Long Live the Library!

Celebrating National Library Week

I graduated from law school 25 years ago. For three long years, I spent countless hours at the law library, yet the details of its sights and smells are fuzzy in my mind.

I remember its vastness.

…and how intimidated I frequently felt in having to take a trip to the six-story building centered in the heart of campus.

Libraries are intended to be somewhere you can find answers — valuable resources containing a broad collection of information. A law library houses things like federal and state constitutions, statutes, case law, and periodicals. Back in my day, it was the primary place to do legal research, but it was also where I often felt lost and confused.

I can no longer describe the rows and rows of floor-to-ceiling bookshelves, how the different floors were organized, and what types of content they each contained. I do recall the blur of colors and how I could once identify a type of book by the color of its cover. And I most vividly remember the sense of wonder (coupled with insecurity and angst) that washed over me every time I stepped foot in that library.

I wonder what the law library looks like today.

Technology has undoubtedly brought significant changes to the floor plan. In the mid-90s, there were only a few desktop computer stations. They were located in a single row on the first floor near the entrance and it’s where we went to access Westlaw or LexisNexis, the databases used to access digital content about the law before the World Wide Web was widely available.

I wasn’t very computer proficient back then, and I dreaded having to navigate those services to conduct legal research. I usually chose to tackle my homework the old-fashioned way, moving from book to book, scanning the indexes, and thumbing through the pages — some paper thin and obviously well-referenced. If I couldn’t find what I was looking for, I never hesitated to ask the librarian. There were several regulars at the law library, and they were all extremely friendly, knowledgeable, and a great help — even though they often guided me toward the row of computers and advised me to start there.

One of the biggest impacts technology has obviously had on legal research relates to what is known as “Shepardizing.” Shepard’s Citations is a tool used to make sure a particular legal decision is still “good law.” It’s important because if you want to use a case to make an argument, you need to make sure the law decided in that case still stands. I remember a few times when I thought I had discovered the perfect precedent to use in a brief or memorandum, only to find that the decision had been overturned on appeal, sending me right back to the drawing board.

Shepardizing used to be very tedious, requiring a manual search of long lists and tables of legal citation. It was a pain in the ass, but forgetting to do it could turn into a bigger problem. I haven’t thought about that process for a very long time, but my guess is that it’s like so many things these days: all you have to do is push a button, and the answers are there. Maybe you can even ask Siri or Alexa to Shepardize a case for you now.

Something else I remember about the library is the sense of community created there.

We’d meet there after class to commiserate about our assignments, pick each other’s brains about how to frame an argument, and divide up the pieces of a group assignment. Sometimes we’d split up and head to different areas of the library, walking up and down multiple flights of stairs in search of what could feel like a needle in a haystack. There were no cell phones back then, so if you needed to communicate with one of your classmates, you’d either wait until you reconvened or try and track them down amidst the maze of study carrels and bookshelves.

Often, we’d reserve one of the small meeting rooms to use as “home base” while feeding off of each other’s energy and curiosity. That also allowed us to speak in decibels above a whisper.

We all know that “Shhhh, be quiet” is the universal truth of all libraries.

That’s probably my favorite aspect of being in any kind of library. You’re surrounded by so much information but required to temper your reactions to it. You have to keep your thoughts to yourself, mull things over in your mind, and silently reflect on what you’re learning.

In honor of National Library Week, I’m going to try and interject some of that quiet reflection into the next several days. It’s a great way to find peace and calm, to carve out a tiny corner for yourself and escape the outside noise.

Thank you Ellie Jacobson and Flint and Steel for the prompt, and for taking me back in time and reminding me of the subtle treasures that can be found at your local library.