Law Librarian Blog

Last Minute Reminder: Applications for TRIPLL Conference Due by Dec. 31

The Teaching Research in Private Law Libraries (TRIPLL) Conference application is available through December 31. The TRIPLL Conference, sponsored by the LexisNexis Librarian Relations Group, will be held April 23 - 25, 2010 in Dallas, TX.

The mission of the 2010 Conference is: Embrace the Challenge:  Build Skills, Recognize Opportunities, Succeed, with the objectives to:

• Enhance communication skills
• Explore emerging technologies
• Tailor training to your firm
• Maximize training opportunities

View the TRIPLL information, including session descriptions. Link for application. The deadline for application submissions is December 31, 2009.

There is no registration fee to attend the TRIPLL Conference. LexisNexis will cover all conference materials, meals, lodging and transportation to and from the airport in Dallas. Attendees are responsible for their airfare to and from Dallas, ground transportation in your city, and any personal incidentals. [JH]

Is Law School Worth It, Again.

The National Law Journal does a lot of negative soul searching with an article published Monday on the job prospects for law graduates.  The point seems to question the value of a law degree comparing to the time, money, and effort that goes into a law school career to the payoff.  Tough economic times have caused firms, even big ones, to reconsider their investments in law school graduate talent.  Consider this article in the Wall Street Journal (still not behind the pay wall, apparently) noting the associate deferral plan put forth by uber-firm Cravath, Swain, & Moore, offering $80,000, benefits, and student loan payments if they didn't show up for a year.  The offer is optional and the piece notes that no one from Yale Law took up the firm on its offer.  This could mean that prospects are bright for graduates from one of the topiest of top law schools in the country, that the $80,000 wasn't going to cut it given the expenses expended on law school and they really need the job, or some combination of these.  If the economic dark force is hitting Cravath and Yale, what hope is there for graduates for schools placed below 30 or so in the U.S. News rankings?  I have to believe they get jobs, even if it's not the dream job that pays off the loans within five years with enough left over to buy a condo in the suburbs, an SUV, and urban parking fees.

The National Law Journal goes there by featuring a series of YouTube videos that fit neatly into the Christmas Carol theme.  A law student is visited by three ghosts representing his career, offering a stark and brutal examination of the misery that accompanies not landing a good job at graduation, the likely result for someone not at a top tier law school or top 5% of their class.  All that law school work and debt for something that pays little more than what the poor shlubs who never went past college earn.  Somehow that doesn't seem right if one's expectations are a bright and shiny future. 

The law school representatives who are quoted in the article counter the negativity of job prospects.  Their arguments include that people who get good post law school jobs aren't going to spend time on the Internet complaining about it.  The disappointed are most likely to use the forum.  There is also a suggestion that there is a range of jobs beyond the $180,000 per year associate position and that law students should model their expectations to include them.  Again, all that work and debt for...what, exactly?

The next question is whether the job placement statistics reported to the ABA are accurate.  There is no suggestion that law schools are deliberately misleading potential students with tales of wealth at the end of the ride.  Rather, it may be one of those areas where schools can do a better job at communicating the reality of job prospects to potential students.  This may not help students who made the decision three years ago.  It may help those thinking that law school may be a way out of depressing economic circumstances.  As some suggest, it may really be up to the potential students to investigate the legal market for themselves. 

The article concludes with a mention of Professor Herwig Schlunk's paper, "Mamas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be...Lawyers."  Schlunk did an economic analysis for several student types and scenarios and concluded that most law school careers are a losing investment.  I wrote about that earlier on the blog here.  With so many JDs out there, will this ever change?  I don't know the answer to this question, but I wonder who gets paid more at Lexis and Westlaw, the research attorneys who help with customer questions, or the guys who program the database? 

