MLIS Law student AJ Blechner’s paper, “Improving Usability of Legal Research Databases for Users with Print-Disabilities” received the 2014 Earl C. Borgeson Research in Law Librarianship Award. Blechner’s article will be published in the journal Legal Reference Services Quarterly. The honor carries a $1,000 prize.
For her winning paper, Blechner put several Westlaw and Lexis platforms through a rigorous series of tests using as a framework the Web Accessibility Checklist created by AccessSTEM. Her purpose was to test WestlawNext and Lexis Advance functionality from a user-centered perspective for users with disabilities. Among other recommendations, Blechner concludes that all law librarians should know more about the usability of various databases and platforms and should communicate that information broadly to all constituents on their webpages.
The Borgeson award was established in 2000 to encourage scholarly research in the field of law librarianship. Each year students in Professor Penny Hazelton's Current Issues in Law Librarianship class each write a major paper about an important contemporary topic affecting the profession; these papers are submitted to a panel of nationally-renowned law librarians who select the best piece.
The judges this year were Michael Chiorazzi, UW Law Librarianship (MLIS Law 1981), Director, Law Library and Professor of Law, University of Arizona College of Law Library; Richard Danner, Rufty Research Professor of Law and Senior Associate Dean for Information Services, Duke University's J. Michael Goodson Law Library; Marguerite Most, UW Law Librarianship (MLIS Law 1977), Reference Librarian and Senior Lecturing Fellow, Duke University's J. Michael Goodson Law Library.
Earl Borgeson, MLIS Law '49, served as president of the American Association of Law Libraries (1968-69) and was professor of law and librarian at Harvard Law School. He died in 2010. With the help of alumni and friends of the Law Librarianship Program, the Borgeson Award has now been endowed, ensuring that it can be awarded every year in perpetuity.