Category: Uncategorized

Position Summary: Administers all activities and supervises staff of a Trial Court Law Library. Plans, manages, and maintains a law library collection. Performs professional duties including acquisition, cataloging, and reference. Ensures that the legal information needs of library users are met. Directs staff activities and participates in system-wide activities such as long-range planning, electronic library services, special projects, and other library and court services-related work as required.

Supervision Received: Works under the direction of the Senior Manager of Law Libraries.

Essential Functions and Responsibilities:

• Conducts reference interviews to determine library needs.
• Locates, retrieves, and disseminates relevant legal or information resources in response to reference questions.
• Assists court staff and patrons in the use of library resources, both hardcopy and electronic databases.
• Evaluates, develops, acquires, and maintains the library’s collection.
• Classifies and catalogs library resources.
• Selects and deselects material to maintain an up-to-date library with consideration of local needs.
• Collaborates with assigned courts for the Court Consolidation Law Book program. Ensures all necessary filing is complete and treatises are up to date.
• Arranges available space for new and archived material.
• Contributes to the upkeep of the library system’s website; monitors webpages to display current information.
• Ensures the library has daily coverage and assists with coverage for other libraries.
• Purchases supplies and new legal materials; stays current with new publications.
• Maintains calendar of electronic service commitments.
• Trains and develops staff; intervenes with problematic patrons.
• Accepts and proves incoming standard orders of legal materials.
• Checks for interlibrary loan requests.
• Provides outreach to courts and public entities in the form of public speaking, workshops, seminars, webinars, online presentations, and PowerPoint presentations.
• Tracks purchases using the budget control log and creates spreadsheets to track increases to titles to prepare the budget for the next fiscal year.
• Keep track of changes to the law for the “Law About” Pages for which they are assigned.
• Serves on committees within the law library department.
• Interviews applicants for law library positions.
• Performs other duties as required.

Minimum Requirements: Education and Experience
• Graduate Degree in Library Science or Law Degree, from an accredited college or university
• Five (5) years of professional law library-related work experience
• Equivalent combinations of education and experience will be considered for meeting minimum qualifications.

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities: Knowledge of:
• Legal databases and resources
• In-house and remote print materials
• Cataloguing
• Library of Congress classification system
• Material selection
• New legal development
• Interlibrary loan procedures
• Webinar and PowerPoint tools
• Online presentations
• Collection maintenance

Skill in:
• Long-range planning
• Training staff
• Organization and prioritization
• Verbal communication and organization
Ability to:
• Stay current with new publications
• Monitor existing webpages
• Ensure daily library coverage
• Run overdue reports
• Conduct workshops and seminars based on subject matter expertise

Supervisory Responsibility: This position serves as a supervisor to the Circuit Law Librarian and Law Library Assistant.

Working Conditions: Work is frequently performed in an office or similar indoor environments.

Physical Demands: This position requires sedentary work:
Lifting and/or exerting up to 30 pounds of force occasionally, a negligible amount of force frequently, and/or constantly having to lift, carry, push, pull, or otherwise move objects. Sedentary work involves sitting most of the time. Jobs are sedentary if walking and standing are required only occasionally and all other sedentary criteria are met.

Salary: $91,176.02  /  year

Closing Date: July 15, 2026

How to Apply: https://trialcourtjobs.mass.gov/jobs/head-law-librarian-essex-law-library-salem-salem-massachusetts-united-states

The LLNE Service Committee is looking forward to seeing many of you at the upcoming LLNE meeting, Protecting Libraries and the Freedom to Read, on June 12 at Boston University School of Law.

In keeping with the theme of the meeting, the LLNE Service Committee is supporting Unite Against Book Bans, a national campaign organized by the American Library Association. The campaign works to educate the public about book-banning efforts and censorship.

Unite Against Book Bans brings together librarians, educators, authors, readers, and community members who share a commitment to intellectual freedom. We encourage LLNE members and meeting attendees to learn more about the campaign and consider supporting this important effort. Information about donating to Unite Against Book Bans is available on the conference webpage.

