Demonstration Project of Interoperability Between UC Digital Law Libraries and Legal Clinical Training Opportunities Based in California County Law Libraries

Abstract

David A. Greenbaum, then Director, Interactive University Project, UC Berkeley provided the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation with a report of work undertaken by UC Berkeley, Indiana University, Stanford University, and the UC California Digital Library to plan a demonstration project of digital library and educational technology interoperability. The work on which that report was based was conducted from August to September 2004 with the generous support of a $12,000 Officer’s Grant. This proposal revisits some of the core concepts outlined in that preliminary work and suggests a demonstration project wherein a UC-based digital law library partners with an existing County Law Library to offer legal clinical education and training. For discussion purposes only, the present proposal posits a relationship between the Hugh and Hazel Darling Law Library at UCLA Law and the LA Law Library. In reality, productive public university - public agency partnerships could be formed at any UC Law School (UC Berkeley - Alameda County; UC Irvine - Orange County; UC Hastings - San Francisco County; UC Davis - Yolo / Sacramento County). The fullest realization would be to leverage a common digital library platform to offer clinical training on “retail” level legal problems which many patrons of the county law library must confront on a pro se footing (bankruptcy, foreclosure, divorce separation in both marital and domestic partnership arrangements and the formation of sole proprietorship or limited liability businesses). Mr. Greenbaum is presently the Director, Data Services a unit at UC Berkeley that provides stewardship of both academic and administrative data, as well as tools for data presentation, visualization, analysis, and collaboration.