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Philadelphia Area Law Library Consortium

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The Jenkins Law Library recognized the need for a Catalog Processing Center for area law libraries a number of years ago. Jenkins installed its first OCLC terminal as a result of an LSCA Title III grant that was awarded in 1985. One of the long range goals stated in the grant proposal was that Jenkins would become a catalog processing center for area libraries, with the eventual end product being some type of shared catalog.

The Catalog Processing Center became a reality in 1986, when we began planning for the Philadelphia Area Law Library Consortium. Thirty-two libraries were surveyed as to their interest in participating in the processing center and sixteen signed up. Each library has its own unique OCLC symbol, and its holdings are listed in the OCLC database. In addition, each library becomes a full member of PALINET, so they can take advantage of a variety of services, discounts and training classes offered by this organization. Jenkins cataloged the first items for processing center clients in November 1987. To date we have cataloged almost 59,000 titles.