SR-SIS Newsletter, vol. 10, no. 2 (April 2000)

In This Issue:

Listening to Uganda, by Bruce Kleinschmidt
From the Chair
Publish with AALL!
Gay and Lesbian Standing Committee Update
Editor's Corner
Meet the Candidates
Help Wanted

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Listening to Uganda
by Bruce Kleinschmidt

On most Saturdays I get an email message from my friend Theo-Jan Mul. Theo manages a dairy farm 18 km. to the north of Kampala, the capital of Uganda. He has over 100 head of cattle plus 400 hectares of land on which to grow their grain. Theo doesn't have a telephone on the farm but when he goes to town for supplies, and a little social life (18 km. is farther than you'd think on a dirt road) he stops by a cyber café and sends his messages to me. And then I usually share them with my sons.

Theo's message this week was that his cows had maggots (from being infested by cattle owned by squatters) which meant that the milk had to be discarded. He got rabies, another man got malaria and he's building two more houses for the extra armed guards his boss told him to hire. Two fellows with AK 47's patrol the place now. It takes over two years to have a squatter legally removed, once they've built a hut, so the owner doesn't want any new guests or any fewer cows. And you think your job is crazy?

For social life, Theo goes to town and gets to watch children with AIDS trying to sell themselves outside of various bars. He figures 25% of the children in Uganda have AIDS. And there are a large number of AIDS orphans. The bars seem to have an almost "wild west" flavor to them, what with pool tables and card tables being the biggest draw, along with some air conditioning. Theo normally buys a few beers and plays some pool before going back up the dusty Houma Road to the village and farm that are his turf. Needless to say, his weekly outing isn't much fun.

Obviously, this is one man's life in Africa. But my kids are fascinated by Theo's reports because they know very little about life in the underdeveloped world. My 14 year old got into a dispute with a teacher of his who had no concept of squatters. Anyway, I sent Chris a message or two from Theo to give to the teacher. It was a curious episode because it showed me that my son had been listening and digesting these stories. I was equally glad that he was able to constructively show his teacher that her frame of reference was limited. So from Theo, to me, to my son, to his teacher, and by extension to her other students, well life in Uganda became more real.

It isn't a profound story. Meryl Streep doesn't have a part. But as a tale of suffering and struggling for existence ii iS timeless. But what makes the story really powerful is the value of listening, whether in Uganda or where ever you are.

Bruce Kleinschmidt
1-19-2000

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From the Chair

Greetings to all of the wonderful members of Social Responsibilities. We have quite a summer ahead of us with 3 programs coming up at the convention. The topics are: Hate Crimes, Law Librarian Salaries, and Pro Bono. I hope that you will all be able to come and support these programs with your attendance. Let's make our presence known in Philadelphia!

The summer service program to the local schools is in the works. If you have any ideas or thoughts that you would like to share with me, please let me know. I am planning on arranging a two-day program covering 2-3 hours per day of volunteer time. In this way, people that are booked with functions on one particular day will have options. Hopefully more people will have a chance to volunteer. In lieu of those that can't volunteer time, convention attendees can also donate children's books, new or used (in good condition). Book drops will be placed in different areas of the Convention Center for everyone's convenience. We can distribute them to the schools.

The business meetings for both the SIS and the Standing Committee on Lesbian and Gay Issues and Prison Librarians are scheduled for Sunday late afternoon. In recent years, we have had them towards the end of the convention and I am hoping that more people will attend early on before convention "burn out" sets in. I am aware of the conflicts this may involve. However, there are always conflicts!

We are also looking for volunteers to be mentors. We want to encourage people to join our SIS. I will be making an appearance at CONELL to talk about what our SIS has to offer. Just getting our name out there is crucial to our existence.

I know in my last letter to the SIS, I made a strong statement about adding more members to our SIS. Some people commented that numbers aren't as important as the quality of work we do. I am quite aware of that. I was also taught to believe that strength lies in numbers. I was once told that I should show up at the Gay & Lesbian March in New York City just to show the world how many of us there are. I believe that there is some truth in that. It is also recently been pointed out to me that we are running low on members to run as officers in this SIS. In a few years, we will have all served. I believe there are more people in AALL that would be willing to be part of our SIS. Proper marketing of the things we do might bring more interest than we are aware of. I don't totally believe that we are here to antagonize AALL about the things we think they should be doing, but to teach them. That's what makes our SIS so unique. I hope that this clarifies the issues at hand in our organization somewhat. If you don't agree, or have comments on this, please post it on the SIS listserv and let's discuss it among the members. The listserv is: SR-SIS@aall.wuacc.edu. Please feel free to use it any time!

Best regards,
John Davey, Chair

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Publish with AALL!

? Do you have an idea for a new electronic or print publication of interest to law librarians?

? Would you like to grow professionally and personally by creating a new publication that would be of use to your colleagues?

Then the AALL Publications Committee would like to hear from you! The AALL Publications Committee encourages people to publish with AALL, and reviews proposals for new AALL publications.

