QUESTION:
A few people have asked me to clarify what I mean by "member." I'm
looking for law libraries that are actual members of their respective
library systems or consortia (county or otherwise) which include non-law
libraries. Meaning you share a catalog or maybe you are listed as a
library branch. I'd also like to know just how many county law libraries
have their own online catalogs or have formed partnerships to share with
other law libraries in their state. I am particularly interested in
situations where there is a state law library and several county law
libraries. How does this arrangement work for you?
Is anyone a member of their county library system? If so, what are the
benefits? Why did you choose to do so? Are you also a lending library?
RESPONSES:
I can give you a little information for Maine. As the State Law Library
we belong to a local group of libraries that share an online catalog. This
group includes university libraries, the Maine State Library, and a large
public library. I meet regularly with the directors of those libraries to
discuss issues related to the share catalog and shared databases which we
purchase together.
In Maine the State Law Library is a legislative office. The county law
libraries are funded through the Judicial Department. As the State Law
Librarian I serve as an ex officio member of the State Court Library
Committee, which oversees the operations of the county law libraries. I
should say that only two of these libraries are staffed. The staff of the
State Law Library works closely with the two librarians on a daily basis.
The county law libraries also have internet connections made available to
libraries statewide through a program funded through the Public Utilities
Commission. One county law library is able to generate detailed
information about holdings, but I don't think any of then have an online
catalog.
I hope this helps, at least a little. Please let me know if you have
further questions.
Lynn Randall
Maine State Law and Legislative Reference Library
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The Indiana Supreme Court Law Library recently joined the Indiana Shared
Library Catalog consortium. It is a group of about 30 public and school
libraries. We are the only law library. There is also one special
library, an art reference library.
It is through INCOLSA, which is sort of the State Library Association. In
Indiana, we are probably considered the "State Law Library" even though we
are the Court's library.
The reason we picked the consortium is that the prices for us to go alone
were prohibited. We get a state-of-the-art system (SIRSI) for a very
reasonable price. Also, we have only two librarians on staff, and we
don't have the time to maintain a server and worry about technical issues.
Our group meets nearly quarterly, and there is a listserv for problems and
questions. Even though our libraries are different, we can often tailor a
solution to our specific needs.
We have been very happy with our decision. Our catalog has been live
since November 2004.
The web page for the group is http://www.incolsa.net/services/islc.html.
Kim
Kim L. Schwant
Reference Librarian
Indiana Supreme Court Library
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Bianna - I can tell you that here in Washington, the state law library has
an online catalog and will ILL their materials free of charge to any of
the county law libraries.
You might want to check with the King County Law Library in Seattle - I'm
not sure of the setup, but they had some kind of arrangement with the
local public library system there. I think they got the local library to
pay for some of the reporter sets shelved in the King County Law Library
Kent branch. Jean Holcomb there would have the details - you can tell her
I suggested you try her. (jean.holcomb@metrokc.gov)
Here in Clark County I don't have an online catalog, and don't share
anything with the local library, although I would be interested in hearing
what you learn.
Maria Sosnowski
Clark County Law Library
Vancouver WA 98666
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There are local systems that are primarily for the public libraries. The
state funding has practically made one of the statewide systems defunct.
I have not joined any of these systems because I did not
1. have the time to go to more meetings/fill out more forms/etc.
2. see how it would benefit us
There is a statewide organization of county law libraries in California.
We meet twice a year, communicate thru a listserv, and do some group
purchasing (getting a vendor to give us a better "deal").
We have our catalog online because we got a great "deal" from
LibraryWorld. We are too poor to afford anything very elaborate. We did
partner with the adjacent county's law library in negotiating with
LibraryWorld, so we got an even better value since both of us were buying
the software -- and it has been perfect for us.
The state law library has an informal agreement to provide service to the
smaller, county libraries. They, too, however, have had MASSIVE funding
cuts. They are wonderful, still, providing us with materials that we do
not have -- via fax or mail. And they absorb the costs of mailing
materials to us. The state law library's collection is online, so it is
easy to check to see what they have.
