July 14, 2026 Practising Law Librarian
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.
