Teaching Legal Research

<p>Legal research is a fundamental skill for all law students and attorneys. Regardless of practice area or work venue, knowledge of the sources and processes of legal research underpins the legal professional’s work. Academic law librarians, as research experts, are uniquely qualified to teach legal research. Whether participating in the mandatory, first-year law school curriculum or offering advanced or specialized legal research instruction, law librarians have the up-to-date knowledge, the broad view of the field, and the expertise to provide the best legal research instruction possible.</p><p>This collection offers both theoretical and practical guidance on legal research education from the perspectives of the law librarian. Containing well-reasoned, analytical articles on the topic, the volume explains and supports the law librarian’s role in legal research instruction. The contributors to this book, all experts in teaching legal research, challenge academic law librarians to seize their instructional role in the legal academy.</p><p>This book was based on a special issue of <em>Legal Reference Services Quarterly.</em></p> <p>1. Introduction <strong>Setting the Stage </strong>2. Commentaries on Hicks’ ‘Teaching Legal Bibliography’: With an Addendum by Robert Berring <em>Michael Chiorazzi</em> and <em>Shaun Esposito </em><strong>Legal Research Theory </strong>3. Thinking Like a Research Expert: Schemata for Teaching Complex Problem-Solving Skills <em>Paul D. Callister </em>4. Teaching Advanced Legal Research: Philosophy and Context <em>Robert C. Berring</em> and <em>Kathleen Vanden Heuvel </em>5. A Motivational Perspective on First-Year Legal Research Instruction <em>Kris Gilliland </em><strong>Best Practices in Teaching Legal Research </strong>6. Best Practices: What First-Year Law Students Should Learn in a Legal Research Class <em>Nancy P. Johnson </em>7. On Teaching Advanced Legal Research <em>Christopher A. Knott </em>8. The Skills They Need: International and Foreign Legal Research <em>Mary Rumsey </em>9. State-Specific Legal Research Instruction: Curricular Stepchild or Core Competency? <em>Victoria K. Trotta</em> and <em>Beth DiFelice </em><strong>Best Practices in Teaching Legal Research </strong>10. Tubs, Buckets, and a Variety of Lumber: Developing a Strategic Approach to Legal Research <em>Allen Moye </em><strong>Assessment and Technique </strong>11. Legal Research Assessment <em>Simon Canick </em>12. “Like Sands Through the Hourglass . . . ”: How to Develop a Good Legal Research Problem <em>Susan T. Phillips </em>13. Teaching Legal Research Online <em>Susan Herrick</em> and <em>Sara Kelley Burriesci </em><strong>Certification and Bar Exam Teaching </strong>14. Who Gets to Be the Expert?: Legal Research Skills Certification in Legal Education <em>Richard Leiter </em>15. Testing for Research Competency on the Bar Exam: The Next Steps <em>Steven M. Barkan</em>, <em>Susan M. Case</em>, <em>Michael Kane</em>, and <em>Erica Moeser </em>16. Great Expectations: New Associates’ Research Skills from Law School to Law Firm <em>Jill L. K. Brooks </em>17. The Development of the Skills Curriculum in Law Schools: Lessons for Directors of Academic Law Libraries <em>Duncan Alford</em></p>