Paul D. Callister
Law Library Director and Professor of Law
Bio
Paul Callister is the director of the Leon E. Bloch Law Library and professor of law. He joined UMKC in 2003 after serving as an assistant professor of library administration at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Professor Callister has emphasized improving the physical and electronic holdings at the law library, increasing instructional services, digitization projects and renovating the library's ground floor to provided cutting-edge technology and facilities for legal research instruction.
Prior to becoming a librarian, Professor Callister practiced law for nine years at the firm of Callister and Callister in Glendale, Calif., near Los Angeles. His practice areas included qualified retirement plans, estate planning, tax, business and professional organizations, and business transactions.
Professor Callister's research interests include the pedagogy of legal research instruction; copyright and licensing law; legal history as it relates to the history of the book and ancient forms of media; and the relationship of current information environments to legal institutions, jurisprudence, stability and the rule of law.
Professor Callister teaches Cyberlaw and Information Policy and Advanced Legal Research: Transactional Law. He also currently serves on the Committee on Libraries and Technology for the Association of American Law Schools and the board of the Society of Academic Law Library Directors.
Areas of expertise
Legal research, cyberlaw, copyright, rule of law
