Cornell UniversityLaw Library

Annual Report 2013–2014

Director’s Message

3

Collections

4

Information Management

6

Research and Instruction

8

Access Services

10

Programs

12

Professional Activities

14

Library Strategic Plan

16

Compilation: Amy Emerson (Cornell Law Library) and Mark Williams (Cornell Law Library)Cover photo: Woodwork in Gould Reading Room, by Carol Clune (Cornell Law Library)Layout: Eveline Ferretti (Assessment and Communication, Cornell University Library)Editing: Sandi Mulconry

Message from the Director

I am pleased to present you with my third annual report, which provides an overview of the library’s activities for 2013-14.

The first order of business during this busy and productive year was shaping a plan for the library’s future. The library staff collectively crafted a five-year strategic plan with the vision statement “Advancing Excellence,” which embodies our culture of creative thinking and our deep commitment to providing stellar collections and services to all users. You can read the full strategic plan in this report.

A library is only as good as its collections. Our collections continue to grow, most appreciably in digital formats. Even so, with an increase in our acquisition of print monographs, I can safely state that print is not disappearing as quickly as some had predicted. In an effort to make our special collections more accessible, we transferred the Scottsboro and Donovan Nuremberg collections to new digital platforms with enhanced capabilities. The new additions to our collections, both print and digital, are more fully described in the collections section of this report.

The importance of forging new connections in this age of exponential information cannot be overstated. Our collaborative activities expanded, with the contribution of duplicate materials to Preserving America’s Legal Materials in Print (PALMPrint), a collection of U.S. primary state and federal materials jointly managed by NELLCO, a global library consortium, and the Legal Information Preservation Alliance (LIPA). The library also became one of the founding members of Perma.cc, an online preservation service developed by the Harvard Law School Library in conjunction with law libraries across the country and other organizations. Perma.cc, currently in beta, allows users to create online citation links that will never break. On the home front, we are working with the Cornell Legal Information

Institute (LII) on a linked data project to enhance the discoverability of faculty publications.

Our librarians continue to be active professionally, as evidenced by the impressive list of accomplishments in the professional activities section. A focus of the past year was greater participation in the scholarly and instructional life of the Law School. In the spring, an experiential learning upper-level course, Law Practice Technology, investigating the use and impact of current technologies in the practice of law, was introduced and was well received by the inaugural class.

The library experienced several transitions as we bid farewell to Janet Gillespie, our access services manager of 35 years, and other long-serving staff members. We welcomed Mark Williams, who started in the newly developed position of outreach and scholarly services librarian. We were delighted to play host to visitors and speakers from far and wide, including our 2013 Bitner Research Fellow from Shanghai, China, Jingwei Zhang LL.M. ’11. Zhang’s research focused on providing library support, services and instruction to international graduate law students.

Finally, I would like to acknowledge our benefactors and supporters, who continue to make the development and growth of the Law Library and its collections possible.

Femi Cadmus Edward Cornell Law Librarian,

Associate Dean for Library Services & Senior Lecturer in Law

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Although faced with a flat budget and increasing publisher costs, the Law Library saw savings from the cancellation of print resources now available electronically. These savings allowed it to continue to purchase and subscribe to major databases, supporting student and faculty research and scholarship. The library purchased the latest module of Making of Modern Law and the Pro Quest Serial Set (1789-2014). We also added specialized databases — including History of Bankruptcy, U.S. International Trade Library and American Law Institute Library — to our HeinOnline subscription to support faculty and student research interests.

The Law Library also increased the number of monographs added to the collection. In addition to books in print, the Law Library has started to acquire e-books. We purchased Law E-books (2007-14) from Edward Elgar, a publisher whose books in print have been popular with Law Library users. We also subscribed to the Practicing Law Institute’s e-book platform to increase practice-oriented material in the collection. All Law Library e-book purchases follow the University Library’s e-book guidelines, which set standards for the number of simultaneous users and allow users to download and print.

