Houston, Texas: A New Harris County Law Library Nears Completion
The estimated $600,000 build-out, overseen by County Attorney Vince Ryan, whose department runs the library and has its offices upstairs, is occurring in the space where jurors assembled prior to a new jury building opening last year.
Ryan described the library’s former home on the 17th floor as “quiet, calm, empty.” Visits to the library fell from 5,302 per month in 1998 to 2,744 last year.
Putting the stacks in about 16,000 square feet of space off the lobby and adding a coffee bar, Ryan hopes, will increase foot traffic.
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Among the changes is an arrangement with the Houston Bar Association to offer pro bono legal services at the library, about 75 percent of whose visitors are not lawyers. That step will accompany the build-out of a 7,000-square-foot basement area, which Ryan’s chief of staff Robert Soard said should be completed by next summer.
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The law library will have a grand opening in early January, Soard said.
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About Gary Price
Gary Price (gprice@gmail.com) is a librarian, writer, consultant, and frequent conference speaker based in the Washington D.C. metro area. He earned his MLIS degree from Wayne State University in Detroit. Price has won several awards including the SLA Innovations in Technology Award and Alumnus of the Year from the Wayne St. University Library and Information Science Program. From 2006-2009 he was Director of Online Information Services at Ask.com.