Target Audience: Public law librarians, academic law librarians and reference librarians Learning Outcomes: 1. Participants will be able to train public librarians to provide meaningful legal reference. 2. Participants will be able to train public librarians to recognize and avoid the unauthorized practice of law.
Use of public libraries has increased dramatically during times of economic crises and litigants are increasingly turning to self-representation at court. "Access to justice" has become a powerful buzz-phrase in our current society and profession. Numerous public librarians receive requests for legal reference daily. Effective and meaningful training can be conducted by experienced law librarians. Use of ever-increasing self-help resources will be addressed in addition to traditional legal reference. Experienced public and academic law librarians will demonstrate a few successful training models to empower public librarians by giving them the necessary tools to provide excellent legal resources for reference while avoiding the unauthorized practice of law. A public (non-law) librarian will share experiences with the training and corresponding ability/comfort level providing legal reference to patrons.
