Clallam County to place LexisNexis terminals in public libraries, move toward digital county law library

Clallam County commissioners agreed to move forward with a memorandum of agreement to place dedicated LexisNexis terminals at the Port Angeles and Forks branches of the North Olympic Library System and to create a county legal resource center accessible to library patrons.

The decision follows months of work by the county law library board of trustees and county staff to shift from a largely hardback law-book collection in the courthouse to a primarily digital legal resource, with the county purchasing hardware and continuing a LexisNexis subscription to meet the state requirement that counties with populations above 8,000 maintain a county law library.

County staff and trustees said the shift aims to improve access for judges, state and county officials, members of the bar and pro se litigants, while avoiding the public-safety risk of people citing outdated legal texts. Todd, county staff presenter, told the board the county will buy two dedicated terminals, update the LexisNexis contract to point those terminals to library IP addresses, and work with North Olympic Library System…