Some questions have arisen about a new assignment for the Paralegal 2205 class. In discussing the location of the answer with the instructor- the subject of how much help should we provide to these students is addressed here. We have certain parameters of information and assistance provided to students in paralegal classes. Since Ms. Teri Fields is a new paralegal faculty member, I posed the question to her. She copied me on the message that she had sent to her students. Other than helping to locate missing volumes or sources from the paralegal section, students are to refer their first questions to the instructor.
Addressed to students via email--
"As you know, I make up the research assignments in the CSU library. I have great knowledge about the assignments and the library resources. All of your assignments will come from the reference section of the CSU library. As such, the resources should never leave the library. Due to the foregoing, you will probably never need to consult the library staff about the assignments. I ask that you give yourself enough time to complete the work and please first direct any and all questions about your assignments to me. " Teri Fields
Another note about legal questions-Please find out what class and subject the students are taking. We are also getting questions from business law classes and criminal justice classes. In those instances- LexisNexis legal searching is usually sufficient. Sometimes students may also decide to refer to one of the sets of books in legal reference for further background on a case. If you are not sure about where to start to help a student, contact me or refer the student to me and I will do my best to assist them.
I will plan to work on a staff inservice session on basic legal searches in LN and the new "Legal Collection" database.
If there is enough interest-Mara Mooney would probably also do a refresher of her "Legal Research Utilizing Library Resources" for library staff. This explains the different levels of law, what the various legal terms mean, and just provides a good overview like we were new paralegal students! Let me know so I can contact her to try to schedule it.
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