Oregon Legal Research Blog
Stay tuned for changes to our Oregon Legal Research (OLR) website and blog management team. Nothing but good times ahead!
Succession:
I am moving on from owning and managing the Oregon Legal Research (OLR) domains, website, and blog. The current plan is to transfer OLR ownership, over the next few months, to the Washington County Law Library (WCLL).
I will remain on the blogging Team (blogging is a difficult habit to break) and will also continue work on updating the blog’s sidebars, but it’s past time for me to turn the operation’s management over to a new generation. Other key members of the OLR Team include Jenn, Director of the Clackamas County Law Library and Sue, Director of the Lane County Law Library. (Justia is also a key member of our OLR Team, sine qua non to be honest, but more about them later.)
The current Oregon Legal Research (OLR) Team will be holding online OLR Stakeholder meetings to discuss the future of the OLR website / blog.
OLR Stakeholders, our readers, are important; there wouldn’t be any point (not to mention a lot less fun) to the OLR without you. Your “succession plan” task is to give us feedback on what you want from the OLR Team, website, and blog. You can email the OLR Team at oregonlegalresearch@yahoo.com
For the record (for OLR posterity) I provide you with a little Oregon Legal Research (OLR) website and blog history. The next generation’s OLR Team will be able in time to write their own share of OLR history. Or, they may shut it down if they decide that its time has passed, as happens with all things, especially blogs and websites.
OLR History: Years 2005 to 2012:
I started writing the OLR blog in 2005, using Google Blogspot/Blogger. I was new to Oregon, Oregon law libraries, and Oregon legal research and wanted a place to record the Oregon legal research knowledge I was acquiring so I created the OLR blog as a kind of “What I Learned Today” blog.
I also bought two Oregon Legal Research domains, initially as an exercise in domain ownership rather than a view to the future. (Doing is a good way To Learn, although I do not recommend it if you have to put your life in danger before you have practiced, practiced, and practiced. Domain ownership is not a life threatening activity, needless to say.)
Much to my surprise, for such a niche topic, the OLR blog achieved quite a following from lawyers, librarians, and other legal researchers including some from abroad who emailed me in their searches for elusive Oregon legal documents. The outreach was good for the Washington County Law Library in countless ways. As of today I have written more than 3,500 blog posts, so I must have learned a lot, although there is still very much more to learn about Oregon legal research.
At its peak, we recorded more than 10,000 site visits a month (those were happier times with a lot less spam, not to mention a lot less blog and other social media competition). Needless to say, that level of website and blog management was not sustainable for me unless I had wanted to turn my entire working life over to it, which I didn’t, even if I could have afforded to do so. But blogging remains great fun, though a lot of work if you edit your work carefully.
OLR History: Years 2012 – 2015:
Justia reached out to me in 2012, shortly after I wrote a blog post that said I was discontinuing the original Oregon Legal Research blog. Justia offered pro bono website (Drupal) and blog (WordPress) design, security, and hosting support (and lots of other encouragement) as one of their Public Interest and Pro Bono Projects.
Law librarian members of that 2012-13 OLR Team included me, Holly G (then the Washington County Law Library Assistant Law Librarian), and Jenn (Clackamas County Law Librarian). We had great fun working with Justia and their professional website designers, playing around with our own “card sorts,” and in general learning a great deal – all while managing our county law library websites, catalogs, budgets, and other projects (e.g. the Oregon Revised Statute digitization project and Oregon legal research training activities around the state). The new, improved Justia sponsored Oregon Legal Research website and blog went live in early 2013.
OLR History: Years 2015 to Spring 2020:
I retired in summer 2015 and the OLR site languished, other than a few blog posts I wrote to keep it alive, so let’s fast forward to spring 2020, when OLR succession plan conversations took off with Lee, Amy, Jenn, and Sue. We will continue those conversations with each other and with Justia, whose advice has never led me astray.
Washington County Law Library OLR Team members felt that the OLR website and blog could be updated and still has great potential. While talking about updating options, and my decision to move on, they decided stakeholder input was essential, thus, the OLR Stakeholder Meeting was born.
OLR History: Years Summer 2020 to ???:
Our first OLR Stakeholder meeting is scheduled for June 30, 2020. Other meetings will follow, so have your say and email the OLR Team at oregonlegalresearch@yahoo.com – and stay tuned.