Yolanda Jones
EMAIL

 

Office Hours

Monday • 3:00 pm or can schedule another day and time

Program Assistant is Puja Bhatavdekar, Phone:  (407) 254-3270, puja.bhatavdekar@famu.edu

Current Semester Schedule

LAW 6910 Independent Research

About Me

Dr. Jones teaches courses in Legal Bibliography and Advanced Legal Research. Prior to joining the faculty, her professional experience includes service in Law Libraries at Wayne State University, Villanova University, Indiana University, and the University of Miami. She received her J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School. She earned her M.S.L.S. from the Clark Atlanta University School of Library and Information Science and her Ph.D. in Information Science and Technology from Drexel University.

Areas of Interest

  • Law library management
  • Access to justice, legal research
  • Information behavior
  • Information policy
  • History and applications of legal information retrieval systems
  • Academic law librarianship
  • Government documents
  • Social informatics
  • Applications of social, cultural, and design theory to law library systems and services.

Education

 
  • Ph.D. in Information Science and Technology • Spring 2008
    Drexel University, College of Information Science and Technology.
  • M.S.L.S. • Aug., 1990
    Clark Atlanta University, School of Library and Information Studies
  • J.D. • May 1988
    University of Michigan Law School
  • B.A. Field of Concentration: English Literature Minor: History and Classical Civilizations • May 1985
    University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign

Work History

  • Law Library Director and Associate Professor of Law • July 2013-present
    Florida A&M University College of Law, Tenure Granted June, 2019.
  • Assistant Director • 2010-July 2013
    Wayne State University Arthur Neef Law Library
  • Assistant Director for Reader Services • 1995-1996
    Villanova University School of Law Library
  • Assistant Director for Electronic Information Services • 1996 - 2009
  • Librarian for Electronic Services and Reference • Oct. 1994 – Aug. 1995
    Indiana University Law Library, Bloomington, Indiana.
  •  Reference Librarian • Aug. 1992 – Sept. 1994
    University of Miami Law Library, Coral Gables, Florida.
  •  Library Resident • Sept. 1990 – July 1992
    University of Michigan, Fine Arts and Art & Architecture Libraries, Ann Arbor, Michigan.
  •  Summer Intern • May – Aug 1990
    Library of Congress Congressional Research Service, Washington, D.C.
  • Attorney/Advisor • Sept. 1988 – Aug. 1989
    Federal Communications Commission, Equal Employment Opportunity Branch, Washington, D.C.

Academic Accomplishments

  •  Publications

    Yolanda Patrice Jones, "From Street-level Bureaucracy to Sustainable
    Communities: Librarianship for Social Justice in Times of Limited Resources",
    Hines, S.S. and Ketchum, D.H. (Ed.) Critical Librarianship (Advances in Library
    Administration and Organization, Vol. 41), Emerald Publishing Limited, pp. 65-
    84 (2020) https://commons.law.famu.edu/faculty-books/41/.

    Yolanda Patrice Jones, LIBA2J! The Continuum of Access to Justice Services, 3 LEGAL
    INFORMATION REVIEW 137 (2017-2018),

    Yolanda Patrice Jones, Bringing the Law to the Library: The Importance of Librarian
    Mediation in Access to Justice Services, 37 LEGAL REFERENCE SERVICES
    QUARTERLY 11 (2018)

    Yolanda Patrice Jones, Federal Research, in LOCATING THE LAW:AHANDBOOK
    FOR NON-LAW LIBRARIANS IN MICHIGAN (Kim Koscielniak ed. 2017)


    Yolanda P. Jones, Expansive Legal Research, 44 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF
    LEGAL INFORMATION 41(2016)

    An Interview with Yolanda Patrice Jones, Law Librarian, Library of Congress Blog,
    October 12, 2016

    Yolanda P. Jones, Libraries Can Help: Institutional Repositories, 30 TM Cooley L. Rev.
    253 (2013)

    Yolanda Patrice Jones, JUST THE FACTS MA’AM?ACONTEXTUAL APPROACH TO
    THE LEGAL INFORMATION USE ENVIRONMENT, 69 (2008) (unpublished Ph.D.
    dissertation, Drexel University),

    “Just the facts ma'am?” a contextual approach to the legal information use environment. In
    Proceedings of the 6th ACM conference on Designing Interactive systems DIS
    '06 (pp. 357 - 359). 

    Other Recognition:
    Profiled in the second edition of Celebrating Diversity: A Legacy of Minority Leadership
    in the American Association of Law Libraries, published by William S. Hein, 2018.

