“Bad libraries build collections, good libraries build services, great libraries build communities.”
David Lankes
Happy National Library Week! This year’s American Library Association theme is “There’s More to the Story” celebrating libraries’ expansive materials, services, and resources beyond print books. This week, learn how to use your library card to its fullest potential and celebrate with Zief Law Library!
Events at Zief
All Week Activities
- Pick up a Zief-themed word search by the Brain Break table on the first floor!
- Vote on your favorite library, law school, or poetry themed haiku written by USF law students by April 27th, 3:00 p.m.! The winner receives a Green Apple Books gift card!
- Share your favorite books from childhood with the Communal Children’s Book Library! Located on the first floor near the Circulation Desk.
- Guess how many books are in Zief Law Library and win a prize!
- Pick up freebies from Lexis, Westlaw, Bloomberg, and more!
San Francisco
San Francisco Public Library
In honor of There’s More to the Story, here are a few ways to maximize your library card’s potential outside of borrowing materials.
- Learn a new skill with SFPL’s eLearning resources.
- Gale Courses offers courses on accounting, business, finance, personal development, teaching, healthcare, writing, and languages.
- Choose from an additional 30 languages available on Rosetta Stone and 70 on Mango Languages, all free through SFPL.
- Take advantage of a free Treehouse subscription to learn how to code or develop a website!
- Get outside! Use your library card for a state park pass or explore San Francisco’s museums, movie theaters, and more with Discover and Go.
- Practice using your green thumb this summer with the Potrero Branch Seed Lending Library.
- Not made for the outdoors? Try a free movie screening at Koret Auditorium.
- After a long day of outlines and papers, treat yourself to a movie, tv show, new music, or an audiobook. All free with your library card of course!
- Kanopy: over 30,000 feature movies, documentaries, indie films, and more.
- Hoopla: eBooks, audiobooks, music, movies, and TV shows.
- Libby (Overdrive) and Axis 360: audiobooks and eBooks in a variety of languages.
- Alexander Street Press: video and music materials for dance, classical music, and opera.
- Discover more about your family history with SFPL’s genealogy resources.
- In addition to the print books and ebooks they offer, in the Dewey areas 025.0692 and 929.1, the library subscribes to databases, such as Ancestry Library, Heritage Quest Online, and more!
- Put some records on with vinyls available at at the Main, Eureka Valley, Mission Bay, Marina and Park branches. The Main Library’s Audio-Visual center on the first floor offers vinyls, CDs, Blu-Ray, and more.
- Internet trouble while working from home? Check out a laptop or use the free wifi service at any SFPL location.
- Want to own books and support the library? The Friends of the Public Library hosts events and book sales to help fund the San Francisco Public Library.
San Francisco Law Library
After graduation and bar prep, the San Francisco Law Library is will be a great, free resource for your legal research needs.
- Reference help is available in person or by phone or email. Call the reference desk at 415-554-1797 or email sfll.reference@sfgov.org.
- Services include:
- Reference assistance
- Public computers for legal research
- Quiet study space
- Copier, scanner, and printer
- Conference rooms for legal use
- Legal education programs
- Circulation for attorneys
- Interlibrary Loan for attorneys
- Tours
- Attend programs with your email, name, and CA bar number or watch recorded lectures on the SFLL website.
- SFLL also offers free clinics!
- Expand your research with SFLL libguides and more from California County Law Libraries!
Law Librarianship
Love legal research and helping others? Consider a career in legal research, whether it be in a law library or a firm (yes, private firms need librarians!).
How to Get started in Law Librarianship
- Work backwards!
- Ask a research librarian about their education, career background, and what a day in the life looks like for them.
- Learn what law librarians do in public, university, and private law firm libraries.
- Sample titles include:
- Law Research Analyst
- Empirical Research Librarian
- Scholarly Communications Librarian
- Digital Initiatives Librarian
- Public Services Law Librarian
- Technical Services Law Librarian
- Research Librarian
- Sample titles include:
- After earning your JD, you will need to earn your Master of Library and Information Science. Programs range from one to three years, depending on the school and full-time or part-time enrollment.
- The University of Arizona and the University of Washington offer law librarianship degree programs online or in person. Search the American Librarians Association website to find schools with law librarianship course or degree programs.
- Consider pursuing an internship or volunteer with the Law Library of Congress to gain experience and foster your curiosity about law librarianship.
- Join or reach out to professional organizations to learn more about law librarianship and expand your network.
- The American Association of Law Libraries offers a career network, webinars, and an annual conference where you can submit your resume and learn about the future of law libraries. (Bonus: professional organizations offer scholarships.
- After getting started with the AALL, consider Librarians’ Associations of Color such as, AILA, APALA, BCALA, CALA, and REFORMA, or librarians associations based on interest, such as Special Libraries Association.
- Pro-tip: Professional organizations have access to job listings beyond Indeed and LinkedIn. Ask a research librarian at Zief Law Library about how librarians support one another.
- Ask a research librarian questions! One of the most overlooked resource any library offers is the information professional. As Neil Gaiman said, “Google can bring you back 100,000 answers, a librarian can bring you back the right one.”