A Year of Upheaval, Challenge & Accomplishment By Laurie B. Miller, Library Director When the Covid pandemic closed the Pierce County Law Library, we needed to regroup, adapt and rethink how we deliver our services. As a legal resource on the first floor of the county courthouse, the Pierce County Law Library’s patrons were often pro-se litigants who were already in the courthouse looking for help. They came to our library for books, Westlaw and forms. After the library’s doors closed, those resources were no longer available but the need for legal resources continued. The pandemic exacerbated problems like domestic violence and homelessness. The need for restraining orders was never so great as in the early days of the pandemic. Nor was the need for eviction relief. This isn’t a story of crisis, but a story of rising to the moment. From the first day of our stay-at-home order, our librarians continued to provide for the legal information needs of our public. We answered telephone and email inquiries. We also redesigned our webpage to address the issues of the day.
58,790 + The number of patrons who enter our doors most years
The big change came when we cancelled the materials that could only be used inside the library - Westlaw and most print materials. Those funds were then reallocated to purchase digital materials for remote access. In 2020 the Library embraced the opportunity to provide new services:
• CLE webinars via Zoom • Self-help videos on YouTube • eBook digital library of popular legal treatises and primary materials • Other remote access materials. When our users couldn’t come to the library, our staff brought the library to them. I hope you will enjoy reading about our year of change in the following pages of this 2020 Annual Report.
Funding Crisis Funding is at a critical low as the courts and our user community struggle to resume normal activity. 2020 revenue was $276,218 below budget.
Mission Statement: As the only public law library in Pierce County, the mission of the Pierce County Law Library is to provide county-wide convenient access to current legal information including explanatory materials. The Library will provide information in print and electronic formats as are suitable for the diverse Pierce County community to use in criminal and civil litigation and for the resolution of personal and business legal matters. Our mission is also to provide trained and knowledgeable Library staff to assist patrons in meeting their legal information needs.
A Message from the Library Board PIERCE COUNTY LAW LIBRARY 2020 Board of Trustees James H. Bush, Esq., President The Honorable Judge Timothy Ashcraft The Honorable Judge Phil Sorensen John Cain, Esq., TPCBA Appointee Susan Long, Esq., County Council Designee
Welcome to the Pierce County Law Library’s 2020 Report It is said that necessity is the mother of invention. So it was in 2020 when the Pierce County Law Library closed the doors of its three branches, but invented new ways to provide legal information to the public even without allowing access to our physical locations. On March 18, 2020, the Law Library closed its doors pursuant to Governor Inslee’s emergency Covid-19 mandate. Not known at the time was that this closure was more than a short-term fix, but would last over a year. However, the staff of the Pierce County Law Library did not wait for further instruction; instead plans began immediately to assist our patrons remotely. This report will document the changes made to Library services as a result of our closure. They are exciting innovations that will become part of our regular services. However, this report will also document the financial downturn we experienced in 2020 and continue to experience in 2021. As we see how this plays out, the Pierce County Law Library will continue its work to serve the Pierce County public with remote and in-person services to provide access to legal information and access to justice. Mission Statement It is the mission of the Pierce County Law Library to provide county-wide convenient access to current legal information including explanatory materials. The library will provide information in print and electronic formats as are suitable for the diverse Pierce County community to use in criminal and civil litigation and for the resolution of personal and business legal matters. Our mission is also to provide trained and knowledgeable Library staff to assist patrons in meeting their legal information needs. The Library’s Board of Trustees has endeavored to bring our Mission Statement to life with our branch operations and recent addition of online services. We welcome suggestions for services we might offer in the future. James H. Bush, Esq. President, Pierce County Law Library Board of Trustees.
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The Year 2020 at a Glance The Pierce County Law Library is a legal resource that helps users improve their lives using the law. Reference librarians invite questions and search for answers. No visitor to the library is ever shuffled to another office out of convenience to the librarian. In 2020, reference librarians assisted 277 patrons per day until the Library was forced to close its doors in late March. We began the year answering questions about family law, probate, landlord/tenant, traffic infractions, employment discrimination, credit problems and bankruptcy, and small business concerns. After closing the doors, we assisted with questions about restraining orders, domestic violence, eviction and moratoriums. We look forward to a return to normal in 2021, and to helping with the new issues of the post-Covid era.