    Created a “Building Your Personal Law Library” project for the Advanced Legal
    Research course. The assignment was accepted for the 2015 National Legal
    Research Teach-In Kit, to be distributed in during National Library Week in April
    of 2015. The Teach-In is sponsored by the American Association of Law
    Libraries (AALL) Research Instruction & Patron Services (RIPS) Special Interest
    Section. 

    Winner, American Association of Law Libraries (AALL) 2002 Call for papers
    award for: “UCITA and the Information Professional - Or, Having a Barbeque
    on the Information Commons.” Presented at 2002 AALL Annual Conference.
    Participant in CALI Legal Research Community Authoring Project. Developed
    the Cali Lessons: “Hold ‘em fold ‘em walk away run - How to Stop the Search;”
    “Decision-Point: State or Federal;” and “The Legal Research Game: Fee or Free
    Edition” (on using free versus fee legal research sources on the internet).


    Speaker: Exploring Law Related Resources on the Internet, at The Internet for
    Lawyers, Pennsylvania Bar Institute, June 1996. Published in THE INTERNET FOR
    LAWYERS, PA: Pennsylvania Bar Institute (1996).

    Yolanda P. Jones, “The Top Fives: An Internet Pathfinder for Law Librarians.”
    17 SFALL News 5 (February 1994). An expanded version was published in 14
    Internet Legal Reference Services Quarterly 99 (1995)

    Editor, South Florida Association of Law Libraries Newsletter (1993 - 1994).

    Presentations

    Moderator/Speaker, American Association of Law Libraries annual virtual
    meeting program, Legal Research in an Era of Black Lives matter, July 2021.

    Moderated the annual Famu Law Library Virgil Hawkins program with guest
    speaker Professor Reginald Mitchell (most recent March 2021).

Awards


• Profiled in the second edition of Celebrating Diversity: A Legacy of Minority Leadership
in the American Association of Law Libraries, published by William S. Hein, 2018.
• Created a “Building Your Personal Law Library” project for the Advanced Legal
Research course. The assignment was accepted for the 2015 National Legal
Research Teach-In Kit, to be distributed in during National Library Week in April
of 2015. The Teach-In is sponsored by the American Association of Law
Libraries (AALL) Research Instruction & Patron Services (RIPS) Special Interest
Section. See http://www.aallnet.org/sections/rips/teachin.
• Winner, American Association of Law Libraries (AALL) 2002 Call for papers
award for: “UCITA and the Information Professional - Or, Having a Barbeque
on the Information Commons.” Presented at 2002 AALL Annual Conference.

Courses Taught At FAMU

  •   LAW 6910 Independent Research

More Information

  • Scholarly Commons

  • Association Activities:

    Member of the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL),
    1992-present.

    Member of the Black Caucus of the American Association of Law Libraries
    (BCAALL) - The Black Caucus was previously known as the Committee on
    Diversity (1998 - 2000) and is now the Black Law Librarians Special Interest
    Section (BLL-SIS) as of 2020.

    Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect of the American Association of Law Libraries Black
    Law Librarians Special Interest Section (BLL-SIS) 2021-2022.

    Co-Chair of the BLL-SIS Education Committee (2020-2021) with Marjorie
    Crawford, Criminal Justice and Reference Librarian, Rutgers Law School.
    Member of the BCAALL education/programming committee 2017-2019.

    Member of the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL) Digital
    Access to Legal Information Committee (DALIC), 2014-2015. Member of
    the BCAALL dinner committee 2015.

    Michigan Association of Law Libraries (MichALL) President 2012-2013.

    Michigan Association of Law Libraries (MichALL) Vice-President/President-Elect 2011-2012.

    Wayne State University Representative to the Chinese and American Forum
    on Legal Information and Law Libraries (CAFLL). Attended CAFLL
    meeting at the AALL annual meeting in Philadelphia, July 2011.

    Participated in Wayne State University Damon J. Keith Center for Civil
    Rights oversight Committee 2011-2012.

    Maintained American Association of Law Libraries (AALL), Committee on
    Diversity web pages (2000-2007).

    Institutional Review Board (IRB) Committee, Drexel University,
    Appointment 2002-2004 (student member).

    Member of the Villanova University School of Law Center for Information
    Law and Policy 1995 – 1999. The mission of the Center was to “facilitate and
    advocate the use of computer technology as a means of information
    exchange within the legal community.”