The US Law Library has published its 2011-2016 strategic plan
You can download the pdf at? http://www.loc.gov/law/news/strategic_plan_2010_FINAL.pdf
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Here’s the Table of Contents and the introduction – it is well worth reading the full document. We’d suggest any firm looking to update their library services might as well start by looking at this document as they have a handle on all the issues
Visual Summary ???????????????????????????????. . iii
From the Law Librarian of Congress???????????????????????? 1
The Strategic Planning Process????????????.??.???????????. . 2
Overview??????????????????????????????????. 3
Historical Context…???????????????.???????.??.?? . . 3
Mission????????????????????????????????. 4
Our Road to the Future????.??????????????????????.?. . . . . 5
Guiding Principles??????????????????????????????. . . 6
Strategic Goals?.??????????????????????????????. . 7
Strategic Goal 1:
Provide authoritative research, analysis, and information to the Congress; offer researchand legal services to the U.S. Federal Courts and Executive Agencies; and providereference services to the public…?.???????????????.????. .? 8
Strategic Goal 2:
Acquire, preserve, and provide access to a universal collection of legal knowledge??. . 12
Strategic Goal 3:
Work collaboratively with internal and external communities to advance knowledge andcreativity, meet common goals, and provide leadership and expertise???????. . 1 4
Strategic Goal 4:
Manage proactively for demonstrable results ????????????????? 16
Deliverables Timeline?????????????????????????????. . 19
Ongoing??????????????????????????????????. . 24
Law Library Organization Chart?????????????????????????. 26
The Law Library is proud to present its 2011? 2016 Strategic Plan. We have taken the overall goals set out in the Library of Congress Strategic Plan as our inspiration and guide. Through our strategies, we seek to leverage and support the Library and our sibling service units? strengths by setting realistic, but ambitious, goals for ourselves. Although this strategic plan covers a discrete period of time, it is designed to position the Law Library for the long-term.
While we have pronounced this plan as ?final,? we realize that the best approach is to be agile and innovative. We believe that this plan allows us to be just that.We must specifically acknowledge the invaluablecontribution of the Strategic Planning Team:
Donald Simon, Team Leader
John Cannan
Kurt Carroll
Charles Dove
Hanibal Goitom
Sabrina Hsu
Cynthia Jordan
Liah Love
We also take this opportunity to express our appreciation for the insightful and informative comments on the several iterations of this document that we received from colleagues,collaborators, supporters, and friends from across the
Library and the globe.
Thank you for your careful consideration of our strategic plan and for helping us to achieve our goals in serving the Congress and our many other constituencies.
Roberta I. Shaffer
Law Librarian of Congress
provide authoritative research,analysis, and information to the congress. acquire, preservrve, and provide access to a universal collection of knowledge and the record of america?s creativity. sustain an effective national copyright system. lead and work collaboratively with external communities to
advdvance knowledge and creativity. manage proactively for demonstrable results.
The mission of the Law Library of Congress is to provide Congress with comprehensive high-quality, timely, and innovative research on foreign, international, and comparative law, and a wide range of legal reference services.
The Strategic Planning process
With all the opportunities and challenges that face the Law Library and the specialized nature of its mission, it was decided in late 2009 to bring together fifteen members of the Law Library staff, representing each of its divisions and every level of expertise, to compose a Strategic Planning Committee that would directly address the unique position of the Law Library and envision a path for its future. The strategic plan presented here is intended to be a living and working document that will be revisited every few years, or as necessary, in order to provide clear and decisive steps to enable the Law Library to fulfill its mission to be achieved for today?s generation and for those to follow.
Thought-provoking reading material relevant to the future trends in and visions of law libraries, law firms, digital content, and information management processes was provided to Committee members, and an outside strategic planning facilitator was retained. Over a period of four months, regular meetings were held to work through the process of creating a strategic plan. The process included brainstorming; addressing strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats; engaging in a gap analysis; agreeing on guiding principles; and establishing goals, strategies and objectives that are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. The group often divided into three smaller workgroups and always reunited for general consensus at each stage of the process. A number of draft versions of the Strategic Plan were generated for iterative reviews by the Strategic Planning Committee, Law Library Management Team, entire Law Library staff, and key internal and external stakeholders and constituents.
