Sacramento County Law Library News
By Shirley H. David, Sacramento County Public Law Librarian

Have you ever had the experience of just getting into your research and being hit with that dreaded announcement that the library is closing in 15 minutes? Did it happen on Saturday about 12:45? Since the Sacramento County Public Law Library opened in its new space at the historic Hall of Justice Building, one of our most requested enhancements is to expand the Saturday hours. We are now open Saturday from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

The ability to pay large library fines and buy library services with credit cards is another highly requested service. The library is accepting Visa and Mastercard for the next few months as part of a feasibility study. The results will help us determine whether we will take credit cards for library services and fines.

What else is new? You may recognize new faces among the library staff. To expand our hours, and improve other library services, we have added two new staff members. Pat Hart, an experienced librarian, and teacher at both public and academic libraries, is our new public services librarian. She started law school at McGeorge last fall where she also worked as a researcher at the school’s law library. You may see her at the reference desks at both libraries, at our classes, or behind the scenes answering live chat and e-mail questions, or selecting new books for the library collection. Pat holds a Master of Arts in Library Science from the University of Arizona.

Our circulation desk is also becoming increasingly busy. Besides checking books in and out and collecting those bothersome fines, the library assistants sell diskettes for the computers, print pages sent from the public computers, reserve spaces at library classes and collect the fees, trouble-shoot library equipment problems, monitor access to library meeting and typing rooms, and watch the security monitors. They also work at the branch library, keep the books in order and on the shelves, repair bindings, set up displays and answer directional questions. To give us some much needed back-up at the circulation desk and add a second person on our busy Saturdays, we have hired a part-time student, Chris Russo. Chris is working on his Masters Degree in Library and Information Sciences at San Jose State University.

Want to find your way around the Internet’s accessible legal information? The library regularly offers classes, and you receive MCLE credit besides. Check our class schedule at www.saclaw.lib.ca.us.