Well, if it has been some time since you visited the newly refurbished Marin County Law Library, located at 20 N. San Pedro Rd., it is high time you came in and looked around.

You will find a wonderful office away from the office and enjoy spending some quiet time away from the phones, away from the emails, and away from the questions, and do some quality study. Remember when that is what we used to do? The new location has been beautifully restored with plenty of tables and space for everyone. There’s a large conference room you can rent at a very reasonable rate. It is restful, quiet, spacious, and relaxing. Come down and check it out.

While you are there, you will find the same secondary source reference materials in print (does anybody remember paper?), including most of the Rutter Group and CEB Collections. If it is not there in print, it is on Westlaw, which is free to use. Something new to the Library is the newly released electronic CEB On Law Collection, a great new resource which has access to all the up-to-date CEB publications, and, yes, that is free to use as well.

But if you are looking for a restful time to study, you should avoid the second or fourth Thursdays of the month in the evenings. That is when the Law Library hosts the “Lawyers in the Library” program, produced in collaboration with the MCBA. During those times, MCBA members volunteer their time and effort to answer questions for and give advice to self-represented patrons of the Library.

Self-represented patrons now account for about half of the Law Library’s annual 4,000 visitors. We are dedicated to providing them with excellent service, and so it is always gratifying to see the volunteer attorneys provide that same extra effort to four or five patrons at each event. That effort attracts a full house almost every time, and patron evaluations of their experience are always stellar. So even if you were not at the recent volunteer appreciation social held at the Library last month, you know who you are…Thank You!

What is also new is that the Library has spun off a 501(c)(3) corporation called Friends of the Marin County Public Law Library. It is chaired by Board of Trustees Vice President Jonathan Frieman, and its mission is to raise funds for the Law Library to help close its 30% financial shortfall from 2008 levels.

Jonathan and the other members of the Friends might be coming your way with ideas about how you might be able to help (to update collections and the like), and they thank you in advance for your kind support.

For more information, visit the Law Library’s website at: www.marincountylawlibrary.org. For more information about Friends of the Marin County Law Library, contact Jonathan Frieman at yogi@well.com.