanks to a bill introduced by a state senator who is now the Governor of Oklahoma. 

When I had the chance to work with AMIGOS Library Services as a Project Manager to rebuild the University of Houston’s law library collection, I felt as if fate had stepped in to allow me to lend a hand to the person that gave me the vision to try such difficult tasks.  Coordinating a project to replace 175,000 volumes under the guidelines of FEMA was perhaps the most challenging job I have ever had.  However, it allowed me to see the structure of a law library in a way that few people have.  I needed to learn acquisitions, cataloging, serials, vendor relations, library systems operations, rules regarding non-profit organizations, and how to build something from the soggy remains of a library standing in 10 feet of water, all while still following the inflexible guideline of FEMA.  To say that this called for some “outside the box thinking” is an understatement indeed.

After having worked in Academic, State, Court and County, and non-profit library systems, I decided to go private.  I had spent the previous 6 years on the razor’s edge attempting to build or rebuild law libraries.  Now, I was going to take a more traditional role and manage a law firm library and take on the responsibilities of a records department.  I think my “traditional role” lasted approximately 6 minutes.  I quickly discovered that the world of law firm libraries is in constant motion.  Having to respond quickly to late Friday afternoon requests like “Can you find me an English to Vietnamese translator in Bangkok on Monday?” sure keeps you on your toes. 

Of course, I still look at the way things are and ask myself how can we make it better.  I’ve always been lucky in that most places I’ve worked, I have been given the flexibility to try new approaches.  My mother still tells the story of how I would take everything apart as a kid and see if I could make it work better.  In a way, I’m still that same kid trying to look at something in a new way to see if it can work better -- and still having a blast doing it.

Editor's Note: The Spotlight on Law Librarians feature is edited by Lee Peoples, Law Librarian Blog Contributing Editor and Associate Director for Faculty, Research and Instructional Services, Oklahoma City University Law Library. Please feel free to recommend a colleague for this feature to Lee at lpeoples@okcu.edu

Spotlight on Law Librarians: Cheryl Rae Nyberg

Cheryl Rae Nyberg
Reference Librarian & Website Content Manager
Gallagher Law Library
University of Washington

Like many “accidental librarians,” I found my calling by chance.

As a freshman at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, I needed a job. The nice lady at Student Services sifted through her 3x5 card descriptions of student job opportunities and gave me two choices: wash test tubes and other equipment in the Chemistry lab or play office assistant for a man at the Law Library. What was an English major to do?

At the Law Library, I met a goofy guy with wild hair and a wicked sense of humor: Bob Berring. I didn’t do much “library” work for Bob. Instead, I made racketball reservations, picked up hardback bestsellers, and cut out legal stories from newspapers (I loved those long newspaper scissors!). Oh, and I took his resume to the printer.

Bob made quite an impression on me (if you’ve met him or heard him speak at AALL meetings, you understand why!). But I was cajoled, trained, and motivated into law librarianship by three other U of I law librarians: Carol Boast, Nancy Johnson, and Lynn Foster.

Carol, Nancy, and Lynn were excellent role models. At the time, none of them had law degrees (later, Nancy and Lynn obtained JDs). Carol, in particular, became my mentor.  I aspired to follow in their footsteps by becoming a “triple-threat” librarian. My goal was to provide great reference service, to share what I had learned by publishing and speaking, and to promote and contribute to my profession. 

I’ve enjoyed my quarter-century of service as a law librarian. I learn something new everyday and everyday I have opportunities to share what I’ve learned. I have written many articles and have recently published the 20th volume in the Subject Compilations of State Laws bibliography series.  I have traveled to Australia, California, Florida, Illinois, New Zealand, Puerto Rico, Texas, and other spots to address groups of librarians, judges, court administrators, and legislators. And I’ve met many bright, creative, dedicated law librarians who share this passion.

Was it Freud who said that there are no such things as accidents? What started as a serendipitous referral to a student job has evolved into a successful career. May all your accidents resolve so happily.

