AALL Spectrum March 2006 Issue

The March 2006 issue of the AALL Spectrum published by the American Association of Law Libraries contains a number of interesting articles.

• Assessing a special collection from ground zero: "... due to the realities of budgets, time, and personnel, a special collection can sometimes evolve into an existence of benign neglect. It is usually not a question of having been allowed to fall into disarray and disorder, but rather a situation where the collection is technically maintained but not actively monitored, sometimes for lengthy periods of time. Thus, every once in a while a librarian with no special training in special collections will be called upon to get a collection up and going again and will need to assess the special collection, basically from ground zero." This is often the situation with historical materials.
• Going Public - How law libraries of all types and sizes serve the general population: "Law librarians provide a wide array of services to the legal community, including reference help, collection development, and technical services. However, one of the most important, albeit one of the most challenging, aspects of our profession is assisting those who may be the true end-users of the information we provide—the public at large. This type of patron, who is typically untrained in the law or legal research, stands to benefit the most from our expertise." The article describes the work done in the United States by state and county law libraries that are open to non-lawyers. There is also another article on the topic entitled The Evolution of Public Law Libraries