We continue to preserve special collections, making them widely and readily available to users around the world through our digitization efforts. Trial transcripts were added to the Scottsboro Boys Trial web page and additional content was added to both the Trial Pamphlets collection and the

Liberian Law collection. In addition, all special collection web pages were moved to a new platform, with assistance from the University Library’s Digital Scholarship and Preservation Services.

The Law Library continues to collaborate with other academic law libraries, libraries across campus and NELLCO to increase the scope of material available to users.

Collections

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Information Management

Projects

Projects undertaken in Information Management reflected the library’s continuing focus on increasing access to electronic resources, while maintaining a print collection that supports the Law School curriculum and faculty research. The steep decline in the number of print titles canceled indicates that we are close to achieving the maximum savings possible through these means. At the same time, the number of print monographs added to the collection saw an uptick of 6 percent compared with last year.

Recognizing the enduring value of printed legal resources and the importance of preserving them for future generations, the Cornell Law Library donated 2,208 duplicate volumes of U.S. primary state and federal materials to a new pilot project, Preserving America’s Legal Materials in Print (PALMPrint). PALMPrint is a joint project of NELLCO and the Legal Information Preservation Alliance (LIPA). Materials donated to the project are housed at the W.B. Meyer high-density storage facility in Connecticut and will circulate to participating libraries upon request.Aside from this donation, targeted withdrawals from the collection increased slightly (3 percent) over last year. A long-term project to withdraw several hundred microform titles is ongoing. These withdrawals were driven by the need to free up space in the library’s stacks.

Additional space was freed up for new acquisitions by sending material to offsite storage at the Library Annex, although the pace of this activity slowed significantly, due to the suspension of

Phase II Law School Library renovations. The number of volumes transferred to offsite storage at the Annex declined by nearly 50 percent compared with last year, from 28,835 volumes to 15,332.

Digital repository

Over the past year, the content of our digital repository, Scholarship@Cornell Law (scholarship.law.cornell.edu), expanded significantly. A project to load all issues of Cornell’s three student-edited law reviews is currently underway. As part of the Hein Project, we arranged for the digitization of some 400 historical Cornell Law School theses dating from 1888 to 1899; these have also been loaded into the repository. The total number of full-text downloads from the repository increased by 32 percent, to 892,338, during FY14.

Chart A

Chart B

Chart C

These charts reflect the increase in print monographs added over the past year, along with the reduction in volumes added due to the shift of print continuations, such as case reporters, to stable digital formats.

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Research and Instruction

The Instruction, Outreach, Research, and Technology department had a busy year, filled with exciting developments.

The Law Library continued to provide research instruction for first-year students in the school’s Lawyering Program. A new instructional model was introduced, adding updated forms of assessment and incorporating principles of the “flipped classroom” — a model in which new content is learned by watching video lectures prior to class, while traditional homework assignments are moved into the classroom. This allows for more hands-on learning opportunities and greater interaction with course instructors.

In addition to teaching four upper-division legal research courses, we introduced a well-received Law Practice Technology course, designed to introduce students to the rapidly changing technology needs of the modern law practice. The course covers topics such as ethical uses of technology and data management and offers exposure to tools for client management, electronic discovery and document management.

We also provided instruction to alumni, conducting a continuing legal education workshop during Reunion 2014 in June. The workshop, The Cloud, Metadata, Social Networking, and You: How Technology Is Changing the Practice of Law, helped alumni meet their CLE requirements by earning 1.5 credits from the New York State Bar Association.

We welcomed Mark Williams as our new outreach and scholarly services librarian in August 2013. Mark spent two years as a reporter for the Moscow-Pullman Daily News and one year as a regional director for U.S. Rep. Walt Minnick prior to becoming a law librarian. He holds an MLIS degree from Wayne

State University, and a J.D. and B.A. in journalism from the University of Idaho.

The library is currently migrating its website to a Drupal platform. This migration will allow for a more flexible, efficient and dynamic website that is responsive to tablets and mobile devices.

