In the interest of supporting access to the law and legal information, the Service Committee has undertaken a legal book drive to benefit public libraries throughout New England for 2013-14.
Book lists
Using the AALL LISP-SIS Public Library Toolkit as a guide, we selected various titles for each state we thought would be useful to a wide audience. We chose books covering topics on family law, landlord-tenant law, and other subjects of common interest, plus reference materials like dictionaries and citation guides. We avoided legislative codes, reporters, and continuing resources that would be expensive to purchase cumbersome to maintain.
See our book lists for:
Recipient libraries
We chose recipient libraries based on input from librarians and regional public library associations and factors such as proximity and access to public law libraries, library resources, and participation in a library consortium or other interlibrary loan/shared borrowing service.
- Connecticut – Killingly Public Library
- Rhode Island – Cranston Public Library
- Maine
- Caribou Public Library
- Some of our duplicate titles went to the Maine Correctional Center Library
- Massachusetts – Worcester Public Library
- New Hampshire – Olivia Rodham Memorial Library
- Vermont – Rutland Free Library
Donors
Due to the generosity of our membership, authors, editors, publishers and corporate donors, we have made great strides toward building our collections. Our deep appreciation goes to the following individuals and organizations:
Anonymous donors
Betsy McKenzie
Catherine Biondo
Cynthia Broadfoot
Drummond Woodsum
John Ferdico
Honey Hastings
Michelle Pearse
Mindy Kent
Nicole Dyszlewski
Scott Johnson
Tracy Thompson
Renee Bauer
Harvard Law Library staff members
Law Librarians of New England Executive Board
Massachusetts Trial Court Law Libraries
Social Law Library staff members
League of Women Voters of Vermont
Lexis Nexis
Looseleaf Law Publications
NBI
New Hampshire Education Law
Nolo
Northern New England Law Publishers
Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly
MCLE
SNELLA
Swan Island Press
Thomson Reuters
Tower Publishing
Vermont Commission on Women
Next steps
The Committee is in the process of developing ideas and planning projects for the coming year. Recognizing a need for a stronger relationship with non-law public librarians in the region, the Service Committee is exploring ways to further enhance those connections and contribute our knowledge and talents. Our goal is to promote the institutions currently working in our communities, to partner with public librarians and to try and find new ways to support the amazing work already being done by libraries and librarians in New England.
More about the project
You can learn more about the book drive here:
- “Outreach to public libraries: Efforts to propel service and access to information in New England,” AALL Spectrum, December 2014
- “Outreach to public libraries: book drive,” presentation at the LLNE Fall Meeting, October 2014
- Updates on book drive, LLNE blog, continuous