Research, Reference, and Instruction

Instruction and Reference Services in a Pandemic

The Pandemic Begins: Spring 2020

“ Have a restful, safe, and healthy Spring Break. See you in a week!”

During the week of March 2, 2020, we adjourned our classes without knowing that this was the last time we would see the students. But only a few days later, the instruction librarians gathered in a classroom to learn the basics of teaching via Zoom. Then, we left the building to work at home with laptops and headsets “but only for a week or so until the Coronavirus can be contained.” Or so we thought. Meanwhile, Spring Recess was extended to two weeks, giving instructors additional time to learn how to teach virtually—no easy task for most of us. Most of us were new to Zoom and struggled with the learning curve, but we worked together, meeting regularly from our new home offices to practice. We continued teaching the semester’s courses beginning “in person” but finishing over Zoom. As the weeks passed, the Law School closed, and the University mandated that all students stay at home indefinitely. It was also announced that classes would be no credit/no credit, so we revised our syllabi. Similarly, we began the process that would continue over the subsequent academic year: learning to teach over Zoom. The new mode of instruction required working with our students to create Zoom norms and remodeling class exercises to work virtually. Likewise, we were now required to hold office hours and meet with students in Zoom rooms. Some of us even experimented with providing live feedback and comments over Zoom. In addition to research courses, instructional librarians continued to teach workshops and provide guest lectures virtually. The Pandemic Continues: 2020–21 Academic Year

As a new academic year began, the Law School classrooms remained empty, and we welcomed our new and returning students remotely. Each instructional librarian introduced a group of new students to reading and briefing cases as part of the Orientation Program. taught by different librarians over the first few weeks of school. In addition, Julie Graves Krishnaswami continued coordinating the research instruction for the twelve First Term Small Groups, with each instructional librarian teaching their Small Group remotely. The 2020–21 academic year presented some new challenges: students were Zooming in on all their courses and activities from around the globe, and the realities of the pandemic and the loss of the “in-person” law school experience set in. Nevertheless, the Instructional Team worked together to share strategies, technological insights, and community. For example, we discussed virtual teaching pedagogy and classroom policies in the Instructional Unit’s regular meetings, referred to as the Textbook Committee. Similarly, we strategized how we would contend with Zoom fatigue among students and manage requests for accommodations. We continued to teach research classes without skipping a beat, and students filled nearly all the virtual seats. The following classes enrolled students remotely during the academic year:

fall courses •Advanced Legal Research (Krishnaswami)

spring courses •Advanced Legal Research Section 1 (Krishnaswami) •Advanced Legal Research Section 2 (Nann) •Research Methods in American Legal History (Nann) •Specialized Legal Research in Corporate Law (Eiseman and Vanderheijden) •Specialized Legal Research in Foreign and

International Law (Ma and Olejnikova)

Jordan Jefferson, Associate Director for Research and Instruction in reference consultation with student.

The Return to Campus and the Classroom: 2021–22 Academic Year

As roughly the entire YLS community was vaccinated, all welcomed the return to classroom instruction! Everyone wore a mask, and students spread out in large rooms, sometimes even meeting outside. We began the academic year by teaching the Introduction to Case Briefing for the First-Year students and the Fundamentals of Legal Research for the graduate students. Similarly, we continued introducing the First Year students to legal research in their Small Groups. In addition, we taught the following courses and workshops:

fall courses •Advanced Legal Research (Krishnaswami)

spring courses •Advanced Legal Research Section 1 (Krishnaswami and Mignanelli) •Advanced Legal Research Section 2, (Nann) •Research Methods in American Law, (Mignanelli) •Specialized Legal Research in Foreign and

International Law (Olejnikova and Ma). The Virtual Reference Desk: Reference Assistance in COVID times

The rapid spread of COVID-19 in early 2020 and the imminent shut-down of the Sterling Law Building presented the Research and Instructional Services Department with the question: How will students and faculty access research assistance, at their point of need—which in the coming weeks could be anywhere in the world? Although historically, 40–45% of the questions we field from patrons arrive through our personal email boxes, traditional, walk-up reference at a physical reference desk still accounted for 35–40% of the questions we received. That’s not an insignificant number of questions that could potentially go unanswered. With the law school and the library closed, how could we best replicate the accessible, just-in-time nature of a physical reference desk? In the years leading up to COVID, members of the department had individually, experimented with and adopted the use of video conferencing technologies to occasionally meet with students when in-person meetings were impractical. For this reason, when the physical law school shut down in March of 2020, we were prepared to adapt these same video conferencing tools to meet with YLS researchers who would soon be in various lockdowns around the world. To approximate an online version of the law library’s reference desk, we created a shared Zoom account monitored by members of the RIS team 40 hours a week. During these hours researchers could drop into our “virtual reference room” (affectionately dubbed the VRROOM) to discuss questions they had about research and library resources. The questions ranged from inquiries about access to online versions of materials and short demonstrations of databases to in-depth strategy sessions for clinic cases, course work, and scholarship.