The library is also involved in several new projects, including our work with the Legal Information Institute (LII) to apply semantic web technologies to recently added holdings of Cornell Law School student-run journals. The goal is to add a linked data layer to enhance discoverability of faculty scholarship and provide increased opportunities for connections between data repositories and end-user points of entry. Last fall, the library partnered with LII in presenting a faculty workshop, Cornell Law Faculty Scholarship Repository and Linked Data, to discuss the project.

In addition, we became one of the founding members of Perma.cc, an online preservation service developed by the Harvard Law School Library in conjunction with university law libraries across the country. The project aims to combat “link rot” — the process by which Internet hyperlinks move, break or become unavailable over time — in online court opinions and legal scholarship.

Cantwell Research Prize

The Cornell Law Library Robert Cantwell Prize for Exemplary Stu-dent Research was awarded this year for the second time. From among the 29 submissions received:• First prize went to Ari Diaconis

’14 for The Religion of Alcoholics Anonymous (‘AA’): Applying the Clergy Privilege to Certain AA Communications.

• Second prize went to Lynne Kolodinsky ’14 for The Law Re-view Divide: A Study of Gender Diversity on the Top Twenty Law Reviews.

Funding for the prize is provided by an endowment from Barbara Cantwell in honor of her late hus-band, Robert Cantwell ’56.

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Access Services

Access Services is enjoying the calm, following completion of the con-struction project that — in addition to creating a new wing of classrooms — added a formal entrance to the east end of the Reading Room via a stair-well from the main building entrance below. We are pleased to now have ready elevator access to all floors of the library, and it was a joy to reopen the Donald E. Claudy Casual Reading Room, complete with new furniture, for use as study and class space.

Other changes were made to public li-brary space to accommodate students’ increasing needs. These included the conversion of two small basement study rooms into interview rooms and the relocation of several fiche cabinets from the third floor to create a collab-orative space. The Reading Room con-tinues to serve as a hub of activity, with regular open houses for Reunion and Orientation. Prints of “Spy” caricatures of lawyers and judges that once graced the covers of Vanity Fair now hang in the administrative corridor and carrel areas, courtesy of the Syracuse law firm of Bond, Schoeneck & King.

Two long-serving, key staff members retired this year. Laura Robert, stacks manager, retired in January, after 25 years’ service to the Law Library. And in May, Janet Gillespie, access services manager, retired after 35 years’ service. The resulting vacancies necessitated a review and reorganization of the de-partment. Most significantly, and with a view toward enhancing support to our users, the managerial vacancy was filled with a new access and research services librarian. Melissa Littlejohn, access services assistant, was hired in May to provide support in desk ser-vices and bindery operations.

Reading Room exhibits over the past year covered topics such as fracking,

privacy, and freedom of expression. Visuals in the latter were particularly compelling, with a display of historically challenged books bound in chains, in recognition of Banned Books Week. In February, the library paid tribute to the late Professor Theodore Eisenberg with a special exhibit in his honor.

Other services increased as well — af-ter-hours library security patrols were added to the Reading Room during the school year; the circulation desk now loans four additional laptops (for a total of six); a second scanner alleviates the long line at the ever-popular first scan-ner; and an upgraded NetPrinter handles the high volume of student printing with ease.Law Library checkouts and renewals saw a significant increase as students contin-ue to rely heavily on library materials, and faculty make regular use of our large collection of monographs. Interlibrary loan activity decreased slightly, as a result of the proliferation of information now available in the many electronic databas-es provided by the Law Library. Activity in Borrow Direct — a rapid book request and delivery service shared among several Ivy League libraries — remained steady among our patrons.

Book Returned After 30 YearsThe Cornell Law Library thanks whomever returned the now rare and out-of-print book, Civil Disobedience: Theory and Practice by Hugo Adam Bedau (Pegasus 1969), during Reunion weekend. The Law Library would like to remind all alumni and students that it is never too late to return a book.

