Wednesday, November 08, 2006

Rankings & Recruitment for law librarianship


Dear all,
The AALL Spectrum article linked in the title above, "Breaking Down the Rankings" by Tina Ching and Holley White, in the Nov., 2006 issue, is just excellent! Those of my readers who are already AALL members will be reading this article in print (still easier on the eyes, Jim!). But those who are not, should link on and read the article. The newest U.S. News and World Report rankings for graduate programs included library school programs on law librarianship for the first time. This article looks at the methodology of the rankings (not very inspiring, especially when Penny Hazleton asks library school folks if they received the survey, and only one replies!). The article goes on to look at how much influence the rankings have for library schools and who might be influenced by them (university provosts more than potential students, who tend to choose based on geography). Great work, Tina and Holley!

The same issue includes terrific articles on recruiting to law librarianship:

Six Ways to Spread the Word, about recruiting methods by library type, by Susan Lewis-Somers, Jennifer Meger, Phebe Poydras, and Maureeen Well: link

Let's Do Lunch, by Pamela Rogers Melton, about an inspirational lunch program at University of South Carolina designed to recruit library students to law librarianship: link.

That's not all in this terrific new issue of Spectrum, so be sure you look at the real thing. This was just a great collection on one hot topic! Way to go, authors and Paul Healey (soon to be retired) editor of the journal! Paul, you've made so much difference by being the editor of Spectrum! It's a much better, more responsive and professional product today. Good for you!

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