CALI Legal Research Community Authoring Project

Since June 1999, the Center for Computer Assisted Legal Instruction has been involved in a multi-year, applied research effort to create computer-based learning materials in legal education, through the CALI Fellowship Project. To date, CALI has launched nine sets of fellows covering Criminal Law, Property Law, Torts Law, Business Associations/Corporations, Remedies, Copyright, Trademark, Family Law and Criminal Procedure.

With the assistance of the Legal Research Community Authoring Project Advisory Panel, CALI is pleased to announce a new initiative designed to foster the creation of legal education materials in the area of Legal Research. The resulting materials will be peer-reviewed by CALI and the Advisory Panel, and published to law schools as part of the CALI Library of Materials. As of July 2011, CALI has over 118 lessons in legal research thanks to everyone's efforts. And more lessons are in progress!

The project's goals are to create a high-quality pool of electronic teaching materials for faculty to supplement their courses, locally customized for specific instructional goals, and explore computer-mediated/distance learning in legal education. These materials would be small and modular to encourage wide usage by law schools, law libraries and legal research instructors. The modularity aspect allows individual instructors or programs to incorporate the materials into a syllabus or curriculum in any order or fashion they desire. The materials will be self-contained building blocks for the construction of courses and classes to meet a variety of legal research training needs. In addition, the individual materials can serve as a reviews or refreshers or "just in time" educational aids for students not involved in a formal course of study of legal research.

Those interested in participating will receive extensive support and encouragement from CALI's staff and the CALI Legal Research Community Authoring Project Advisory Panel, and will be provided with software to create computer-based instructional materials that can be delivered via the Internet from the CALI web site, from law school faculty web course pages or run from student PCs.

In addition, CALI is pleased to announce the Legal Research Author Mentoring Program (LAMP). Starting in August 2011, LAMP will pair experienced legal research authors with new authors.

By fall 2011, lessons will also be available for iPads and smartphones.

The Legal Research Community Authoring Project Advisory Panel is composed of the members of the AALL ALL-SIS CALI Committee members; CALI is proud to have the following members serving on its Advisory Panel:

Kristina L. Niedringhaus, Chair of the Advisory Panel, Director, Law Library and Associate Professor of Law, Cleveland-Marshall College of Law;
Sue Altmeyer, Electronic Services Librarian, Cleveland-Marshall College of Law;
Dragomir Cosanici, Supervising Librarian for the State of California's Office of Legislative Counsel;
Beth DiFelice, Ass't. Director, Ross-Blakley Law Library & Head Of Public Services, Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law Arizona State University
Shaun Esposito, Head of Public Services & Adjunct Assistant Professor of Legal Research, The University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law:
Joseph Gerken, Associate Librarian, Charles B. Sears Law Library, University at Buffalo Law School;
Susanna Leers, Electronic Research and Technology Services Librarian,
Barco Law Library, University of Pittsburgh School of Law;
Tawnya Plumb, Associate Law Librarian, University of Wyoming, College of Law

Lessons written as part of this initiative include CALI lessons with catalog numbers higher than LRW13L.

CALI is seeking lessons in many areas of the law, including state specific research lessons and lessons covering international and foreign law research.

So that future authors can better plan their submissions, the following is a list of Lessons in Progress, as of December 6, 2011(and in no particular order).

Illinois Primary
Illinois Secondary
Indiana Secondary
Maine Primary
Massachusetts Secondary
Michigan Secondary
Minnesota Primary
Mississippi Primary
Mississippi Secondary
New Jersey Secondary
New York Secondary
North Carolina Primary
North Carolina Secondary
Oklahoma Primary
Oklahoma Secondary
Tennessee Primary
Tennessee Secondary
Texas Secondary
Virginia Primary
Washington State Secondary
West Virginia Primary and Secondary (combined lesson)
Wisconsin Primary
European Union
Current Awareness and Alerting Services
Securities Law research
Government Docs
Subject Specific Treatises
Using Citators
International Commercial Arbitration Research
How to Research Patent Law
Trial Practice Materials (grid point 5.5)
Health Law Research
Bluebooking for Academic Writing

Additional Topics may be on "hold" - please email CALI with questions.