Editor's Note: The Spotlight on Law Librarians feature is edited by Lee Peoples, Law Librarian Blog Contributing Editor and Associate Director for Faculty, Research and Instructional Services, Oklahoma City University Law Library. Please feel free to recommend a colleague for this feature to Lee at lpeoples@okcu.edu

Spotlight on Law Librarians: Trinie Parker

Trinie Parker
Foreign, International and Comparative Law Librarian
Harvard Law School Library

I am very pleased to post this Spotlight feature on Trinie. It is in the vein of a series of posts I envisioned roughly titled: Law Librarians with Exotic Backgrounds. Trinie definitely fits the bill. She is proficient in written and spoken Chinese can converse in Cantonese and has a working knowledge of French. Her educational pedigree is quite impressive and includes a bachelor’s degree in International Relations from the London School of Economics, an L.L.M. in Legal Theory from the European Academy of Legal Theory in Brussels, an L.L.B. in law and Chinese Studies from the University of Leeds and most recently a master’s in Library and Information Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Her previous work experiences include teaching and translating in Taiwan and Belgium, conducting research and providing legal advice at the Citizens Advocacy Bureau in Leeds and working for Amnesty International in the United States. These educational and work experiences uniquely qualify Trinie to work the reference desk at Harvard’s International Legal Studies division.

Trinie is a self-confessed “foodie.” Just ask her how to prepare endive if you want to see her face light up. While in library school she spent weekends “interning” at a wine store while getting her library degree.

Editor's Note: The Spotlight on Law Librarians feature is edited by Lee Peoples, Law Librarian Blog Contributing Editor and Associate Director for Faculty, Research and Instructional Services, Oklahoma City University Law Library. Please feel free to recommend a colleague for this feature to Lee at lpeoples@okcu.edu

Spotlight on Law Librarians: Dennis Kim-Prieto

Dennis Kim-Prieto
Reference Librarian
Rutgers Law Library

I've worked as a teacher, a waiter, a copywriter, and a personal concierge, among other jobs, but I've found my position as Reference Librarian at the Law Library in the Rutgers Center for Law and Justice to be one of the most fulfilling positions I've ever held. Not only do I get to work with some of the best law librarians in the state of New Jersey, I also get paid to do research that I find fascinating: exploring and evaluating reference sources for Latin American jurisdictions.

Although I started out in graduate school composing poetry, and took my Master of Fine Arts degree from the Iowa Writers' Workshop, it was my first year in law school that piqued my interest in research. In fact, research was about the only part of my 1L experience that I truly enjoyed, and so, once my wife moved to the University of Illinois to pursue her Ph.D. in Social Psychology, I followed along, cured of any desire to ever practice law. After some coursework as a visiting student at the Illinois College of Law, I earned my J.D. from the University of Iowa and entered the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at UIUC.

Out of all of the graduate and professional education I've endured, I felt that GSLIS was the most welcoming and the most nourishing in terms of intellect and spirit. Faculty members were always approachable, and always interested in the ideas and responses of their students. And the students were highly engaged with information, data, and libraries, in a wide variety of witty and fascinating ways. We got to hear 'war stories' about working with S.R. Ranganathan, we were challenged to try and catalog antelopes, and (best of all for me, since I've been a big fan of NCAA basketball since my undergraduate days at the University of Arizona) we got to watch one of the great college basketball teams take Illinois all the way to the Final Four in 2005.

Now that I'm at Rutgers, I'm not only able to devote time and energy into my research, but I also engage with a very broad base of patrons. I'm rather gregarious by nature, so I really enjoy the reference transactions that allow me to help patrons find what they need. I also get to offer instruction from time to time, which gets me in front of a classroom without having to grade twenty-five papers as well.

I'm also active in AALL and in our newly formed Latino Caucus. It's a great way to meet other new law librarians from a wide variety of backgrounds, and with a wide variety of interests. We're looking forward to growing our caucus and meeting new folks at the annual meeting this year in St. Louis.

