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We're having a stimulating set of conversations this week (and last) focused on strategic directions for AALL and the profession. We will take all of your ideas and bring them to the Executive Board strategic retreat November 18 and 19. This will be a facilitated discussion that will also include the results of interviews with those outside the profession who directly impact its future -- such as deans, judges, law firm partners and others. We will take all of this information and then with a subcommittee of the Executive Board and further conversations with you, begin creating a strategic directions document that will inform AALL programs and services of the future.
Following the retreat, on November 20, the board will convene its fall meeting. Key discussions will focus on member communications, the annual meeting, and next steps for our strategic discussions.
The Report of the Special Committee to Develop Performance Measurements for Law Librarians "Professional Competence for Law Librarians: Core Attributes and Their Measurement" is now available to AALL members on AALLNET.
The special committee was formed in 2001 to examine and formulate a set of performance measures that could be adapted for use by law librarians and their employers in a variety of law library settings. The committee used the Competencies of Law Librarianship as the basis for defining the skill sets law librarians must bring to the profession. The performance measures will help librarians who evaluate others do so in the context of a workplace learning continuum. The committee devised beginning, intermediate, and advanced levels for each competency and used the following definitions for the continuum.
More information on the report can be found here.
Discovered any great, new library products this year? If so, let the Committee on Relations with Information Vendors (CRIV) know. Nominations for AALL's New Product Award are due by January 15, 2005.
The New Product Award honors a new legal information product that has been in the library marketplace for no more than two years. The product must be commercial; enhance or improve existing law library services or procedures; and be an innovative product that improves access to legal information, the legal research process, or procedures for technical processing of library materials. Products that have been re-introduced in a new format or with substantial changes are eligible.
We encourage AALL members to think about the exciting new information products they use in their libraries and send us their nominations for this award. Self-nominations are also encouraged.
More information on the award can be found here.
The Online Bibliographic Services/Technical Services Joint Research Grant, which provides support for technical services law librarians to perform research that will enhance law librarianship in service to our clients, is available each year. Applicants must be members of AALL and must show evidence that the research will benefit technical services law librarianship. The goal of the Joint Research Grant Committee (JRGC) is to award grants in a single year ranging in amount of no more than $1,000.
In 2004, this grant was awarded to Dragomir Cosanici, head of reference, and Chris E. Long, cataloging librarian, both at the Ruth Lilly Law Library at Indiana University School of Law in Indianapolis. Their project is titled "Citation Practices of the Indiana Supreme Court and the Indiana Court of Appeals" (a bibliometrics study of the two courts' citation practices to be published in a peer reviewed legal publication).
Additional general information about the grant is available online. The agreement form for grant recipients can also be viewed online.
Grant recipients will be announced at the AALL Annual Meeting. Award amounts will be mailed to successful grant recipients as soon as final approval is received by the JRGC chair. For additional information, please contact Eloise Vondruska, committee chair, by e-mail or by phone at 312/503-7369.
The Association of American Law Schools 2005 Annual Meeting, "Engaged Scholarship," will be held January 5-9 in San Francisco. The meeting will explore how scholarship bridges the "purely academic" and the "practical." How can scholarly projects enhance the empirical breadth and theoretical sophistication of legal education? And how has "engaged scholarship" transformed aspects of legal practice and legal institutions?
Register online, save $50 by registering before December 4. For more information, contact AALS at 202/296-1662 or registration@aals.org.
Sincerely,
Susan
E. Fox, CAE
Executive Director
American Association of Law Libraries
53 West Jackson Blvd., Suite 940
Chicago, IL
60604
312-939-4764, ext. 11
Fax 312-431-1097
AALL: Maximizing the Power of the Law Library Community Since 1906.
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