Law Library Dedication
by Shirley H. David, Sacramento County Public Law Librarian

On May 2, 2002 the Sacramento County Public Law Library was officially dedicated. We were pleased that it was also the Law Day awards event of the Sacramento County Bar Association The program took place outside with the beautifully restored historic Hall of Justice Building as the backdrop. After the program, more than 250 guests attended a lovely reception. Members of the bench and bar had the opportunity to mingle with local government officials, librarians from as far away as Reno, local citizens who our are also our customers and former tenants of our historic building. The former tenants included two retired police detectives, complete with full beards and Harley Davidson attire who entertained guests with intriguing stories of the building's former life as the police department.

Library customers are now asking for butlered food and a wine bar to help along their research every day. Sorry, Charley! It's back to sodas and water from the second floor vending machine.

Generous supporters of the law library underwrote a substantial portion of the event. They include LexisNexis™, West- Group, Richard J. Chiurazzi, McDonough, Holland & Allen, Barrister's Club of Sacramento, and the Crow Law Firm. We are also indebted to the law firm of Somach, Simmons and Dunn who are moving to the third floor of our building.

"Biker" detectives visit with staff and guests. l-r, standing: Brent Meyer, Sacramento Peace Officers Association; Paul Brown, SPOA; Lloyd Davis, SPOA; Tiffany Keagy, SCPLL; Bob Taylor, SPOA; Coral Henning, SCPLL; Chad McNally, Tom's son. Seated: Nancy Briggs, SCPLL, Tom McNally, AG's office.

There are two new services of the library that extend to your desktop. Our library catalog and your borrower records are now available on Internet friendly software. You can also place holds on materials available in the library. This is especially useful if you wish materials to be transferred from one library branch to the other so that you can drive to the most convenient location to borrow the book or tape. The search software is so superior to the in-house version that we upgraded the reading room catalog computers so that our patrons who come to the library can also benefit. The upgraded second floor on-line catalog was made possible by a generous donation from the Sacramento Law Foundation.

Our second new service is a personal law librarian to guide you to free legal information available on the World Wide Web. From the Sacramento County Public Law Library website select the "ask a librarian" icon. You will be connected to a reference librarian from one of the eleven participating public law libraries in California. Using chat software, the librarian will conduct a reference interview and search the web for a free site that may answer your question. You will see the same web pages the librarian does and you will receive a transcript of the session so you can go back to the URL if you wish. The "ask a librarian" virtual reference service is available generally from Monday to Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. At other hours you may send an e-mail message. A librarian will pick up your question and send you a search strategy or answer to your mail box.

Funding for the virtual reference program is provided by a federal Library Services and Technology Act grant. Participating libraries are: Bernard E. Witkin California State Law Library, Butte County Public Law Library, Fresno County Law Library, Kern County Law Library, Los Angeles County Law Library, Orange County Public Law Library, Placer County Law Library, Riverside County Law Library, Sacramento County Public Law Library, San Diego County Public Law Library, San Francisco Law Library. Each participating law library provides at least two hours per week of reference librarian staffing.

Access the library's Internet Public Access Catalog and the "ask a librarian" service through the library's website: www.saclaw.lib.ca.us.

Sacramento County Public Law Library Ad