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HEADLINE: AALL/Aspen Law & Business Grant to Fund Study on the Impact of
Law Libraries
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 15, 1997
CONTACT:
Roger H. Parent, Executive Director
312/939-4764
The American Association of Law Libraries (AALL) will fund the first phase
of a study to examine the impact law libraries have on legal
decision-making. This study is made possible by the AALL/Aspen Law &
Business grant program, a grant established by Aspen Law & Business for the
continued support of the AALL Research Advisory Committee's research agenda.
This $9700 grant has been awarded to Joanne Marshall (Professor, University
of Toronto), who proposed the impact of law libraries study. Marshall
states that the purpose of her research "is to explore the value and impact
of law libraries in the information age. As information sources grow more
numerous and the formats in which information is presented become more
diverse, it is important to evaluate the extent to which having the right
information at the right time makes a difference. It is also important to
document the role of the professional librarian in this process."
The research will build on earlier impact studies for libraries in the
hospital and corporate environments. It will identify potential areas of
value and impact in the legal environment and use a prospective study
design to determine the extent to which law libraries and librarians are
making a difference in decisions that are being made in their organizations.
The research will take place in two phases over the course of two years.
Phase One will be a planning and development phase in which key informants
in the law library community will be asked to participate in modifying the
study design and instrumentation. The result of Phase One will be a "Study
Design Manual" that will guide individual law librarians or groups of law
librarians in the use of the methodology. Phase Two will implement the
research using the design, instrumentation and study sites that have been
identified in Phase One. The result of Phase Two will be a final report of
the study results and papers suitable for publication in law and library
science journals. Funding has been provided for Phase One only; funding for
Phase Two is subject to the satisfactory conclusion of Phase One and
continued financial support.
Aspen Law & Business is a New York-based legal publisher that has served
the needs of the legal community with various publications for over twenty
years. The AALL/Aspen Law & Business Grant Program has been designed to
annually fund one or more projects of practical value to a large segment of
those professions that create, disseminate or use legal and law-related
information.
The American Association of Law Libraries was founded in 1906 to promote
and enhance the value of law libraries to the legal and public communities,
to foster the profession of law librarianship, and to provide leadership in
the field of legal information.
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