One Hundred Years of AALL History
1996–2005
Prepared by Frank G. Houdek
Spring 2006
1996 | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005
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1996
May . . . Utilizing AALLNET, the Association Web site, AALL sponsors its first ever electronic roundtable discussion. Focusing on “The Future of the Law Firm Library,” a variety of participants (including librarians, attorneys, information providers, consultants, journalists, and legal administrators) address questions about the library's role within the firm, technology, outsourcing, and downsizing the library over a four week period. A transcript of the roundtable is later published in Law Library Journal (89 LLJ 99–149).
July 19 . . . The Executive Board establishes a new structure to oversee the educational program of the Association, following many of the recommendations of the Special Committee on Educational Policy chaired by Merle Slyhoff. The Education Committee is replaced by an Annual Meeting Program Selection Committee and a Professional Development Committee. Kay Moller Todd will later be appointed to chair the first PDC, which is responsible for all AALL educational programming and policies outside the annual meeting. Seven years later, in July 2003, the Executive Board will disband the PDC as it “moves forward with plans to implement a new career development program for Association members.”
July 19 . . . The first ever Diversity Symposium is presented at the 89th Annual Meeting in Indianapolis. Sponsored by the Committee on Diversity and cochaired by Yvonne Chandler and Joan Howland, the symposium features presentations, an open forum and panel discussion, and a workshop on diversity issues and training, followed by a reception. In the future, the annual symposium will focus on specific topics (e.g., cross-cultural communication, affirmative action).
September . . . Sporting a magazine style format and new editorial direction, AALL Spectrum replaces the AALL Newsletter as the chief Association publication for communicating with members and outside audiences. In addition to the Association news and legislative reports found in the Newsletter, the magazine will offer substantive articles that focus on broad information issues of interest to members and the larger legal community. AALL staff member Peter Beck serves as editor of the new publication.
October 1996 . . . President Frank G. Houdek initiates the publication of focused reports in AALL Spectrum with “Access to Government Information in the Electronic Age” (AALL Spectrum, Oct. 1996, at 21), the first of four “President's Briefings” that will appear during his term of office. Other topics covered are copyright (Dec. 1996), technology and the courts (April 1997), and AALL history (July 1997). The reports will later be styled as “Members' Briefings.”
December 1996 . . . After two years of intensive work, the report, recommendations, and materials of the Special Committee on the Renaissance of Law Librarianship in the Information Age, appointed by President Carol Billings in 1994 and chaired by Kathleen Carrick, is printed in book form and distributed for AALL with the assistance of West Information Publishing Group. Richard Danner is the editor of the publication.
1997
March 20 . . . AALL presents its first-ever satellite video conference, “The Future for Librarians: Positioning Yourself for Success,” jointly sponsored with the Special and Medical library associations and with assistance from LexisNexis. AALL members Mark Estes, Penny Hazelton, and Anne Abate participate in the conference.
May . . . The first issue of the Chapter Leadership Bulletin, a product of the “AALL Chapter Alliance” developed by an Ad Hoc Chapter Relations Advisory Group appointed by President Frank Houdek and chaired by Sally Holterhoff, is distributed. Another tangible result of the Alliance occurs later in the year at the Annual Meeting in Baltimore when chapter roundtables are conducted for the first time, covering such topics as finances, educational programming, meeting management, government relations, and public relations. Although the Bulletin will cease publication in 2002, the roundtables continue to the present day.
May . . . The Special Committee to Advance the Fair Use of Electronic Information Resources in Law Libraries and by Law Librarians, chaired by Laura N. Gasaway, completes the “AALL Guidelines on the Fair Use of Copyrighted Works by Law Libraries,” which will be adopted by the Executive Board in July.
July 19–24 . . . With a theme of “From Narragansett to Now: Covering the Waterfronts,” AALL holds its 90th Annual Meeting in Baltimore, Maryland. Executive Director Roger Parent will announce that with 2,335 registered attendees, Baltimore surpasses Boston in 1993 (attendance of 2,264) as the largest Annual Meeting yet.
July 20 . . . At the Opening Reception in Baltimore, a historic photograph of forty-three past and present Executive Board members, representing 138 years of service to the Association, is taken. Stretching from Julius Marke (president, 1962–63) to James Heller (newly-elected president-elect), the group includes seventeen presidents. Made with the assistance of BNA, Inc., the photo will later appear as the “centerfold” in the September 1997 issue of AALL Spectrum, along with a key identifying those included in the picture.
