SWALL Bulletin Summer 2001

CoALL hosted the Annual CoALL Institute on February 24 at the University of Denver Law School from 8:30 to 12:00 noon. The keynote speaker was Justice Gregory Hobbs of the Colorado Supreme Court. Justice Hobbs was CoALL's VIP guest at last summer's AALL convention and also heads the Supreme Court Library Review Committee. His biography is located at the Colorado Supreme Court website at: http://www.courts.state.co.us/supct/gjh.htm.

His keynote address gave us the perspective of a patron (in both senses of the word) who has been recently educated on modern special library issues. He called law librarianship "our profession" -- not just "your profession" -- because he feels lawyers, judges, and law librarians all work together to find and disseminate information. He also feels that researching a legal topic is a "catch and release" mission -- the research is transformed into cases and opinions that are "released" back into the vast body of legal knowledge for others to use again in the future. This research, or scholarship, is the backbone of the cases and opinions that come out of our legal system. In addition to these insights, Judge Hobbs also shared some of his poetry with us.

The second session of the morning updated attendees on resource sharing opportunities in Colorado. Brenda Bailey from the Colorado State Library presented an overview of three programs of interest to CoALL members. First was an interesting and eye-opening demonstration of the new Colorado Virtual Library, which allows web-based, single search access to over 100 Colorado library catalogs, databases of selected websites, and digitized objects such as photographs, manuscripts, etc. Next was an introduction to and explanation of SWIFT (StateWide ILL Fast Track). This database, which will go "live" in April 2001, will provide an intra-Colorado library loan system to any Colorado library with a standard web browser and workstation. Access to this service will be free to all Colorado libraries. Finally, the Colorado State Library also provides group licensing of online databases and free training on how to use these resources.

In the final session of the morning, colleagues who have left "law library land" and gone on to other venues recapped their new experiences, and how their skills as law librarians have helped them. The panel members were Marcy Dunning, President of Access/Information; Wanda McDavid, Director of Collections at netLibrary; and Steve Rosas, Research Specialist at Arthur Anderson, LLP. All three had interesting experiences to share and tips to offer, but they unanimously chose communication skills as the most important skill set that they developed and transferred to other work and personal settings.