Today, September 16th, marks the beginning of National Welcoming Week when we as a nation honor the contributions of immigrants and refugees, and we highlight efforts across the country to build stronger, more welcoming communities. Throughout the week, the White House will feature the voices of courageous and resilient individuals who have entered the United States in search of new beginnings, a nice complement to Constituition and Citizenship Day, which is celebrated annually on September 17th. This national day of observance, when we commemorate the formation and signing of our United States Constitution (1787), and recognize those who have attained the status of American citizenship, is a nearly 65-year tradition. Visit The Law Library of Congress website to learn more.
Power Up at the Library
Today is Power Up Day at the Library. This initiative of the Texas Library Association was developed to raise the profile of libraries as vital technology hubs within communities.
Libraries are often thought of as repositories for books, but advances in technology and the explosion of digital content has transformed the traditional library from a purely analog institution to an innovative center of activity and services where people, ideas, and technology intersect. At the Harris County Law Library, we bring these facets together in number of ways. In general, we offer access to legal materials, in both print and digital formats; we instruct users in the selection of appropriate tools for their legal needs; we suggest strategies for locating and evaluating legal information; and we refer patrons to resources in the community when appropriate. These are the traditional roles of libraries and librarians, but performing them in fulfillment of our mission achieves, we hope, a greater good, namely, access to justice.
We recognize that navigating the legal system is difficult and daunting, and that barriers to both access and engage with the system are great, especially for those of modest means. We are committed to reducing these barriers and to facilitating the best use of our library in any way we can. Not only do we provide access to legal information resources, i.e., the substance of the law, we also guide our patrons in the use of those resources as a means to an important personal end.
Any individual with a legal issue to resolve must learn how to access the materials in our collection and how to use them in the context of the legal system, but neither of these tasks can be accomplished without also knowing how to use technology. For many people, opportunities to use and feel comfortable with technology are limited, yet increasingly, digital literacy is a prerequisite to engaging with the legal system. Without some degree of tech proficiency, one challenge -- learning how to file a petition in civil court -- becomes two. This double deficit created by the digital divide and the justice gap is our focus. Providing basic technology skills training is one way to reduce it, and this is just one example of how we Power Up at the Harris County Law Library, bringing people, resources, and technology together to facilitate access to justice. It's what we do.
Lawyers at the Law Library
Houston Bar Association President Neil Kelly visited the Harris County Law Library and Houston Volunteer Lawyers on September 4. In the photo from left are Parker Lee, HVL volunteer and associate with Andrews Kurth LLP; Stephanie Sommerlatte, HVL Staff Attorney; Patrick Yarborough, HVL volunteer and associate with Andrews Kurth; County Attorney Vince Ryan; Law Library Director Mariann Sears; Neil Kelly; and Alissa Rubin, Executive Director of HVL.
Source: Harris County Law Library, Photographer Joe Strange
The Harris County Law Library is pleased to announce a new program that helps litigants with limited means to speak with an attorney within steps of the courthouses in Harris County, Texas. In collaboration with Houston Volunteer Lawyers, volunteer attorneys and law students are now meeting with self-represented litigants every Wednesday and Friday from 9a.m. to 12p.m. at the Law Library's downtown Houston location. The Law Library provides support services to both the volunteer attorneys and limited-means clients by offering research and technology support, computers where self-represented litigants can access and create documents, and information about navigating the downtown courthouse complex.
Wednesday Clinics
Each Wednesday, faculty and students from Houston College of Law help self-represented litigants determine the legal information and documentation they need to represent themselves in court. The purpose of these clinics is multifaceted. Students gain professional experience and an awareness of the depth of the access to justice problems many individuals face while self-represented litigants receive assistance that makes their legal process more efficient both for them and the courts hearing their cases.
Friday Clinics
On Fridays, associates from Andrews Kurth, LLP staff clinics at the Law Library. Andrews Kurth is a Houston-based firm that is frequently recognized for its commitment to pro bono service and is listed as an Equal Access Firm by Houston Volunteers Lawyers. Additional members of Houston's legal community have pledged to staff Friday clinics at the Law Library to ensure that services remain available for those in need.
A Collaborative Effort
The initial plan to bring volunteer lawyers to the Law Library began as a collaboration between Harris County Attorney Vince Ryan and the Houston Bar Association several years ago. When the Law Library joined the County Attorney's Office in 2011, plans were laid to build out a new space for the Law Library on the first floor of Congress Plaza (1019 Congress Street) complete with offices for volunteer attorneys on the lower level. With all services operational, including those provided by the volunteer attorneys, the Law Library is more useful to the residents of Harris County than ever before and has become a great resource for anyone who must go to court without an attorney.
Immigration Law Resource Month
In conjunction with the upcoming CLE series on Immigration Law and Internment Camps in Texas, which will feature three seminars in the month of October, the Harris County Law Library is highlighting our collection of Immigration Law Resources. Throughout September, print materials on all aspects of immigration law will be on display. Treatises like Kurzban’s Immigration Law Sourcebook (the 15th edition, just published and pictured here, is now on our shelves) and a number of CLE coursebooks from TexasBarCLE will be highlighted. You’ll also find immigration law resources in the Law Library’s digital collection, including official immigration forms through Westlaw and the Georgetown Immigration Law Journal on HeinOnline. Search the Law Library catalog for additional titles or ask the library staff for assistance in finding the resources you need.
Announcing Upcoming Lecture Series
Footage from the Alien Enemy Detention Facility at Crystal City, Texas. This film was distributed by the U.S. Dept. of Justice Immigration and Naturalization Service in 1945. It is now part of the U.S. National Archives (ID# 13206).
The Harris County Law Library is happy to announce a three-part lecture series hosted in collaboration with Harris County Attorney Vince Ryan titled Immigration Law and Internment Camps in Texas: Legal Perspectives on The Train To Crystal City by Jan Jarboe Russell. An hour-long lecture will be offered at noon on October 4, October 11, and October 18 at the Law Library's downtown Houston location. Lunch is provided and attorneys can earned 3.0 hours of CLE credit and 1.0 hour of ethics credit in Texas. For more information and to RSVP, visit the event page on the Harris County Attorney Office website.
At each event, distinguished speakers will discuss legal aspects of this year's Gulf Coast Reads featured title The Train to Crystal City. The book presents the story of internees of German and Japanese descent who found themselves at the family internment camp in Crystal City, Texas during World War II. The stories are told on a personal level with references to the federal legal mechanisms that affected each internee, many of whom were U.S. citizens, and the international politics that led to many internees being repatriated to their ancestral nations in exchange for American prisoners of war. With a story line that takes place in the Lone Star State and an author who is a native of the Texas gulf coast, this book is a natural candidate for the Gulf Coast Reads program, through which a book with local ties is read at libraries and book clubs through the month of October. Visit the Gulf Coast Reads website for more on this year's read and archives of past featured titles.
