Yale Law Library Annual Report 2016-2017
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Yale Law School lillian goldman law library in memory of Sol Goldman annual report 2016–2017 0 | 0 message from the director Welcome to the 2017 Annual Report of the waiting list. Therefore, in the fall we hired Lillian Goldman Law Library. I hope this our first Instructional Services Librarian, report demonstrates both the amazing and Stacia Stein, who is prioritizing legal research specialized services provided by our expert instruction while also contributing to research law librarians and staff, as well as the support for faculty and students. As a result, breadth and depth of our print and electronic we are able to expand our offering of alr with resources. Together we are a remarkable additional sections in the fall term this year. library serving an extraordinary faculty, Many of our librarians teach legal research student body, and community of scholars. despite “residing” in other departments. This is just one example of the remarkable teamwork On July 1, the law library’s leadership officially among our colleagues. transitioned with Blair Kauffman’s retirement after 22 years at the helm. I stepped into the We also have a new Technology and Digital directorship after five years as the law library’s Initiatives department headed by our long-time deputy director and six years in other roles innovator and technologist, Jason Eiseman. in our law library. I am truly honored and This department is focusing on the digitization humbled to be the Law Librarian of “the best of Yale Law School historical materials, the academic law library in the world.” This is law library’s website and born-digital resourc- our Vision and has been for almost a decade. es, and all technology matters. This is the team I was a member of the strategic planning that successfully digitized and made available team that developed this vision and it has open-access almost 150 Litchfield Law School driven my work and my view of our student notebooks over the last few years. spectacular institution from that moment. Digitizing, preserving, and making accessible Yale Law School’s rich historical resources The Lillian Goldman Law Library is constantly will bring these invaluable materials which examining and evaluating our services to document almost 200 years of American legal our faculty and students in order to ensure we education to the fingertips of our—and the are meeting their evolving needs. This is an world’s—legal historians and scholars. exercise we undertake frequently. This year we made several changes to our organizational We are making less dramatic but still important structure and allocation of existing resources adjustments at the individual department and to address emerging trends in faculty scholar- position level in order to address increased ship and student learning. demand on library services stemming from enlarged clinical offerings, the proliferation of Our new Research Instruction department, yls research centers, and new faculty members headed by Julie Krishnaswami, is attempting with innovative research agendas. Similar to meet the tremendous increase in enrollment to our faculty, our students are also engaged in our flagship Advanced Legal Research in more sophisticated and interdisciplinary (alr) class and our first-term legal research research requiring an ever-broadening level of demands. For each of the last two spring support. We work collaboratively and across semesters, two sections of alr, an elective departments to meet the needs of our faculty two or three-unit course, enrolled over 100 and students. This makes for very exciting and students but left almost as many on the rewarding work for all of our librarians and design staff who thrive on providing superb service to Yale Printing & Publishing Services our community. It also gives our librarians and paraprofessionals the opportunity to be creative front cover: A. Norton Fitch, and innovative, and to learn new skills. A treatise on commercial law (Rochester, N.Y.: E.R. Andrews, 1890). back cover: Giovanni d’Andrea, Super arboribus consanguinitatis et affinitatis (Nuremberg: Friedrich Creussner, 1483). photography: Shana Jackson. We said farewell to several colleagues this year and welcomed new ones to our Yale Law School family. We hired an experienced We work collaboratively and across departments and highly respected Associate Law Librarian for Administration, Lisa Goodman, who to meet the needs of our faculty and students. previously served as Interim Director and Head of Public Services at the Louisiana State This makes for very exciting and rewarding work University Law Library. Ms. Goodman has hit the ground running and is providing for all of our librarians and staff who thrive on tremendous support to our library. We are also fortunate to welcome two additional providing superb service to our community. experienced and proven librarians: Empirical Services and Assessment Librarian, Michelle Hudson; and Head of Foreign and International Law, Lucie Olejnikova. We recently hired Lora Johns ’14 into a newly created Faculty Services Librarian position, and Eric Sonnenberg Alongside acquiring and licensing digital to provide licensed content and open-access into our revived Legal Archivist position, resources, we continue to be a leader in legal information to institutions in developing whose priority will be to process our recently collecting print materials that are not available countries at free or low cost. goali (Global acquired papers of Ronald Dworkin. We in a reliable digital format, including U.S. Online Access to Legal Information) is an are pleased to welcome two colleagues in our legal monographs, focused special collections exciting new module in the Research4Life Acquisitions unit, Ivette Clegg and Valerie materials, and specific foreign and international platform which provides similar access in areas Wellons, who come to us with vast experience law and legal resources. Continuing to build such as science, agriculture, health and the in other libraries and professions, as does our print collections in these specialized areas environment. make our library and Yale Law School a leader our new Senior Administrative Assistant, As you can see, the Lillian Goldman Law in providing an unparalleled breadth and Tom Fitzgerald. Library is a leader in many areas of our work. depth of resources to our faculty, students, and The rapidly changing legal information In addition to new departments and new scholars who visit from around the world. environment challenges us to evolve alongside colleagues, we also have new and helpful It never ceases to amaze and please me when legal education and legal practice. We are resources. Some of the most exciting electronic a colleague or patron exclaims, “I can’t believe able to do so because of the support we receive collections we have acquired or licensed this we have this in our collection!” year include the Max Planck Encyclopedia of from Yale Law School and from all of our Comparative Constitutional Law, an extensive Finally, the law library is leading several na- faculty, students, and alumni who support collection of 20th century civil rights records tional and international initiatives. We created our efforts to be the very best academic law and papers (Black Freedom Struggle in the 20th a national data collection and analysis tool library in the world! Go Team! Century) from Proquest, and aclu Records for academic law libraries (ALLStAR–Academic Teresa Miguel-Stearns in Making of Modern Law. With financial Law Libraries: Statistics, Analytics and Re- law librarian and professor of law support from the Oscar M. Ruebhausen fund ports) to internally assess and benchmark with and enthusiastic support from several members peers our collections and services. This is an of our faculty, we contributed to a national, opportunity to critically evaluate our allocation multi-year effort to digitize Early State Records, of resources, closely examine the drivers of a microform collection of state legislative and demand on library resources and how they are legal materials from the 19th and early 20th changing over time, and learn best practices centuries. All of the Connecticut materials are from our colleagues in other institutions. already available on llmc. We are also leading an international initiative in partnership with our colleagues at Cornell Law Library, Research4Life, ilo, and who, 2 | 3 library administration: navigating change while engaging the law school community The Lillian Goldman Law Library’s Administrative graduate programs, to ensure we are meeting department takes a lead role in advancing our Vision student needs and to explore ways to evolve and maintain our relevance to our students. “to be the best academic law library in the world.” Many ideas generated in lac meetings are now part of the law library’s regular practice. For example, each Monday when school is in session, Library Administration sends out the law library “Tip of the Week,” which strategi- cally conveys timely and relevant information to students regarding library services and resources. In recent years, at the request of lac members, we began reserving space within the law library specifically for exam-taking purposes. In fostering our connection with the lac, the law library endeavors to be both proactive and responsive in meeting student needs and addressing their concerns. Library Administration has been instrumental in working with Yale Law School Student Orga- nizations by assisting their efforts to bring vari- ous events