Kristopher Turner

Associate Director, Law Library

Contact

kris.turner@wisc.edu
608/262-7238
975 Bascom Mall, 5328 Law Building, Madison, WI, USA, 53706-1399

Education

J.D., University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2020
Masters, Library Science, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2012
Secondary Teaching Certification, University of Michigan 2006
B.A., History and Political Science, University of Michigan, 2006

Biography

Kris Turner began working at the Law School Library in January 2012 as a Circulation Assistant and Daytime Supervisor and has since worked as the Reference and Technology Services Librarian and the Head of Reference before becoming the Associate Director of Public Services in 2018. Kris is responsible for managing the reference and access services departments and overseeing outreach, instruction, and research support that the Law Library offers to faculty, law students, and legal researchers.

Kris also works with emerging technology, having taught numerous sessions on GenAI tools and free and low-cost resources for legal and information professionals. Kris teaches Legal Technology and Artificial Intelligence in Law Practice each fall and co-teaches Advanced Legal Research each spring.

Kris has served as the president of the Wisconsin Library Association, the Law Librarians Association of Wisconsin, and on various committees and sections of the American Association of Law Librarians. He has written many articles on topics ranging from space law to professionalism. He previously worked at Madison Public Library and at the Forest Products Laboratory Library. Before entering librarianship, he worked in a busy bankruptcy and personal injury law firm in downtown Chicago and as a teacher in Evanston, Illinois and Novi, Michigan.

Activities

Kristopher Turner was elected as vice chair/chair elect of the Academic Law Libraries Special Interest Section in spring 2025.
Kris Turner and Carrie Doyle will both serve on the Wisconsin Library Association (WLA) 2022 Board. Turner will serve as President-Elect and Doyle will serve as WLA Board Liaison representing the Association of Wisconsin Special Librarians (AWSL). The Wisconsin Library Association is a professional organization representing all types of libraries. Its membership comprises more than 1,400 librarians and support staff, library trustees, friends of libraries, and business vendors who advocate and work for the improvement of library services for all Wisconsin citizens.
Kris Turner published a chapter on Faculty Services in "Introduction to Law Librarianship," an open access textbook designed to educate and train law librarians as the profession changes and develops. The chapter was co-authored with Liz Manriquez and two other librarians – one from Georgia and one from the University of Denver.
Three articles written by students in Steph Tai's Contracts II class have been accepted for publication: Benjamin Eastman's "Amtrak and Freight Railroads: How Property Rights and Statuatory Mandates Control the Contractual Agreements Between Parties" in the Journal of Transportation Law, Logistics and Policy; Nicholas Enger's "Offers You Cannot Refuse: Post Hire Noncompete Agreement Insertions and Procedural Unconscionability Doctrine" in the Wisconsin Law Review; and Kris Turner's "Creating Contracts in a Vacuum: Space Mining and the Creation of Future Contract Law" in Natural Resources Journal.
Kris Turner visited Rice Lake, Wausau and Sparta, Wisconsin, to give a series of talks to public library staff on Nov. 6, 7 and 8. Topics included the digital divide, web user experience and productivity tools.
In October, Bonnie Shucha and Kris Turner presented "Motivating Library Staff and Why It Matters," at the Wisconsin Library Association's annual meeting. Though the talk offered practical tips for managing library personnel of different generations and interests, it was useful for supervisors in any professional field.