Notes by the "Madison" of the AALL Vendor Colloquium's Proceedings Published

In yesterday's LLB post, A Pound of Flesh: Free Speech in the Context of the Desperate Bargains Made between AALL and the Legal Publishing Industry and Individual Institutional Buyers and Their Vendors I cited to Mary Jenkins' recent AALL Spectrum Blog post, An SCCLL Librarian’s Notes from the Vendor Colloquium with a quote that started with "I have 26 handwritten pages of notes; surely, some of that would be of interest to my colleagues." That quote now reads:

I have 26 handwritten pages of notes; surely, some of that would be of interest to my colleagues.

What's the difference? The link. It wasn't there; now it is. The original unlinked blog post text about the notes published on March 17, 2011 was the second time their existence was mentioned publicly. The first time was during the March 10, 2011 episode of Law Librarian Conversations on AALL's Vendor Colloquium. Hum ... how long did it take before someone in AALL's officialdom decided it was OK to publish them.

Eyewitness testimory being what it is I am sure my fellow Ohio county law library director would want to qualify her notes with the caveat that they are her record of the proceedings and are not official. However, I've attended meetings with Jenkins. One, she take copious notes, and two, I oftentimes wondered why I don't because only one of us is so damn old to be experiencing short-term memory loss. It ain't Mary. As for why I don't, well, listening and note-taking at my age is beyond my "multi-tasking" ability now. But I digress... .

Jenkins' notes are the best members who were not in attendance are probably going to get. No doubt some things are missing that Jenkins will recall as she contributes as a member of the working group who is responsible for drafting Shared Principles and Action Plan documents. Hopefully those collated pieces of paper will be made available to members with ample time to review and comment. Making informed commentary on them without a webcast or official transcript of the meeting is problematic at best. But at least Jenkins' unofficial notes may be helpful. It's advisable to download her notes and retain them; like I said, her notes are likely are the best source material available. Perhaps you will be satisfied with relying on some sort of official summary but personally, not I.

Thanks Mary. Looks like you are the "Madison" of AALL's Vendor Colloquium proceedings. [JH]