By Joshua LaPorte
Mike VanderHeijden and I presented Legal Link, the Service Committee’s online tool-kit for public librarians, to the Southern New England Law Libraries Association (SNELLA) at an event at the UConn School of Law Library on April 19th.
At the program, we discussed the background of the Service Committee’s “outreach to public libraries” initiative, how Legal Link fits into that larger focus, gave a tour of Legal Link, and solicited feedback from SNELLA’s members on topics we should include as we further develop the site. Some ideas floated were including patent searching, lawyer referral resources, and business development topics. We also discussed similar efforts being made here in Connecticut to equip our public library colleagues to help patrons with legal research as a tool to mitigate access to justice issues.
The Service Committee is working on developing content for Legal Link, and the feedback from SNELLA was extremely useful as we determine what should be included on the site.