Carroll, Robyn; Wallace, Helen --- "An Integrated Approach to Information Literacy in Legal Education" [2002] LegEdRev 8; (2002) 13(2) Legal Education Review 133

An Integrated Approach to Information Literacy in Legal Education

ROBYN CARROLL* & HELEN WALLACE **

PART A – INFORMATION LITERACY AND LEGAL EDUCATION

One of the many essential skills of a lawyer is the ability to research the law. It has been recognised for some time that the skills required to research the law should be taught at law school.1 Greater emphasis in higher education on the importance of teaching generic skills has coincided with discussion of the need for skills education for lawyers generally.2 The increasing interest of universities in the development of the “life long learner” has focused attention on methods of training students to be independent learners.3

Debate about the appropriateness of legal research skills training in the law degree has been part of the academic and professional library literature for decades but particularly during the 1980s.4 A survey of legal research courses in Australia in 1991 revealed that most law schools were offering research skills as a subject or part of a subject:

Overall, two faculties had no formal course, and two of the new faculties did not yet have settled curriculum. Of the remaining 17 law schools, nine were reported as having separate research subjects, seven said research training was a component of another subject and one was reported as being part of a skills workshop. Where research was taught as part of another course it was invariably a segment of the first year subject Introduction to Law or its equivalent.5

The classes generally followed the format of traditional bibliographic instruction which Murdock described as “short range, library centered, print-bound instruction”,6 with electronic resources being gradually introduced.

A comparison of Law graduates who completed their degrees in 1991 and 1995 showed that although overall use of legal research skills did not increase, the frequency of use did.7

Table 1: Frequency of Use of Legal Research Skills

by Law Graduates8

During the 1990s the term “information literacy” entered education discourse and was taken up by educational institutions at all levels. One of the earliest exponents of information literacy in Australia is Christine Bruce, who has defined information literacy as “the ability to locate, evaluate, manage and use information from a range of sources for problem solving, decision making and research”.9 Information literacy is critical to lifelong, independent learning in an era of rapid expansion of information technology. During the last decade the concept of information literacy has become embedded in library programs across all disciplines because of the emphasis on the need for graduates to be skilled in the use of information resources.

At the same time, by the mid 1990s the teaching methodology in law had changed noticeably from bibliographic instruction to skills training and recognition of the “process of research”.10 This change was driven by the rapid development of information technology: hardware and software products were constantly being upgraded and new electronic information resources were keeping pace. It was no longer possible to “instruct” law students in the use of a particular product and expect it to be available in the same format after they had graduated. Students needed the skills to adapt to new electronic information products. They also needed the ability to transfer these skills from one application to another, across subject boundaries, and from their student environment to their career environment. The information literacy discourse has formed, not surprisingly, the basis for reassessment of legal research programs in Australian law schools.11 The issues facing law schools have arisen from two directions. On the one hand the demand on universities to produce graduates with the generic skills to enter a profession, and on the other, the demand from the legal profession for the skills to keep pace with the burgeoning development of electronic legal information resources.12

Defining “skills” is no easy task and we will not attempt that here.13 We are using the term broadly to equate with information literacy. The QUT classification of graduate attributes14 is helpful to our understanding of the place of information literacy in legal education. These graduate attributes have been described as discipline knowledge, ethical attitude, communication, problem solving and reasoning, information literacy and interpersonal focus.15

Applying Bruce’s definition of information literacy to the study and practice of Law, it is the ability to:

• locate legal materials (primary and secondary] using appropriate retrieval tools and techniques;
• evaluate the relevance, applicability, and value of the located materials to the task at hand. This will include assessing the relevance, precedent value and other factors affecting the authority of the material;
• manage the information, that is, to sort, categorise and rank the information; and
• use the information for the task at hand, such as advising on the law, formulating a policy argument or identifying theoretical perspectives presented in the materials.

Information literacy is as much an attribute of the process of “lawyering” as are discipline knowledge and the ability to problem solve and engage in legal reasoning. Not surprisingly it will be difficult at times to draw a line between the information skills16 involved in locating and knowing how to use the law (information literacy) and the mental skills17 involved in applying the law (discipline knowledge, problem solving and reasoning). In each case there is an element of problem solving.18 In practical terms, when we aim to train the “whole lawyer” we would expect there to be a high level of interface between these different attributes. Typically, the specialised nature of legal research tools has meant that reference librarians have become involved in the legal research aspect of legal education. The more we focus on the interface between the various graduate attributes, the more obvious becomes the need for close cooperation between law and library “teachers”.

