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The origin of the Southeastern Chapter was established in 1937 during a meeting of ten North Carolina law librarians who agreed to meet several times a year to overcome what they perceived was professional isolation. In 1938, the name of the group was changed to the Carolina Law Library Association reflecting the inclusion of law librarians from South Carolina. AALL created procedures for the establishment of chapters in 1939 and the Carolinas group petitioned to become an AALL Chapter. After another small name change to reflect its association with AALL, the Carolinas Chapter was born as AALL's first chapter. After World War II, law schools began to grow with the admission of returning veterans. This also engendered a growth in the number and size of law libraries. Reflecting a need to network, in 1953, a group of law librarians throughout the southeast met in conjunction with the newly organized South Eastern Conference of Law Teachers. The law librarians again petitioned AALL to recognize the larger group as an AALL chapter and the Carolinas Chapter became the Southeastern Chapter in 1954. SEAALL has grown from a group of ten North Carolina law librarians who worked within 35 miles of each other to a membership of more than 500 law librarians from eleven southeastern states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico, a geographical area encompassing thousands of miles. During the years, the membership has also diversified in terms of the types of employment held by librarians. The original group of ten in 1937 included nine academic law librarians and one state court librarian. Today's membership reflects expansion of law librarians into corporations, law firms, county law libraries, the federal courts, state and federal agencies and as independent contractors and consultants. A continuing mission for SEAALL has always been to provide
educational opportunities for its members. The earliest meetings of
the chapter featured programs on the organization of a law library,
bindery routines and materials selection. In the early seventies, the
first SEAALL institutes were held on classification and cataloging and
law library administration. Most recently, the annual meeting in Tallahassee
featured a one-day institute and seventeen educational programs. SEAALL
and SWALL held what may have been the first joint meeting of AALL Chapters
in New Orleans in 1976. And, of course, SEAALL held what may be one
of the most unusual of chapter meetings, on a cruise between Miami and
the Bahamas in 1989. Author's Note: This article borrows extensively from my section on SEAALL in Gasaway and Chiorazzi, ed. Law Librarianship: Historical Perspectives, Rothman, 1996. An extensive history of the Carolinas Chapter can be found in the article, "History of the Carolina-Southeastern Chapter, 1937-1955," 49 Law Library Journal 180 (1955) by Sarah Leverette and Lucille Elliott. This occasional series of articles will explore various other aspects of SEAALL history. FROM: Hazel Johnson, "From the SEAALL Attic," 22:4 Southeastern Law Librarian 6 (Summer/Fall 1997). Hazel Johnson is a Law Library Services Consultant |
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