One Hundred Years of AALL History
1966–1975
Prepared by Frank G. Houdek
Spring 2006
1966 | 1967 | 1968 | 1969 | 1970 | 1971 | 1972 | 1973 | 1974 | 1975
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1966
June 26–July 2 . . . An Institute on Computer Technology is conducted at the University of California at Davis Law School under the joint sponsorship of AALL, the University of California, and the Council on Library Resources (which provides a $10,000 grant to underwrite expenses). Mort Schwartz of UC Davis is the director of the institute, which is so popular that ten additional students are accepted beyond the original limit of twenty-five. According to Schwartz, the focus is on “computer science, not information and data retrieval. . . . The idea was that by learning something about computer science, these people who are executives would be able to evaluate properly how computers might fit into the scheme of things at their particular libraries” (59 LLJ 405).
July 4 . . . At the 59th Annual Meeting in Los Angeles, the final report of the Committee on Certification, chaired by Mary Oliver of the University of North Carolina, is adopted, thereby establishing a detailed program for the certification of law librarians. The program includes the creation of a Certification Board and establishes the standards it must follow in evaluating the qualifications of candidates for certification. The report, as adopted, defines certification as “a formal recognition that a person has attained a standard of competence in law librarianship recognized by the American Association of Law Libraries and that a person so certified shall be known as a Certified Law Librarian” (59 LLJ 387). On July 7, the Board appoints the following to AALL's first Certification Board: Mary Oliver, chair; and Richard Sullivan, Charlotte Dunnebacke, Stanley Pearce, and Mary K. Sanders, members.
July 5 . . . President Arthur A. Charpentier presents Special Citations for Distinguished Service to AALL to Sidney Hill, Elizabeth Finley, and Marian Gallagher at the Awards Luncheon of the 59th Annual Meeting in Los Angeles. This is only the second time that the Executive Board has chosen to authorize such awards, the first being in 1959 when Helen Newman, William Roalfe, and Miles O. Price were similarly honored.
July 7 . . . Acting upon a recommendation of the Scholarships Committee chaired by Viola Bird, the Executive Board adopts a program of scholarships for professional education in librarianship. Two types of scholarships will be awarded annually: up to $1500 for a law graduate attending an accredited library school and up to $150 with $25 for incidentals for an AALL member taking a special course in law librarianship for credit at an accredited library school. The program is to be financed by three different existing funds: the Helen C. Newman Memorial Fund, the West-Sidney B. Hill Scholarship Fund, and the AALL Scholarship Fund.
September . . . President Kate Wallach, Louisiana State University Law Library, reports that “life member A. Mercer Daniel [of Howard Law School] has sent to headquarters a book of photographs of the AALL annual meetings from 1935–1956. . . . In his letter announcing this most welcome gift, he refers to our ‘permanent home’ without which we could not take care of ‘this part of our heritage,’ and would not have received it” (President's Newsletter, Sept. 1966, at 2). Daniel's photographs will later be housed in the AALL Archives at the University of Illinois.
1967
June 26 . . . The first Joseph L. Andrews Bibliographical Award is presented to Anthony P. Grech of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York for a diverse series of bibliographies published during the preceding year, including The Dominican Crisis (Oceana) and The Southeast Asia Crisis (Oceana) . The award is established in honor of Joseph L. Andrews, longtime reference librarian at the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, who died in 1965.
June 29 . . . Acting on the motion of Jack Ellenberger for the Statistics Committee, members approve the “launch [of] a statistical survey, the cost of which is not to exceed $20,000, and which part or all of the cost is to be realized by making the product of the survey available at a cost of $50.00 payable in no more than two installments” (60 LLJ 359). Later in the year, President William Murphy will write: “The biggest decision taken by the membership [in Colorado] was to authorize a full-scale statistical survey of all law libraries and law librarians, the first action of this nature to be taken by any national library association in the country” (President's Newsletter, Sept. 1967, at 2).
June 29 . . . Members approve a recommendation of the Constitution and By-laws Committee, chaired by Erwin Surrency, to amend the bylaws to raise the annual dues to $20 for active members, effective with the membership year beginning June 1, 1968. The dues were last increased in 1961.
June 29 . . . Upon assuming the chair from Kate Wallach at the closing business session of the 50th Annual Meeting, William D. Murphy, librarian of Kirkland, Ellis, Hodson, Chaffetz & Masters in Chicago and former AALL treasurer (1959–64), becomes the second law firm librarian to serve as AALL president. Included among his many other contributions to the profession, the man known to many as “Mr. AALL” also cochaired the AALL Headquarters Fund Drive (1964–68), served as program chair of the 1972 Annual Meeting and local arrangements chair of the 1955 and 1987 Annual Meetings, and stepped in as acting executive director of AALL in 1988–89. He received the Marian Gould Gallagher Distinguished Service Award in 1987.