A Law School Carol is embedded in the NLJ article, and part one is available directly from YouTube here.  The play list that follows has all the parts available.  [MG]

Coming Soon: "Limiting Knowledge in a Democracy"

Social Research: An International Quarterly of the Social Sciences, will host a conference---"Limiting Knowledge in a Democracy"---February 24-26, 2010, at New School University in New York City:

The central question asked by this proposed conference is, where is America today with respect to the limits on our access to information, limits on what we can keep confidential and what the government and other institutions can keep secret? How can the public gain access to information and how do we decide what information is a citizen’s right to know? What information endangers individuals’ or the country’s wellbeing and safety? Are the ever-increasing number of technological innovations fundamentally transforming what we can know and what we cannot? What can remain confidential and what cannot? On the one hand, technology has aided access to information and knowledge to broader and broader communities, thus eroding limits, while on the other hand, technologies are increasingly used by governments, businesses, and other social institutions to monitor and interfere with what we can know and cannot know and what is private and what is not.

The conference recognizes that it is not only governments which impose limits on knowledge and control the flows of information. Limits and accessibility to information also are affected by political manipulation of the scientific enterprise, by funding decisions, by research communities themselves which decide what to explore and what not to, by the government’s censorship (both explicit and implicit) of the media as well as the media’s own role in controlling or increasing the public’s access to information and, sometimes, misinformation. Less obvious are the limits imposed by the culture itself which both implicitly and explicitly may control what questions can and should be asked and which are ignored. These forces all together have serious impacts on what we seek to know and what we are content not to know.

Because the question of the limits on knowledge and their relationship to power, policy, intellectual life, and privacy in a democracy is eternal, and because what has been made possible by technology and globalization has so drastically altered the possibilities both of limits and no limits, the question of limits has become more urgent than ever, which is the reason we are proposing a Social Research conference on this subject. The conference will not only examine the question of limits in the new global environment but the ways in which limits may both support or undermine democracy.

Featured speakers include, among others, Daniel Ellsberg, Nicholas Lemann, and Jonathan Zittrain. And legendary journalist Seymour "Sy" Hersh will give the keynote address. Sounds fascinating! I plan to attend and hope to see other law librarians there as well. [RLS]

A Call for Contributions to Garvin's International Government Information Management Handbook

Peggy Garvin is putting together a roster of authors for a forthcoming book on government information management. Everyone knows or should know Peggy's many contributions to the field. Her works include e-Gov and Federal Web Directory: U.S. Federal Government Online 2009, Real World Research Skills: An Introduction to Factual, International, Judicial, Legislative, and Regulatory Research and Peggy's regular LLRX columns, The Government Domain, which are must-reads [link to columns]

The working title of Peggy's new book is "International Government Information Management Handbook." Librarians are the target audience, but, without a doubt, the publication is going to be of interest to others in related fields. Here's her plans for the work:

Chapters will cover best practices, state-of-the-art, overviews, trends, or anticipated futures. Chapters will not be theoretical or heavily technical. They do not need to represent original research but should be original writing. The book will be marketed internationally.

About this project and her call for contributors, Peggy writes

In particular, I am looking for an author for the planned chapter on authenticating digital government documents. I am also looking for international perspectives on documents digitization and on distributed depository libraries for document collections. If you are interesting in writing about these topics for publication or learning more, please contact me. Please send or link to a brief bio and a writing sample.

English-language writers around the globe are welcome to contact Peggy. Deadline for submission is May 2010. [JH]

Reminder: BlogTalkRadio's The Law Librarian Program to Discuss Google SLOJ This Afternoon

On this afternoon's The Law Librarian program, Richard Leiter, co-host Marcia Dority Baker, Greg Lambert and Roger Skallbeck will be discussing Google Scholar's Legal Opinions and Journals with Google Scholar Chief Engineer, Anurag Acharya. Talk about a hot topic!

