1. California County Law Libraries “Ask the Law Librarian” Chat Reference Service Presented by Ralph Stahlberg, Director, Reference and Research LA Law Library

2. 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

3. 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

4. History Fall 2004: 24/7 Reference acquired by OCLC, Librarians transition to QuestionPoint 2008: Coordinators implement user survey Funding: LSTA grants

5. Participating Libraries 11 California County Law libraries participate providing chat and email follow- up service Service provided weekdays: 8-5

6. 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

7. Legal Advice Disclaimer

8. 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

9. California’s response to SRL’s Judiciary: California Court’s Self Help Website: http://www.courtinfo.ca.gov/selfhelp http://www.courtinfo.ca.gov/selfhelp Legislature: 1996 enactment of the Family Law Facilitator Act (Family Code sec. 10000 et seq)

11. 2010 Service Statistics 11753 live chat sessions 5811 email responses sent

13. Patron Satisfaction Ensure service is staffed during posted hours, participant list Respond to follow-up Review survey results to identify issues

16. 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.

17. 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

18. Librarian Satisfaction & Our Future Periodic statistical reports and updates Funding / Staffing

19. 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.