News from SWALL 2005: How Beneficial, How Fun

Sue Johnson

Carrington, Coleman, Sloman & Blumenthal, L.L.P.

SWALL 2005 Grant Recipient

It had been several years since I had attended a SWALL meeting, I’m ashamed to say, so I was especially grateful for the SWAAL grant which allowed me to attend the conference in Little Rock. I had forgotten how beneficial, and how much fun, SWALL is!

Of course, the highlights were the opening dinner and tour of the Clinton Library, and the reception at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock’s spectacular law library, but the speakers were all excellent and I came away with many useful bits of knowledge. Especially enjoyable was the luncheon speech by the Honorable Lavenski R. Smith, Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit; I really understood what an appeals judge does on a daily basis. I also enjoyed hearing Dr. Herman Totten, who was the VIP attendee from DALL at the AALL annual meeting in Pittsburgh, and is now Commissioner, U.S. National Commission on Library and Information Sciences. He emphasized that information is not a luxury but a necessity, and how important it is to have access to public information and to share it. In fact, NCLIS promotes leadership, collaboration, communication, innovation and education, goals that should be the aim of all librarians. After all, information is power!

Other speakers stressed marketing the librarian’s services, which are to understand, create and deliver value by providing the most cost effective and efficient use of resources, and adapting to change in the "Information Age." Foxie Mason was very persuasive in her explanation of the change process, from knowledge through persuasion, decision, implementation and confirmation. She cited several useful publications and was so interesting that she inspired us all to rush out and obtain some of the resources she mentioned.

Perhaps one of the biggest benefits of attending SWALL, since it is a smaller meeting than the annual AALL conference, is networking with other librarians and getting to know them personally. I appreciate this special opportunity.