Library Stuff

“Lawmakers are calling for a study of the availability of e-books to Connecticut public libraries. The state House of Representatives voted Tuesday 143-0 to pass a bill requiring the commissioner of consumer protection to report to the General Assembly on the issue by Feb 1. The bill, which originally called on publishers to offer e-books to libraries at a reasonable price, was amended to reflect lawmakers’ concerns about the likelihood of lawsuits.” (via AP)

Patch – “Starting this week the state’s Judicial Branch is now making some of its civil court case documents available to the public through the agency’s website. Previously, listings of cases were publicly available online and details about actions on them were also accessible through the Judicial Branch website, but visitors to the site could not access individual documents filed in civil cases. That information was publicly available only at regional courthouses and at some of Connecticut’s law libraries.

AP – “The University of Connecticut is preserving about 5,000 fragile court documents from Puerto Rico dating to the 19th century and putting them online for researchers, scholars and genealogists. The double-sided, handwritten documents cover civil disputes over land, slaves and livestock that occurred in the Arecibo court district from 1844 to 1900.”

AP – “Even though Connecticut’s Department of Correction is currently working on new rules for its prison libraries, a bill requiring standards for the books inmates can check out is still advancing through the General Assembly.”