The Annual Meeting of the members of the Cleveland Law Library Association will be held on Thursday, March 22, 2012 at 12:00 noon in the Law Library, 404 Cuyahoga County Courthouse. Agenda items will include the election of three Directors to serve three-year terms from March 2012 - March 2015 and the Librarian’s report. The meeting will include a light luncheon.

The Board recommends the following candidates for election at the meeting: Carla Tricarichi, Esq. of Tricarichi & Carnes; Patricia A. Poole, Esq. of Baker Hostetler; and Philip M. Oliss, Esq. of Squire Sanders.

In honor of Law Day this year, the Law Library will be hosting a Free 1 hr. LEXIS CLE program from 12:00-1:00 p.m. on Friday, May 4, 2012. This program is open to all private and statutory members of the Law Library. If you are interested in attending this program, please register by calling the Law Library at 216-861-5070, or emailing the Librarian at kdugan@clelaw.lib.oh.us. We will be offering a light lunch at 11:30 a.m. for those who will be attending so we would appreciate it if you would register by May 1st.

This year, the Cuyahoga County Courthouse is celebrating its 100th anniversary. Just over one hundred years ago on January 1, 1912, what we now call the ‘Old Courthouse’ was dedicated and opened for the administration of justice in Cuyahoga County. Cleveland was a building mecca back then because our Courthouse was actually part of a formal Group Plan developed by Daniel Burnham and others to create a large public space surrounded by various civil and government buildings designed in neoclassic style. The first building erected as part of this vision was the Metzenbaum Federal Courthouse in 1910. The ‘Old Courthouse’ with its Beaux Arts style architecture came next, followed by Cleveland City Hall in 1916, Public Auditorium in 1922, and the Cleveland Public Library’s Main building in 1925.

Inspired by this year’s Courthouse Centennial and the history of our building, we created a digital archive of our in-house publications. Our new web page provides access to all of our Newsletters back to 1986, our Law Library Briefs series from 2010, and our Lunch & Learn programs from 2011. If you are interested in nostalgia, the January 1986 Newsletter mentions the inauguration of the Law Library’s first online catalog and describes our Westlaw service at the time. Our new archive can be found at the following link: clevelandlawlibrary.org/Public/Misc/Newsletters.html

Our library will be celebrating National Library Week from April 9-13, 2012. Please join us on Friday, April 13th for cookies and beverages from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. We will also be offering complimentary tours of our facility and web site, as well as sponsoring a trivia contest.

Times have been tough, but we heard your requests. Since the County does not provide any water fountains on the 4th floor where our Law Library is located, we brought back the water cooler in our lobby. You can now enjoy a refreshing drink of water while you work, compliments of the Law Library. You may also bring your own beverages to drink, but please be careful with all food and drinks near our computers.

Cleveland Law Library Association members and those entitled to privileges under O.R.C. Section 307.51 can choose to be notified by email of the latest U.S. Supreme Court, Ohio Supreme Court, Sixth Circuit and Eighth District opinions released by the courts. This notification service is a free service, and the syllabi are also posted to our web site, with links to the full-text where possible. To be added to the distribution list for the syllabi notification service, please send a email to ehess@clelaw.lib.oh.us or call the Law Library at (216) 861-5070.

If you are unable to join us on April 13th for National Library Week, you can still participate in our trivia contest by completing the entry which follows and sending it to the Law Library.