Master of Science (M.S.)
Library and Information Science
University of Illinois
2010
See all Profiles
Faculty
Faculty
Alicia Jones
Director and Professor
Department/Office
- Vernon E. Jordan Jr. Law Library, School of Law
Additional Positions
-
Faculty, Law Department
Biography
Alicia Jones is a professor and director of the Vernon E. Jordan Law Library at Howard University School of Law. Jones teaches first-year legal research and advanced legal research.
Jones is the former associate dean for academic affairs and associate professor at the Southern Illinois University (SIU) School of Law in Carbondale, Illinois, where she taught in the Lawyering Skills program. Jones also taught Advanced Electronic Legal Research, where students learned to find and evaluate information and resources using proprietary databases, various online resources, and government resources.
As the former associate dean, she worked closely with the administration and faculty on the law school curriculum and with student organizations to ensure students had the academic resources they needed as they matriculated through law school.
Jones also served as the Head of Technical Services for the SIU Law Library; where she focused on interacting with law students, providing greater accessibility to library resources and materials, and helping students understand the impact of library resources on their law school careers. Her research interests include customer service in academic law libraries and the intersection between technical service processing and its effects on teaching legal research.
Jones's previous positions include reference librarian at SIU School of Law, reference associate at the Pritzker Legal Research Center of Northwestern University School of Law, and cataloging librarian at the Moraine Valley Community College in Chicago. Among her many responsibilities, she trained other technical services librarians, worked with reference librarians on making the catalog more accessible to students, drafted a cataloging manual, staffed the reference desk, purchased and cataloged new materials, and supervised the law library externship program.
Education & Expertise
Education
Juris Doctor (J.D.)
Law
Howard University
1995
Bachelor of Arts (B.A.)
Political Science
North Carolina Central University
1991
Areas of Expertise
Law
Specialty Areas: Legal research, Academic law library, Library administration
Legal writing
Academics
Academics
Legal Reasoning, Research, and Writing (LRRW) I – Legal Research Lab
Accomplishments
Accomplishments
Outstanding Teacher, Southern Illinois University School of Law, 2021
Valiant Women of the Vote Honoree, John A. Logan College, 2020-21
Celebrate Women Faculty Mentoring Award, Southern Illinois University, 2019
Publications and Presentations
Publications and Presentations
American Association of Law Libraries State Documents Bibliography No. 3-111
The Government Documents Special Interest Section (GD-SIS) was established in 1974 to disseminate information on government documents to AALL members, to further the continuing education of law librarians in documents librarianship, to coordinate the activities of law librarians in representing their interests to public and private groups, and to work in cooperation with documents groups in other associations and organizations.
The Constitutional Conventions of Illinois: An Annotated Bibliography
The Constitutional Conventions of Illinois: An Annotated Bibliography
Illinois has called six constitutional conventions, beginning with its statehood in 1818, resulting in four approved state constitutions, approved in 1818, 1847, 1870, and 1970, and two constitutions rejected by voters in 1862 and 1920–1922. Conventions have been called seeking constitutional remedies for various problems that arose as the state’s population grew. These included broad, general issues like the distribution of powers between government branches, the veto power of the governor, slavery, and suffrage, as well as more discrete issues, like improvement of rivers, the contracting out of convict labor, and the many concerns associated with the rapid growth of the Chicago metropolitan area. There currently exists no comprehensive annotated bibliography on the conventions and constitutions of Illinois. The intent of this work is to fill a dearth in the literature regarding Illinois constitutional conventions by providing bibliographic, and, when available, virtual, access to the published materials produced before, during, and after each of Illinois’ six constitutional conventions. This work anticipates the bibliographic needs of anyone wishing to research the state’s constitutional history, gathering together in one document the citations and, when freely available, links to all published materials produced before, during, and after each of Illinois’ six constitutional conventions.
PRESENTATIONS
June 2022 - Presenter, Excelling at the Job Talk: Do’s and Don’ts, Lutie Lytle Black Women Law Faculty Writing Workshop, Boston, MA.
July 2021 - Presenter, Writing while Directing and Using your Librarian Effectively, Academic Support Black Women’s Collective Conference.
March 2021 - Panel Member, Valiant Women of the Vote: Refusing to Be Silenced, 2021 Women’s History Month Virtual Celebration, John A. Logan College.
2017, 2019, 2022 - Guest Lecturer, The American Legal System, Forensic Botany, Department of Plant Biology, Center of Ecology, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, IL (February).
Jan. 2016-Jan. 2020 - Facilitator, Women in Leadership Workshop, SIU School of Law.
Fall 2016 - Guest Lecturer, Researching and Finding Administrative Regulations and Agency Information, Administrative Law, SIU School of Law.
Summer 2015 & 2016 - Guest Lecturer, Research and Understanding Administrative Regulations, Education Law Seminar (online), SIU School of Law.
Dec. 4, 2015 - Presenter, The Commons: Getting Students the Help They Need, Legal Writing Institute One-Day Workshop, Washington University School of Law, St. Louis, MO (co-presented with Prof. Sue Liemer and Prof. Twinette Johnson).
June 2015 - Speaker, Basic Legal Research, Street Law Program, Southern Illinois University School of Law, Carbondale, IL.
Feb. 21, 2014 - Speaker, African-American Farmers, Unions and Legislation, A Song from the Field: An Investigation of the Black Experience in the Delta, Southern Illinois University School of Law, Carbondale, IL.