25 VOLUME X, NUMBER 27 aad INNOVATION ABSTRACTS fee ISHED BY THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR STAFF AND ORGANIZATIONAL DEVELOPMENT, THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN TH SUPPORT FROM THE W. K. KELLOGG FOUNDATION AND THE SID W. RICHARDSON FOUNDATION The Law Library: An Effective Teaching Resource Everyone needs a challenge to keep going. Teachers need the challenge of opening exciting doors to stu- dents; students need to be challenged by assignments. Textbooks often fall short of offering sufficient chal- lenge and excitement to maintain student interest for an entire semester. Therefore, we, as educators, must strive for new, improved ways of opening doors for our students. During my years of teaching, criminal justice, | have come to realize that many resources available as learn- ing tools are seldom used. One of these is the law library. | was introduced to the law library in graduate school and forced to use it often while attending the PBL National Academy in Quantico, Virginia. Al- though my exposure to this library was minimal, | soon realized the potential value in having learned a concrete skill through which | could answer my own legal questions. Ina Constitutional Law course, the instrue- tor used case law exclusively to teach law, explained how it applied to various situations and why certain other situations fell under similar law. Midland College, through the extensive efforts of administrators and faculty, was able to obtain a law library which was ready for basic use in August 1988. Through donations and purchases, the Midland College Learning Resource Center added the following to its already existing annotated statutes: Lawyer's Fdition 2d and Southwestern Reporter 2d, volumes containing the text of Supreme and appel- late court opinions, as well as, in the Lawyer's Edition 2d, annotated comments on cases and case summaries prepared by the editor; Texas Jurisprudence 2d, a legal encyclopedia contain- ing explanations of law and appropriate case law; Texas Digest 2d, a directory of cases categorized by seven major topics and over 400 subtopics; Shepard's Texas Citator, used to research case law to determine its current applicabil- ily to legal issues. Although not a complete law library, this is more than adequate for use as a teaching resource —primarily in two teaching areas, Legal Assistance and Criminal Justice. EDB 348, Austin, Texas 78712 THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR STAFF AND ORGANIZATIONAL DEVELOPMENT (NISOD) Community College Leadership Program, The University of Texas at Austin Within the criminal justice curriculum, several courses involve the use of case law as teaching aids e.g., Constitutional Law, Legal Aspects of Law Entorce- ment, Fundamentals of Criminal Law, and Courts and Criminal Procedure. Prior to the existence of this on- campus facility, faculty had to rely on making copies of cases to be studied, or merely mentioning them during the lecture. That, somehow, seemed dull and unexcit- Ing;. Beginning with the Fall 1988 semester, all entering criminal justice students are required to attend a two hour seminar on the law library: they are introduced to the various books available, shown how to use them, and taught to prepare a four-part case brief for class- room discussion. Assignments are then made which require students to prepare and submit case briefs for grading. Students are encouraged to work together on these briefs and to get as much as they can from the case study. This seminar is required as part of Introduc- tion to Criminal Justice. The skill taught during this seminar can be used throughout the course of study by all instructors, to enhance learning and raise levels of excitement in the classroom about the subject. Students, in turn, can enhance their own learning and the effec- tiveness of research papers by using legal illustrations. It is felt that students who can answer their own questions, prepare their own notes and arguments for class discussion, and feel more confident in being able to use the law library will get more out of their educa- tion than by mercly being told that the law exists, and that itis such and such. Additionally, many of these students will eventually secure positions within the criminal justice system. Being able to locate answers to important Iegal issues can only improve the perform- ance of these future criminal justice professionals. Robert W. Peetz, Coordinator, Criminal Justice For further information, contact the author at Midland College, 3600 N. Garfield, Midland, TX 79705.