Gail A. Partin 
Associate Director & Law Librarian
Dickinson School of Law
Pennsylvania State University 

 

Gail A. Partin currently holds the position of  Associate Director and Law Librarian at the H. Laddie Montague, Jr. Law Library of the Dickinson School of Law of the Pennsylvania State University.  As Associate Director she manages the administrative and operational aspects of the law library's Carlisle and University Park facilities.  She also serves as the library's Foreign, Comparative, and International Law Librarian,  as the law library liaison to the University's newly created School of International Affairs, and is responsible for the development and maintenance of the law library's international law collection. She has developed and taught Legal Research I and II, a full year research course for first year students. In addition to creating research guides in support of research intensive courses, she also lectures on legal research for a variety of specialized and advanced law courses. In conjunction with other colleagues, she has designed and presented several continuing legal education seminars dubbed, "Legal Research in the Fast Lane: A Road Map for Using the Internet," “Technology and Effective Legal Research” and "Internet Research for the Legal Professional." To augment the legal research and instructional services she provides, Gail has developed and maintains a resource rich web site for her library.

She is a founder of the Teaching Research in Academic Law Libraries (TRIALL) institute and has served on the Advisory Council and Faculty of the first two institutes. Over the years she has published a variety of course materials and articles and participated in lectures, panels and programs concerning various aspects of legal research, including emerging electronic resources, the Internet, international law, real estate transactions, state & local government, and basic United States legal resources.

Gail is an active participant in the organizations and activities of the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL) and the Research Instruction & Patron Services Special Interest Section (RIPS).  She has recently completed a two-year term on the AALL Awards Committee and curently serves on the Executive Board of the RIPS-SIS.  Since 1994 she has been co-chair of the nationally recognized National Legal Research Teach-In. She is also active in the Foreign, Comparative and International Law SIS (FCIL), having served as member of the Strategic Planning Committee and co-chair of the Education Committee.

She earned her B.S. from Rider University, her M.S.L.S. from Clarion University, and her J.D. from Dickinson School of Law . She is an active member of the Pennsylvania State Bar.