Legal Reference Service: |
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| Abstract: | This article examines the duties and liabilities of legal reference librarians to provide legal information to all sorts of patrons. While some law librarians may be bound to provide extensive reference service to specific patrons as a result of laws or court decisions, most librarians are only under those requirements determined by the local library or its governing body. Inadequate legal advice, instead of good legal reference service, can result in librarian malpractice and liability, with varying degrees of harm to the patron as well. A proposed hierarchy of patrons, with differing levels of service to be rendered is proposed. The final section deals with alternative means of legal information delivery, which would take the burden away from law librarians. |
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