SI-ASB-2009: Georgetown University Law Library


Georgetown Law Library 111 G Street, NW, Washington, DC 20001 www.ll.georgetown.edu/	Projects 3
Georgetown Law Library is one of the largest academic law libraries in the United States. Located in the heart of Washington, D.C., the law library is just steps from the United States Capitol and the Supreme Court. Georgetown Law Library comprises two library locations, having a total of 1.17 million volumes or volume equivalents. The Edward Bennett Williams Law Library building opened in 1988, and its collection is focused on United States law and related subject matter. The John Wolff International and Comparative Law Library opened in 2004, and has a vast collection of foreign and international materials, including materials from several countries, as well as extensive United Nations and European Union resources. Georgetown’s law librarians maintain more than one hundred research guides, several interactive legal research tutorials, and related study materials to help students and the public better understand the law. These guides and tutorials are available freely to the public, and our students are the primary audience for these materials. The law library’s motto is: “Supporting Scholarship – Excelling in Service – Leading in Technology”. The Law Library seeks to meet these goals through innovative research services, advanced technology applications and unique, personalized service for the scholarly pursuits of our students, faculty and librarians.
Photos and Comments

I mostly worked on website usability testing for the home page. It was great and I learned how to use Morae. I liked that they gave me room to create my own experience, and do what interested me most.

The ability to feel like I made a difference, the experience of being a consultant in a new workplace, and the ability to put some of my learning to work in the real world had the greatest impact.

As hosts, the staff at Georgetown was great. They took us to lunch. They made it a point to meet with me. They gave me advice and encouragement. I could not ask for more. It put my current job experience into perspective, showing me more of another law library and, thus, altering my perception about the profession.

Projects

Reviewing Revising & Updating Legal Research Guides

Intern: Ryan Lankton

Code: GLL-01

Interns
1

Review the library's large collection of online research guides on U.S. law international law and non-law subjects. With librarian supervision the student will identify guides to be updated update guides and propose substantive and format revisions to the guides. Students may assist with other reference projects and will have an opportunity to observe Georgetown Law Library's busy U.S. Law reference desk.

Experience with legal research or a J.D. would be helpful but is not required.

Website Usability Study and Analysis

Intern: Katie McCurdy

Code: GLL-03

Interns
1

The Georgetown Law Library seeks to improve the usability of our website especially in the area of access to library resources such as books databases and research guides. We hope to achieve this by revising the resource search and browse portions of our current web site interface by running a series of website usability tests. An internship participant will assist in conducting these usability tests and analyzing test results using TechSmith's Morae Customer Experience Software. The student will receive training on Morae prior to conducting testing sessions and will use this tool to collect and annotate usability test data. The participant will also make written recommendations for revision of the Library's web site based on the test results.

Qualifications: Experience in user interface design and usability testing is very helpful but not required. A successful participant will have an interest in human-computer interaction and system design.

Unmateched Projects

Law School Web Design Survey and Analysis

Code: GLL-02

Interns
1

Georgetown Law Library is planning a 'state of the art in law school web design' study to examine document and annotate web design features of United States law schools. This project is intended as a survey of law school homepages to produce a written report and web application to document and aggregate common and distinctive features of these sites. The student will help collect information about web site elements provide input on data collection and reporting and assist with the creation of the web-based tools necessary for this study.

Knowledge of web design and experience with image manipulation is very helpful. A participant with knowledge of the ColdFusion programming language can help in designing the application but this is by no means a required skill.

The SI Alternative Spring Break is open to graduate students of the University of Michigan's School of Information. Undergraduates looking for Alternative Spring Break opportunities should look into the University of Michigan Alternative Spring Break program administered by U-M's Ginsberg Center.