In 1994 a study commissioned by the National Board of Employment, Education and Training noted the benefits derived from librarians working closely with academic staff to develop information retrieval skills in students.19 This Report refers to a number of submissions that explore the role of the library in developing lifelong learning skills. More generally with respect to legal education, Christensen and Kift have argued that we will produce better law graduates if we adopt programs that integrate both conceptual knowledge and transferable generic and legal skills.20

A number of programs have been developed in Australian Law Schools that aim to improve information literacy of law students through integration of legal research skills teaching into the law curriculum. One example21 has been Monash University’s integration of Legal Research and Methods (LRM) into alternate years of the undergraduate curriculum.22 At Queensland University of Technology a range of generic skills have been integrated into the curriculum. Legal Research and Writing is a discrete first year unit rather than being placed in the context of the areas of law being studied.23 At Flinders University a range of generic skills have also been incorporated into the curriculum. The foundations of legal research skills are taught in a compulsory first year unit, Legal Method. These skills are then reinforced at each level of the degree by identifying their application in conjunction with other skills such as interviewing and mooting.24 In 1994 Bott reported on the Bond University program in which library research skills are taught as part of the “Introduction to Law” unit, with the Law Library staff playing a direct role in the planning and delivery of the library skills program.25

In Part B of this paper we describe a program recently introduced jointly by the Library and Law School at The University of Western Australia. In designing our program, we have drawn on the literature to identify the ideals‚ on which an integrated legal research skills program should be based. We have also identified the ideals evident in other law school programs and those that we set out to achieve in our own. These ideals include, that:

• programs should be designed so that graduates will be able to use current technologies and effective strategies for the retrieval, evaluation and creative use of relevant information as a lifelong learners;26
• an integrated legal research skills teaching program will draw on the knowledge of law held by the academic staff of the Law School and the knowledge of information resources and research skills held by librarians;
• legal research is recognised as an integral part of the process of solving legal problems;
• information literacy is relational27 to the discipline in which it exists and therefore legal research skills are best placed in the context of the areas of law being studied;
• as student learning largely is driven by assessment, the acquisition of research skills need to be assessed in some way; and
• research skills will be improved if they are developed, and reinforced, from a level of basic competency level in first year through to advanced skills at the point of graduation.

Other writers have commented on the difficulties commonly encountered in teaching skills in the law curriculum.28 Wade identifies the following frustrations and challenges to teachers attempting to incorporate skills into law units:29

• the shortage of time available for students to undertake practical exercises;
• the lack of a systematic curriculum structure that provides for revision and reinforcement of skills acquired in one unit in subsequent units;
• the lack of commitment within and without the law school to skills teaching;
• insufficient resources to teach skills effectively, for example by the presence of experienced instructors to model skills and provide instant feedback;
• the superficiality of the experience of the majority of students in skills exercises (which he suggests may relate to lack of time and overcrowding in the curriculum30);
• students may not be motivated to learn unless they have opportunity to apply their skills to “real life” experiences, which is difficult to achieve in the absence of “real” clients;
• the form of snobbery that labels teachers who articulate goals of acquisition of skills and also incorporate adult education methods into the learning environment as engaged in “mere” training (original emphasis);
• the labour intensive nature of skills training;
• the teaching burnout that often results from the complex nature of teaching skills;
• the structural and institutional disincentives to choosing skills teaching as a career path;
• the frequent foundering of pilot programs due to lack of institutional foundations of resources, personnel, cultural acceptance and incentives once the dynamism of the program founder is gone;
• the interference of skills teaching with coverage of substantive topics;
• the lack of credibility of law academics to teach practical skills;
• the vagueness of the assessment criteria in assessment methods commonly used; and
• the lack of adequate teaching materials.

Wade’s list is comprehensive, and paints a daunting picture for law schools seeking to incorporate skills training in their curriculum. In addition, a number of other challenges can be identified that have particular application to an integrated approach to teaching legal research skills. These include:

• As researching electronic legal information resources requires a level of information technology skills, disparities in student access to computers and their ability to use the technology has posed difficulties for library teachers. Library staff have observed, however, a significant increase in “starter skills” of students in recent years;
• As students begin their studies with different levels of research skills and experiences, there are inevitable difficulties in pitching the teaching at a level that engages all the students in the group;
• Avoiding overlap or gaps in the training in various law units;
• Measuring and evaluating improvements in student learning outcomes;
• Balancing the amount of online and face-to-face instruction;
• Supporting a culture shift from reference librarians being seen as bibliographic experts to being seen as process educators;
• Resourcing programs that increase the contact time for library staff teaching students;
• Identifying the specific aspects of information literacy that are essential to law students and which aspects need to be addressed in the law school curriculum;
• Facilitating and sustaining cooperation with numerous members of faculty;
• Creating enough room in the teaching program for more research activities; and
• Identifying assessable outcomes and the means to assess them.

In what follows we describe the program offered at UWA prior to 2000, the reasons for change, and the steps taken to create an integrated legal research skills program from 2000 in which we have endeavoured to capture the ideals set out above. In Part C of this article we review our experiences and the many challenges to integrating the teaching of legal research skills into the curriculum.

PART B – INTEGRATING LEGAL RESEARCH SKILLS INTO THE UWA BACHELOR OF LAWS COURSES

Background to the Research Skills Integration Program

Until 2000, our Law students received six hours of instruction in legal research methods by library staff during the first year of their course in the unit Legal Process. Library classes were given on Citation, Case law, Legislation and Secondary Sources. Attendance at these classes was compulsory and five percent of the assessment for Legal Process was allocated to a research journal prepared and presented by students with the major written paper they submitted for the unit. Prior to 2000 this was the only compulsory legal research skills instruction that students received during their law studies. Academic staff teaching in some compulsory and elective units increasingly were making arrangements for the reference librarians to provide instruction to students in their units to assist student with research papers for assessment.

