The Oregon State Bar (OSB) is rolling out their BarBooks service, which will give attorneys remote access and law library patrons in-library access to the OSB’s set of practice books. I’m not sure my library will subscribe, yet. The trend in my law library and others is for the library to provide remote access to patrons, not require them to come into the library to use the library’s resources. A lot of staff time and effort is necessary to make this possible, but this “pushing out” of library’s recources is not just the future – it is now. Visit the database page of just about any public library to see proof of this. For example, I’m providing remote access to HeinOnline to all Washington County public library cardholders and hope to do the same soon with a low-cost legal database. Why should someone have to come into the library to search an online database? They are welcome to call or email questions and are always welcome to come in, but why travel, waste gas, sit in traffic, skid on ice, when they can research from home? Yes, some things are done better in the Law Library (how’s that for a slogan? :-), but not all and certainly not most so why not Things Are Better Through the Law Library?
Oregon Legal Research Blog
