Page 14 - 2026 January February Magazine

JANUARY/FEBRUARY EDITORIAL
Friends of the
Law Library
I like books; The kind I can hold in my hand. I also have
many books stored on my iPad that I refer to often. I
received my first library card from the Eldora, Iowa Public
Library in 1954. I was five, the library card was number four. I
was not the first to have that number.
“On December 30, 1901, the Carnegie Foundation agreed
to grant the Eldora community $10,000 to build a new
library building. The Chicago architectural firm of Patton
& Miller designed it in the Renaissance Revival style, and it
was dedicated on May 11, 1903. On December 30, 1901, the
building was dedicated.” (Wikipedia) I do not know why that
library decided to recycle library numbers. Perhaps it was
considered pretentious to have library numbers in excess of the
town population.
My mother died when I was an infant. She taught
kindergarten, and a series of books for young readers entitled
“Childhood Lives of Famous Americans” was acquired with
memorial funds and dedicated to her memory. It became my
mission to read all those books in her honor. The only fact I
specifically remember from that series is a man who read the
bumps on Andrew Jackson’s head and predicted he would be
president. Somehow it seems only natural that the arc of my
life would lead me to being a trustee on the Pierce County Law
Library Board of Trustees. I served from 2011 to 2025. I am
now President of The Friends of the Law Library. Later, I will
ask for time, donations and suggestions for how The Friends
can best assist our library.
Friends is a nonprofit corporation, formed in 1990. Jim Bush
wrote the articles of incorporation, became a Trustee, and
served on the Board for thirty-five years, until his death in
2025. Friends was created as a way for people to make tax
deductible contributions to the Library. In 1990, the Library
was an entity separate from Pierce County government, even
though it was located in the County City Building. It has
since been absorbed into County government as a part of the
clerk’s office. By statute, the Library Board receives a portion
of every filing fee paid for Superior and District Court filings.
In addition, the County Council does allocate funds, typically
$50,000 per year. The powers of the board are enumerated in
RCW27.24.030 and were reserved to the board when it became
a part of Pierce County government. It is an autonomous entity
beneath, but not under, the County Executive. Tensions do
exist. The Friends is a nonprofit corporation separate from
county government and was formed to assist the library with
funding needs that filings fees and government allocations do
not cover.
I asked Laurie Miller, a former librarian, what The Friends had
contributed to the library over the years. She responded:
“The Friends purchased the furniture in the back, and
also all the blue chairs around the library. I think they
also paid to recover the wooden chairs from red to black
at the same time as the blue chairs were purchased.
Occasionally, we would have a special need arise for
expensive books. I think The Friends may have paid for
the AmJu 2d set at Sumner - maybe Lakewood.
The Friends paid for some other subscription services
along the way… They also bought a few computers, but
that was before we were annexed.That purchase would
be more complicated now…
The Friends also purchased the ABA books on practice.
That, with 714 other books, were purged from the
library in April of 2025.”
The purge she is referring to occurred as a result of the
resolution passed by the board adopting the collection policy
proposed by the former Director of the Law Library. In March
2025 the board adopted the policy with one dissenting vote,
mine, and soon after that the purge occurred. I was concerned
that the board was contrary to statue delegating some powers
to the librarian and making itself an advisory board rather
than a governing board, as it is by statute. Also, the collection
policy seemed far too narrow in its concept of what lawyers
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