Library News and Views

May 5, 2008

Web Based Services at the New York Supreme Court Criminal Term Library, New York County*

by: David Badertscher

For those who have not visited us, the New York Supreme Court Criminal Term Library of New York County (sometimes referred to as the New York Criminal Law Library) is located in lower Manhattan near the Brooklyn Bridge, City Hall, and State and Federal courthouses. Like other Supreme Court libraries located throughout the State of New York, it operates under the auspices of the New York Unified Court System and participates in the various state-wide initiatives sponsored by the OCA Office of Legal Information.

Although the primary focus of this library is to provide reference and research support to personnel of the Criminal Term, its actual responsibilities and obligations are quite broad. Using its various collections in all formats, including digital, in conjunction with various web and online services, including a website and a weblog, this library functions as both an information repository and an information service. These resources and services enable it to reach out to patrons both local and worldwide, as time and resources permit. Part of the library’s responsibility is to provide support as needed and operational oversight to the New York County Public Access Law Library, which is charged with serving those members of the public who need law-related information.

May 5, 2008

Results of Survey: Library Use of E-Books

by David Badertscher

Primary Research Group has published Library Use of E-books, 2008-09 Edition, (isbn 1-57440-101-7) and would like to share some of the results. *

Data in the report is based on a survey of 75 academic, public and special libraries.. Librarians detail their plans on how they plan to develop their e-book collections, what they think of e-book readers and software, and which e-book aggregators and publishers appeal to them most and why. Other issues covered include: library production of e-books and collection digitization, e-book collection information literacy efforts, use of e-books in course reserves and inter-library loan, e-book pricing and inflation issues, acquisition sources and strategies for e-books and other issues of concern to libraries and book publishers.

Some of the findings of the 110 page report are:

May 2, 2008

Working Group on the Future of Bibliographic Control – Resource Description and Access (RDA)

by David Badertscher

As information becomes available to us, we post information about the status of various initiatives including the Working Group for Bibliograph Control and RDA. On May 1 we received the following correspondence from Richard Amelung, the AALL representative to this group:

Dear all–

As your AALL representative on the Working Group on the Future of

April 17, 2008

Conference: Ninth Annual South African Online Information Meeting

by David Badertscher

The Organisation of South African Law Libraries (OSALL) is one of the sponssors and will be participating in this Conference:

NINTH Southern African Online Information Meeting

Tuesday 3rd of June to Thursday 5th of June 2008 CSIR Conference Centre

April 14, 2008

National Library Week

by David Badertscher

National Library Week is being observed April 13-19, 2008 with the theme, “join the circle of knowledge @ your library.”

First sponsored in 1958, National Library Week is a national observance sponsored by the American Library Association (ALA) and libraries across the country each April. It is a time to celebrate the contributions of our nation’s libraries and librarians and to promote library use and support. All types of libraries – school, public, academic and special – participate.

National Library Week affords a wonderful opportunity for librarians and non-librarians to both promote and reflect on the importance of libraries to our society. Here are some examples of various groups are observing National Library Week:

April 8, 2008

New on LLRX for April 2008

by David Badertscher

The following is a listing of articles which appear in the most recent issue of LLRX at the time of this posting. See http://www.llrx.com:

The Personal Information Trainer, by Stuart Basefsky http://www.llrx.com/features/personalinfotrainer.htm

Criminal Law Resources: Fingerprint Evidence Challenges, by Ken Strutin http://www.llrx.com/features/fingerprintevidence.htm

April 7, 2008

Library Reference Renaissance Conference: August 4-5, 2008, Denver

by David Badertscher

Call for Participation

Deadline Extended to April 22, 2008

A Reference Renaissance: Current and Future Trends August 4-5, 2008 Denver, CO Conference website: http://www.bcr.org/referencerenaissance

April 4, 2008

American Libraries Direct April 4, 2008

by David Badertscher

American Libraries Direct is e-newsletter of the American Library Association. Here is the Table of Contests for the April 4, 2008 issue:

TABLE OF CONTENTS

U.S. & World News ALA News Booklist Online D.C. Update Division News Round Table News Awards Seen Online Tech Talk Actions & Answers Poll Calendar

April 3, 2008

Joseph Thomas Receives 2008 Renee Chapman Award for Outstanding Contributions in Law Librarian Technical Services

by David Badertscher

The TS-SIS Awards Committee is pleased to announce that the recipient of the Renee D. Chapman Memorial Award for Outstanding Contributions in Technical Services Law Librarianship for 2008 is Joseph Thomas.

Joseph is Head of Technical Services at the Kresge Library, University of Notre Dame Law School. His many contributions to the field of technical services law librarianship include:

8 program presentations delivered since 1991 at the AALL annual conference as well as at other venues

March 26, 2008

Wikipedia on Pro Se

by David Badertscher

Not everyone is happy with the discussion in Wikipedia regarding pro se and why people proceed pro se. Today there has been some lively discussion on this topic on the web. Here is the question which seems to have generated much of the discussion and some responses to it. As always, I have edited out all names and other forms of identification in order to protect the confidentiality of the participants:

QUESTION:

Wikipedia’s listing for Pro Se under “Why people proceed Pro Se”