• Search the Library’s Electronic and Print Resources – There are three major search options with the default being a simple search. You can use the pull down menus to conduct more specific searches, use the advanced search option, or select Course Reserves Search for materials related to a particular class.

• Export to Refworks – Refworks is a web-based citation management system that will help you organize your research. Refworks is made available to the campus through the Lemieux Library.

• Share Resources using Sharing Tools – Near the bottom of each record, you will find a link to Sharing Tools, a service that makes it easy for you to bookmark, e-mail, and/or share library resources using your existing accounts on del.icio.us, Google bookmarks, Facebook, etc.

Summer Collaborative Learning Workshops

Seattle University Law Library offered its fourth series of "Collaborative Learning Workshops" this summer for all library employees. The workshops are designed to expand training opportunities for library personnel by utilizing in-house and local experts.



Library personnel visited the Museum of History and Industry at the invitation of Jane Draney, former library administrative assistant and now executive assistant to the director of MOHAI. The field trip included not only a tour of the museum’s current exhibits, but also presentations from the MOHAI librarian and curator. Library personnel were exposed to the challenges and procedures involved in acquiring, processing, cataloging, preserving, and storing archival materials and artifacts.

Several of our workshops were opened up to all law school staff. Father Patrick Howell gave a fascinating presentation on the History of the Jesuits and librarian Kerry Fitz-Gerald engaged us with a discussion on the Millennial generation. Attendees found the workshops practical and entertaining while providing an informal, learning environment. We are grateful to our guest speakers/hosts for sharing their expertise.

Borrowing Items from Other Libraries

As a member of the SU Law community, you have several options when it comes to borrowing books from other libraries. Your first choice, of course, is to borrow from the Seattle University Lemieux Library. To borrow from the Lemieux Library, bring your campus ID card to their circulation desk for checkout.

You may also use the Summit Consortium to borrow items from 35 libraries in the Pacific Northwest, including the University of Washington. Requested items are delivered to the law library within three to four days, and you may keep them for up to three weeks.

For items not available through Lemieux or Summit, use a traditional interlibrary loan (ILL) to request items from over 3,000 libraries around the world. Forms are available at the circulation desk or from our website. The availability of ILL materials varies, but we can usually obtain items within a week. Borrowing periods are set by the lending libraries, but are typically 3-4 weeks long.

With all of these borrowing options, returning books on time is important. For the individual borrower, unreturned books or substantial fines will result in the suspension of borrowing privileges. The law library’s ability to participate in these regional and global borrowing arrangements depends upon our borrowers being “good citizens” and following the consortium rules. If you find that you need materials for longer than the borrowing period, simply return them to the library, and re-request the item. While it may seem that this makes additional work, in fact it helps the system function smoothly. Often, the second request will be filled by a different library, allowing the original lending library to return the item to its shelves for local use.

With these regional and global borrowing options, research, on any subject, has never been more accessible.

Third Floor Collection Shifted to Accommodate Donation

Did you notice that the entire third floor collection has been shifted? Over the summer, Michael Zubitis with help from Charity Braceros and Kent Milunovich shifted approximately 28,000 volumes of books to create space for a new collection. The collection was donated by Professor Robert Chang and Catheryne Nguyen. Comprised of over 160 boxes of material, this new collection is designated as the Jerome McCristal Culp, Jr., Collection on Race, Gender and Sexuality in Law and Life. Professor Culp was a member of the Duke Law School faculty from 1985 until his death in 2004 and was renowned for his scholarship and teaching on race and the law. Professor Culp’s personal collection forms the core of the donation along with gifts from Professor Chang’s personal collection. Additionally, Professors Delgado and Stefancic are in the process of donating materials from their personal libraries to augment the collection. Cataloging and processing such a large collection will be a long-term process.

Legal Writing Tours

On August 26-29, the reference librarians gave more than 30 library tours to over 300 law students. The tours included research instruction as well as an introduction to the layout and policies of the law library. Conducting thirty tours in four days while maintaining full service is no easy feat, even for our experienced librarians.

Finding Homes for Unwanted Books

If you are cleaning out your offices and would like the library to sort through your books, please contact Kara Phillips: phillips@seattleu.edu. The library will provide you with a cart for your unwanted books and then consider various options for disposition of the materials as follows:

• Add to the collection

• Hold for future donation programs

• Offer to other libraries

• Place on the “Free Books” cart for our students and other library patrons

• Recycle them (while the library makes every effort to find homes for materials, due to space constraints, it reserves the right to determine the final disposition of all donated materials including recycling or other means of disposal)

Let us know if you need a gift acknowledgement for tax purposes. (Under IRS and SU regulations, the library cannot provide a dollar-specific appraisal.)

