No disrespect is meant to the hardworking librarian professionals
struggling on limited budgets, but the public law library resouces in
Manhattan are extremely limited. The point is that in some sense, it is
nonsense to state that "the Law" is available to Manhattan residents who
do not have access to a private law libary.
West says that there is no problem and the law is available to all in
public law libraries ... but not in Manhattan.
Alan Sugarman
HyperLaw
sugarman@panix.com
On Tue, 28 Mar 1995, NYS Office of Court Administration wrote:
> Yesterday when I was responding to the question re public access, I was
> rushed and did not include enough information about the libraries.
> The libraries are
> 80 Centre St, ( above the DMV office - Room 468) Doug Stevens is the
> librarian and the phone number is 212 374 7299
> Queens, Sutphin Blvd, Andy Tshinkle is the librarian (718-520-3140
> Staten Island, Phil Klingle is the librarian ( 718-390-5291
> Brooklyn Jatindra Mukerji is the librarian the library is on the third
> floor at 360 Adams street. 718-643-8080
> Bronx, Diana Sheffield is the librarian 718-590-3678
>
> These libraries also serve all of the court staff in the courthouse as
> well as attorney's. Most materials do not circulate because of the heavy
> use and because we only have one copy. It would not do to hold a trial
> while a bench question cannot be answered because a book is out.
> In locations where we have electrical outlets, we have some material on
> CD-ROM and we have most back federal and state on microform for space
> reasons.
>
> These are in the courthouses so be prepared to go through magnatometers
> and the other responsibilites of being in a courthouse.
> Because of the continuing state fiscal crisis, they all have materials on
> the shelves that are not updated. We have marked them with yellow
> warning stickers. Collections range from extensive to basic but the
> older caselaw and state and federal statutes are in most locations as are
> the NYC information.
>
> Unfortunately, they are open only during the day. Most are understaffed
> and there is no way we can open after hours.
> I would be happy to provide information about any other court location in
> NYS.
> We have some very fine libraries and some of the best librarians in the
> professsion. Many of our librarians are on this list ( at least those
> with computers)
>
> Last year over 500,000 people used the libraries in the Unified Court
> System and I cannot believe it was due to the nice facilities.
>
> Ruth Fraley
> Director, Records Management and Library Services
> NYS Unified Court System
> AGCY 4 Suite 2001 ESP
> Albany NY 12223-1450
> (518) 473 1196 (voice) (518) 473-6860
> All comments and opinions are personal, they do not reflect the position
> of the Unified Court system nor should they be interpreted as such.
>
>
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