The Open Legal Archive is a centralized database of all* credible legal blog posts, worldwide
One of the best parts of my internship with the Open Legal Blog Archive is that I get to assist in building an entire library. My collection development consists of rummaging through the internet to find credible legal blogs. My cataloging involves identifying valid RSS feeds, developing legal blog categories, linking individual blogs to membership profiles and locating authorship. My outreach includes creating news posts, developing social media, and reaching out to author submissions.
It took a bit of time before this process really set in. I had the entire world of law firms, personal blogs, universities, and so much more to consider. Where could I possibly start? I decided that in order to begin, I needed to pick a country and run with it. I began by searching for legal blogs in South Africa. I searched Google, Justia and FeedSpot blog lists. From there, I searched for
law firms, law libraries, law schools to see if I could find blogs on their websites. This process proved fruitful, and I now have legal blogs from over 30 countries and geographical areas. The Archive also accepts submissions; interested blog authors can submit their blog(s) to help support our mission.
I’ve learned that legal blogs come in all shapes and sizes. From firms with over 1,000 lawyers to personal blogs on niche legal topics, there’s legal content out there for everyone. In 2001, Linton Weeks wrote that in “a nonstop tsunami of global information, librarians provide us with floaties and teach us how to swim” (The Washington Post). The ability to gather all of this information into one centralized place fills me with the hope that lawyers, scholars, law librarians and people interested in law can browse the library to learn and grow without having to search through the sludge of bad blogs and advertisements.
*At this moment, the Archive houses 2,836 credible legal blogs.