Spring/Summer 2006
E-Newsletter
|
| Chair's Message |
| Libraries in New Orleans - Update |
| Self-Help News |
| Welcome! |
This is our first run at creating an online e-newsletter for LISP. We hope you like it! Please send us your comments! by Sara Galligan, 2005-2006 LISP Chair Welcome to LISP’s newsletter! This message summarizes the past year’s activities and also highlights some upcoming activities in St. Louis. Since last July’s business meeting, we’ve been more about business than pleasure. With the help of key LISP members, I greatly appreciate the progress we’ve made, which has resulted in a gratifying experience for me. It was an important year for LISP, and I believe we are poised for more meaningful ventures (as well as sharing some highlights in St. Louis.) Thanks go to many. I appreciate Amy Hale-Janeke’s willingness to attend the Education Summit last September despite hurricane interference with her departure city(ies) and life in general. Thanks also go to Judy Flader (incoming LISP Chair) for putting together a phenomenal Nominations Committee consisting of: Paul Healy (Chair), Carol Billings, Amy Hale-Janeke, David McFadden, and Elizabeth Schneider. Judy also reviewed the bylaws and drafted some possible changes for future discussion. We launched our first online election thanks to Catherine Hendrickson (LISP Secretary/Treasurer). Following a decision last year to offer our first travel grant (in memory of former LISP Chair Kathy Garner), David McFadden agreed to chair a Grants Committee that not only found two excellent recipients (Betty Agin, Middlesex County Law Library, New Brunswick, NJ; and Brian Haley, New Hampshire Law Library), but the committee (including Sharon Blackburn, Joel Fishman, and Lee Warthen) also created a template for future reference (and future grant awards). This year’s grant covered AALL registration costs for our two recipients. We also selected our first VIP to the St. Louis meeting. LISP will sponsor Ayn Crawley, Director of the Legal Assistance Network for Maryland, who is also a panel speaker Sunday morning for “Pioneers in Self-help: A 21st Century Vision for Libraries, Self-help Centers, Legal Aid Web Sites and Pro Bono Partners.” LISP is co-sponsoring this program with SCCLL. Ayn also plans to participate in the Joint LISP/RIPS/SR Roundtable entitled “Services to Pro Se Patrons and Prisoners.” This event will be moderated by Amy Hale-Janeke on Monday (July 10) at 10:15AM- 11:30AM. Thanks also go to Amy for creating and organizing the LISP newsletter this year. Finally, my thanks go to Pam Tull who served as our excellent and very prompt webmaster this year. In one short year, so much has changed. Hurricane Katrina impacted all of us in one way or another. Later in this newsletter, past LISP Chair Marie Erickson (from the Law Library of Louisiana) reiterates in this newsletter some events involving ALA’s assistance to public libraries in her area. In St. Louis, I would like to discuss what LISP members might do to offer further assistance when we land in New Orleans next year. Not quite as earth moving as a hurricane—but more like a controlled burn—are efforts that are attracting more law librarian involvement. In this newsletter, Charly Dyer describes the Self Represented Litigation Network, which is fostering collaboration among organizations (including law libraries) for more expansive leadership in areas that can help pro se litigants. In Minnesota, the Minnesota Supreme Court just established a “Statewide Law Library/Self Help Center Project Workgroup” that is studying ways to reach rural areas, provide cost effective online legal research, disseminate self help resources and assistance (using county law libraries and public libraries), and identify and propose best practices for the a law library/self help center “hybrid.” LISP certainly fits with these initiatives. However, we need to critically assess our own mission and products and identify a plan to update and market the great resources we provide directly to the public and to public librarians. In the short survey that was part of the online election this spring, the end user products (e.g. toolkits) option was the area that received the majority of votes as far as a priority for LISP next year. We may decide to conduct some strategic planning as well as address some bylaws changes. These issues will be agenda items at the St. Louis business meeting; but please get in touch with me sooner if you wish to provide input. The other area that may become more of a priority for LISP is the assessment and promotion of pro bono opportunities among law libraries. The recent survey I forwarded to the LISP listserv is producing a glimpse of library activity, and I plan to report on the results during our Sunday panel presentation as well as the Joint Roundtable. As for other important activities in St. Louis, LISP is sponsoring Amy Hale-Janeke’s program “What Do YOU Want? The Hidden Problem of Compassion Fatigue” (Tuesday, July 11, 9:00AM).” LISP will also be featured in the exhibit hall and at CONELL. Finally, congratulations to our new officers, Luis Acosta (incoming Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect) and Susan Larson (incoming Secretary/Treasurer). I look forward to good times with you all in St. Louis! The LISP Business Meeting will be in St. Louis on Monday, July 10, from 5:15-6:15 p.m. If you have any items to add to the agenda, please email Sara Galligan. |
Joint Roundtable at AALL LISP/RIPS/SR-SIS Joint Roundtable: Library Services to Pro Se Patrons and Prisoners
Please join us in St. Louis at the Annual Meeting on Monday, July 10, 2006 from 10:15 AM - 11:30 AM. The room location has yet to be assigned.
We will begin by having an informal discussion of strategies for effectively dealing with pro se patrons moderated again this year by Amy Hale-Janeke.
Then Barbara Golden, the Minnesota State Law Librarian, will briefly discuss the unique "Law Library Service to Prisoners" project at the MN State Law Library and take questions.