And, here's a list of state lessons that CALI still needs:

Alabama Primary
Alaska Primary
Alaska Secondary
Hawaii Primary
Hawaii Secondary
Missouri Primary
Missouri Secondary
Montana Primary
Montana Secondary
New Hampshire Primary
New Hampshire Secondary
New Jersey Primary
New Mexico Primary
New Mexico Secondary
North Dakota Primary
North Dakota Secondary
Oregon Primary
Oregon Secondary
Rhode Island Primary
Rhode Island Secondary
South Carolina Secondary
South Dakota Primary
South Dakota Secondary
Vermont Secondary
Virginia Secondary
Wisconsin Secondary

Application Details:

Submission dates:

Round 50: Submissions are due by midnight CT February 03, 2012
Proposals will be accepted or declined by March 16, 2012
Declined Proposals remain the property of the applicant.
Round 51: Submissions are due by midnight CT May 04, 2012
Proposals will be accepted or declined by June 15, 2012
Declined proposals remain the property of the applicant.
Round 52: Submissions are do by midnight CT August 03, 2012
Proposals wil be accepted or declined by September 14, 2012
Declined proposals remain the property of the applicant.

Questions? Please contact: Sarah Glassmeyer, CALI Director of Content Development - Telephone: 312-906-5316

Application Requirements:
Please read these directions carefully before submitting a proposal.

Summary Proposal
- One page
- Affirmation of your employment at a CALI member law school
- Topic - selected from the CALI Legal Research Topic Grid - Please check the list of lessons in progress before applying. And, check the Topic Grid to ensure that a lesson doesn't already exist.
- Approach and Methodology, including use of lecturettes (using RealPresenter® or a similar product) or Lessonette® interactive teaching tutorials (using CALI Author)
- Estimated time it will take a student to complete the exercise
- Estimated delivery date for the exercise. Note: A final version of the lesson is due within 12 months of acceptance of your proposal. You must submit a first draft within 8-10 months of your proposal's acceptance to meet the 12 month deadline.
- If you are submitting a state legal research proposal: For the past couple of years, we have had great success with state lessons that used one single hypo througout the lesson. Examples include the Georgia Primary and Secondary lessons. We expect to follow this model in future lessons. Please include a brief overview of the story problem that you intend to use. An example of a state lesson proposal is attached a the bottom of this webpage... please scroll to download it. (And, you must be logged in to the CALI website to see the attached file.)
Lesson Outline
- No more than four pages
- General outline of points covered and in what order. A sample Lesson Outline is available in PDF format.
Resume
- Focusing on legal research experience
- Including your educational background
- Please include your work telephone number, postal mail address and email address
Submission of materials - Applications should be submitted by email, as a single word processing document (with the documents in the above order) in rich text format (.rtf), to Sarah Glassmeyer <sarah@cali.org>
- Email header must read "LR proposal - Round xx"
- Please include your last name as part of the file name for the document. For example, if your last name was Hanson, you would name your document HansonProposal.rtf

Application Process and CALI's Recommendations:

CALI recommends applicants review the CALI Legal Research Topic Grid and the white paper, "The Origin of the CALI Topic Grids".
Applications will be reviewed by, and final selections determined by, CALI and the Legal Research Community Authoring Project Advisory Panel.
Authors will receive $1250 in compensation for their completed exercise and will be required to sign an authoring agreement with CALI. The agreement includes an assignment of copyright in the completed exercise to CALI.
Individuals or teams may apply for most lesson topics.
Support available from CALI:
- Creation of graphics or diagrams
- Digitization/editing of audio or video from tape
- E-mail/telephone support
- Training in CALI Author is offered throughout the year. Please send an email to Deb Quentel if you'd like to be notified when dates are set or when she will be visiting a law school near you.
- CALI Author Guide for working with CALI Author software
- Mini-reviews for works in progress/ideas, etc.

Authoring Resources

There are numerous resources available to authors, including CALI's staff, advisory panel members, and existing lessons. Here are a few additional materials.
Kit Kreilick's presentation from AALL 2003
Authoring Tips - by CALI for use by fellowship teams and authors.