To support faculty teaching and scholarship, each law faculty member has a library liaison. Adjunct law faculty should contact Susan Boland at susan.boland@uc.edu or (513) 556-4407. Your liaison will help facilitate your use of the many resources the Law Library has to offer. A wide variety of research services are provided including, but not limited to: training faculty and RAs on electronic resources, locating materials, developing Lexis and Westlaw searches, purchasing and acquiring requested books, assisting with research projects, and helping faculty keep current in their research areas. Research results can be delivered directly to your office via your preferred method.
Liaison assignments are made at the beginning of each academic year. Your library liaison will contact you to answer any questions you may have about the program and discuss your needs for library services. If your liaison cannot provide the information you request directly, he or she will refer your request to the appropriate library department, and follow up on the request through its completion. Due to the expanded reference hours that the library is now offering, your library liaison may not be available some mornings and afternoons. If you have questions about the liaison program or your faculty library liaison is not available, please do not hesitate to contact Susan Boland at susan.boland@uc.edu or at (513) 556-4407.
The law librarians have written guides and recorded video tutorials that we post on the Law Library’s website. We also link to research guides that others have created: https://guides.libraries.uc.edu/lawlibrary. For interdisciplinary subjects, check one of the UC Library Subject Guides, https://guides.libraries.uc.edu.
Law faculty members should contact their liaison for reference assistance.
Students receive very little research instruction unless they take the Advanced Legal Research course. If you incorporate problem based learning in your class or if students will be writing research papers, consider offering additional research instruction to improve the quality of their work.
The library faculty are available to provide presentations in the classroom on legal research sources and techniques, videos demonstrating how to use specialized resources, tours of the library, or customized research guides for your students.
If you are interested in these services, please contact your liaison or Susan Boland at susan.boland@uc.edu (513) 556-4407.
The reference librarians can provide custom database training and research advice to faculty research assistants. Consulting with a reference librarian saves the RA’s time and ensures that faculty members receive quality research results.
To take advantage of this service, please have your RA contact your faculty library liaison to arrange a consultation. We have also developed an RA Guide that can be distributed to your research assistant.
Your liaison is available to provide personalized instruction on the use of databases and other resources for our faculty. We can also arrange for a representative from Lexis-Nexis, Westlaw, or other database vendors to meet with you. Feel free to request introductory, refresher, or more specialized training tailored to your immediate needs. This training can be arranged in your office at your convenience. Just contact your liaison.
The UC Libraries also offers classes and workshops to all UC employees and students. These classes and workshops cover library resources and software applications. You can see more training resources on the Faculty Development page of this guide.
At the request of faculty, the Law Library routes serial items to faculty mailboxes. In order to be placed on the routing list for a serial, faculty should contact their liaison.
Susan M. Boland
Associate Director
Robert S. Marx Law Library
Office 110H
susan.boland@uc.edu
v: (513) 556-4407
Susan Boland is the Associate Director of Public & Research Services for the University of Cincinnati Robert. S. Marx Law Library. She teaches legal research and offers reference and research support services to all law library users. Prior to joining the law library faculty, she was the Head of Information Services for the Ruth Lilly Law Library at the Robert H. McKinney School of Law and the Research & Instructional Services librarian at Northern Illinois University College of Law. She has also held positions at a public library and community college library and served as a judicial clerk for the Iowa District Court for the Fifth Judicial District. She is a member of various professional associations both regionally and nationally, and was Chair of the Computing Services Special Interest Section of the American Association of Law Libraries. She has presented at regional and national conferences, as well as at continuing legal education programs. Her publications include annotated bibliographies on the death penalty and election law, as well as articles on legal research, technology, and teaching.
Ronald Jones
Electronic Resources & Instructional Services Librarian
Robert S. Marx Law Library
Office 110M
ronald.jones@uc.edu
v: (513) 556-0158
Ronald Jones serves as Electronic Resources & Instructional Services Librarian at the University of Cincinnati Robert S. Marx Law Library. He is responsible for providing reference and research assistance to all library patrons. In addition to his reference duties, Mr. Jones co-teaches Advanced Legal Research. He is a member of various professional associations both regionally and nationally, and has served as President of the AAUP and Chair of the UC Library Faculty.
Shannon Kemen
Legal Technology & Research Instructional Services Librarian
Robert S. Marx Law Library
Office 110F
shannon.kemen.uc.edu
v: (513) 556-6407
Shannon Kemen coordinates, develops, and deploys legal technology instruction, and identifies, evaluates and recommends legal technology resources. She also teaches legal research to first year law students and LLM students as well as Technology in Law Practice, as well as providing reference and research support services to all law library users. She is a member of various professional associations both regionally and nationally, and was a former Chair of the Ohio Regional Association of Law Libraries, a chapter of the American Association of Law Libraries. Ms. Kemen has published numerous articles and frequently lectures on legal research topics. Prior to joining the library faculty at the University of Cincinnati, Ms. Kemen was a Reference and Electronic Services librarian at Keating Muething & Klekamp, PLL.
Ashley Russell
Instructional & Reference Services Law Librarian
Robert S. Marx Law Library
Office 110F
russela9@ucmail.uc.edu
v. 513-556-0154
Ashley Russell serves as Instructional & Reference Services Librarian at the University of Cincinnati Robert S. Marx Law Library. She provides reference and research assistance to all library patrons and also teaches legal research. Prior to joining the library faculty at the University of Cincinnati, she was the Assistant Director of Law Library Public Services, the Director of Student Life, and a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Academic Success Program at the University of Dayton School of Law. She has taught courses such as Learning Skills Lab, Criminal Law Lab, and a skills-focused Remedies course. Before that she was a Research Consultant for LexisNexis.
