Kendall F. Svengalis is President of Rhode Island LawPress and
Adjunct Professor of Library and Information Studies at the University
of Rhode Island where he teaches law librarianship. Born in Gary,
Indiana in 1947, he received his B.A. in English literature (1970)
and M.A. in American history (1973) from Purdue University. In
1975, he received an M.L.S. from the University of Rhode Island’s
Graduate School of Library and Information Studies. He has done
additional work in American history at Brown University. In 1976,
he joined the staff of the Rhode Island State Law Library as Assistant
Law Librarian. In 1982, he was appointed State Law Librarian by
a unanimous decision of the Rhode Island Supreme Court. During
his twenty-year tenure, he ushered in an unprecedented era of
growth and expansion in state law library services, marked by
the introduction of computer technology to library operations
and services, the dramatic growth in library collections, the
professionalization of library staff, and the modernization of
library facilities. He also succeeded in bringing the state’s
county law libraries under centralized operational and budgetary
control and brought an end to the role of patronage in the hiring
of library staff. The innovative techniques he pioneered in bringing
law library costs under control have served as a model for law
libraries across the country. A past president of the Law Librarians
of New England and the New England Law Library Consortium, he
has also served on the Board of Directors of the State, Court
and County Law Libraries Special Interest Section of the American
Association of Law Libraries (AALL). From 1988 to 1994, he was
editor of The CRIV Sheet, the Newsletter of AALL’s Committee
on Relations with Information Vendors, where he was able to bring
his innovative ideas regarding cost-effective law library acquisitions
to a national audience. In 1993, these efforts were recognized
by the State, Court and County Special Interest Section of AALL
which selected him as the first recipient of the Connie Bolden
Significant Publications Award. In March, 1996, one month after
the announcement of the Thomson Corporation’s purchase of
the West Publishing Company, the first edition of his Legal Information
Buyer’s Guide & Reference Manual was published by Rhode
Island LawPress, the company Ken founded in 1995. This resulted
in his being retained as an expert witness by the Justice Department
in its review of the proposed merger and his book being used as
a part of the Justice Department’s merger analysis. In 1998,
the Legal Information Buyer’s Guide and Reference Manual,
1997-98 received the Joseph L. Andrews Bibliographical Award,
the highest honor bestowed by the American Association of Law
Libraries on works of legal bibliography. In 1999, Ken again received
the Connie E. Bolden Significant Publications Award from the State,
Court, and County Law Libraries Special Interest Section of AALL
for publishing three successive editions of the Legal Information
Buyer’s Guide and for aiding “law librarians nationwide
in their pursuit of a cost effective and efficient avenue to collection
development.” Since that time, the Legal Information Buyer’s
Guide & Reference Manual has received numerous accolades from
the legal and law library communities and has become a standard
reference work and acquisitions tool in law libraries and law
firms across the country. Ken has written numerous articles on
the subject of cost-effective acquisitions and the legal publishing
industry for a variety of legal and law library publications and
has spoken before both national and regional law librarian associations.
Most recently, he has given presentations on cost-effective acquisitions
to federal court librarians under the auspices of the Administrative
Office of the United States Courts and spoken on the subject of
the legal publishing industry at investment conferences organized
by JPMorgan. He has been honored by inclusion in numerous editions
of Who’s Who in America and Who’s Who in American Law.
Ken and his wife Ellen reside in the rolling hills of eastern
Connecticut and spend their leisure time as a vocal and instrumental
duo performing Swedish folk music at Swedish and Scandinavian
folk festivals in Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Jersey and New
York. Ken is also President of the Verdandi (Swedish) Male Chorus
of Providence, Rhode Island and Vice-President of the Jussi Björling
Society-USA, which honors the career and legacy of the 20th century’s
greatest operatic tenor.
Ken's latest book is entitled Gary, Indiana: A Centennial Celebration, a beautiful pictorial
history of the city of his birth. This nostalgic hard-cover, 455 page
full-color coffee table book contains over 650
pictures and 90,000 words of text. This project is the culmination of
Ken's lifelong interest in the city of his birth and the Calumet Region.
In addition to his research on the Gary schools, he has written a
full-length history of the Lithuanian side of his family which came
to Gary on October 4, 1908, and upon which chapter 20 of this book is based.
