Please find the press release below announcing the start of the Vermont Law School’s new legal information services to the public.
SOUTH ROYALTON, Vt., July 21, 2015––The Julien and Virginia Cornell Library at Vermont Law School will provide legal reference services to the public beginning this week, Vermont Law School President and Dean Marc Mihaly announced today. The law school seeks to fill the gap in services created with the closure of the Vermont State Library’s law library program in Montpelier.
“We are pleased to share our extensive legal resources with our Vermont neighbors,” Mihaly said. “Cornell Library serves as the intellectual foundation for legal education and scholarship at Vermont Law School, and our librarians are among the best in their field. I applaud our library staff for stepping up to provide this important service to the community.”
Included among the services available to the public are a new VLS “Ask a Law Librarian Line” at 802-831-1313, for reference requests by phone, and a new Community Legal Information Corner (CLIC) equipped with two public-access computers with Westlaw, an online legal research service, and a legal self-help collection. The CLIC is located on the first floor of Cornell Library adjacent to the main computer lab.
“Libraries play an important role in providing access to justice,” said Professor Cynthia Lewis, director of the Cornell Library at VLS. “The closure of the state law library program will have an impact on attorneys, alumni and, most importantly, self-represented litigants in Vermont. Our plans include serving as an information resource not only for self-represented litigants, attorneys and alumni, but also for public librarians who assist Vermonters with reference questions about legal issues.”
Cornell Library submitted a proposal to the state last spring, and the legislature subsequently approved a $67,000 grant to offset the costs associated with VLS opening its library doors to the public.
The 35,000-square-foot Julien and Virginia Cornell Library at Vermont Law School overlooks the White River in South Royalton and houses the school’s extensive collections, including a nationally recognized environmental law collection. For more information about the library, visit vermontlaw.edu/academics/library, email clewis@vermontlaw.edu or call 802-831-1313.
Cornell Library submitted a proposal to the state last spring, and the legislature subsequently approved a $67,000 grant to offset the costs associated with VLS opening its library doors to the public.