1 of 6

LIBRARY INFO - Library Highlights: 2000-2001

CORNELL L AW L IBRARY

HIGHLIGHTS

July 2000 - June 2001

Library Budget & Planning

Following the consultants' recommendations (Sept. 2000), and the combined efforts ofDean Teitelbaum and University Librarian Sarah Thomas, the financial situation of theLaw Library was substantially improved, particularly the acquisitions budget, with thefollowing additions:

Direct allocation of the acquisitions budget from the Provost's Office, currentlyabout 5% increase per year.

Firming up of the law school supplement at $225,650 per year.

Additional annual income from Jack Clarke's Endowment for foreign andinternational law materials in the amount of $100,000.

A single budget was prepared, that includes the contributions of the Cornell UniversityLibrary and of the Cornell Law School.

The third strategic plan was developed by the library staff, to set directions for thelibrary, and to achieve efficiencies within the existing budget and staffing. The newplan:

Manages the transition from the physical to the online world of informationthrough the integration of print and online sources.

Focuses on increased education and training programs for students and faculty,using the Library Web site as the major conduit for information.

Supports the expanding international and multidisciplinary programs of the LawSchool.

Formal discussions were initiated with the Law School IT (Information Technology)Department, CUL IT and the Law Library technology team, to draw up a list of servicesprovided and specific technology needs. Progress was achieved in resolving some of thedual support issues.

2 of 6

Student Services

In the fall of 2000, the law-trained librarians taught theLegal Research part of Legal Methods to first-years. Inthe spring of 2001, they team-taught the three-credit hourAdvanced Legal Research seminar. Web pages weredesigned for the two courses.

Workshops and training for students included: LL.M.Research Orientation in August; Academic Orientationprogram; Cornell Law Review, International LawJournal, and Journal of Law & Public Policy programs;Law Library tours for new students. Several researchsessions were taught during substantive law classes.

Library presentations were conducted at Admitted Students Program, Librarianship asan Alternative Career, Academics as an Alternative Career, and Minorities in the LawConference.

The popular "Sail into Summer" program (May 2001) provided a research refresher tostudents before their summer clerkships. Numerous individual research appointmentswere scheduled with faculty and students.

The Carrel reservation system was expanded from 30 to 70 carrels, to allow studentswith writing projects to keep materials together in a carrel. Web registration was a newfeature.

Several sessions on Rare books were conducted duringFrench Law Class (Jan. 2001), and English LegalHistory (Prof. Sherwin, Feb. 2001), to give students abetter appreciation of legal history and the context of theirlegal studies. Professor Brian Simpson, Michigan, gave alecture on Rare Books in April 2001.

36,678 materials were checked out, or in library use.

5,160 reference and research questions were answered.

43 bibliographies and handouts were produced.

295 instruction sessions were conducted to 3,515 participants, and 20 tours to 249participants.

Publications

Published 23 issues of InSITE, annotations of new and useful legal web sites, sentelectronically to over 1,150 subscribers. It is also available as a searchable database.

Published its annual Library Guide, increased content on its web site, and created new

3 of 6

web guides: Legal Ethics, International Commercial Arbitration, and European UnionLaw.

Updated the Foreign and International Law Sources on the Internet: a guide to websites, providing annoted links to texts of laws and court decisions, research guides andcommentaries, with annotations.

Published the Law Library Letter newsletter, with news of Library services andresources, and Law Library Update for research assistants.

Faculty Services

Created and maintained two new web sites for Professor Martha Fineman, one calledFeminism and Legal Theory Project, the other one called Gender, Sexuality, andFamily.

Redesigned and maintained the Death Penalty ProjectWeb site, used by Professors Steve Garvey, Sheri Johnson,and John Blume.

Presented a Faculty Workshop in December 2000 on"Electronic Publication of Legal Scholarship," discussingHeinOnline, JSTOR (Scholarly Journal Archive), LSN(Legal Scholarship Network), and LEDA (Legal ElectronicDocument Archive).

