The New Shared Online Catalog Provides Expanded Capabilities and Access

After much hard work on the part of both libraries, the Lemieux Library is now on a shared Innovative Interfaces catalog system with the Law Library. (The Law Library has been an Innovative system user for over 20 years.) This dual access system will not only allow the patron to more easily determine what resources are available on campus, but also will facilitate future participation by both libraries in various regional and national library consortia.

For example, sharing the same system proved a cost effective way for the Law Library and the Lemieux Library to join Summit, a regional library consortium (http://cascade.lib.washington.edu/). This consortium provides access to over 22 million books and other materials owned by university and college libraries in Oregon and Washington and serving over 180,000 faculty and students from 27 member institutions. Direct borrowing will be available to students and faculty at member institutions and materials will be delivered by a courier service that provides daily pick-up and delivery of library materials at 60 libraries in Oregon, Washington, and Idaho.

The transition to a shared system has necessitated many hours of cooperative planning and conference calls regarding purchasing and installing products, establishing uniform coding standards, and creating a mutually agreeable layout and organization of the online catalog. Four joint training sessions of three days each were held from March through June and involved training on the Innovative acquisitions, cataloging, circulation, and serials modules in addition to covering systems and online catalog maintenance issues.

As part of the process of sharing a catalog, tens of thousands of Lemieux’s records have been added to the existing system. You may now go to the shared catalog webpage (http://library.seattleu.edu) and conduct searches of either the combined collections or just the Lemieux or law collections. In the combined catalog (http://library.seattleu.edu/screens/opacmenu.html), you can click on the links at the top of the page or use the drop-down boxes to change your search to either the Lemieux Library collection or to the law collections. Other new features allow you to restrict your search to particular types of materials or to items located in certain areas of either Library. Please stop by the reference desk or send us an e-mail if you’d like a tour of the new features.

Collaborative Learning Workshops

Throughout the summer, law library personnel participated in a series of in-house training sessions called Collaborative Learning Workshops. Library personnel with specific areas of expertise gave presentations to their library colleagues on a variety of topics including:

Sabbatical Research: Trials of Leschi (Kunsch)

Advanced Internet Searching (Fitz-Gerald)

Government Documents (Menanteaux)

Non-Legal Databases (Engstrom)

Advanced Functions of the Online Catalog's Acquisitions, Serials and Circulation Modules (Kezele, Minton, Phillips)

International Law/Treaties (Menanteaux/Fitz-Gerald)

Advanced Catalog Searching (Fitz-Gerald)

Attendees found the workshops practical and entertaining. The workshops provided an informal, learning and training environment for all library personnel.

Law Library Liaison Program

Instituted in 2001, the library’s liaison program has been extremely successful. The formalized faculty liaison program is designed to foster greater contact between faculty and the librarians. Each faculty member is assigned a librarian liaison who monitors and proactively responds to the faculty member's instructional and scholarly needs and serves as the faculty member's primary contact person within the library.

Services include:

Scholarly Support - The librarians provide research support on a broad range of topics, including legal and non-legal information.

Tailored Lectures/Research Guides - The librarians provide in-class or in-library lectures and demonstrations on research techniques and materials in specific topical areas. Web- or paper-based resource guides can be prepared that are tailored to specific classes: http://www.law.seattleu.edu/library/startingpoints/

Student Research Consultations - Faculty who teach seminars on advanced topics and courses with writing projects often encourage their students to set up an individual research consultation with a librarian to review research resources and strategies.

Research Assistant Training - The librarians train and work with RAs on effective research strategies and suggested resources.

Current Awareness - To aid faculty in keeping abreast of developments in particular areas, the librarians recommend current awareness tools and set up regular electronic clip searches. Additionally, the librarians run preemption checks to see if others have published on a particular topic of interest. The librarians routinely keep faculty apprised of new materials (print or online) added to the collection and scan catalogs and bibliographies to inform faculty of important new literature and forthcoming publications.

Course Preparation - Librarians provide research support and background information for faculty developing new courses or updating existing courses. In preparation for new courses, the librarians will review library resources and make suggestions for additions to the collection within budgetary parameters.

The liaison program has expanded to include the growing number of visiting faculty and visiting scholars as well as various co-curricular programs. A list of liaison assignments is available at: http://www.law.seattleu.edu/library/faculty#liaisoncontacts. While the over 70 adjuncts are not assigned individual librarian liaisons, they are increasingly availing themselves of librarian research support.

Academic Law Libraries Marketing Toolkit

Kristin Cheney recently authored a chapter entitled “Annual Reports in Academic Law Libraries” in the newly released Marketing Toolkit for Academic Law Libraries http://www.aallnet.org/sis/allsis/toolkit/toolkit.html. The toolkit is comprised of a variety of marketing materials to be used by law librarians in the promotion and development of law libraries. Other articles covered mission statements, user surveys, statistics, and so on. Each article is accompanied by a helpful bibliography of resources. Librarians nationwide are very appreciative of such a practical and comprehensive marketing tool.

AALL Conference

The librarians attended the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL) annual meeting in Boston from July 10-14. The theme this year was “From Boston to Mumbai: The World of Legal Information,” which emphasized access to foreign and international legal information.

