Appellate Division Law Library

School Without Walls visit

A group of students from the School Without Walls got an introduction yesterday to rare books and preservation. As their "tour guide" relates,

The School Without Walls visit was a fun experience. I was able to share with the students how information technology has changed during the past 50 years and how those changes relate to their everyday lives, particularly in the way they communicate with each other and how they complete assignments and take notes. They were able to look at various types of obsolete storage media and learn how difficult it can be to access information stored in those formats. We also discussed the history of legal research and how recent advances in technology has led to dramatic changes in research methods and in the legal profession as a whole. The students were able to handle rare law books that were more than 500 years old and see handwritten court documents from the earliest years of the Appellate Division, Fourth Department. We also briefly discussed how to properly display and store photographs, using the court’s unique collection of portraits as a case study.

I was surprised by one student who did almost everything “the old fashioned way” from printing photographs to using paper phone books, whereas the other students used their cellphones and Wi-Fi exclusively.

The students seemed genuinely interested in the presentation. I am looking forward to the next class to visit and have some exciting ideas for additional things to share with them.

We always appreciate the opportunity to show off the library and share what we know. If your group would like to schedule a tour, please call the Reference Desk at 585-530-3251.