The 2017 Judith M. Wright Fellowship

Applications Now Open for Summer 2017

The D'Angelo Law Library at the University of Chicago is accepting applications for the 2017 Judith M. Wright Fellowship. This Fellowship develops promising new professionals in academic law librarianship by supporting a career training program at the D'Angelo Law Library. The Judith M. Wright Fellowship provides $4,000 to a law school or library science student or a recent graduate selected for training at the D'Angelo Law Library for a Fellowship as described below.

Fellowship - Summer 2017

The Fellowship is intended to give candidates interested in law librarianship as a career an opportunity to apply their skills and knowledge in an academic law library setting. Fellows working in the D'Angelo Law Library under the guidance and supervision of the Law Library Director and other librarians will learn about the overall functions, policies and practices of the D'Angelo Law Library in both the collections services and user services departments. In addition to participating in the daily work of a premier academic law library, Fellows will undertake and complete a project based on the needs and capabilities of the D'Angelo Law Library and the interests and prior experience of the Fellow. As a requirement for completing the Fellowship, the Fellow will write and submit a report summarizing and reflecting on his/her experiences working at the D'Angelo Law Library. 

The project for Summer 2017 will be one of the following:

1) Chicago Unbound, the University of Chicago Law School’s institutional repository, contains the scholarship of the Law School community, providing full-text access to decades of Chicago Law faculty scholarship and the archives of many Law School journals and publications. The 2017 Wright Fellow will help develop a new Chicago Unbound collection highlighting the scholarship and service of the Law School’s deans throughout its history. The Fellow will create a space for this historical collection in Chicago Unbound and complete materials for three to five former deans. Creating the new collection will involve reviewing and selecting materials (e.g. articles, speeches, manuscripts, photographs) as well as organizing and describing the selected materials in Chicago Unbound.

2) The D'Angelo Law Library has an impressive collection of rare and unique books both in dedicated special collections space and as part of other rich and extensive collections of U.S., foreign, and international law. Historically, these books have been acquired as part of the development of other collections, through individual purchases at the request of faculty or received as gifts. The 2017 Fellow will develop a descriptive guide for the Roman, civil, canon, and international law materials in the D'Angelo rare book collection, including the scope and strengths of the collection and a desiderata list in areas where these materials would be enhanced by future acquisitions. This project will build upon the work of the 2016 Wright Fellow who created a descriptive guide for Anglo-American titles in D’Angelo’s rare book collection.

3) The University of Chicago Law School offers a number of clinical and experiential programs, in which students represent clients and engage in other lawyering roles under the supervision of full time clinical teachers, faculty, and practicing attorneys. The 2017 Wright Fellow will help develop methods and strategies to effectively promote library resources and services to clinical faculty, staff, and students, including creating online research guides, promotional materials, and other resources. The exact scope of the program will be determined by the Fellow and the designated Fellowship Coordinator. To undertake this project, the Fellow must have completed or be in the process of completing his/her J.D. degree, in addition to the other qualifications required by the Fellowship description.

The Judith M. Wright Fellowship provides $4,000 for a minimum of six consecutive weeks of temporary, full-time work to occur between June 12 and September 15, 2017.

Eligibility and Requirements:

The Fellowship is open to recent graduates or currently enrolled students of an accredited library science or information science program, or to recent graduates or currently enrolled students in a J.D. program at an ABA-accredited law school. Applicants must demonstrate an interest in academic law librarianship through appropriate coursework or previous experience.

Applicants should submit a letter of application expressing their interest in this opportunity and their commitment to a career in academic law librarianship. In addition, applicants should submit a resumé including a description of their library or information science graduate program and/or J.D. degree program, including any coursework in law librarianship or legal information resources; the names and e-mail addresses of three professional references; and an indication of which of the proposed projects would be of interest to them. Applicants must be eligible to work in the United States. The University of Chicago is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer.

The deadline for applications is March 6, 2017. The successful applicant will be selected no later than April 14, 2017.

Send applications (email submission only) to:

Sheri Lewis
Director of the D'Angelo Law Library
University of Chicago
1121 E. 60th Street
Chicago, IL 60637
shl@uchicago.edu