CORE COMPETENCIES OF LAW LIBRARIANS
Just as in all areas of the profession, highly sophisticated information technology is totally transforming the nature of law librarianship (Altman 34). However, these core competencies seem to remain constant.
COLLECTION DEVELOPMENT POLICIES
Varying on the size and type of law library, collections, objectives, and procedures differ. The law library's principal objective is collecting and maintaining print and electronic information to support the research and instructional needs of legal professionals, which is comprised of students, lawyers, legal researchers, professors, and individual users (Altman 110). It is responsible for reviewing and selecting print, microform, AV, and electronic material for the Law Library. A majority of law libraries house federal statutes, legislative history materials, and case reports. They also collect state statutes, reporters, and digests. Many libraries also house treatises and monographs for subjects that comprise a major component of the curriculum or where there is substantial use for research.
THE LAW LIBRARIAN
The majority (74%) are in mid-career age range -- 36-55 years. 86% have an MLS degree and nearly a third have a J.D. degree. 23% of law librarians have both an MLS and a J.D. Although the J.D. is not a requirement for all law librarians, it is in fact quite common and prevalent among leaders, particularly academic library directors.
AUTHORITY OF LAW LIBRARIES
Law Libraries represent the most powerful constituents in the law librarianship field, at least in terms of the economics of legal information in the U.S, because of their influence in the marketplace as consumers of legal information. They alone represent over $593 million dollars of annual purchasing power in the legal information field. Their membership in AALL gives the Association clout with legal publishers because they represent such a significant portion of the legal marketplace.
THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF LAW LIBRARIES
Recognizing that the availability of legal information to all people is a necessary requirement for a just and democratic society, the American Association of Law Libraries exists to promote and enhance the value of law libraries to the public, the legal community, and the world, to foster the profession of law librarianship, and to provide leadership in the field of legal information and information policy (AALL 1998 p.19). It is a national association of 5000 law librarians. Approximately 1/3 of AALL members work in private law firms serving more than 50 attorneys. On average, AALL members have worked as law librarians for 13.7 years.
FUNDING SOURCE OF LAW FIRM LIBRARIES
On average, a law firm library spends $645,000 on information each year. Of that amount, just over half is spent on electronic information. On average, firms employ 1.8 professional law librarians, who each serve 52.7 attorneys. Many firm librarians also supervise other functions related to managing information.
PUBLIC ACCESS LAW LIBRARIES
Public access law libraries play a role in serving the public, welcoming nearly everyone - judges, attorneys, and pro se patrons - on an equal footing. They share many of the same concerns as public librarians about access for the poor to both highly specialized and local legal information (Kaiser 25). Knowledge, skills, and financial resources limit access for the poor. Often pro se litigants cannot afford online access. The San Diego County Law Library in California is one example of a public access law library. 89% of its budget is derived from filing fees for the first initial filings in the superior and municipal courts in San Diego County. It is available to 9,500 attorneys. The Main Library holds 270,000 volumes and three branches hold 17,000 volumes each. One branch is 42 miles away from the Main Library. The library is staffed with 48 employees.
WEB PAGE EVALUATION
A Law Library: Texas State Law Library, Texas
http://www.sll.state.tx.us/index.asp
Texas State Law Library catalog is simple to become skilled at and returns search results rapidly, but definitely has room for development. The site has a pleasant, comprehensive home page with information on how to obtain library resource with no trouble. On excellent feature to the catalog is that when you miss spell a word in the title search it shows you, which titles are similar to the one you typed. This allows you to find the information quicker. The web site is very user-friendly and I feel it has what every patron is looking for.
TRENDS AND ISSUES
Technology has changed, and is changing the way law libraries are managed. The impact of technology on organization has affected the relationship between people and their jobs; those in the field seek ways to adapt to human physical and psychological capabilities and limitations. An emphasis is comfort, health, and productivity in the work place. Too often, decision makers believe that technology solves and leads to increased wages and productivity (Mak 26). Productivity may decline in the short run or longer, rapid changes in the information technology industry puts pressure on librarians and users to keep pace; keeping pace requires the movement of money from the library to them. The main issue is that there is more than one way to get what you are looking for in a law library and librarians have to learn all the possible ways to obtain information the fastest and most accurate.