Also during the year, AALL begins its merit certification program, and Roger F. Jacobs of the University of Detroit is the first law librarian to be approved for certification. Altogether, thirteen law librarians are approved during the year.
1968
February . . . A sign of the times . . . “Viet Nam: Current Legal Bibliography” by Albert P. Blaustein, law librarian, Rutgers-Camden School of Law, appears in the Law Library Journal. According to the author, the bibliography “is a by-product of a U.S. Government assignment during the summer of 1997, surveying the legal resources of South Viet Nam” (61 LLJ 20).
April 5–6 . . . After an organizational meeting held the preceding October in Berkeley, California, a proposed Western Pacific chapter of AALL holds its first regular meeting at Willamette University, in Salem, Oregon. AALL President William Murphy is the keynote speaker, and Mortimer Schwartz of U.C. Davis is elected as the first president of the group. The proposed chapter covers Alaska, northern California, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Utah, and Washington.
July 1 . . . After going ten years without establishing a new chapter, members approve a motion granting the petition of the Western-Pacific group, submitted by ninety law librarians, to become AALL's eleventh chapter.
July 3 . . . In a sign not just of the times but also of the future, Julius Marke of New York University moderates a panel at the 61st Annual Meeting in Philadelphia with the provocative title, “Can Copyright Law Respond to the New Technology?” Prescient as always, Marke asks: “How will we protect the creator and owner of intellectual property and still preserve the public's right of access to information and knowledge by means of this new technology?” (61 LLJ 387)
1969
February . . . According to the report of the Membership Committee, AALL has now grown to 1373 members, “an increase of over 100 the past year” (62 LLJ 260).
July 2 . . . Past President William D. Murphy presents a special citation to Agnes and Harvey T. Reid, former Chairman of the Board of the West Publishing Company, “in recognition of their outstanding support and encouragement of law librarianship” (62 LLJ 359). In the preceding four years, the Reids, together with West, have contributed $75,000 to AALL, particularly in support of the scholarship program.
Fall . . . Myrtle H. Diemer resigns as administrative secretary—the Association's only full-time employee—effective September 30. “Her successor is Miss Antonette Russo, formerly of the Burdette Smith Company, Chicago, a subsidiary of the West Publishing Company. Miss Russo brings excellent credentials to the job. . .” (President's Newsletter, Oct. 1969, at 1). An understatement, as “Babe” Russo will prove during the next twenty years as AALL's administrative secretary until her retirement in 1989. William D. Murphy will write of Russo: “To members of AALL for those twenty years, Headquarters and Babe were synonymous” (25 AALL Newsl. 366 (1994).
October . . . Included on the list of new members appearing in the President's Newsletter is Paul Fu of Ohio Northern University. Fu will go on to a long and successful career as the director of the Ohio State Law Library. He also will serve as AALL secretary for four years (1989–93) and as chair of the State, Court and County Law Libraries Special Interest Section (1977–78). The SIS will present him with its Bethany J. Ochal Award for Distinguished Service to the Profession in 2003.
1970
January . . . The first issue of the AALL Newsletter is published, replacing the President's Newsletter which, since its start in 1954, has been produced irregularly by sitting presidents. The new venture is designed to provide a more frequent and regular means of communication within the Association. “It is the desire of the Executive Board that the Newsletter be utilized in lieu of separate Association mailings whenever feasible” (1 AALL Newsl. 3). The first editor is Mario P. Goderich of the University of Miami Law School.
May . . . The first Statistical Survey of Law School Libraries is published in Law Library Journal. It is compiled by the Statistics Committee, chaired by Alfred J. Lewis of the University of California, Davis, and is based on a new subdivision of the annual questionnaire sent to law schools in the United States by the ABA's Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar. Since the ABA is committed to continuing to seek library information through its questionnaire, “for the first time, law librarians will have regular statistical data on at least one category of law library” (63 LLJ 267).
June 26 . . . Established by the Education Committee as a way of welcoming newer members into the Association, introducing them to AALL's leaders, and facilitating their acculturation into the group, the Conference of Newer Law Librarians (CONELL) meets for the first time on the campus of American University. Peyton Neal organizes and directs the highly successful conference which attracts more than a hundred registrants. CONELL is open to anyone with less than six years experience as a law librarian, but in 1975, logistical constraints will cause eligibility to be limited to those attending either their first or second Annual Meeting.
