The Calgary Courts Centre

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The Calgary Courts Centre
Judicial Library Information Center
Rhonda ONeill Alberta Law Libraries
Canadian Association of Law Libraries Halifax,
May 2009
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Overview

• Calgary needs a new court house
• The functional plan
• Design phase
• Planning the move, consolidating collections
• The move
• Settling in, recording deficiencies, cleaning up

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Calgary Needs a New Court House (Library)

• The Alberta Court Libraries had 5 collections
  housed in 4 different buildings, resulting in
  considerable duplication.
• Collections, to a certain extent, were rationed.
• The Library team was spread out, not all
  locations offering onsite reference assistance
  Monday through Friday.

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Functional Plan

• Canadian Courthouse and Law Society Library
  Standards http//www.callacbd.ca/documents/Courtho
  useStandards.pdf
• Connecticut State Librarys Space planning guide
  http//ct.webjunction.org/space-planning
• Literature search

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Alberta Court of Queens Bench Judicial Library
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Provincial Court of AlbertaCivil Division
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Provincial Court of AlbertaCriminal Division
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Provincial Court of AlbertaFamily and Youth
Division
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Defence Library
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Project Receives the Green Light

• Plan for separate Queens Bench and Provincial
  Court Judicial Libraries falls to side.
• Consolidated functional plan is submitted.
• First diagrams released for our review.

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Consolidated LibraryFirst Draft
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(Re) Designing the Judicial Library

• Take one design, a photocopier, pair of scissors,
  glue stick and your imagination.
• We hear time and again to find our champions,
  this is very good advice!

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Consolidated Judicial Library 2.0
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Consolidated Judicial LibraryFinal Design
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The Reference DeskHow do you see your service?
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Preparing for a Consolidated Collection

• Listing duplicate sets and selecting sets for the
  move
• Placing them on our new shelves
• Duplicate texts decision to take them all and
  weed after the move

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Moving in

• In stages one court at a time
• Equipment - Painters tape and shelf cards
• Interfiling books

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Clean up and Deficiencies

• Weeding the collection, canceling looseleafs
• Different call numbers on the same book
• Inventory project
• Deficiencies - end panels, book trucks, signage,
  counter

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What is good

• Location, Location, Location
• New book/periodical newspaper reading area
• Cases on display
• Articling students adjacent to the library.
• Reference desk

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What could be better

• Reference desk
• Book return area
• Bulletin board
• Loss of traffic from Judiciary no longer close to
  library

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What I learned

• When you know that what you are being asked for
  is not what they want, give them what they want.
• Be careful which committees you volunteer to be
  on!
• Make sure you have good chemistry with a
  champion, if you dont, find someone in your
  organization who does.
• Look for ways to reach compromise but dont back
  down on important issues.
• If you want it in the library, make sure it is in
  your drawings and in your functional plan.
• With the right team anything can be accomplished.

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Thanks for your attention!