Albert Brecht - x06482 writes:
>
>
> Since this BB is largely used by academic law librarians, the responses
> seemed to see law librarianship though the academic law lib. eyes. I had
> shared with Pauline that the need for a JD and MLS in reference seems most
> often to be affected by the type of law library. In law firms where the
> users (the attorneys) already have completed their legal training, you find
> few JD and MLS reference librarians. I assume the logic is that the users
> who orginate the questions (the attorneys) already have the legal analysis
> to apply to the problem. Law firms, the vast majority, still seem satisfied
> with reference librarians with MLSs and experience with legal materials (and
> of course their very important knowledge of non legal materials.
>
I disagree. I think that there are lots of reasons why JD/MLS types are not
common in the law firms, but lack of need for the two degrees is not one of
those reasons. I worked for a couple of firms as a JD working on my MLS
and I found that the attorneys were very unaccepting of having essentially
"one of their own" "wasted" "doing mere library work--shelving books."
They would have accepted me as a research attorney, but not two or three
rungs down the pecking order. I made let go from the last position I held
because "having an attorney in a non-attorney classification creates too
much potential for conflict of interest." (The office administrator).
That is not to say that the research requests that they made could alway have
been answered by an experienced MLS. Many of the requests required knowledge
of substantive law or procedure that the MLS's that I worked with did not
have. Those attorneys who were looked upon as the most scholarly and careful
made sure that I did their research. They were also the attorneys that were
most capable of applying their own legal analysis to the problems. I had
the most problems with rainmakers, "hammer and tongs" attorneys, and those
that resented that I had replaced "that pretty little girl who used to
deliver my research."
I think that another factor is that jobs in firm libraries are frequently
not as pleasant as those in academic libraries. Librarians rank pretty
close to the bottom of the pecking order in the places I have worked. It
isn't unusual for a lawyer to tell a librarian at midnight, "I need this
research on my desk at 8:00 a.m. when I come in." I have know librarians
to get calls at 2:00 or 3:00 a.m. from attorneys that woke up remembering
that they needed to have some research done RIGHT NOW, and fully expect
that the librarian would snap to and get down to the office. Salaries
don't seem that great for firm librarians--certainly not in relation to
the impact on ones personal life. Personally, I would go back into law
before I would take another job in a firm library.
There are other reasons, but this is enough grist of the mill for this
trip.
Dale
--Dale C. Mead Voice: (408)974-5811 Senior Information Specialist Fax: (408)725-8502 Corporate Library e-mail: dcm@apple.com Apple Computer, Inc. desktop: dcm@taurus.apple.com
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