All in all, I'm incredibly happy here in my new job, and I'm working in a fantastic library. I'm eager to meet the challenges and opportunities that await me as a new law librarian at the Rutgers Center for Law

Editor's Note: The Spotlight on Law Librarians feature is edited by Lee Peoples, Law Librarian Blog Contributing Editor and Associate Director for Faculty, Research and Instructional Services, Oklahoma City University Law Library. Please feel free to recommend a colleague for this feature to Lee at lpeoples@okcu.edu

Law Librarian Spotlight on Lisa Schultz

Lisa Schultz
Reference Librarian
William M. Rains Law Library, Loyola Law School - Los Angeles

I didn’t go to college with the goal of becoming a law librarian. I went to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where I majored in Psychology and minored in Political Science. Eventually I decided that I was not entirely cut out for life as a therapist, but realized that a bachelor’s degree in Psychology probably was not the fast track to gainful employment. So I went to law school, fully intending to merge the two disciplines somehow, or, if that failed, I could tap into my political background.

During law school, I worked at Schmid Law Library at the University of Nebraska, first as a filer, then at the circulation desk. As I progressed through law school I realized that I wasn’t finding that one area of law that I really wanted to practice. But I did like researching different points of law and preferred to craft and support a legal argument rather than actually have to make it. At the same time, I realized that I really liked the work atmosphere at the law library, so with the help of some of the reference librarians at Schmid, I decided to go on to library school.

I soon discovered that an added bonus to obtaining an M.L.S. was mobility. I had taken and passed the Nebraska bar exam, but I really did not want to stay there. The additional degree allowed me to look beyond Nebraska, which I did.

I moved to Los Angeles and started working at Loyola Law School in early October. This is my first professional job and I absolutely love my new profession and my work environment. I have a lot of learning to do, but I am looking forward to the challenges and opportunities to come.

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The Spotlight on Law Librarians feature is edited by Lee Peoples, Law Librarian Blog Contributing Editor and Associate Director for Faculty, Research and Instructional Services, Oklahoma City University Law Library. Please feel free to recommend a colleague for this feature to Lee at lpeoples@okcu.edu

Spotlight on Law Librarians: Terri Gallego O’Rourke

Terri Gallego O’Rourke
Reference and International Law Librarian
Pappas Law Library
Boston University School of Law

B.A. 1994 State University of New York at Albany
J.D. 1997 Villanova Law School
M.L.S. 2004 Simmons College

Like many law students I have talked to, I graduated from college with a liberal arts degree but didn’t know exactly what to do with it.  So, I applied to law school. While at Villanova Law, I worked for the State Court Administrator’s Office of Pennsylvania and a small litigation firm.  I also spent many hours in the library, working on the Environmental Law Journal.  It was while I was working on gathering sources for a journal article that I discovered that one of the law librarians had both her law degree and library science degree.  Incredulous, I asked her “Why would you do this job when you could be working in a high-paying job in a big firm?”  She replied that she liked helping people.  It’s kind of funny that eight years later, I find myself answering the same question to students.

Nevertheless, when I graduated law school, I did the “firm thing,” with a small litigation firm. I was laid off after a year, but now consider that to have been a blessing in disguise. I knew that litigation was not for me, but I didn’t know exactly which way to turn, other than that I wanted to move to a new city, which ended up being Boston, MA, where I had a good friend.

I moved to Boston in 1998, and worked in a variety of administrative positions while I figured out where I wanted my career path to go.  I didn’t feel at all mentally stimulated or challenged in any of those positions, and I found myself always asking for research-oriented projects.  I also felt like I was wasting the law degree that had cost me so much time and money to obtain.  So, I decided to go back to school at Simmons College for my M.L.S.   

While in school, I worked in circulation at a local public library and obtained a full-time, 6-month temporary stint at the Harvard Law School Library as a Reference Assistant.  I was very happy when that led to a longer temporary position as a Reference Librarian in August 2004.  However, I knew that my time at Harvard would eventually come to an end, so I started looking at permanent positions elsewhere in Boston.  I was sorry to leave Harvard, where I was able to work with and learn from such an amazingly talented group of reference librarians who I now count as my friends, but I consider myself very fortunate to have landed at BU.  The librarians are very knowledgeable, and the faculty is very supportive and down-to-earth.  Having had very little international reference experience before my current position, my department has allowed me to audit an international law class and a French class.  Where else could I do something like this?

