Penn State Law librarian elected 2021 chair of national law library organization

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Rebecca Mattson, head of faculty and research services for the H. Laddie Montague Jr. Law Library, Penn State University Libraries, and professor of legal research at Penn State Law at University Park, has been elected vice chair/chair elect of the Research Instruction and Patron Services Special Interest Section (RIPS-SIS) of the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL). Beginning in July, she will serve a three-year term, moving to chair in 2021 and immediate past chair in 2022.

In addition to her leadership within the Montague Law Library, Mattson manages the Penn State Law eLibrary and the law school’s Legal Research Paper Series, and provides enhanced support for faculty scholarship and research. As professor of legal research, she teaches Legal Research Tools and Strategies, a first-year legal research course, and Researching Administrative Law, an upper-level research course.

An AALL member since 2011, Mattson was chosen as an AALL Leadership Academy Fellow in 2016. From 2016 to 2019, she co-chaired the task force for the inaugural “Teaching the Teachers” Conference, a unique experience to enhance law librarians’ knowledge of pedagogical issues and best practices specific to legal research instruction. She is vice chair of the RIPS-SIS Grants Committee and has served on several other sub-committees, including the Legal Research Competency Committee, the Strategic Planning Committee, the Membership Task Force and the Teach-In Kit Committee.

Prior to joining Penn State Law in 2015, Mattson served as a librarian at Cleveland-Marshall College of Law, a research librarian at Harris Beach, PLLC, and an attorney editor at West/Thomson Reuters. She holds juris doctor (J.D.) and master of library science (M.L.S.) degrees from the State University of New York at Buffalo.

AALL advances the profession of law librarianship and legal information and supports the professional growth of its members through leadership and advocacy in the field of legal information and information policy. The mission of RIPS-SIS is to organize programs relating to research instruction and services provided to library users, including reference, research instruction, circulation, interlibrary loan and the impact of technology and electronic resources.