By Kat Lee and Kirsten Murray
Provided by Supreme Court Library Queensland
Supreme Court Library Queensland (SCLQ) is your law library. Every strong relationship starts with an introduction, so allow us to introduce our amazing law librarians who complete your legal information requests.
- Brendon has over 20 years’ experience working in libraries and has been at SCLQ for 15 years. He is interested in locating historical legislation, finding obscure cases and specialises in providing legal research and training assistance to the judiciary and legal profession in Queensland.
- Bronwyn previously worked in the legal higher education sector in Melbourne. Having worked as part of the editorial team on a Law School journal, she has a penchant for legal citation.
- Robynne practised as a lawyer in commercial and copyright law in Australia, England and Vanuatu for 13 years before embarking on a career in legal information management. She was the founding Director of the Pacific Islands Legal Information Institute (PacLII). Robynne has a passion for providing freedom of access to legal information.
- Yvette has been with SCLQ for over 10 years and has extensive collections and research experience. She is interested in providing access to legal resources to help navigate the legal system and is fascinated by the evolution of Queensland’s legal history.
- Angie is our Services Support Librarian. She receives immense fulfilment from the opportunity to engage with students and the community in order to facilitate enriching educational offerings that explore the past and present role of the courts in our society, as well as exploring methodologies of legal research.
- Myeong assists with a variety of information and customer services. Having previously studied law and government and international relations, she is passionate about equal access to justice and information literacy.
Brendon, how did you become a law librarian?
After completing a BA, I was walking around a university and saw a poster saying something like ‘Do you like looking up or finding things?’, and I thought ‘Yes’, and it was an advertisement for a library studies course. My first job after finishing the library course was in a law library.
Robynne, walk us through a day at the front desk.
What I really enjoy about being at the front desk is that it gives us the opportunity to see and talk to our customers. I like to be able to see people’s faces (no masks!) and spend time in conversation, especially because I think this enables you to get a more accurate idea of what they are really after in terms of research. Quite often people will have much more to say, especially in terms of the context of their research requests, that can help a research librarian like me get to the nitty gritty more quickly and accurately. As well as completing research and assisting customers to find something in our collection, we also respond to a lot of technology queries—such as, ‘the printer doesn’t work, help!’ I don’t remember doing a printer mechanics course when I did my degree, although a course in printer repairs would, it turns out, have been very handy!
Bronwyn, what is your favourite thing about working in the library?
For me libraries have always had a certain feeling and an expectation that there is something special inside. The SCLQ doesn’t disappoint and is a pleasure to work in. I also have the added advantage of working with terribly smart and articulate colleagues.
Yvette, what area of law do you complete the most research on?
Family law questions are probably the ones I get the most. Every family is different and each family law proceeding needs information relating to those different circumstances. Legislation relating to families is also changing rapidly and the legal profession needs to stay on top of that.
Angie, what is one research tip you’d give a young lawyer?
So, you’ve nailed the ‘Priestly 11’, extended your true interests with engaging electives, been involved in amazing extracurricular offerings and survived PLT—yet it’s day one in your graduate role and your supervisor needs the most recent case authority to support submissions being filed for court before COB....Yikes! Bookmark Austlii’s free case citator LawCite and you’ll be laughing your way to the Registry!
Myeong, what is one thing about SCLQ that you wish people knew more about?
That we exist and are open to the public! I wish I knew about SCLQ’s resources and services when I was in law school, especially just after graduation. You can feel a little lost not knowing where to go to access legal resources after leaving the familiar space of a university law library and I think SCLQ really fills that gap. I also wish people knew about the legal research training we offer because the law is constantly changing and we all need a refresher on keeping up with those changes every now and again.
Now we have been formally introduced, why not make use of our wonderful services and see who responds to your request?