Taking the Proverbial Bull by the Horns: AALL as an Agent of Change

Looking back in LLB Turns Five Years Old: Another Day, Another Post, I mentioned that it was a fair assessment to characterize 2009 was the year the legal information professional blogosphere became the consumer advocate for legal resources users, individual and institutional. This is not a situation where, as an old German proverb says, "a bad cause requires many words." This is a situation where a good cause requires words spoken out loud, clearly stated, and followed up by well-publicized concerted action.

Where's the Leadership? Isn't it about time for AALL to catch up to its membership in a vocal, that is to say, very visible way? Enough with the very occasional behind closed doors Chicago-style politicking with legal publishers. As librarians we call for greater transparency in government to make government more accountable, responsive and better informed. As association members, isn't it time to call for greater transparency in AALL governance for the same reasons and purposes?

There's something called Web 2.0 that AALL might want to investigate to learn how to listen to and then act upon its members' concerns in a timely manner. Member engagement may be slow in coming forward because, well, many believe it is just a waste of time; no criticism of AALL staff intended or implied. I personally think it is long over due that we increase AALL's staff for advocacy to address the well-known outrageous practices of some very expensive legal publishing vendors and support the free access to legal information movement in a manner more substantial than appearing like a bobblehead doll even if that means our membership dues have to increase (although I would look at increasing our advertising rates first).

Time for an Internal Transformation. The current AALL "professional association" model is fast becoming utterly irrelevant for advocacy purposes; the committee structure isn't very productive and will not improve unless committee members -- all working law librarians -- have professional association staff at their beck and call to support activities under their direction.

Let's start with the Executive Board. Wouldn't it be a good idea to elect three vice presidents, one each representing  the major sectors of our institutional members: academic law libraries (public and private), private law libraries (firms and other) and public law libraries (state, county, courts, etc.) with some real authority to direct association staff and also require them to meet with AALL staff  face-to-face in Chicago or by video conferencing on a regular basis? 

President? Sure, someone who can string a sentence or two together for PR purposes but more a figure head position. A Secretary-Treasurer? Sure for fiscal bean counting purposes. Directors? Hardly necessary if the Executive Board also includes VP-Elects for each institutional sector. 

After some 30 years, I've seen a very noticable -- really hasn't it always been obvious -- trend. Academic law librarians fill our elected Executive Board positions more than any other institutional segment but issues, concerns and decisions made by firm libraries drive the market place and law firms typically have been under-represented on AALL's executive board. Maybe AALL will even schedule annual meetings at a time more convenient for firm librarians to attend if a change such as this one were to be implemented.

Hello, AALL -- the summer is the busiest time of the year for firm librarians; just because academic law librarians are coasting in July isn't a good enough reason to schedule annual meetings then. We would see many more firm librarians attending and contributing if our annual meeting was scheduled at some other time. We would even get better hotel rates if we piggy-backed on AALS annual meetings in early January.

On Being an Institutional Also-Ran. Why do individual law librarians have to create their own online petitions drives? Why do others have to "nudge" AALL to take action by blog posts? This is unacceptable and is making AALL nothing more than an also-ran in matters that are and will be transformative, that are becoming and will most definitely be paradigm-shifting akin to scientific advancement as a "series of peaceful interludes punctuated by intellectually violent revolutions" that Thomas Kuhn observed in his 1962 classic The Stucture of Scientific Revolution. AALL stands unprepared like a department store manikin frozen in time in a window display while its dues-paying institutional members scramble onwards.

Many in our profession were not even born when Kuhn's work was published but certainly will be dealing with the consequences of the revolution now taking place in access to legal information. As a professional law librarian who came up the ranks from library school in the generation that understood the "magic" of fee-based online legal research in 1980, I have some experience with revolutionary change and believe I've earned the right to say, "WTF - get on with it or get out of the way, AALL." The Association's institutional presence is fast becoming an obstacle in the hillclimb legal information professionals are ascending to address the matters at hand.

Remember the old proverb, "an obstacle is often an unrecognized opportunity." In this case, many law librarians are thinking it might be time to invest their institution's membership dues and their professional efforts in some other existing or new organization. I, for one, think it is long overdue to give AALL a good, swift collective kick in the pants. How would you rate AALL's performance in achieving its leadership and advocacy goals expressed in its 2005-2010 Strategic Directions? Is there any reason to expect substantive improvements from AALL's Executive Board Strategic Directions Committee?

It's About Tactics. Let's remember that the concept of strategy was borrowed from the military and adapted for use by collectives like associations. It is a way of referring to what one plans to do to counter another's actual or predicted moves where the other is defined as one holding an antithetical position. In terms of strategic advocacy, anyone maintaining or creating barriers to access to legal information stands on the one side; everyone trying to knock down barriers to access stands on the other side. Strategy, thus, spans the gap between policy and tactics. Let's assume all law librarians share the same policy ideals. Many members may find the Association's strategy acceptable. Far fewer law librarians find AALL's tactics successful. AALL's tactical execution of its 2010-2013 strategy is what ultimately will matter.

Let's close with another old German proverb -- a little too late, is much too late. That characterizes AALL's contribution as an agent of change in the 21st Century so far. [JH]