law libraries Archives | American Libraries Magazine

The Rules of Law

By Elyse H. Fox | March 2, 2026

Within these limitations, though, library workers can develop their legal reference skills and provide appropriate referrals. The American Association of Law Libraries’ (AALL) 2014 report Law Libraries and Access to Justice offers tips for how to do this. In the decade since this report was released, demand for services has remained high, with many low-income … Continue reading The Rules of Law →

Call Number Podcast: Law Libraries

May 18, 2021

First, American Libraries Senior Editor and Call Number host Phil Morehart speaks with Emily Florio, senior research services manager at international law firm Hogan Lovells and president of the American Association of Law Libraries, who provides a glimpse into the life and work of a law librarian. Next, Morehart talks with Anne Lucke, librarian at … Continue reading Call Number Podcast: Law Libraries →

Latest Library Links

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Adaeze Uche writes: “There are only a few people who learn Excel in an academic setting. Most of us pick it up as we go, learning just enough to get through whatever task is in front of us. It’s great that we can build our Excel skills this way, but we also tend to pick up inefficient habits. Once you identify and unlearn them, you put yourself in position to use Excel more effectively.”

MakeUseOf, Apr. 5
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Stephanie Gamble writes: “When I first started as a school librarian I had a lot of frustrations with the 300s. Arriving in my grade 9–12 library after a history PhD and years at research universities, I chalked up my frustrations with Dewey—especially the way the 300s pulled critical aspects of history out of ‘History’ when it involved minority groups—to a need to break my old Library of Congress Classification habits. But why do we use Dewey? Our mission is to prep our students for college level research, but we aren’t teaching them college library organization.”

AISL Independent Ideas, Apr. 1
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Daisy Auger-Domínguez writes: “Workplace burnout is often discussed as if it were a single condition with a single solution: fewer hours, better boundaries, more resilience. That framing is incomplete and misleading. Burnout takes different forms depending on where someone sits in the organization; what they’re accountable for; and how much clarity, control, and moral alignment they have. Burnout is rarely a personal failure. It is usually a design failure. When capable, committed people are exhausted, the issue is not resilience—it is work engineered without regard for human limits and systems that quietly reward overextension.”

Harvard Business Review, Apr. 3
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Claire Woodcock writes: “Conservative parents’ advocacy groups have been experimenting with using commercially available artificial intelligence (AI) tools to help them flag more books they’ve deemed pornographic to be removed from public schools and libraries. Even though LLMs are notoriously error-prone, and the books in question aren’t pornographic, these groups continue to explore use cases for AI anyway. One such experiment indicates a desire to accelerate content production of book reviews for conservative book-rating sites and explicitly defines ‘educational inappropriateness’ as ‘content offensive to conservative values.’”

404 Media, Apr. 1
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Rebekkah Smith Aldrich writes: “Building on the work of the ALA Task Force on the Environment (formed in 1989) and the momentum of the Sustainability Round Table (formed in 2013), ALA Council passed the Resolution on the Importance of Sustainable Libraries in 2015. The resolution suggested the beginning of a ‘new era.’ That was a bold statement—and once it made, it called for action. Fortunately, the right leadership was in place at the right time.”

ALA150, Apr. 2
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Elizabeth Szkirpan writes: “In a field shaped by strong values, many librarians cite ethical concerns with labor, copyright, privacy, and the environmental impact of artificial intelligence (AI). Some professionals are shirking it altogether. However, as vendors continue to integrate AI into library platforms, patrons increasingly rely on these tools for everyday tasks, and institutions commit to AI-forward strategies, complete disengagement is not an option for today’s librarian. So, what does ethical AI interaction look like in a role where you can’t ignore or cut it out altogether? Balance is key.”

Choice 360 LibTech Insights, Apr. 6
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A supermajority of ALA employees formally requested that ALA management voluntarily recognize their union, ALA Workers United, in a letter delivered to ALA Executive Director Dan Montgomery March 30. “Voluntary recognition is an established process that allows workers to freely exercise their right to choose union representation without the unnecessary duplication and delay of an election,” according to a statement from union leaders. Employees have also filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board to trigger an election if the union is not voluntarily recognized.

AFSCME Council 31, Apr. 2

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