July 21 . . . The first-ever “Presidential Certificates of Merit” are conferred by President Frank Houdek during the General Business Meeting in Baltimore. Recipients include David McFadden, Catherine Hardy, Lynn Foster, Rita Reusch, Marcia Koslov, Sally Holterhoff, and Patricia Patterson. At the same meeting, Justice George Nicholson of the California Court of Appeal is voted honorary membership for his many services on behalf of AALL.
December . . . AALLNET is one of only three national association Web sites to receive a 1997 Gold Circle Certificate of Achievement from the American Society of Association Executives. With twenty-two award categories, there were 1062 entries from five hundred associations.
1998
January . . . “How to Hire a Law Librarian” is the first title issued in Law Librarians: Making Information Work, a new Resource Guide Series launched under the editorship of Michael Saint-Onge and generously supported by the Private Law Libraries SIS and LexisNexis. Future guides will cover such topics as expanding roles for law librarians, negotiation, and space planning.
July 14 . . . By unanimous vote of members attending the general business meeting of the 91st Annual Meeting in Anaheim, California, the San Diego Area Law Libraries (SANDALL) is approved as the 31st chapter of AALL.
July 15 . . . Frank Y. Liu, director of the law library and professor of law at Duquesne University, takes office as the first Asian American to serve as a member of the AALL Executive Board. However, Paul Fu, longtime director of the Supreme Court of Ohio Library, was the first Asian-American AALL officeholder, serving as AALL secretary for four years (1989–93).
September 7–10 . . . AALL joins with the British and Irish Association of Law Librarians and the Canadian Association of Law Libraries to cosponsor the first Joint Study Institute at the University of Cambridge in England. With more than sixty in attendance, the institute focuses on the legal systems, law, and practice of law librarianship in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. Subsequent institutes will be held in 2000, at the Yale Law School (“U.S. Law and Practice in a Changing Global Environment”); in 2002, at Royal Roads University, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada (“Canadian Focus—Global View”); in 2004, at University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia (“Australia and New Zealand—Access to the World”); and in 2006, at Oxford University, England (“Righting the World: Freedoms and Obligations in a Regulated Society”).
November 14 . . . At its fall meeting, the Executive Board approves two policy documents: a “Conduct of Election Policy” to clarify appropriate behavior by and for candidates during the electoral process and an “AALL Publications Policy” (accompanied by a “Publications Program: Statement of Purpose”) to clarify the goals and practices for Association publishing.
December . . . The Government Relations Committee begins soliciting nominations for the first ever AALL Public Access to Government Information Award, approved by the Executive Board in November 1998 for the purpose of recognizing persons or organizations that have made significant contributions to protect and promote greater public access to government information. The first award is presented to the U.S. Government Printing Office for its GPO Access Web site during the 1999 Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C.
1999
April 5 . . . An overwhelming majority of AALL members vote to approve the adoption of a new set of AALL Ethical Principles to replace the Association's Code of Ethics. The Principles are the product of two years of work by the Special Committee on Ethics, chaired in 1997–98 by Margaret Maes Axtmann and in 1998–99 by J. Wesley Cochran.
May . . . AALL's Universal Citation Guide is published for the Association by the Wisconsin State Bar. The Guide is a product of the Citation Formats Committee, cochaired by Marcia Koslov and Paul George, and contains recommendations for legal citation rules covering judicial decisions, statutes, and administrative regulations. A second edition will be published in 2004.
July 19 . . . Morris L. Cohen receives the Joseph L. Andrews Bibliographical Award for his monumental life's work, Bibliography of Early American Law. In so doing, he becomes the first and, to date, only person to receive the award more than once. He previously shared the 1996 award with coauthor Sharon Hamby O'Connor for A Guide to the Early Reports of the Supreme Court of the United States.
July 20 . . . President James S. Heller announces during the business meeting that the 92nd Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C., has established a new attendance record: 2,606 paid registrants. Adding 285 Exhibit Hall-only registrants and 1,085 exhibitors brings the grand total to nearly 4,000 attendees.
