Competency: Core Competencies for Law Librarianship

Target Audience: All law librarians, particularly those interested in archival documents, Supreme Court history and Library of Congress collections

Learning Outcomes:

1) Participants will be able to identify basic steps to solicit and/or secure a significant archival donation successfully, including negotiating an instrument of gift, basic processing of the materials, and troubleshooting issues that may occur.

2) Participants will discover the content of the Thurgood Marshall Papers, how the collection came to be donated to the Library of Congress, as well as its intrinsic value to historical and Supreme Court researchers.

Thurgood Marshall was a larger-than-life figure in the civil rights movement in America. His illustrious legal career spanned decades and culminated with his appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court. Over the years, his work generated thousands of documents. Nearly 174,000 of those documents make up the Thurgood Marshall Papers. Today, this collection is housed in the Library of Congress’ Manuscript Division. This program will focus on Thurgood Marshall’s
donation of his papers to the Library of Congress upon his death in 1993. Participants will learn about the contents of this collection, its importance to researchers, and the controversy that arose surrounding the timing of the donation and the release of the papers.


(James H. Hutson - Per speaker's request, presentation omitted from recording.)