Happy New Year all!

It is hard to believe that two years have passed since the pandemic, and we are still in it. As hard as it has been for many, especially those who have lost loved ones, one can only imagine how much more this pandemic will continue to change how we work, do business, and meet the needs and demands of our law library users.

Looking back a year ago, I started posting these quarterly updates to keep you informed of recent developments and changes in RCLL collection, programs, and services. It sprung out of our desire to keep you in the loop with our changing operations, closures, reopening, and COVID-19 preventive protocols. One thing that we can be grateful for is the fact that we have made huge strides in our efforts to make law library resources and services available and accessible beyond the four walls of our facilities. As we begin this new year, let us reflect upon the things that we are grateful for and things to look forward to.

We all are grateful that we have COVID-19 vaccines and whether you are fully vaccinated or not, we can find comfort knowing it is available for those choosing to protect themselves and others from becoming seriously ill, in addition to wearing masks, washing hands frequently, and social distancing. We are grateful to our regular patrons for their patience, understanding, and cooperation with our limited in-person service hours, and the closure of our downtown facility due to construction.

We are grateful that RCLL can provide remote access to quality online research materials such as WESTLAW, NOLO Press Titles on EBSCOHost, FASTCASE, LEXISNEXIS Digital Library, and NEW YORK TIMES Digital.

We are also grateful for our wonderful staff of librarians and library assistants who have shown their commitment to public service by providing great customer service, in-person or online. We know because you took the time to tell us and showed how much you appreciate their service.

We all owe a debt of gratitude to our Law Library Trustees, who have given generous amount of their time and energy to ensure county residents continue to have access to current collection of legal materials, knowledgeable and skilled staff who facilitate their access and use, as well as modern facilities that are conducive to research, study, and collaboration. Thanks to our trustees, county residents can look forward to a newly upgraded and modernized Victor Miceli Law Library. The HVAC and electrical upgrades of the law library building should be complete by the end of this month. The new paint and carpet installation for the law library portion of the building is scheduled to finish by next month.

We anticipate the Victor Miceli Law Library reopening for in-person services in mid-February.

In addition to a newly renovated downtown facility, with a modern interior design and open layout of the main reading room, our staff have been tirelessly working behind the scenes on our new ILS (Integrated Library System), migrating our existing ILS to WMS (WorldShare Management Service). WMS simplifies and automates the management of our collections in one integrated, web-based system, with access to WorldCat Data, the WorldCat knowledge base, and OCLC’s latest cataloging tools. Our WMS migration project should be complete by the end of February. Staff is also working hard to offer more virtual classes and programs, focusing more on online bibliographic instructions and online legal research tutorials.

The pandemic certainly caused so many disruptions and challenges but because of it we learned to be more agile, more resilient, and more grateful and optimistic about the year 2022! We look forward to seeing you in person soon!

Stay safe and stay informed.