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From NANCY VARDA
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From NANCY VARDA
Practicum site: Dane County Law Library, Dane County Courthouse, Madison, Wisconsin.
Research question: What challenges do legal libraries have with pro se litigants and what approaches are being used to better serve them?
Findings: There has been a huge increase in pro se litigants in the past 30 years. There are several challenges in providing service to pro se litigants. Law libraries and the collections in them were designed to be used by those with legal expertise which the pro se litigant lacks. But librarians are constrained by being unable to give legal advice. There is no clear guidance as to what constitutes legal advice, so librarians tend to err on the side of caution. Some librarians are not allowed to even read a statute over the phone. As a result, librarians are not providing comprehensive service to this community of patrons. There is discussion and inquiry about pro se litigants, but no answers. Legal libraries are attempting to better serve pro se litigants by enhancing access to online materials that are aimed at the layperson, providing court forms and collaborating with local courts and free legal clinics. There is also a call to investigate further the dynamics of the reference interview in the context of pro se litigants to better serve these patrons.