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

The annual meeting of the American Association of Law Libraries is always an energizing experience for those who attend. This year the meeting was held in Orlando, Florida from July 20-24. This is the one meeting where we learn about the new legal information products available to the legal profession, and can give direct input about enhancements we would like to have available from vendors. There are several concurrent training sessions for each time slot. Committee work continues. Job interviews are conducted. And we have fun!

Every year at least one library board member attends the annual meeting with me. Board members consistently tell me that attending an annual meeting gives them a better understanding of the legal information business. We are fortunate to be considered one of the premier public law libraries in the country, and I attribute that reputation to a committed board of trustees and a supportive legal community.

At the annual meeting, Judge Loren McMaster and I had our first look at West Group's new LegalEdcenter, www.legaledcenter.com, which offers more than 2,600 hours of live and pre-recorded CLE programs, by far the largest catalog of accredited CLE courses on the Internet. A nice feature is that you use the bookmark feature to take a program at your own pace and fit it into your schedule at your desktop and the citations in the program materials are linked to Westlaw. You have access to the materials for six months after you purchase the program The system also keeps track of your MCLE credits and you have the ability to add credits you've received from other sources. Selected MCLE programs offered at the Sacramento Public Law Library will be available through the LegalEdcenter.

Upcoming MCLE approved classes at the library training center include: Becoming a Digital Lawyer: Essential Internet Skills (December 11), Real Property 1031 Tax Exchanges (December 4), Substance Abuse (January 28), Legal Research on the Internet (January 31). Call 874-8541 for more details.

The programs at AALL were so good this year that we purchased the entire set of audiotapes. Here is a sample of titles you may wish to borrow: State of the Civil Union: a Legal Update on the Impact of Vermont Civil Unions; Connection to the Power of Patent Research; Connecting with the Worldwide Effort to Combat Crimes Against Humanity: The Creation of the International Criminal Court; Electronic Surveillance; Recent Legal Development; How to Overcome Information Overload; Peek-a-Boo, I See You! Computer Desktop and Network Security Issues That You Need to Know; and Take Back Your Time: How to Regain Control of Work, Information, and Technology.

I highly recommend Election Reform: Repairing a Loose Connection in the Democratic Process. The speaker Judge Charles Burton of the Palm Beach County Court, shared his experiences at the "chads" judge, and Ryan Coonerty, formerly staff to National Commission on Federal Election Reform shared the findings and recommendations of the Commission. Connery was very complementary of the contributions of Sacramento's Registrar of Voters Ernest Hawkins. These and other programs can be reserved by accessing the library catalog at www.saclaw.lib.ca.us and searching by the author American Association of Law Libraries or entering a couple of words of the title by keyword.

We were also interviewing at the conference. Over the summer, Josefina Gomez and Michelle Gallimore left to devote more time to family commitments. Peter Egler decided after spending his first five years as a law librarian in a public law library that he wanted to broaden his experience by working at an academic law library, the University of Houston. Mareth Wilson, our evening/Saturday librarians has joined us full-time and we plan to have others board by the time this issues is published. There is a real shortage of law librarians throughout the country right now. For many with J.D degrees, law librarianship is an attractive alternative to law practice.

We have been negotiating with our vendors to migrate from CD-ROM subscriptions to flat rate access to the on-line products and to arrange affordable public law library pricing for Westlaw and LexisNexis. We are closer to those goals since the convention. Matthew-Benders' Internet Libraries: Immigration, Federal Practice, Copyright/Trademark, Rabkin and Johnson Current Legal Forms, California Criminal Practice, Lexis One Northern and Southern California County Forms, California Library, Personal Injury Library with Interrogatories have replaced the CD-ROM versions at library computers.

Finally, for those who have been requesting convenient library parking, valet parking is now available in the Hall of Justice garage beneath the building. Parking is available from 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. The charge is $2 per twenty minutes with a daily maximum fee of $20. Enter from H Street between Sixth and Seventh Streets.

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