Apologies to all; this is a long message concerning ILL, and
provision of legal information, by publicly supported academic
law libraries.
The Scene: There are no bar association libraries in Colorado, no
county or court law library system, and the only other "public"
law library is the supreme court library which is responsible for
the judicial system libraries (mostly in chambers) and the prisons.
The supreme court library is open 8-5 monday through friday and
does not provide ILL services. The only other academic law library
is part of a private university.
So-o-o, at the University of Colorado Law Library we get the bulk of
the ILL/photocopying requests from public libraries, public schools,
the community colleges and other institutions of higher education
because we are basically the state's law library. We have our hands
full with the business from our faculty, staff and students, and are
close to being overwhelmed with ILL/photocopy business. (Book lending
isn't the problem. Right now.)
We are a net ILL lender by well over 3 to 1. We charge of ILL photocopying
except for those libraries who have signed the BCR and AMIGOS reciprocal
borrowing code. We are getting complaints about charging for ILL from the
community colleges and public libraries especially. After all, tax dollars
pay for our collection, etc.
We don't want to alienate the rest of the state's educational community
(after all, tax dollars DO pay for our collection, etc.), but we need
to charge just to cover our costs. So, our question is: what do other
publicly supported academic law libraries do, especially in states where
there is no supporting network of other law libraries to help out? What
level of responsibility for the provision of legal information to your
state do you assume?
We've considered asking the university to request direct funding from the legislature for us
slature for us, in effect (or in fact) designating us as the state law
library. This idea gives us the willies for many reasons. Does anyone
have any creative ideas which would allow us to provide low-cost/no-cost
ILL to other state institutions?
Please reply directly to me, and I will be happy to either summarize
for the list or individually to those who so desire.
Barbara Bintliff
Law Library
University of Colorado at Boulder
Boulder, Colorado 80309
(303) 492-1233
bintliff_b@cubldr.colorado.edu
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