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3 Trends L. Libr. Mgmt. & Tech. 1 (1989-1990)

handle is hein.journals/ttllmt3 and id is 1 raw text is: Trends in Law Library Management and Technology Vol. 3, No. 1 Dennis J. Stone, Editor July-August 1989 Supporting Faculty Research: A Direct Role for the Library By MARGARET A. LEARY, University of Michigan Law Library T he primary mission of the University of Michigan Law Library is supporting fac- ulty research and teaching. For most of the library's history, that support was indirect, aimed at building a collection that would meet present and future faculty needs. In the 1980s, however, it became clear that the law library's collection would never again be able to meet all faculty needs, or all student needs; law was no longer an isolated discipline, and we would need to supply information from many sources and in varied formats. The Univer- sity of Michigan Law Library has had a faculty document delivery system for more than twenty years. Dubbed Phone Page after its single- purpose phone line with an answering machine, the service was by the mid-1980s delivering 3,000 to 5,000 items annually to faculty offices. Between a quarter and a third of these items were from libraries other than our law library. We noticed an increasing need for the students who processed the Phone Page requests to consult reference librarians for help deciphering them. We also noticed that, although the law school provided ample funding for faculty research activities, few faculty members seemed to hire research assistants. How were those who had no RA doing their work? Why weren't they hiring RAs? Was there a new role for the library? A bit of thinking led to a hypothesis: most research requires almost random help from an RA. Hiring, training, and supervising are not functions most faculty members relish. Since the need for help is hard to predict or plan for, the hassle of hiring, training, and supervising might cause many who would need help not to get it. If the hypothesis were true, there was a clear library role: the reference department would hire, train, and supervise a pool of RAs; faculty would bring the research needs to the reference department and, with professional oversight, the library's RAs would do the work. If the work was complex, the librarians would do it or break it down into manageable pieces for the RA. We took the concept, in the form of a request for $2,500, to the faculty committee which ad- ministered research money, and our request was granted. The first year, 1986-87, we barely spent the money, but by 1989-90 we expect to spend nearly $6,000, supplied not from the library's regular salary account but from the faculty's research account. Typical RA projects have included LEXIS, NEXIS, and WESTLAW searches; compiling bibliographies of books and articles for seminar preparation or as background for a prospective book or article; finding state statutes on particular types of crimes and cases interpreting them; (Continued on page 2) A publication for academic, firm, corporate & government law librarians.

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