The program airs live at 2:00 PM Central Time. As always you can call in with questions and comments or join the chat room. If you miss the show, you can download it as a podcast on iTunes. [JH]

CEO of Copyright Clearance Center Featured in SIIA Webinar, 12 pm - 1 pm ET Today

At noon today, the Software & Information Industry Association will be streaming a live webcast interviewing Tracey Armstrong, CEO of Copyright Clearance Center.  You can tune in here. During the interview, Armstrong will discuss how the organization’s role has changed during the digital revolution, the status of copyright principles in China, CCC and the Google Books Settlement and the challenges of copyrights and ebooks. Details in the press release here. [JH]

AALL/LexisNexis Call for Papers

2009 Competition Winners

Open Member Division: Joseph A. Custer, "The Truthiness of Thinkable Thoughts versus the Facts of Empirical Research" and Laura N. Gasaway, "A Defense of the Public Domain: A Scholarly Essay" New Members Division: Mikhail Koulikov, "Indexing and Full-Text Coverage of Law Review Articles in Non-Legal Databases: An Initial Study" Student Division: Theodora Belniak, "The Law Librarian of the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries: A Figuration in Flux" and Jason Tubinis, "A Law Librarian's Guide to the Economic Crisis"

The AALL/LexisNexis Call for Papers Committee promotes the scholarship of AALL members and of students through its annual "Call for Papers" competition. Papers, which may be submitted by active or retired AALL members, or by students in library, information management or law school, may address any subject relevant to law librarianship. Through the competition, the Committee seeks (1) to promote scholarship of interest to the profession of law librarianship; (2) to provide a creative outlet for law librarians and a forum for their scholarly activities; and (3) to recognize the scholarly efforts of established members, of new members, and of students who are considering a career as law librarians.

The AALL/LexisNexis Call for Papers Committee is soliciting articles in three categories:

1. Open Division: for active and retired AALL members and law librarians with five or more years of professional experience;
2. New Members Division: for recent graduates and AALL members who have become law librarians since July 1, 2005.
3. Student Division: Participants in this division need not be members of AALL. To be eligible in this category, you must have been enrolled in law school, or in a library school, information management, or an equivalent program, either in the Fall 2009 or Spring 2010 semester.

The winner in each division receives $750 generously donated by LexisNexis plus the opportunity to present the winning paper at a program during the AALL Annual Meeting in Denver.  Winning papers are also considered for publication in AALL's Law Library Journal. Selected winning papers from earlier competitions can be found on the Committee's bepress site. This list can give you an idea of the range of topics that law librarians have chosen. Last year's winning papers are identified in the sidebar, above right. See also the Call for Paper's website.

How to Apply: Application form and details, including a list of past winners, can be found at the Call for Papers website.

Submission Deadlines

• Articles in the Open and New Members Division must be submitted by March 2, 2010.
• Articles in the Student Division must be submitted by April 15, 2010.

If you have any questions, please contact a member of the AALL/LexisNexis Call for Papers Committee: 

Chair, James M. Donovan, jdonovan@uga.edu
David Hollander, dholland@princeton.edu
Connie Lenz, lenzx009@umn.edu

Libraries and Online Video: Free TechSoup Webinar with Common Craft's Lee LeFever Wednesday

Register here for Tech Training Made Simple with Online Videos.

Date:  Wednesday, Nov. 18, 2009 
Time:  11:00 AM PST 
Duration:  1 hour

Meeting Description: Wouldn’t it be great if complicated technology concepts were explained in a simple way that’s easy to understand? Imagine how something like this could assist you in training sessions for patrons or staff. Well look no further, Common Craft creates explanatory videos “In Plain English” that cover topics like green, money, society and technology.
 
In this free webinar, Stephanie Gerding from TechSoup will interview Lee LeFever, from Common Craft to learn more about their videos and how they are created. We will also hear how librarians are using these videos to support the needs of their community.