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Programs

Supreme Court justices are people too. That’s a point George Mason Law Professor Ross Davies drove home in his talk, “Supreme Court Solo Adjudication: The Contributions and Catastrophes of Individual Justices,”

offered through the Cornell Law Library Speaker Series.

Davies, editor-in-chief of The Green Bag: An Entertaining Journal of Law and creator of the famed Supreme Court Justice bobbleheads, provided a nuanced look at the men and women who shape the U.S. legal landscape.“Viewing the justices as public servants, we should recall that they are human and are susceptible to both the nobilities and self-restraint that come with that,” he said. “We should be attentive to those things and also maybe a little sympathetic.”

Using anecdotes from throughout Supreme Court history, Davies illustrated ways in which the justices, acting on their own, often exhibit the qualities expected from mere mortals.

Whether it was Chief Justice Roger Taney trying to retroactively modify his majority opinion in the infamous Dred Scott case, Justice John McLean seemingly campaigning for president from the bench or Justice Henry Baldwin trying to privately publish his concurring opinions, history is rife with examples of justices attempting to perform solo acts within the confines of the Court.

“I’m inclined to have pretty strong faith in the Supreme Court when it’s doing its judge work. They have a good sense of right and wrong,” Davies said. “But they are, at the end of the day, human beings. They screw up from time to time, but it’s amazing how rare those events are.”

At the conclusion of the event, attendees were presented with a unique parting gift, a Justice James Iredell bobblehead, the latest in the famed (and hard to find) Green Bag bobblehead series. The figurines, which have been featured on CBS News, CNN, The New York Times and Politico, among other outlets, offer a unique take on the personalities and passions of members of the Supreme Court.

In anticipation of Davies’ visit, the Gould Reading Room hosted the display Bobbleheads at the Bar, with 13 bobbleheads in facing cases. While youngsters pored over the cases, a testament to the bobbleheads’ playful purpose, their universal appeal belies the careful thought behind the selection of imagery, robes and props that convey the significance of individual contributions to our legal landscape.

Thus, Chief Justice John Jay sports black robes with salmon facings and white trim, a nod to historical evidence suggesting that plain black was not yet the Court’s uniform in its earliest years. He holds the second volume of the United States Reports — 2 Dallas — which includes his opinion in Chisholm v. Georgia, 2 U.S. 419 (1793), an opinion that inspired the 11th Amendment to the Constitution. And, he stands on a platform the shape of New York state, as he was the first appointee from the state and later its governor, after resigning from the Court to serve in that capacity.

Law Library Talk Examines Supreme Court Justices and Their Bobbleheads Bitner Research Fellows ProgramThe Bitner Research Fellowship was established in 2002 to provide opportunities for foreign and U.S. librarians and researchers to receive instruction in effective legal research methodology from Cornell Law Library experts. The endowment is funded by Lorraine and Richard Gilden Law ’71, the daughter and son-in-law of the late Professor Harry Bitner, Cornell Law librarian from 1965 to 1976, and carries on his legacy and contributions to the Cornell Law community and the field of law librarianship.

Jingwei Zhang, of Shanghai, China, was the 2013 Bitner Fellow. Zhang holds an LL.B. from Fudan University in Shanghai; an LL.M. from Cornell Law School, earned in 2011; and an MLIS degree from Rutgers, earned in the winter of 2013. Zhang started to shadow the work of Cornell Law librarians in August 2013, creating and contributing to various projects in the Law Library and for the Legal Information Institute (LII). Immersing herself in all aspects of the Law Library’s operations, she performed reference and circulation services, along with creating research guides to familiarize first-year and international students with the library.

Zhang expanded her work beyond traditional library roles by collaborating with LII to develop a Chinese-lan-guage component of its online legal encyclopedia, Wex, and helping to teach the research portion of the LL.M. curriculum. In all her roles, Zhang’s experience and understanding of the student perspective in the research context proved to be an invaluable asset to the Law Library.