Although members of the Strategic Planning Committee came from different disciplines and backgrounds, there was a cordial collegiality and shared desire to look honestly and closely at the role of a law library in the twenty-first century. The themes that emerged were: preservation and maintenance of the collection regardless of format, accountability, efficiency of operations, customer-focus, exploitation of the most current technologies, retention and attraction of the best qualified staff, and coordination within the Library of Congress and with partners outside of the Library.
The Law Library of Congress recognizes that it must maintain seven cross-cutting and core competencies to achieve its mission today and for its long-term viability. These competencies are: collection acquisition;organization of information; access to content; creation of knowledge through research and analysis; preservation of information and knowledge; collaboration and knowledge sharing with a broad range of partners across sectors, disciplines, and life stages; and leadership through the development, adoption, and implementation of best practices. It is for these reasons that the Law Library of Congress undertook
its strategic planning process and why it is committed to on-going strategic review. This strategic plan is a collective achievement and is a testament to the Law Library of Congress staff?s dedication and commitment to fulfill the mission of the Law Library of Congress.
Historical Context
The Law Library of Congress, the world?s largest law library, was founded by an act of Congress in 1832 with the mission to serve the legal needs of the United States Congress and the Supreme Court. From its early days of 2000 volumes to its vast collection of nearly five million volumes or volume-equivalents today, the Law Library?s mandate has expanded to serve the nation and the world in providing the depth and breadth of not only United States laws, legislation, and court decisions, but also legal documentation from over 260 current jurisdictions, as well as many former nations, colonies, and legal systems.
As the collection has expanded over time, the challenges of preservation, storage, and access greatly increased. Not only is law constantly growing and changing but also the formats demanded by those who access the Library are changing. Whereas the original Law Library consisted of bound volumes of printed text, the currentcollection now also includes journals, film, artwork, electronic books and documents, and microfilm. In recent
decades, the once revolutionary storage media of microfiche has moved on into digital media, with new formats required every few years by researchers who want to download text and add their own value. Websites and digital formats have become ever more important as this is the means most people use to access the collection worldwide.
Mission
The mission of the Law Library of Congress is to provide Congress with comprehensive, high-quality, timely, and innovative research on foreign, international, and comparative law, and a wide range of legal reference services.
To accomplish this mission, the Law Library has assembled a staff of experienced lawyers trained both abroad and in the U.S., as well as law librarians, and amassed the world?s largest collection of law books, primary and secondary sources, and other legal resources from all countries, now comprising nearly 2.5
million items in hard copy alone.
The Law Library is a center of legal research available to members of Congress and their staffs, the executive branch agencies, the judiciary, law practitioners and researchers, students, scholars, foreign government officials and the diplomatic corps, the business community, journalists, and curious and concerned citizens everywhere.
Comprehensive geographically, the collection also spans all periods of law, from the most ancient and primitive to the most contemporary and sophisticated. All systems of law ? common, civil, customary, religious and socialist ? are represented, as are all topics within the law. The Law Library is a repository for the complete record of American Law.
The Law Library of Congress conducts a variety of activities to meet its mission. They include developing the concept of a One World Law Library (OWLL); maintaining and expanding multi-jurisdictional legal databases; publishing the World Law Bulletin (WLB), the Global Legal Monitor (GLM), country studies, and comparative law reports; training on federal legal and legislative history research; providing expert witness testimony, briefings, and orientations; cultivating and refreshing foreign, international, and comparative law expertise; performing multinational and comparative legal analyses; consulting congressional members and their committees on foreign, comparative, and international legal developments; and providing reference
assistance locating U.S. legal and legislative information and relevant print and Web resources.
As the nation?s custodian of legal and legislative collections from almost all countries and legal systems of the world, the Law Library of Congress maintains, retrieves, preserves, and secures print and microform collections, and has just begun to collect electronic materials through a new copyright deposit regulation. The work of the Law Library includes the shelving of all incoming volumes and serials; filing of incoming loose-leaf updates, advance sheets, and pocket parts; weeding of superseded volumes; servicing any material requested; preparation for binding of newly collated volumes and identification of material to be digitized, microfilmed, boxed, or readied for long-term storage; and updating all Library of Congress regulations on the handling of the legal collection.
The Law Library of Congress foreign law specialists are a diverse group of foreign-trained attorneys whose primary jurisdictions include: Argentina, Brazil, Canada, China, the European Union, France, Germany, Greece, India, Iran, Israel, Japan, Lebanon, Mexico, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Russia, and the United Kingdom.
Other jurisdictions are attended to by additional foreign-trained attorneys retained under special contract. In addition to foreign and comparative legal information services, the Law Library also provides research assistance and reference on United States federal and state legal issues to national and global constituents and advises constituents on efficient and effective research techniques.