2020 Patron Services in Tacoma, Gig Harbor & Lakewood Branches • Daily Use: 277 patrons daily (for nearly 3 months until ordered to close on March 23.) • 419 Books Borrowed (down from 1,161 in 2019). • Reference Questions—in person: Patrons asked 15,749 questions, down from 153,346 in 2019. • Telephone Reference: 3,155 questions were answered over the phone. • Form Packets Sold: 878 form packets were sold, down from 2,472 in 2020.
Collection Services Book Count - Print materials in Tacoma, Gig Harbor & Lakewood Branches • 479 new books were added to the collection. • 98 were new titles and editions. • 381 were book updates. • 499 volumes were withdrawn for being out-of-date. • There are 33,033 volumes in collection.
Scenes From our Three Locations
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Library Finances - revenue and expenses 2020 Finances The Law Library’s only statutory source of income is an allocation of superior court and district court paid civil filing fees. The library receives $30 per superior court fee and $7 per district court filing fee. Due to the suspension of court activity and a decline in paid civil filings, this revenue source was insufficient to pay the Library’s obligations in 2020. The Library typically also benefits from patrons who come to the Library to purchase forms and make photocopies. With the Library closed in 2020, those sources of income were also unavailable.
A Year of Financial Decline Filing Fee Revenue Washington’s county law libraries are funded primarily by an allocation of civil filing fees. When the courts suspended most in-person services, civil filings fell precipitously, as did Library revenue.
Superior Court Revenue $107,707 less than 2019 • District Court Revenue $ 9,109 less than 2019 • Budget Impact: Fee shortfall of $116,538
Photocopy Revenue • Sales fell from $46,822 in 2019 to $12,362 in 2020. • Budget Impact: Shortfall of $37,638
Family Law Packet Sales • Sales fell from $67,221 in 2019 to $26,326 in 2020. • Budget Impact: Loss of $40,895
Eviction Packet Sales • Sales fell from $6,335 in 2019 to $2,520 in 2020. • Budget Impact: Shortfall of $3,980
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Library Finances - changing budget priorities Collection costs are the second largest library expense, typically costing 35% - 45% of the total budget. The 2020 pandemic changed our allocation of resources. In 2020 the library cut its book expenses by 65% eliminating nearly all subscriptions for book updates and new titles. This change was necessary because revenues had fallen precipitously. Instead of updating the book collection which was no longer available to the public, we put our funds into electronic materials that could be accessed remotely from our website.
2020 Financial Report
INCOME Filing Fees
$ 406,062
Fee Based Services
$
County Funding
$ 133,900
TOTAL Income
$ 585,707
45,745
EXPENDITURES Electronic materials became a mainstay of the revitalized collection. Electronic costs shown here include the Lexis eBook Library contracted for in 2020.
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Payroll & Benefits
$ 372.730
Office Expenses
$
County Fees & Charges
$ 88,755
Online Services
$
Print Collection
$ 68,809
Electronic Collection
$ 31,918
Miscellaneous
$ 15,880
TOTAL Expenses
$ 586,318
TOTAL INCOME
$ 585,707
TOTAL EXPENDIURES
$ 586,318
2020 Deficit
$
2,205
6,021
-611
The Pandemic Leaves its Mark - the new electronic library Technology Saves the Day In 2020, the library’s print collection was off-limits to public use. This was an impossible situation because the public had greater need for legal assistance than ever before. The Library responded by reallocating the book budget. Instead of buying books, we purchased remote access to legal databases. The new materials were chosen to be helpful to all our users, including non-attorneys whose only digital access may be by using a smart phone. We loaded self-help DIY legal books from Nolo Press, and legal explanatory materials from Lexis, WSBA and NCLC. We are pleased with the reception these materials have received. But, as helpful as they are, we look forward to reopening our in-person reference services in 2021.
The Nolo Library has 200 self-help DIY books covering topics of "everyday" law.
The Lexis Digital eBook Library offers free access to Washington Codes, the United States Code, court rules and treatises that explain the law, particularly Washington law.
NCLC has consumer protection information, such as:
Casemaker Libra is a WSBA Library of searchable full-text WSBA deskbooks.
* Mortgage and foreclosure * Student Loan Forgiveness * Car sales * Bankruptcy
Video Recordings and Zoom CLEs Fill the Information Gap During the Covid closure, the Library responded to an information gap for materials about eviction, eviction moratoriums, domestic violence, and public resources. Form packets could no longer be sold because the laws were changing too quickly to keep the information current. Instead, the Library began producing videos that could be instantly updated on the website. Local attorneys, experts in their fields, spoke for these videos. Some were designed for quick help, under 15 minutes in length. Others provided detailed coverage of the subject, were an hour or more in length, and were also offered live on Zoom for CLE credit. The skills involved in producing videos, loading them into a YouTube channel and on to the website were all new to our librarians.
