Message From The Executive Director

We are moving from being a physical repository of books towards being a service provider that delivers a wide range of information products, services and tools to the BC legal community. I want to showcase three recent developments that exemplify this trend: our new community liaisons, our small branch initiative, and enhancements to our website practice portals.

Legal Community Liaisons

We have created two new Legal Community Liaison positions, both lawyers with small firm backgrounds. Nate Russell is focusing on the needs of lawyers in smaller firms and solo practice, and Meghan Maddigan is focusing on the needs of new lawyers and articled students.

Meghan is leading the training we offer the legal community by expanding our training offerings on using legal information tools, including pay databases as well as free tools. Training participants are reporting a significant increase in confidence in using these tools. Nate is our focal point for expanding the content we publish on our website. We’re publishing more posts about legal information tools, new books, and practical tips to be more effective at finding and managing legal information.

We’re also listening. For example, lawyers in the Revelstoke area were relying solely on free electronic tools to operate their community-run library in the former courthouse in Revelstoke. Our community liaisons worked with them to provide a computer with licensed electronic products for their space. Another example: lawyers at 222 Main Street didn’t have access to the Internet at the courthouse. We set up a wireless hotspot in the Barrister’s lounge at 222 Main as part of our plan to provide wireless service in every one of our libraries by the end of 2011. Both of these examples reflect the kind of local projects that our liaisons can help to implement, and that reflect our approach to enhancing service in new ways and reaching lawyers where and when you need us.

Small Branch Initiative

Courthouse Libraries BC operates 29 libraries across the province. One of our challenges is managing resources between locations in a manner that is fair, cost-effective, and meets the specific needs of each library.

We view the increasing digitization of legal information as an opportunity to ensure that all of our branches can be provided with the resources they require. While we have never been able to provide copies of each publication to all of our libraries, we are now rolling-out digital subscriptions that will make this notion a possibility. Soon, a lawyer conducting research out of our Quesnel branch will be able to access a similar depth of resources as a lawyer in Vancouver.

As we adopt these new digital subscriptions, we will be evaluating new uses of library space. Starting with a sample of our local libraries, we are launching a pilot revitalization project that will see some book space re-purposed for “office away from the office” services. The pilot is already underway in our Quesnel, Cranbrook, Courtenay, and Port Coquitlam locations.

We will still be buying books and working to ensure that each branch is provided with appropriate resources. Our staff will also continue assisting our clients in finding relevant information, whether it be a book or a searchable database. With the transition to more digital subscriptions, training and support provided by library staff will be more important than ever.

Practice Portal Enhancements

Configuring the significant amount of content accessible from our website in practitioner-friendly ways is extremely important to us. We previously introduced practice portals in order to provide a logical hub for lawyers working in specific areas to connect with relevant online content. Now we are working to make those portals more powerful and easier to use by putting more relevant content right on the portal landing pages, including feeds of our New & Notable, Stream blog, links, legislation, and our Asked & Answered knowledge base, all filtered by practice area so that you can quickly tap into exactly what you need. We are also exploring how to effectively incorporate social media into the practice portals to make them more interactive.

So there you have it – community liaisons, revitalizing the physical space in small branches, and enhancing our online practice portals. Three separate endeavours that each contribute to our broader goal: serving you better.

Best regards,

Johanne

July, 2011