Practising Law Librarian

The Practising Law Librarian features interviews with law librarian professionals from an array of backgrounds and organizations. Join host Karen Oesterle, of PLI’s Legal Information Services team, to learn about trends, resources, and fresh ideas from peers in your profession.

Practising Law Librarian is a education podcast hosted by Practising Law Institute, with 26 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80. PitchCentric scores this show on Booking Probability, Listen Score, and live audience signals refreshed every 24 hours.

Practising Law Institute hosts Practising Law Librarian, a education show with 26 episodes published.

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  Episode #30

  Innovation in the Stacks with Jenny Wondracek

  Jul 14, 202647 min

  Jenny Wondracek, director of the law library and professor of legal research and writing at Capital University Law School, shares her path from practicing law at North Carolina Prisoner Legal Services to an academic law library career spanning Barry, Elon, University of Florida, UNT Dallas (helping launch a new law library), and her upcoming move to Southern Methodist University as director of the Underwood Law Library. She reflects on how law libraries have shifted from print Shepherd’s and judge-required print research to today’s generative AI landscape, and describes tools she has built, including early browser toolbars, AI prompting worksheets, a tracker of AI hallucination cases, and immersive 360-degree stack tours to teach citations and library resources. Wondracek also discusses teaching AI-neutral research skills, community and bar education, leadership lessons from professional associations, and the growing challenges of misinformation and interdisciplinary research.

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  Episode #29

  Carla Wale on Law Libraries, AI, and Leading Through Change

  Jul 14, 202652 min

  Carla Wale, a senior academic law librarian and program director, discusses her path into law librarianship and the degrees she pursued (JD, MLIS, MBA, and an online M.Ed. focused on pedagogy, access, and inclusion). She reflects on how law libraries have shifted from “just in case” print collecting to electronic “just in time” access, and how licensing raises new concerns around copyright limits, data privacy, FERPA, and vendor tracking—making enterprise contracts and data agreements essential. She describes arriving at the University of Washington during COVID, updating collection policy and documentation, expanding remote consultations and hybrid teaching with a high-flex classroom, and launching an online modality for the law librarianship program. She also outlines the library’s role as in-house generative AI experts, training students and clinics on responsible use while adopting tools like Harvey and university-supported AI.

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  Episode #28

  Access, Aloha, and AI with Jenny Silbiger

  Jul 14, 202646 min

  Jenny Silbiger, State Law Librarian and Access to Justice Coordinator for the Hawaii State Judiciary and President of the American Association of Law Libraries, shares her path from being a Korean adoptee raised in the Midwest to teaching English in Korea, moving to Hawaii for graduate study, and unexpectedly entering librarianship before earning her MLIS and leading library services. She describes the Hawaii Supreme Court Law Library’s long history and how the 2008 recession accelerated a shift from primarily internal court support to stronger public-facing access-to-justice services, partnerships, and self-help resources. Jenny discusses major changes in law libraries, from CD-ROM-era systems to generative AI, including a judiciary website chatbot, AI-informed outreach and trainings, and potential uses like transcription backlogs and plain-language resources—while emphasizing ethical, cautious adoption. She closes with leadership lessons centered on collaboration, inclusion, and lifting others up.

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  Episode #27

  Unlocking Legal Access with Valerie Salazar

  Jul 14, 202650 min

  Valerie Salazar, a Law Library Service to Prisoners librarian at the Minnesota State Law Library, shares her path from volunteering and working in public and academic libraries to earning an online MLIS during the pandemic and landing this niche role. She explains how she researches and answers legal information requests from incarcerated people—often focused on case law by citation, annotated statutes, briefs, criminal appeals, and 1983 civil rights claims—as well as family law and court forms. Salazar describes how the work has shifted rapidly from print-heavy workflows to digital tools like Microsoft Lists, Excel reporting, and legal databases, alongside evolving prison mail policies and experiments with sending materials by email for local printing. She discusses limited but practical AI use for document summaries, the value of conferences and professional networks, and her commitment to equitable information access.

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  Episode #26

  The Leadership Lens with Susan Hesse, Natalie Loeb, and David Sarnoff

  Jul 14, 202649 min

  Susan Hesse, Director of Research and Information Services at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, Loeb Leadership founder Natalie Loeb, and Sarnoff Group LLC founder David Sarnoff share their career paths into law librarianship, HR, coaching, and legal practice, emphasizing the role of mentorship, relationships, and serendipity. They explore practical leadership lessons—building partnerships, leading through others, tailoring management styles, and leveraging complementary “non-redundant” skill sets—grounded in emotional intelligence, feedback, and accountability. The group discusses how PLI resources inform their work and highlights PLI’s collaborative editorial support and openness to new ideas. They also examine generative AI’s rapid rollout in law firms, including tools like Westlaw Precision, Bloomberg AI, and Microsoft Copilot, the need for clear policies, training and prompting, careful verification, and the impact AI may have on associate development and workplace change management.

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