Public Law Librarianship: Objectives, Challenges, and Solutions

Nominated for the 2013 New Product Award by the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL)

Retired law librarian Selwyn and Eldridge (Grayson County, Texas Law Library) introduce the little known special library by defining the public law library, reviewing its history, and discussing its administration and operations. Unlike, for example general public or academic libraries, they say, public law libraries do not have a commonly known or clearly stated duty or obligations, and often find themselves at the whims and mercy of parent organizations. They cover patron base; governance and organizational structures; general library management; personnel; public relations; collection development; technology, contracts, and electronic resources; technical services; and public services. 

Public Law Librarianship: Objectives, Challenges, and Solutions by Laurie Selwyn and Virginia Eldridge is an educational and insightful compendium of information for all types of law librarians who work as public servants. Through primarily experiential and anecdotal evidence of public law library operations, supplemented with data extracted from listservs, informal surveys, and industry news, the authors reaffirm the continuing validity of public law libraries as necessary venues for the provision of legal reference and research to a growing service population that includes private and public lawyers, judges, government officials, students, professors, inmates, members of the public, and pro se litigants.

With years of practical experience behind them the authors try to be as comprehensive as possible, including chapters on the patron base, how to organize the library, library management, hiring and staffing personnel, public relations, collection development, technology and electronic resources, technical services, and public services. [...] It will be useful for new law librarians needing up to date administrative guidance and professional resources for running or reviving a public law library.

Selwyn and Eldridge, like mentors, offer readers great information and insight on public law librarianship, and provide guidance on how to best manage these special libraries…Public Law Librarianship is a thorough work, and at only 319 pages it is well organized and readable, with clean pages and graphics. This book will certainly be useful for public law librarians. It would also be a welcome addition to any law library, and it can serve as a reference tool for law library managers and law librarians who serve the public in some capacity. Finally, Public Law Librarianship would be a great asset in the libraries of library and information science programs.

The extensive research and references within this book are impressive. The authors draw research from a range of sources, including quantitative and qualitative data gleaned from surveys conducted by Selwyn and Eldridge; these surveys and responses are included as appendices. This book is recommended for those working in law libraries and would also be useful to students and graduates interested in working in law libraries.