Law Library

The Carroll County commissioners agreed yesterday to spend $12,000 to upgrade resources at the law library used by judges and local attorneys. "In order for attorneys to practice, they need to know the most up-to-date laws," said Commissioner Robin Bartlett Frazier. The county bar association had asked for $22,000. Much of the library's funding is from fines and forfeitures exacted in Circuit Court. Those revenues have declined about 30 percent in the past five years. County funding - about $20,000 annually - has not met the need.

Volunteer lawyers will provide up to a half-hour of free legal advice for three afternoons this week in the county's law library. People can come into the law library between noon and 5 p.m. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday to talk with a lawyer about a civil legal issue, said law librarian Joan M. Bellistri. No appointment is required. Advice will not be given on criminal matters. The law library is located on the third floor of the Anne Arundel County Court House on Church Circle, Annapolis.

I felt as if I had gotten to know two of Maryland's political celebrities, Thurgood Marshall and Lena K. Lee, after spending a few hours this week at the University of Maryland's law library, which is named in the former Supreme Court justice's honor. I'll begin with Lena K. Lee, among the first black women elected to the Maryland General Assembly in the 1960s. Lee, who died at age 100 in 2006, donated her extensive papers to the library, which is making an overview of her life available on the Internet through its African Americans in the Law collection.

The Maryland State Law Library in Annapolis will be closed Saturday. Workers are performing electrical maintenance in the Courts of Appeal building, officials said. The library will reopen Tuesday. andrea.siegel@baltsun.com Text NEWS to 70701 to get Baltimore Sun local news text alerts

The state's law library unveiled an interactive system yesterday that allows people who are hearing- or speech-impaired to communicate directly with librarians. The system, similar to instant messaging on a computer, gives users privacy by eliminating the intermediary used by relay systems in which a deaf or speech-impaired person types to a middleman. "It's better without an intermediary. That is sort of the bottom line," said law library director Michael S. Miller. He said he believes Maryland's is the first state law library in the country to go forward with such a system.

Volunteer lawyers will provide up to a half-hour of free legal advice for three afternoons this week in the county's law library. People can come into the law library between noon and 5 p.m. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday to talk with a lawyer about a civil legal issue, said law librarian Joan M. Bellistri. No appointment is required. Advice will not be given on criminal matters. The law library is located on the third floor of the Anne Arundel County Court House on Church Circle, Annapolis.

For years, most of the wall space in the Anne Arundel County Courthouse library that wasn't behind bookcases was bare and white. But the walls have been spruced up recently with law prints and art of the state's capital city, giving patrons of the small public library something decorative to look at. Most recently, Judge Michael E. Loney donated a series of 19th-century French law prints from his chambers. They had been given to him by H. Chester Goudy, a retired Circuit Court judge and his former law partner.

The rips can be mended, the greasy finger smudges cleaned and the paper plumped, but such painstaking conservation of the Maryland State Law Library's valuable set of original John James Audubon prints comes at a cost of nearly $300,000. The condition of the library's 19th-century prints was reviewed in November by Rolf Kat, senior conservator of the Conservation Center for Art and Historic Artifacts in Philadelphia. He found some images in the four volumes crumpled, page corners torn away and splotches of glue from backing bleeding into the famed art. Also, four prints are missing from what state officials presumed was a complete set of 435 oversized Birds of America prints, perhaps the only set in Maryland.

Area residents can receive a free half-hour consultation with a lawyer on the third Wednesday of every month through a volunteer lawyer program in the Anne Arundel County law library. The next consultations will be done on Wednesday between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. Civil court issues, except for family court matters, can be addressed, including contracts, wills and real estate. The program is sponsored by the Anne Arundel Bar Association and the law library. The library is on the third floor of the Anne Arundel County Court House, 7 Church Circle, Annapolis.

A program offering free legal advice in the Anne Arundel County Circuit Court law library is about to expand from Annapolis to a site in Glen Burnie. Ask-a-Lawyer will provide volunteer lawyers in the North County branch of the public library starting Wednesday. Law librarian Joan M. Bellistri said the program is expanding because of demand from people who said they could not get to Annapolis or who, because they work during the day, asked about evening sessions. The program has held sessions in other library locations, first in Russett, then in Brooklyn Park last May. Glen Burnie has long been in consideration as a site in the northern area of the county.

A program offering free legal advice in the Anne Arundel County Circuit Court law library is about to expand from Annapolis to a site in Glen Burnie. Ask-a-Lawyer will provide volunteer lawyers in the North County branch of the public library starting Wednesday. Law librarian Joan M. Bellistri said the program is expanding because of demand from people who said they could not get to Annapolis or who, because they work during the day, asked about evening sessions. The program has held sessions in other library locations, first in Russett, then in Brooklyn Park last May. Glen Burnie has long been in consideration as a site in the northern area of the county.

The University of Baltimore's plan to bring "world class" architecture to Maryland - in the form of its proposed $107 million John and Frances Angelos Law Center - received high praise Thursday from two public design review panels. Fourteen months after concluding an international competition to choose a design team for their project, university leaders have raised much of the private funding needed to begin construction and are optimistic about securing $38.7 million from Maryland's General Assembly.

So in-demand are the free monthly legal consultations in the Anne Arundel County Law Library that the library and the Anne Arundel Bar Association are expanding the program. Begun as a pilot program in May and held once a month last fall, the sessions - which offer free advice from volunteer lawyers - will be available every Wednesday starting this week. They are for civil issues only, excluding family law matters, and not confined to county residents. The "Ask a Lawyer in the Library" meetings were trimmed from 30 minutes to 20 minutes so that lawyers could see more people.

Area residents can receive a free half-hour consultation with a lawyer on the third Wednesday of every month through a volunteer lawyer program in the Anne Arundel County law library. The next consultations will be done on Wednesday between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. Civil court issues, except for family court matters, can be addressed, including contracts, wills and real estate. The program is sponsored by the Anne Arundel Bar Association and the law library. The library is on the third floor of the Anne Arundel County Court House, 7 Church Circle, Annapolis.