Let's Get Technical

Today's libraries are facing severe budget cuts.  The library I work in is no exception.  With these budget cuts, our library cut 85% of its print monograph budget.  For a law school library, this is huge.  Much of our print monograph purchases relate to study materials for students and other similar resources.

All is not lost.  This budget crunch gives our library staff a unique opportunity to grow.  Rather than simply purchasing materials, we can teach students how to find and use resources available online.  Finding free online resources is beneficial to patrons over a print copy because multiple patrons can use the resource at the same time.  We can expand our LibGuides to include guides for studying for different courses offered at our school.  LibGuides give students a better range of material types that are helpful and may spur self-initiated searches.

Because the librarians will have more work ahead of them, this situation is an opportunity to showcase the library staff's importance in the school.  Rather than fear of cuts, libraries should embrace them.  Libraries can become creative and proactive in times of hardship and better serve its patrons.

A Paperback Romance

Paperbacks are a cheaper version of their hardback counterparts. Or are they?

In the library world, books must be made durable to endure use by multiple patrons and last through periodic shelving shifts.  Hardbacks are already equipped to handle such treatment thanks to their pretty exoskeletons.  For paperbacks, a thin one must be added.

Although buying paperbacks is cheaper, covering them is not.  Covering requires costs in areas of manpower, equipment, and materials.  The library must pay an employee for their time to cover the book or hire additional employees to help ensure that new arrivals are on the shelves as quickly as possible.  The covering process requires tools (a cutting board) and materials (the covers).

These additional costs may actually make purchasing paperbacks more expensive than their hardback brother.  A library should address each of these issues when determining which version is the most cost efficient to purchase.

A Sticky Problem

Our library organizes the stacks by call numbers, as libraries tend to do.  But we also have an additional sticker we add to certain special collections pertaining to certain subjects.  The Reserve section has a sticker saying "Reserve."  "The Reference section has a sticker saying "Reference."  The Jurisprudence section has a sticker saying "Jurisprudence." The Alabama Law section has a sticker saying "Alabama." And so on and so forth.

The ides of the stickers was to make shelving easier.  To further increase the easy of shelving, the stickers not only have words, but the words are now in various colors.  This is problematic, however, when the printer causes the colors within the red/yellow scales all appear as slightly different shades of red.  New colors are chosen to fix this problem.  Then those old stickers must be changed.  And the stacks now appear to have been sneezed upon by a bag of Skittles.

Maybe a better solution for this sticky situation is to do away with the special stickers all together.  Maybe the solution could be changing the call numbers to follow the particular library's collection themes.  Call numbers are unique to each institution.  Why copy other institutions' call number coding methods?

Possibly, such methods cost less time to staff when new books are added to catalog.  Possibly, folks like color coding things.  But perhaps, when the sticker method was created, no one realized the sticky situation it would create later down the road.

Leaf or Link

Loose-leafing is a pain. In today's world where online databases host several resources that are continually updated, is there a need for loose-leafs?

In law libraries, the two main publishers of legal materials are Westlaw and LexisNexis. These two companies maintain legal materials in an online database and in print. The online materials are updated almost immediately upon release and made available to the purchasers. The print materials, however, are only updated once the technical services workers update the resource's binders of legal information with the most current form of law. Many students find the print version a waste of time and space. Maintaining the print version requires self-space and time for a person to remove the outdated pages and replace them with the current release.

The students fail to understand that the library is available to other patrons, as well. Law libraries facilitate legal research for all levels of researchers: professors, students, attorneys, and the average person. Whereas each student and professor has access to the online versions of these resources, public patrons do not. Several attorneys and non-attorneys use the information in the shelves to find answers to their legal questions. These attorneys are often solo practioners that do not have the budget available for purchasing the costly online resources.

The students would benefit from learning how to use the print resources. One day the law students will become attorneys and not all will be hired by a firm that subscribes to online databases. By using the print resources available in a law library, the students can learn cost efficient ways to conduct legal research.
Although loose-leafing is tedious and mind-numbing activity, it is a necessary evil to help ensure access to current legal information to all legal researchers.

I look forward to a career where I can help attorneys find the information they need to help others and make the world brighter for tomorrow