Continued an active "Faculty Liaison" program, wherebyeach of the five lawyer-librarians is assigned to a number oflaw faculty, and provides a variety of services. Preparedmany prospective faculty bibliographies for active FacultyAppointments Committee.

Sent E-mail announcements to faculty on important legalinformation of the day.

Gifts and Endowments

Thanks to Dean Teitelbaum's efforts, the Law Library received an endowment fromJack Clarke, resulting in $100,000 per year, for the acquisition of foreign andinternational law materials.

4 of 6

The Law Library also received a new endowment with the establishment of theSheppard A. Guryan JD' 67 Endowment toward the annual acquisition of books andrelated materials on the History of Jurisprudence and American Legal Thought.

The Law Library is currently the beneficiary of the CUL Sidney Meisel's Rare BookPreservation Endowment, provided by Eliot Meisel, an ILR graduate. Two law rarebooks have been preserved from that fund.

Collection

The foreign law collection inventory was completed. The analysis of the data is inprogress, toward recommendations to faculty library committee as to what to keep inprint, and what to choose in electronic format, as well as possible cooperativearrangements with other libraries within NELLCO (New England Law LibrariesConsortium) and other library groups.

The Law Library is continually taking active steps to manage the transition from thephysical to the online world of information, while realizing the continuing value ofhistoric print collections in law, and focusing on print items that are not available inelectronic form.

10,163 volumes were added, and 5,490 titles were cataloged.

Technology

The new Library management system, Voyager, that controls acquisitions, claiming,cataloging, and circulation of library materials, required much staff time to operate.Thousands of active purchase orders were migrated to the new system, several hundredsof fund codes identified and corrected, three thousands serials check in records werecreated, and over eleven thousand individual pieces received on these check-in records.

The library also migrated to a new, web-based bindery control system, as the first libraryon campus.

Outreach and Partnerships

Started a collaborative effort with the student editors of theRutgers Journal of Law and Religion, to make selected portionsof the Donovan Nuremberg Trials collection available to thepublic on the Internet. The Law Library is making acid free printand digital copies of selected documents, and the editors are usingthe copies to solicit commentary and related articles fromscholars, that will be published online athttp://www.lawandreligion.com. The Library is also preparing adetailed index of the documents that can be accessed over theInternet.

Continued partnership with Hein Digital Journals

5 of 6

Project, at http://heinonline.org/, winner of AALL 2001 Best NewProduct Award. All issues of Cornell Law Quarterly (now CornellLaw Review) from inception to date, and Cornell Journal of Lawand Public Policy have been digitized. Because of its partnership,Law Library and the entire campus (including the medical campusin NYC) have access to over 225,000 law review articles free ofcharge (normal cost is $4,000 per year). Access to Hein Onlinejournals is provided via the Library Catalog.

Outreach to Law School Alumni: offered two CLEprograms to alumni during June 2001 Alumni Reunion:1. Lectured on "Distance Learning, Internet LegalResearch, and the Future" (with Peter Martin). 2.Presented session on Legal Ethics Research on theInternet.

Provided a substantial amount of legal information andlegal research assistance to the community at large,particularly undergraduate and graduate students,including formal class sessions and continuously on aninformal basis.

Continued collaborative relationship with ILR (Industrial and Labor Relations School),particularly for collection development. Joint work with the ILO (International LaborOrganization), including the ILO web mirror site, that benefit campus community.

International Connections

Librarian from Nigeria visited the Law Library,as part of a visit to LII (Legal InformationInstitute), and attended IALL (InternationalAssociation of Law Libraries) meeting in Dublin,Ireland, with a special scholarship arranged by theLibrary Director. The Law Library hosts andmaintains the IALL web site athttp://www.iall.org.

Charlotte Bynum taught a course on legal research in Palestine in August 2000; ClaireGermain taught legal research to French law students in Paris in January 2001, and aweek-long course on "Law Information Sources Worldwide," in Barcelona, April 2001.

Staff

The Head of Cataloging, Jean Pajerek, assumed managerial responsibility for theacquisitions department, and was promoted to Head of Technical Services.

| ©1999-2007 by Cornell Law Library | | Updated August, 2003 | | Feedback |

6 of 6