The law library is to law librarians as the laboratories of the university are to chemists and physicists, the natural history museum is to zoologists, the garden is to botanists. The revised ABA Standard 601(a)(4) requires that the law school library "remains informed on and implements, as appropriate, technological and other developments affecting the library's support for the law school's program of legal education." When discussing how law libraries can meet this standard, the phrase "library lab" is frequently offered as a potential solution—but what is a library lab? It certainly is not the previous lab model of rows of desktop computers. Simply knowing what it is not, however, won't move us toward our goal of supporting legal education. What technologies will it employ? What kind of physical space will it occupy? How will funding be obtained?

Similarly, private law firms are also beginning to create library labs or "genius bars" to facilitate the learning of software products, apps, and new tools to help lawyers become more efficient and mobile. Perhaps there are commonalities in their approach. Come learn from your fellow colleagues who have deployed technology laboratories within their law libraries.