Many of the students in a Bachelor of Laws degree are enrolled in five-year combined degrees. This has a number of implications. First, the level of instruction they are able to absorb in first year is unlikely to equip them for the more demanding research expectations placed on them in later years of the degree. This is possibly the most significant reason to spread research skills instruction across the degree. At UWA, approximately three quarters of the students entering into the degree are school leavers or non-graduates. Students study only two law units in their first year at university, the balance of their studies being in the other faculty in which they are enrolled. Consequently, students take two years to complete the four “first year” law units. There is then a further year in which second year units are taken in which limited demands are made for independent library research.

Second, there are limited opportunities for students to use all the areas of competency in the first and second year law units. There is a limit to the amount of independent research for assessable work that can be expected of students during semester. There are also difficulties setting common research tasks for large groups of students because of the limited facilities of the library. Third, students who select electives where the assessment is largely examination based rather than based on independent research may evade anything other than rudimentary instruction in the first year of the degree. Fourth, the growth of computer based research resources has meant that what students learn about in first year will often need to be updated within a few years.

Indications that there was a wide range in the level of research skills of UWA LLB graduates, and the fact that some graduates apparently did not have essential research skills31 prompted the Law School in late 1998 to review the ability of the current program to achieve an acceptable level of competency.32 The library staff reported that it was impossible to achieve the necessary coverage of even basic research materials under the existing arrangement. A meeting of the staff concluded that greater emphasis should be placed in the curriculum on legal research skills. To this end, in May 1999, the Faculty appointed a member of academic staff as Research Skills Co-ordinator, to work with the library and academic staff to develop an expanded legal research skills program.

In October 1999 the Law School and the University Library were granted funds under the University of Western Australia Teaching and Learning Initiatives Scheme to “develop and implement a collaborative strategy for improving information literacy through integration of legal research skills instruction into law units at all levels of the LLB”. The objectives were to:

• achieve a higher and more consistent level of student legal research skills competency;
• enhance existing and develop further collaborative practices relating to research skills instruction between the Law Faculty and the Library;
• develop instructional material that facilitates integration of legal research skills instruction into law units;
• improve legal research skills education of law students by:
  • - increasing the amount of legal research skills instruction provided to law students
  • - reinforcing the legal research skills taught in the first year of the degree
  • - increasing the number of opportunities to practice legal research skills over the course of the degree
  • - offering legal research instruction in a timely manner and at an appropriate stage of the LLB degree.

A Working Group comprised of the Research Skills Co-ordinator, the Law Librarian, two reference librarians and an Instructional Designer met on a regular basis between October 1999 and March 2000 during the design and planning phase, and have met since then during the implementation and evaluation phases.

Design and Implementation of the Research Skills Integration Program

During the early stages of the project, the Working Group identified five key strategies to achieve the project objectives.

Strategy 1 – To determine the areas and levels of skill competency that students should acquire during the degree and an outcome statement of those skill levels.

The areas of skills competency specific to legal research were identified as Citation, Case law, Legislation and Secondary Sources. The levels of skills competency were identified as Basic, Intermediate and Advanced. A Table of Core Competencies was developed by the library staff in consultation with members of the academic staff. This Table provides an outcome statement that students can use to monitor their level of skills and against which the effectiveness of the research skills program can be evaluated. A copy of the Table (updated for 2001) is included as Appendix A.

Strategy 2 – To identify the year levels and compulsory units in which research skills might be taught.

These units were selected by applying various criteria, including whether informal arrangements already existed, the assessment structure in the unit, and timing within the degree structure. Six compulsory units were selected, (in addition to Legal Process where library classes have been held for many years). As a result of integrating legal research into seven compulsory units, the amount of instruction each student receives has increased from six hours to more than twelve hours.

Until 1999, classes in the compulsory units were aimed only at achieving basic and intermediate levels of competency. In 1999 an effort was made by the library staff to cover all levels of competency in the first year unit Legal Process. At the same time some ad hoc arrangements were made between the library staff and some academic staff to provide further research skills training in two other first year units, Torts and Criminal Law.

Table 2 shows the formal arrangements for legal research skills instruction in 1999. This can be contrasted with the formal arrangements put in place in 2000 as a result of the project.

Table 2: Legal Research Skills Integration – 1999

Table 3 shows the areas of skills instruction, the skills level and the units in which the teaching program includes legal research skills learning activities from 2000.

Table 3: Legal Research Skills Integration – From 2000

The effect of the integration program is to postpone instruction at intermediate and advanced levels until later years of the degree. The benefit of this arrangement is that there can be greater certainty that students will have acquired and retain advanced research skills at the time they graduate.

Strategy 3 – To explore with co-ordinators of the compulsory units in which legal research skills would be taught the best ways to integrate that instruction into the unit.

To assist that process, a detailed planning checklist was created.

The reference librarians worked closely with the unit co-ordinators of the selected compulsory units to generate the instructional materials used in library classes and research activities. In this way it was possible for the law staff to provide the library staff with research tasks that are relevant to the materials being studied in the unit and that students are likely to encounter as graduates. The instruction methods adopted by the library staff in the various compulsory units ranged from

• a combination of lecture and activities in dedicated library classes with groups of 15 (Legal Process)
• lectures during scheduled class time in regular teaching venues with law staff present (Criminal Law, Equity, Procedure)
• lecture/demonstrations during scheduled tutorial times in the Law Library electronic training room (Administrative law)
• self paced exercises carried out in student’s own time (with assistance from library staff as and when needed) (Torts, Constitutional Law 2).

