May 2011 Daily Transcript

County law library reaching out to public online

By DOUG SHERWIN , The Daily Transcript

Thursday, May 5, 2011

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Like most great ideas, John Adkins' inspiration came in the middle of the night.

The director of the San Diego County Public Law Library system bolted out of bed at 3 a.m. and quickly scribbled down his brainstorm, lest he forget come sunrise.

A year-and-a-half later, Adkins' vision has become a reality in the form of the Library Virtual Experience (LiVE!), an online initiative that fuses social media and other Internet resources to make the library more accessible and current for today's consumers.

"The whole reason for me being here is to transform an older, established library into a modern, forward-thinking, futuristic community center that can bring in people from all over the county to see how the law impacts them every day,"said Adkins, who joined the law library a year ago.

"I want to make us accessible to everyone, and the way to do that is to allow people to use us from their homes, laptops and mobile phones."

Through LiVE!, lawyers and the public can access the law library's electronic catalogue and legal research databases online without leaving the home or office.

Patrons can communicate with staff librarians in real time online through the instant-messaging service Meebo. The function is best used for short, simple questions, but it allows librarians to send along links to websites more easily than reciting them over the phone.

The group also has a Facebook page, a Twitter account and a YouTube channel as it tries to reach a broader audience. The library incorporates the professional networking site LinkedIn and the customer review compiler Yelp! as well.

"We're trying to tap into the imagination of the younger set,"said Isabel Eustaquio, a reference librarian and member of the library's social media committee, "and (show) we're not a fuddy-duddy library, but we're up-to-date and hip."

There are approximately 350 fans of the library's Facebook page and its Twitter account features 192 followers; modest numbers by social media standards but impressive considering they really haven't advertised them yet.

The library's YouTube channel features training videos, interviews with community members about what the library means to them and even a video of a flash mob experience recorded during the facility's empty house party.

"We're here to help the San Diego community,"Eustaquio said, "and if this is the way they prefer to reach out to us, we'd like to make it available."

Lawyers still have to go to the actual law library to access pay-based legal databases like Westlaw and LexisNexis for free, but other databases are available online.

"The biggest benefit is reaching people wherever they are rather then them always having to come to a brick and mortar building,"said Gina Catalano, head of reference services. "We're reaching out to our patrons in a different way."

Adkins has always been a big proponent of social media. He helped introduce the University of San Diego School of Law to social media while he was head of public services in the school's Pardee Legal Research Center. He launched a blog and instituted a chat function.

"I've seen it in action,"Adkins said, "and I wanted to bring the county law library into that realm."

The online initiative has been instrumental during the law library's current $4.2 million renovation project at its downtown building. The organization had to vacate the building at 1105 Front St. as the inside gets gutted and prepared for a complete overhaul.

Knowing the library temporarily would be operating out of a smaller facility a block away, Adkins knew he had to do something to keep the offerings the same. The answer was LiVE!

Happily, he's also noticed an increase of visitors to the system's three other branches in San Diego County - Chula Vista, El Cajon and Vista.

Construction on the downtown building is set to begin soon and likely will take six months to complete. Staff members have been posting updates on Facebook.

"We're trying to take the library from kind of a receptacle for people to come in and use to a place that reaches out and embraces (people), and sends out information,"Adkins said. "One that acts more like a business then a government entity."

The address of the law library's interactive website is sandiegolawlibrary.org.

The response from staff members and the public has been positive so far.

"We're pretty excited about it,"Eustaquio said. "We're all learning along with the rest of the community. I never had a Twitter account until we got one for the law library."