I have gotten my feet a bit wet with an exercise in preliminary analysis of a legal research problem and reading the introduction to Suzanne Rowe's Oregon Legal Research 2d. Before I discuss the reading and exercise, which I will do in a separate and subsequent post, I want to outline a little more fully the objectives of my independent study, what the coursework will entail, and how the coursework, including this blog, will contribute to those objectives.
In my independent study proposal, five objectives are listed as follows:
a. Identify, categorize, and respond to legal research questions
b. Gain familiarity with and ability to use various legal resources, especially in a reference interview context
c. Gain understanding of and ability to utilize legal research methods
d. Demonstrate ability to teach acquired legal research skills
e. Explore issues surrounding the evaluation of legal reference services; develop potential evaluative methods
I intend to accomplish these objectives through various activities, the first of which is the reading resources relevant to the coursework. The primary text I will use is, as noted above, Suzanne Rowe's Oregon Legal Research 2d. In addition, I will read other resources as relevant and necessary, such as various primary and secondary legal resources or articles covering legal research methods.
Another course activity will be completing research exercises provided by my professor. These exercises are designed both to explore ideas surrounding and practice using legal resources and research methods.
Along with this coursework, I will create and implement a legal research workshop for public librarians, submitting for evaluation a workshop outline, materials, and description. This will strengthen my own understanding of legal research skills while giving me a chance to practice instructional skills that are necessary to law librarianship.
Finally, I have created and will use this blog to document and reflect on my activities and progress. I will make a minimum of one entry per week, and towards the end of my study, I will use these posts to write a summarizing reflection paper that demonstrates knowledge and skills gained and integrates various concepts from course activities.
One activity discussed in the proposal was the writing of a paper that would fulfill objective e.: a paper about evaluating the effectiveness of legal reference. While my instructor and I have agreed that that was too big a project for the scope of this class, I am hoping to still at least find time to conduct a literature review on the subject, should such literature exist. Since I currently work in a law library where I have ample opportunity to practice legal reference skills, exploring potential ways, if any, to evaluate the effectiveness of that reference is a topic of great interest to both me and my work supervisor. I will continue to report here on any progress made in this vein.
No comments:
Post a Comment