Text by Annette Demers, University of Windsor:

In the current legal information technology landscape, having strong legal research skills and the ability to discern the relevance and accuracy of sources is of utmost importance.  These skills and competencies originate with the legal research training that law students receive in law school. Law librarians are the members of any faculty of law who should have the knowledge, expertise, resources and positioning to be able to meaningfully contribute to legal research training for law students. 

However, the availability of legal information expertise in the academic law library is no longer a given in Canada.  Economic forces moving university libraries towards consolidation and changes to their organizational structure mean that librarians with legal research training appear to be in decline in this country.

This, in part, is because University Librarians have dissolved the position of Head of Law Library (previously, the legally trained librarian on a campus).  In 2003, 17 out of 20 academic law libraries in Canada had a Head of Law Library. Today, just 9 of 23 academic law libraries have a Head of Law Library. This is a 67% decline in just two decades.

In the past, the Canadian Association of Academic Law Library Directors (CALL-D) maintained a document entitled Canadian Academic Law Library Standards. That Standards document was intended to list the resources and supports required to adequately support the legal research training of law students. It is also referenced in the Federation of Law Societies of Canada's Common Law Degree Implementation Committee: Final Report.

At the CALL/ ACBD Conference in Moncton in 2026, Annette L Demers, co-author of a two part series on the history and future of Academic Law Librarianship in Canada, presented the paper's findings and raised a call to action.

At this meeting, considering that the number of Directors across the country has been halved, a group of interested academic law librarians proposed that the Canadian Academic Law Library Standards document be reimagined and republished under the auspices of the CALL/ACBD Academic Law Library Special Interest Group.

This work will begin in earnest in August of 2026. Persons who are interested in joining the group are welcome to reach out to Annette Demers, organizer via email at ademers@uwindsor.ca

Documents Referenced:

Full summary of the project: Reinvigorating Academic Law Library Standards 2026 | Don & Gail Rodzik Law Library

Annette Demers, Yemisi Dina and Gian Medves,"Trends in Canadian Academic Law Libraries: Report on the Reinvigorating Academic Law Library Standards Survey, Part One", 2025 CanLIIDocs 1371, https://canlii.ca/t/7nndz.​

Annette Demers, Yemisi Dina and Gian Medves, "Trends in Canadian Academic Law Libraries: Report on the Reinvigorating Academic Law Library Standards Survey, Part Two", 2025 CanLIIDocs 1745, https://canlii.ca/t/7np09.

CALL-D, Canadian Academic Law Library Standards, (updated June 26, 2020), online: https://www.uwindsor.ca/law/library/sites/uwindsor.ca.law.library/files/call-d_standards_updated_june_26_2020_0.docx 

Federation of Law Societies of Canada, Common Law Degree Implementation Committee: Final Report, (August 2011) at page 29, online: https://flsc.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/documents_implementation-report-ecc-aug-2011-r.pdf (2011).