Courses

• Advanced Legal Research

Appointments

• Director and Professor of Law at the Schmid Law Library, 2000

Books

• National Survey of State Laws, 1st Ed. (1993), 2nd Ed. (1997), 3rd Ed. (1999), 4th Ed. (2003)
• Spirit of Law Librarianship (with Roy Mersky), 1991
• Use of Law Reviews in Modern Legal Research: The Computer Didn't Make Me Do It!, 90:1 LLJ 59 (Winter 1998)

Articles

• Reorganize AALL's Membership Structures for More Effective Representation of Members, 6:5 Spectrum 4 (February 2002)
• Planning for the Inevitable (with Paul Morrison), 20:9 Legal Information Alert 6 (October 2001)
• AALL Exhibits 2001: An Annual Reveiw, 20:7 Legal Information Alert 5 (July/August 2001)
• Twenty Years Ago … A Reminiscence, Not a Database Report, 20:6 Legal Information Alert 9 (June 2001)

Education

• M.L.I.S., 1986, University of Texas, Austin
• J.D., 1981, Southwestern University School of Law
• B.A., with Honors, 1976, University of California, Santa Cruz

Richard Leiter is the Director and Professor of Law at the Schmid Law Library. Although he assumed his current position in 2000, he had worked on the UNL law library staff years ago (1986-1988) as Public Services Librarian. He earned his undergraduate degree (with honors) in 1976 from the University of California, Santa Cruz, his J.D. in 1981 from Southwestern University School of Law, where he was an editor of the law review, and his MLIS in 1986 from the University of Texas at Austin.

He has been a law librarian over twenty years. Before coming to the College of Law, he was Associate Dean of Information Technology & Services and Professor of Law at Howard University School of Law in Washington, D.C. and Library Director and Associate Professor at Regent University School of Law in Virginia Beach, Virginia. Prior to that he held various positions in both law firm and academic libraries on both coasts.

Professor Leiter has written widely on law library, legal research, and legal information technology issues. His most recent book, National Survey of State Laws, now in its fifth edition, is widely held by library reference collections and was named An Outstanding Resource by the New York Public Library. In 2003 it won the prestigious Andrews Bibliographical Award from the American Association of Law Libraries. He is a regular columnist for Legal Information Alert and has contributed to the Law Library Journal and numerous other law library publications. Prof. Leiter also edits a web-log ("blog") on computing and online technology and their influence on libraries called, The Life of Books (as opposed to the Death of Books), and can be found at: http://thelifeofbooks.blogspot.com/.

Courses/Presentations

• Legal Research
• “Discover the Invisible Web.” National Business Institute seminar “Find it Free and Fast on the Internet: Strategies for Legal Research on the Web.” Omaha NE, May 8, 2007.
• “The Nuts and Bolts of Estate Planning Research” with Stefanie Pearlman.  University of Nebraska College of Law and School of Accountancy in cooperation with Nebraska Continuing Legal Education, Inc., Estate and Business Planning NCLE, May 12, 2006.

Appointments

• Assistant Professor of Law Library, 2005

Education 

• M.A., 2005, University of Missouri, Columbia
• J.D., 1996, University of Nebraska College of Law
• B.A., 1992, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Matt Novak is an assistant professor and reference librarian at the Marvin and Virginia Schmid Law Library of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln College of Law.  Prior to joining the Schmid Law Library, he was an Assistant Public Defender with the Missouri Public Defender System.  In addition to his reference duties, Professor Novak co-teaches the legal research component of the First Year Legal Research and Writing Course.  He has lectured on legal research and legal information technology issues.  Professor Novak received his B.A. from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, his J.D. from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln College of Law, and his M.A. in Library Science from the University of Missouri-Columbia.  He is a member of the Nebraska Bar Association, the Missouri Bar Association, the American Bar Association, the American Association of Law Libraries, and the Mid-America Association of Law Libraries.

Courses/Presentations

• “Librarians, Vendors or Both? Who Should be Teaching Westlaw and LexisNexis to First-year Law Students?” Coordinator and Speaker.  July 15, 2007.  AALL 100th Annual Meeting and Conference.
• “Web Technology: Making it Work for You.”  Stefanie Pearlman and Sandra  Placzek.  May 11, 2007.  University of Nebraska College of Law and School of Accountancy in cooperation with Nebraska Continuing Legal Education, Inc.
• “The Nuts and Bolts of Estate Planning Research.”  Matt Novak and Stefanie Pearlman.  May 12, 2006.  University of Nebraska College of Law and School of Accountancy in cooperation with Nebraska Continuing Legal Education, Inc.  
• “Blogs, blawgs, bloggers, and blogging.”  Stefanie Pearlman and Sandra Placzek. Estate and Business Planning Continuing Education Program, May 13, 2005.  University of Nebraska College of Law and School of Accountancy in cooperation with Nebraska Continuing Legal Education, Inc.
• “30 Websites in 30 Minutes.”  Stefanie Pearlman and Sandra Placzek.  Omaha Estate Planning Meeting, April 19, 2005.  Omaha Estate Planning Council.
• “From 0 to 60…In 60 Minutes.”  Stefanie Pearlman and Sandra Placzek. May 14, 2004. University of Nebraska College of Law and School of Accountancy in cooperation with Nebraska Continuing Legal Education, Inc.

