Non-trivial Pursuits at the Wheat Law Library

This article is from the fall 2023 issue of Hearsay, the semi-annual newsletter of the Wheat Law Library.

I like trivia questions for two reasons. First, they connect us to our knowledge base while keeping things light and fun. Second, they draw our attention to things that would not usually come up otherwise. In a way, they stir the juices in our brains and encourage us to think about what is familiar in different ways. Sometimes, I imagine what kinds of questions one could ask in a trivia event about the people and the places around us. I came up with a few trivia questions from the past eight months that I have had the pleasure of being part of the Wheat Law Library team. Here are a couple for the reader: What food item is mentioned in one of the posters displayed to the right of the reference desk at the Wheat Law Library, which stresses the role of academic libraries in making materials accessible for students free of charge?* Here is another one: Name a former KU professor who spent a night in prison along with 22 judges and wrote about this experience in the 1970 fall issue of the KU Law Magazine, which, by the way, is in the Wheat Law Library’s legal history collection?** The answers are given at the end of this article.

As much as I like trivia questions, by referring to ‘trivia’ in what is supposed to be an article about my experience at the Wheat Law Library, I do not intend to lead the reader to think that the law library has anything to do with trivial matters. Anyone who walks into the aisle with volumes of the Restatements of the Law on the third floor (or any aisle, for that matter) wouldn’t dare think otherwise. In fact, the poster and the KU Law magazine article mentioned in the first paragraph, point to much broader and significant issues, such as affordability of academic materials and humanizing correctional systems. The Law Library does, however, share something in common with trivia questions in that it fosters a climate of curiosity and learning while doing this in a much more deliberate and structured way.

At the beginning of 2023, I joined this ecosystem of learning as the newest member of the Wheat Law Library team. My main role is to support technical services with back-office tasks using a library information management system to make sure that the items are integrated into the library collection in the most accessible way. During my time at the law library, I have also taken part in some other exciting projects, such as working on the special collections of items donated by faculty and reorganizing the legal history collection by compiling a detailed inventory of all the items in the collection to help librarians respond to research inquiries with greater ease. Speaking of librarians, I am not a true librarian in the sense of having studied library science. If my former self from my college days could watch me today, she would be surprised that I am working at a library. And if my current self could look back at her too, we would probably be exchanging smiles as I was that student who usually stayed at the library until closing throughout my college years. I studied languages and spent most of the last decade interpreting at international conferences, helping ideas bridge linguistic barriers and helping people have access to information and knowledge expressed in other languages; sometimes they were from different cultural backgrounds or schools of thought. Among them were legal professionals, researchers and even librarians. Although libraries have always felt like a home away from home, facilitating access to information was an overarching theme in my professional life. My experience
included working in legal settings; I had never actually worked in a library before. I was guessing my first few months at the Wheat Law Library would involve a steep learning curve, and I was not wrong. First, I would need to get a good grasp of the steps involved in integrating library materials into the law library’s collection before they were presented to patrons, and where my role fit in that picture. I then needed to learn to navigate the library information system effectively to perform daily operations and understand the workplace culture. My learning curve was not made any easier by the fact that I was someone who moved to Kansas recently. Wherever my path had previously crossed with legal professionals was mostly within the context of countries that used the civil law system. Getting used to understanding the context of common law materials added yet another item on my list of “things in Kansas I needed to get used to ASAP’’ (the same list includes Kansas’ famous biodiversity - yes, I am talking about chiggers, poison ivy and occasionally wondering whether I might be starting to develop seasonal allergies). I was lucky to have co-workers who were patient with me in answering all my questions throughout this process.

As I continue on this journey of growing into my position, I know I am not alone, as many of those around me at the library are forced to join me as we all take small or sometimes even large steps outside of our comfort zones. I am thinking, in particular, of 1L students, but also others who are adapting to new situations in their pursuit of learning. I am glad to be part of a team that is determined to assist patrons in any way possible as they take steps in their own journey navigating the complex world of legal materials that may sometimes seem as elusive as trivia questions, but is in no way trivial.

*Ramen Noodle
**Paul E. Wilson (KU Law Magazine, Fall 1970)