I do lend, informally, to the other county law libraries (and I from them)
when needed. Many do not have their catalogs online, but we usually call
on one another for a fast fix if pages are missing, etc. Since most of us
have approximately the same materials.
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NHLL is a member of NHAIS (I can't remember what it means). Our holdings
are listed in the NHU-PAC (NH union public access catalog). We don't
circulate, though we would do ILL on certain items for member libraries.
Up until now, it was the only way to access NHLL's holdings, we didn't
have an online catalog. We are however going online at the end of May. We
will continue to load our holdings into the NHU-PAC though. NHLL is the
state law library - there are no county law libraries. The other members
of NHAIS are the state library and many academic and public libraries.
Mary
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The Wyoming State Law Library is part of WYLD (the Wyoming Library
Consortia) and our online catalog is part of the statewide union catalog.
Also, included in the catalog are the county libraries (and their
branches), the community college libraries, a number of high school
libraries, a growing number of junior high and grade school libraries, and
a number of other special libraries (medical, museum, etc.). We have the
default settings on the catalog to show our collection but searchers can
reconfigure to check the other libraries. The only library system that is
not included is the University of Wyoming (including the Law Library
there). To access them, we need to do a separate search.
We are also included in the Fretwell-Downing statewide interlibrary loan
system. We loan to anyone in the state through their home libraries.
To see info, go to:
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We made the choice to go this route because it was the least expensive and
we reach more of our "citizen" users who don't have to hunt for us. We
are listed with all the rest of the libraries. The only drawback is we
are constrained by "group" cataloging protocols which don't always match
our past practice.
Kathy Carlson
Wyoming State Law Library
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The Supreme Court of Illinois Library is a member of the Rolling Prairie
Library System here in central Illinois. We share a catalog with many
public, school, academic and other special (mostly government) libraries.
The good part is that the costs are shared and really made it possible for
us to automate our catalog back in the 1990's. The down side is probably
that we are a tiny minority of this group and sometimes we have to fight
hard to have our voice heard. For example, we've pushed hard for a
serials module for our system, which we are soon to get, but it took a lot
of convincing to get it to happen. To my knowledge, there are no county
law libraries who are members of our system.
Hope this helps.
Brenda Larison
Supreme Court of Illinois Library
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Hi Bianna,
Not only am I a member of our local Library System, but I am also on their
Board. In Illinois the entire state is divided up into regional library
systems which support all (special, public, academic, school) member
libraries within their designated geographic area. They support
interlibrary loan services through van delivery of materials (VERY
popular), develop, teach and host continuing education programs for
librarians and trustees, act as library advocates at the state and
national legislative levels, forward / notify libraries of grant
opportunities, host and support a local automation consortium for library
catalogs (MAGIC) among a myriad of other things. We at the Kane County
Law Library are very grateful as when we were in a dire funding crisis,
the DuPage Library System helped us advocate at the state level for a
change in our funding laws. We also heavily relied on their "used items
exchange" service during this period ~ they coallate and distribute a list
of materials that other libraries are getting rid of and others may pick
up for free (supplies, past editions of books) And not to forget the
importance of networking ~ I've developed many positive contacts and
partnerships with other librarians I have met through Library System
activities. If library systems in NJ are anything like they are here in
Illinois, I highly recommend joining! (and it's free!) If you have any
questions, please feel free to contact me.
Halle Mikyska
Kane County Law Library
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My library has its own online catalog. I developed it by myself using
EOS Web Express Software. We are not affiliated with other libraries at
all.
Laureen Adams
Library Manager
Dougherty County Law Library
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Our court library is not a member of a consortia or system but we do have
somewhat of an organized state court library system which includes a
shared catalog for statewide court law library resources. It is online at
nycourts.gov under law libraries.
