I had an interesting conversation yesterday with one of the reference librarians at the law library where I work. At our university, the reference librarians are also teaching faculty - they teach the required 1L Legal Research class (which is separate from our Legal Writing class; I understand at many law schools this course is combined.) He said in his experience at previous positions this is relatively unique to our university. That is to say, the reference librarians at most law schools where he'd been do not also regularly teach, other than now and then holding instructional class sessions or being guest speakers, etc. I wanted to ask both if anyone knew of other places where the reference librarians are also teaching faculty, and what any thoughts on this structure are. I personally am really interested in eventually being a reference law librarian (right now I am working on my MLS but don't yet have a JD) and I think it is a great idea to have the kind of personal contact with students that being the Legal Research instructor seems to provide. All the law students here know our reference staff by name, and they also are probably far more likely to approach them, it seems to me, because they do know them better. But maybe that is just my perception...

Any thoughts, experiences, etc. that anyone can share on this subject? I'm curious to hear other opinions!

:) beth