January 5, 2010Dear Law Library o Congress Colleagues and Friends:I waned o end his year o change, and new beginnings, by sending you my bes or he holiday season and o provide you wih impor-an Law Library o Congress updaes as we head ino 2010.I began my enure as he 22nd Law Librarian o Congresson Augus 30h, 2009. During much o 2009, wo Acing Law Librarians –Charles Doyle and Donna W. Scheeder led he Law Library. Wihou heirable leadership and seadas dedicaion o he mission o he Law Library,i would no have been as easy o assume he helm when I was appoinedLaw Librarian. I hank hem boh or heir exemplary service.We hosed a number o special evens and programs duringhe year. Four ha I wan o highligh are: he inauguraion o he KelloggLecure; a program in honor o Naional Women’s Hisory Monh; our an-nual Law Day celebraion; and a commemoraion o he 60h anniversary o he Geneva Convenions.

•eLawLibraryhostedtheinauguralFredericR.andMollyS.KelloggBiennialLectureonJurisprudence.isbienniallecture

series will presen he mos disinguished conribuors oinernaional jurisprudence, judged hrough wriings, repuaion,and broad and coninuing inuence on conemporary legal scholar-

ship.isyear’sspeakerwasRonaldDworkin,ProfessorofJu-

risprudence a Universiy College London and he New York Uni-versiy School o Law. His lecure, “Is here Truh in Inerpreaion?Law Lieraure and Hisory,” ocused on he philosophical aspecso he law.

•eLawLibraryhonoredNationalWomen’sHistoryMonthby

hosing ormer Congresswoman Consance ‘Connie’ Morella as shediscussed her legislaive experience during her presenaion o “Leg-islaing in Heels – An Anecdoal Journal.”

•eLawLibrary’sannualLawDayprogram“AbrahamLincolnandtheEmancipationProclamation,”waswell-receivedbyadiverseaudi-enceofhistorians,professors,lawyers,andthegeneralpublic.Partici-pantsincludedtwoMembersofCongress,RepresentativeG.K.But-tereldandRepresentativeJesseJackson,Jr.•eLawLibraryofCongress,theAmericanRedCrossandthe

Friends o he Law Library o Congress presened a hough-provok-ing panel discussion on he hisory o he Geneva Convenions inorder o mark he 60h anniversary o hese landmark documens.

MembersofthepanelincludedRepresentativeomasJ.Rooney,BrigadierGeneralPatrickFinneganandSeniorAssociate,Deputy GeneralCounselW.HaysParks.U.S.AmbassadortotheU.N.,SusanRice,deliveredarecordedmessageontheGenevaConven

tions.

eCollectionServicesDivisioncontinuedtomakeprog

ressontwomajorprojectsduring2009.erstinvolvedtheclassicationoflawtitlesorganizedunderthe“LAW”shelvingsystem.eclassication

o hese iles allows hem o be inegraed by counry and subjec wihin he

collectionoftheLawLibrary.isprojectrstbeganin2004.esecond

involved he preservaion o he ocial gazetes which are produced by moscounries o he world. Laws and regulaions are rs published by individualcounries in ocial gazetes, and are he primary source o law hroughou he

world.eLawLibrarypreservesthisprimarysourcematerialbymicrolm

ingeachpageofeachpublishedgazee.eLawLibrarypreparedandsent2,140,994pagesofgazeestobemicrolmedinFiscalYear2009.

During he later par o 2009, he Law Library joined heLibrary o Congress in he social media universe by adding is own Twiter

proleandFacebookFanPage.YoucanaccesstheLawLibrary’sTwierpro

le a:htp://witer.com/LawlibCongressand you can access our Facebook page a:htp://www.acebook.com/home.php?#/lawlibraryocongress?re=s.

erearetwointerestingcommentsthatareworthnoting.First,aFacebookfan(wealreadyhaveover340)commentedonthe“…nicecollectionof

archived legal blogs and oher online legal resources.” Second, a porion o a

tweetremarked“…whentheLawLibraryofCongressgetsaFacebookFanPageandaTwierprole,youknowit’sserious…ifgovernmentagenciesare

invesing heir ime, money, and efors ino social media like his, hen i’sobviously somehing ha is relevan!”Krishan Nehra, a Senior Foreign Law Specialis in he Direc-

torateofLegalResearch,retiredattheendof2009.Formorethan38years,Mr.NehrarespondedtoqueriesrelatedtolawsofIndia,Pakistan,andother

Souh Asian jurisdicions. Everyone a he Law Library wishes Mr. Nehra ahappy and healhy reiremen. Early his year, he plans o underake a rip oIndia, and hen he will reurn o he Law Library as a researcher o help us inour daily work unil his replacemen is ound. Sayuri Umeda, Senior ForeignLaw Specialis gave a presenaion on he workings o he Library o Congress

tothestaoftheNationalDietLibrary(Japan).AndrewWeberwasapanel

-is on culural inelligence and he inormaion sociey program a he annualconerence o he American Sociey or Inormaion Science and Technology.

RuthLevush,SeniorForeignLawSpecialist,presentedapaperon“SecularismandNationhoodinCountrieswithSignicantReligiousMinorityNativeorImmigrantPopulation”attheInternational

Law and Society conference inTel Aviv, Israel.

For he pas wo years, he Law Library has assumed greaerresponsibiliy or THOMAS (he Library o Congress’ public legislaive inor-

mationsystem).isyear,welaunchedananalysisofthesystem’sfunctional

-iy and conen based on user eedback. As a resul, we recenly implemenedchanges o he presenaion o conen and are collaboraing wih he Govern-

mentPrintingOcetoproduceadatabaseofallpubliclawscovering1789