Cornell Law Library Myron Taylor Hall Ithaca, New York 14853 (607) 256-7236
Cornell Law Library Annual Report 1984/85
Again, this year, the dominant themes in the Cornell Law Library were computers, staffing and space.
STAFFING Two professional positions were vacant for extended periods. Assistant Cataloger David Swenson became ill last April and then permanently disabled. Under Cornell policy, he remained on our payroll for six months, and we were not able to begin a search for a permanent successor until the six months expired Nov. 6. Given the length of the normal search procedures for pro足 fessional positions, we were not able to identify and hire a successor to begin here until the end of February. Jean Pajerek, our new assistant cata足 loger, brings strong language skills and will concentrate on cataloging our foreign materials which have had a very low priority for several years. Joanne Scanlon left in October after five years as reference librarian here to take a similar position in the Harvard Law Library. Her successor, Bruce Kennedy, did not arrive until mid-March, so for five months we had only two professionals on the Public Services staff. That we managed to maintain our level of service during this period of heaviest library use was due in large part to the extra efforts of Nancy Moore, Alan Diefenbach and Kit Kreilick plus the willingness of the support staff to help wherever needed. Neverthe足 less, after five months the exhaustion was all too evident. This experience reinforced the belief that our present level of staffing is at the very margin when all positions are filled; that we have no slack to take up vacancies when they occur. This also made clear that we have been very fortunate in attrac足 ting highly competent and flexible people to our support staff positions; without them even the temporary loss of one professional would have been 'crippling. For reasons other than the pressure of their positions, three of the five support staff members in the Public Services Department resigned in April and May to move from the Ithaca area. We hope to be able to attract equally skilled and dedicated people to these positions before the fall term begins.