Jenkins' 2016 Year in Review

What did Jenkins do in 2016? We launched our new website, added 3 new Research Guides, provided 15 new online CLE classes, wrote over 60 blog posts, converted to Lexis Advance on the library's Lexis computers, expanded our print collection by more than 750 titles, and more!

The biggest change to Jenkins in 2016 was our new website. The website was designed to be mobile-friendly and will now auto-adjust depending on the size of your screen. For more information about the new design, including some access tips, check out our blog post How to Access Our New Website.

With the new website came changes to some of the content on the website. The Research Guides were redesigned to emphasize access to materials available through membership databases. To facilitate ease of use on mobile devices, we separated select large guides into smaller guides. We now have over 60 Research Guides, 24 of which are Pennsylvania specific. New guides added this year include Animal Law, Pennsylvania Criminal Law, and Pennsylvania Jury Practice.

Jenkins became an approved distance learning CLE provider in 2015 and we added an additional 15 on-demand video CLE classes in 2016, bringing our total to 25. The new classes cover a variety of topics, including arbitration (Arbitration: Learn the Essentials in Just 1 Hour presented by Phil Valentino, Esq.), education law (Introduction to Charter School Law presented by Nicole D. Snyder, Esq.), immigration (Immigration Law for Criminal Defense Counsel presented by Arnold L. Feldman), and attorney ethics (The Ethics of Existing on the Web presented by Dan Giancaterino). They even comment on popular culture (A Legal View of "Making a Murderer" presented by Erin Boyle, Esq. and Lawrence J. Bozzelli, Esq. and Mining Hollywood for Trial Techniques: From Captain Queeg to Captain Kirk presented by Richard J. Frumer, Esq.). Find these and all our distance learning CLEs here.

Our electronic database subscriptions also grew this year. Four new collections were added to our HeinOnline subscription: Animal Studies: Law, Welfare and Rights, Slavery in America and the World: History, Culture & Law, Taxation & Economic Reform in America Parts I & II, and UNC Press Law Publications. Our onsite databases grew as well: we converted our library Lexis computers to Lexis Advance, Lexis' new platform. For those who'd like to learn some Lexis Advance basics, check out Lexis' Support & Training page which provides tutorials, tips, guides, and more.

Using some of the electronic resources can be formidable for those unfamiliar with them. Our Reference Librarians recognize this and used our blog to provide tips on finding materials on our member databases. Over 60 blog posts were written in 2016 and the most popular posts deal with finding materials online: New Pennsylvania Orphans' Court Rules, Finding Pennsylvania County Cases Online, New Edition of the Philadelphia Code Available Now, and Superseded State Statutes.

Though we continue to provide electronic access to many of our resources, we have not abandoned our print collection. We continue to subscribe to many popular Lexis and West publications in print, and added over 750 titles from other publishers like PBI, NBI, PLI, and ABA. Some of the top circulating 2016 additions include Drafting Wills and Trusts in Pennsylvania (PBI), Pennsylvania Labor & Employment Law: Employment Discrimination (Legal Intelligencer), Pennsylvania Causes of Action (Bisel), and The Post Conviction Relief Act: Practice and Procedure (PBI).

Thank you to all our members for their patronage and support in 2016. We can't wait to see what we can do for you in 2017.