June 27–July 2 . . . The 63rd Annual Meeting, held in Washington, D.C., attracts a record 738 registrants. Nearly $4000 income is realized from the conference.
June 28 . . . The opening panel presented at the Annual Meeting is titled “Private Law Libraries in the 1970's” (subsequently printed at 63 LLJ 453–70). It features presentations on architecture and design, moving a private law library, administration and staff supervision, and “machine aids” (by the director of the IBM Corporate library).
June 28 . . . The Greater Philadelphia Law Library Association is unanimously approved as a chapter of AALL.
July 1 . . . The Ohio Regional Association of Law Libraries is unanimously approved as AALL's twelfth chapter. Although active since its organization at Ohio State University in 1949, the group did not seek chapter status until AALL's bylaws were amended to eliminate the requirement that more than 50% of a chapter's members had to belong to AALL.
1971
February . . . Morris L. Cohen uses his President's Page column in Law Library Journal to publish one of the most thought-provoking articles in the literature of law librarianship, “Towards a Philosophy of Law Librarianship.” Cohen prefaces his six principles by stating:
Lacking the wisdom for such brevity [as exhibited by Ranganathan in his five basic laws of librarianship], I would like to offer my more rambling thoughts on those principles which I consider fundamental to law librarianship—to call them a philosophy of law librarianship sounds much grander and more presumptuous than I intend. I should note that these assumptions are meant to apply to all law libraries, not just to large research libraries. Bear in mind, however, that they are still ideals or models of what law librarians should be and not yet, perhaps, accurate reflections of the present state of our profession (64 LLJ 1).
April 1 . . . According to the report of the Membership Committee, membership in the Association now totals 1464, representing an increase of 56 persons over 1969–70 (64 LLJ 410).
June 16 . . . At the final business session of the 64th Annual Meeting in Hollywood-by-the-Sea, Florida, the membership passes a resolution expressing AALL's endorsement of the Equal Rights Amendment to the United States Constitution.
December 13 . . . By letter, Roger Jacobs, law librarian at the University of Windsor and president of the Canadian Association of Law Libraries, informs the Executive Board that CALL has decided to disaffiliate with AALL in favor of becoming an independent, national association. Although CALL members voted overwhelmingly in favor of ending chapter status in a mail ballot conducted during October, Jacobs assures the Board that the action was “devoid of ill will toward [AALL]” and not because of any “disagreement with your Association, its aims and goals, or its officers or Executive Board.”
December 28 . . . At its midwinter meeting in Chicago, the Executive Board approves a reorganization of the Association's scholarship program created in 1966. It will now consist of four types of awards: library degree scholarship for law graduates, final year of law school for library school graduates, library degree scholarship for nonlaw college graduates with meaningful library experience, and special courses in law librarianship taken for credit. The Board had previously consolidated all scholarship endowments into a permanent scholarship trust fund in June 1970.
Also during the year, the second edition of AALL's Biographical Directory of Law Librarians in the United States and Canada is published for the Association by the West Publishing Company. The Committee on Directories, cochaired by Lorraine A. Kulpa and Margaret S. Andrews, oversees the project to completion.
1972
April 1 . . . For the first time, AALL's membership surpasses fifteen hundred. According to the annual report of the Membership Committee, the total membership is now 1530, “an increase of 66 members over the previous year” (65 LLJ 314).
July 3 . . . At the opening business session of the 65th Annual Meeting in Chicago, members approve a constitutional amendment to enlarge the Executive Board from four to six members. The change will take place with the election of Board members for 1973–74.
July 5 . . . The membership approves an amendment to the AALL Bylaws which adds a new article on anti-discrimination: “Membership in the association or in any of its chapters, or participation in any activity of the association or its chapters, shall not be denied to any individual, or abridged, on account of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin” (65 LLJ 373). Article III of the current Bylaws retains the same language with the addition of disability and sexual orientation.
July 6 . . . Though several private law librarians have served as AALL officers (including Elizabeth Finley as president and treasurer, Lotus Mitchell Mills as secretary and treasurer, and William Murphy as treasurer), Jack Ellenberger becomes the first to serve on the Executive Board when he begins his three-year term (1972–74) at the conclusion of the Annual Meeting in Chicago. He will go on to serve as president in 1976–77.
1973
April 1 . . . Membership in the Association continues to rise, for the first time surpassing the sixteen-hundred plateau. The Membership Committee reports that a net of one-hundred new members have been added from July 1, 1972 to April 1, 1973, for a total count of 1648 (66 LLJ 359).