Meet Nancy Minton

As a cataloger, Nancy Minton works behind the scenes in Technical Services, but her contributions to the law library are evident each time you access the catalog or locate a book on the shelf. Nancy is also active as a board member on the law school Staff Council.

What does your job entail?

My primary function is to catalog new materials added to the law library collection. I assign bibliographic entries, subject headings, and call numbers, all the while complying with strict library standards. I contribute to the law library’s online newsletter by constructing the New Acquisitions, a subject list encompassing our library’s recent acquisitions. Along with Reference Librarian Bob Menanteaux, I compile the library’s New & Notable column. We highlight new books that seem particularly suitable to our patrons.

I am quite busy during the start of each semester rush cataloging new materials for classes. However, in Technical Services there is no distinction between rush periods and “down” times; we are busy year-round maintaining the catalog and the library’s collections.

How long have you worked at the law school and what changes have you experienced during your tenure in the law library?

I began working for the law library’s Technical Services department in 1981. In the 80’s I shared one computer with six other employees and spent much of my time maintaining our card catalogs. As part of my work routine, I methodically wrote the assigned Library of Congress classification number on each book’s title page with a #4 pencil. Our book processors manually typed book call number labels from those handwritten numbers. We were a very small group of law library employees decades ago, yet the nature of my Technical Services work necessarily kept me fairly isolated from the other departments in the library.

I still adhere to strict library standards, but my cataloging work is now accomplished using many complex databases. I maintain records of all types, including our expanding electronic resources. My cataloging work has evolved, and requires keeping patrons in mind at all times. I continually consider how our bibliographic records can best be enhanced for the optimum use of our resources, accessed with immediacy via a search of our online catalog, or by browsing our library’s shelves.

I work with our Public Services department tracking needed materials and making catalog changes. I support our Reference Librarians with their faculty requests and topical interests. I enjoy that my work is still a behind the scenes endeavor, but I like knowing that my work directly affects our library’s service.

What are your favorite things to do when you are not working?

I love reading short stories. It’s a wonderful art, I think, getting a story told in but a few pages, yet leaving the reader pondering an impressive tale. I am an avid letter writer. I write to family, friends, and a dear pen-pal in Northern Ireland with whom I’ve corresponded since I was ten.

As a member of Seattle’s Irish Heritage Club, I enjoy assisting with Irish Week at the Seattle Center. I’m also active in the Sons of Norway.

You are actively involved with social responsibility issues. Tell us about projects you are engaged in.

Through my library work I have the opportunity to participate in the Social Responsibility Roundtable [SRRT] of the Washington Library Association. It is “a forum for individuals/groups who are concerned with issues/problems of social responsibilities of libraries and librarians.” The group “adopts an action-oriented stance to look at such issues as participatory decision making, services to minorities, and the disenfranchised and diverse collections and staff.”

In SRRT I have assisted with annual conference programs furthering library employees’ cultural appreciation of Native American ways and addressing best practices for serving Latino patrons. I am currently working with our SRRT Chair developing a sustainability practices conference proposal.

For the past twenty years I have volunteered in different capacities for Nativity House, a day shelter for the homeless in Tacoma. Recently I accepted the task of co-chairing a volunteer effort with my church to coordinate the shopping, cooking, and serving of a monthly meal at the shelter.

Conferences and Workshops

Susan Kezele attended the 7th Annual NWILL Conference in Portland on Sept. 18-19. Designed for staff in libraries of all types and sizes, the conference discussed the future of resource sharing, offered practical information on a variety of ILL operations, and provided demonstrations of new resource sharing tools.

Northwest Innovative Users Group Conference

Kent Milunovich, Nancy Minton and Jane Grossman attended the 14th Annual Northwest Innovative Users Group Conference in Portland on October 16-17.

Summit Alliance Meeting

Michael Zubitis, Susan Kezele along with several Lemieux Library staff attended the Orbis Cascade Alliance meeting in July to learn about future improvements to the Summit catalog.

Barbara’s Baby Announcement

Moss Henry Swatt Engstrom made his first appearance on October 13. He weighed in at 7 pounds, 5 ounces, and stretched to a full 21 inches long. He and Mom are both happy and healthy. Proud parents Barbara Swatt Engstrom and Kurt Engstrom, together with big sister Hazel, are having a blast introducing Moss to the world.