Maine State Law and Legislative Reference Library

LLRL is closed Friday, 12/23 and Monday, 12/26 in observance of the Christmas holiday.

The Maine State Law and Legislative Reference Library is pleased to announce the appointment of Jessica Lundgren as its new director. Jessica replaces John Melendez-Barden, who served as director for 14 years before retiring this July. Jessica has been a senior and principal law librarian at LLRL since 2015. Before serving the Maine Legislature, she was a research librarian for an AmLaw 100 law firm for 7 years. She holds a Master’s in Library and Information Science degree from Rutgers University and a Bachelor of Arts degree in History from American University. In addition to her work at the library, Jessica is the current Chair of the Legislative Research Librarians Staff Section of the National Conference of State Legislatures.

LLRL is in the midst of a large expansion of its legislator biographical database. Part of this process has been scanning photos of former legislators from various sources. Below is a young Percival Baxter (House, 1905) and Athill E. Irving (House, 1907) from Presque Isle.

Congratulations to librarians Alex Burnett and Jessica Lundgren for winning this year’s Dr. Joel Fishman Professional Publication Award for their chapter in Introduction to Law Librarianship! It is awarded by the Government Law Libraries Special Interest Section of the American Association of Law Libraries and recognizes a “member’s contribution to the field of government law librarianship through a professional publication that promotes government law libraries, law librarianship, legal research, or public access to legal information.”

The Maine Legislature is seeking a full-time Director to head the nonpartisan Law and Legislative Reference Library. A job description and instructions for applying can be found here: https://legislature.maine.gov/execdir/job-opportunities