California County Law Libraries “Ask the Law Librarian” Chat Reference ServicePresented by Ralph Stahlberg, Director, Reference and Research LA Law Library

California’s Public Law Libraries

• Ca. B & P Sec. 6300 et. seq. Funded by a portion of civil court filing fees

• CCCLL: Council of California County Law Libraries

Program History

• April 2002: Service goes public as part of 24/7 Reference, Law Specialists

• Fall 2002: CCCLL collaborates with California Judicial Council to place “Ask the Law Librarian” icon on each page of the Courts Self-Help Center

History

• Fall 2004: 24/7 Reference acquired by OCLC, Librarians transition to QuestionPoint

• 2008: Coordinators implement user survey

• Funding: LSTA grants

Participating Libraries

• 11 California County Law libraries participate providing chat and email follow-up service

• Service provided weekdays: 8-5

Legal Information / Legal Advice

• Law librarians are prohibited from giving advice (Unauthorized practice of law)

• Distinction not always clear: can’t interpret or give specific advice

• Legal advice disclaimers and script, stress positives

• Challenges in finding legal materials online

Legal Advice

Disclaimer

Public Law Library Users

• Changing Patron population: more Self Represented Litigants (SRL’s)

• 2004 California Judicial Council Report found: 4.3 million California Court users are SRL’s, 70% of initial family law filings by SRL’s

California’s response to SRL’s

• Judiciary: California Court’s Self Help Website: http://www.courtinfo.ca.gov/selfhelp

• Legislature: 1996 enactment of the Family Law Facilitator Act (Family Code sec. 10000 et seq)

2010 Service Statistics

• 11753 live chat sessions

• 5811 email responses sent

Patron Satisfaction

• Ensure service is staffed during posted hours, participant list

• Respond to follow-up

• Review survey results to identify issues

Surveys

• Staff Quality: Excellent – This service is a gift to the public. Legal issues can

seem like trying to understand a foreign language. Thank you for having such a great resource for us average citizens.

• Good– I guess I expected legal advice and that is not what the

site is for but the person helping me gave me some excellent pointers and information sites. I will check it out asap. Thank you for providing a site such as this.

Surveys

• Staff Quality: Poor– I tried twice but no one ever came on to talk to me

Most common negative feedback, not enough staff to handle our volume of questions

Librarian Satisfaction & Our Future

• Periodic statistical reports and updates

• Funding / Staffing

Thanks

• For further reading check:– California’s AskNow Law Librarian

Service, Ralph Stahlberg and Mary Pinard, in Reference Renaissance Current and Future Trends, edited by Marie L. Radford and R. David Lankes, Neal- Schuman Publishers, 2010.