This year, the Board and staff of Courthouse Libraries BC (CLBC) are celebrating the organization’s 50th anniversary of independent governance, which followed more than a hundred years of control and management by the Law Society of BC.
In the early 1970s, the Law Society Benchers conducted a review and decided that it was in the best interest of the future development of B.C.’s law libraries that they be governed by a separate non-profit organization set up to provide oversight of library operations and professional management. In making this decision, and with both the Law Society and Law Foundation providing secure annual funding over time, they created the conditions that allowed CLBC to thrive and evolve into the valuable, user-focused entity it is today.
At the time of the Bencher review, courthouse libraries were still primarily the domain of lawyers, judges and law clerks and focused primarily on supporting the legal competence of Law Society members. If a member of the public came in, it was rare and usually to confer with their lawyer. Fast forward to today’s reality: we have become B.C.’s public law library, serving not only the needs of legal professionals but also anyone in the province looking for legal information for themselves or on behalf of others. We operate on the “frontlines” of people accessing the legal system in 30 communities, we offer email and phone access from anywhere to professional law librarians Monday to Friday, and manage 24/7 access to extensive digital legal resources. We train and support community helpers around the province, and we provide legal resource grants and training to 71 public library systems serving 250 B.C. communities.
Last year, our staff fielded almost 80,000 requests for assistance or research, and our Clicklaw digital service was completely overhauled to reflect that experience along with input received directly from the public on how they look for legal information. We created Clicklaw to make it easy to find trustworthy legal resources designed for public access, and we applied librarian expertise to the curation and organizing of that information based on user experience (UX) research. The result is an online service that helps lawyers looking for clear explanations and legal information for their clients, intermediaries such as public librarians and community advocates helping members of the public, and individuals who want to learn more about the law or are navigating the legal system on their own.
One of the biggest challenges any modern law library faces – especially one with 30 branches and digital services provided across a huge jurisdiction – is the cost and management of IT infrastructure. Unlike courthouse libraries in many other Canadian and American jurisdictions, our technology needs are not supported through the IT departments of governments, law societies, universities or courts. Increased costs and future plans for our IT infrastructure were placing a strain on our operational funding, and our funders have responded brilliantly: the Law Foundation of BC and Notary Foundation of BC contributed $1M each to support our long-term IT and digital services, and the Law Society of BC continues to support operational increases in this area. We expect a big leap forward on the IT front in 2025, thanks largely to targeted funding.
In addition, the Law Foundation of BC granted us $2M in special funding to enhance our Collections and their accessibility. We’re delighted to have this infusion of funds, and will be consulting with lawyers to gain a better understanding of how you use our libraries and what more you would like to see from us. We welcome your feedback, and have launched a quick survey to learn more at surveymonkey.ca/r/Y5S3PYY.
CLBC’s Golden Jubilee is going to be a fun year with local events and lots of opportunities for joining our celebrations — keep your eyes out for chances to participate in your community!