October 25 . . . An AALL press release announces that members have voted overwhelmingly in favor of revising article 4 of the Bylaws to provide for “open” membership in the Association by allowing all “persons who are interested in the objectives of the Association and in legal information” to become associate members; the only limitation is that the right to hold elective office on the Executive Board is reserved for active and retired members.
2000
April 8 . . . An AALL Spectrum Article of the Year Award is approved by the Executive Board. CCH Incorporated agrees to support the award with a $500 cash prize and to contribute a similar prize to the existing Law Library Journal Article of the Year Award. The first recipient of the new award is later announced as Joanne Dugan for “True Confessions of a Copyright Wimp” (AALL Spectrum, Feb. 2000, at 4).
July 13–14 . . . The Executive Board approves a new AALL strategic plan for 2000–2005. Prepared under the leadership of Ruth Fraley, chair of the Board's Strategic Planning Committee, and titled “Leadership for the 21st Century: New Realities, Changing Roles,” the plan establishes four strategic directions to be pursued by the Association during the next five years.
July 17 . . . The AALL Research Fund, an endowment established with a $100,000 pledge from LexisNexis, is announced during the Annual Meeting in Philadelphia. The fund will provide a secure financial base for the AALL Research Committee to carry out the Association's Research Agenda. It will be used to provide grants to library professionals seeking to conduct research critical to the profession.
July 18 . . . President Margaret Maes Axtmann presides over a “once-in-a-millennium” event when forty-one time capsules prepared by AALL committees, chapters, SISs, and caucuses are “sealed” at a special ceremony in the Exhibit Hall during the 93rd Annual Meeting in Philadelphia. Organized as a turn of the century project by the Public Relations Committee and its chair, Sue Burch, the time capsules will be stored at AALL Archives at the University of Illinois until they are opened at the AALL Annual Meeting in 2025.
July 18 . . . The Academic Law Libraries Special Interest Section uses the occasion of its annual reception to present Penny Hazelton, director of the University of Washington Gallagher Law Library, with its first-ever Frederick Charles Hicks Award for Outstanding Contributions to Academic Law Librarianship. The award, named for Hicks, librarian at Columbia and Yale law libraries and the first academic librarian elected AALL president, is designed to “recognize a colleague whose service to academic law librarianship has been exemplary in breadth and depth.”
2001
March 30–31 . . . At its spring meeting, the Executive Board approves a statement of the Competencies of Law Librarianship, drafted by the Professional Development Committee as a way of “defin[ing] the profession of law librarianship and its value to the legal field, today and in the future.” The document (later published in AALL Spectrum, June 2001, at 14) describes the “knowledge, skills, abilities and personal characteristics that help distinguish superior performance” of law librarians.
April . . . West Group donates $150,000 to the George A. Strait Minority Scholarship Endowment, a fund used to further the education of minority students pursuing a degree in law librarianship. The scholarship is awarded to college graduates with law library experience who are members of a minority group, are degree candidates in accredited library or law schools, and who intend to have a career in law librarianship. In June 2002, Mary Tu Thai, a first-year law student and former staff member of the Santa Clara County Law Library in San Jose, California, will become the first recipient of the newly endowed Strait Minority Scholarship.
June 1 . . . AALL membership soars to its highest count on record—5,149—consisting of 5,068 dues-paying members, 3 honorary members, and 78 life members. Since June 1, 2000, 598 new members, including 62 students, have joined AALL.
June 21 . . . Sania Battalova of Kyrgyz Republic is announced as the first recipient of the FCIL/SIS Schaffer Grant for Foreign Librarians, established to provide financial assistance to foreign librarians attending the AALL Annual Meeting. Ellen Schaffer, librarian at the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea in Hamburg, Germany, provided a substantial donation to establish the grant in the belief that foreign attendees enrich AALL events by sharing their global perspectives.
2002
January 17 . . . Kay E. Newman, director of the Spokane County Law Library, is announced as the first recipient of the Marcia J. Koslov Scholarship established to encourage law librarians to attend the Court Executive Development Program at the Institute for Court Management, sponsored by the National Center for State Courts, in Williamsburg, Virginia. The scholarship was established with a donation from former AALL Executive Board member Koslov.
