The first Chat of the 2010 spring semester was held on March 23, 2010 at the iSchool. There were about 15 in attendance, most of whom were from the Law Libraries course that was given at the iSchool this semester. Students spent the first hour of their class at the Chat and came prepared with questions for the chatters on issues they had run into in their class work or topics that they were interested in personally. One student had a law degree, several had experience in other fields but all were interested in learning more about opportunities in law libraries.
The three chatters worked in different types of law libraries and came at their jobs from very different perspectives. Anna Cole, Head Librarian at Miles & Stockbridge, P.C. in Baltimore, has been there for almost thirty years. She works with lawyers and clients on a variety of topics and uses legal databases extensively but also has to go outside the professional literature to answer many of the lawyers' questions. The law firm environment is very busy, constrained by deadlines but very satisfying.
Mary Jo Lazun is the Head of Electronic Services at the Maryland State Law Library in Annapolis. This library is open to the public at the same time that it provides assistance to government lawyers on issues facing the state and works cooperatively with county law libraries in the state as well. She has developed customized databases for the State Library that facilitate a quicker and more effective repsonse to inquries from all the constituencies they serve.
Janet Sinder, Associate Director for Research Services at University of Maryland Law School Library, has a law degree and worked as a lawyer before turning to academic law libraries. This is an academic library serving professors and students and is closed to the public unless a special request is approved.The law school library supports the curriculum and the courses at the law school; they also have access to the University of Maryland library system which opens up vast information respources not available to the other two law settings.
The next Chat with three Acdemic Librarians, again coinciding with a course on Academic Libraries, will take place on April 12, 2010.
To see pictures, go to http://www.flickr.com/photos/30762689@N05/sets/72157623650221759/.
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