Zhang concluded her fellowship by conducting a Law Library workshop

in January, exhibiting her work and discussing the information needs of the student body, particularly those from diverse cultural backgrounds. Highlighting the challenges and barriers faced by international students when they arrive on campus, Zhang outlined a plan to meet their information needs through proactive engagement, encouragement, and small-group or individual instruction.

She also spoke of her inspiration for entering the field of law librarianship, her passion for legal research and the role Cornell played in shaping her career path. She expressed gratitude to the Cornell Law librarians who inspired her as a student and provided the opportunity to learn from them as a fellow member of the profession.

“When I first arrived back here … it was emotional,” she said. “To be able to come back to the place that originally inspired me, it was very exciting.”

Following her fellowship, Zhang accepted a position as reference and instructional technology librarian and assistant professor at the University of Tennessee College of Law. Her learning experiences and contributions perfectly capture the spirit of law librarianship that the Fellows Program was designed to foster and serve as a lasting tribute to the legacy of Harry Bitner and the Cornell Law Library.

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Dan BlackabyMember, Economic Status of Law Librarians Committee, AALL.Blogger, TechnScans blog, Technical Services Special Interest Section, AALL.Columnist, TSLL Newsletter, Technical Services Special Interest Section, AALL.“Semantic Web Basics.” Presentation, Cornell Law Library Speaker Series, June 2014. “The Semantic Web for the Rest of Us.” Presentation, Cornell Career Development Committee Speaker Series, 2014. “The Value-Added Repository: Enhancing Discoverability Through Linked Data.” Presentation, CALI Conference for Law School Computing, June 2014.

Amy EmersonChair, Government Relations Committee, Association of Law Libraries of Upstate New York.Co-Chair, Law Library Public Relations Committee.Chair, Law Library Space Planning Committee.Co-Chair, Law Library Strategic Planning Task Force.Member, Law Library Web & Digital Initiatives Committee.Law Library Representative & Liaison to the Instruction Team, CUL Public Services Executive Committee.Trustee, Hazard Library, Poplar Ridge, New York.“The Cloud, Metadata, Social Networking, and You: How Technology Is Changing the Practice of Law,” Co-Presenter, Cornell University Law School CLE, June 2014.

Jackie Magagnosc Chair, OCLC Committee, American Association of Law Libraries, Online Bibliographic Services Special Interest Section.Member Acquisitions, Cataloging, and Serials Committees, American Association of Law Libraries, Technical Services Special Interest Section.Editor and regular contributor, TSLL TechScans, http://tslltechscans.blogspot.com.Technical services law librarian

contributing author, OCLC and TechScans columns.Member, CUL Career Development Committee.

Thomas MillsBook Review Editor, International Journal of Legal Information.Chair, Strategic Planning Committee, AALL FCIL-SIS.Immediate Past Co-Chair, Instruction Committee of the CUL Public Services Executive Committee.Law Library Representative, CUL Collection Development Executive Committee. Law Library Representative, Northeast Foreign Law Librarians Cooperative Group.“Information Literacy and Student Research: Building Faculty-Librarian Partnerships.” Presentation, Course Design Institute, Cornell Center for Teaching Excellence, December 2013; May 2014.

Matt MorrisonMember, CUL Mentoring Committee.Professional development focus on enhancing expertise of new database platforms recently released by legal research vendors through webinars and product trainings.

Jean Pajerek Member, Education Committee, American Association of Law Libraries, Technical Services Special Interest Section.Member, Cataloging and Classification Committee, American Association of Law Libraries, TechnicalServices Special Interest Section.Appointed AALL representative to the MARC Advisory Committee.Member, PALMPrint Advisory Committee.Presenter, Pre-Conference Workshop on Resource Description Access, American Association of Law Libraries.

