Welcome to the InfoSci Platform
Personnel

Personnel

Copyright: © 2013 |Pages: 25
ISBN13: 9781466621848|ISBN10: 1466621842|EISBN13: 9781466621855
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-4666-2184-8.ch005
Cite Chapter Cite Chapter

MLA

Laurie Selwyn and Virginia Eldridge. "Personnel." Public Law Librarianship: Objectives, Challenges, and Solutions, IGI Global, 2013, pp.97-121. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-4666-2184-8.ch005

APA

L. Selwyn & V. Eldridge (2013). Personnel. IGI Global. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-4666-2184-8.ch005

Chicago

Laurie Selwyn and Virginia Eldridge. "Personnel." In Public Law Librarianship: Objectives, Challenges, and Solutions. Hershey, PA: IGI Global, 2013. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-4666-2184-8.ch005

Export Reference

Mendeley
Favorite

Abstract

Until the mid-1900s information explosion inundated legal researchers, legal professionals saw little need for law librarians, preferring instead to rely on the uneducated caretaker, the law student, or the under employed lawyer to oversee their libraries. As legal research evolved into a broader process that required one to sort through a rapidly growing influx of legal and non-legal information from the social sciences, sciences, and statistics, law firms began hiring librarians to corral, collect, sort, manage, and organize the increasing quantity of information. As databases developed and attorneys became more and more consumed with income generating activities, private law librarians came to be recognized as the search, research, and resource experts. Unfortunately, public law librarians were not as lucky. In the public law library world, the position of librarian continued to be filled by under employed attorneys or untrained individuals who were often treated as facility caretakers, janitors, housekeepers, or the governing authority’s secretary, clerk, administrative assistant, or “Girl Friday.” This chapter discusses the widely varied job descriptions, staffing options, training, and levels of professionalism within the public law library field. It will also present the dual degree and certification debate, the use of temporary and unpaid assistants, and review some approaches to changing the position over time to create a less clerical, more professional position.

Request Access

You do not own this content. Please login to recommend this title to your institution's librarian or purchase it from the IGI Global bookstore.