A Quick Shout Out for Legal Informatics Blog

Contemporary research in legal informatics is way beyond my small brain capacity. I sort of get it generally. Hell, two former physicists drummed the fundamental principles into my head at the University of Chicago Graduate Library School but that was then and this is now.  As for now and blogging about contemporary developments, the field isn't beyond Robert Richards' intellectual chops. Robert, who also contributes to LLB, covers the discipline on his Legal Informatics Blog. Take the RSS feed to stay informed. [JH]

Legal Writing Institute Workshop for Adjuncts and New Legal Writing Professors Set for Dec. 4

The Legal Writing Institute is conducting a one-day workshop for adjunct professors and new legal writing professors on Friday, December 4, 2009, at The John Marshall Law School (Chicago) and St. John’s University School of Law. Registration for the one-day legal writing workshop is $100 in advance (or $120 at the door). You can register (and pay) by mail or online at one of the following two websites.

Chicago:   https://www.regonline.com/lwi-workshop-chi
New York City:  https://www.regonline.com/lwi-workshop-nyc

Download LWI New Teachers Workshop Agenda and Registration Form

Hat tip to Barbara Gellis Traub, Interim Director and Head of Reference and Instructional Services, Rittenberg Law Library, St. John's University School of Law. [JH]

Applications for AALL/BNA Continuing Education Grant Due Nov. 5

The AALL/BNA Continuing Education grants program is open to AALL HQ, chapters, SIS's, member institutions, caucuses, and individual AALL members. The grants can assist in providing ongoing quality continuing education programming outside of the AALL annual meeting. Grant supported programs must be able to be distributed to a wider audience. The grant can assist program content (speakers, venue, etc.) or the method of a wider distribution (podcast, webinar, etc.).

The Private Law Libraries Special Interest Section received a grant for a program on Law Firm Economics during the last round of AALL/BNA Continuing Education Grants. Applications for the second round of grants are due by Nov. 5. Funded grants will be announced on Dec. 7. An application form can be downloaded from the AALL/BNA Continuing Education Grants web page. [JH]

AALL/Wolters Kluwer Law & Business Grants Program Seeks Applications for $5,000 in Research Grants to be Awarded This Year; Deadline is Nov. 9, 2009

AALL Research & Publications Committee

Pamela Melton, Chair, University of South Carolina, Coleman Karesh Law Library Adeen Postar, Vice Chair, American University, Washington College of Law, Pence Law Library Molly Brownfield, Duke University School of Law , J. Michael Goodson Law Library Julie Jones, University of Connecticut School of Law Library Shawns Nevers, Brigham Young University, Howard W. Hunter law Library Amy Osborne, University of Kentucky, College of Law Library Joshua Philips, Loyola Law School, William M. Rains Law Library Margaret Schilt, University of Chicago D’Angelo Law Library Kama Sue Seigel, Schwabe, Williamson & Wyatt, PC Sharon Wang, Osgoode Law School Library, York University

The AALL Research & Publications Committee is accepting applications through Monday, November 9, 2009, for research grants from the AALL/Wolters Kluwer Law & Business Grants Program, totaling up to $5,000.

The committee will award one or more grants to library professionals who wish to conduct research that supports the research/scholarly agenda of the profession of librarianship. The grants program funds small or large research projects that create, disseminate, or otherwise use legal and law-related information as its focus. Projects may range from the historical (indexes, legislative histories, bibliographies, biographies, or directories) to the theoretical (trends in cataloging, publishing, or new service models in libraries) to the practical (implementation models for collection, personnel, or infrastructure management).

The AALL Research Agenda offers suggestions for possible research projects that cover a wide segment of professional interest, including the profession of law librarianship, law library patrons, law library services, legal research and bibliography, legal information resources, and law library facilities. However, projects are not limited to those described in the agenda, and the committee will consider all applications and research projects. To review AALL’s Research
Agenda, please visit www.aallnet.org/committee/research/agenda.asp.

The AALL/Wolters Kluwer Law & Business Grant Program was first established in 1996 with a generous contribution of $50,000. Wolters Kluwer Law & Business considers its contribution as an investment in research that will provide a prospective look at the role of librarians, researchers, and legal information providers and will yield results to which publishers can respond. The goal is to sponsor research that will have a practical impact on the law library profession and inspire products and changes in the marketplace.

