H5: Social Justice in Law Libraries: #LawLibrariesRespond to Real-Life Crises

1. H5: Social Justice in Law Libraries: #LawLibrariesRespond to Real-Life Crises Speakers: Erika Cohn, Director of the Law Library and Associate Professor of Law, Saint Louis University Lisa A. Goodman, Associate Law Librarian for Administration, Yale Law School Lillian Goldman Library Jason Hawkins, Head of Research Services, University of Maryland School of Law Moderator & Coordinator: Dana Neacsu, Reference Librarian & Lecturer-in-Law, Columbia Law School Library

2. Presenters insert photo • ERIKA COHN, • Director of the Law Library and Associate Professor of Law, • Saint Louis University insert photo • LISA A. GOODMAN, • Associate Law Librarian for Administration, • Yale Law School Lillian Goldman Library insert photo • JASON HAWKINS, • Head of Research Services, University of Maryland School of Law insert photo • DANA NEACSU, Ph.D. • Reference Librarian & Lecturer-in-Law, • Columbia Law School Library

3. The Main Ideas Social justice in law libraries: • Why discuss it? • Social, Racial & Economic Diversity • How to implement it? • The Changing Role of Libraries • Crisis? • Event that brings sudden change; • temporary or permanent • Unexpected example: • America's opioid epidemic has become so extreme that even librarians are being trained to combat overdoses. In Philadelphia, Denver and San Francisco young library staff are being armed with first aid kits which contain doses of Naxolone, a vital drug which reverses the deadly effects of heroin

4. Diversity and Social Justice • If the world’s population were to be comprised to a village of 100 people, they could visit our libraries and they would look like this:

5. Social Justice as Response to Social Crises • What happens when those hypothetical villagers interact with each other? • Daily routines can be disrupted in devastating ways. • Social, economic, or political pressure, as well as individual upheaval can cause unfathomed change. • When it happens on or near our campus or neighborhood, is it the law library’s role to respond?

6. Libraries Respond to Real Life Crises • How? • Do we document? Do we gather and disseminate information? Do we dfer to our principal institution’s policies or disaster plan? • Do we get involved? Do we stay open all night? Close immediately? Open as a "safe haven" for all? Offer the facility as an aid station or "command center"? • Do we educate patrons and attempt to address what may be cultural differences? • How can we anticipate future disruptions?

7. Our Stories. Our Solutions • Our speakers will share their experiences with disruptions to their library routines; • We will hear from the administration and librarians; • At the end we will discuss their actions in retrospect. If they would have liked to change or add anything else.

8. Crisis 2. Response 2 • - please send me a few slides containing: • 1. video of the crisis (1 min) • 2. main lines about your library’s involvement • 3. what you would have liked to see done in addition or instead during the response period • 4. plan for the future

10. UM Carey Law & Law Library Response • UM Carey Law is part of the University of Maryland, Baltimore, sited just west of downtown Baltimore. This was near or at the epicenter of much of the activity. • The protests and riots disrupted all university operations. The disruption was particularly acute for the law school as events occurred during the school’s final exams. • Beginning on April 23, the university issued a series of closure orders and shelter-in-place instructions in response to developing conditions.

11. UM Carey Law & Law Library Response • On Monday, April 27, the day of the most serious violence and the subsequent declaration of the state of emergency and the citywide curfew, the university and library closed at 2:00 p.m. • After the state of emergency was declared afternoon law school exams were cancelled, and the law school made arrangements for students to take the missed exams online. • As a result of the state of emergency and curfew, the university made the decision to close at 7:30 p.m. until the curfew was lifted. The library would close at the same time.

12. UM Carey Law & Law Library Response • Due to the uncertainty surrounding additional early closures, the law school made the decision to cancel all classroom-based examinations. A new system was quickly put in place to allow students to take all their exams online.

13. WouId I Change Anything About Our Response? No! • The library’s mission and operations were appropriatelysubordinated to the university’s directives. Priority is to preserve life and property. • Must have procedures for receiving instruction from authorities, communicating instructions to staff, and implementing instructions.

14. Planning for the Future • Post-Response Feedback Meeting with staff to discuss response. • Civic Engagement • Libraries can participate in youth summer employment programs. • Libraries can encourage staff to participate in community volunteer events. • Libraries can host forums or speaker series on social justice issues.

15. Planning for the Future • Documenting Public Record • Creating research guides to provide users with access to content about events. • Collecting and hosting documents that may be more difficult for average users to find such as court filings.

16. Planning for the Future • Language Considerations • Consider “illegal alien” vs. “illegal immigrant” vs. “undocumented alien” and what those terms can communicate to others about your views on immigration. • In our case, the certain words used to describe the events had political connotations. Social justice advocates used terms like “uprising.” Those more critical of events used the term “riots.” Those trying to be neutral used the terms “unrest” or “protests.”

17. Planning for the Future • Physical Space Considerations • Can we make our physical spaces more available to the public? • Can we make our physical spaces more available to other members of the law school to support social justice programs? • Financial Considerations • Can we allocate funds to make sure members of the community have more increased access to our libraries library (staffing, security, etc.)? • Can we allocate funds to create special collections within the library for members of the public to research legal issues associated with social justice? • Advocacy • Is it our responsibility to encourage our institutions to take more active roles in social justice issues beyond the library walls?

18. Crisis 3. Response 3 • - please send me a few slides containing: • 1. video of the crisis (1 min) • 2. main lines about your library’s involvement • 3. what you would have liked to see done in addition or instead during the response period • 4. plan for the future

19. Questions & Answers Speakers: Erika Cohn, Director of the Law Library and Associate Professor of Law, Saint Louis University, 314- 977-2759; ecohn2@slu.edu Lisa A. Goodman, Associate Law Librarian for Administration, Yale Law School Lillian Goldman Library, 203-432-8471; lisa.goodman@yale.edu Jason Hawkins, Head of Research Services, University of Maryland School of Law, 410-706-0735; jhawkins @ law.umaryland.edu Moderator & Coordinator: Dana Neacsu, Reference Librarian & Lecturer-in-Law, Columbia Law School, 212-854-1345; edn13@columbia.edu