Articles Posted in Library Organization and Planning

At least one publisher appears to be experimenting with issuing flash drives to accompany at least some of the serial volumes they publish. How, or should, libraries process flash drives received in this matter and incorporate them into their collections. Below is a question posed via e-mail by someone actually receiving such materials and some responses and recommendations:*

QUESTION:

“Recently our library received an ABA serial, the 23rd Annual National Institute on White Collar Crime, with an accompanying flash drive. We have not received flash drives with print material before, and since this is sure to be a trend, I wanted to find out how others are handling this situation. The flash drive contains the contents of the entire volume, plus some unique material not replicated in the serial volume. Since we’d prefer to keep the information on the flash drive and the book together, one potential idea was to burn the flash drive contents to a CD-ROM and insert the disc in the back of the book.”

The King County Superior Court Clerk’s Office 2nd Annual Electronic Court Records Program Conference will be held August 4-6,2009 in Seattle, WA. This is a free program.

DESCRIPTION:

King County Superior Court Clerk’s Office proudly presents

Mark Estes, Editorial Director of AALL Spectrum, has forwarded the following Press Release about an important study published in the March/April 2009 issue of American Libraries, the journal of the American Library Association. The study suggests that people with untreated severe mantal illness may pose a greater risk to America’s public libraries than the internet.*

PRESS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT:

April 8, 2009.

ALA Direct is the eNewsletter of the American Library Association.

HIGHLIGHTS:

Included in this issue is a link which our Senior Law Librarian and ALA member Philip Blue recommends for job seekers:
http://joblist.ala.org/index.cfm

ALA Connect debuts
“ALA is now providing its members a common virtual space to engage in ALA business and network with other members around issues and interests relevant to the profession. In the first phase of ALA Connect, every ALA group will have the ability to utilize posts, online docs, a group calendar, surveys, polls, chat rooms, and discussion forums. Members can log in using their regular ALA website username and password. Their records are automatically synchronized with the ALA membership database, so affiliations with committees, divisions, events, round tables, and sections are displayed. Project Manager Jenny Levine offers an overview of the site and writes: ‘I feel a little like Doctor Frankenstein-it’s aliiiiiive-but so far the patient is doing quite well.’ ”

A letter to President Obama “On March 18, ALA President Jim Rettig submitted a letter to President Obama (PDF file) to address the issues ALA members chose to share with the administration during a January 24 Town Hall Meeting during the Midwinter Meeting in Denver: ‘Libraries are perfectly positioned to disseminate information relevant to the issues and challenges that face us as a nation, the same key issues which your administration is seeking to address.’.”..

Downturn puts new stresses on libraries “As the national economic crisis deepens and social services become casualties of budget cuts, libraries have come to fill a void for more people, particularly job-seekers and those who have fallen on hard times. Libraries across the country are seeing double-digit increases in patronage, often from 10% to 30% over previous years. Many librarians say they feel ill-equipped for the newfound demands of the job, the result of working with anxious and often depressed patrons who say they have nowhere else to go….
New York Times, Apr. 1”

Google’s plan for orphan works “Millions of orphan books may get a new legal guardian. Google has been scanning the pages of those books and others as part of its plan to bring a digital library and bookstore, unprecedented in scope, to computer screens across the United States. But a growing chorus, including ALA, is expressing concern that a far-reaching settlement of a suit brought against Google by publishers and authors is about to grant the company too much power over orphan works….”
New York Times, Apr. 3–4 Continue reading

Criminal Mental Health and Disability Law, Evidence and Testimony: A Comprehensive Reference Manual for Lawyers, Judges and Criminal Justice Professionals

Exaamines in detail the legal relationships that link criminal justice, mental health, and disability discrimination law.

Co-sponsored by ABA Commission on Mental and Physical Disability Law and the ABA Criminal Justice Section _____________________________

The Legal Division Quarterly is the Newsletter of the Legal Division of the Special Libraries Association:

The 2009 Winter/Spring issue of the Legal Division Quarterly is now online at:

http://units.sla.org/division/dleg/Newsletter/LDQ%20Winter%20Spring%20v16n1&2.pdf

QUESTION*

For courts who have translated their public website into the Spanish and/or Vietnamese languages:

Do you have a Spanish and/or Vietnamese version of your court public website?

Contact Information