The specific integration methods adopted in 2000 were as follows:

Legal Process

Classes on using the library and specific research tools for citation, case law, legislation and secondary sources were conducted by the library staff (as in previous years). The classes aimed at giving students a basic level of competence in these areas. Attendance was compulsory and students were required to complete a written exercise for each of the four classes. Failure to successfully complete each of the exercises would result in a fail grade.33 Students were also required to submit a research Journal with their second semester Legal Process assignment, explaining the process undertaken when researching a nominated topic and drawing on what they had learnt in their library classes. Ten per cent of the marks for Legal Process were assigned to the Journal.

Criminal Law

Criminal Law classes consist of about 35 students. Library staff conducted a class for each group during the usual class time in first semester, just after students received their first Criminal Law assignment. The classes aimed to assist students to prepare their research assignment, due early in second semester. The materials presented were developed in consultation with the Criminal Law lecturers and focused on researching Criminal Law sources.

Torts

Students were given a self-paced exercise during first semester. The Torts lecturers provided the library staff with the information they wanted the students to locate. The librarians devised a series of questions that required students to use sources specified by the Torts lecturers. The aim of the exercises was to provide students with practice using particular research tools before they commenced work on their research assignments. The material discovered during these exercises was part of the reading required for discussion in the following seminar class. Students might be asked to locate, for example, a recent unreported case, or the transcript of an application for special leave to appeal to the High Court.

In second semester students were required to submit a research journal as part of their research assignment, worth five per cent of the assessment for the unit. The journal required students to demonstrate that they had reflected on the process of research. Students were expected to document how they developed and executed their research strategy.

Equity

Two lectures were given to the class by the reference librarians during the scheduled class time in week ten of first semester. Although the lecture primarily focused on secondary sources relevant to the areas that students might be expected to research, some coverage of case law and legislation research was included at the unit co-ordinator’s request. Students were given prepared handouts. Attendance at class was compulsory.34

The coverage in the lectures was linked to the 100 per cent examination at the end of semester. Prior to the library class, students were given a handout that detailed the areas that would be the subject of essay questions in the examination. Students were told that they must answer one essay question in the examination, that the questions would be based on the published essay areas and that marks would be given for demonstrated understanding of an area through materials other than those published on the unit reading list. Students in the unit were also provided with a one hour tutorial on what was expected of them in an essay question in an examination.

Administrative Law

Classes were held during the scheduled tutorial time at the beginning of semester two for groups of 15 students in the library electronic training room. The topic researched by the class was delegated legislation. The administrative law principles concerning delegated legislation had been covered and assessed in first semester. Attendance was voluntary and about 60 per cent of the class attended.

Constitutional Law 2

Students were encouraged to complete a worksheet in their own time in this second semester unit. The exercise was not compulsory and there was no formal contact with the library staff. There is no record of how many students completed the exercise, although a questionnaire circulated at the end of semester would suggest that it was not a high proportion. The content of the questions in the worksheet focused on researching legislation that was central to the case discussed in the first tutorial. The questions were compiled by the unit co-ordinator and the library staff added instructions to the worksheet on how to use electronic sources to answer the questions. The worksheet was not directly linked to the assessment in the unit.

Procedure

The library staff gave a 30 minute lecture to students following the scheduled class during week two of first semester. The content of the lecture was based on an interview with a recent graduate who had considerable experience with library work. The unit co-ordinator attended the class and interspersed the lecture with comments about the ways students would use the various research tools in their work in the unit.

Strategy 4 – Generation of teaching materials for each law unit

To prepare teaching materials for each new class by the library staff. The library staff consulted the Instructional Designer for the Faculties of Economics, Commerce, Education and Law for advice on the design of these written teaching materials. The planning also took into account how WebCT could be used in this area of teaching. A considerable amount of time was spent preparing the teaching materials necessary to extend the research skills classes into the additional law units. These materials provide a record for students of the legal research tools and problem solving methods used during class and other research activities. Towards the end of 2000 the library staff developed and piloted the use of WebCT to teach Citation. Further use has been made of this software in 2001.

Strategy 5 – Creation of a Student Manual

To create a Student Manual. This strategy evolved as the planning progressed. It became clear that we needed some way for students to understand the ongoing nature of the integrated legal research skills program. The Working Group identified a number of objectives in creating the Student Manual. These included:

• raising the profile and reinforcing to students the importance of legal research as a key aspect of legal education and legal practice;
• providing students with a physical resource in which they could organize and retain relevant legal research skills documents;
• encouraging students to collect useful material over the duration of their degree;
• assisting students to take responsibility for their own information literacy;
• increasing student awareness of legal research skills as a life-long skill.

The Manual consisted of an A4 two-ring binder and was distributed to all first year students at the beginning of first semester 2000. The purpose of the Manual and the importance of legal research skills were explained to students at that stage. The Manual contained an introduction and overview of the integrated program of research skills instruction they would receive during their degree. A copy of a chapter on legal research from a leading text35 in the area was included. The teaching material for the first library class in Legal Process was also included.

Evaluation of the Program

As the integration program will take effect over five years it will be difficult to evaluate its overall effectiveness until the students who entered the Law School in 2000 graduate, in 2003–2005. With this in mind, the Working Group identified two levels of evaluation to form the basis of evaluation of the project in 2000 and on an ongoing basis.

