Published Saturday, Oct. 2, 1999 It's not surprising to imagine a librarian as the caretaker of so many bound and pulpy pages. At the revamped Law Library on the third floor of the county courthouse, however, Ms. Deniker is perhaps most excited about the library's boundless Home Page.
Library Network 2000 is the courthouse's -- and the informational age's -- remedy to book-lugging pains, paper cuts and strenuous searching for hard-to-find data, and it was the focal point of the Law Library's open house Friday.
Ms. Deniker, who assumed her position at the courthouse in January, displayed three computer workstations which, she said, "provide access to many law mediums, the Internet, a server and inter-county information."
Additionally, all the information contained in the library's bound volumes can be accessed from the workstations, she said.
She said the system, which includes over 50 other programs, was "up and running" by April.
Walter H. Losee, a general product sales representative for West Group, which provides a bulk of the programs available on the workstations, said the new programs allow people "to move faster and stay current."
Losee said the "natural language" feature of the program is one of the ways those searching for information can move faster through sometimes intricate topics. In well under a minute -- most of which was used to type: "The liability of a grocery store owner should a customer slip and fall on the premises" -- nearly 30 past related cases were retrieved.
Losee, who represents most of northwestern Pennsylvania for West Group, said, "No other (county law library) in northwestern Pennsylvania is as technologically advanced as Mercer County."
Ms. Deniker emphasized that the Law Library is a "non-lending public library" -- although books can't be signed out, everyone is welcome.
The Law Library's hours are 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday. On the Internet:http://www.mcc.co.mercer.pa.us/library/default.htm
