2012 Best Practices for Government Libraries

222
BEST PRACTICES 2012
Developing a New Course – The Bluebooking Series at the DOJ
Libraries
By Kera Winburn & Mariana Long, Reference Librarians, U.S. Department of Justice
The Department of Justice (DOJ) Libraries has a robust training program that offers
a variety of training opportunities for our patrons. These courses include Finding
Company Information, Expert Witnesses: Finding, Investigating, and Using Expert
Witnesses, Legislative History Research, and many more. Librarians develop these
courses based on their areas of expertise.
These classes are developed and taught under the auspices of the Justice Library’s
Training Committee. Every DOJ librarian who teaches a class is automatically a
member of the Training Committee, which is under the leadership of the Training
Co-Chairs. One co-chair is responsible for training in the local area (“DC Training
Co-Chair”), while the other is responsible for training outside the DC area, as well
as taping of classes.
The DC Training Co-Chair plays a number of coordinating roles in the Training
Committee. First, she coordinates the scheduling of classes by the various
instructors to reduce conflicts in training schedules, as well as to ensure certain
core classes, like those in the Legal Research Series, are offered in a logical order.
Second, for a number of classes, she handles all of the supporting training logistics
like locating training space, setting up vetting sessions for each course, and
registering students. Finally, she spearheads the marketing of these classes by
creating a monthly list of training courses that are distributed to the Department by
a number of methods, including direct mailings to certain divisions via newsletter,
as well as distribution to Division Training Coordinators. These Division Training
Coordinators, in turn, advertise directly to their divisions. This relationship is
beneficial for both parties because training needs are being fulfilled, while our
library’s research capabilities are being marketed.
In the summer of 2011, the Division Training Coordinators contacted the Training
Committee to discuss the development of a Bluebooking Series. In the past, most
divisions would send their paralegals and support staff to a training facility in
Columbia, South Carolina to receive bluebooking training. However, in this era of
shrinking budgets in the federal government, the Division Training Coordinators
were in need of other viable options and felt the Library Staff could meet their
needs. Volunteers from the Training Committee met and developed a training
curriculum organized around the following topics: Introduction to the Bluebook;
Cases; Statutes, Legislative Materials, Uniform Acts, Court Rules & Constitutions;
Administrative Materials & Electronic Databases; Secondary Sources; Punctuation,
Quotations, Omissions, Alterations, and Parentheticals; and Short Forms, Signals,
Related Authority & Capitalization.