Category: Blog

Eastern West Virginians in need of valuable legal resources and research assistance literally have been locked out of a publicly funded regional law library for more than a year, according to the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals’ top librarian.

“Since we are without a librarian at the moment, I am reluctant to leave the library open,” Kaye L. Maerz said Thursday at the library in the Berkeley County Judicial Center in Martinsburg.

For more on this story, Click Here.

Those of you who are planning to take cruises this summer might be interested in this blog post by Mary Flood about just how many of your rights you sign away in the standard cruise contract! The post discusses a presentation that was made to the Southwestern Association of Law Libraries during a five-day legal conference that took place on a Carnival cruise ship.

Under a new state law, local municipalities are now authorized to tap into public libraries’ “excess funds.” In a nutshell, if a public library does not spend all of its budgeted money and the local government gets the approval of the library trustees, the money could be returned to the municipality. For more details, click here.

From the April 3rd edition of the University of Buffalo Reporter, Protecting Books From Ravages of Time, Nature, Kevin Fryling reports on the steps taken by UB Law Library staff after “[a]n overnight storm surge [] leaked through the roof [] and left thousands of books, periodicals and research materials—including some rare and highly specialized items—severely damaged or destroyed.

The University of Connecticut has announced that it is naming its law library in memory of alumnus and former Connecticut Governor Thomas J. Meskill. For more about this announcement, click here.

The Star Ledger’s I Am New Jersey blog contains a lengthy entry about Bill Dane, “the man who, for 60 years, has protected and enriched one of the finest public collections of prints in the country.

After damage from leaks and flaws in its granite facade, the University of Connecticut Law Library is going to undergo a $19 million repair job. For the record, the law library is 11 years old, and was built at a cost of $24 million.

For more details, click here.

From the 9/1/07 F Minus comic strip, commentary on the value of public libraries.

Help keep this resource alive by volunteering to locate and post content on this site. No experience is necessary. All you need is an interest in locating and providing useful information to your NJLLA colleagues.

If interested, send an email to daniel_campbell at cit.uscourts.gov.

Participation in NJSL Blue Ribbon Task Force on the Future – applications needed by August 15, 2007

Norma Blake, New Jersey State Librarian, has instituted a “Blue Ribbon Task Force on the Future” to continue the groundbreaking work begun by the Mid-Atlantic Library Futures Conference. The State Library recognizes that it is imperative to have input from the people who are shaping the future of New Jersey’s libraries.

This is an open invitation to anyone currently working in a New Jersey library who has an interest in the future of libraries to apply for a possible appointment to the Task Force. The

Task Force will comprise members from different types of libraries and from different job titles. Applications will be reviewed by a panel selected by the State Librarian and appointments made following the review process. The goal of the Task Force will be to make recommendations about how libraries can respond in the future to the information received at the conference and the challenges presented. How can local libraries and the State Library respond to projected demographic changes, growing diversity, an aging population, and technological advances?

We expect that this task force will require a short-term commitment. It is expected that the task force will meet once a month for six months, beginning September 2007, culminating in a report to the State Librarian by March 2008. The report will be presented at the April 2008 NJLA Conference.

If you are interested in serving on this panel, please complete page two of the application which can be found at http://www.njstatelib.org/News/Blue%20Ribbon%20Panel.pdf and return it by August 15, 2007 to:

Peggy Cadigan
Consultant for Innovation and Communication
New Jersey State Library
185 West State Street
P.O. Box 520
Trenton, New Jersey 08625-0520

You may send the application as a word document e-mail attachment or fax it to: 609-633-3963.

Contact Peggy Cadigan with any questions. 609-278-2640, Ext. 113 or 609-292-4161, pcadigan at njstatelib.org