Leading at all levels: My journey through the CLA Developing Leaders in California Libraries program

Like everyone else, the year 2020 was a hectic and difficult time for me. However, it was also a time for growth, change, and reflection. Throughout 2020, I got more settled in with my job here at RCLL and I made the decision to go back to school to get my Master of Library and Information Science degree. In the fall of 2020, I came across an opportunity to apply for an opportunity to be a part of the 2021 Developing Leaders in California Libraries, New Leaders Cohort. This is a program that groups...

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Director’s Quarterly Update

Spring has sprung and the new RCLL website is now live! If you haven’t already, check it out and explore its new features including easy to navigate way-finders and customized menu bars for self-represented litigants, legal professionals, and students of all ages in our community needing access to legal information. Our goal is to make RCLL collection, programs, and services accessible to you from wherever you are. The coronavirus pandemic has challenged us to rethink the way we provide services...

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Director’s Quarterly Update

2020 was a year like no other and I am happy to bid it farewell, along with it COVID19, hopefully. I am optimistic about year 2021 and whatever challenges we had to face and changes we had to make in 2020, can only make us stronger and more resilient to whatever the future brings. While there are no new developments in the library since my October update other than the fact that we are continuing to make progress in the library’s HVAC and electrical systems upgrade and website redesign project....

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Home Sweet Home: the Harada family circumvents racially discriminatory laws to own their own home in the early 1900s

Home ownership is a component of the “American Dream” along with life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Home ownership has economic and social advantages that have historically created discrimination and predatory practices towards low-income people and people of color. The importance and right to fair housing is evidenced by the passage of the Fair Housing Act of 1968, which states that race or color, religion, sex, national origin, familial status or disability are all protected by law...

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Rural Libraries Create Pathways to Civil Legal Justice

On September 28, RCLL staff attended the 2020 Association for Rural and Small Libraries conference session: “Rural Libraries Create Pathways to Civil Legal Justice.” The session focused on how public libraries should be mindful of the civil legal justice gap and ways that they can help patrons with civil legal issues. As reported in the 2017 Justice Gap Report by the Legal Services Corporation, 86% of the civil legal problems by low-income Americans in the year 2017 received inadequate or no legal...

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Review of The Legacy of Lawrence v. Texas | Leaders in Law, Episode 1

I attended The Legacy of Lawrence v. Texas webinar presented by Fastcase featuring speakers Paul Smith and Mitchell Katine. Mr. Smith argued the case in the Supreme Court and Mitchell Katine was the local attorney on the case.  LAMBDA legal were lead attorneys in the Supreme Court case. Lawrence v. Texas, 539 U.S. 558, 123 S. Ct. 2472, 156 L. Ed. 2d 508 (2003) was a landmark case that not only overruled Bowers v. Hardwick, 478 U.S. 186, 106 S.Ct. 2841, 92 L.Ed.2d 140, but stated it was the wrong...

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Your Vote, Your Voice, Our Democracy: The 19th amendment at 100

Your Vote, Your Voice, Our Democracy: The 19th amendment at 100 In Nashville, 1920 suffragists anxiously awaited the results of 36 state legislators vote for ratification of the amendment. In the House and Senate elections, the amendment had passed through by one vote. At last, the results were reported and suffragists were astounded. Harry Burn, staunch anti-suffragette, voted in favor of the suffragists, and that one vote awarded the affirmative votes needed to pass the amendments. Thus, the...

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SCALL Institute review: Legal Ethics in Legal Research

SCALL (Southern California Association of Law Libraries) Institute review: Legal Ethics in Legal Research Using ethics to provide access to justice This year’s SCALL Institute was on legal ethics in legal research, a topic that hasn’t been the focus of the Institute in 20 years. Discussions on ethics seem to bring up more questions than answers for navigating the “gray” areas of service and duty to the public, but I feel the Institute provided information that would allow us to make informed...

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Look What You’ve Been Missing

The three branches of the Riverside County Law Library have so much to offer. We have a wealth of legal information available – State and Federal Statutes, Codes and Regulations, Local Codes and Ordinances, California and Federal Practice Guides, Form Books, Legal Encyclopedias, and Law Reviews and Journals. I encourage you to stop in one of our locations and check out the resources both in print and on line. There will certainly be information to help with your legal query. Don’t have a legal...

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