The Law Library provides further research guidance and assistance through its website including electronic products such as the Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation, which provides access to historic legislative documents; Guide to Law Online, an authoritative portal of legal and legislative information websites; Legal Research and Collection Guides, which focus on legal research techniques, events and issues; and THOMAS, which provides research guidance in locating relevant documents and navigating contemporary
legislative history material found in this legislative database.
Our Road to The Future
The Law Library of Congress (LLC) will provide access to authentic, authoritative, current, and comprehensive information by using the latest technology, applying best practices, and maintaining an up-to-date collection of materials to meet the needs of its users.
Using a variety of formats and research techniques, law librarians will provide in-depth legal research and reference assistance as they navigate a range of research materials, both in print and electronic formats.
Recognizing the importance of preserving rare and unique collections and essential legal documents, the Law Library of Congress will continue to maintain and make accessible large collections acquired since the nineteenth century. While other public libraries may have discarded print materials in favor of online access, LLC will remain an invaluable and often unique resource for legal research because of the comprehensiveness and depth of its collections.
The Law Library of Congress will serve as the renowned archival repository for born-digital legal documents and publications, especially since many of these publications disappear into an electronic ?black hole? after their initial appearance. The LLC will focus on strengthening its ongoing digital preservation program.
The Law Library of Congress will educate and train library users to be knowledgeable and skilled legal information consumers. Its information specialists will facilitate legal understanding and inspire and generate innovative thinking about how existing and emerging laws and legal systems that impact regional and global issues can advance the rule of law and the administration of justice worldwide.
We are on the cusp of a new era, which is marked by an information explosion and technological revolution. This has been changing the role of libraries and librarians, the research practices of lawyers, and legal publishing. It is of vital importance that we position ourselves and plan for the digital future.
Now, more than ever, lawyers and myriad other professionals affected by legal developments need the assistance of librarians in locating and using the materials from the overwhelming inventory of legal information available. Confronted with a changing array of competing information technologies, legal researchers must rely increasingly on librarians who have an expert?s blend of subject-specific knowledge, research savvy, and technological skills.
The Law Library of Congress will serve as a major facilitator of research on all global legal issues.
The Law Library of Congress acknowledges its dependencies on Library of Congress infrastructure support, as well as outside actors.
Many American businesses and even some foreign governments rely on the Law Library to house copies of foreign and domestic legislation and view the Law Library as a rich and unique resource for this type of authoritative, authenticated legal information. For this reason, the Global Legal Information Network (GLIN) was established to support Law Library research and augment the collection of countries of strategic importance to the U.S. Congress. GLIN is an excellent example of intergovernmental cooperation and provides a good model for the future.
Ensuring accuracy, authenticity, and authoritativeness of legal documents is another challenge dealt with on a daily basis by the Law Library.
Main Reading Room. View of statue of Law by Paul W. Bartlett on the column entablature between two alcoves. Library of Congress Thomas Jefferson Building, Washington, D.C.
Guiding Principles
During the strategic planning process, certain agreed-on ?givens? became apparent, and were accepted as guiding principles for the present and future Law Library of Congress. They are as follows:
? The Law Library of Congress is a unit within the Library of Congress and works with its internal peers to serve the Congress of the United States, other federal entities, the American people, and the world community by providing staff expertise and knowledge, collections, and services.
? Law as a discipline does not exist in a vacuum and is truly transdisciplinary in nature.
? Legal information must be freely available, easily accessible, and enable end-users to add their own value.
? To effectively meet the needs of legal research, information must be accurate, authoritative, and authentic, as well as current and retrospective.
? The Law Library of Congress recognizes the critical importance of knowing, understanding, and respecting the laws and legal systems of other nations of the world.
? Law libraries and access to legal information are key enablers of the ?Rule of Law.?
? The increased globalization of human interaction creates a greater need to understand and have access to laws at all levels of authority, from the local to the global.
? Law plays a key role in bringing resolution to conflict and finding innovative solutions to social and economic problems.
? Preservation is of key importance because of the law?s disciplinary reliance on past precedents and the very specialized materials available only at the Law Library of Congress.
? The world looks to the United States as a leader in the information world and, as such, expects the U.S. to provide models, policies, and best practices for information access, authenticity, authority, and preservation.
? The Library of Congress and the Law Library of Congress strategic plans are in alignment.