Thursday, May 25, 2006
AALL Annual Meeting July 8 - 12, 2006
We're just about six weeks away from our annual meeting and the celebration of AALL's centennial. All of us at 53 W. Jackson are bustling in preparation and in anticipation of seeing you all again. The law librarian community is a vibrant one and always a joy to behold!
If you haven't made your hotel reservation, I encourage you to do so immediately as space is rapidly filling. You can find everything you need to know on the annual meeting page on AALLNET. However, our staff is always here to help so please don't hesitate to call; we always enjoy hearing from you.
Don't Miss the Diversity Symposium!
One of the reliable highlights of the annual meeting is always the Diversity Symposium which this year will take place on Saturday, July 8th from 2:00 to 5:00 p.m. with a reception to follow. This year's topic is Pioneering Minority Law Librarians: Echoes of the Past, Directions for the Future.
The symposium will celebrate pioneers, either in person or in spirit, in law librarianship. Through presentations and discussions by select prominent minority law librarians the symposium will honor the successes and contributions made by minority leaders in law librarianship while exploring the issues and challenges of increasing and maintaining diversity in the profession. Full information can be found here.
Washington Office Adds a New Advocacy Communications Assistant
I am very pleased to announce that the AALL Washington Office recently hired Bryan Stevens as our new Advocacy Communications Assistant to work with our Washington Affairs Representative Bob Oakley and our Associate Washington Affairs Representative, Mary Alice Baish. Bryan will be attending the annual meeting, so we'll have a chance to personally welcome him to the fold.
AALL Education Manager Update
We are in the final interview stage to hire a new AALL Education Manager. I hope to be able to make an announcement in the next couple of weeks.
AALL Seeking Next AALL Spectrum Editorial Director
AALL Spectrum Editorial Director Paul Healey recently notified the Law Library Journal and AALL Spectrum Editorial Board Advisory Committee that he will step down from his position when his term is up in July 2007. To prepare for the transition, AALL has begun the search for Spectrum's next editorial director, a volunteer position that comes with an honorarium.
Working in conjunction with Spectrum's managing editor, the editorial director is responsible for determining the editorial content for each issue of the monthly magazine, including generating story ideas, soliciting potential authors, and collaborating with authors to develop their articles. The editorial director also serves as an ex-officio member of the Law Library Journal and AALL Spectrum Editorial Board and Advisory Committee to help guide the magazine's long-term editorial vision and direction.
The qualified candidate has a bachelor's degree and MLS and/or JD; demonstrated ability as a writer and/or editor; excellent communication and negotiation skills; substantial experience in the law library profession; and is a member of AALL with record of involvement and active participation.
This is a three-year appointment with honorarium that may be renewable. For a complete description of this volunteer opportunity and a fact sheet about AALL Spectrum, please visit the job description on AALLNET.
Applications will be accepted until June 1, and interviews will be conducted this fall. To help with the transition, the chosen candidate will begin in early 2007, overlapping with Healey until July.
To apply, please send your cover letter and resume to me, Susan E. Fox, American Association of Law Libraries, 53 W. Jackson Boulevard, Suite 940, Chicago, IL 60604. If you have any questions, please contact me at 312/939-4764, ext. 11, or by e-mail.
AALL Launches a Speakers Directory
Participants at last September's Education Summit suggested the creation of a resource to help members locate speakers for continuing education events outside the AALL Annual Meeting. Led by Lyonette Louis-Jacques, an implementation task force and AALL Web Administrator Chris Siwa developed the database that now serves as the AALL Speakers Directory.
Education Summit participants provided extensive feedback and suggestions to make the directory an excellent resource for AALL members. The directory is Member-owned and Member-populated, but view-only access is available to non-members as a public service to allied organizations.
Public availability also helps promote member speakers to bar associations and other groups seeking law librarian speakers.
Thoroughly tested by Education Summit participants, the Speakers Directory contains 33 entries as of today. An FAQ about the directory is also available on AALLNET.
Save the Date! Law Firm Library Management Workshop
A one day workshop sponsored by AALL and BNA will take place on Thursday, October 19th at the Washington Marriott, Washington, D.C. Focused on Law Firm Library Management, the workshop will feature speakers such as Carolyn Ahearn, Director of Library services at Wiley, Rein & Fielding; Marilyn Bromley, Library Director at BNA; and Gitelle Seer, Director of Library and Research Services at Dewey Ballantine.
Stay tuned for more information.
2006 FCIL Schaffer Grant for Foreign Librarians
The Foreign, Comparative and International Law (FCIL) Special Interest Section announced recently that Hind Al-Helaly is the recipient of the 2006 FCIL Schaffer Grant for Foreign Librarians.
Ms. Al-Helaly has been the Law Library Cataloger and Technical Services Specialist at the Law Library of the Department of Law, American University in Cairo since February 2005. Before that she worked as a librarian at the Al-Ahram newspaper Information Center and the Social Research Center at the American University in Cairo. She has a B.A. in Library Science from the Cairo University, a pre-Master Degree from the Information Technology Section of the Cairo University, and is working on her Masters in Library Science at Cairo University where her thesis is on "The Automated Cataloging System in American University in Cairo Libraries." Ms. Al-Helaly brings with her a unique perspective on the tension between the library's goal of providing access to information with regional traditions of withholding information as a means of holding on to power.
Members in the News
American Libraries Magazine (April 2006) recently announced that the Federal Library and Information Center Committee (FLICC) presented its 2005 Federal Librarian of the Year Award to Leslie Campbell, Law Library Program Administrator at the National Judiciary Library program for the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts , at a March 23 ceremony at the Library of Congress.
In announcing the award, the FLICC said, "her energy and creativity raised awareness of the quality services provided by court librarians across the nation. She supported more than 15,000 judiciary legal researchers, managed the implementation of two national legal research contracts and protected judges' personal information from illegal use. She also created a site for the judiciary's Intranet that offers links to all online resources managed by the office and links to state, federal and general reference sites for 28,000 judiciary employees."
Job well done, Leslie!
Also, Pamela Bluh, Associate Director for Technical Services &Administration at the Thurgood Marshall Law Library, University of Maryland at Baltimore, was elected Vice President/President-Elect of the Association for Library Collections & Technical Services (ALCTS) of ALA.
Congratulations, Pamela!
Sincerely,
Susan E. Fox, CAE
Executive Director