One class that I was fortunate enough to take in library school was called ?Law Librarianship' which is actually a class given in law school called Legal Research. The library class was taught in the law school of my affiliated program. Each of us library school students felt immensely important walking up the steps to the law school; as if this gave our class the validation it needed (though we all know that each class in library school is as important as anyone else's studies).
The teacher teaching the course was an ex-public defender lawyer who taught full time as a law professor. In addition, she holds a Masters in Library Science. Though she was tough and intense, she was one of the best teachers I had ever had the privilege of taking in the program.
I knew I had to explain to people what classes I was taking and when I said ?Law Librarianship' they would probably go ? ?Say what?? My professor explained the course brilliantly. She said that we weren't going to learn law. We wouldn't go in depth into cases, however, we would learn how the law was organized. If we knew where cases were located, how the law was organized into bound books, and where to look up certain information, then we would be the best law librarian/legal researchers.
I was quite thankful she explained the course this way because then I was able to tell people the same answer when they'd ask about the class. I would say, ?We learn how the law is organized.? Since technology is also improving, we learned two major law databases ? Lexis Nexis Law and Thomas' Westlaw which will indeed become helpful through my librarian profession. FYI Readers: Not only do law schools needs librarians, but major law firms employ librarians for their firm's personal library as well.