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Library Outreach Services are Awarded - branch library update 2020 Community Service Awards In 2020, the Law Library was awarded national recognition for its innovative approach to providing legal services to remote areas of the County. The American Association of Law Libraries awarded its prestigious Excellence in Community Engagement Award for the Library’s unique collaboration with the Pierce County Library System to locate satellite locations inside the branches of remote public libraries. Also in 2020, the Law Library also was awarded the Pierce County’s Standing Ovation Award for vibrant communities, also celebrating these new branch library services. Both awards recognized the unique collaboration of a county law library with a public library district. Called a “library within a library” the partnership provided space for a collection of law books, a research computer, and a space for a Pierce County law librarian to provide reference services.. These neighborhood law libraries gave proximate access to the legal materials that people need for their daily lives. The Gig Harbor Library The Gig Harbor “library within a library” branch was an instant success; classes on family law, wills and probate were well attended and the books popular with non-attorneys as well as the professionals. What began as a pilot project was finalized in just 6 months. This library is temporarily closed for Covid, but will reopen when the Gig Harbor branch opens. Lakewood Branch Opens to Crowds of Users The Lakewood branch capitalized on the success of Gig Harbor, opening the following year. This library was customized for the needs of Lakewood residents including the local veteran population’s need for materials on military law, landlord tenant, family law, and bankruptcy. Reluctantly, the very busy library closed for the pandemic. We look forward to serving the Lakewood area again when this facility reopens. Sumner Next? Even with legal materials available online, the best way to provide legal materials to non-attorneys is by providing the print materials inside a public library with reference assistance. The public library is a perfect location because the branches are located in neighborhoods, close to the population needing the materials. They generally have evening and weekend hours, and they have welcomed the Law Library’s reference staff to provide scheduled services in the library’s space. The Library hopes to open its third and final branch in Sumner, after the pandemic subsides and budgets cooperate.
Two awards in 2020 cheered our Librarians during the dark months of Covid-
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Library Finances - revenue and expenses
We Thank our Supporters The Library thanks local professionals for their help with our “Self-Help” video & CLE project 90 Minute Zoom Recorded Programs Beverly Allen, Attorney at Law
Relocation Military issues in a Divorce PP Modification You lost now what? Divorce Parenting Plans Military Pensions Emergency Orders
Steven Merrival, Attorney at Law
Helping your criminal attorney
Stephen Dadabo, Attorney at Law
Ejectment
Klaus Snyder, Attorney at Law
Estate Planning
Erik Walters, Attorney at Law
Estate Planning
James McCormick, Attorney at Law
Anatomy of a PI Case PI Case discovery
Adam Birnbaum, Attorney at Law
Moratorium changes to LTA The moratorium changes
Mark Morzol, Attorney at Law
Moratorium changes to LTA Tenant changes
Andrea Roberts, LexisNexis
LexisNexis eBook Digital Library
Jeff Bradley, Attorney at Law
Ethics
Judge Thomas Felnagle, Retired
Starting a Civil Action
Judge Ronald Culpepper, Retired
Starting a Civil Action
Darcel Lobbo, Attorney at Law
Bankruptcy
15 Minute Self-Help Videos Beverly Allen, Attorney at Law
Family Law
Adam Birnbaum, Attorney at Law
Landlord Tenant
Arlene Joe, Attorney at Law
Adult Guardianship
Special Thanks to Kyle Schmidtke, Pierce County Communications Specialist, for video support throughout
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Law Library Board of Trustees - 2020-2021
Pierce County Law Library 2020 Annual Report Pursuant to RCW 27.24.040 Pierce County Law Library Board of Trustees, 2020-2021 James H. Bush, Esq., TPCBA Appointee, President
The Honorable Judge Timothy Ashcraft The Honorable Judge Phil Sorensen John Cain, Esq., TPCBA Appointee Susan Long, Esq., County Council Designee
Pierce County Law Library 1A-105 County City Building, 930 Tacoma Avenue South, Tacoma, WA 98402 Tele: 253-798-7494; fax: 253-798-2989 Email: laurie.miller@piercecountywa.gov www.piercecountylawlibrary.org
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