Articles Posted in Library Organization and Planning

The following is from the Introduction to the 2008 Annual Report: Committee on Libraries and Education Technology, New York State Assembly.* A link to the entire Report follows.

I. COMMITTEE JURISDICTION The Libraries and Education Technology Committee was created in 1997 under the leadership of Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver. The Committee has jurisdiction over legislation introduced concerning the many issues affecting public, academic, school and private libraries.

The Committee develops and reviews legislation affecting the administration and funding of libraries and library systems across New York State. As today’s explosion in information technology has placed new demands on libraries, we are mindful of our responsibility to ensure that New York’s libraries will be able to meet the challenges of the information age. The work done by the Committee assists libraries to sustain the infrastructure and staff resources necessary to allow all New Yorkers access to technological advances available through New York’s vast library community.

FROM: News from the [New York] State Archives, Region 1, No. 1-2/2009.

Preserving the American Historical Record Act (PAHR): The Act will authorize grants to support the essential evidence of American government and society held by state and local governments, historical societies, and libraries.

Status: On May 15, 2008, the Preserving the American Historical Record Act (H>R> 6056) was introduced in the 110th Congress. Original co-sponsors were Representatives Maurice Hinchey (D-NY) and Chris Cannon (R-UT). This legislation would provide authorization for the Preserving the American Historical Record program to preserve essential documents and archival records held in state and local governments and historical institutions….

Sometimes it seems as though Google has become ubiquitous in the world of searching and may want to repeat its act in the world of books. While thinking about this, two articles, one forthcoming and one published Febrary 1 have come to our attention>

The forthoming article Google and the Future of Books* by Robert Darnton, Director of the Library and Carl H. Pforzheimer University Professor of Harvard has much to say on the subject and should be required reading for all who are concerned about these developments. He writes:

“How can we navigate through the information landscape that is only beginning to come into view? The question is more urgent than ever following the recent settlement between Google and the authors and publishers who were suing it for alleged breach of copyright…”

Charlotte School of Law would like to assess its library collection and subsequently develop an acquisition strategy. At this initial stage, we’re seeking qualified consultants who can respond to a more detailed RFP after signing a confidentiality agreement.

Objective

Our objective is to assess the library collection and to develop a collection enhancement strategy that will be used to guide future acquisitions. More specifically, we would like to:

The above titled January 27, 2009 article by John Markoff, published in the New York Times is relevant because it discusses digitization, preservation and authentication of records (and by extension information) in terms of continuously preserving these qualities in an authentic state as the underlying technology constantly changes or “shifts” over time, thus taking into account and emphasizing the importance of both the initial authentication of information in accordance with accepted polices and practices and the urgency of maintaining that authenticity over time. In terms of this discussion the question for law librarians and others throughout the legal profession working with digital legal information is how to best provide assurance that primary and other legal information officially authenticated at a given time can be safely perceived as remaining reliably authentic over a much longer period of time in the midst of these constant shifts? Since John Markoff’s article may help us at least clarify these issues I wanted to share it with you.

David Badertscher

Here are some excerpts:

In case you missed it, the results from the 2008 version of Marshall Breeding’s Library Automation Survey are available at http://www.librarytechnology.org/perceptions2008.pl. This Survey is international in scope. There were 1,450 responses.

State of New York Supreme Court Criminal Term Library (New York County)

Inspired by the recent New York Unified Court System Report Green Justice: An environmental Action Plan for the New York State Court System*, the New York Supreme Court Law Library, Criminal Term (New York County) is pleased to announce a major upgrade to the section of our website dealing with search engines. Our objective is to best serve your information needs through enhanced access to reference and research sources. Consequently, we have have provided a wide variety of general Internet search engines as well as search engines that specifically target legal information sites. Moreover, we have included in our resource page meta search engines which combine the search results and different technologies of multiple companies (e.g. Google and MSN). We hope that these resources are another means for you to conveniently and best retrieve information from the Internet. Our new search engine page is located at: /nyc_criminal/search_engines.shtml .

You may wish to reacquaint yourselves with out library homepage which is located at: http://www.nycourts.gov/library/nyc_criminal/ .

January 2009

Happy New Year!

The January 2009 issue of WSLL @ Your Service has been published at http://wsll.state.wi.us/newsletter/0901.html In this issue:

The e-newsletter of the American Library Association – January 7, 2009
Selected highlights*

Judge overrules Philadelphia branch closings A Philadelphia judge has ordered Mayor Michael Nutter to halt his planned closing of 11 branches of the Free Library of Philadelphia. Court of Common Pleas Judge Idee C. Fox (right) issued the ruling December 30 in response to an emergency motion filed by three city council members who argued that the closures would violate a 1988 city ordinance requiring the mayor to obtain council approval before shutting any city-owned facility….
American Libraries Online, Jan. 5
Protect patrons’ privacy ALA Editions has released a new title, Privacy and Confidentiality Issues: A Guide for Libraries and their Lawyers, by Theresa Chmara. In this clear and concise guide, set up in an FAQ format, First Amendment attorney and litigation expert Chmara shares her decades of experience in easy-to-understand, jargon-free language. Interspersed within the questions and answers, actual court case studies lend a sense of urgency to the explanations….

Date change for Los Angeles Lawyers for Libraries ALA will present a Lawyers for Libraries training institute February 27 in Los Angeles. The previously announced date was February 20. The Lawyers for Libraries Institute is primarily intended to equip attorneys with tools they need to effectively defend the First Amendment in libraries….

Internet use grows at meetings Until recently, travelers attending conferences had simple internet needs. They would check email messages and look up information on the Web or connect to the home office. Now, meetings are likely to include streaming video and online interaction. Back in their rooms, travelers are downloading movies and logging onto peer-to-peer networks. Event organizers and hotels and conference centers are struggling to keep up and prevent internet gridlock….
New York Times, Dec. 29 Continue reading

We received the following e-mail today from Jennifer S. Murray of the Maricopa County Superior Court Library in Arizona and would like to share it with you:

For those who might be interested, I wanted to share this link to today’s Diane Rehm Show audio file on the role of libraries in economic hard times:
http://wamu.org/programs/dr/09/01/07.php#24509

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