May 23 . . . Tanya Brown, head librarian at Spiegel & McDiarmid in Washington, D.C., and Donna Nixon, reference librarian at the Kathrine R. Everett Law Library at the University of North Carolina, are selected as corecipients of the new Minority Leadership Development Award. They each receive $1500 to attend the AALL Annual Meeting, providing the opportunity to team with experienced AALL leaders who will serve as their mentors and to serve on AALL committees. The award will continue to be presented on an annual basis in the future.
June 13 . . . The Colorado Association of Law Libraries (“As We Enter the New Millennium” annual institute) and Law Librarians of New England (seven part “Introduction to Legal Research”) are announced as the first recipients of the inaugural Chapter Professional Development Awards. Newly created in 2001, the awards honor professional development programs created by chapters for their members and others and recognize both individual programs or workshops of a half day or more and comprehensive programs of up to a year in length.
July 24 . . . In recognition of his “extraordinary contributions to law librarianship and to the Association,” honorary membership is bestowed upon Roger H. Parent who will retire as the AALL's executive director on December 31, 2002.
October 2 . . . Upon receiving the gavel from President Barbara Bintliff, Carol Avery Nicholson, Assistant Director for Technical Services of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Law Library, takes office as the first African American to serve as AALL president. She will later write that “my most satisfying and enjoyable position was having the opportunity to be the first person of color to serve as AALL president” (98 LLJ 344).
October 2 . . . An AALL Press Release reports that AALL members have voted to approve the Executive Board proposal to raise membership dues by $45, phased in over three years. Dues will rise from the current annual amount of $145 to $190 by June 2005. The increase is designed “to combat declining revenues and provide a more stable financial foundation for AALL.”
October 15 . . . Susan E. Fox, formerly CEO of the Society of American Archivists, becomes AALL's fourth executive director, succeeding the retiring Roger E. Parent. Fox is subsequently profiled in the December issue of AALL Spectrum.
November 2 . . . The AALL Executive Board approves the AALL Guide to Fair Business Practices for Legal Publishers, a set of recommended guides designed to facilitate effective and productive relationships between librarians and legal publishers. The Board also disbands the Special Committee on Fair Business Practices, chaired by Frank G. Houdek, which drafted the Guide and authorizes the creation of a Fair Business Practices Implementation Task Force to oversee the distribution and promotion of the new guide as the accepted standard in the industry, and to monitor its ongoing interpretation, revision, and evaluation.
December . . . Beyond the Boundaries, the report of the Special Committee on the Future of Law Libraries in the Digital Age, cochaired by Rita Reusch and Gail Warren, is published. The committee was charged with exploring the issues surrounding “the evolution of virtual and physical law libraries” and “outlining different scenarios or models to describe the law library of the future.”
2003
April 4–5 . . . During its spring meeting, the Executive Board approves an AALL Statement on the Value Added to Organizations by Law Librarians drafted by the Public Relations Committee. Designed to help educate colleagues and employers, the statement focuses on four key areas of librarian expertise that benefit organizations: evaluating information, managing information, researching, and teaching/training.
June 30 . . . Julius Marke, Distinguished Research Professor, St. John's University School of Law, and Professor Emeritus, New York University School of Law, dies unexpectedly at the age of ninety in New York City. A former AALL president (1962–63) and recipient of the Marian Gould Gallagher Distinguished Service Award in 1986, Marke is known as much for sparkling wit and good humor (recalled by friends in “Vignettes of Julius J. Marke” published in Law Library Journal) as for prodigious scholarship.
July 14 . . . During the Association Luncheon of the 96th Annual Meeting in Seattle, President Carol Avery Nicholson, AALL's first president of color, presents the Marian Gould Gallagher Distinguished Service Award to Marvin R. Anderson, the first person of color to receive the award. Other recipients selected by the Awards Committee are Leah Chanin and Francis Robert “Bob” Doyle.
July 14 . . . At the business meeting, AALL members vote to approve the Executive Board's proposed change in the Bylaws to shorten the Association's nominations and elections schedule. Beginning with the nominations and elections in 2004 (for the officers and board members who will take office at the Annual Meeting in July 2005), ballots must be distributed prior to November 15 and returned before December 15.
2004
April 3 . . . The Executive Board endorses a Resolution on the USA Patriot Act and Related Measures that Infringe on the Rights of Library Users.
