| “Future of Jenkins” Survey [UPDATED] |
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UPDATE: The deadline for participation has been extended until Friday, January 30. Jenkins has engaged Axelroth & Associates to assist with refreshing our library’s Strategic Plan. Today, libraries face many challenges and we want to be sure that we are positioned to meet them over the next few years. We need your help in identifying the library services and resources that you value most, as well as input on other topics. We want to make sure that we continue to meet our members’ needs now and in the future. Our consultants have developed a survey that should take no more than 15 minutes to complete to get your feedback. We are offering a certificate for a free one-hour CLE class to those who participate in the survey in appreciation for your input. Thanks in advance for your feedback. |
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Submitted by: Regina L. Smith, Executive Director
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Comments (1)December 31, 2008
| Jenkins Closed on Saturdays Beginning January 2009 |
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Having reviewed usage on Saturdays over the past few years, we found that an average of 14 patrons, some of them members of the general public, use Jenkins on Saturdays. This is less than 3% of our membership The cost of keeping Jenkins open on Saturdays is about $30,000 annually. Not only do we pay for staffing, we also have to pay for utilities and other operational costs. In addition, the people who work on Saturdays are off on Mondays, so we are short staffed on that day. Having analyzed the situation and spoken with our Board of Directors, we have made the decision to eliminate Saturday hours at Jenkins beginning in January 2009. We recognize that some of our members want to work on the weekend and we believe that we can offer a service that will assist them with their research. In 2009, we will offer 24/7 access to Fastcase, a high-quality online legal research alternative to the larger commercial vendors. Fastcase offers unlimited searching of cases, statutes and regulations for all 50 states and Federal coverage as well. This new service will be available to all members who are solos or with firms with less than 50 attorneys. There will be no time limits for your research as we have with the Lexis Thru Jenkins Remote Program. We plan to continue the Lexis Thru Jenkins Remote program, for solos and firms with 10 or fewer attorneys. Our excellent web site, www.jenkinslaw.org , links to legal and non-legal information and our library of remote access databases that members can search from home or office continues to grow. We dislike having to withdraw a member benefit, but we are confident that the combination of remote databases we offer will assist our members with many of their after hours research needs. |
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Submitted by: Regina L. Smith, Executive Director
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November 10, 2008
| If You Think Gasoline Is Expensive, Then Consider This |
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On average, your printer’s black ink costs you about $4,731 per gallon. This tidbit comes from PC World, which recently ran a test using one of the models from each of the top 4 printer manufacturers to see just how much ink is left in a cartridge when the printer forces you to change it. The results:
A shameful waste of energy, chemicals and packaging, not to mention money. The facile conclusion? Third-party print cartridges may cost less to buy, but given their inferior performance they may not be cheaper to use in the long run. The more important conclusion? Stop printing. Look for creative ways to capture, store and communicate important info. For example, I have a Mac at home, so I can print to a PDF file, which I can email to others. (With a little work, you can do this with Windows, too.) How about sharing documents with colleagues using Google Docs or Zoho? And at Jenkins, we’ve recently added a feature to our online catalog so that you can text the title and call number of a book to your cellphone. I recognize that you can never eliminate all of your printing. But this is simple stuff. It’s all about changing bad habits. |
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Submitted by: Dan Giancaterino, Internet Librarian
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October 7, 2008
| LexisNexis Congressional |
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We’ve just added a great new resource to our Member Online Services. LexisNexis Congressional is available 24/7 to all Jenkins members. This web site will help all of those federal legislative researchers out there. For starters, it provides access to the Statutes at Large (1789-present) and the United States Code. Then comes all of the wonderful federal legislative history material. There are Committee Reports (select coverage 1990-present), Committee Prints (select coverage 1993-2004) and the Congressional Record (1985-present). This product offers full Congressional Hearings in a digital format (searchable PDFs) from 2004-present and select testimony transcripts & submitted statements from 1988-present. As an extra bonus the CFR is searchable from 1981-present. As you do your research on LexisNexis Congressional, you might come across abstracts to older material that is not available in full text. If you need one of these documents, call our reference desk at 215-574-1505 or email research@jenkinslaw.org. We have an almost complete collection of federal legislative history documents here at the library from 1970-present and select material available prior to 1970! |
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Submitted by: Jenny Hohenstein, Reference/Electronic Services Librarian
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September 11, 2008
| Congressional Record |
