The University Library: A Driving Force for Reform in Legal Education?†
Abstract Information skills training offers opportunities for gradually embedding changes in legal education programs and to bring about the integration of legal knowledge, skills and experience. If shared goals are formulated in a spirit of close collaboration, curricular changes and revisions will potentially have a greater effect and be more likely to enhance long-term programs. The university library can serve as an ideal base for the use of information technology such as web portals and content integrated search engines, which in turn will help refocus attention on the use of library facilities. The harmonization and maintenance of this apparatus, however, requires both a new form of cooperation and a re-interpretation of the legal education curriculum. This article compares several library developments which could prove important for legal education from a Dutch perspective, and also examines library education in the law schools of the United States of America.
Best Practices for Legal Education: A Vision and a Road Map
Permission is granted to reproduce this document or portions of it for noncommercial purposes, so long as the copies are distributed at or below costs and identify the author, title, and date of publication. for their love of the legal profession and their efforts to improve legal education. a. Use simulation-based courses to achieve educational goals more effectively and effi ciently than other methods of instruction could achieve .. a. Use in-house clinical courses to achieve clearly articulated educational goals more effectively and effi ciently than other methods of instruction could Over the past 25 years, I have been privileged actively to participate in a rich dialogue, among law teachers, lawyers, and judges, regarding the education of lawyers. This report, BEST PRACTICES FOR LEGAL EDUCATION, is a fruit of that dialogue. It was authored by a group, aptly described by The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching as " a far-fl ung network of legal educators. " The Carnegie Foundation in its own contemporaneous report, EDUCATING LAWYERS, views this time as an " historic opportunity to advance legal education, " which it surely is following the dialogue we have had during the past 25 years. Sparked by the Ford Foundation's CLEPR Project (during the 1960s and 70s), the American Bar Association convened a 1984 conference " Legal Education and the Profession: Approaching the 21st Century " at the McGeorge School of Law, which started the continuous dialogue that bears fruit today in the two reports. In 1987, Justice Rosalie Wahl of the Minnesota Supreme Court and Chair of the ABA Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar, convened a " National Conference on Professional Skills and Legal Education. " Professor Roy Stuckey, co-chair of that conference and leader of the Best Practices Project, stated the 1987 goal: " To develop through a dialogue a consensus understanding about the present state of professional skills instruction in American law schools. " At the conference Justice Wahl rhetorically asked: Have we really tried in law school to determine what skills, what attitudes, what character traits, what quality of mind are required of lawyers? Are we adequately educating students through the content and methodology of our present law school curriculums to perform effectively as lawyers after graduation? Justice Wahl went on to say that until the entire profession had a clearer vision of the answer to the questions, further progress in …
Professional support in rural New South Wales: perceptions of new graduate occupational therapists.
OBJECTIVE
To explore the experiences of professional support among new graduates working in rural New South Wales, including the current availability of professional support and the impact of support levels on professional practice.


DESIGN
Qualitative, using semistructured face-to-face or telephone interviews.


SETTING
New graduate occupational therapists employed in public and private hospitals and community health services in rural New South Wales.


SUBJECTS
Nine new graduate occupational therapists within their first year of practice.


MAIN OUTCOME
A description of participant experiences of professional support and strategies to enhance the recruitment and retention of occupational therapists in rural areas.


RESULTS
Participants reported varied experiences of professional support and emphasised the importance of having access to a wide variety of resources. Participants highlighted that professional support could assist in developing independence and other skills. However, ultimately a lack of support resulted in decreased confidence and subsequent decreased job satisfaction among participants.


CONCLUSIONS
The findings suggest that greater effort should be directed to ensuring that all new graduates have access to professional support, including structured supervision, and that strategies be explored and adopted to ensure that this occurs.