Back to top
Libraries in New Orleans
LJ, ALA renovate, restock New Orleans public libraries
Katrina damaged New Orleans’ public libraries as badly as everything else in this partially sub-sea-level city.
Underfunded before the storm, the public library system struggled to provide adequate service, so there was nothing extra to restock and rebuild. 80% of the staff have been laid off. Few branches are open.
But help is on the way.
Library Journal and the American Library Association are working to renovate and restock two branches, the neighborhood Alvar branch and the larger Children’s Resource Center.
The Alvar branch
Library Journal has led the drive for library-industry in-kind donations totaling $400,000, including shelf-ready books from Baker and Taylor, computers and shelving, and pro bono services from the Minneapolis architectural firm of Meyer, Scherer & Rockcastle. The New Orleans Public Library Foundation has raised another $400,000 in donations for building repairs.
Alvar was selected for renovation because it was structurally sound, the area was not severely flooded and has repopulated, and is among the most diverse in the city. The grade-level library was flooded, however, and the contents were destroyed by mold.
The branch will have 24 computers (up from 8) and wireless Internet access.
Volunteers are landscaping the modest green space on either side of the building. The larger space will become a community park. Hours for the park, and plans for it to be available for community functions, are in the works. The smaller space will become a secure spot for families to read together, or for the kids to play while adults read or access the new wireless Internet service.
At 2400 square feet, Alvar, with its charming art deco facade, is the smallest branch in the system. It will serve all New Orleans Public Library patrons, concentrating on the Bywater, Holy Cross, and Marigny neighborhoods it is situated in, with their mix of artists, musicians, large GLBT community, and African Americans. The under-construction Habitat for Humanity musicians’ village is within walking distance of the branch.
It will also serve New Orleans’ large Vietnamese community, because at 14 miles away, it is the closest branch that was not completely destroyed by the storm.
The first shipment of books is due June 19. A grand opening is scheduled for Sunday June 25, during ALA’s annual meeting here in New Orleans.
The Children’s Resource Center
The American Library Association has taken the lead with Highsmith in a similar drive to renovate and restock the Children’s Resource Center in Uptown New Orleans.
Located in an expanded Carnegie library, the center did not suffer as much damage as many other branches, but was still in need of renovation, and appealed to many who wanted to contribute to children’s library services. It is now open.
It has received $200,000 in industry in-kind donations as well, including shelf-ready books. The New Orleans Public Library Foundation has raised another $200,000 for building repairs.
ABA donates. You, too?
The Labor and Employment Law Section of the American Bar Association has donated $25,000 for the Children’s Resource Center, $25,000 for the business, economics, government, law, and justice collections at the New Orleans Public Library’s main branch, and is working to raise more funds for the Alvar branch.
The main branch and its subterranean basements survived unflooded.
To donate, go to the New Orleans Public Library’s homepage, www.nutrias.org, scroll down, and click links for the New Orleans Public Library Foundation Rebuilding Campaign or the Friends of the New Orleans Public Library’s Restoration Fund.
Or you can got to www.powells.com, click bestsellers, scroll to #18, New Orleans Public Library Book Pledge: Tax-deductible Contribution, and click.
Back to top
Self Help News
Now Launched: The Network on Self Represented Litigation: Fulfilling the Promise of Access to Justice for the Self-Represented (submitted by Charles Dyer)
The Self Represented Litigation Network is an open and growing grouping of organizations and working groups dedicated to fulfilling the promise of a justice system that works for all, including those who can not afford lawyers and are therefore forced to go to court on their own. The Network brings together courts and access to justice organizations in support of innovations in services for the self represented.
The Network’s participants already range from the Conference of State Court Administrators and the National Association for Court Management to the State Justice Institute, from the American Judicature Society to the Harvard Law School Bellow Sacks Project on Access to Civil Justice, and from the National Association of IOLTA programs to state court administrative offices such as those of California and Maryland.
The participants are cooperating in a wide variety of collaborative efforts and working groups. These efforts include providing information about innovations for the self represented, promoting best practices in such areas as the setting up of self help offices, the use of forms, and e-filing, discrete task representation, and judicial practices and education programs, establishing a research agenda, and working for integration with the system as a whole and for long term funding to support access to justice for the self-represented.
Initial concrete projects include the www.selfhelpsupport.org website, cooperation in the planning of a series of three regional conferences on self-represented litigation, and the distribution of a national directory of court-based programs for the self represented.
The Network welcomes additional organizational members, seeks volunteers from member and non member organizations to join its working groups and is fully open to suggestions for new projects and partnerships. Neither membership nor participation requires a contribution or fee.
The Network operates under a Memorandum of Understanding, and is hosted by the National Center for State Courts. Funding is provided by the State Justice Institute, the National Center for State Courts and various state courts.
------
The above press release was submitted by Charles Dyer, who is serving on the network’s Information, Marketing and Outreach Group, which plans to create a sub-group of law librarians and other librarians. Also, a new AALL Special Committee on Pro Bono Partnerships has been created for 2006-07 by incoming President Sally Holterhoff, to be chaired by Sara Galligan. One of the charges for this special committee is to recommend to the AALL Executive Board how AALL can become involved with the Self-Represented Litigation Network of the National Center for State Courts. Watch for more information about this committee to be announced soon.
Back to top
2006-2007 Officers |
||
|
||
