Faculty Spotlight
Florida on her mind
BY RICHARD GOLDSTEIN
In a lecture hall full of UF Law faculty days before the fall semester, the brand new director of the law library rose to her feet.
Earlier in August, Claire M. Germain had taken over as head of UF Law’s Lawton Chiles Legal Information Center after 18 years leading the Cornell law library, where she was widely credited with helping to shepherd the profession into the digital age and with forging connections between American law and foreign legal communities. This especially applied to her French homeland, which awarded Germain 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.
Now, standing before the assembled UF Law faculty, Germain conveyed her desire for individual meetings with them to find out how the library could serve them better; she described her plans to hold workshops using technology to aid research and teaching.
Before sitting down, the woman who spent 18 winters in upstate New York had one more thing to tell her new Gainesville colleagues: “I realized going to the mall that there is a shop devoted solely to flip flops!”
You get the feeling that Claire Germain is thrilled to be here.
In an interview inside Germain’s first-floor library office, the native Parisian explained in her lilting accent why she left the Ivy League for a job at UF Levin College of Law.
“When I saw the Spanish-moss-draped oaks, the sun, the wonderful facilities, the staff was great — the warm welcome — I thought that I could make a contribution,” she said. “It is a dynamic, flagship law school with strong ambitions, and I like to be part of a winning team.”
Germain parlayed 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 into a job at Duke University School of Law Library. In 1993, she was named Cornell Law School, Edward Cornell Law Librarian and professor of law.
At UF Law, Germain takes over the largest law library in the Southeast with 100,000 square feet and 600,000 volumes, replacing Kathleen Price, who retired in 2010 as associate dean for library and technology.
As associate dean for legal information and Clarence J. TeSelle Professor of Law, Germain talked about how the law library can stay relevant in the age of Google.
“We are in a deep transition from print to digital so I think the emphasis now is to organize the digital library so that people know what there is to uncover,” Germain said. “Sometimes we buy a lot of digital products but nobody knows that we have them. I think it is going to be a big goal, through the website, to organize the digital resources in a systematic way and promote them so that people will know that they are there.”
Judith C. Russell, the dean of University of Florida Libraries, said Germain’s international connections and her dedication to marrying library services with the needs of faculty and students will strengthen the reputation of the library and the law school.
“The background she has in international law brings a new richness,” Russell said. “Anytime you bring a new director you get an opportunity to re-evaluate services and to decide where services are needed.”
Russell described Germain’s academic credentials as exceptionally strong.
In addition to serving as president of the American Association of Law Libraries, she has authored numerous articles and two books including the award-winning Germain’s Transnational Law. She advocates for the authentication of digital law, most recently at the Hague Conference on Private International Law in the Netherlands. She also promotes the introduction of a legal research test on U.S. bar exams.
Germain makes her home in northwest Gainesville with husband Stuart Basefsky, who continues to teach online courses for Cornell. The dual American-French citizen intends to continue her regular summer journeys to France as a key addition to UF Law’s summer programs in Paris and Montpellier. She figures she can do for UF Law what she did for Cornell.
“Because of my being a French lawyer, I developed these contacts,” Germain said. “Now (Cornell Law has) very high level of contacts: judges, law professors, law schools. And I’ve started telling people: ‘Wouldn’t you like to come to Florida?’”
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