The mission of the PR Committee is to promote law librarians and law librarianship to people and institutions in and out of the organization. Our committee, consisting of Stephanie Burke, Carol Billings, Cindy Spohr, Donna Bausch, Raquel M. Ortiz, Lee Neugebauer, and Robert Hu, had a busy and productive year in furthering the above mission. This report summarizes the projects and activities we took on and accomplished since July 2002:

The Value Statement. The previous PR committee, chaired by Joan Shear, had drafted a “Statement on the Value Added to Organizations by Law Librarians” (Value Statement). Our committee revised this document and brought it to the final approval by the AALL Executive Board in early 2003. The Value Statement highlights the many ways in which law librarians contribute value to their organizations and should be used as a marketing tool for our profession.

PR Column in the AALL Spectrum. The Committee members contributed articles to the PR Column in the AALL Spectrum magazine. Many of these articles were well written and loaded with information, insights and advice. Law Librarian’s Bulletin Board has favorably cited several articles written by our committee members, such as Raquel M. Ortiz, Robert Hu and Lee Neugebauer.

AALL-West Excellence in Marketing competition (EIM). The subcommittee consisting of Stephanie Burke, Donna Bausch and Robert Hu conducted this year’s competition of EIM. We reviewed over thirty submissions from libraries over the country and made recommendations on the winning entries to the AALL Awards Committee. The winners are, Best Campaign: "Celebrating Books," by University of San Diego Legal Research Center; Best Newsletter: "De Novo: The Newsletter of the Law Library," by Law Library of Louisiana; Best Use of Technology:“UB Law Library Entry Display,” by University at Buffalo Law Library; Best Brochure: "Name Change Brochure," by Travis County Law Library, Texas; Best Tool Kit: "Cornell Law Library 2002 PR Kit," by Cornell Law Library, and "Library and Technology Orientation Program & Materials for Entering Students," by St. John's University Rittenberg Law Library.

Website Revamp. The Committee maintained a website for PR information, resources and exchanges. Raquel M. Ortiz, the committee webmaster, singlehandedly redesigned the web site to make it more accessible, informative and easy to navigate.

In addition to the above achievements, the Committee also began working on the regular programs it sponsors or attends in connection to the annual convention. The functions at the Seattle convention as sponsored by the committee include: the PR Chapter Leadership Roundtable (Stephanie Burke and Carol Billings), PR Showcase (Cindy Spohr and Donna Bausch), and CONELL (Raquel M. Ortiz and Robert Hu).