AALL Members Invited to Comment on Draft of Revised AALL Research Agenda

For Immediate Release
August 31, 2000

In 1999, then-AALL-President Margaret Axtmann charged the AALL Research Committee with reviewing and updating the 1993 AALL Research Agenda. The revision of the AALL Research Agenda was conducted "top down." The Research Committee first looked at the major headings. After some discussion, the Committee decided that the existing Research Agenda was organized into major headings that did not provide enough flexibility, seemingly concentrating only on several specific functions performed in law libraries.

Instead, after significant discussion, the Research Committee concluded that the headings of the revised Research Agenda should be based on deeper facets or principles of law librarianship. We felt that this would result in a document that remained focused on who we are and why we do what we do, while allowing for flexibility in describing how we do it. We are hopeful that the major headings will serve as a stable framework for future revisions.

We then engaged in two processes to identify individual research topics. First, we all read through current periodicals in librarianship, computing, and research. The purpose was to identify trends, issues, and concerns that could be the subject of research topics. We developed these various research topics and fit them into the major headings. Finally, we methodically reviewed the existing Research Agenda, eliminating some topics that were already well-researched, outdated, or no longer of interest, and incorporating those that retained strong vitality.

The AALL Research Committee is pleased to provide you with a link to the draft of the revised AALL Research Agenda:
www.aallnet.org/committee/research/draftagenda.asp

The Committee invites you to review the document and send your comments and suggestions -- by September 10, 2000 -- to the AALL Research Committee Chair, Kevin Butterfield, or to any of the Committee members listed below. Thank you.

Kevin L. Butterfield, Chair, kbutterf@siu.edu
Celeste Feather, cfeather@law.uconn.edu
Dorene S. Smith, dss@aterwynne.com
Denise R. Stanley, drs@sando.com
Johanna C. Bizub, jbizub@prudential.com
Ellen J. Platt, eplatt@scu.edu
Nancy L. Strohmeyer, strohmey@loyno.edu
Barbara Bintliff, Executive Board Liaison, barbara.bintliff@colorado.edu