From the AALL Publications Committee website at: http://aallnet.org/committee/publications/, you can contact members of the Publications Committee, or download a proposal form.

AALL publishes or sponsors a wide variety of materials of interest to law librarians, in print, electronic, and micro-formats. They include:

• Periodicals, such as AALL Spectrum and Law Library Journal;
• Indexes, such as Index to Foreign Legal Periodicals;
• Professional Development Materials;
• Bibliographies and Research Guides;
• Management and Public Relations Resources;
• Occasional Papers on Various Topics;
• Educational Program Materials;
• Results of Research;
• Instructional and Training Resources.

AALL is eager to publish new materials. If you have an idea for a new publication, we look forward to hearing from you!

Rob Richards
Chair
AALL Publications Committee
rrichard@stripe.colorado.edu

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Gay and Lesbian Standing Committee Update

Hello folks,

I just wanted to update you on a couple of items regarding our annual meeting in July.

First, I hope you will all be able to attend the program we scheduled on HATE CRIMES, set for Wednesday, July 19th 3:15. Attorneys from LAMBDA and from the ACLU will be presenting the program.

Secondly, please mark your calendars for our annual reception. We will be having our reception on Tuesday evening, July 18th at the William Way Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community Center. The William Way Center is located a short walk from the convention center in Philly.

Thanks and more information to follow...

Todd Bennett
G/L Standing Committee Chair
(415) 369-7063
tbennett@thelenreid.com

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Editor's Corner

My apologies for getting this issue to you so late in the year. As always, work just continues to expand. With the mailing of the next issue, which should arrive in June, I will have completed my time as newsletter editor for SRSIS. In many ways the past three years have flown by. I had grand aspirations for the newsletter which never quite developed. It is my hope that the next editor is able to take the newsletter to new heights.

Unlike Bruce, who is a writer, I have had to depend on the kindness of others to fill these pages. And my thanks to all of you who have taken the time to write columns or articles over these past three years.

Over the years we have been concerned about the size of our SIS, whether there is a need to continue, whether we should divide within the SIS. When I first learned we were having an uncontested election, I was a bit concerned about the vigor of our SIS. But when I learned who the candidates were, I understood why the election was uncontested. No one could ask for a better slate than Carol and Mark. Aside from being wonderful and caring people who exemplify what this SIS is about, they are true leaders.

I am very excited for this new year. Ellen Platt, who takes over the helm in July, is a colleague of mine at Santa Clara. I have much respect for her vision and energy. So an executive board with Ellen, Carol, Mark, and our current fearless leader, John Davey, should prove to be a very effective body to move the SIS forward into the new century.

I also want to thank Rebecca Alexander for serving as webmaster for the SIS. Web presence is important, and I appreciate the hard work she does to keep the pages updated.

Speaking of computers, you can sign up for our SIS listserv on our web page... and it it best to subscribe in that fashion. I was posting to on old listserv (no wonder people weren't sending me articles!!). Recently I received this message...

pamjadi@scu.edu: You are not subscribed to srsis@law.wuacc.edu. Your message is returned to you unprocessed. If you want to subscribe, send mail to listproc@law.wuacc.edu with the following request:

subscribe SR-SIS Your Name

PLEASE NOTE - THE ABOVE
INFORMATION IS INCORRECT

For mailing to the list, the correct listserv address is:

sr-sis@aall.wuacc.edu

In other arenas, keep your eyes posted for the Law Library Journal article by Leslie Campbell, our current SIS secretary/treasurer that will recap a program that the SIS sponsored in Baltimore about the history of Social Responsibilities in our SIS, ALA and the ABA. Frank Houdek was listening to the tape from that Baltimore program and thought the message should be given a wider audience, since it was such a great program!

prano

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Meet the Candidates

FOR VICE-CHAIR/CHAIR-ELECT	FOR SECRETARY/TREASURER
CAROL BILLINGS	MARK MACKLER
DIRECTOR OF THE LAW LIBRARY LAW LIBRARY OF LOUISIANA SINCE 1981	LIBRARIAN SONNENSCHEIN NATH & ROSENTHAL SAN FRANCISCO
B.A. Gettysburg College MA in Library Science, Northern Illinois University	B.A. Boston University M.Ed. Westfield State College (Mass.) MLIS University of California, Berkeley
Member of AALL in late 1970's Served as President, 94/95 Executive Board 89/92 Member of CSP/SR-SIS since its start Served as SR-SIS/Executive Bd. liaison Chair of State, Court, and County SIS President of SEALL President of NOALL	Member of AALL since 1986 Member of NOCALL since 1986 Served on Executive Board Member of CSP/SR-SIS since 1986 1989 PLL SIS Co-Chair of Education Committee

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Help Wanted

Social Responsibilities SIS wants you!!!

We are looking for a new newsletter editor to start with the next volume in the Fall. The newsletter is published 3 times a year. The time commitment is usually less then 5 hours for each issue.

Contact Ellen Platt, if you are interested, eplatt@scu.edu or (408) 554-5139.