86420 AALL Spectrum.july 7/1/04 1:19 PM Page 20 to gauge interest in supporting a law librarianship program. After determining that there was interest—or at least no serious objection to the new director’s proceeding with his newfound hobby— I discussed my ideas with the dean of the law school and the chair of the Department of Library and Information Studies (DLIS) in spring 2001. Both welcomed the plan and worked with me to determine program requirements and clarify the logistics of cross-listing courses, accepting course credits from one program into the other, and so on. Within a few short months, we were ready to go. In the Beginning The program already had a firm basis on which to build. James R. Sahlem, principal law librarian at the New York State Supreme Court (8th Judicial District) Library in downtown Buffalo, was already Reference Librarian Joseph Gerken teaching a library school course on legal backs up practicum student Kathleen Wilko at the University at Buffalo aw librarians have expressed a bibliography. Sahlem has since expanded Law Library’s reference desk. growing concern in recent years that course into two classes: Primary Law L about the need to recruit new law Resources and Materials of Legal Practice. librarians into the profession. Statisticians Other UB law librarians, including Susan and trend watchers foresee the continued Dow and Terrence McCormack, have graying of the profession, as large numbers also taught in the library school from time of baby boomer librarians retire during to time. the next 10 years. And with the legal I spent part of the first year preparing information environment becoming ever a new course, Law Library Administration, Law Librarians more complex, many predict that the need which is now offered each spring and for law librarians will grow. Where will cross-listed in both law and DLIS. Law those skilled professionals come from? Library Administration introduces students as Educators It sometimes seems as though, to to management issues in law libraries, paraphrase Mark Twain, everybody talks as well as to broader topics facing law and Role Models about recruiting, but nobody does anything librarianship as a profession. The course about it. makes extensive use of role-playing and Fortunately, the situation is not quite simulations to immerse the students in The University at Buffalo’s that dire. The Web site of the Conference the life of the law library professional. of Law Library Educators (COLLE) A major component of the course is JD/MLS Program (http://students.washington.edu/jnl3/) a group strategic planning project. The in Law Librarianship lists 36 ALA-accredited library programs students form the staff of a hypothetical offering at least one course in law law library, and each individual is assigned librarianship; several offer two, three, or a specific role or job description. The by James Milles more. A number of these library programs students hold a series of planning meetings are at universities that also have law throughout the semester and finally schools, but only eight law schools offer produce a complete strategic plan for the joint JD/MLS programs; three are in model library. In addition, each student partnership with library programs at other writes a research paper on a contemporary institutions (see “Law Schools that Offer issue in law librarianship and presents the JD/MLS Programs” on page 21). paper in class; UB law librarians are The University at Buffalo has long invited to attend the presentations. had both a law school and a library Law Library Administration was program, but it was not until 2001 that it offered for the first time in spring 2003; began to develop a formal collaborative, or it attracted 11 students. The second time, dual-degree, program in law librarianship. in spring 2004, eight students enrolled— Not long after I had settled in as law a mix of contemporaneous dual-degree library director, I began to have informal students, students with a JD pursuing the discussions with some of the law librarians MLS (or vice versa), and MLS students 20 AALL Spectrum July 2004 © 2004 James Milles 86420 AALL Spectrum.july 7/1/04 1:19 PM Page 21 planning to apply to law school. (The The law school has been very syllabus for the course is available at supportive of the program. Dean Nils Law Schools that Offer JD/MLS http://briefcase.yahoo.com/jmilles, in Olsen, when presenting the proposal for Programs the folder “LawLibAdmin.”) the program at a spring 2001 law school • Brooklyn Law School and Pratt faculty meeting, noted that one of the Institute School of Information A Surprise Hit appealing aspects of the program was the and Library Science I originally estimated that the program opportunity to attract more students www.brooklaw.edu/academic/ would be a success if it grew to five or six who would be seriously interested in the joint/jointprograms.php#mslibrary students. Currently there are 12 to 14 academic study of law. students at various stages in the program. The JD/MLS program, like other www.pratt.edu/sils/program. Students have come to the program in dual-degree programs at the school, is also html#Anchor-M.S-44867 different ways. Several of them, looking promoted by the Admissions Office. I • Indiana University for an alternative to the traditional practice regularly participate in law student open www.slis.indiana.edu/degrees/ of law, chose to pursue the MLS during houses and career days to talk with students joint/law.html their second semester of law school. Others who might be interested in a career in have come back to library school after law librarianship. We are also working to • North Carolina Central completing their law degrees or even integrate the program more closely into the University practicing for a few years. A few are starting curriculum of the Department of Library www.nccuslis.org/programs/ to apply to UB Law School specifically to and Information Studies. law.htm pursue the law librarianship program. • Syracuse University Once students come to realize that law A Challenging Program www.law.syr.edu/academics/ librarianship is a career option, many of One of our goals is to do more than train academics.asp?what=interdiscip them find it a very attractive one. Ann law librarianship students in the skills of linary_study Davey, a second-year law student and legal research; we also challenge them by first-year library student, heard about the giving them the intellectual foundation to • University at Buffalo, The State program toward the end of her first year handle changes in legal information and University of New York in law school. “Before that, it hadn’t even prepare our graduates for whatever roles http://informatics.buffalo.edu/ occurred to me that one could have a into which law libraries of the future might programs/mls/ career as a law librarian,” Davey said. evolve. This is why the interdisciplinary • University of Connecticut “I was so relieved to hear that my majors tradition of UB Law School is an School of Law and Southern (modern languages and creative writing), in important part of our program. Connecticut State University combination with my technology experience, We encourage students to pursue a Department of Library and could actually make me quite marketable wide variety of course work, including Information Science for something. And of course it’s nice to current trends in empirical legal www.law.uconn.edu/academics/ think that I would be able to use the skills scholarship, and think of law as not dual-degree.htm#mls I developed as an undergrad. By that time limited to what is found in the books or I was already dreading 80-hour workweeks, online. “I love the challenge,” Behrens www.southernct.edu/ no vacation, no time for family, having to said. “I love the intricacies of legal departments/ils/masterlib.htm research. I love that there are no ‘right beg for unpaid internships, dealing with the • University of Iowa answers’ in law. Sure, there’s precedent, constant life-or-death situations of clients, www.uiowa.edu/~libsci/ but it still changes constantly. It’s so billable hours, and stiff competition every programs.html#jointdegrees step of the way. In short, law librarianship unpredictable, it drives me insane; but was a revelation—it came to me at exactly that’s why I love it.” • Widener University School of the right time in exactly the right way.” Davey is interested in emerging trends. Law and Clarion University of Jennifer Behrens, a first-year law “Most of the other students I know have Pennsylvania student who finished her MLS at UB last set their sights squarely on reference, www.law.widener.edu/ year, was interested in law librarianship but so far I am very intrigued by the PROSPECTIVE/ADMISSIONS/ before she even started library school. technology that fuels libraries and digital programs_dual.shtml “I had worked in a public library since information systems,” she said. www.clarion.edu/edu-humn/ the age of 16, so I felt comfortable in the Another crucial component of the newlibsci/grad.htm#Juris Doctor ‘library world’ and always felt like it was UB law librarianship program is providing something that I would enjoy doing,” she practical experience. DLIS students are said. “But law school had always been an required to complete a practicum, and option that intrigued me, too. During my many have done their practicums in In the past two years, two students have junior year of college, after researching a the law library. In 2003 the law school done law school internships, and two others bit on librarianship as a career, it finally approved a law library internship have done library school practicums.