Cooley Law Library Wins Award

The Thomas E. Brennan Law Library at Cooley Law School has been awarded the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL) Publications Award in the print publications category. Cooley competed against large public law libraries, Ivy League law schools, large law firms, corporate law libraries and information departments for the award.

The winning entry, designed by library circulation team leader Dawn Chevoya, is a series of a dozen signs/posters titled Drink Containers According to Black Law Dictionary. The mini-poster set depicts the types of containers not permitted in the library.

In a message notifying Cooley of the award, Michael Saint-Onge, Senior Librarian Relations Consultant, Lexis Nexis and Chair, Subcommittee on all AALL law library publication awards, said "We loved them! They were very, very clever and got the message across in a humorous way."

Chevoya said it was "a challenge to replace the posted signs of the library's food and drink policy with ones that would be noticed and read. I wanted to get the policy across in a more graphic manner. The images are somewhat disturbing, but that's what grabs your attention."

The award will be presented July 5 at the AALL annual meeting in San Antonio, Texas. The posters will be displayed in the conference's exhibit hall. In Lansing, the library has the posters on display at the circulation and reference desks.

Founded in 1972, Cooley Law School is now the largest law school in the country. Cooley has the second-largest enrollment in African-American students of any law school and the highest number of minorities overall in the United States. Cooley has three campuses across Michigan; its main campus in downtown Lansing, its downtown Grand Rapids/Western Michigan University campus in west Michigan, and its Rochester/Oakland University campus in southeast Michigan. In addition to the J.D. program, students at Cooley can also pursue an LL.M. in Tax or in Intellectual Property. Find out more about Cooley Law School by visiting the Cooley Web site at www.cooley.edu.