Law libraries have long coped with pressures to do more with less at the same time they develop innovative services to advance the missions of their law schools. Economic and social pressures, including challenges to the prevailing law school model, promise to require even greater, as well as more individualized, adaptation by law libraries. The program features discussions by law library directors with extensive experience in doing more with less and in formulating responses to the many forces acting on law libraries. A panel will respond to the issues, drawing on their perspectives as directors of diverse institutions facing these issues now and formulating their futures. The proposal assumes a one and three quarters hour session.
Introductions and Themes
Doing More with Less – New Ways to Think About the Management of Declining Resources
Facing the Elephants in the Room: Creative and Strategic Approaches to Current and Emerging Trends.
Topics to be discussed include: creative and strategic service innovation, the lawyering skills movement and the library, the balance between library and law school space needs, increasing use of library resources with less library traffic - engaging the “self-sufficient” learner, trends affecting autonomy and centralization, and how the roles of the library and the director within the law school may be changing.