Innovative Solution to Closure of Camden Public Library's Main Branch May Point the Way for Struggling County Law Libraries

The downtown "branch" of New Jersey's Camden City Public Library was closed in February when Mayor Dana Redd decided the city could no longer afford its 100-year-old public library system while facing a $26.5 million budget deficit. "As soon as the closure of the libraries was announced last year, county and city officials started brainstorming with Rutgers-Camden Chancellor Wendell Pritchett on how to provide library services downtown." The result: "Construction has begun on the basement of the Paul Robeson Library to make room for a 5,000-square-foot downtown Camden branch [of the public library]."

"This project is a manifestation that we are a state university," Pritchett said, adding that the library will help connect Camden residents to a higher-education campus.

Snips from and details here. Perhaps the best statement in the article is the opening paragraph:

Sometime this fall, Camden's youngest residents will be able to walk among Rutgers-Camden students and faculty on their way to the Camden County's newest branch library.

Perhaps struggling county law libraries trying to survive can align structurallly in a similar manner with local law school libraries. I believe at least one has done so (but damn if I can remember it) and perhaps there are more instances.

Win-Win-Win.This could a "win-win-win" solution. Academic law libraries typically have resources for their state jurisdictions (albeit many cannot afford the sort of practitioner resources most state litigators and some state transactional practitioners use in their law practice.) County law libraries are under budgetary pressures that oftentimes result is downsizing federal and comprehensive secondary sources.

So imagine a county law library structure administrating and financing an academic law library's in-state collection (cut those costs from the academic law library collection development budget) while the academic law library supports the federal and general secondary sources (cut those costs from the county law library collection development budget). That's could be a win-win. Then there is a possile third "win." State law pracitioners working in the same law library as law school students.

Such an innovated solution would probably work best in a public law school library for state financing bean-counter reasons but also for public access requirements. It would, IMHO, require the employment of county-state public law librarians for reference assistance -- meaning, some job security in addition to collective development savings by both law libraries through a "merger" of sorts. It most definintely could improve legal research instruction provided by county-state public law librarians expert in what state practitioners actually use in the the "real world."

In these fiscal times that are impacting both academic and county law libraries, it is not only do-able but is an opportunity that ought not be ignored is some situations because of the public sector law library-academic law library professional divide that certainly exists. It may look like a desperate move but it may yield very positive structural changes. Let's face, except for the top 10 (perhaps top 20) law schools, one hellva lot more law grads will be looking at state-focused law practices now and in the future than in the past.

Where there is a will, there is a way. The Rutgers-Camden and Camden public library system is showing that this is do-able. The article reports on how financing is being worked out. Obviously the downtown locations of Rutgers-Camden and the closed Camden public library was an important factor, too.

Thinking Outside the Box. With a hat tip to LISNews, the article about the public library-public university library solution in Candem was published in the Philadephia Inquirer, site of AALL's Cream Cheese Cheesesteak or Karaoke. Not exactly a forum for thinking outside the box. The more likely forum for similiar innovative solutions may be local AALL chapters.

A Very Small Illustration. At ORALL 2010, NKU Chase Law Library offered to participate in the county law library's pocket-part exchange program (read county law libraries who can't afford to maintain print continuation standard orders for pocket parts make do with the latest out-of-date pocket parts). NKU Chase Law Library's generous offer came on the heels of massive print cutbacks-in-process by many Ohio county law libraries. The Shed West Era threatened to substantially reduce the number of titles offered in the pocket-part exchange program. (NB: at the time, my little county law library had participated but last year we could not make any commitments whatsoever because we were still in the midsts of our Shed West era of cancelling print continuations).

While is this a small illustration? Because it is not a structural reformation. However, there is no doubt in my mind that NKU Chase Associate Dean for Law Library Services & Information Technology Mike Whiteman's impromptu offer to help out by contributing to the ORALL County Law Library SIG's program was (and is) very much appreciated. {JH]