Overall effectiveness of the program

The Working Group decided during the planning stage to find a way to measure whether this objective had been achieved. As the integration program will not be fully implemented until 2004, it was decided to devise a means of collecting data that measures the learning outcomes during the five years it will take to be fully operational. Consequently a 20 question “test” was devised by the reference librarians and administered to the students in Legal Process, Torts, Equity and Procedure in March 2000. A preliminary reading of these results indicates that, on average, second to fourth year students have a basic to intermediate level of competency in legal research skills. The “test” was administered again at the beginning of 2001 to students in the same units. This process will be repeated until 2004. We hope to observe an overall improvement in the average level of competency in later year units. (We would not expect any change to the result in Legal Process.)

Review of instructional material, teaching activities and student manuals

The evaluation at this level has taken into account the perceptions and comments of the three key groups involved in the integration program, namely students, library staff and academic staff. These perceptions and comments have been collected via:

• oral and written feedback from academic staff;
• biannual written reports prepared by the library staff for the Library;
• written student evaluation of library classes in Legal Process
• written student evaluation of the Student Manual;
• A questionnaire administered to students in Constitutional Law II;
• informal oral feedback from students; and
• a half day review and planning meeting conducted by the Working Group.

Evaluation by students

Student Manual. Student evaluation of the Legal Research Manual was very positive. Students completed a feedback sheet placed in the back of each Manual (Appendix B). A total of 188 responses were received. (Approximately 80 per cent of students commented on Question 1. There was a dramatic decrease to about 30 per cent for Questions 2 to 5.) A summary of the results for Question 1 of the survey are outlined in Table 5 and presented in graph form in Table 6.

Table 5: Evaluation of Student Legal Research Skills Manual – 2000

Table 6: Legal Research Skills Student Manual Feedback

Written responses to Questions 2, 3, 4 and 5 provided useful feedback to the librarians about the materials contained in the Manual, and the length and timing of the library classes in Legal Process. A majority of respondents found the Manual to contain relevant and useful information and stated that they had no difficulty using it. A common suggestion for improvement was to reduce the physical size of the folder that contains the Manual. It was also suggested that students should have more “hands on” exercises to reinforce learning.

Unit activities. The librarians arranged for a Student Perception of Teaching (SPOT) survey of the library classes held in Legal Process. Comparison of the 1999 and 2000 SPOT results demonstrates a favourable increase in the students’ perception on a range of matters. This improvement is attributed by the librarians to changes made between 1999 and 2000 as a result of the integration project. Table 7 provides a comparison of 1999 and 2000 SPOT results.

Table 7: Comparison of SPOT Survey Results – 1999 to 2000

A review of the written comments on the SPOT survey by the librarians established that the comments were generally positive, with most students writing that they believed the classes were worthwhile and the exercises effective. Other comments included that the librarians conducting the classes were friendly, the handouts useful, the classes well organised and the coverage good.

A questionnaire was administered to students in Constitutional Law II evaluating the exercise set in that unit. The number of completed forms was low, although this can be attributed to the fact that the exercise was not compulsory and the questionnaire was not administered until the end of semester. (The exercise took place early in the semester.) The comments received have been useful though in reviewing the exercise in 2001. Of the 207 students enrolled in the unit there were 64 returns. Of these, 37 students answered yes to the question whether they had completed the exercise. The general tenor of the comments from these students was that they found the exercise very useful because of what they learnt about researching legislation. Other comments included requests to make the instructions to follow easier to understand and that some credit be given for completing the exercise or at least some feedback on the exercise in class.

A number of students who attended the Procedure class commented that the presentation and written handouts were very useful. Some of the students reported that they were concerned about how difficult they found it to answer the questions in the “test” that was administered at the beginning of the class, and that this encouraged them to pay attention during the class. This suggests that the “test” may serve a dual purpose: as an evaluation tool and as a teaching device.

Evaluation by Library Staff

Student Manuals. The librarians found it helpful to be able to refer to the reference material in the Manual. It was observed that the students had some difficulty with the size of the folder and staff noted to use a slimmer folder in 2001 (which has been done).

Unit Activities. The library staff perceived their teaching in Legal Process in 2000 to have been far more effective than in previous years because they were not trying to cover as much in that unit as they had before. They no longer attempted to teach advanced level skills, as they had in 1999, knowing that instruction at this level will take place later in the degree course.

Evaluation by Academic Staff

Student Manual. Although no general survey of responses to the use of a Student Manual by members of the academic staff has been undertaken, favourable comments have been received by the Research Skills Co-ordinator from a number of staff members. Members of the academic staff involved in teaching first year units and the Law School Teaching and Learning Committee decided in February 2001 to expand the Student Manual to include materials on Legal Writing. This is an endorsement of the concept of a Manual that straddles the compulsory units of the degree.

Unit Activities. There is strong support by the academic staff teaching the compulsory units in the integration program for the teaching activities that have been developed and the involvement of the reference librarians. Each of the unit co-ordinators involved in the integration program in 2000 has agreed to continue with the arrangements made last year. In some cases, for example Equity, there was extensive consultation in 2001 between the library staff and the unit co-ordinator to reduce the administrative burden associated with the initiative in that unit and, at the same time, to improve the learning outcomes for the students.

