The Education of Law Librarians in the United States from the Library School Perspective

In the United States, the occupation of law librarianship has existed longer than the American Library Association, and law librarians have their own professional organization that is now more than 100 years old. Throughout this history, however, the related issues of degree requirements and education standards for law librarians have been repeatedly discussed, but never resolved. While some of this inertia may arise from each organization hoping that the other would settle the issue, the largest challenges appear to stem from a lack of communication between law librarians and other parts of the field and a near-complete neglect of the education of law librarians--along with law libraries as an entity--in overall library pedagogical and research discourse. This article explores the roots of the long-running concerns about the educational preparation of and the professional standards for law librarians in the United States and offers ways in which library and information science educators can contribute to addressing these concerns.