Jenkins' 2017 Year in Review

Jenkins spent 2017 continuing to provide quality online and print resources to our members. We shared research tips and tricks via our Research Guides and our blog, our CLE offerings continued to grow, we added new member databases, and our print collection increased by over 700 new titles, many of them course materials from PBI, NBI, and PLI.

Not only do our Reference Librarians provide quality research assistance to our members in person as well as via phone calls, email, and live chat, they also strive to share their combined 118 years of legal research experience with the legal community and beyond. Our Research Guides have seen a surge of visitors throughout the year, and our most viewed guides include Pennsylvania Cases - Trial Level, Pennsylvania Jury Practice, Pennsylvania Legislative History, Philadelphia - Quick Links, and Self-Help. Two new guides launched this year. The first, Self-Help Research - Statutes, Court Rules, and More, is designed for the self represented litigant and links to primary legal sources, like statutes, court rules, and administrative regulations, that are freely available online. The other was developed for (and is only available to) the staff, volunteers, and visitors of the Elder Justice & Civil Resource Center, located in City Hall, with whom Jenkins partnered this year. It focuses on some of their most frequently asked about topics, such as guardianship, landlord tenant, mortgage foreclosure, and power of attorney.

Jenkins' Reference Librarians also used this year to further develop the Jenkins' blog by increasing the number of blog posts and broadening its content. We've highlighted new laws and legal procedures (Electronic Filing in U.S. Supreme Court, New Amendment to Federal Rule of Evidence 902, New Title 34 in United States Code), offered tips and tricks to navigating member databases (Fastcase 7 Has Arrived, LexisNexis Digital Library New Multi-Volume Search Feature, Skip the Morning Paper with NewsBank), and pointed out specific titles available at Jenkins in both print and electronic formats (Corbin on Contracts, Drafting Patents for Litigation and Licensing, Social Media Law Resources). Our most viewed research-focused blog posts reflect a wide range of topics, such as conducting historical research on attorneys and law firms, finding court rules online, and keeping up-to-date with court case records policies.

On the Continuing Legal Education front, Jenkins' selection of on-demand video CLE classes continued to grow this year with 10 new offerings. The new classes cover a wide-range of topics, including business law (Critical Legal Concerns Facing Entrepreneurs presented by Carolyn Hochstadter, Esq. and Recent Developments in Personal Jurisdiction Following Daimler AG v. Bauman presented by Joseph H. Blum, Esq.), estate and probate law (Ensuring the Accuracy of Electronic Records and Safeguarding Digital Assets presented by John B. Spitzer, Esq. and LGBT Estate and Family Planning and Potential Effects of a Trump Administration presented by Angela D. Giampolo, Esq.), health and healthcare law (Common Themes in Nursing Home Abuse and Neglect Cases presented by Shayna Slater, Esq. and Naloxone: The Antidote to the Opioid Epidemic? What Lawyers Need to Know presented by Dr. Allison A. Muller, Pharm. D, D.ABAT), immigration (Sanctuary Cities: Immigration, Policing, and Politics presented by Djung Tran, Esq.), landlord-tenant law (Litigating Landlord-Tenant Disputes in Philadelphia County presented by Alan Nochumson, Esq.), and legal ethics (The Ethics of Online Marketing for Lawyers presented by Alycia A. Kinchloe, Esq., MBA and The Legal Ethics of "Location, Location, Location" presented by Katherine McKay, Esq.). Find these and all our distance learning CLEs here.

We continued to increase our database offerings by adding the Oxford English Dictionary and the West Academic Digital Library to the databases available on members' desktops. And, as an exclusive to Jenkins, the Standard Federal Tax Reporter, 1917-1985, is now available on HeinOnline.

Our IT team has been working hard to provide speedier access to a number of our member databases. They've launched Chrome extensions for two databases: Fastcase and the Oxford English Dictionary. Additionally, Jenkins members can use the OverDrive app to borrow and read LexisNexis Digital Library ebooks. These tools were designed to help our members jump right into their research.

And if you want to take Jenkins with you when you're on the go, we now offer four mobile hotspot devices for two-week loan.

Though there are many secondary sources available on our member databases and the library's Lexis and Westlaw computers, we haven't forgotten about those who prefer using print materials. We continue to keep up-to-date many well-known resources covering a wide-range of jurisdictions and topics. We collect two copies of many popular Pennsylvania titles, including Dunlap-Hanna Pennsylvania Forms, Pennsylvania Law Encyclopedia, Standard Pennsylvania Practice, and West's Pennsylvania Practice Series. We also keep up-to-date loaning copies of select other states' secondary materials, like Folk on the Delaware General Corporation Law, New Jersey Transaction Guide, New York Jurisprudence, and Summary of California Law. We also have current editions of various federal materials available for loan, including Federal Practice and Procedure (Wright & Miller) and Moore's Federal Practice.

Pennsylvania publishers, including Bisel, The Legal Intelligencer, and the Pennsylvania Bar Institute, released new editions of popular titles this year: Krasnowiecki on Real Property Law and Practice, Library of Pennsylvania Family Law Forms, Pennsylvania Ethics Handbook, Pennsylvania Special Needs Planning Guide, and Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas Civil Practice Manual. Other publishers, including Bloomberg BNA, Thomson Reuters (West), and Wolters Kluwer, issued new editions of some of their titles: Nonprofit Organizations: Law and Taxation, Patent Prosecution: Law, Practice, and Procedure, and Sweet on Construction Industry Contracts: Major AIA Documents.

Jenkins also continued to grow our print collection with new titles from the American Bar Association, the National Business Institute, the Pennsylvania Bar Institute, and the Practising Law Institute. Some of our most circulated 2017 titles include Advanced Custody and Support Issues, Dragonetti & Litigation Tort, Law Firm Cybersecurity, The Nuts & Bolts of Adoption Practice, and Workers' Compensation from A to Z.

With Jenkins' Free Book Pulling and Delivery Service, also begun this year, members can have books checked-out and ready for pick-up at no additional charge. Those in the Center City area are also eligible for free delivery at our scheduled courier times.

2017 has been full of exciting growth at Jenkins, and we look forward to seeing what we can do for the legal community in 2018.