Western PAcific Chapter of AALL

Program A: Transforming the Legal Landscape: Access to Justice in Rural Communities.

For much of the country, the legal landscape is a barren wasteland. Forty percent of counties in the United States are legal deserts, defined as counties with one or fewer attorneys per 1,000 inhabitants. The scant attorneys and judges in these legal deserts are stretched far too thin, and there simply are not enough resources available to adequately serve the legal needs of these communities, creating a vast access to justice crisis. Fortunately, there are many schools, courts, bar associations, and other institutions fighting to address these legal deserts. Law libraries and legal information professionals are ideal collaborators for these types of initiatives. This program will look at some of the current initiatives intended to assist legal deserts, some existing library efforts to serve these populations, and ways—small or big—that any library or legal information professional could participate in these efforts, without expending significant time or resources.

Speakers:

Justin Iverson, Research Librarian & Assistant Professor, William S. Boyd School of Law at UNLV

Franklin L. Runge, State Law Librarian for Montana, Montana Judicial Branch

Sydnie Tallman, Collection Development Librarian, Montana Judicial Branch

Program B: Library or Not. Here Comes Copyright.

This presentation highlights the critical need for law librarians to attain and maintain a comprehensive understanding of copyright law to mitigate their risks of liability for copyright infringement. Building upon the recent publication – Copyright’s Labyrinth: Navigating Copyright Liability in Law Librarianship. Legal Reference Services Quarterly. 2024. https://doi.org/10.1080/0270319X.2024.2363644 – I will advocate for clear action to safeguard both individuals and the profession. Beginning with a foundational overview of copyright law, I will address its impact on libraries and distinct impact on law librarianship. I will then discuss the specialized, heightened risks law librarians and law libraries face for copyright infringement. Due to their specialized knowledge, training, and experience, law librarians are particularly susceptible to being held liable for copyright infringement. As for law libraries, as they continue transitioning from print to digital collections, they risk losing protection under the “Library Exception” of the Copyright Act, exposing not only themselves but their librarians to liability for copyright infringement. I will conclude by proposing actionable strategies to minimize liability risks. These include conducting comprehensive risk assessments tailored to copyright issues, implementing risk management strategies within libraries, collaborating with professional associations to implement copyright education initiatives, advocating for mandatory copyright education in library science programs, and fostering a culture of compliance across the profession.

Speakers:

Eric J. H. Chapman, Assistant Librarian, U.S. Court of Appeals - 9th Circuit Library

Program C: DOI Event Data: The New Frontier in Measuring Scholarly Impact

A Digital Object Identifier, or DOI, is a persistent identifier that binds digital objects to metadata that describes everything about the object, including its location on the web. Through this technology, DOIs provide stable access over time to things like scholarly articles, book chapters, and even data sets. In addition to providing the metadata infrastructure for linking to digital objects, DOI registrars, like Crossref, also provide services that capture data about online events associated with DOIs. For example, when a law review article cites another article that has a DOI associated with it, Crossref captures that citation “event” and preserves the data associated with it, such as a date for when the citation occurred and information about the article where the citation originated from. Crossref makes DOI Event Data accessible through two APIs that researchers can utilize for bibliometric analyses. DOI Event Data offers a game-changing solution for determining the use, influence, and broader impact of a variety of scholarly outputs without the limitations imposed by current methodologies, which manually count citations in legal databases. This session will define DOI Event Data and demonstrate the process for obtaining and making sense of the data. The demo will showcase Event Data from the Texas A&M Law Review.

Speakers:

Valeri Craigle, Head of Digital & E-Publishing, University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law

Program D: Investigating the Degradation of Google Search and Implications for Law Libraries

For at least the past several years, complaints that the quality of Google Search has been deteriorating have been making the rounds on the Internet. Even reporters at publications like The Atlantic have written to bemoan Google’s degradation. We review the existing literature on Google search and share the results of our own mini-study about the quality of Google’s search results in the law library context. We investigate explanations for the decline of Google search and discuss the implications for teaching legal research, interacting with library patrons, and library administration. The audience will be invited to participate in sharing their own experiences with Google Search.

Speakers:

Iantha Haight, Deputy Director, Brigham Young University Law School

Melanie Coleman, Access Services Librarian, Brigham Young University Law School

Program E: Degrees of Preparation: JD and MLIS in the Law Firm Setting

This presentation is a discussion between two new law firm librarians, one of whom has a JD and the other an MLIS. We will share our experiences of discovering law firm librarianship as a career option and the subsequent process of obtaining our first jobs in this field. The conversation will mainly focus on how each degree and educational experience did or did not prepare us to work in a firm environment. For example, JD and MLIS students do not have access to many of the expensive tools and databases that are used on a daily basis by law firm librarians/research analysts, so how can they best prepare for this career? We will suggest also improvements that could be made in law schools and library science programs to better inform students about this niche of law librarianship as a possible career. These improvements include increased access to mentorship and professional development opportunities. Overall, the intent is to explain the current, somewhat ad hoc pathways to firm librarianship, as well as give our perspectives as recent graduates as to how JD and MLIS programs could simplify this process for students in the future.

Speakers:

Sophia Kingsley, Research Analyst, Sidley Austin LLP

Marissa Alsip, Library & Research Services Department, Sidley Austin LLP

Program F: Angling for Efficiency: Casting Off Pain Points with GenAI

The advent of generative AI tools, such as ChatGPT, presents both opportunities and challenges for law librarians. Many are eager to leverage these technologies but are uncertain about how to get started and which tasks are best suited for these tools. This program aims to bridge that gap by showcasing simple ways to integrate generative AI into everyday work tasks. By the end of the session, participants will have actionable insights and the confidence needed to implement AI tools effectively.

Speakers:

Hilary Hardcastle, Library Director, UC Law San Francisco

Kristie Chamorro, Instructional & Educational Technology Librarian, UC Berkeley Law

Jonathan Franklin, Digital Innovation Librarian, UW Law

Program G: Neurodiversity and Law Libraries: Supporting Patrons in Your Physical and Digital Spaces

Has accessibility become a buzzword? Possibly an amorphous, all-encompassing notion that means everything and nothing? In this program, participants will develop a critical lens they can use to assess accessibility in their physical, digital, and classroom spaces, their outreach materials and programs, and their understanding of and interactions with neurodiverse library patrons and students. The program will focus on improving accessibility in law libraries for patrons, including students, who identify as neurodivergent. Given the demonstrated rate of under-diagnosis of neurodivergence, the program will be guided by principles of universal design.

Speakers:

Annalee Hickman Pierson, Head of Reference & Faculty Services, Brigham Young University Law School

Mari Cheney, Perkins Coie LLP & Adjunct Legal Research Professor at the University of Hawaii