Appointments

• Assistant Professor of Law Library and Reference Librarian, 2003

Publication

• “Animal Welfare.” Chapter prepared for National Survey of State Laws, 6th edition by Richard Leiter.  Submitted for publication.

Education

• MA, 2003, University of Arizona, School of Information Resources and Library Science
• JD, 1995, Washington University School of Law
• BA, Hofstra University

Professor Pearlman is an assistant professor of law library and reference librarian. Her responsibilities include reference duties and teaching a portion of the legal research component of First Year Legal Research and Writing. Professor Pearlman serves as the faculty advisor to the Nebraska Moot Court Board and the National Animal Advocacy Competition team.

She is a member of the American Association of Law Libraries, the Mid-America Association of Law Libraries, and the American Library Association.

Articles

• "All in a Day's Work: What's a Reference Librarian to Do?" 19 Legal References Services Quarterly 2001
• Chapter 28: Nebraska Prestatehood Legal Materials, in volume 2 of Prestatehood Legal Materials: A Fifty-State Research Guide (2006, Haworth Press)

Presentations

• "30 Websites in 30 Minutes" with Stefanie Pearlman at the Omaha Estate Planning Council meeting, April 2005
• "Blogs, blawgs, bloggers, and blogging" with Stefanie Pearlman at the Estate and Business Planning Continuing Education Program, May 2005 (University of Nebraska-Lincoln College of Law and School of Accountancy in cooperation with Nebraska Continuing Legal Education, Inc.)
• "Basic Legal Reference for Non-law-librarians Librarians: An Outreach Program"; and coordinator and presenter with Richard Leiter (co-presenter) and Stefanie Pearlman (moderator) at the American Association of Law Libraries 98th Annual Meeting in San Antonio, TX, July 2005

Professor Placzek joined the Schmid Law Library faculty in October 1998 as an Assistant Professor and Reference Librarian. She received her B.A. in Art History from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 1986, her J.D. from Creighton University School of Law in 1993, and a Masters in Library and Information Science from the University of Texas-Austin in 1995. Before coming to Nebraska, Professor Placzek worked as the Acquisitions/Reference Librarian at the Drake University Law Library.

During the first half of 2000, Professor Placzek served as the Interim Director of the law library; in October 2000 she was promoted to the Head of Public Services. In December 2003, she was promoted to Associate Professor of Law Library. 

In addition to her reference duties, Professor Placzek co-teaches the legal research component of First Year Legal Research and Writing, supervises the reference librarians and public services staff, provides tours of the law library, and provides instruction in the use of the law library.

Professor Placzek is a member of the American Association of Law Libraries, the Mid-American Association of Law Libraries, the Nebraska State Bar Association and the American Bar Association. She has served as the co-editor and then editor of MAALL Markings (newsletter of the Mid-American Association of Law Libraries).

Beginning his law library career in 1978 at the Creighton University Law Library, Professor Striman has been at the University of Nebraska since 1982. He is a Professor of Law Library and is Head of Technical Services and Catalog Librarian, receiving a B.A. degree from UNL in 1974, and received a Masters in Library Science in 1978 from the University of Missouri-Columbia.

His responsibilities include supervision of three full-time Library Assistants in the following library operations: mail processing, binding, claiming, serials check-in and processing, routing, marking and labeling, and cataloging and classification of materials. He is also responsible for activities related to IRIS, the UNL Libraries' and the Schmid Law Library's shared automated information system, as well as to oversee the Library’s Federal Depository Library Program.

Some of Professor Striman's most recent professional and UNL activities include: President of the Mid-America Association of Law Libraries (MAALL) 2006. MAALL is a regional chapter of the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL) comprised of 19 consortia law libraries in 9 states, and was the MAALL Education Committee Chair of the 2005 MAALL annual meeting. Brian is also editor-in-chief of the quarterly publication Technical Services Law Librarian. He will be a presenter at the July 2006 AALL Annual Meeting Leadership Program. Professor Striman is active on several UNL Libraries committees and task force groups, including the GPO Committee, the Electronic Resources Module Committee, and is a member of the UNL Libraries’ Technical Operations Group. He is Member-at-Large of the AALL Technical Services Special Interest Section for 2004-2006, and has served as Chair of the NEBASE Advisory Council from 2002-2004. Brian was a member of the AALL Annual Meeting Program Committee for 2002. He has been a member of AALL since 1982 and has given numerous presentations and has been an officer in TS-SIS over the past several years.