Scope

The intended scope of the Academic Law Librarian Code of Ethics is for librarians who work in higher education, specifically with law students and faculty. Typically, academic law librarians follow two sets of guidelines provided by associations in their field.

American Association of Law Libraries (AALL)The predominate association for law librarians, AALL has its own ethical principles. However, these principles govern all law librarians, not just academic law librarians. Since court and law firm librarians are considered in AALL ethical principles as well, there is a need to be more specific when it comes to law librarians who work in academic libraries. Academic law librarians' primary customers are students, as well as faculty. This is a big difference from court or law firm librarians whose customers are typically lawyers and paralegals. Academic law librarians are assisting lawyers in-training, and need to combine the ethical principles found for academic libraries with those of the field of law librarianship.