Now
that the holidays are behind us and most
of us are soldiering through the deep
freeze of winter, it is time to refocus
attention on our work and the satisfying
rhythms of daily life. The days are starting
to grow noticeably longer, and the staff
and I are beginning to step up our efforts
as the annual meeting rises on the horizon.
This year’s meeting, Boston
to Mumbai: The World of Legal Information,
will take place in one of the most beautiful
cities in the world, Boston.
Plan your vacation around the meeting
dates, July 10-14, take
a trip to Cape
Cod or the Berkshires
before you go home, you will return fully
nourished, mind and soul.
Since
it’s been over a month since the
last edition of From the Desk Of, this
one will run longer than usual. It’s
chock full of good information, though,
and well worth the read.
It's
a matter of trust—and often blind
faith. As legal information resources, law
librarians need to vouch for the accuracy
and authority of documents we provide our
users. It used to seem so simple: pull the
book from the shelf and hand it over to
the user, along with information on subsequent
court or statutory action affecting the
document.
Now,
with so many resources available—print
and online, free and for fee—we are
often faced with a bewildering array of
choices, many of which are right at our
fingertips. Which ones can we consider reliable
and to what degree? Which ones are the most
current and accurate? These are crucial
questions in a field where one jot or title
can change the meaning of a point of law.
The issue of information authority and integrity
is vital in our profession.
AALL
will hold a list discussion on information
authority and integrity, moderated by Frank
L. Drake, director of library services at
Arnstein
& Lehr, January 26-February 8.
Please join in by subscribing
on AALLNET.
If you have a problem subscribing, contact
Pam
Deemer. Information vendors are invited
(and encouraged) to have a representative
follow the discussion and jump in with answers
to questions.
The
discussion will last two weeks, but after
that list subscribers will be purged; this
is not a permanent list that will fill your
mailbox with never-ending mail.
Subscribers to past career development /professional
development forums, please note: Because
the subscribers’ list is purged after
each forum, you will have to re-subscribe
to the new one. Join
in and hear what your colleagues have
to say about information resources.
The
American Association of Law Libraries Nominations
Committee is looking for a few good
librarians as candidates for the 2005 election
slate for the Executive
Board. We are looking for nominees for
Vice-President/President-Elect, Secretary
and two Members at Large.
Please
contact the Nominations Committee with the
names of AALL members whom you think would
make good candidates. We are looking for
a wide representation based on type of library,
geographic location and ethnic diversity.
If
you have any questions about the nominations
process, or the job descriptions of the
offices up for election, you can call Chris
Graesser, this year’s Nominations
Chair. More information can be had at the
Nominations Committee home
page.
Chris
Graesser
Legal Information Specialist
Brown Rudnick Berlack Israels
Hartford, CT 06103-3402
860-509-6549 (M-F, 1-9 Eastern)
cgraesser@brbilaw.com
This
is the third in a series of ten emails explaining
and discussing The AALL
Guide to Fair Business Practices for Legal
Publishers.
The
Guide was designed with the purpose of fostering
good business practices on the part of publishers
by encouraging 5 basic principles.
The
first of these, Truthful and Accurate
Communication, states that “Publishers
should engage in truthful and accurate communication
with their customers or potential customers.”
There are three elements to this principle:
- Advertising
and marketing should not make deceptive
or misleading representations about a
product.
-
These promotional materials should clearly
indicate that they are only an offer to
purchase and not resemble an invoice.
- Electronic
marketing communications may use hyperlinks
to add to or supplement information about
a good or service but should be consistent
with the print advertising for the same
product.
For
more information about Principle
1, take a look at either your paper
copy of the guide, or the online
version.
In
our next email we will discuss Principle
2: Disclosure.
The
AALL Fair Business Implementation Task Force
Kay
Todd, Chair
Michael
Beaird
Kamla Hedges
Judy
Lauer
Linda
McLane
James
Mumm
The
AALL Research
Committee has awarded two AALL
Aspen Publishers Research Grants worth
$3,650 to projects that highlight the emotional
intelligence of law librarians and Washington
State constitutional history.
Kelly
Browne, head of reference at the
University of Connecticut Law Library, received
a $3,000 grant for her project “The
Emotional Intelligence of Law Librarians.”
Studies have shown that emotional intelligence
is not only the most important factor in
being successful in life, but that certain
patterns of the thirteen qualities that
make up your “EQ” contribute
to success in specific career areas. Ms.
Browne will survey a sample of law librarians
in order to gauge their EQ. The data will
then be analyzed and will result in “successful”
position profiles for various law librarian
positions in different types of law libraries.
This project is a follow-up to Ms. Browne’s
well-received “Maximize Career Success
by Evaluating ‘Emotional Intelligence’”
program at the AALL Annual Meeting in Seattle
in July 2003.
Kelly
Kunsch, reference librarian at
the Seattle University Law Library, will
use his $650 grant to conduct research at
the Washington State Archives. Mr. Kunsch
will travel to the Archives to examine official
records having to do with state constitutional
history. His initial research has indicated
that there may be certain documents related
to Washington State’s legal history
that merit further research and explication.
Mr. Kunsch will also investigate a related,
unpublished manuscript and notes for a book
by Arthur Beardsley, law librarian at the
University of Washington prior to Marian
Gallagher and AALL President, 1939-1940.
The
AALL/Aspen Publishers Research Grant Program
was made possible with a generous $50,000
contribution from Aspen
Publishers, a New York-based legal publisher,
in 1996. The AALL Research Committee, AALL
and its corporate partner, Aspen Publishers,
congratulate this year’s recipients
of the grants.
 Meet
Steven
Oberhoffer, AALL’s newest
Membership Coordinator.
Steve took over from Rachel Shaevel,
who moved on to become a librarian at the
Richard
J. Daley Library at the University of
Illinois/Chicago.
Steven’s
responsibilities include managing and maintaining
the membership database (no small feat!),
the dues billing process, job placement
activities, and our scholarships and grants.
He’s very excited to be working with
law librarians and AALL, and he’s
about to get married this August. Prior
to joining our team here at AALL he worked
as an executive recruiter for Cook
Associates. Be sure to wish him well
when you see him at the annual meeting in
Boston! He’s looking forward to meeting
as many of you as he can.
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.
“If
liberty and equality, as is thought by
some, are chiefly to be found in democracy,
they will be best attained when all persons
alike share in government to the utmost."
Aristotle
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