Deb
Deborah E. Melnick
Principal Law Librarian
NYC Civil Court
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Here is Rhode Island we do not belong to our statewide public library
system known as CLAN. Neither do we belong to HELIN which is the
consortia for higher education institutions. I am considering looking
into this as we are a public institution, but we do not lend to the
public. In addition, CLAN uses DYNIX, I believe and HELIN libraries are
mostly on Triple I. We have branch libraries in our counties and they,
of course, are on our system
( Eos International ) We do belong to NELLCO with other law
libraries throughout New England and beyond. Z39.50 allows our catalogs
to be compatible.
I see you are in Somerville. I know it well as my sister lives in
Bridgewater and my mother lived with her for a number of years. It is
very pretty country and lots of nice people.
Take care. If I can give you any other info, just let me know.
Karen
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The Minnesota State Law Library catalogs the collections of many county
law libraries in Minnesota--as the former Head of Technical Services for
the MSLL, I wrote an article for Law Library Journal about this
arrangement (see V. 86, No.3, Summer 1994)--you could also call the
current head of TS at MSLL--it's Dennis Skrade at 651-297-2090. MSLL also
has an Outreach service to county law libraries--I know that 2 county law
libraries in Minnesota have librarians employed through the public library
system--the person to call at MSLL regarding these programs is Susan
Larson--at 651-297-7657. Sara Galligan
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The Solano County Law Library is under the county public library system.
The county library administers the law library. The law library is housed
in the courthouse and has its own board of trustees in compliance with
California law. Also our funding is separate. We are not a branch of the
public library, although someday that may change. We are very much a
public law library, with 2/3 of our clientele being the general public,
and one-third being the legal community. We are in the process of putting
our holdings into the public library's database. So a combined catalog
(online) is in the works. The arrangement works well for us.
Carey Rowan
Supervising Librarian
Solano County Law Library
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Our library is not a member of any other group, but we hope to have our
online catalog up and running within the next few months.
(Also, on a different matter, I finally got an old A.2d volume weighed and
should have the self-addressed, stamped box in the mail today or tomorrow
for the 149 A.2d)
Thanks again.
Mary Rice
Charles County
Public Law Library
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We are a member of our regional library system, the North Suburban Library
System (NSLS). NSLS has approximately 625 member libraries, encompassing
school, academic, public, and special libraries. Geographically we are
the
NE corner of Illinois between Chicago and the Wisconsin border. The
director of NSLS is Sarah Long, who was recently president of ALA.
We joined the system for several reasons. Free access to OCLC,
eligibility
for grants, training opportunities, and to be connected with other
libraries. Also, all ILL in Illinois is free for all libraries that are
members of their regional library system. If I need something from the
south of the state, it will be delivered up here free of charge. Our
court
system takes public outreach very seriously, and we work extensively with
public libraries to further access to justice through the use of public
and
law libraries. Because of our work with the publics, we were the NSLS
Library of the Year in 1998. We are the only non-public library to earn
that award.
We are not yet on the union catalog. It is one of my goals to be. It is
a
money issue right now. When I started in 1997, we had no automation. I
started with purchasing an InMagic system, but no web access. When we get
the money, we are going to upgrade, do marc records, go online, and share
with the system.
The county law libraries in Illinois have formed an unofficial group. We
meet 3-4 times a year, and actively share materials between each other. In
our meetings we discuss things relevant to county law libraries (There is
a
chapter of AALL in Chicago, but like AALL it is dominated by the
academics/firms). We have worked to pass legislation increasing our
funding, and share pro se materials and ideas.
Organizationally we are all seperate from one another, the State Library,
and the Supreme Court Library. Nevertheless, we maintain close relations
with them, and those two libraries have never hesitated to assist us with
materials.
If I can be of any more assistance with this, let me know! Good luck!
David E. Bender, Law Librarian
William D. Block Memorial Law Library
Nineteenth Judicial Circuit, State of Illinois
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