STATE OF NEW YORK

UNIFIED COURT SYSTEM

            Effective Date:                                  05/02/2005

            Title Code Number:                          9442901

            Salary Grade:                                    20

            Jurisdictional Classification:            C

Under supervision of a Principal Law Librarian, Senior Law Librarianor other supervisory court personnel, Law Librarians are responsible forproviding professional library service, including legal research assistance,original cataloging, assistance with acquisitions, library management insome libraries, clerical supervision, and collection-related responsibilities.Law Librarians provide information about the legal research collection,maintain the collection according to standard library guidelines, performbibliographic searches, implement resource sharing and may provide professional-leveldirection and assistance to library personnel. Law Librarians operate avariety of library and research automation systems, participate in electronicreference and technical consortiums.  Law Librarians assist higher-levellaw librarians in managing large  diverse legal research collectionsin the Unified Court System, or have primary responsibility for operationof a small, less complex legal research collection that serves a smallnumber of judges. In addition to responsibility for a main body of legalresearch material, Law Librarians may have responsibility for other collections,including those in individual chambers, in one or more separate geographicallocations and perform other related library and administrative duties.

TYPICAL DUTIES:

Consults with judges, legal staff, court personnel, and others to identify

research alternatives using all available formats, including print, microform

and electronic sources.

Provides legal reference services in a multitude of medium including,

in person, by telephone, and electronically.

Prepares informational and instructional documentation to support all

types of research.

Reviews and evaluates legal research materials to identify items to

be added to or withdrawn from collections.


Designs and implements systematic evaluations of law library and chambers

collections in regard to retention, arrangement or condition.

Manages or assists in managing the system for maintaining control of

the collection.

Classifies new items in the collection according to library classification

schedule and established guidelines.

Operates acquisitions system, including bibliographic searching, order

preparation, receipt, payment and reporting.

Prepares reports and monitors expenditures from library budget and provides

information for budget compilation.

Trains and supervises subordinate staff, makes work assignments, monitors

progress, and evaluates staff performance.

Conducts tours of the library for groups of visitors and library orientation

programs for new court personnel.

May conduct independent legal research and participate in special projects.


 

The above statements are intended to describe the general nature

and level of work being performed by persons assigned to this title. They

do not include all job duties performed by employees in this title, and

every position does not necessarily require these duties.

KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS, AND ABILITIES:

Knowledge of recent developments in law librarianship and legal research.

Knowledge of concepts, principles and practices related to online information

research, including bibliographic database structure and organization.


 


Knowledge of legal research collection classification principles and

systems.

Knowledge of principles and systems regarding collection development,

organization, and control.

Knowledge of automated library systems.

Knowledge of legal reference materials, terminology, and procedures

including research tools and techniques.

Skill at supervising, counseling, and building rapport with subordinate

staff.

Skill to work with automated library systems and other electronic resources

as a medium for information, research, communication, and multi-media resource

sharing.

Ability to plan, organize, coordinate, and monitor activities and subordinate

staff to complete library projects.

Ability to establish work priorities and work independently.

Ability to delegate and monitor job assignments and to supervise the

daily activities of subordinates.

Ability to evaluate staff performance against job requirements.

Ability to develop the skills and competencies of subordinate staff

and, where appropriate, library users through training and development

activities.

Ability to communicate information clearly and technical concepts to

library users and the public.

Ability to communicate effectively in correspondence, memos, instructions

and reports.

Ability to collect, analyze, and evaluate information related to areas

of library operations and/or personnel-related situations and to design

solutions to work-related problems.


 

QUALIFICATIONS:

Master`s degree in Library Science or Library Information Sciences from

an American Library Association (ALA) accredited college or university

and one (1) year of professional work experience using library automation,

providing legal reference services or involving library administration. 

This experience must have been in a law library or library information

center with a significant legal collection.

Law Degree from an accredited law school and one (1) year of professional

work experience using library automation, providing legal reference services

or involving library administration.  This experience must have been

in a law library or library information center with a significant legal

collection.