The Legal Process unit co-ordinator in 2000 commented favourably on the standard of the research journals completed by Legal Process students as part of their second semester assignment. The Equity unit co-ordinator reported that the quality of essays in the Equity end of semester examination far exceeded that in the previous year, there being clear evidence of independent research and analysis of the materials researched. She also commented that, disappointingly, the research did not seem to translate into a better quality of problem answer in the examination. The unit co-ordinator reported that the feedback obtained from the students in that unit on the library lectures was, by and large, very positive. She also reported that some comments were made about the level of sophistication of the first lecture given by the librarians, and suggestions made by students for possible ways to accommodate these comments.

The Criminal Law unit co-ordinator reported that students found the classes very useful for the preparation of their 2000 first semester assignment. The unit co-ordinator also reported a higher incidence of plagiarism in these assignments and suggested that greater efforts need to be made to instruct students how to use and cite the sources they research.

The Administrative Law and Procedure unit co-ordinators have reported that the classes in their units were timely and well presented to students. They each reported the materials presented to students to be at an appropriate level and relevant to the unit.

Arguably, the activity in Constitutional Law II was the most closely linked to a class activity and was the most difficult to structure. The aim of the unit co-ordinator was to combine learning and application of the search process with learning about and understanding the constitutional law issue. Consideration is still being given how to achieve this level of integration in a way that is workable, taking into account the student’s desire for “reward for effort” if they complete the exercise, the small number of staff involved in teaching the unit, and the limited teaching time to cover the substantive topics.

New Developments and Future Directions

During the planning and implementation stages in 2000 a number of possibilities presented that would supplement or augment the program. These are described briefly below.

Use of WebCT

The most significant development in 2001 is the use of WebCT, a software program that enables students to complete self paced exercises online. These exercises can be repeated by a student as often as they wish until they submit their work for automatic assessment by the program. This will save the library staff manually marking the students tests as in previous years. The mark that is recorded is available to staff in a report in a spreadsheet generated automatically by the program. WebCT will be used this year in Legal Process and Equity. In Equity, compulsory completion of a WebCT exercise has replaced compulsory attendance at the library skills lectures. The staff involved in using this program for the unit Equity believe that is a good step, but there have been many time consuming “bugs” in the system.

Online publication of the Student Manual

The Working Party proposes to make the material in the Manual and library teaching materials available online later this year.

Legal Writing Skills materials included in the 2001 Student Manual

In 2001 a new section was inserted in the Student Manual on Legal Writing. This section was prepared in consultation with the co-ordinator of Legal Process, and other first year unit co-ordinators. Only a small amount of material on legal writing was included this year, but it is hoped that greater use will be made of this part of the Manual, now called the Legal Research and Writing Skills Manual, in future years.

PART C – COMMENTS AND CONCLUSIONS

Key Features of the UWA Program

The key features of the program we have introduced at UWA are:

• Legal research skills instruction is integrated into seven compulsory units at all year levels throughout the degree.

There is no dedicated legal research unit in the degree, but classes and exercises are integrated into the units. This enables us to refresh and reinforce the skills taught in earlier years and to emphasise the transferable nature of the skills.

• The legal research skills instruction is provided by library staff in close collaboration with the academic staff responsible for the compulsory units.

The Library has deliberately been pursuing a policy of involving reference librarians in training rather than providing ad hoc assistance to students. This policy is consistent with a view that legal research is a process rather than a static knowledge base. The ultimate goal therefore, is for students to become independent researchers. The Student Manual is a key strategy to achieving this goal, with students being expected to refer to their previous training information to answer their research inquiries. Despite the primary emphasis on training, the reference staff remain available to assist students with research inquiries.

  Perhaps the most significant feature of the program is that it aims to address the fourth element of information literacy, namely the “use of information” which in law includes writing skills – “the lawyer’s ultimate goal – the closure, the end of the research process?”36 Hutchinson and Fong have pointed out that a narrow view of legal research predominates in the literature.37 Arguably, the broader perspective of information literacy will break through this restrictive view.

One of the most rewarding aspects of the program for all staff involved has been the opportunity for collaboration between library and academic staff. The library staff have appreciated the support provided by the academic staff, and believe it has had a significant impact on student attitudes about the importance of research skills to their legal education.

• The Student Manual is a resource that reinforces the integral nature of the skills training and the incremental nature of learning.

The Student Manual was an innovation for the UWA Law School in that it is not directly associated with any particular unit in the degree. The Manual is progressively compiled following instruction by both academic and library staff, and through a combination of lecture, demonstration and practical classes over the course of the degree. The potential value of the Manual as a resource while at Law School and in the workforce is explained to students at the beginning of their studies.

Difficulties and Challenges

Many of the difficulties outlined in Part A have been encountered at some stage and some of them continue to pose difficulties for the program. In our view, the most significant challenges we face are:

• Lack of resources to fund the program

Additional teaching means additional salary costs. Whether the salary is funded by the Law School or the Library, competing demands for scarce funds means that there is constant pressure to reduce staff costs.

