I also made my first comments on this subject privately, but not wish to
contribute them to the list as a whole. I don't think that all legal
reference librarians need a JD. In my own library, everyone down to the
secretary does some reference work. But I think it is essential that
anyone without a JD have access (at least at the end of a telephone line)
to someone with a JD when they are working the reference desk. (It is
even more essential for someone without an MLS to have access to someone
with an MLS). While many reference questions can easily be answered without
a law degree, some patrons (particulary those without a legal background) do
not express their questions in the approriate legal terms to make finding
an answer easy. In addition, at times ordinary words have very different
legal meanings and there are very specific legal ways of referring to
ideas that other people express in lay terms. Indexers tend to use the
legal terms to describe such situations. Access to someone with a JD
can help enormously in these situations.
Having said this, I must agree with Al that it matters a great
deal who the patron is. When the patrons are practising attorneys, they
provide much of their own legal analysis and terminology. I think they
also tend to ask more specific questions. When the patrons are the public
and law students, they need a different level of assistance. Law faculty
also often seem to benefit from the assistance of a person with both
degrees. I think this is because they are generally not looking for a
quick and dirty answer. They are more likely to be the ones who want
"everything on" a topic or want to do an all 50 state search of statutes
where you have to think of all the ways to describe something. But even
among law firm librarians and court, county and public librarians, I
still maintain that they need access to someone with a JD when doing
legal reference work. However, that's a long way from saying that all
legal reference librarians need a JD.
Mary Brandt Jensen University of South Dakota
Director of the Law Library School of Law
Associate Professor of Law 414 E. Clark St.
MJENSEN@CHARLIE.USD.EDU Vermillion, SD 57069-2390
(605) 677 6363 Fax (605) 677 5417
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