Daniel Skinner
Alecia Jackson
RES 5040
17 January 2008
Preliminary AR Idea: Description
I made two visits to the Wake Forest University Professional Center Library recently and discovered an issue that is very interesting through interviews with staff (K. Irwin-Smiler & J. Sowards, personal communication, January 14, 2008). This private library serves law and management students, but the public has access to certain materials that are received free of charge from the United States government. This has created a thorny issue for the five reference librarians, especially for the four of the who serve the law students. Members of the public come to the library with legal concerns, hoping to gain the assistance they need through library resources. As they tell their stories, librarians have to be very careful about what they say because advice can be construed as the unauthorized practice of law--an action with serious repercussions. All four law reference librarians have JDs as well as an MLS or MLIS, so they have to suppress their legal training and respond solely from a library science perspective. Apart from this sensitive issue, the public patrons who come to the library take up time needed for legitimate work. It is only their responsibility to serve the public when they are using Federal Depository materials.
In American culture, law permeates and defines society. Skillful use of it is critical in successfully meeting many challenges in our “life-world” (Stringer, 2004), but effective use usually involves hiring a lawyer--an expensive proposition. With concerns about a possibly increasing gap between the American rich and poor even before recent economic downturns, there are reports that people are representing themselves more and more. Libraries have become a key resource for those choosing this path. Problems related to self representation are relevant to our communities and affect both academic and public libraries. Action research could be a good method to explore these concerns and develop solutions in partnership with the people trying to negotiate the legal system on their own. It would meet the criteria for action research Stringer described on page 4--engaging others and problem solving.
The models and paradigms discussed in the first two chapters were very helpful in conceptualizing the research project. For the preliminary description, I’d like to focus on Research Design. The literature review should be the first step. I already have one article and the interviews done at Wake Forest last week. Academic databases, news articles, and even commercial materials geared toward people who intend to represent themselves would be good sources of information. Ethical concerns involved the standard issues when conducting research with people, but it is not research on people, which avoids a great deal of ethical complications. One key thing to keep in mind is not to comment on legal issues--might be unauthorized practice of law.
It is not practical to wait around Wake Forest’s law library for people to mistakenly come there to address legal concerns, so an alternative way to contact a sufficient number of people who self represent needs to be found. A prison might be a good setting to initially explore this issue because they have libraries and patrons with legal issues. If permission is given by prison authorities, it might be possible to do an initial study exploring the issue. Insight gained from the experience could help define a more specific research course of action.
Reference
Stringer, E. (2004). Action Research in Education. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.
Comments (16)
If anyone knows how to use the category function, please contact me.
Also, I'm used to MLA format and can't figure out what heading to use in APA format for a paper that is not a manuscript. I've got the complete edition of the manual, but there are details I can't seem to get right. If you see anything that should be corrected, please let me know. Thank you!
Posted by Daniel Skinner | January 17, 2009 10:32 PM
Posted on January 17, 2009 22:32
Daniel,
Two things first:
I repaired the category function, so it should be working now. Also, I have a link to APA formatting on my teaching page of my website.
Now, about your topic, absolutely fascinating! I think, however, we'll need to think more carefully about your participants. Attempting to gain access to prison inmates might be problematic from the university's standpoint because they are a vulnerable population (and your proposal would have to go to a review board, which doesn't meet until after the projects would be well underway). However, it would be beneficial to interview the librarians with JDs (whom you mention above) about how they negotiate their multiple roles in this phenomenon, how you can assist them in planning ways to respond to the new needs of their library, etc. Think about this angle, and let's keep brainstorming.
Posted by Alecia Jackson | January 20, 2009 10:45 AM
Posted on January 20, 2009 10:45
I think I have an idea from an article I read by Paula Seeger, a librarian who taught legal research classes to the public. Her work was inspired by the danger of losing her county law library due to budget cuts, and the classes helped justify its existence. What if Wake Forest librarians contacted the public libraries about the need to provide legal research in those libraries for patrons who should not be coming to Wake Forest? In these difficult financial times, the public librarians might be interested in offering the classes and relieving the law library of a sensitive situation. One thing that might help sell the idea to the public is that doing legal research in their community libraries would give them access to materials through interlibrary loan that they cannot check out at Wake Forest. Another advantage is that their home libraries are probably organized a little more consistently. WFU uses SUDOC, LOC, maybe Dewey Decimal, and a system of signage (no call numbers) so it is difficult for people (other than law students with extensive research experience) to navigate through all those resources.
Posted by Daniel Skinner | January 21, 2009 9:21 PM
Posted on January 21, 2009 21:21
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