Week in the Law Library Life—Misty Peltz-Steele, Associate Law Librarian for Research & Administration
As several of my colleagues have already mentioned, no two weeks in the library are exactly the same. Facing a new set of challenges each day keeps us on our toes and makes for an interesting time. Here are a few highlights from my work life over the last week
Anyone Need a Teacher?
By far, my favorite experience last week was guest lecturing in the Advanced Legal Research course. Course participants, after watching a video that I previously recorded on international and foreign legal research, allowed me to help guide them through an in-class workshop. We explored many of the different resources and databases used to conduct research in these areas. I very much enjoyed my time in the class. I hope that the students did as well. Thank you to my fearless leader, Raquel Ortiz, for the invite. Our teaching librarians, me included, are often called upon to guest lecture in classes. Although it takes a great deal of time to prepare for such lectures, I always enjoy the opportunity because I seem to learn more than I ever have time to pass on in a class. It makes me a better librarian and gives me much appreciated, face-to-face time with students and faculty.
I also brought the teaching librarians together for a meeting at the end of the week. We discussed issues that may arise this spring and next fall and reviewed one-credit course proposals that we are considering. The proposal I’m working on is for a course to teach the research skills necessary to succeed on the NextGen bar exam. I spent a few hours organizing content into a rough syllabus and refining course objectives before the meeting. It’s important to me to develop a course that is fun and engaging, while also allowing students to hone their research know-how and strategy.
What’s the Latest and Greatest in Legal Research?
I took some time this week to keep current on legal research tools. I attended a vLex training. For those of you unfamiliar with that platform, vLex is a large legal database with coverage of all states and seventeen countries (translations included). The demonstration focused on upgrades to the platform’s AI assistant. We don’t subscribe to vLex, but it doesn’t hurt to keep informed about research options. Our wonderful Aspen representative, Kaitlyn, also visited the law school in person. It’s always nice to catch up with her and learn about new offerings from Aspen Publishing. I also began reviewing new book titles, published this year, to make purchase suggestions in line with our Collection Development Policy.
Any Questions?
The most routine aspect of my week is research questions. We are here to serve students and faculty so answering questions is one of the most important aspects of our job. As Lindsay Koso mentioned in last week’s blog post, we constantly monitor email and chat for questions and share shifts at the reference desk. We’re able to answer most of the questions we receive pretty quickly. However, I worked on a couple of research requests last week that were more complex in nature. I spent the better part of a day answering them in coordination with my colleagues. Sometimes it takes a village to accurately complete a task in a timely manner. I’m always impressed by the willingness of the library staff to pitch in and help with research as needed. I carved out some precious time to work on my independent research last week as well. Writing will be harder for me, not because I don’t enjoy it, but because I’m an anxious writer. Chocolate is not safe anywhere in my vicinity when I start typing. It’s a good thing this blog post isn’t very long because I’m already a candy bar and two packages of Dots deep.
What’s a Week Without a Little Chaos?
At some point last week, the operating system for our catalog went down. If you missed it—good! I think we caught it pretty quickly in the library. One of my responsibilities is to manage our information systems and technologies and keep them up to date. Fortunately, the system Help Desk came through for me, and the issue was repaired within a couple of hours. I’m grateful that the problem wasn’t more difficult to fix. A library without a working catalog cannot stand.
Because I direct the law library’s research and access services, I work closely with most of the library staff. In addition to Raquel and Lindsay, that includes Jessica Silvia, Erin Orsini, and our newest librarian, Kiron Ireland, who I caught up with this week for coffee and a chat about his goals for the year. It’s a joy and privilege to work with such good people. They are full of great ideas, and I get just as much pleasure as everyone else in the building when I see them come to life.