• Impact on other roles and initiatives by the Library

Clearly there are implications for the library staff from the integration program. The nature of their role has changed from regularly advising on a one off basis to a training role. There are other implications too. Concentration of training in the compulsory units has reduced the availability of library staff to run research sessions in elective units. A number of academics had arranged in previous years for special classes to assist students with their research projects in areas like Comparative Law and Public International Law. It is a considerable challenge for the library staff to cover these areas within the compulsory units (even with the expanded training program) sufficiently to meet the research needs in specialized areas of law. As ever, the critical resources of staff and time mean that limits are imposed on what is covered (as in all areas of the curriculum). An important part of the evaluation of the program over time will be to determine whether the research skills acquired by students in the compulsory units is sufficient for the research tasks students encounter in their elective units.

• Availability of key personnel

The nature of the program is that it requires a considerable amount of coordination. There has been a minimum of eight academics involved in the program and two reference librarians. While these staff members are committed to the program, not all of them will be involved in teaching every year and heavily stylised activities may not suit the staff who replace them. Essentially, maintaining the impetus and enthusiasm for a program so that it outlives the people who put it together is a major challenge. We have sought to address this issue mainly by creating materials in the early stages of the program that make it easier for new staff to continue along similar lines.

Conclusions

The demand on universities to produce graduates with generic research skills applicable to print and electronic resources, and the demand from the legal profession for graduates with the skills to be able to keep pace with new electronic information resources, has in combination prompted many law schools to review their legal research teaching methods and programs. Influenced by this demand for information literate graduates, equipped as life long learners, there has been a discernible shift of emphasis in library classes from the traditional bibliographic instruction method to skills training and recognition of research as a process. At the same time, there has been a movement in many law schools to integrate skills training into the curriculum. In this paper we have presented a program recently developed at The University of Western Australia that aims to produce information literate law graduates through a program of research skills training that is integrated into all years of the curriculum and is taught collaboratively by library and academic staff. Early evaluation indicates that there will be positive outcomes from this program, but that there are many challenges to be met.

Appendix A: Legal Research Skills 2001

Appendix B

Legal Research Skills Student Manual

Feedback Form

We wish to make this Research Skills Manual as helpful as possible for future students, so we would appreciate your feedback about your experience with it. At the end of your library classes on Legislation you will be asked by the Law Librarians to complete this Feedback Form. Please take the time to complete the Form at that time and return it to them. Any informal feedback in the meantime would be appreciated and can be given to the Law Librarians.

What part of the Manual do you feel was of most value for your own study/research this semester?

What part of the Manual was of least value for your own study/research this semester?

Comment on any difficulties you found in using the Manual.

What suggestions would you make for improving the Manual?

Any other comments?







Thank you for your time.

* Senior Lecturer, Law School, The University of Western Australia.

** Law Librarian, The University of Western Australia.

The authors gratefully acknowledge the invaluable contribution to the program discussed in this paper by Penny Jones and Sheelagh Johnson, UWA Library; Deborah Ingram and Eileen Thompson, Instructional Designers in the Faculties of Economics, Commerce, Education and Law; and various members of the academic staff, UWA Law School.

©2003. (2002) 13 Legal Educ Rev 133.

1 D Pearce, E Campbell & D Harding, Australian Law Schools: A Discipline Assessment for the Commonwealth Tertiary Education Commission: A Summary (Canberra: AGPS, 1987) 30; C McInnis and S Marginson, Australian Law Schools After the 1987 Pearce Report (Canberra: AGPS, 1994) 25, 168-70, 251; P Kinder, Taught but not Trained: Bridging the Gap in Legal Research, in Cross Currents: Internationalism, National Identity and the Law, 50th Anniversary Conference of the Australasian Law Teachers Association (1995) 2 [referred to as Cross Currents], <www.austlii.edu.au/au/special/alta/alta95/kinder.html>

2 Australian Law Reform Commission, Managing Justice – a Review of the Federal Civil Justice System, ALRC Report No 89, Part 2 (Canberra: AGPS, 1999) <http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/other/alrc/publications/ reports/89> S Christensen & S Kift, Graduate Attributes and Legal Skills: Integration or Disintegration? (2000) 11 Legal Educ Rev 207; Rethink on Legal Education in Scotland, (2000) CLE Newsl (December) 2; Benchmark Standards for a Law Degree in England, Wales and Northern Ireland (2000), CLE Newsl (December) 4. (It is interesting to note that no mention is made of research skills in the accompanying item: New Australian Competency Standards for Entry Level Lawyers (2000) CLE Newsl (December) 3.

3 P Candy, G Crebert & J O’Leary, Developing Lifelong Learners Through Undergraduate Education, NTEB Commissioned Report No. 28 (Canberra, AGPS, 1994) <http://www.detya.gov.au/nbeet/publications/pdf/ 94_21.pdf> R Lee, From the Classroom to the Library and from the Library to the Workstation: Redefining Roles on Legal Education (1999) 30 Law Libr J 40-41.

4 A Morse, Research, Writing and Advocacy in the Law School Curriculum (1982) 75 Law Libr J, 232–64; S Kauffman, Advanced Legal Research Courses: a New Trend in American Legal Education (1986) 6 Legal Reference Services Q (No 3/4) 123–39; C & J Wren, The Teaching of Legal Research (1988) 80 Law Libr J 7–61; R Berring & K Vanden Heuval, Legal Research: Should Students Learn it or Wing it? (1989) 81 Law Libr J 431–449; J Howland & N Lewis, The Effectiveness of Law School Legal Research Training Programs (1990) 40 J legal Educ (No 3) 381–91; C & J Wren, Reviving Legal Research: a Reply to Berring and Vanden Heuval (1990) 82 Law Libr J 463–96.

