The Daily Reporter is reporting that the recently released final report of the [Ohio] Task Force on Law Library Associations has recommended that "all county law libraries be brought under the wing of a new public entity dubbed the Consortium of County Law Library Board, to help alleviate the financial burden currently placed upon county treasuries." The Cleveland Law Library Weblog has some more details:
The report will be submitted to the Legislative Service Commission to draft new legislation concerning county law libraries. The Task Force envisions restoring some of the county funding to libraries taken away by HB 66. In the 125th legislative session, HB 66 resulted in an elimination of county support for the law libraries over a five year period. Before HB 66, the ORC required counties to provide county law libraries with the salaries of 3 employees, space and shelving. The Task Force report would require counties to pay for one library employee, space and shelving, but only if the county law library joins a statewide consortium. The Task Force report also recommends mandating the composition of county law library boards. Boards would be mandated by statute to include 2 county commissioners, 2 judges and one private attorney.