Nina Scholtz “Meeting the Challenges of Instructing International Law Graduate Students in Legal Research” (with Femi Cadmus),

24 TRENDS IN LAW LIBRARY MANAGEMENT AND TECHNOLOGY 13 (2014).Chair, CUL PSEC Instruction Committee.Member, ALL-SIS Newsletter Committee, American Association of Law Libraries —Academic Law Libraries Special Interest Section.Member, Public Relations and Recruitment Committee, American Association of Law Libraries — Research, Instruction, and Patron Services Special Interest Section.

Carissa Vogel“Semantic Web Basics.” Presentation, Cornell Law Library Speaker Series, June 2014.“The Cloud, Metadata, Social Networking, and You: How Technology Is Changing the Practice of Law,” Co-Presenter, Cornell University Law School CLE, June 2014.“Search Committees: The Most Important Part of Your Job…Really.” 18 SPECTRUM 28 (November 2013).Member, Assessment Team subgroup of CUL Instruction Committee. Member, CUL Research and Outreach Committee.

Mark Williams“The Value-Added Repository: Enhancing Discoverability Through Linked Data.” Presentation, CALI Conference for Law School Computing, June 2014.“It’s Up to You: Assessing Outcomes by Assigning Subject-Specific Research Guides.” Presentation, Cornell University Library Assessment Expo, May 2014.Member, Public Relations Committee, American Association of Law Libraries, Academic Law Libraries Special Interest Section.Member, Public Relations Committee, Cornell University Law Library.

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Cornell Law Library Strategic Plan 2014

Mission

Through creative services and strategic partnerships, Cornell University Law Library advances excellence in legal scholarship, research, and teaching.

Vision

Advancing Excellence

Core Values

• Deliver outstanding service • Embody the Cornell tradition of excellence and innovation• Cultivate a supportive, productive, effective, and efficient work environment

Objectives

➢ Deliver outstanding service

We are committed to anticipating and meeting the needs of library users through:• Building relationships at Cornell and beyond to support research and scholarly inquiry• Providing access to world class resources and collections, both in print and digitally • Supporting and contributing to the educational curricula and mission of Cornell Law School and

University• Promoting and incorporating environmentally sustainable practices• Maintaining a welcoming environment conducive to learning and studying

➢ Embody the Cornell tradition of excellence and innovation

We share and reflect the values, goals, and practices that characterize Cornell’s culture of learning and discovery by:• Embracing a culture of broad inquiry, “thinking otherwise,” and reexamining assumptions• Engaging our users beyond traditional library space• Implementing innovative library programs • Forming and entering strategic and innovative partnerships

➢ Cultivate a supportive, productive, effective and efficient work environment

We value our staff and their contributions by:• Fostering an environment of transparency, open communication, respect, and collaboration • Promoting diversity in staffing and perspectives• Encouraging intellectual curiosity, learning, and discovery• Engaging all staff in solution-based discussions• Recognizing unique strengths and actively supporting career development through training and growth

opportunities

Law Library Gifts

Earl J. Bennett Memorial Book FundBitner Research Fellows Program Endowment

Jack G. Clarke (LL.B. ’52) International Law Collection FundCuccia Honor with Books Fund

Mary Heagen Cuccia Memorial Book FundArthur H. A.B. (’19 & LL.B. ’23) & Mary Marden Dean Library Fund

Thomas B. Gilchrist Memorial EndowmentSheppard Guryan (J.D. ’67) Law Library Endowment

Guryan Family Law Librarian’s EndowmentKurt Hanslowe Memorial Fund

Herbert D. Laube Endowment FundJudge Alfred J. Loew (LL.B. ’21) Memorial Fund

Lindseth-Martina Library Director’s Discretionary FundNelson & Hattie Rosenbaum Book Fund

Arthur H. Rosenbloom (J.D. ’59) Law Library EndowmentSonya A. Sasuta Memorial Fund

Have questions or wish to make a gift to the Law Library? Contact the Law School Development Office at (607) 255–5877 or giving@lawschool.cornell.edu

Cornell Law LibraryMyron Taylor HallIthaca, New York 14853library.lawschool.cornell.edu