Librarians may now qualify for FOIA fee exemption as educational institution requesters:
Excerpt from Wisblawg, 12/21/2020, blog post:
“Librarians now qualify for FOIA fee exemption as educational institution requesters,” December 21, 2020
John Waters and law librarians? This should be one for the books – and the pods, tubes, eeks, etc.
[FYI: AALL is the American Association of Law Libraries]
I’ve heard Mr. Waters speak from multiple platforms (he’s totally delightful) but never on library, legal, or access to justice topics, although he has had more than his fair share of censorship litigation experiences, so he likely has talked in the past about those. The Keynote speech should itself become a great topic for discussion at the usually, um, memorable Fastcase party.
The American Association of Law Libraries (AALL) awarded their 2017 Public Access to Government Information (PAGI) Award to Laura Orr, the former Washington County Law Librarian (2002-2015).
AALL Press Release, excerpt:
“AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF LAW LIBRARIES ANNOUNCES 2017 PUBLIC ACCESS TO GOVERNMENT INFORMATION AWARD WINNER
People like “free.’ People like getting free content from other people who paid for the content. Long live the free-loader, long live the person who spends $20 in time and gas looking for a free parking spot instead of paying $10 for a paid space! It’s the principle, isn’t it?
But sometimes getting “free” is about the journey and the satisfaction earned when putting one’s search skills to the test. Here’s one way to do both, from Aaron at Musings about Librarianship:
5 services to help researchers find free full text instantly & a quick assessment of effectiveness
From the AALL (American Association of Law Libraries), LISP (Legal Information Services to the Public) special interest section:
“This is a toolkit meant to help public librarians understand the process of legal research, effectively develop and use the information located within their libraries, utilize information located outside their libraries, with the end goal of helping the patron locate the legal information they need ...”
LAW LIBRARIES AND ACCESS TO JUSTICE, A Report of the American Association of Law Libraries, Special Committee on Access to Justice, July 2014
“AALL’s new white paper, Law Libraries and Access to Justice: A Report of the American Association of Law Libraries Special Committee on Access to Justice, is now available on AALLNET. The white paper is the work of AALL’s 2013-14 Access to Justice Special Committee, chaired by Sara Galligan, and explores how all types of law libraries – including private; state, court, and county; and academic – contribute to the ATJ movement.
As AALL Past President Steven P. Anderson noted in his introduction, “As the principal providers of legal information, law libraries are an indispensable part of the services that can be provided to those with legal needs. Law libraries make “The Law” available, and law librarians serve as guides to finding the most relevant legal information.” The white paper explains the myriad ways law libraries can contribute to the administration of an effective ATJ system and successfully work with others on the front lines of ATJ.” [Link to a PDF of the full Report.]
Library (and law firm) database (and eBook) licensing can be tricky, to put it mildly.
There are hundreds, thousands even, of fee-based subscription databases used by lawyers, legal researchers, librarians, historians, etc. If you need to negotiate and manage a database contract, here is a useful primer, and much more:
The American Association of Law Libraries (AALL) has posted the following Code of Best Practices for Licensing Electronic Resources guidelines on its website, with easy access for everyone, not just AALL members:
Oregon Legal Research Blog