The Blue Earth County Library System recently received $6,000 in grant funds from the Blue Earth County Law Library Board to purchase new legal reference materials. The funding provided 42 new legal reference titles to the existing collection of 418 materials at the Blue Earth County Library in Mankato. New materials include a variety of titles to help individuals with legal topics ranging from estate planning to everyday law topics for individuals, families, renters, homeowners and business owners. Part of the legal reference section of the Blue Earth County Library in Mankato includes computer stations for patrons to search online legal reference materials.
The Blue Earth County Law Library Board is responsible for managing the Law Library located at the Blue Earth County Justice Center on second floor near Court Administration. The law library is open to the public for free legal resources Monday through Friday 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and includes computer terminals with subscription access to the legal research site Westlaw. The former Law Library located in the Historic Courthouse housed several volumes of legal books. However, the modern Law Library mainly houses computer terminals and only a limited number of published legal volumes.
“The Blue Earth County Law Library Board is pleased to be able to provide $6,000 in funding to the Blue Earth County Library System for the expansion of law reference materials to its patrons,” stated Ross Arneson, Blue Earth County Attorney. “A goal of the Law Library Board is to provide resources outside of the Law Library located in the Justice Center for use by the general public and we are excited for this contribution to help toward those efforts.”
The Blue Earth County Law Library is funded by “law library fees” from civil and criminal court cases. Current Board members for the Law Library include; Judge Bradley Walker; Scott Cutcher, Public Defender; Ryan Magnus, Attorney; Will Purvis, County Commissioner; Ross Arneson, County Attorney and Kelly Iverson, Court Administrator who is an ex officio member that oversees law library funds and provides assistance to the public.
For more information on legal materials available within the Blue Earth County Library System visit www.beclibrary.org.