Blog Archives
The Library of Law
While public libraries have a mixture of fiction and non-fiction books and resources available, law libraries concentrate on providing needed legal resources to law students, lawyers and judges. While law schools will usually provide an extensive law library for its students, other individuals are allowed to use them, although they may not be allowed to check out books. Many court houses also have the law libraries on the premises, especially the larger ones. Although legal state requirements of law libraries change from location to location, most law libraries offer the same resources. A typical law library will have a large collection of extensive law material that is not available in regular libraries. These items may include books of federal state regulations and laws, copies of treaties, reports from Supreme Court cases and volumes of important law reviews. A greater variety of law books are not the only specialties available in law libraries. While the Internet usage at a regular public library will usually only include access to certain websites, a law library will provide access to online legal outlets such as the full version of the search program LexisNexis. Every law school is required to give its students access to … Continue reading
Andrew Carnegie and his Library Legacy
Andrew Carnegie was not called the Patron Saint of Libraries for no reason. Credited for started over 2500 Carnegie libraries, Andrew Carnegie was a philanthropist and a Scottish American businessman. He had both the means and desire to build public and university libraries. • When Andrew Carnegie was a child, he had no idea that he would someday be responsible for creating the famous Carnegie libraries. However, he spent much of his childhood reading and going to libraries. The future creator of the Carnegie Library system also had a father who was responsible for helping to found the Tradesmen’s Subscription Library, which was subscribed to buy a good number of individuals. Andrew Carnegie used to listen to public readings that the Tradesmen’s Subscription Library. • The man behind Carnegie libraries began working for a telegraph company when he was a young adult in Pennsylvania. The owner of this company had his own personal library that he let his workers use on Saturdays. During that time period, many believed that the common working man should not be entitled to learn how to read. It was somewhat of a big deal for a wealthy man to promote literacy amongst his working class … Continue reading
Finding A Library Job
Finding a library job can be a difficult task. If an individual has a good idea of the tasks that will be required of them in a library job, as well as what the employer will be looking for in an applicant, they will increase their chances of finding library jobs. • The library job market is very competitive. Because of the nature of the work, there are few entry level library jobs that are available. Because of this, many people find that they need to obtain a master’s degree in library sciences to obtain a good library job. Due to the fact that states are cutting funding for libraries, finding a library job is even more difficult than it previously was. With the many cutbacks, libraries, like many other jobs, are cutting back on the number of employees they have. People who currently hold library jobs are trained to do multiple jobs while others are let go. This low need for paid employees increases because many library jobs are actually filled by unpaid volunteers and interns. Many retirees choose to volunteer at libraries. • However, just because it is difficult to find a library job does not mean that … Continue reading
The History of the Public Library
A public library is a library funded by public money, such as taxpayer money. The purpose of a public library is to provide books, Internet access and many other resources to the public for free. Even DVDs and movies are available for free rentals. Public libraries are not new, in fact the first organization that was considered to be a public library was created in the late 1500s. • The first public library was created in England. At that time, the only people who were able to use libraries were individuals who joined a cathedral or were enrolled in college. This public library was called Francis Trigge Chained Library. This public library actually still exists and is famous for its long standing history of giving the people free access to all library resources. Although this library was the first, it stood nearly alone in its existence until the mid 1800s. That was the time period in which public libraries began to become popular. • In England, Parliament decided to make a committee dedicated to considering the creation of multiple public libraries. The committee was supposed to decide if a public library was something that would benefit the public. The committee … Continue reading