Library as Place

Catching up on my reading, I just finished “Library as Place: Rethinking Roles, Rethinking Space,” a report by the Council on Library and Information Resources, available athttp://clir.org/pubs/reports/pub129/pub129.pd

While the report focuses primarily on academic libraries, it gave me several ideas for law firm and court/public libraries. For example, some libraries hold dances or miniature golf tournaments in the library. Are there law libraries holding fun events in the library? Or, what impact does does physical proximity to the library have on use in a law firm or public law library? Has anyone studied that question?

– Mark

State, Court & County Law Libraries SIS Releases Resource Guide on Management Essentials

This week the State, Court, and County Law Libraries Special Interest Section(SCCLL-SIS) published a new resource guide in its Law Library Insights series. Third in a series of four guides, Management Essentials in the Public Law Library discusses key management principles for public law libraries.

The guide explores five core principles of management through insightful articles written by members of the SCCLL-SIS:

• Budget/financial planning and negotiation
• Working with the board
• Community relations
• Service development and collection rebalancing
• Managing resources.

The guides are available for purchase online: $10 for AALL members/$12 for non-members.

Government Documents Special Interest Section Announces New State Bibliographies

 

The Government Documents Special Interest Section (GD-SIS) Publications Committee announced this week three new bibliographies ready for purchase:

1. State Documents Bibliography: Washington, DC (series # 3-74)
2. Selective Annotated Bibliography of Delaware State Documents and Other Resources Used in Delaware Legal Research (Series # 3-73)
3. Kentucky State Documents: A Bibliography of Legal and Law-Related Material, compiled by Ryan Valentin and Michelle Cosby (Series # 3-72)

Washington and Delaware are new bibliographies for the series, while the Kentucky release supersedes an earlier Kentucky bibliography from 1990 (series # 3-39).

Bibliographies are available for $15 each and can be ordered online. Further details about the series can be obtained from GD-SIS Publications Committee Chair Edward T. Hart (hart@law.ufl.edu).

Videos of Programs Featured in Spectrum Available Online

Three of the programs featured in the September/October issue of Spectrum were video taped and are available to AALL members in the Members Only Section of AALLNET:

A-2: The Evolving Role of Law Librarians with Self-Represented Litigants

C-1: Conflict Resolution–In Search of the Holy Grail: “Your Mother Was a Hamster and Your Father  Smelt of Elderberries!”

G-4: The 4th E: The Environment and Law Libraries

Watch the videos and then see if you agree with the program reviews in Spectrum.

Welcome from the Editorial Director

Welcome to the AALL Spectrum blog, a tool to continue the conversation about law librarianship and the opportunities we face. To begin the conversations, some questions:

1. Did you see or listen to the keynote speaker David Pogue?  What did you think of it?  I enjoyed it but wanted more about the impact on libraries.

2. Which article in the Sept/Oct 2008 issue do you like best?

3. Did reading the education program reviews help you to decide to buy the audio recording?

-Mark

New Spectrum Issue Posted on AALLNET

The September/October 2008 issue of AALL Spectrum is available in PDF format on AALLNET. This month’s issue features reviews of 13 educational programs presented at the 2008 AALL Annual Meeting in Portland, Oregon. The “Public Relations” column highlights winners of the 2008 AALL/West Excellence in Marketing Awards and how these libraries successfully marketed their services. And you don’t want to miss the thoughtful responses to our “Member to Member” question: What election issue is most important to you and why?

Paper copies of Spectrum are scheduled to mail out this Friday, September 19, so watch for them to hit your mailboxes soon.