RLLC Committee Meeting Minutes
July 11, 2004, Boston, Massachusetts
Present: Ken Hirsh, Chair, Judy Gaskell, Janet Oberla, Chris Vallandingham, Phebe Poydras, Robert Marshall, Susan Lewis-Somers, Kumar Percy, outgoing Recruitment Committee member.
1. Call to Order — Ken Hirsh
The meeting was called to order at 5:30 p.m.
2. Continuing business from 2003-2004 committee
a. Free registration for library school students
A proposal to provide free AALL registration for library school students who are AALL members was referred to the AALL Board. Ann Fessenden says the AALL Executive Board Finance and Budget Committee will review this proposal in the fall.
b. ABA career counseling web page
Chris Vallandingham contacted the person at the ABA in charge of the ABA career counseling web page to determine what might be involved in AALL providing information about law librarianship as a career, to be added to the page. The ABA charges a substantial fee to add an organization's career, based on the number of pages of material. There would be no additional charge to link to the page from the AALL website. To find a commercial sponsor to pay the fee, such as LexisNexis or Westlaw, the committee would have to seek approval from the AALL Board.
The committee discussed the matter and there was a consensus that it is unclear who visits the ABA website. The committee could present a proposal to the AALL Board to sponsor an AALL page on the ABA website. Alternatively, the committee could propose ways to beef up the law librarianship career information on the AALL website, such as with profiles of law librarians.
c. Student recruitment
AALL President Tory Trotta has given Kumar Percy a charge to write an article about, and coordinate an effort, to increase recruitment to the profession. The Special Committee on Graduate Education for Law Librarianship is also working on this issue. They offered to give the Recruitment Committee space on their website.
Kumar suggested that the committee sponsor a roundtable to discuss recruitment issues. Participants might include library students and educators, law school career development personnel and others.
Robert Marshall is doing some research on the most appropriate people to contact at library schools.
Chris suggested that the committee encourage library and law schools to offer joint JD/MLS programs. It was also suggested that the committee review which library schools offer law librarianship courses, something that Penny Hazelton surveyed a few years ago.
3. New business
Ken discussed how he would like to reach out to library schools to publicize law librarianship as a career, regardless of whether they offer classes in law librarianship. The committee may also want to contact paralegal programs, many of which operate in community colleges.
Ken is looking for a new webmaster for the committee's website.
Ken asked Kumar to plan an informal roundtable on recruitment issues. Kumar requested planning help from the committee.
Ken would like for the committee to coordinate more with CONELL, the Mentoring and Retention Committee and the various other recruitment committees at the regional and local chapter level. We may also want to work with other organizations, such as SLA and ALA.
The meeting adjourned at approximately 6:30.
Respectfully submitted,
Susan Lewis-Somers
- 2003 RLLC Committee Meeting Minutes
For More Information About Law Librarianship or the AALL Recruitment Committee, contact committee chair Sarah Mauldin.