Library News and Views

November 20, 2008

New York Library Supporters Protest State Cuts

“About 450 librarians and library supporters rallied against budget cuts at the New York State Capitol in Albany November 18. Gov. David Paterson has proposed $20 million in cuts to libraries, which the New York Library Association says will reduce library aid for the state’s 73 library systems to a level not seen since 1993. State aid to libraries was flat between 1998 and 2006. Paterson called lawmakers into an emergency session to make mid-year budget cuts, but legislators did not take any action…”
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White Plains (N.Y.) Journal News, Nov. 18; New York Library Association

November 17, 2008

Library of Congress Merges Acquisition and Cataloging Functions

by David Badertscher

For the Announcement check the press release at http://www.loc.gov/today/pr/2008/08-190.html..

Questions have been raised as to how this might impact law cataloging. Here is a response from AAron Wolfe Kuperman at the Law Catagoging Section of the Library of Congress:

The impact on the LAW team is limited. We are renamed the “Law Section”,

November 10, 2008

LLAGNY / AALL Program: Authentic Legal Information in the Digital Age: Is Online Legal Information Trustworthy?

by David Badertscher

On Thursday November 6, 2008 the Law Library Association of Greater New York (LLAGNY) presented in conjunction with the Electronic Legal Information Access and Citation Committee of the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL) a program at the New York County Lawyers Association in New York City regarding how findings of the 2007 authentication report published by AALL and its ELIAC Committee can be adopted in the State of New York.

The program consisted of a panel of representatives of AALL, its Electronic Legal Information Access and Citation (ELIAC), and two agencies of New York state government, the New York State Reporting Bureau and the Office of General Counsel of the New York State Department of State discussing the AALL Authentication Report, published in 2007 and approaches, strategies, and challenges to adopting its findings to authenticating and otherwise validating in accordance with accepted standards New York State primary source legal information published on the web.

The following are links to the opening remarks of the moderator, David Badertscher, Slides frm the presentation of Mary Alice Baish,and a summary of the program kindly provided by Theodore Pollack, Senior Law Librarian at the New York County Public Access Library, who attended the program, and to the program announcement from LLAGNY. Other links will be added if they become available.

October 24, 2008

American Libraries Direct October 22, 2008

by David Badertscher

The e-newsletter of the American Library Association (ALA):

Selected Higllights:

Kareem PSA generated $900,000 in library publicity

October 21, 2008

AALL: State Court and County Law Libraries Special Interest Section Newsletter, Fall 2008

by David Badertscher

The fall issue of the State Court and County Law Libraries (SCCLL) Newsletter has been published at:

http://www.aallnet.org/sis/sccll/pdfs/news/2008fall.pdf

There is an inoperable hyperlink on page 12. The link to the article “Law Libraries Keep FOL in $titches” is: http://www.friends-library.org/about/footnotes2008/footnotes-0808.pdf

October 10, 2008

Twenty Five Important Legal Issues Every Librarian Should Research

by David Badertscher

Kelly Sonora of the bestcollegeonline blog recently sent us an article by Jessica Merritt recently posted on their site and invited us to post it here we thought our readers would be interested. We do think it will be of interest to many of our readers, particulary those law librarians who serve public patrons and appreciate the opportunity of posting it here. Because the article contains many links we will include only the first paragraph here but will provide a link to the bestcollegeonline blog so you can read the entire article:

25 Important Legal Issues Every Librarian Should Research

By Jessica Merritt

October 9, 2008

U.S. Federal Agencies Launch Digitization Guidelines Inititiative

by David Badertscher

U.S. Federal agencies join together to define digitization guidelines. For more information see the complete posting entry on the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL) Washington Blawg

October 7, 2008

Webinar: Twenty Essentials for the Effective Speaker

by David Badertscher

Do you need to present to key stake holders, engage your audience, get buy-in for your idea or project, or all of the above? Register for the following webinar program where Tracy Everett, southwest regional client relations manager for Littler Mendelson, will share some essentials needed to be an effective speaker. Please register by October 20.

Twenty Essentials for the Effective Speaker-Webinar

Date: Thursday, October 23, 2008 Time: 12:00 PM to 1:00 PM – Eastern Time

September 26, 2008

American Libraries Direct September 24, 2008

by David Badertscher

An e-newsletter of the American Library Association

Trenton library plans to close all its branches

A potential citywide budget deficit of as much as $28 million has led the Trenton (N.J.) Public Library to develop plans to close all four of its neighborhood branches. Library Director Kimberly Bray announced the library board’s decision, which followed an across-the-board 10% cut in funding to all city departments, in an email to staff September 10. Some 60 residents attended a September 23 city council meeting devoted to the closings-the third such meeting held over eight days-at which Bray described three options, all requiring staff layoffs….

September 25, 2008

Law Library of Congress: Redesigned Global Legal Monitor Launched

by David Badertscher

The following is from an announcement received from Emily Carr, Legal Reference Specialist, Law Library of Congress, on September 24, 2008. It should be of great interest to all who need to follow foreign and international developments in the law.

Redesigned Global Legal Monitor Launched

The Law Library of Congress is pleased to announce the launch of the redesigned Global Legal Monitor [http://www.loc.gov/lawweb/servlet/lloc_news?home]. The Global Legal Monitor has transformed from a monthly published PDF to a dynamic continuously updated website. The new Global Legal Monitor has the ability to view legal developments by topic [http://www.loc.gov/lawweb/servlet/lloc_news?allTopics] (more than one hundred so far) and by jurisdiction [http://www.loc.gov/lawweb/servlet/lloc_news?allJuris] (over one hundred and fifty). The content of the Global Legal Monitor can also be searched through its advanced search interface.