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The Oregon Legislature’s website has some very nice features (although it does seem as though I always write about its flaws!):

1) Their Legislator and Committee email notification sign-up is easy to use, easy to sign up, and, more to the point, easy to sign off when you want to turn off and tune out, which we hope won’t happen until the Legislative Session is over (though we understand the sentiment). Legislators do not, in my experience at least, deluge their constituents with lots of email messages. The ones that are sent out include useful contact and public appearance information.

2) The Legislature now has a site for easy mobile access. Just click on the Mobile Website from your device.

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As one of the many professional law librarians who negotiate contracts for legal database services and who show attorneys how to use them efficiently (to save time and their clients’ money!), when I read stories like this, I think almost as much about the “high costs of the ongoing investigation” and the ethics violations as I do about those high legal bills, i.e. has someone audited those legal bills?

One assumes so, but one (especially cranky law librarians) do have to ask the question (and heaven knows some of our tax-paying law library patrons ask).

I also know as well as the next law librarian that good legal counsel costs good money ….

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Gale Cengage is running a contest: Are You a Librarian Superhero?

Your librarian can turn into a cartoon, which to some might not sound like such a good deal, but to many librarians, We Love It!

You can read the Contest Rules and the Press Release for more information.

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We’ve been working with AALL-SCCLL members to update a state-county law library organization and funding grid, but we are still missing feedback from librarians in several states. If you have reason to think the information in the following grid is incorrect for your state, or if you know there is a more accurate way to describe the situation, please let me know:

Washington County (Oregon) Law Library, About County Law Libraries, and click on “1) DRAFT ….”

You can add a Comment to this blog post or email lawlibrary@co.washington.or.us

Thank you!

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Multnomah County Library’s “Conversation Project” (“[t]his series is part of a statewide humanities program that promotes thoughtful discussions about important ideas.”) covers some interesting topics, including this one:

The Voters Have Spoken: Oregon’s Controversial Ballot Initiatives, with Jackson Miller, Saturday, March 19, 2–3 p.m. (Troutdale Library)

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The process of creating and implementing new business models, for businesses, for nonprofits, for libraries, and for the legal profession, begins with discussing and examining new ideas.

The new biz model might be a Virtual Law Office or it might be a new idea, or germ of an idea, on providing legal services to people who can’t afford to hire lawyers:

Here’s a suggestion about the latter, and to paraphrase John Gear, if you don’t think that there is great demand for people who need but can’t afford lawyers, hang around a legal aid office (or ask a public law librarian):

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A former Umatilla County Law Librarian said during a discussion about the importance of public law libraries:

“The folks who cannot pay for a private attorney and cannot get a legal aid attorney are already disadvantaged in being forced to be self represented. With the law library, they have a slim chance at self representation, but it is at least a chance. Without a public law library, they have no hope of achieving any sort of justice at all…. What is the point of operating court facilities if the system doesn’t work for everyone? ”

From a report on access to justice in Oregon:

“There is significant unmet need for outreach, community education and access to easily used, high quality self-help materials…. Lower income people obtain legal assistance for their problems less than 20% of the time.” (From, The State of Access to Justice in Oregon, by D. Michael Dale, published in 2000, sponsored by the Oregon State Bar, the Oregon Judicial Department, and former Governor John Kitzhaber.)

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Lewis & Clark Law School Library’s “Law in the News” roundup, brings us this story:

“Law Libraries Struggle with More Patrons, Less Funding,” by Jose Pagliery, Daily Business Review, December 15, 2010

‘… Pro se litigants, who often can’t afford attorneys and instead choose to represent themselves, are quickly becoming the largest share of users of public law libraries, according to a statewide law library nonprofit. As lawyers more frequently choose to study case law from their desktop computers, common folk are shuffling into brick-and-mortar institutions.

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Portland State University (PSU) and the PSU Millar Library will be closed from Saturday December 18 through Sunday December 26, 2010, due to budget reductions.

PSU affiliates will continue to have access to the Library’s extensive online resources and to 24/7 online chat assistance through the Oregon Libraries Network (L-Net) (a service funded by the Oregon State Library and staffed by Oregon librarians, and others around the U.S.).

If you want to speak out to your elected officials about budget priorities:

Use the Oregon Legislature’s Find Your Legislator tool to locate contact information for your state and federal elected representatives.

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(If you want to call your federal and/or state Legislator(s), use the Find Your Legislator tool at the Oregon Legislature’s website.)

I always wince a bit when I hear people say that someone in “Washington D.C.” steals their tax dollars. Yes, sometimes it’s true that a crime against us taxpayers has been committed, but sometimes our communities get a lot of those dollars back, though only after Congress takes out money for fighting wars, national security, diplomatic missions, economic development, social security, medicare, corporation subsidies, international medical aid, etc., etc., etc.

If you’re at all curious about which states get how much “return” on the federal tax dollars sent to federal coffers, here are a few places to start off your research. More serious and thorough research will take more work:

1) Federal tax dollar to D.C. and federal tax dollar back to Oregon: The Tax Foundation has this chart that shows Oregon, in 2005, received back $.93 of the federal tax dollars they paid in federal taxes.

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