April 28 . . . President Janis L. Johnston testifies in Washington, D.C., at the House Committee on Administration's oversight hearing on the Government Printing Office on behalf of AALL, ALA, ARL, MLA, and SLA. Among other things, she asks members of Congress to reaffirm the core principle that the American public has the right to no-fee access to government information. She also reiterates the library community's belief that the Federal Depository Library Program and depository libraries will continue to be crucial access and service points for the public in the 21st century.
July 1 . . . AALL Annual Meeting Boston 2004! makes its appearance as the Association's first-ever blog for an Annual Meeting. The blog is “[i]ntended to serve as an extension of [the] . . . daily newspaper for the conference (The HUB), [providing] . . . a timely source of information and inspiration for conference events and programs” (Posting of July 1, 2004). The Hub bloggers are Stephanie Burke, Diane D'Angelo, Stephanie Davidson, Christine Hepler, Diane Murley, Anne Myers, Michelle Pearse, and Susan Vaughn.
July 10 . . . “Promise, Purpose, and Potential: Brown v. Board of Education at Home and Abroad,” a symposium sponsored by the Diversity Committee, is the culmination of AALL's celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the landmark Supreme Court decision. Previously, both AALL Spectrum and Law Library Journal have included special features focusing on the case.
July 12 . . . During the Association Luncheon at the 97th Annual Meeting in Boston, President Janis Johnston announces the successful completion of the fundraising goal for the George A. Strait Minority Scholarship Endowment.
November 18 . . . The AALL Centennial Celebration Committee launches a Centennial website to provide members with resources and information about the upcoming celebration in 2006. Under the guidance of committee member Frank Houdek and Centennial webmaster Diane Murley, the site provides tool kits to help chapters and SISs develop their own Centennial activities, links to articles about AALL history and personalities, and answers to a variety of Centennial FAQs.
December 16 . . . With the conclusion of monthlong balloting, Sarah G. (Sally) Holterhoff of Valparaiso University is elected Vice President/President-Elect in AALL's first-ever online national election. Ballots are distributed electronically to all voting members on Nov. 15; the deadline for receipt of electronic ballots at AALL is Dec. 15. Paper ballots are provided to those who request them and to those for whom AALL does not have an e-mail address. Others elected are Darcy Kirk as Secretary and Steven P. Anderson and Lyonette Louis-Jacques as Board members. They will will take office in July 2005.
2005
April 10–16 . . . During National Library Week, AALL members take part in “Day in the Life of the Law Library Community,” a nationwide photo contest to document law librarians working, meeting, teaching, and doing all that they normally do in their daily jobs. Fifty-five members from 47 different law libraries across the country submit more than 180 photos to the contest, sponsored by the Public Relations Committee. Winners in six categories and one overall winner will be recognized in fall 2005 on AALLNET, in the December 2005 issue of AALL Spectrum, and during the 2006 AALL Annual Meeting in St. Louis.
July 15 . . . The Executive Board approves “Strategic Directions 2005–2010” as a replacement for the 2000–2005 strategic plan. The result of eighteen months of study and reflection about trends in the legal profession, librarianship, and association governance, the new document identifies the core purpose and values of AALL and establishes a framework for action in the next three to five years comprised of three strategic directions: leadership, education, and advocacy. It also establishes several targeted objectives that will serve as priorities for Association initiatives during the term of the plan.
July 15 . . . The Executive Board establishes an Emerging Opportunities Fund to allow for AALL's participation in new and unbudgeted initiatives that are entrepreneurial in nature and that support the Association's three major strategic directions (leadership, education, and advocacy). Later in the year, the fund will be used to support SCALL's Inner City Youth Internship Program and to expand the Annual Meeting advocacy workshop, cosponsored by the Government Relations Committee and the Washington Office, from a half to a full day.
September 15 . . . Raquel Ortiz is selected as AALL's first coordinator of AALLNET, the Association's Web site. The position manages the content of AALLNET, coordinates information submissions with AALL entity providers, and directs the archival content functions of the site.
September 23–24 . . . Approximately seventy member volunteers representing a wide range of AALL constituencies come together at an Education Summit in Chicago to discuss strategies for continuing education and the professional development of law librarians outside annual meeting programs. Participants identify priorities, set strategies for the next three years, and agree on the roles of AALL's chief entities (chapters, SISs, and AALL). President Claire Germain later appoints three task forces to respond to needs identified during the summit: calendaring and speakers bureau, framework and oversight, and funding.