Archive for April, 2010

• Free Research! (No, Seriously)

  Date: 2010.04.27 | Category: PLI | Response: 0

  So your partner/lawyer friend desperately needs this PLI article/vaguely defined research topic from ten years ago/two years ago/yesterday, and you’re swamped. And not only are you swamped, but you can’t find it on our website and you’re freaking out just a little because (s)he needs it NOW.

  Fear not!

  The Library Relations Team does research. So if you’re trying to track this article/topic down and really could use a hand, drop us a line. We’ll either email you back the article itself, a selection of what we think can help you, or a citation so you can pull it up on one of your other databases without searching (or accruing fees).

  It’s free. Because we love you, and your life is complicated enough without us getting in your way.

• How Do You Research?

  Date: 2010.04.23 | Category: PLI | Response: 1

  
  We here at PLI are revamping our search functions and the whole website in general. And because you guys are actually going to be the ones using it, we need your help: 
  
  
  How do you perform a search? Can you give us examples of a situation you’ve had to use a topical search, a targeted search, or a citatory service? The more specifics we can give to the team building the website, the better fitted to you it will be.
  
  
  Give us a hand, folks, so we can give you the best possible search functions and make life easier for all involved. Especially you.
  

• Happy (Belated) Library Week!

  Date: 2010.04.14 | Category: PLI | Response: 0

  It’s a holiday for us all! Library Week (US) is here once again! I was sadly out of the office for most of it, but this post is about cookies. It’s always time for cookies.

  Library events as explained by my grad school and every librarian I’ve ever met seem to be summed up by: “Bring snacks. People like snacks.”
  
  So be it. Forget chocolate chip– let’s be inventive!

  You could make your attorneys/law students some Wookie Cookies– I hear they’re very good served with Bantha milk. 
  
  Or some Bacon Chocolate Chip Cookies. Because everything’s better with bacon.

  Of course if you’re pressed for time, you can just take Fig Newtons, cut the edges off of them and voila, instant book cookies.

  …and then wrap them in bacon. For, um, effect. Yeah. Effect. Mmmm, effect.

• Large Volume Tax Sets: Format Change

  Date: 2010.04.13 | Category: PLI | Response: 0

  The large volume Tax Strategies and Tax Planning books (you know the ones– the really honking boxes your mail room resents us for) are changing format.

  Instead of getting dozens of books for each set every year, we’re moving these titles over to treatise format; you’ll receive easily manageable bundles of papers to be inserted into binders.

  Right now we’re trying to figure out just how you want them to look. So if you could answer the following questions for us, it would be hugely appreciated:

  1.Would it interfere with your internal system of cataloging or organizing if we made each set a different color (for example making the Tax Strategies set blue and the Tax Planning set yellow)?

  2.Or would it lend greater clarity in scanning for the title on the shelf and distinguishing one set from the other?

  Let us know at LibraryRelations@pli.edu. Every bit of input helps.

• NY State Library Funding Cuts

  Date: 2010.04.06 | Category: PLI | Response: 0

  Many of you are private corporate and law librarians, and many aren’t in New York. But we’re all librarians here, and as I’m sure your budgets remind you on a daily basis– cuts aren’t fun. So if you can, take the time to drop a line.

  Copied from NYLA, ALA, and a Whole Buncha Emails I’m Getting:

  “As you may know, the Governor proposed a $2.4 million reduction in Library Aid in the 2010-2011 Executive Budget. This would be the 5th cut in less than two years and would bring Library Aid below 1998 levels.

  The Senate Majority in their recently released Budget Resolution has rejected the entire cut in Library Aid, while the Assembly Majority in their Budget Proposal calls for the restoration of $960,000 or 40% of the $2.4 million cut.

  The Senate and Assembly will be working over the next few weeks to resolve the differences in their proposals either through conference committees or the usual behind closed-doors three men in a room process. Either way, it is critical that library advocates contact their state legislators and urge them to reach an agreement that provides the best level of funding for libraries possible.

  Visit www.protectnylibraries.org and click on VOTE for Libraries button to send message to your state elected officials.”

• Zombies Are Bad for Circulation

  Date: 2010.04.01 | Category: PLI | Response: 0

  I have a bat in my apartment whose purpose is two fold:
  1) To fend off attack
  2) To fend off attack from zombies

  Luckily, the University of Florida Library is way ahead of me.

  The Zombie Survival Guide outlines how to survive if (when) the zombies invade the campus. Also features a handy way to interest students in off-campus access of resources.

  In preparation for Zombie infections which may affect UF campus services, this guide shows how library services can be accessed remotely. It also provides pathways for researching survival skills.