life ȨȽ ɜȣȐ library
IN ɜȣȐ NEWS
As I write this, all of the departments in the law school are
Welcome New Faculty and Staff Vickie Williams – Associate Dean for Academic Affairs Associate Professor Vickie Williams, has been with Gonzaga Law School since 2003. Prior to that she was an adjunct lecturer at the University of Washington School of Law in Seattle from 2000 to 2003. Dean Williams teaches in the areas of Health Care Law, Civil Procedure, Constitutional Law, Conflict of Laws, and Federal Jurisdiction. She was appointed associate dean of academic affairs in July.
in the midst of answering the American Bar Association (ABA)
— talking with students and faculty about their work; offering
Annual Questionnaire. We’re all busy gathering, compiling, and
training sessions to student groups like the Gonzaga Law Review
analyzing information for the purpose of providing some objective
and the Gonzaga Journal of International Law, research assistants,
way to measure the quality of the education we provide to our
and faculty; and suggesting relevant resources and research
law students. (At least I think that’s the purpose.)
strategies. Patrick Charles, the associate director of the library,
The library section of the questionnaire changed significantly
year law students for the first time this past spring semester. It
law librarians across the country. One change is that we are
was extremely rewarding to work with law students to help them
no longer required to report volume and title counts. While I
become better researchers, and ultimately better attorneys. and faculty seek us out to ask questions, recommend material to
collection and result in an inefficient allocation of resources.
purchase, and think of the library as a valuable resource in and of
If decisions are driven by the desire to manipulate or inflate the
itself. Nothing is more gratifying than receiving an e-mail or phone
number of volumes and titles in the collection, the more important
call from a former law student (now practicing attorney) with a
goal of focusing on the quality, relevance, and accessibility of our
research question, though hearing good things about the research
collection is lost. So this change is liberating, in a way, because
skills of Gonzaga law grads from other librarians is a close second.
we can weed our collection without worrying that it will have a
Finally, I am sad to report that the Chastek Library lost one of
negative impact on our ranking, and we can purchase material
our staff members. Lesley Lee, the administrative secretary in
that our students and faculty will actually use.
the library, suffered a brain aneurism on August 14 and died on September 11, 2009. Most of you probably didn’t get a chance to
the library provides, the resources we devote to supporting those
know her because she didn’t work in a public service position, but
services, and the amount of money we spend on our collection.
she was greatly responsible for making the library run smoothly.
I think this is a step in the right direction, though it raises other
Besides being extraordinarily intelligent, competent, and hard-
issues. Obviously, there is no perfect instrument to measure what
working, she also set the tone for the library with her unfailingly
the ABA is trying to quantify, but that’s another discussion.
gracious and thoughtful manner. She was an integral part of the
The process of answering the ABA Questionnaire makes me think about how the library supports the mission of the law school and how we know if we’re doing a good job. For this,
18
I feel like we’re moving in the right direction when students
sometimes necessary) information, they can also do harm to the
The revised questionnaire tries to focus more on the services
Above: Vickie Williams and Tricia Burns-Hart
and I co-taught Advanced Legal Research to second- and third-
this year, and has been the subject of much debate among
recognize that those statistics can provide meaningful (and Tricia Burns-Hart – Career Services - Counselor Tricia received her J.D. from Gonzaga Law School in December of 2005. She practiced employment law for a short time and returned to Gonzaga Law School in February of this year. She received her BA degree from Gonzaga University in May of 1994 and worked in human resources for nearly ten years, four-and-a-half of those at GU Human Resources while attending law school. Tricia has two children ages 5 ½ and 3 ½ and is married to Jeff Hart, who is also employed at Gonzaga.
there’s no substitute for being engaged in the life of the law school
law library and will be missed.