5 T Hutchinson, Legal Research Courses: the 1991 Survey (1992) ALLG Newsl No 110 (June) 88.

6 J Murdock, Re-engineering Bibliographic Instruction: the Real Task of Information Literacy (1995) Bull Am Soc’y Info Sci (February-March) 26-27.

7 S Vignaendra, Australian Law Graduates’ Career Destinations (Canberra: DEETYA, 1998) 39.

8 Adapted from Vignaendra, Id at 39.

9 C Bruce, Developing Information Literate Graduates: Prompts for Good Practice, in D. Booker ed, The Learning Link: Information Literacy in Practice, (Adelaide: Auslib Press, 1995) 245–52. Also available online:<www.fit.qut.edu.au/InfoSys/bruce/inflit/prompts.html>

10 Kinder, supra note 1, at 3.

11 E Barnett, Legal Research Skills Training in Australasian Law Faculties: A Basic Overview – the Issues, in Cross Currents, supra note 1. Also available online: <www.austlii.edu.au/au/special/alta/alta95/ barnett.html>; H Culshaw & A Leaver, Information Literacy and Lifelong Learning: Case Study – The Legal Profession, paper presented at the LETA 2000 Conference <http://www.leta2000.sa.edu.au/papers/html> .

12 G Gasteen & C O’Sullivan, Working Towards an Information Literate Law Firm, in C Bruce & P Candy eds, Information Literacy Around the World: Advances in Programs and Research (Wagga Wagga: Centre for Information Studies, Charles Sturt University, 2000) at 110-11.

13 For a useful discussion of the meaning of ‘skills’ and the historical ‘waves of skills goals’ of Australian law schools see J Wade, Legal Skills Training: Some Thoughts on the Terminology and Ongoing Challenges (1994) 5 Legal Educ Rev, 173. For further discussion, see S Kift, Lawyering Skills: Finding Their Place in Legal Education [1997] LegEdRev 2; (1997) 8 Legal Educ Rev 43.

14 F Martin, The Integration of Legal Skills into the Curriculum of the Undergraduate Law Degree: The Queensland University of Technology Perspective (1995) 13 J of Prof Legal Educ 45; referred to by Christensen & Kift, supra note 2, at 215.

15 Christenson & Kift, supra note 2, at 216.

16 R Carter, A Taxonomy of Objectives for Professional Education (1985) 10 Stud Higher Educ, at 135; reproduced by Kift, supra note 13, at 48.

17 Id.

18 Flynn argues that one way of identifying the legal research skills that we expect our graduates to possess is to reflect on the nature of the problem solving process. For his discussion of the skills needed to problem solve see M Flynn, Legal Research Skills: What are they? When Should They be Taught? How can they be Taught? And what About the Other 34 Skills that Law Graduates Frequently Use?, paper presented at the Conference of the Australasian Law Teachers’ Association (Canberra: 2000) <http://www.law.ecel.uwa.edu.au/ab358/martin/alta.htm>

19 Candy, Crebert & O’Leary, supra note 3.

20 Christensen & Kift, supra note 2, at 213; C Bruce, The Seven Faces of Information Literacy, (Adelaide: Auslib Press, 1997) 41; Bruce & Candy, supra note 12, at 6-7; D Chalmers & R Fuller, Teaching for Learning at University: Theory and Practice (London: Kogan Page, 1996).

21 The examples given here do not attempt to be a full account of similar programs at other universities. The authors would be interested to learn of initiatives in other law schools.

22 Kinder, supra note 1.

23 Christensen & Kift, supra note 2.

24 Culshaw & Leaver, supra note 11, at 9.

25 B Bott, Law Library Research Skills Instruction for Undergraduates at Bond University: The Development of a Programme [1994] LegEdRev 6; (1994) 5 Legal Educ Rev 118, at 119.

26 Christensen & Kift, supra note 2.

27 Bruce, supra note 19, at 39.

28 See, for example, J Wade, supra note 13.

29 Id. Although Wade refers to frustrations and challenges he identifies as existing for teachers attempting to incorporate ‘third wave’ skills into law units, they are also pertinent to integrating legal research skills into the curriculum.

30 Id at 185.

31 These concerns were, in part, based on anecdotal information provided to the law librarians by law librarians in various law firms. Similar concerns were reflected in a survey conducted by the Monash Law School, see Kinder, supra note 1.

32 For earlier discussion of these concerns see Flynn, supra note 18.

33 Students are given the opportunity to resubmit the written exercises if they fail it the first time around.

34 There were difficulties with compulsory attendance and enforcing the policy took up a lot of the lecturer’s time in 2000. In 2001 she overcame this problem by creating a compulsory online exercise (using WebCT) which drew on the material covered in the lectures. Attendance at the lectures in 2001 was not noticeably reduced.

35 I Nemes & G Coss, Effective Legal Research (Sydney: Butterworths, 1998).

36 T Hutchinson & C Fong, Objectivity and Omissions?: The Current Batch of Australian Legal Research Texts Reviewed, Paper presented to the 8th Asia-Pacific Specials, Health & Law Librarians Conference, Hobart, Tasmania,

24 August (1999),

at 1. <http://www.alia.org.au/conferences/shllc/1999/papers/fong.html>

37 Id