Head of Faculty Services at University of North Dakota
1. Why did you join AALLc?
I am very interested in China, Chinese law, and Chinese legal education and have sought out experiences to develop my interest and understanding of these areas. Just prior to law school I took two years of Mandarin language classes at the University of Minnesota. While I was in law school I spent two summers studying and interning in China. Following law school I have tried to continue studying Mandarin and have sought out opportunities to present and write about Chinese legal issues. For example, Alex Zhang and I talked about accessing Chinese legal information at an AALLc-sponsored program this past July at AALL. I have also worked on a project analyzing legal research education in China with Professor Ning Han (Concordia University) and Prof. Liying Yu (Tsingua University).
So I joined AALLc because I have a continuing interest in Chinese law and Chinese legal education and wanted to connect with other law librarians who have similar interests. I have also been very China-focused so far and would like to connect with law librarians who have an expertise or interest in the law of countries in Asia besides China.
2. What do you do as a law librarian?
I am Head of Faculty Services at Thormodsgard Law Library at the University of North Dakota School of Law. My main focus is to support faculty in all aspects of their job. I support them both in the classroom and in their scholarship. In the classroom, I provide legal research instruction in the 1L, clinical, and doctrinal classrooms. I also try to provide professors with pedagogical resources that support their teaching. In addition to the classroom, I also spend a great deal of time supporting faculty scholarship. This might be a quick document or book pull, ordering documents from the National Archives, or it might be pulling together a large bibliography for a professor’s newest writing project.
Law librarians are often assigned miscellaneous tasks. The University of North Dakota law school and medical school has a yearly flag football game called the Malpractice Bowl. Somehow I became the Defensive Coordinator/Coach of the women’s team for this year’s Malpractice Bowl.
3. What do you enjoy most about your job?
I like that my job is different every single day and I rarely have a moment of boredom. I could be in a classroom one hour, in the stacks the next hour, and out on the football field at the end of the day.
4. What do you enjoy doing outside of work?
I just moved to North Dakota, so the past couple of months have been a whirlwind of starting a new job and settling into a new community. I am relatively close (under 3 hours) from my hometown, so I have spent a lot of time traveling there to visit family and friends. In the near future, I plan to visit Winnipeg and would also like to visit the Soudan Mines (http://bit.ly/1JokFnO).
And like many stereotypical librarians, I also like to spend time with my cat. His name is Frankie. I adopted him after his previous owner(s) threw him out of the window of a moving vehicle!
5. What is your favorite travel destination in Asia or elsewhere in the world?
One of my most interesting experiences traveling in Asia was traveling to Nanchang (南昌) and Lushan (庐山) for a holiday during my first summer in China. A Chinese friend and I organized the trip at the very last minute, so we had standing-only tickets for the 11-hour train ride to her hometown of Nanchang (南昌). After visiting with her family for the day and being extremely well-fed by her mother, we headed up to Lushan (庐山) for several days. One of the mornings we woke up before dawn to hike up the mountain so we could view the famous sunrise of Mount Lu. All in all it was a great place to visit.
I would also highly recommend taking the Ring Road around Iceland.