LaRea Moody
LaRea Moody was the Courthouse Librarian for Thunder Bay. She lived at 89 South Hill Street, Thunder Bay, with her husband and large German shepherd dog.
On 2 December 1993 she attended a General Meeting of the Ontario Association of Library Technicians in Thunder Bay. She was billed as a "longtime member of OALT/ABO". [2]
As of 2018 she lives in Barrie, Ontario.
Running a One-Half Person Library
Moody wrote an article, Running a One-Half Person Library, for a newsletter in 1991. Here it is:
On the top floor of a 66-year-old district Court House building, high on a hill overlooking Lake Superior, reposes a sizeable collection of the legal wit and wisdom of the District of Thunder Bay.
The Court House Library occupies three rooms and a hallway, housing a collection of approximately 8,000 volumes. It is one of 47 district Court House Libraries in Ontario, and receives a major portion of funding from the Law Foundation and Law Society of Upper Canada, in addition to the revenues from local members' fefes.
Until 1988, the text collection had been catalogues (I use the word loosely) according to an original scheme, i.e. DV-Divorce, LA-Landlord and TEnant, BK-Bangkok, as well as a number of esoteric combinations. Within those broad categories, the books were assigned numbers in order of their receipt. This, of course, did not enhance ease of access. In addition, these same alpha-numerics were painted on the spine of each title in a brilliant fluorescent orange paint. The rationale was that missing items could easily be spotted when the Library Technician made her rounds of the law firms, seeking out those long overdues.
The greatest improvement in library practice is the present central cataloguing of texts (using KF modified Law of Canada) at the Great Library in Osgoode Hall. As each library receives new title, forms with pertinent bibliographic information are filled out and sent to the Great Library. They generate labels, shelflist cards, along with regularly updated book catalogues (author/title, subject, classified). In this way, as I try to gently wean the balky lawyers away from the previous archaic system, every district court house library in Ontario is shelved in exactly the same manner.
There are 150 practicing lawyers, ten judges and crown counsel, ten or so articling students and affiliate members who use the library regularly. In addition, students from Lakehead University and Confederation College, along with occasional high school students and researchers, use the facilities.
The Library Technician is in attendance 20 hours per week. Members of the local Association have their own keys (issued by the Sheriff's Office), and use the facilities, day, night and weekends. The technician's desk is fair game for anyone looking for pencils, paper clips, and general nosing around.
The textbook collection circulates via book cards, where borrowers sign their names and the exact date the item was taken. Non-circulating materials have REFERENCE ONLY - DO NOT REMOVE FROM LIBRARY stickers prominently displayed, which of course lose their meaning when someone desperately needs a particular book.
By and large, the members of the bar are an agreeable lot, and materials eventually find their way back to the stacks. Once or twice a year, I announce a royal tour and outline the travel route. Armed with my list of 20 or so missing titles, I generally return with at least 50 items I did not even know were missing.
Lakehead University's Department of Library and Information Studies sends students to our library for practice work several times a year.
- Edited from an article which appeared in Canadian Law Libraries, v. 15, no.4 (October 1990)
Source: [4]
Sources
[1] Facebook [1]
[2] Ontario Library Periodical [2]
[3] Ontario Association of Library Technicians Newsletter, Vol 18, No. 2, Winter 1994.
https://oaltabo.on.ca/wp-content/uploads/newsletter/v.18_n.02-Winter_1994.pdf
[4] 1991. v. 16 n. 2, page 4 of 4 [3]