As part of SLLG’s desire to conduct outreach regarding information professionalism in the law sector, Maria very kindly agreed to be our emissary sent to Robert Gordon University to talk to library students. Maria has provided us a short report of her mission and link to the full talk.
On Thursday 9th March, SLLG member, Maria Robertson, addressed 16 library studies students at Robert Gordon University. Whether in law firms, academia or in the public services, law information professional roles are vital but often not well-known to students thinking about their career direction.
Maria explained the role of law librarianship as a concept as well as the practical day-to-day work law librarians will be regularly employed in.
Maria used her own experiences (and slides!) to tell the students what it is like being a law librarian behind the job description. Maria also told the students of her own Library Route – from student to Executive Secretary and Librarian at the Society of Advocates in Aberdeen.
SLLG leaflets were made available and the wonders of the SLLG were extolled.
Maria was also able to offer a student place on the SLLG committee for any volunteer. A great way to add to an information profession CV, the SLLG committee is welcoming a student onto the committee. Working to organise events and assessing the SLLG lines of communications (learning how and why we support each other), this could be suitable as part of an MSc or simply good experience. Any interested student should contact the SLLG Convenor with notes of interest or further questions.
Maria’s full talk can be read here. (PDF)
The slides can be viewed here. (PowerPoint required)
The students all listened, and laughed at the appropriate places, and several even took business cards and leaflets at the end. Hopefully they found it was a useful session and will consider law librarianship as an option when their formal studies are over.
Head of School Peter Reid sat in on the session – and provided the accompanying photography of the event. Maria enjoyed speaking to him again as he had been there when she herself was a student at RGU when she did the full four year degree (which is no longer available).
It is hoped SLLG members can make similar presentations at other university library related courses to spread the word of our work, and that of our profession.
The committee would very much like to express their grateful thanks to Maria for agreeing to and then writing and presenting her career experiences to the students. The committee also wish to note their appreciation to the iSchool at Robert Gordon University and Dr Konstantina Martzoukou for allowing the SLLG to present a talk to their students.
SLLG Blog 
We’d like to thank Maria for visiting us! We’re very grateful for the chance to learn from her own experience and the insight into the ins and outs of a career in a law library as well as her own career path. We know that a few of us are eager to take up her offer of a visit, and will be in contact with her after our upcoming work placements.
Best wishes,
The RGU MLIS class
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