Announcing the Legal Tech Institute @ Harris County Law Library

The Harris County Law Library is excited to announce the launch of our Legal Tech Institute, a collection of free learning opportunities focused on the tech that you need to work more efficiently. A new learning session will be offered every month, with content designed for a diverse audience of legal tech beginners and experts. For details, visit the LTI webpage.

On the LTI webpage, you'll find links to affordable practice management solutions; organizations, networks, and institutes for innovation; and legal media outlets where podcasts and blogs on the latest in legal technology are featured. You'll also have access to legal news via our archived collection of Tech Tuesday blog posts. The LTI Course Catalog contains our upcoming legal tech programs, including a seminar in November on Microsoft Word for Lawyers, and another in December on Blending Your Legal Research. December will also feature a Vendor Talk on Lexis Advance.

We'll be adding more content to the LTI page as the Institute develops, including short video tutorials on basic tech tasks such as converting a Word document to a PDF, inserting tables of contents, and using the Find and Replace feature as well as other tips and tricks for creating and managing your documents more efficiently. 

If you have any ideas for content that you'd like to see included on the LTI page or added to the Course Catalog for a future LTI program, please let us know. We look forward to hearing from you and seeing you in attendance at our upcoming programs!

Social Media for Lawyers, a free CLE at the Harris County Law Library

The Law Library is offering a free, 1-hour CLE program this Thursday, October 27th, at 12:00 pm. Please join us! The program will cover the basics of social media -- what it is, why it matters, and how solo and small firm attorneys can leverage it effectively to reach potential clients. 

Assistant County Attorney, Kristen Lee, will address the ethics of using social media for promotion and advertising, as well as the restrictions imposed by the Texas Rules of Disciplinary Conduct.

Deputy Director of the Harris County Law Library, Joe Lawson, will discuss social media as evidence, and Assistant Law Librarian, Heather Holmes, will present the mechanics of using various social media platforms, providing examples of how to maintain accounts in Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. She will also discuss strategies for building connections with clients and professional peers. 

For additional program details, please visit our Events page. To attend, RSVP at http://tinyurl.com/hmrvqp7

Ex Libris Juris Recognized by Texas Bar Top 10

We are thrilled to announce that a recent Ex Libris Juris blog post, Learning Tech -- Deliberate Practice and Benefits of Proficiency, was recognized in last week's Top 10 Blog Posts on Texas Bar Today, a publication of the State Bar of Texas. We're grateful for the recognition and very proud to be in the company of so many excellent Texas law blogs.

For more legal tech news, keep following our posts on Ex Libris Juris. Our Tech Tuesday feature brings you a new tech-related post each week, and our Latest and Greatest feature presents recent additions to the the library's collection. Other topics of interest to the Harris County Law Library community are presented throughout the month, including topical information related to our monthly theme -- October is Immigration Law Resource Month -- and news of upcoming library events, one of which, Social Media for Lawyers, is soon approaching. Don't miss it! 

Happy 101st, Harris County Law Library!

Today, the Harris County Law Library celebrates the 101st anniversary of its grand opening on October 1, 1915. Although plenty has changed over the last century, one thing hasn't - the Law Library is still committed to providing patrons with access to relevant, current, accurate, and practical legal information. With free access to legal research databases, including Westlaw, Lexis Advance, Texas State Bar Practice Manuals, and more, the Law Library continues its commitment as a 21st century institution. Visit our downtown Houston location to learn more about all we have to offer.

You can also discover more about the Law Library's Century of Service through our digital exhibit. Last year, we marked the milestone with a Centennial Celebration featuring keynote speaker Chief Justice Nathan Hecht of the Supreme Court of Texas. Videos of the speakers and information about our historic institution are available on our website.

Immigration Law and Internment Camps in Texas - a digital exhibit

As part of this year's Gulf Coast Reads program, the Law Library will hold a three-part lecture series during the month of October and display exhibits focusing on the legal aspects of this year's featured work - The Train to Crystal City by Jan Jarboe Russell. Exhibits include statues and case law discussed in the book as well as proclamations made by President Franklin D. Roosevelt that made the family internment camp at Crystal City, Texas possible. As an added bit of historical interest, the exhibited volumes of U.S. Statutes at Large containing FDR's proclamation have been in the Law Library's collection since the early 1940s, which makes them contemporary artifacts from the World War II legal environment discussed in The Train to Crystal City.

Visit our downtown Houston location to see the exhibits in person or check out our digital exhibit now available on our website.