The Legal Research Community Authoring Project (LRCAP) is CALI’s initiative to foster the creation of legal educational materials in the area of Legal Research. The materials are peer-reviewed by the LRCAP advisory panel – a committee of American Association of Law Libraries (AALL) Academic Law Libraries Special Interest Section (ALL-SIS). As of February 2024, CALI has published over 170 Legal Research lessons, including at least one state-specific lesson published or in progress for 49 U.S. states. You can view a map of lessons completed and in progress here.
But there’s still more work to be done!
Interested in authoring a lesson?
The application process is as follows:
1. Potential authors must first submit a lesson proposal to CALI. Before submitting a proposal, it is recommended that you review the CALI Legal Research Topic Grid as well as the White Paper The Origin of the CALI Topic Grid. Also, please check the list of removed lessons; some older lessons have been pulled from the CALI library if they are no longer considered pedagogically needed or if the lesson is outdated.
A successful lesson proposal will contain the following components:
Summary of Lesson
- One page
- Affirmation of your employment at CALI member school
- If doing a state lesson, please indicate how you are familiar with that state's legal materials. (e.g., I went to law school there. I work in that state. I practiced law there for three years before becoming a librarian. I used to work at a law library there, etc.)
- Topic - selected from the CALI Legal Research Topic Grid. Please check the list of Lessons in Progress as well as the Topic Grid to ensure that the lesson doesn't already exist or is in progress.
- Approach and methodology, including the use of CALI Authoring Software
- Estimated time it will take a student to complete the lesson - the average is 60 minutes. Please aim for no more than one hour.
- Estimated delivery date for the exercise. (NOTE: a final version of the lesson is due within 12 months of the acceptance of your proposal. A first draft should be submitted no later than 8-9 months after proposal acceptance in order to meet this deadline.)
- If submitting a state legal research lesson, there should be a hypothetical included that directs students through the materials covered in the lesson. If one lesson already exists for your state, it is encouraged that your hypothetical either feature the same characters and/or situation that the existing lesson already uses.
Lesson Outline
- No more than 4 pages
- A general outline of points to be covered in the lesson and in what order. A sample lesson outline is available in PDF at the bottom of this page.
Resume/CV
- Focus on legal research experience
- Includes educational background
- Please include your work telephone number, postal mail, and email address.
Submission Guidelines: Applications should be submitted via email as a single document (with the materials in the above order within the single document) in Microsoft Word or Rich Text Format document. Please send the email to Sara Smith, Assistant Director of Curriculum Development & Associate Counsel-CALI (ssmith at cali dot org)
- The email header should ready "LR Proposal - ROUND xx"
- Please use the last name of the author(s) in the file name of the proposal. For example, if your last name is Hanson, you would name the proposal file "HansonProposal.rft"
2. Lesson proposals are then submitted to the LRCAP Advisory Panel for peer review and are either accepted, declined, or accepted with revisions. The LRCAP Advisory Panel is a committee of American Association of Law Libraries (AALL) Academic Law Libraries, Special Interest Section (ALL-SIS).
CALI is proud to have the following members serving on its Advisory Panel:
- Kristina L. Niedringhaus, Chair of the Advisory Panel, Associate for Law Library and Information Services and Associate Professor, Georgia State University - College of Law;
- Sue Altmeyer, Associate Law Librarian, Reference Services; University of Akron School of Law;
- Beth DiFelice, Ass't. Director, Ross-Blakley Law Library & Head Of Public Services, Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law Arizona State University
- Shaun Esposito, Head of Public Services & Adjunct Assistant Professor of Legal Research, The University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law:
- Susanna Leers, Electronic Research and Technology Services Librarian, Barco Law Library, University of Pittsburgh School of Law;
- Tawnya Plumb, Associate Law Librarian, University of Wyoming, College of Law
3. If a proposal is accepted, the author will be offered a contract with CALI to author the lesson. Authors will have one year to complete the the lesson. Along the way, authors will be given training and support in using CALI software and in integrating multimedia into their lessons, as well as general writing assistance.
Please contact Sara Smith, Assistant Director of Curriculum Development at CALI, to submit a proposal or for more information or questions about LRCAP or the CALI Revisor Project. ssmith at cali dot org
UPCOMING SUBMISSION DATES - Declined proposals remain the property of the applicants.
- Round 98: Submissions are due by midnight CT on February 7, 2025
- Proposals will be accepted or declined by March 14, 2025
STATE LESSONS STILL NEEDED (Updated June 2024)
- Arkansas Secondary
- Kansas Primary and Secondary
- Missouri Secondary
- Rhode Island Primary and Secondary
- West Virginia Primary and Secondary
- Wisconsin Secondary
LESSONS IN PROGRESS (Updated June 2024)
- Hawai'i Primary and Secondary
- Maine Primary and Secondary
- New York Secondary
- Bluebooking for Academic Writing
- Determining Legislative Intent
- Connecticut Secondary
Revised October 17, 2024
