WHY?

The conversation started at a BIALL Irish Group meeting in 2016. Legal practice librarians commented that they were seeing learning gaps with the trainees that joined their law firms. They were lacking in legal research skills, such as knowledge of the structure and finding of legal information, or they reverted to low effort seeking methods (Schwieder, Reference Schwieder2016). The group discussed a possible disconnect between needs in the academic context and needs in the workplace and agreed a standardised approach. The goal became to develop competencies and close the learning loop by identifying and bridging the knowledge gaps. A collaborative project was initiated with a view to providing a learner-centred scaffolded approach, leading to a seamless progression from student to trainee and onwards.

The LETR Report (Legal Education and Training Review, 2013) stated that legal research skills were crucial but not sufficiently acquired by the end of the academic stage. Hand and Terrell (Reference Hand and Terrell2019) also said that legal research varied between universities and that a standardised approach was necessary. Scoping research also confirmed that we were on the right track, that there was a need for a toolkit which would focus on the learner journey and would be specifically geared towards the Irish jurisdiction. Early-Career Lawyers (ECL) need to demonstrate efficiency in their practice and their workplaces have starting point skills expectations. The solution was a standardised tool allowing users to map their learning journey.

The information literacy (IL) or digital learning landscape is in a constant state of flux. Academic librarians have been seeking to embed IL into curricula for the last 20 years with varying success (Association of College & Research Libraries, 2017). Law schools have been enthusiastic partners in this endeavour working with the input of a professional librarian. Unfortunately, in the last 10 years, funding pressures in higher education, loss of expertise and the restructuring of many libraries to a functional model has led to a reduction in the number of librarians available to service embedded modules. There are fewer law librarians and therefore a shortage of expertise. The budding lawyer and law librarians are caught up in this tumble of change.

CONTEXT

There is an imperative to maintain and enhance legal literacy, particularly given that academic libraries are moving from a subject to a more functional model. All librarian time is scarce, legal librarian time is even scarcer, in a time of increasing and complex demands. This toolkit is a subject launchpad allowing for ‘just-in-time’, self-directed learning in the context of these changing academic librarian roles. However, it is not a replacement for a law librarian. Similarly, librarian access to student cohorts is ever more difficult and this toolkit offers an innovative solution to the knowledge gaps identified by legal workplace librarians.

‘Future readiness’ is a growing area of legal education and, as librarians, we value excellent research skills (Thanaraj and Gledhill, Reference Thanaraj and Gledhill2022). Historically, it has been challenging for researchers to access legal material unique to the Irish jurisdiction, and international law firms are opening more offices in Ireland where their librarians are tasked with providing Irish legal information. Irish law is now internationally influential, and in higher education there is an increasing number of Irish-based international students following global career pathways. Law is more interdisciplinary and Irish law librarians support multiple subject research. The toolkit will also be a valuable resource for librarians and learners based in other jurisdictions who need to upskill on legal information resources unique to Ireland.

TEAM

We are a group of creative librarians, three multi-subject specialists from the academic sector and one practice librarian – all BIALL Irish Group members. The impact of Covid changed our collaborative process, enabling regular, supportive virtual discussions that sparked the innovation behind the toolkit.

PROOF-OF-CONCEPT

We had a vision of a learning support toolkit, but first needed to explore if the concept was viable. Our challenge was to improve legal research skills and to enhance the IL competence of ECL. We consulted colleagues to see if our prototype toolkit was the most appropriate and valid solution. We followed a systematic process: we looked at the problem, proposed an intervention and the toolkit is our outcome.

There were three phases to this initiative:

• • Gathering academic librarians’ knowledge

• • Harvesting professional knowledge in legal practice

• • Design through the lens of feedback

WHAT IS THE TOOLKIT?

The Lawyering Toolkit (Boyle et al., Reference Boyle, Conrick, O'Sullivan and Punch2023) is a prototype online skills pack and knowledge repository. It acts as a scaffolded, subject launchpad and ‘point-of-need’ reference with a focus on the Irish jurisdiction. It is a novel way of doing things and its development was highly dynamic.

We used the term ‘lawyering’ to cover all legal pre-professionals. The toolkit is focused on learning outcomes and success and will enable self-monitoring of student learning. It has a simple logo representing the letters L and T for Lawyering Toolkit over the scales of justice and a variety of visual icons and elements to signpost the user to what they may need.

LEARNER PATHWAYS

A learning path (SHIFT, 2023) is the selection of modules linked in a structure for students to progress and master a particular topic – a package of different possible pathways to success. We created learner pathways to enable learners to progress sequentially or to consult at ‘point-of-need’ and have the option of completing learning checks.

• • Starter skills – Offers support to those who are new to law

• • Smarter skills – To become more proficient at finding legal information

• • Top notch skills – Covers advanced legal research skills

• • Employability skills – What is needed to enter the workplace

• • Professional – Excel in the workplace

• • Not from a legal background – Legal research skills for the non-legal

VISUAL DESIGN

There was a consensus that the pathway structure required a visual design (Porter, Reference Porter2018). The design supports diversity, keeps people engaged – compared to using text alone – and entices and encourages students to use their own Self-Mapped Learning Pathways (SMLP) (Crosslin, Reference Crosslin2021). There is extensive debate (Brunschwig, Reference Brunschwig and Schweighofer2021) on the impact of visualisation and media in the legal narrative, particularly for access and equity issues.