Kristin Cheney attended the Academic Law Libraries directors’ breakfast and Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities (AJCU) directors’ business meeting. Additionally, the librarians attended various AJCU, Academic Law Libraries Special Interest Section (ALL-SIS), and WestPac activities. Bob Menanteaux attended a preconference workshop on Information Sources for International Trade.

The Academic Law Libraries Special Interest Section held a gathering of librarians at the Harvard Law School Library. We were pleased to receive many compliments for our hosting this reception during the 2003 AALL annual meeting.

Libraries in Cuba!

In April, Kristin Cheney and Stephanie Wilson attended a Library Research Program in Cuba. The program was lead by Ann Sitkin, a law librarian at Harvard Law School Library. The program was designed to allow librarians to see first hand the libraries and archives of Cuba, and to meet with its librarians. The itinerary included a sampling of all types of libraries in Cuba; academic, municipal, and specialized. Attendees included librarians from a wide range of institutions including Harvard, St. John’s University School of Law, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Haverford College, and the American Textile History Museum. The trip included visits to the National Library and Archives, the Main Library of the University of Havana, the municipal libraries of Cienfuegos and Bauta, and the Jardin des Botanical Library. Attendees also visited the Museum of Fine Arts in Havana, the Literacy Museum, and Ernest Hemingway’s home in Havana.

Brown v. Board of Education Events

In February, the Law Library began its commemoration of the Supreme Court's decision in Brown v. Board of Education with the launch of a physical and an online exhibit. In the intervening months, we have created a traveling version of the exhibit entitled “Images of Struggle and Hope: The Context of Brown v. Board.” This traveling exhibit made its debut during the Seattle University CLE “From Brown to Grutter: Racial Integration and the Law in the Northwest.” “Images” was later displayed during the Loren Miller Bar Association Panel discussion, “Brown and Its Impact,” which was held in Piggott Auditorium on May 10, and at the University of Washington on May 17 (the actual anniversary) at the LMBA’s "Reenactment of the Brown Supreme Court Argument," featuring Lembhard G. Howell, the Honorable Chief Judge John C. Coughenour, and the entire Washington State Supreme Court. In late May, “Images” traveled to the New Holly Community Center for display at a YMCA Youth and Community Forum discussing Brown. Additionally, the content has been shared with the local YMCA, which is developing a video about Brown to be used in the Seattle School District. The Library is very excited that what started as a library exhibit has reached out so broadly into our community.

New Display of Civil Rights Ephemera

Professor Michael Rooke-Ley has graciously lent his collection of material from the Civil Rights Movement to the library. In 1965, Professor Rooke-Ley was a summer volunteer with C.O.R.E. in Mississippi. The collection includes pamphlets, notes, flyers, and images from that time. Selections from the collection are now on view in two display cases on the second floor of the library.

2004 Bridge the Legal Research Gap: A Great Success

On June 23rd, the Law Library co-sponsored the 9th Annual Bridge the Legal Research Gap symposium with our colleagues from the UW Gallagher Law Library. This free program offered eight instructional sessions taught by librarians from both law libraries. Sessions were designed to reacquaint students with research skills that are useful in summer legal employment. All classes took place at the University of Washington law school. While the majority of over 150 attendees were students from Seattle University and the University of Washington, students from twenty other law schools (e.g. Harvard, Columbia, and Stanford) also attended.

SU Law Library's participation included "Practicing Lawyers Tools" taught by Kelly Kunsch. Helane Davis addressed the first plenary session on real world legal research and Bob Menanteaux covered federal legislative history. Erika Lim represented Career Services at the closing plenary on "Making the Most of Your Summer Job." Kara Philips and Kent Milunovich helped with onsite registration and prepared handouts. Jane Draney ran online registration and prepared over 200 registration badges.

The materials from each instructional session are available on the Internet at http://lib.law.washington.edu/btg/2004/launch.htm Videotapes of each session have been placed on closed reserve in the library. Photos of the event can be viewed at http://lib.law.washington.edu/btg/2004/photos.htm

Circulation Dual Screen Monitors

Dual flat screen monitors have been installed at the circulation desk to facilitate staff in teaching patrons how to search the library catalog, find library policies, fill out ILL request forms, and look at their record online without leaving the circulation service area. Student assistants will receive specialized training on utilizing the dual screens to provide expanded service to library users.

Security Door Installed

A new locked door has been installed behind the circulation desk to secure the materials in the library closed reserve section which have been steadily disappearing. Additionally, certain materials which were formerly housed in the open reserve collection have been moved to closed reserve for the same reason. For more information and photographic examples of missing materials, see our previous newsletter article Ripped Off: Stolen and Vandalized Books Hurt the Library and Users.

In order to determine the extent of missing items throughout the entire collection, the library has embarked on a long term inventory project. Kent Milunovich, Technical Services/Systems Librarian, has completed an inventory of several areas of the collection and hopes to complete the project in the not too distant future. You can assist us in this effort by returning any unused library books to the circulation desk and by making sure that materials you have are checked out.