shlep: the Self-Help Law ExPress

   [in pre-launch status, as we search for a shlep team — can you contribute?]  

If things go smoothly, this weblog will be “officially launched” on October 1st, when shlep‘s founding team of authors and contributors will be announced and start posting on this Home Page.   However, I’m too excited to wait a week to tell you about our first two recruits.

    Two law librarians — each a practicing lawyer prior to earning a degree in library science — have volunteered to make regular postings at shlep.  One brings long experience at academic law libraries, the other is a “pro se practitioner” at a public law library.

Mary Whisner is a reference librarian at the Gallagher Law Library of the University of Washington School of Law, and the editor/author of the Trial Ad Notes weblog.  (Her CV quickly humbled This shlep Editor.)  Mary wrote the Gallagher Guide for Members of the Public.  Readers of The Virtual Chase, The Law Librarian Blog, and WILT recently got to know Mary through her Law Library Journal article “A Blog’s Life,” from her Practicing Reference column in LLJ. 

John Cannan is an Assistant Law Librarian at the Montgomery County [Maryland] Circuit Court Library.  His legal reference skills often assist the Court’s pro se project.  John brings the enthusiasm of a “newly minted” MLS and a love of technology and legal research & writing to his job and to his first weblog gig. 

Mary and John plan to provide shlep‘s visitors with weekly postings on many aspects of self-help law.  If we’re lucky, they’ll find time among their many responsibilities to post even more often.   I hope their decision to work on shlep will inspire others to respond to our continuing Help Wanted plea.  There’s still plenty of room on our roster for individuals committed to self-help law and eager to make a significant contribution to a quality team.  We’re especially looking for that special person willing to take on a true co-editor role at the original self-help law weblog.