Latia Ward

In the syllabus for the Advanced Legal Research class that I taught in fall 2024, I have included learning outcomes that are aligned with American Bar Association and American Association of Law Libraries standards as well as an overview of the topics that are discussed in class and references for these topics. Much of the information on the beginning pages is specific to the University of Virginia School of Law. Within the syllabus, I provide an overview of the assignments and Research…

"The Vape Shop" is a legal research exercise designed to facilitate students' use of open access (Legislative Information Management System (LIMS) and Montgomery County and American Legal Publishing's Code Library) and subscription databases (Westlaw and Lexis+) and their analysis of a legal research problem. For this exercise, the applicable frame from the Framework for Information Literacy is "searching as strategic exploration" (however, "research as inquiry" and "information creation as a…

"The Cell Phone Search" is a legal research exercise designed to facilitate students' use of citators in subscription databases such as Westlaw, Lexis+, and Bloomberg Law by providing a series of questions for them to answer. For this exercise, the applicable frame from the Framework for Information Literacy is "searching as strategic exploration." At the end of the exercise, students are invited to think about how the results of their search and their search strategies would have been…

Thinking Outside the Box is an in-class research exercise designed to facilitate students' evaluation of information found in subscription databases and obtained through generative artificial intelligence tools by providing a series of questions for them to answer. For this exercise, the applicable frames from the Framework for Information Literacy include: "authority is constructed and contextual," "information creation as process," and "searching as strategic exploration."

The Critical Information Literacy Lesson Plan includes a lesson plan with a bibliography of assigned readings and discussion questions for students as well as presentation slides with main points from the lesson: definition of critical information literacy, evaluating information is a process, authority is constructed and contextual, how to evaluate information, and check the facts.