Placement training programme in legal research librarianship
Institute of Advanced Legal Studies
Akua Aforo, Law Librarian at the Ghana Institute of Advanced Legal Studies (GIALS) and the Faculty of Law at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kamasi, Ghana, visited the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies Library for a month from early June 2010, and the KT grant met some of her costs.
The Ghana Institute of Advanced Legal Studies is one of IALS' sister institutes, with which it has a formal agreement for collaboration and mutual support. It plays an important national role in the legal system of Ghana.
During her placement here, Akua met senior library staff to discuss all aspects of operating a successful national legal research library, including how to best to organise national collections of foreign and international law, managing archives, possible commercial services, outreach and national collaborative e-initiatives. Akua was trained in a variety of legal research skills, and in particular several key legal databases. To get a flavour of our services, she “shadowed” IALS library staff on its public enquiry desk and busy reference phone desk. For comparative purposes she visited other key law libraries in London - Lincoln’s Inn Library, the British Library, SOAS Library and Norton Rose (Solicitors) Library among them.
Akua spent time helping to create a web guide to legal resources in Ghana; adding Ghanaian legal websites for inclusion in the Intute Law web national gateway (which IALS edits) and in the IALS Eagle-i portal. She also introduced IALS Library staff to the collections and services at the GIALS Library, helping them to understand the challenges of developing a new law library in Africa. Vitally, Akua will be able to cascade her learning, skills and experience to other librarians within GIALS and Kwame Nkrumah University - and to law librarians within Ghana generally.
IALS plays an important role in the training law librarians nationally and internationally through its research and training programmes. This placement programme has been important as it has helped to cement and extend the existing partnership between IALS and GIALS. IALS Associate Director, Jules Winterton, who advised on the establishment of GIALS and spoke at its launch, is pleased that the placement training programme has helped to provide important law librarianship training for Akua, and to foster GIALS’s future academic growth and our partnership in the years ahead.
