Cornell law librarian joins Levin College of law

August 2, 2011

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Claire M. Germain has joined the University of Florida Levin College of Law as the new associate dean for legal information and Clarence J. TeSelle professor of law.

Germain takes up her post at UF Law after leaving the Cornell University Law School as Edward Cornell law librarian and professor of law.

Germain holds law degrees from the University of Paris and Louisiana State University School of Law, and a master’s in law librarianship from the University of Denver.

Germain is an expert on all aspects of legal information, from digital libraries to rare books, and she writes and speaks frequently on these topics in the U.S., Europe, Canada, Brazil, China and South Korea. She teaches a course in French law and writes on comparative law, most recently on the French criminal jury. She has authored two books, including the award-winning “Germain’s Transnational Law Research,” and numerous articles.

She is actively advocating for the authentication of digital law, most recently at the Hague Conference on Private International Law in the Netherlands, and the introduction of a legal research test on the bar exam in the United States.

She has served as president of the American Association of Law Libraries, as chair of the American Association of Law Schools Committee on Libraries and Technology, and as chair of the AALS Section on Law Libraries. She is currently secretary of the Law Libraries Section of the International Federation of Library Associations.

She has served as a consultant to the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, Arusha, Tanzania, the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico Library, and the International Criminal Law Court in The Hague, Netherlands.

In 2007, Germain was honored with the Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur (Knight, Legion of Honor) medal, France’s highest honor, for her efforts in bridging the American and French legal cultures.

Germain replaces emeritus professor Kathleen Price, who retired in 2010 as associate dean for Library and Technology.

The University of Florida Lawton Chiles Legal Information Center is the largest law library in the Southeast with 100,000 square feet and 600,000 volumes.