The Road to Relaunch
On June 8, 2022, the BarBooks™ online library relaunched on a new, more user-friendly platform called Qweri by Lexum, Inc. The relaunch was the culmination of several years of work by the Legal Publications Department.
Lexum, Inc. was among the exhibitors at the 2018 ACLEA (Association for Continuing Legal Education) Annual Meeting in Portland, Oregon. After viewing the demo offered, Linda Kruschke, the OSB Legal Publications Manager, began the process of exploring whether Lexum’s Qweri product was the best option for a new BarBooks platform. Lexum provided links to other resources that were offered on Qweri, answered a myriad of questions, and even set up a test site for OSB to upload books to Qweri to determine if it was a good fit.
In August 2021, the OSB signed a contract to move forward with the project with a tentative launch date of 2Q 2022. BarBooks was relaunched on June 8, 2022, on time and in budget, on the Qweri platform.
ACLEA Award of Professional Excellence
The Association for Continuing Legal Education (ACLEA) has awarded the Oregon State Bar, Legal Publications, one of only 10 annual awards granted to competitors representing more than 300 organizations.
An Award of Professional Excellence was given to the Oregon State Bar for The Relaunch of BarBooks in the Best Technology category. Linda Kruschke accepted the award from outgoing ACLEA President Gina Roers-Liemandt at the ACLEA Annual Meeting in Minneapolis, Minnesota on July 25, 2023.
ACLEA members are professionals in the fields of continuing legal education and legal publishing. Its annual ACLEA’s Best Awards are highly competitive and winning projects represent the highest level of achievement for the staff and volunteers involved.
The entries in the Technology Category are judged on the following criteria:
1. Demonstrates an innovative use of technology
2. Is useful as an example for other ACLEA members to follow
3. Is well designed and well executed, and is well received by the target audience or market
4. Provides significant benefit to the CLE organization or its customers
5. Demonstrates an effective use of the organization’s resources
The Relaunch of BarBooks project excelled in all of these categories. With respect to criteria #2, the project was of such interest to other ACLEA members that Linda Kruschke presented a full-hour break-out session on the process the OSB went through to accomplish this award-winning relaunch.
A Team Effort
Of course, Legal Publications couldn’t have completed this excellent upgrade of the BarBooks™ online library without the invaluable assistance of the Information Design and Technology Department, the staff at Lexum and Fastcase, as well as input from bar members who beta tested the platform before launch.
The team continued to improve access to BarBooks even after the relaunch. And in June 2023, BarBooks on the Qweri platform was made available for the first time to Adults in Custody in 13 correctional facilities in the state of Oregon.
Getting the Most Out of This Award-Winning Resource
BarBooks continues to be a member benefit for all active and active pro bono members of the Oregon State Bar. If you are a member and haven’t tried it yet, we encourage you to do so. Simply log into your OSB account and click on the BarBooks link at the top of your member dashboard.
You can also watch a one-hour CLE on how to get the most out of BarBooks. The on-demand CLE is free and eligible for 1 MCLE credit.