Academic Law Library Director Status since the Great Recession: Strengthened, Maintained, or Degraded?
![handle is hein.journals/llj112 and id is 118 raw text is:
LAW LIBRARY JOURNAL Vol. 112:1 [2020-4]
Academic Law Library Director Status Since the Great
Recession: Strengthened, Maintained, or Degraded?*
Elizabeth G. Adelman,** Karen L. Shephard,***
Richard J. Patti,**** and Robert M. Adelman**
The status of the academic law library director is central to the educational mission of
the law library. We collected data from 2006 to 2016 showing a 25 percent decrease
in tenure-track directorships. We also found one in four changes in directorships since
2013 resulted in the new director having a degraded status compared to her predecessor.
Introduction ....................................................... 117
The Economy........................................................118
Law Firm Recruiting and Hiring ................................... 118
Law Schools.......................................................120
Law School Applicants and Enrollment ............................... 120
The Future of Legal Education .........................................121
Law School Expansion and Contraction Since the Great Recession .......... 122
Law Libraries .......................................................124
Law Library Directors ...............................................126
Data and Methods....................................................128
Results..............................................................131
Conclusion ..........................................................133
Introduction
11 Concern about the status of law firms, law schools, and law libraries has
been discussed widely since the economic crisis that began in December 2007.1
Scholars have debated whether some law schools will-or should-close, merge, or
* © Elizabeth G. Adelman, Karen L. Shephard, Richard J. Patti, Robert M. Adelman, 2020. The
authors wish to thank John E. Christensen for sharing his data and Jeannine Lee, Marc Silverman, and
Michael Slinger for their consultation on this article.
** Director, Charles B. Sears Law Library and Vice Dean for Legal Information Services, Uni-
versity at Buffalo, Buffalo, New York.
*** Information Services Librarian, Barco Law Library, University of Pittsburgh School of Law,
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
**** Graduate Student, Department of Sociology, University at Buffalo, Buffalo, New York.
***** Chair and Associate Professor, Department of Sociology, University at Buffalo, Buffalo, New
York.
1. The Great Recession took place from December 2007 to June 2009. US. Business Cycle
Expansions and Contractions, NAT'L BUREAU OF ECON. RESEARCH, https://www.nber.org/cycles/ (last
visited June 17, 2019).
117](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/llj112&div=8&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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Academic Law Library Director Status since the Great Recession: Strengthened, Maintained, or Degraded?
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