To apply for the grants, all applicants must provide resumes and statements of their qualifications for carrying out their projects. The applications must demonstrate experience with research projects and an understanding of the dissemination and use of legal and law-related information. Priority will be given to individual AALL members or AALL members working in partnership with other information professionals. The grant application and complete guidelines are available at: www.aallnet.org/about/wklb_grant_application.asp.

The submission deadline for applications is Monday, November 9, 2009. Grants will be awarded and announced in January 2010. Allocation of the research grants will be at the sole discretion of the AALL Research & Publications Committee.

For more information about the grants, please contact Pamela R. Melton, chair of the AALL Research & Publications Committee, at prmelton@law.sc.edu.

Presenting Ourselves

Earlier this month, JH blogged about the list of top 50 jobs in 2009 from CNN Money.  He rightly noted that "librarian," was not in the list - though there were other jobs that had snippets of what librarians do on a regular basis.  He noted that attorney/lawyer was listed 18th and corporate paralegal was listed 36th.  In the CNN list there were other close matches.  Consider the IT Project Manager ranked 5th, or the Intelligence Analyst ranked 9th.  These are careers unto themselves, but also overlap what many librarians do on a regular basis.  It reminded me of an op-ed piece from Mary Ellen Bates that appeared in the Sept/Oct 2009 edition of Online Magazine titled: Do I Look Like a Librarian?

In the article, Bates discussed this very issue.  Other often new fangled jobs are described in terms that also describe what we and our librarian ancestors have done for a very, very long time: discover, organize, enhance, manage and deliver information.  She also discussed the SLA Alignment Project and its mission to help us remedy and reverse this trend.

The Project presents data on the roles and habits of information professionals and the perception of their roles and value by C-level executives (CEO, CFO, etc.) and other professionals who are in a position of hiring or evaluating information professionals.  The results are the product of 18 months of indepth research conducted by SLA in partnership with Fleishman-Hillard International Communications, Social Technologies, and Outsell. 

One of the aspects of the study that I found interesting involved a language analysis.  Words and phrases that described librarians or the work of librarians was introduced to focus groups to gauge their reaction.  Did they like the phrase or not?  For example, the phrase 'special library" was considered bland, and not as appreciated as the phrases "culture of continous learning" or "knowledge sharing."  Likewise, the often used phrase "manage and disseminate" was unpopular while the phrase "value-added intelligence" was well perceived.

The utility of the language analysis should not be overlooked, especially for those of us seeking positions and rewriting resumes.  For those of us in management who may need to describe the need for a new position in the current economic climate - or justify a position that already exists - these phrases can be turned to our advantage!

The Alignment Project is an excellent initiative by SLA to help its members in a professional and scientific study.  For more information I would recommend the Project wiki. (VS)

Protecting Jobs in the Good Old AAUP Way

In the September/October 2009 edition of the Bulletin of the American Association of University Professors, John Buschman blasts the American Library Association for failing to protect the intellectual freedom of librarians. the ALA should defend librarians just as the American Association of University Professors defends faculty members(though, presumably not those faculty members that are librarians?).

In his article, Who Defends Intellectual Freedom of Librarians?, Buschman reviews the 1940 Joint Statement of Principles on Academic Freedom and Tenure and the 1973 Statement on Faculty Status of College and University Librarians (jointly issued and/or endorsed by the ALA, AAUP and the Association of American Colleges and Universities), focusing on security of employment through the years. He notes that the ALA “policies are fundamentally sensible and grounded, they are strongly linked to the AAUP’s [support of faculty status], and they are on the books.” In essence, ALA and AAUP have paralleled each others’ policies on academic freedom and tenure for nearly seven decades.