July 4 . . . At the third business session of the 66th Annual Meeting in Seattle, the membership approves an amendment of the AALL Bylaws to add a new member category, that of students: “A student member shall be either an individual who is enrolled in a library school or a law student who is enrolled in a law school” (66 LLJ 391–92). Annual dues for students are set at $10 (compared to $30 for individual active or associate members).
July 5 . . . Following the direction of a resolution passed by the membership during the previous day's business session (66 LLJ 394), the Executive Board approves a motion directing President Erwin C. Surrency to appoint a task force to investigate special interests and to charge it “with studying the structure of the association to make it more flexible to meet the particular interests of [AALL] members and to make recommendations on convention programs to meet this need” (Exec. Board Minutes, p.427). J. Myron Jacobstein will subsequently be named chair of the Task Force on AALL Organization.
1974
February 23 . . . Helen Alice Snook Roalfe, president of the Association in 1960–61, after having previously served on the Executive Board (1954–57) and numerous AALL committees, dies at the age of sixty-eight, two days after suffering a stroke. She had spent her entire working career of thirty-five years at the Detroit Bar Association Library, first as assistant librarian (1926–47) and then as law librarian (1947–60). She married former president William R. Roalfe on November 26, 1960, when she herself was serving as president.
June 22–26 . . . The 67th Annual Meeting in St. Paul is the first to be attended by two individuals who will leave their mark on the Association in the coming years: Robert C. Berring, who will serve as president of AALL in 1985–86, and Donald J. Dunn, who will chair the Academic Law Libraries SIS; the Law Library Service to Prisoners, Scholarships, Grants, Law Library Journal, Public Relations Advisory, and Executive Director Search committees; and the Program Committee for the 1997 Annual Meeting. Berring will later write of his experience:
Everyone seemed to know everyone else. People seemed to come together in clumps and then swirl off to secret parties. I spent a lot of time just scoping things out. I felt a bit like an anthropologist. . . . My impression . . . was that it was loud, exciting, and very much a place where you had to get to know people fast (88 LLJ 14, 15).
And Texas-born Dunn will say:
I was scared to death, but since President Erwin Surrency and Program Chair Leah Chanin also spoke with an accent, I soon began to feel right at home. . . . I browsed every one of the nineteen exhibit booths, chatted with all the exhibitors, picked up freebies along the way, and found creative ways to eat at little or no cost. I have since turned these techniques into an art form (88 LLJ 30).
June 22 . . . After holding an ad hoc meeting at the 1973 Annual Meeting in Seattle, the State and Court Law Libraries of the United States and Canada conducts its first formal meeting in St. Paul. Margaret H. Setliff of the Hawaii Supreme Court Law Library is elected as the first chairperson of the new group and a constitution is adopted. In December, Setliff will write to the Executive Board, seeking formal affiliation AALL. The Board will decide that it does not have the power under the present Constitution and Bylaws to entertain the request and will refer it to the Task Force on Reorganization, chaired by J. Myron Jacobstein, which is considering the creation of divisions within the Association. (Exec. Board Minutes, pp. 455–56, 462a)
June 27 . . . At its post-convention meeting, the Executive Board decides to raise registration fees for next year's Annual Meeting in Los Angeles: preregistration for members will be $35, $40 for nonmembers; after June 1, the fees will rise to $40 for members and $45 for nonmembers. Local Arrangements Committee Cochair Irwin Manley informs the Board that 650 hotel rooms can be blocked off and that the cost for a single room is likely to be $25 to $35.
1975
June 24 . . . Almost two years in the making, the Policy Statement on Job Security, Remuneration, and Employment Practices (68 LLJ 382–83) drafted by the Committee on Job Security, chaired by Stanley Horst, is adopted by the Association at the second business session of the 68th Annual Meeting in Los Angeles.
June 24 . . . Roger F. Jacobs, president of the Mid-America Association of Law Libraries, reports to members at the second business session that the group “was founded approximately 3 years ago by our distinguished past president [of AALL], Jean Ashman, . . . to provide for professional-social relationships, and interchange of ideas with librarians in the Greater St. Louis metropolitan area” and that it had later included individuals from outside this area (68 LLJ 384). MAALL's petition to become the thirteenth chapter of the Association is approved.
June 25 . . . The final report of the Task Force on AALL Reorganization (68 LLJ 391–94), having been previously distributed to members, is presented for approval by its chair, J. Myron Jacobstein, at the third business session of the Annual Meeting. The committee recommends creating three divisions (academic libraries; county, bar, and government libraries; and private law libraries) within AALL, and establishing procedures for the formation of subject-oriented special interest sections. The membership rejects divisional organization but overwhelmingly approves a resolution endorsing an amendment to the Constitution that would allow for the creation of special interest sections. The amendment will be approved by mail ballot later in the fall.