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Clallam County board hears law-library launch report, discusses paralegal hours and site navigation
Summary
At its April 29 special meeting the Clallam County Law Library Board reviewed early usage of two public law-library terminals (about 32 sessions totaling roughly 580 minutes through mid-April), discussed offering periodic paralegal or pro-bono hours, and agreed to compare resources with the Washington State Law Library to avoid duplication.
The Clallam County Law Library Board on April 29 reviewed the recent public launch of two law-library terminals and discussed next steps to improve access and navigation for residents.
Erin, a representative of the North Olympic Library System, told the board the service has run 32 recorded public sessions through mid-April totaling about 580 minutes across two terminals — 18 sessions in Forks and 14 in Port Angeles. “Well, we actually launched. So that was that was the big news,” Erin said, adding that average terminal sessions are about 20 minutes.
The board focused discussion on ways to help users make better use of the tools. Erin suggested offering scheduled hours for a paralegal or pro-bono lawyer to meet with patrons — for example short, scheduled appointments or a regular one- or two-hour block at a branch — to guide people to appropriate resources and pro bono services. A trustee asked whether staff should be required to help patrons log in; Erin said patrons can log in with a library card and use the terminal without staff assistance.
Trustees pressed for clearer metrics and user feedback. Erin said the 20-minute average reflects terminal-only time and that Lexis+ does not provide remote access to the public, while some digital ebooks do allow remote access; she said she would check whether the board has administrative access to vendor reports covering those remote figures. A trustee urged the board to collect user feedback and suggested organizing the law-library landing page by subject matter — for example, primary legal resources, pro se/pro bono resources and topic-based tabs — to reduce confusion on the site.
Several trustees raised a potential efficiency issue after reviewing the Washington State Law Library collection: if the county’s licensed resources largely duplicate the state library’s holdings, the board may be able to rely on links into the state catalog rather than purchase overlapping licenses. “If we’re completely duplicating that, then it just raises questions about the wisdom of spending money on the license,” one trustee said; others said the intent was to be complementary and to link users to broader state resources where helpful.
Board members agreed to follow up: Erin said she would consult system web staff about alternative landing-page layouts and categories, trustees will review proposed category lists, and a board member said they would follow up with local pro-bono contacts to explore scheduled assistance. The board tentatively set its next meeting for Sept. 30 from 12 to 1 p.m. to review progress and noted the need to align meeting timing with the board’s statutory annual report requirement (statute not specified).
At a procedural moment the board postponed approval of the Jan. 14, 2026 minutes to the next meeting. No formal votes on policy or budgets were taken at the special meeting.
The board adjourned after the brief discussion; members plan to reconvene in September to review usage, vendor reporting details and any proposed changes to the landing page.
