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Academic Law Librarians in the United States of America: Lawyers or Librarians?
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 13 February 2019
Extract
“Everthing's up-to-date in Kansas City
They've gone about as far as they can go!”
American standards for law librarianship have been frequently cited and widely used as guidelines in law library literature. It is understandable how one not fully conversant with the problems inherent in American law librarianship might well regard the present standards with the kind of awe expressed in the above quotation. After all, academic law librarians in the United States have a doubledegree standard of education, possess full faculty rank and status as members of law school faculties, and require certification in accordance with their own professional association standards. Committees of the American Association of Law Libraries are engaged in writing canons of professional ethics for law librarians while another is producing a code of job security. A committee of concerned librarians is dealing with questions of social importance and probing the possible response of law libraries to those issues. The law library literature itself is filled with articles presenting various philosophies of law librarianship. Surveys are taken on topics of constant interest ranging from salary scales and book counts to the very latest topical problems such as sex discrimination. Members even voice concern about the possibilities of unauthorized practice of law in their daily work and raise questions concerning the need for malpractice insurance coverage for reference librarians. Thus, at first glance, it does seem entirely possible to conclude that “everything is up-to-date” in American law librarianship.
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- Copyright © International Association of Law Libraries 1975
References
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a. “The librarian should have both legal and library education and he should have met the certification requirements of the American Association of Law Libraries.”
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1. A graduate degree (either Bachelor's or Master's) in library science from a school approved by the American Library Association and a degree in law from a law school approved by the American Bar Association or members of the Association of American Law Schools, and two years of professional library experience.
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2. A degree in law from a law school approved by the American Bar Association or members of the Association of American Law Schools and four years of professional library experience.
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3. A graduate degree (either Bachelor's or Master's) in library science from a school approved by the American Library Association and six years of professional library experience.
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4. Long-term responsible professional law library experience and outstanding contribution to the profession (no degree requirement).
Section A.2 provides: “Certification is voluntary and not necessary either for membership or participation in the activities of the association.”
Only 25 percent of 1750 members are certified. See, Brock, Christine. “Law Libraries and Librarians: A Revisionist History; or more than you ever wanted to know”, 67 Law Library Journal 325, 354 (1974).
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