Law library director receives teaching award

Kim Clarke, director of the Bennett Jones Law Library, has won the 2020 Teaching Award for Librarians, Archivists and Curators from the Taylor Institute for Teaching and Learning.

More recently, Kim become the director of the Doucette Library of Teaching Resources. Clarke was nominated for the Faculty of Law’s Howard Tidswell Memorial Award for Teaching Excellence in 2010 and has developed two community-based educational programs: Research in the Real World (RRW) and the New Law Librarians’ Institute 2018 (NLLI). She emphasizes the relevance of the course material, illustrating how the skills developed from the class will assist students in real practical contexts. She further assesses and responds to the skill levels and learning needs of her students and supports a variety of preferred learning styles (visual, auditory, reading and kinesthetic) to increase the students’ retention of the material. Instructors, colleagues and students always compliment Clarke’s ability to present complex information in an understandable manner. In the words of her nominator, “Kim is a passionate and dedicated teacher who values her students’ questions and experiences.” 

“The in-class exercises and development of my research and writing skills proved very useful during my experiences as a summer student and articling student in private practice. While writing research memos I often found myself referencing the powerpoints Kim provided as part of ALR and recalling what I learned in her class. As far as I'm concerned, the skills I learned in Kim's class are necessary for every law student and lawyer.” -- Joel Wiens, JD’17