In December 2004, the Hennepin County Board of Commissioners voted to deny approval of a $1.00 increase in the Law Library criminal/petty misdemeanor fee that is authorized by Minnesota Statutes 134A.09 as a source of funding for the Law Library.  The statute provides for the setting of the fee by the Law Library Board of Trustees and approval by the Hennepin County Board of Commissioners as well as the judges of the District Court.

Included in the resolution denying approval of the fee increase was a provision requiring County Administration to conduct a study of Law Library space and services and report back to the County Board by August 1, 2005.  That study is currently under way.  It includes the following parts:

• HCLL History and Background
  This section of the report will include a summary of Chapter 134A of the Minnesota Statutes, which establishes county law libraries.  It will describe HCLL’s current physical space and project future space needs.  It will compare HCLL’s collection to other law libraries in the metropolitan area.

• Current and Past Use of HCLL
  Current measures of use will be considered, including circulation, reference questions, online database usage and traffic on the HCLL web site.  Interviews will be conducted with current users to learn what services are most valued, what service improvements could be made and how users would be affected if services were provided in alternative ways.

• HCLL Budget and Financial Analysis
  Current and past revenues and expenditures will be analyzed as well as current and past staffing.  HCLL currently receives funding from these sources:
  • civil filing fees authorized under Minn. Stat. 134A.09
  • conciliation court filing fees authorized under Minn. Stat. 134A.09
  • a criminal/petty misdemeanor fee authorized under Minn. Stat. 134A.09
  • a property tax allocation authorized under Minn. Stat. 134A.15
  • user fees, including an annual subscriber fee charged to law firms and corporate legal departments that wish to have circulation privileges, enhanced reference service and access to certain remote databases.

Statutory fees currently comprise 60% of revenues; the property tax allocation, 25%; and user fees, 15%.

The Law Library Board of Trustees and staff welcome this study as an opportunity to define and clarify the value of HCLL’s staff, collection and services to its users.

Subject Headings are a controlled vocabulary, developed by the Library of Congress, and include cross-references to and from related topics.  The Library of Congress subject heading system also provides references from common alternative terms to the controlled terms that LC has selected to describe the topic.  We use LC headings at HCLL.  One or more subject headings are assigned to every book in the collection.  The heading, often with a geographic subdivision, is what the book is most generally “about.”  It is important to remember that subject headings do not represent the index of the book.  The “Keywords” search in our catalog is a closer relative of the book index.  But more often, you need to look at the index of a book on “your” general topic to do a more specific search.  Reference librarians are happy to check indices for you (call 612-348-2903).

Since a subject heading is a controlled vocabulary, it is best to be general when searching the HCLL subject catalog.  We do provide those cross-references to related or narrower topics, so a general search will offer narrower specifics if they are available.  A subject heading search for LABOR LAWS AND LEGISLATION [click links to view results of the search], in addition to retrieving general treatises on that subject, will also retrieve a long list of narrower LC subject headings which we have assigned to more focused treatises.  Among the narrower headings are EMPLOYEE ASSISTANCE PROGRAMS, LAYOFF SYSTEMS, and SICK LEAVE.

Since subject headings represent a controlled vocabulary, it is also important to remember that the language is a bit more formal than spoken or Google language. Use MOTOR VEHICLES or AUTOMOBILES, instead of CARS.

It is, of course, also important that you spell the heading correctly!  The HCLL catalog is, however, very forgiving.  You will be dropped into a list of valid LC headings whatever you enter.  Look around!  If you have entered a misspelling, you should be very near the correctly-spelled term. If you have guessed incorrectly as to the controlled language, your entry of CONSTRUCTION LAW should be very close to CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY and to CONSTRUCTION CONTRACTS. If you have been unsuccessful guessing about the controlled vocabulary, the HCLL catalog always gives you the option of converting a completely unsuccessful subject-heading search into a keywords search.  DECEPTIVE TRADE PRACTICES does not work as a subject heading, but clicking and re-running it as a Words search results in several titles.  Then it is a simple matter of looking at the full bibliographic record for one or more of them, viewing the subject headings we have assigned to them, and clicking on one of the headings to retrieve other titles on that subject.

The HCLL catalog is also convenient because it is searchable by those geographic subdivisions as well as by the main subject headings.  So, if you have a client with a problem in Wisconsin, just do a subject-heading search for WISCONSIN, and you will retrieve a list of topics for which we own books on Wisconsin law.  If you have questions about searching subjects in the HCLL catalog, call a Reference Librarian.  We are happy to help on this or any other question.

Smithsonian Images allows you to view selected images from the Smithsonian Institution collections.  You can search by keyword or browse over 100 categories of images.  View historical images such as Charles Lindbergh’s Spirit of St. Louis.

New York Public Library’s Picture Collection Online is a collection of 30,000 digitized images from books, magazines, and newspapers as will as original photographs, prints, and postcards, mostly created before 1923.

Children’s Books Online – The Rosetta Project is a large collection of illustrated antique children’s books. It contains scanned images of the entire books and is a source of wonderful illustrations.