Caucus Iniative

Thanks to the work of Iantha Haight, at the 2010 AALL Annual Meeting, those interested in empirical legal research met informally to discuss the topic. There are currently 40 law librarians who either attended the meeting or have expressed an interest in forming a group to focus on empirical research. Because librarians at all types of organizations are interested in empirical research, it was determined that, rather than trying to organize as an interest group within a special interest section, perhaps a caucus would be the best initial organization for the group.

We are currently in the process of registering as a caucus with AALL. The purpose of the group is stated as follows:

The Empirical Research Caucus is organized to:

1) Encourage law librarians to expand their knowledge of trends in empirical research, empirical research methods, and multidisciplinary resources related to legal topics and research.

2) Facilitate librarian instructional efforts to increase information literacy in regards to empirical research.

3) Encourage law librarians to engage in research and publication regarding empirical evaluation of patron services, patron literacy, and other related topic such as law and society.

4) Maintain a listing of publications by librarians on conducting empirical research or reporting empirical research.

5) Partner with AALL Special Interest Sections, including ALL-SIS, PLL-SIS, and CS-SIS, to support and publicize programming and professional development opportunities addressing empirical research and the organization and administration of empirical research support programs.

6) Provide a forum for sharing knowledge related to empirical research including development and archiving of data, availability of existing data, and requirements for institutional review boards.

Stay tuned for additional information.