Thank you for helping support libraries and the right to read.

The LLNE Service Committee

We are thrilled to announce that the Spring 2026 LLNE Conference is just around the corner! Mark your calendars for Friday, June 12th, and join us at the Boston University Fineman & Pappas Law Libraries for a day centered on a timely theme: “Protecting Libraries and the Freedom to Read”. This year’s event is co-sponsored by the Association of Boston Law Librarians (ABLL).

At a time when library resources and the freedom to access information face new challenges, this conference offers a space for critical dialogue. The program is designed to move from discussion to action, featuring:

º A special screening of the film The Librarians.

º Discussions led by speakers who will offer commentary on the film, explore Freedom to Read legislative initiatives, and delve into First Amendment issues.

º Dedicated sessions focused on finding tangible solutions.

It wouldn’t be an LLNE gathering without opportunities to connect with your colleagues. Beyond the formal presentations, attendees can look forward to a trivia session and reception.

For more information, and to register, you can visit the official conference guide.

Whether you are looking to deepen your understanding of legislative trends or simply want to connect with fellow New England law librarians, we hope to see you there!

The 2026 iteration of LLNE’s legal research instruction program will be entirely remote this year. It will be a combination of synchronous and asynchronous instruction, using zoom, the various google tools, video instruction, and the imagination of the great teaching librarians of the Law Librarians of New England.

The class will be run on six Wednesday evenings from March 18th through April 22nd.  The sessions will be 1.5 hours each Wednesday, though there will be some pre-work and some optional homework with each class.  To register, please fill out this form.

Instruction will include:

· Overview of the US legal system
· Introduction to legal research methods, including using secondary sources
· The role of case law, the courts and case finding tools, such as digests
· The organization of statutes and conducting a legislative history
· Finding regulations
· Understanding administrative law
· Finding transactional law documents
· Finding information about businesses and people
· Putting everything together with legal research strategy

For the course, you will have access to some of the more important legal research tools in the profession, however we will also cover how to do effective legal research without some of the more expensive resources.

Course Fee: $150.  You can pay using the Jotform, however if you need to pay by check please contact Brian at the email below.

Any interested public librarians can also apply for a scholarship to cover the registration cost. The deadline for the scholarship application is 3/15.

Registration deadline: Wednesday, March 18, 2025.

If you have any questions, please email Brian Flaherty.

On Friday, December 12, the membership “voted to endorse the 2026 Standards for Accreditation (2026 Standards),” https://www.neche.org/neche-2026-standards-for-accreditation/.

Unfortunately, and to my disappointment, the Commission paid little more than lip service to the essential role libraries play in the education ecosystem at higher education institutions, by adding a scant reference in Section 2.2, covering faculty and staff:

“2.22 The institution has academic support personnel (e.g., librarians, academic advisors, instructional designers) sufficient to support its teaching and learning environment and, as appropriate, its research and public service mission. (See also 3.9 and 4.2)” (emphasis added)

The 2026 Standards also remove specific mention of the need for libraries once found in the 2021 Standards under Section 7.22:

7.22 The institution provides access to library and information resources, services, facilities, and qualified staff sufficient to support its teaching and learning environments and its research and public service mission as appropriate.”

and, replacing it with:

“3.9 The institution provides access to information and learning resources—physical and/or digital—that are sufficient for the needs of its academic programs, research activities, and public service mission.”

Through its updated standards, NECHE has made it clear that libraries and librarians are no longer central to the research and education mission of colleges and universities.

As with the recent news that MIT will shutter libraries and lay off staff, I’m afraid that the new standards will only embolden more institutions to do the same, placing their trust in “digital” replacements.

To my surprise and disappointment, the New England Commission of Higher Education (NECHE) has removed libraries and library work from its 2026 Draft Accreditation Standards.

The EveryLibrary Institute drafted a paper, “At the Risk of Disappearing: How the Draft 2026 NECHE Standards Remove Libraries and Librarians from Accreditation,” that provides an overview of the proposed changes.

I am dismayed by this development. Although it does not directly impact law libraries, it does affect our on-campus colleagues. Who is to say that this change will not influence the ABA?

