Law libraries as special libraries: an educational model

Library Trends, Fall, 1993 by Penny A. Hazelton

INTRODUCTION

The purpose of this article is to examine the broad educational environment of law librarianship in light of the particular demands and needs of the law librarian employed by the nation's corporations and law firms. This exploration can best be done by looking at the history of the profession of law librarianship and the educational model derived from that history. Then, the most recent policy statement of the profession that defines law librarian competencies will be analyzed. Key characteristics of private sector law librarianship are analyzed in light of the current educational model. Finally, this article will note trends that will influence the shape and direction of the educational model for law librarians in the future.

The first law libraries were private collections of law books owned by practicing lawyers and judges. As the body of American law began to grow in the early 1800s, bar libraries were organized. These subscription libraries required membership in the bar association or club in order to use the collections. This type of law library was dominant in the nineteenth century, though some academic law libraries existed. By the dawn of the twentieth century, the concept of public law libraries had firmly taken hold. Most of these libraries were formed to give judges, state officials, attorneys (who were not members of a bar library), and private citizens access to legal materials. Founded as court, county, and state law libraries, these public law libraries were organized and structured in a myriad of ways. Some were part of the court system, some served legislative bodies, some were established as independent county entities, some were departments within the state library system, and some were created as independent state law libraries.

The law schools founded in the early 1800s relied on the goodwill of local practitioners and their alumni to provide access to the law. Most law libraries in academic institutions got their start through a gift of an attorney's private law book collection. This tradition continued until the early 1900s, when a huge increase in the number of law books published and an increased demand for research materials forced law schools to devote more time, attention, and financial resources to their law library collections (Brock, 1974). Corporate and private law firm libraries were in their infancy in the early twentieth century. In fact, the first law firm librarian was elected president of the American Association of Law Libraries in 1961. Elizabeth Finley joined AALL in 1939, when only one other law firm librarian was listed on the membership rolls (Houdek, 1983, p. 8). Some growth in the number of private law libraries was experienced beginning in the 1950s, but the unprecedented growth in the number of private and corporate law libraries occurred in the mid-1970s and continues today.

This historical development of law libraries has significantly influenced the educational model for law librarianship by emphasizing the importance of a legal education over any other. But the mere existence of law libraries did not create the profession of law librarianship. A profession requires people--in this case, law librarians. Since the development of the earliest of the bar libraries precedes, by nearly 100 years, the development of library science education programs, who were the custodians of these first law libraries? Some early law librarians were actually custodians or janitors, and some were lawyers interested in developing collections of legal materials to support their areas of practice. These practitioners had the knowledge base and a very practical interest in assuring that early law libraries contained collections of the law books needed for their work. Still other early law librarians were connected with state law libraries and responsible for distribution--sometimes publication--of primary legal materials such as court reports and state laws.

This lack of educational requirements posed no problem since the management and administration of the law library of the nineteenth century was a relatively straightforward task, of ten merely a custodial one. Where subject expertise was needed, lawyers were its providers.

It was not until the first information explosion in legal publishing in the late 1800s and early 1900s that the administration and management of law libraries started to become a more complex and time-consuming task. Larger law library collections, increasing competition among legal publishers, and poor access to this larger body of legal information caused law librarians to band together to try to cooperatively solve some of their problems.

In his article on "AALL History and the Law Library Professional," Frank Houdek (1991) postulates that "[o]ne seeking to understand the role of the modern law library professional must examine the beginnings of the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL) because its history is so intertwined with the development of the profession" (p. 19). Indeed, most would acknowledge the beginning of the profession of law librarianship as coterminous with the formation of AALL.