The problem for us, he points out, is that ALA stops at the policy door while AAUP does not. AAUP backs its policies up with active investigations of serious violations of their standards, censures administrations that are violating the published protocols, and has had these standards and processes legally recognized through successful litigation (an early case which you can KeyCite or Shepardize for more citations is Browzin v. Catholic University of America, 527 F.2d 843 (1975). In contrast, ALA steadfastly refuses to take any action or make any comments on matters that affect academic freedom or job security. Instead they, as in ALA, classify actions that threaten academic freedom or job security as “local management issues.” This classification relieves ALA from taking a stand on behalf of its members.

As Buschman states: If the ALA is not willing to stand behind putting intellectual freedom into action in libraries, why should the practicing librarian do so?

The reason why I am reported back about this article is that I see a mighty parallel to our own institutional bodies and job security predicament. It seems so relevant since the ABA standards are under review and many of us have spent time digesting them. And to what end?  The ABA seems to set standards for librarians and libraries that are ignored or disregarded in practice. There does not seem to be an institutional enforcement mechanism in place at the ABA to ensure that employers live up to the standards – at least for librarians.

Our AALL dues support lobbying efforts for a variety of causes - though in the case of job security I do not see much benefit to be frank. The efforts are made toward more lofty goals such as free access to government information. But,what about us? Maybe what we should spend some money on is a hardnosed lawyer who can successfully take offending schools, universities, and private employers to court in the good old American way. AAUP gives us a template for action. Or maybe we should just lend  AAUP a hand and join their cause.(VS)

Constitution Day is Every Day!

Actually, it's September 17th, the day in 1787 the U.S. Constitution was signed.  For those of us in federal courthouses, it's also the time of year when we see school groups come to visit and learn about the judiciary and cases.  We all have these groups come to our workplaces throughout the year - maybe it's a high school class, or pre-law undergraduates, or the Take Our Kids to Work children.  There are some great packaged lesson plans available to assist with programming.  Check out the "Teaching Judicial History:Federal Trials and Great Debates in United States History" from the Federal Judicial Center.  They've put together terrific classroom materials on notable trials including the Amistad case, the trial of Susan B. Anthony, and the one we never tire of in Chicago, the Chicago Seven Conspiracy Trial.  For specific Constitution Day materials (maybe for that display case in the lobby?), the National Constitution Center has a wealth of materials.  The U.S. Courts web site provides a video with Justices Scalia and Breyer on the Constitution along with classroom materials and handouts. 

Start planning your Constitution Day party today! [gvd]

AALLtogo Debuts

This summer AALL announced its new online learning platform, AALLtogo. This platform was designed for AALL members to access online professional educational events and material.  Hopefully, they will market it to the special interest sections and chapters for distance education purposes in the future.  I actually thought that providing a mechanism to offer programming between annual meetings would be a very appealing perk to the AALL membership.

When you try to use AALLtogo, you must first register.  The registration process is a bit flukey because it does not recognize your current AALL log in credentials.  I needed to recreate the profile information, and then it asked me for my AALL member number.  My what?  Well, it let me register anyway.  I was anxious to see what was available.

Under the Education Content tab, the materials for the most recent three annual meetings are posted.  I quickly went to the 2009 materials.  I was happy to see that they were all represented, and that you were able to sort by date, speaker, session code, and competency.

Then I started looking for the freebies.  AALL said they would video record seven programs this year and make the video and handouts available for free.  Surprise!  Those programs marked with a green square are actually videotaped and are available for free, though there is an option to pay $12 if you want.  Make sure you select the “Video Synchronized” to PowerPoint selection for the free version. (VS)

Most of the program materials were created by AALL members and I do not know any librarians who would charge a colleague to view their videos.  It is deplorable that AALL charges us for the privilege for sharing our information with each other, and ridiculous to charge the people making presentations to obtain a copy of their program.  I also checked the 2007 and 2008 meetings.  Yes, they charge for those dated programs too. Hopefully, the Executive Board will revisit this policy in 2010 and beyond.

