Teaching Legal Research

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.

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.

This book was based on a special issue of Legal Reference Services Quarterly.

Barbara Bintliff, Nicholas Rosenbaum Professor of Law at the University of Colorado Boulder and former president of the American Association of Law Libraries, has been a leader in legal education for several decades and has written extensively and consulted on law school curricula and pedagogy.

Duncan Alford, Associate Dean and Director of the Law Library at the University of South Carolina School of Law, has held various positions in law libraries along the East Coast, has taught legal research in several law schools, and has published articles on law librarianship and international banking law.