Among other things, my job involves a lot of teaching, which at first terrified me. I hated public speaking as a lawyer but I love teaching.   I have been asked to speak about research in substantive law classes, which I absolutely love doing because it gives me the opportunity to show them electronic (and print) resources that they might not otherwise learn about.  The students here are unpretentious and very willing to ask questions both in class and at the reference desk.   It’s funny but when I practiced and someone asked me a question I couldn’t answer, I felt like a fraud and that I knew nothing. Now, when someone asks me a question to which I don’t know the answer, such as researching the laws of Estonia, Latvia or Tajikistan (just the other day in fact), I am happy for the opportunity to learn something new.

It took me several years to figure out where I needed to be career-wise.  You know how I knew?  It was when I walked into the Harvard Law Library on my first day, and I thought to myself, “I’m home.”  Now, at BU, students often wave to me and say, “Hey Terri!” or “Thanks for your help on that project of mine,” or they ask me questions that show they’ve retained something I taught them in a class or earlier reference sessions.  I finally feel like I am making a difference.  It really hit home when my older brother, who watched me flounder career-wise for so many years, said to me a few weeks ago, “I think you found your calling. You seem very happy.”  He’s right. I find it amazing that I get paid to do something I love every day.

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The Spotlight on Law Librarians feature is edited by Lee Peoples, Law Librarian Blog Contributing Editor and Associate Director for Faculty, Research and Instructional Services, Oklahoma City University Law Library. Please feel free to recommend a colleague for this feature to Lee at lpeoples@okcu.edu

Spotlight on Law Librarians: Neal Axton

Neal R. Axton
Reference Librarian
Warren E. Burger Law Library
William Mitchell College of Law


B.A. 1995 Kansas State University
J.D. 1998 University of Kansas
M.L.I.S. 2006 University of California Los Angeles (pending thesis)


Neal grew up in a military family and moved frequently. A quiet child who loved to read, Neal spent many hours in public libraries as a youth.

Neal attended Kansas State University studying philosophy before attending the University of Kansas' school of law. While in law school Neal worked for the Douglas County District Court and interned at the Douglas County Legal Aid Society. After being in general practice for two years, Neal took a position with the U.S Export-Import Bank in Washington, D.C. in the Structured Finance division.

Neal had always been interested in computers, but working for the federal government made evident the value of information technology and the need for effective information architecture in an increasingly networked world. Seeking a deeper understanding of information technology and its implications for business and society, Neal decided to go back to school.

Neal eventually enrolled in the Information Studies program at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) in 2003. While attending UCLA, Neal worked as the Evening Access Services & Reference Librarian at UCLA's Hugh and Hazel Darling Law Library. Neal is currently finishing his thesis on comparative privacy law.

In November, 2005, Neal joined the William Mitchell College of Law's Warren E. Burger Library as a reference librarian. Neal's interests include international intellectual property law, the role of information technology in law enforcement, federal Indian law, tax law and criminal law.

Neal recently celebrated his fifth anniversary with Sarah Deer. Sarah is a staff attorney with the Tribal Law and Policy Institute in St. Paul, Minnesota. Neal enjoys kayaking, biking and gardening when he isn't blogging. Neal blogs at Safety Neal's Fireside Chat and The Bellman. His homepage can be found at the Deer Sanctuary.

Editor's Note: I'm please to announce that Neal will be serving as a contributing editor for the Law Librarian Blog. I asked Neal to join us because I believe a "newbie's" perspective on law librarianship will make interesting reading. By "newbie," I don't mean that Neal will be chronicling his on-the-job experiences as a new librarian. Rather, I think it will be interesting to see what topics grab Neal's interest. It also can't hurt to have someone fresh out of LIS school applying what he learned to current developments affecting law librarians. Please join me in welcoming Neal to the profession. - Joe Hodnicki

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The Spotlight on Law Librarians feature is edited by Lee Peoples, Law Librarian Blog Contributing Editor and Associate Director for Faculty, Research and Instructional Services, Oklahoma City University Law Library. Please feel free to recommend a colleague for this feature to Lee at lpeoples@okcu.edu