For your convenience, the 2009 free programs are:

• Beyond Copyright? How License Agreements and Digital Rights Management Pose Challenges to Fair Use and the Provision of Electronic or Media Services

• Legal Research Questions on the Bar Exam: Preparing Our Students

• Latest Trends in Library Automation: Building Creative and Inspiring Discovery Platforms

• Hot Topic: The New Economic Reality: Opportunity or Catastrophe?

• Advocating for Authentication of and Permanent Public Access to Electronic Government Legal Information

• Public Access to Law in the YaOogle Age

• Law Librarian: The New Private Investigator

This is a great start to what I hope to be part of law librarians' contributions to the Open Access Movement.

Harvard Law School Library Re-engineered

Under John Palfrey's leadership, the Harvard Law School Library has been reorganized and has implemented Google's human resources policy for engineers that allows engineers library staffers to spend 20 percent of their time to pursue professional interests outside their core work responsibilities. "This organizational feature was adopted in response to overwhelming staff interest in cross-divisional training and communication," writes Palfrey. Looking forward to a lot of Google HLS Library beta releases. Seriously, work comes first and usually it takes no less than eight hours a day, five or more days a week to do it right in a timely manner. Professional development within and outside one's current career path should be encouraged by law library employers but ultimately it is up to the individual to do on his or her own time.

Cross-training is important and have been a fairly common practice in law libraries since at least the early 1990s when "cross-training" reached buzz word status in library management literature. It has its origins in late 1970s-1980s collective bargaining negotiations in the auto and basic steel industries. Management sought to broaden job classifications and weaken work rules to improve rank-and-file productivity in an effort to reduce unit labor costs in the face of stiff competition from Japanese auto makers and South Korean steel mills.

 "Communication"? Well, this 80/20 policy is a wee bit naive and, unfortunately, demonstrates a certain lack of administration experience in law library management. The 80/20 policy probably won't work well over the long haul unless HLS also increases law library staffing by 20 percent, assuming that the HLS Library isn't over-staffed right now.

The below diagram, click to enlarge, illustrates the reorganized HLS Library. It looks like something an LIS prof or management consultant would use in a PowerPoint presentation on library administration. Yes, the HLS Library hired a consultant to help out with all this. Details on Et. Seq. [JH]

What did you think about AALL 2009?

I am always supportive of our national organization.  In the last 14 years, I have been a speaker on at least one program for 10 of those years.  I am telling you this to demonstrate that I have been an involved supporter of AALL my entire career.  However, year by year I become a lesser fan of AALL and it upsets me.  I am upset because I feel that the conference lost its focus, its edge, and the people who run it seem to forget that we are the members that make it all possible to begin with.

The people we hire to run our program are not keeping pace with modern conferencing trends.  For example, the announcement for the JISC E-learning Conference from conference organizer Sarah Knight includes language like this: 

"Delegates can interact in real-time sessions, watch presenters on video, meet other delegates in the virtual coffee shop, and comment on the conference using Twitter."

At the AALL annual convention that concluded in DC earlier this week, members had trouble getting a phone signal in some hallways.  Nor did our conference organizers think it important to include wireless internet access for programs scheduled in the conference hotel as opposed to the conference center.  A plea to stream educational program with volunteers from the Computing Services Special Interest Section to include members unable to attend this year was met with resistence.  "Officials" feared that it would cut into their revenue stream.  For other information centered conferences, this is a standard servicee (See CALI for example which do a fantastic job of getting their programs out to their members at no additional charge.) 

Even nontechnical issues seemed too difficult for convention planners to implement.  I watched with dismay when members of the Social Responsibility Special Interest Section had to make their own sign for the CONELL Marketplace with a piece of paper and marker because HQ did not bother to inventory the signs for the SIS's when they packed them up (even thought the SIS foots the bill for these signs).  Their idea of help was to provide SR SIS members with a marker to make the sign. 

I showed up at an educational program in the conference center to find a broken projector and no table clothes on the plain wooden tables.  These are just a few examples of what was not right in DC.  I heard many, many people express their dismay at the unprofessional touch felt throughout the events.

