Jack McNeill is the Associate Library Director at Pace. Jack received his undergraduate degree from New York University, his law degree from New York Law School, and his library degree from the University of South Florida. Before becoming a law librarian, Jack worked in private practice, specializing in construction law. As a law librarian, he held positions at St. Thomas University School of Law Library in Miami, Florida. Jack served as President of South Florida Association of Law Libraries and has twice presented at AALL annual meetings on the topics of Immigration Law and Library-Created Databases. Jack has published articles in AALL Spectrum on Library Salaries and Library Architecture.
We all recognize that change and innovation are constants in academic law libraries. ALL-SIS has made great strides in collaboration with AALL and other special interest sections in reordering the way we count our resources and measure the quality of our programs. Individual libraries have moved to increase the instructional components of their programs. All of these measures will maintain librarian relevance and our ability to provide convincing proof of our value. There are other challenges ahead that effect the environment in which all academic librarians work. These challenges include the status of librarians and the significant increases in the cost of resources. Some law school deans are using library director status as a way of eroding the tenure structure of law schools. Today, a number of our most prestigious institutions have non-tenured administrative staff directing their law libraries. These schools, with the their national missions, have otherwise maintained strong support for their libraries. I do not believe the same would be true when this trend arrives at schools with more local missions. Added to this are the striking increases we have seen in the cost of materials. Concentration of the legal publishing field has given publishers monopoly or near-monopoly power to increase prices at will. With pressure coming down from the deans and up from material costs, law libraries will be tried as never before to maintain their collections and staffs in a manner that adequately addresses the needs of their communities. We must be able to effectively inform our communities that the quality of the library is not just about the building, it is not just about the collection, it is fundamentally about the quality of the librarians.
