Law library users now find themselves barred

Eastern West Virginians in need of valuable legal resources and research assistance literally have been locked out of a publicly funded regional law library for more than a year, according to the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals’ top librarian.

“Since we are without a librarian at the moment, I am reluctant to leave the library open,” Kaye L. Maerz said Thursday at the library in the Berkeley County Judicial Center in Martinsburg.

Maerz could not explain why the high court last year stopped her effort to fill the full-time position, which has been vacant since January 2007, when former librarian Deborah Hillyard resigned to work for federal Magistrate Judge David J. Joel.
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The extended vacancy has alarmed Maerz and 23rd Judicial Circuit Judge David H. Sanders, who said last week that they were concerned that county leaders might decide to use the space for something else.

“There have been lawyers that have been frustrated by it not being available,” Sanders said.

Sanders said there are a number of attorneys who cannot readily afford the cost of purchasing volumes of reference books that are available at the library. The volumes include South Eastern Reporter, which contain West Virginia case law. Each volume costs $170, and there are several full bookshelves of the reference series, which include editorial explanation to help a layperson understand legal terminology, Maerz said.

Source: The Herald-Mail

This entry was posted on Monday, April 28th, 2008 and is filed under Access to Information, Libraries and Librarianship, Search News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.