I don't know how much longer I can justify attending our annual conference when I am served so much better by other organizations who care about my profession and my money.  Groups like SLA seem to "get it."  I hope the executive board this year can change things around.  I know a committee was formed to make changes, but I do not see them communicating yet with the membership at large.  Unfortunately, I have to read this tactic as business as usual.  

Catehrine Lehman is our President.  Her e-mail address is clemann@courts.state.ak.us. Kate Hagan is the Executive Director.  Her e-mail address is khagan@aall.org   If you care, lobby hard. (vs)

Critical Issues

The Educause 2009 survey of critical IT issues in higher education was released on the Educause Review web site. Topping the list among the top ten issues was IT Funding.  Let's face it, funding is the number one issue on everybody's critical list. The full list is as follows:

1. Funding IT

2. Administrative/ERP Information Systems

3. Security

4. Infrastructure/Cyberinfrastructure

5. Teaching and Learning with Technology

6. Identity/Access Management

7. Governance, Organization, and Leadership

8. Disaster Recovery / Business Continuity

9. Agility, Adaptability, and Responsiveness

10. Learning Management Systems

Number 5 concerns me. In the notes to the top ten list, they explain that "the role of the CIO and other IT leaders is expanding to encompass many teaching and learning domains."  In fact, this concern jumped from number 9 last year to number 5 this year. Teaching and learning with technology has been a significant part of many librarian's jobs. Historically, librarians were the first professionals to embrace new forms of technology and show others how to use it effectively in order to learn.  In our case, to find, research, and learn about the law. 

I reviewed the AALL core competencies to see how this ideal is represented by our national standards. I am somewhat disappointed to see that the standards for technology and for teaching are not joined in any meaningful way.  Standard 4 is about Information Technology.  We use terms like "practical use of" and "policy formation."  Standard 6 centers on teaching.  Here we come closer to the role CIOs hope to adopt (teaching and learning with technology), but we are still shy about identifying technology as a siginicant teaching vehicle for research and information literacy in the legal profession. Nor do we take responsiblity for embracing our role in this process. The subpoints in standard 6 revert back to "training" and "retrieval of information" instead of incorporating the elements of standard 4 into standard 6. 

This is a problem.

Personally, I have trouble of thinking as our IT folks as educators.  I do not mean to sterotype, but these professionals are not known for their people skills, or their end user savvy.  Their ability to evaluate methods to teach effectively is hampered by the fact that they do not teach classes at their institution.  They have other super power skills for which I am eternally grateful.

This role may not be the sole province of any particular professional, but I see it as a role filled more appropriately by an educational technologist, librarian, or any other educator that can envision changing their students' lives by teaching their "thing" with technology.  Not by a technologist who uses technology to teach.  There is a subtle difference.

Nevertheless, when it comes time to change our core competencies, I hope we can connect a line between teaching and technology.  We need to embrace the leadership role that these two important facets of our profession place on us. We should not relenquish this role or our leadership in this are to those who do not teach. (vs)

Before You Go – Some Tips for AALL

Whether you’re a first time attendee or a seasoned veteran of AALL Annual Meetings, the schedule of educational programs, committee meetings and social events can be overwhelming. Thankfully, our fellow law librarian colleagues have wealth of advice to offer for getting the most out of your conference experience. Here’s a roundup of some of the best:

• 10 tips for networking at CALI, AALL and beyond from Jason Eiseman
• Conference Tips from the Unofficial AALL 2009 Conference Wiki
• Member to Member: What advice do you have for first-time AALL Conference attendees? (pdf) From June 2008 issue of AALL Spectrum
• Why Didn’t Someone Tell Me This? What to Expect at the Annual Meeting & Conference from the CONELL Committee
• Making the Best Use of the Exhibit Hall from CRIV

Any other good tips to pass along? Post them in the comments below!
[EF]