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Check out the U.S. Congressional Documents on HeinOnline. This is a great new addition to our Member Online Services. Search or browse the Congressional Record (1873-2003) or the Congressional Record Daily (1994-2008) from your desktop. As with all of our Member Online Services, they are accessible 24/7. Wondering what the difference is between the Congressional Record and the Congressional Record Daily? Both contain debates and proceedings from the floor of the U.S. House and Senate. The Daily gets published quicker and is numbered with a pagination system that begins with H for House, S for Senate or E for Extension of Remarks. The Congressional Record, sometimes referred to as the bound or permanent edition, gives legislators a chance to revise or amend remarks. The permanent edition should usually be cited to, unless it is not yet available. HeinOnline is only available to Jenkins members in firms with less than 50 attorneys. |
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Submitted by: Jenny Hohenstein, Reference/Electronic Services Librarian
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September 4, 2008
| U.S. Federal Agency Decisions added to Member Online Services Remote Access |
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Jenkins has added the U.S. Federal Agency Library from HeinOnline to our Member Online Services remote access databases. You can search or browse decisions from the National Labor Relations Board, the Federal Communications Commission, the Board of Immigration Appeals and much more! Many titles have great coverage - the Internal Revenue Cumulative Bulletin, for example, goes all the way back to 1919. HeinOnline is only available to Jenkins members in firms with less than 50 attorneys. |
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Submitted by: Jenny Hohenstein, Reference/Electronic Services Librarian
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June 24, 2008
| Spending Long Hours Commuting? |
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If your answer is yes, fill this time by listening to PBI workshops available on CD @ Jenkins. Our recent acquisitions in this area include: Autism and education [sound recording] ——————————– General practitioners’ update 2007 [sound recording] [Mechanicsburg, Pa.] : Pennsylvania Bar Institute, [2007] Practice of law — Pennsylvania ——————————– Pitfalls of family law [sound recording] : malpractice and/or ethical dilemma? ——————————– The stem cell debate [sound recording] : the intersection of law, religion and bioethics [Mechanicsburg, Pa.] : Pennsylvania Bar Institute, [2006] Stem cells — Research — Law and legislation ——————————– Trial of a medical malpractice case [sound recording] [Mechanicsburg, Pa.] : Pennsylvania Bar Institute, [2007] Physicians — Malpractice — Pennsylvania — Trial practice The best way to keep up with Jenkins’ current Acquisitions is by visiting our New Acquisitions page. To find titles related to your area of specialty, use the JAC Advanced Search, enter your subject terms, then use the Material type to limit to Audio. You can also subscribe to our weekly “New for You: Jenkins’ Collection Alert” by loging to My JAC and following steps: For further assistance feel free to contact our Information & Research Department at research@jenkinslaw.org or call 215.574.1505. |
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Submitted by: Katrina Piechnik, Head of Technical Services
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May 8, 2008
| You may want to start thinking about Encrypting |
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“Lose a laptop and you’re out $500 to $600. Lose your client’s sensitive information — well, that’s a different story.” If you find the encryption process a little daunting, attend Dan’s new ethics CLE class, Practical Encryption for Attorneys. |
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Submitted by: Ida Weingram, Head of Outreach Services
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Are your usual accessories these days a flash drive, laptop, BlackBerry, etc.? Do these devices have your personal information on them i.e. social security number, financial data, etc? Most importantly, do you carry around your clients’ information on them? Then you need to read | Jenkins Internet Librarian Quoted |
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“Five years ago, I wouldn’t have known about Randy Pausch, let alone seen his last lecture. I’ve watched the complete 76-minute lecture three times now. YouTube has made it is so easy for me to do this. . . . But for every Randy Pausch, there’s a hundred Tricia Walsh-Smiths,” said Jenkins Law Internet Librarian Dan Giancaterino. |
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Submitted by: Ida Weingram, Head of Outreach Services
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Dan Giancaterino’s Internet expertise has once again been called upon by Michael Smerconish. Usually Dan is a call-in guest to his talk show, but this time Michael wanted a response to the Inquirer Currents column he was writing comparing two very different (and popular) YouTube videos: the farewell lecture by a college professor who’s dying of cancer, and an online rant by a woman about her ex. The article appeared in this past Sunday’s Inquirer, December 18, 2007
| Blogging at Jenkins |
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The Jenkins website has been growing and evolving since 1996. Our newest change is the addition of the Jenkins Blog. Using Web 2.0 technology is an easy way for us to keep you updated on our services, research databases, court rule changes, library news, staff activities, search engine tips, and lots of other information to help you get the most out of your membership. Over the next couple of months, we will be incorporating our Research Tips and New and Noteworthy book selections into this Blog. We have also added a link at the end of each blog for you to send us your comments or read comments from others. We hope you will start commenting and let us know what you think. So, take advantage of this great technology to keep up with what is happening at the law library and add the Jenkins Blog RSS feed to your Blog reader today. |
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Submitted by: Kathy Coon, Deputy Director
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