Category «Law Librarians»

How Can Law Professors Effectively Teach AI Literacy to Law Students? Legal AI Studio

This spring the Michigan State University College of Law and the MSU Center for Law, Technology & Innovation introduced the “LegalRnD AI Studio,” a groundbreaking mini-course series designed to elevate law students’ AI literacy, focusing on practical skills in generative AI. Dennis Kennedy shares how you can replicate this successful model and provide your students with the essential AI literacy they need at your school.

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Subjects: AI, Education, Law Librarians, Legal Education, Legal Profession, Legal Research, Legal Research Training

Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, May 18, 2024

Privacy and cybersecurity issues impact every aspect of our lives – home, work, travel, education, finance, health and medical records – to name but a few. On a weekly basis Pete Weiss highlights articles and information that focus on the increasingly complex and wide ranging ways technology is used to compromise and diminish our privacy and online security, often without our situational awareness. Four highlights from this week: Librarians Are Waging a Quiet War Against International “Data Cartels”; Why car location tracking needs an overhaul; How to find out if an AirTag is tracking you; and New mailing list aims to share hacking attempts on open-source projects.

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Subjects: Communications, Cybercrime, Cybersecurity, KM, Law Librarians, Privacy, Travel

Introducing AI Prompt Worksheets for the Legal Profession

Jennifer (Greig) Wondracek identified that her AI results are much better when she stops and thinks them through, providing a high level of detail and a good explanation of what she want the AI system to produce. So, good law librarian that she is, she created a new form of plan for those who are learning to draft a prompt. And the result is the AI prompt worksheets she shares in this article.

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Subjects: AI, Continuing Legal Education, Law Librarians, Legal Research, Legal Technology

2023 Developments in Legal AI and the Courts

Jocelyn Stilwell-Tong, Law Librarian, California Court of Appeal, Sixth Appellate District, has determined that although free AI online is useful, the developing products from major legal research platforms show great promise. These paid products control for issues like hallucinations, and provide citations supporting their work so a researcher can confirm the accuracy and context of the materials the AI is pulling from. Issues surrounding data governance (what the company does with your uploaded material and search history) can be controlled by contract, and the legal vendors understand that this is a concern for most legal clients.

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Subjects: AI, KM, Law Librarians, Legal Research, LEXIS, Technology Trends, Westlaw

The Case For Large Language Model Optimism in Legal Research From A Law & Technology Librarian

The emergence of Large Language Models (LLMs) in legal research signifies a transformative shift. This article by Sean Harrington critically evaluates the advent and fine-tuning of Law-Specific LLMs, such as those offered by Casetext, Westlaw, and Lexis. Unlike generalized models, these specialized LLMs draw from databases enriched with authoritative legal resources, ensuring accuracy and relevance. Harrington highlights the importance of advanced prompting techniques and the innovative utilization of embeddings and vector databases, which enable semantic searching, a critical aspect in retrieving nuanced legal information. Furthermore, the article addresses the ‘Black Box Problem’ and explores remedies for transparency. It also discusses the potential of crowdsourcing secondary materials as a means to democratize legal knowledge. In conclusion, this article emphasizes that Law-Specific LLMs, with proper development and ethical considerations, can revolutionize legal research and practice, while calling for active engagement from the legal community in shaping this emerging technology.

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Subjects: AI, KM, Law Librarians, Legal Research, Legal Research Training, LEXIS, Search Engines, Search Strategies, Westlaw

The Survey Is Dead; Long Live the Survey: Can ChatGPT Replace Traditional Research Surveys?

Iantha Haight writes that her library recently hosted a guest speaker, David Wingate, a professor in BYU’s computer science department who does research on large language models, for a faculty lunch and learn. The entire presentation was fascinating, but the most intriguing part for me and many of the law faculty in attendance was the idea that generative AI systems will become so good they will be able to replace human subjects in answering research surveys. How? Generative neural networks trained on huge amounts of data—terabytes and even petabytes—ingest enough information about people that they can answer survey questions as if they were members of the survey population.

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Subjects: AI, KM, Law Librarians, Legal Technology, Librarian Resources, Library Software & Technology, Reference Resources, Reference Services, Surveys

DRM On My Mind

Christine Park, Adjunct Professsor of Law, Fordham Law Library highlights risks of and legal restrictions related to digital rights management. LLRX welcomes further discussion of efforts to implement solutions, “before it’s too late.” See also David H. Rothman’s article Will Amazon’s new ePub capability help the anti-DRM movement?

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Subjects: Copyright, KM, Law Librarians, Libraries & Librarians, Library Software & Technology, Publishing & Publishers (Legal), Technology Trends

Putting a Spotlight on Civics Education: How Law Librarians Are Helping to Bridge the Access to Justice Gap

Diane M. Rodriguez Assistant Director of the San Francisco Law Library in California, and 2021–22 president of the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL), where one of her many goals is to advocate for access to legal information that supports access to justice. She expertly articulates the work, and the role of law librarians, that comprise this mission.

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Subjects: Civil Liberties, Education, Human Rights, KM, Law Librarians, Legal Research
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