2018 in Review

What a year 2018 was for Jenkins!  It all began in January - we knew that we only had 12 months before our lease at 833 Chestnut Street was set to expire. Thankfully we found the right space and signed a lease in February.  Then came our biggest challenge of all: our major funding source was in jeopardy.  If not for our Board President, Ted Simon, who literally put his practice on hold for several months to fight for us -- as well as our many members, friends, Philadelphia Bar Association Sections/Committees and complete strangers who came to our defense -- Jenkins would most likely have closed its doors at the end of 2018. 

The support we received was extremely gratifying and touching, especially the discovery that Jenkins was truly making a difference for our members and the general public.  Over 625 people signed a letter in support of Jenkins. 

While the library was fighting for its survival, we began planning for our move and continued to keep the library running as usual.  We wrote blog posts, answered research questions, addressed SLR questions and taught CLE classes.  We also negotiated a new contract to add Bloomberg Law to our in-house online collection.

As the summer wound down and it became apparent that our major funding source was no longer in jeopardy, we moved into high gear with planning our move for December.  There were so many factors that needed to be addressed.  The biggest issue was how to downsize from our current space of 38,000 square feet to a space of 21,000 useable square feet! We succeeded by utilizing the knowledge of an experienced and talented staff to plan the layout of the collection to fit the space and the needs of our users.

Now we are located in our new space on the 9th floor at 1801 Market Street, Ten Penn Center.  We have modernized and downsized while still maintaining the print materials that are not readily available online.

We truly appreciate all the patience and support of our users during the transition period. 2018 was definitely an exciting year for Jenkins Law Library.  Thanks for riding the ups and downs with us, and we hope to see all of you at our new location in 2019.