california county law libraries “ask the law librarian” chat reference service presented by...

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.