The proposed change is an affront to libraries and library staff and will further diminish faculty research and student learning at colleges and universities.

Tomorrow (3/7) is the last day for nominations for LLNE board seats!

LLNE is an all-volunteer, self-governed organization, so member involvement at all levels is crucial.   Please consider nominating yourself or someone else for any of the following openings:

• Treasurer (2 years)

• Education co-chair (2 years)

• VP/President-Elect (1 year term, followed by 1 year as President, then 1 year as Immediate Past President)

More information on the positions can be found in the LLNE bylaws.

All nominations and self-nominations should be forwarded to Andrew Hyland (ahyland@socialaw.com) no later than Friday, March 7, 2025.  Please email if you have any questions about an open position.

All public librarians are encouraged to apply for a scholarship, sponsored by the LLNE Access to Justice Committee, to attend our chapter’s Legal Research Instruction Program.

The Legal Research Instruction Program (LRIP) is a six-week online seminar geared towards public librarians interested in learning more about law librarianship. Each week, a different aspect of legal research is covered — everything from an overview of the U.S. legal system to finding business transactional documents. The class will run on Wednesday evenings from March 19th through April 23rd. 

 For more information about the LRIP course, go to https://llne.org/llnes-legal-research-instruction-program-is-back/ or contact Brian Flaherty directly at brian2@bu.edu.

The LLNE Access to Justice Committee is providing two scholarships to cover the cost of registration. Applicants must be public (non-law) librarians from the New England region.

Applications should be submitted through this Google form https://forms.gle/Wdyy1hiYQJtzNwY89 by March 11, 2025. Scholarship recipients will be notified by March 13, 2025.

Please send questions about the scholarship to Anne Rajotte at anne.rajotte@uconn.edu.

We encourage all LLNE members to share this scholarship opportunity with their local public libraries and any public librarians that would be interested in this excellent professional development opportunity.

The 2025 iteration of LLNE’s legal research instruction program will be entirely remote this year. It will be a combination of synchronous and asynchronous instruction, using zoom, the various google tools, video instruction, and the imagination of the great teaching librarians of the Law Librarians of New England.

The class will be run on six Wednesday evenings from March 19th through April 23rd.  The sessions will be 1.5 hours each Wednesday, though there will be some pre-work and some optional homework with each class.  To register, please fill out this form.

Instruction will include:

· Overview of the US legal system
· Introduction to legal research methods, including using secondary sources
· The role of case law, the courts and case finding tools, such as digests
· The organization of statutes and conducting a legislative history
· Finding regulations
· Understanding administrative law
· Finding transactional law documents
· Finding information about businesses and people
· Putting everything together with legal research strategy

For the course, you will have access to some of the more important legal research tools in the profession, however we will also cover how to do effective legal research without some of the more expensive resources.

Course Fee: $150.  You can pay using the Jotform, however if you need to pay by check please contact Brian at the email below.

Registration deadline: Friday, March 14, 2025.

If you have any questions, please email Brian Flaherty.

February 11, 2025

LLNE Members,

This is to announce that nominations for open Board seats are now being accepted by the Nomination Committee – Alex Burnett, Maine State Legislature, Megan York, University of Maine School of Law, and Andrew Hyland, Social Law Library.

LLNE is an all-volunteer, self-governed organization, so member involvement at all levels is crucial. Please consider nominating yourself or someone else for any of the following openings:

• Treasurer (2 years)

• Education co-chair (2 years)

• VP/President-Elect (1 year term, followed by 1 year as President, then 1 year as Immediate Past President)

No experience is necessary and past Board members are also welcome. More information about the positions can be found in the Bylaws located on the LLNE website (https://llne.org/bylaws/).

All nominations and self-nominations should be forwarded to Andrew Hyland (ahyland@socialaw.com) no later than Friday, March 7, 2025. Please email if you have any questions about an open position.

Thank you,

Alex Burnett, Maine State Legislature,

Megan York, University of Maine School of Law,

Andrew Hyland, Social Law Library