The RJC Law Library’s Story
By Jean Holcomb
While it’s not usual to think of a public library as a place filled with stories, we seldom consider that a public law library also contains stories. We shouldn’t be surprised, however, upon reflection to think of a public law library as an institution centered around stories. The hundreds of volumes of case reporters contain thousands of stories. In addition to the stories represented by the case reporters, law libraries contain countless books filled with stories that illustrate the theories of law that underlie the case reports. Yet, those who use law libraries and those who work in law libraries often overlook another type of story: the story of the library itself.
In 2004, our library celebrated the 85th Anniversary of the statute that brought public law libraries to life in our state. Our fundraising effort in 2004 centered around the history of the downtown Seattle courthouse law library. While the RJC law library’s story doesn’t have as many chapters, taking a moment to consider highlights from the RJC’s story shows that exciting things have been happening there as well.
The RJC law library’s story begins with the decision in the early 1990’s to plan and build a regional justice service facility to service the growing south King County population. From the inception, the planning pro-cess for the facility included provisions for space for a public law library. When the law library’s doors opened in March of 1997, the focus of the collection and services provided centered on the projection that a very high percentage of the users would be members of the general public.
During the seven years since the RJC law library’s opening, the percentage of non-attorney users has been in the 65-75% range on a daily basis. Over this time, we’ve continued to balance our collection and services to ensure that both members of the legal community and members of the general public would find resources to support their legal research efforts.
For 2005, two new online subscriptions have been added to the services provided at the RJC Law Library, Westlaw and Hein Online. The Westlaw public access service provides the Find and KeyCite features as well as coverage of all 50 states’ statutory, administrative and judicial authority, as well as federal level statutory, administrative, and judicial authority.
The Hein Online service provides full text access to articles contained in over 1,000 legal periodicals, the Federal Register, U.S. Treaties, and the decisions of the U.S, Supreme Court. In addition to these online subscriptions, the RJC Law Library provides free Wi-Fi Internet access in collaboration with the King County Public Access Network project. To learn more about these services contact the RJC Law Library at (206) 205-2900.
We hope that the new services described above will draw more members of the legal community to the RJC law library facility to take part in developing the next chapters of that library’s story.
Legislative Initiatives: In January the Washington Association of County Law Libraries introduced a local option filing fee bill to provide an additional revenue stream to fund public law libraries in our state with the support of a broad coalition including the King County Bar Association and the Washington State Bar Association.
This year’s effort will be the seventh year that County Law Libraries have made the trip to Olympia to encourage Legislators to creation a mechanism for individual County Law Library Boards to ask their County governing authorities for an additional fee to provide funding for their law libraries. To learn more about this effort, contact the Librarian at (206) 296-0940.
Subscriber Program Reminder: Subscriber Program renewal notices for 2005 were mailed in early December. The fee for enrollment in the Subscriber program will remain at $55.00 per attorney for 2005. The 2005 fee must be paid by the end of January for each King County attorney employee of the business.
As in the past, there will be no charge to enroll law library staff, summer associates, and other non-attorney staff. If you would like information about the benefits of becoming a member of the Subscriber program, contact Rick Stroup at (206) 296-0940. If you did not receive your renewal invoice or have questions about your account, please contact Craig Burgess at (206) 296-0940. You can find information about the Subscriber program on the Library’s website at www.kcll.org.
Internet class topic: The Seattle Law Library Internet lunch-break class for web users will be held on the third Thursday of the month on the sixth floor of the County Courthouse, 516 Third Avenue. The February 17 class will cover training tips for using the library’s new web-based catalog. The March 17 class will provide tips about using the free Wi-Fi service now available in both the Seattle and RJC Law Libraries. For information about the training, contact Rita Kaiser at (206) 296-0940. For information about additional training opportunities, view the monthly training calendar on the library’s web page at www.kcll.org.
Recent Acquisitions, King County Law Library: Administrative Law: Open Meeting Laws; Civil Procedure: Winning on Appeal: Better Briefs and Oral Argument; Electronic Discovery and Evidence; The MMPI, MMPI-2 & MMPI-A in Court: A Practical Guide for Expert Witnesses and Attorneys; Electronic Discovery Guidance for Corporate Counsel; WSTLA Automobile Accident Litigation Deskbook; ADR Handbook for Judges; Auto Cases: The Road to Success; Cross-Examination: Science and Techniques; Federal Standards of Review; Constitutional Law: Cases and Materials on U.S. Law and National Security; Corporations: Corporate Counsel Update 2004; Venture Capital 2004: Venture Creation, Management & Financing in the New “Post-Bubble” Market; Court Administration: Model Code of Judicial Conduct; Annotated Model Code of Judicial Conduct; Criminal Law: Computer and Intellectual Property Crime: Federal and State Law; Criminology: Identity Theft: How to Protect Your Name, Your Credit and Your Vital Information...and What to do When Someone Hijacks any of these; Domestic Relations: The Best Interests of the Child: the Least Detrimental Alternative; Adoption Law Institute 2004; Insurance Law: Insurance Law Basics: Covering the Basics; International Law: International Business Transactions in a Nutshell; Jurisprudence: Logic for Lawyers: A Guide to Clear Legal Thinking; Labor Law: Workers’ Comp: New Approaches in Advocating for Injured Workers; Wage and Hour Laws: a state-by-state guide; How ADR Works; Whistleblowing: the Law of Retaliatory Discharge Libraries: Library Marketing that Works; Disaster Preparedness Manual; Maritime Law: The Law of Maritime Personal Injuries; Practice of Law: The Complete Guide to Contract Lawyering: What Every Lawyer and Law Firm Needs to Know About Temporary Legal Services; The Early Years of Litigation Practice: Everything You Should Have Learned in Law School Torts: Piercing the Veil of Secrecy: Litigation against the U.S. Intelligence; Negligence in Employment; Trade Regulation: Legal Guide to Microenterprise Development; Trends in Antitrust Policy: Washington, the United States and the World.
Jean Holcomb is the King County Law Librarian. She welcomes your comments. Call her at (206) 296-0940,or email her at jean.holcomb@metrokc. gov.