DESIGN AND CONTENT

The toolkit is learner-centred with a focus on the learning journey. The user-friendly, responsive design allows the learner to identify the appropriate level of learning and to revisit as often as required.

Figure 1: Introductory tab, Lawyering Toolkit 2023

Infographics

“Infographics have emerged as a popular visual approach to deliver abstract, complex, and dense messages.” (Dunlap and Lowenthal, Reference Dunlap and Lowenthal2016). Infographic elements are woven into the skills pathways to vary the choice of learning objects and appeal to different learning styles, at the ‘point-of-need’ – Figure 2. These are designed in a succinct style for time-pressed learners and to aid understanding.

Figure 2: Approaching your research assignment, infographic 2022

Triage objects

We incorporated triage elements to support a user when they get stuck or need to overcome a learning block. Infographics prompt learners to tap into their prior knowledge and this reflection helps to develop resilience (Figure 3).

Figure 3: Triage object 2022

Learning checks

We plan to include learning checks for each skills pack so that learners can assess where they are on the lawyering journey and identify where they need to improve. In this way, learners can discern whether they are ready to move on to a more advanced skills pack or if they need to revisit a previous one. We propose to use a combination of innovative assessment tools such as reflective questions or short self-directed quizzes created and mapped from the content in each pathway (Anstey and Watson, Reference Anstey and Watson2018). These will help users to gauge their knowledge at each stage and can be used at any time and as often as required. These have yet to be designed and tested on learners.

Figure 4: A visualisation of sound bites from discussions in 2022

METHODOLOGY AND PROCESS

We considered a variety of research methods linking performance, practice and research (Nind and Lewthwaite, Reference Nind and Lewthwaite2018). We chose Reflective Practice. This method has its roots in education and work-based learning (CILIP, 2012), indeed one of the seminal texts has the subtitle “how professionals think in action” (Schön, Reference Schön1991). Our choice of methodology (Corrall, Reference Corrall2017; Greenall, Reference Greenall2016) was threefold. It suited our team process and circumstances. It supported the lawyering learner experience and creative development flow. It enabled research and discovery of content. Our approach transitioned from defining the problem to considering a possible intervention and devising outcomes.

Our goal was to create a toolkit driven by the immediacy of knowledge applied in practice, our collective intelligence and shared learning expanded our pedagogical values. As a team, we did not develop a detailed project plan. Collaboration happened organically and reflectively; however, it was a structured process which was conversational and layered with ethnographic values. We were committed to creating something tangible as our proof-of-concept – a Lawyering Toolkit. Rather than a finished product, it is a solid foundation upon which learning concepts can be layered.

We created a community of practice which fostered co-creativity (Bovill, Reference Bovill2020). Our working style enabled a creative flow which led to a plan to remedy gaps and devise solutions, weighted by our practical experience and competencies. We did not conduct a traditional literature review, but we undertook micro investigations of the literature to investigate each element, reading and referencing them in context.

We met weekly online, and each meeting started with a review of decisions on content. Skilled meeting management, revision editing, and reflective processing kept discussion on point and helped us to navigate towards content creation. We used a Socratic approach and discussions were interspersed with thought-provoking questions that challenged our ideas. We reviewed traditional subject LibGuides (Brush, Reference Brush2022), and EDI (Equality, Diversity and Inclusion) and UDL (Universal Design for Learning) featured prominently. We brainstormed potential solutions and evaluated these against frameworks such as Bloom's taxonomy, refined through sensemaking models (Dervin, Reference Dervin1998). We updated the toolkit after each meeting.

THEMES

We created a more dynamic tool, seeking to bridge the gap between guidance and learning, because LibGuides traditionally act as repositories. We collated information applicable to the Irish jurisdiction for the learner. We anticipate that it will change as a result of feedback, diversity of needs and patterns in higher education and beyond (Lee and Lowe, Reference Lee and Lowe2018).

During our reflective process, the following themes emerged:

BENEFITS

The structure is the key benefit.

PROOF-OF-CONCEPT FEEDBACK AND TESTING

We approached the toolkit as a proof-of-concept to assess feasibility and scalability. The BIALL Irish Group and the BIALL Conference 2022 provided an informal target group, where we had access to practice and international librarians to gather opinion and evidence. We also shared the prototype with our academic library colleagues in our home universities.

PLATFORM AND TOOLKIT

LibGuides (Springshare, 2023) offered a flexible and shared platform and became our collaborative working tool. They are widely used in university libraries and academic librarians are familiar with them. We hybridised LibGuides – beyond static repositories to incorporate dynamic, visual learning resources in scaffolded skills packs (Bergstrom-Lynch, Reference Bergstrom-Lynch2019). Easily edited, it will be adaptive to changing needs in legal information.

UNIVERSAL DESIGN FOR LEARNING

We wanted to enable a consistent digitally inclusive approach to meet the fourth point of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (United Nations, 2023). The LibGuides platform has already adopted UDL principles and checkers (CAST, 2018). UDL is the new standard for educational technology and is a paradigm shift for most librarians. We followed UDL principles and used plain language, incorporating glossaries, and provided combinations of learning objects to create a more enticing, purposeful resource. We avoided red on green to support colour blind people and provided chunked content and simple intuitive approaches to learning in different boxes throughout the toolkit (Peter and Clement, Reference Peter and Clement2020).

LESSONS LEARNED