VOLUME 18
ISSUE 3
The Convention Issue
Summer 1999

Inside this issue:

• AALL Election Results
• AALL Members Approve Ethical Principles
• 1999 AALL Conference
• Join the ALL-SIS Listserv
• When You Come to the Fork in the Road... Take It!
• Education Committee Seeks Program Developers
• Handling Advanced Legal Research Courses
• Law Library Collections for the New Millennium
• Roundtable Discussion:
  User Surveys That Get Results
• Lexis and Westlaw Forum
• Space Planning and Technology
• Election Results:
  Horse With No Name...Likes It That Way!
• An Email to the Editor...
• Correction to Previous Issue

By Ed Edmonds, ALL-SIS Chair
Professor and Library Director
Loyola University School of Law,
New Orleans

An exciting year for the Academic Law Libraries SIS is moving strongly toward its culmination at the annual meeting in Washington, D.C. The Nominations Committee recently concluded its work, and you soon will receive your ballot for the election of the new Vice Chair/Chair-Elect. Two outstanding candidates, Ruth Hill, Head of Reference Services at the Loyola Law School Library in Los Angeles, and Dwight King, Head of Reference Services at the Notre Dame Law School Library, have been chosen for the slate. I want to thank the Nominations Committee, headed by Grace Mills of North Carolina Central University, for its work.

A number of important events at the annual meeting are now in place. The ALL-SIS Reception, jointly sponsored by West Group and the Catholic University Law Library, will be held on Tuesday evening, July 20, 1999, at the Columbus School of Law at Catholic University. Because the School of Law is a short walk from the metro stop, getting to and from the reception should be quite easy. The West Group also will be making a short presentation at the Middle Managers Breakfast and the Directors Breakfast on Monday morning, July 19, 1999. The ALL-SIS Luncheon will be held on Monday as well. The Luncheon is supported by LEXIS-NEXIS, whose generous contribution allowed us to reduce the luncheon charge to each SIS member. Many thanks to both West Group and LEXIS-NEXIS for supporting SIS functions.

ALL-SIS will hold four roundtables at the annual meeting. The SIS, jointly with RIPS-SIS, is sponsoring a "Dialog with LEXIS-NEXIS and Westlaw" on Monday afternoon. The SIS also is holding a "Collection Development Roundtable" at the same time with TS-SIS. I am deeply pleased that we have joint ventures with RIPS-SIS and TS-SIS. The third roundtable during that time slot will be "Constructing Student Surveys." A fourth roundtable, entitled "Advanced Legal Research," will be held on Tuesday afternoon.

Although the strategic planning process has slowed, I hope to publish the plan on our website prior to the annual meeting. A discussion of the plan is scheduled for the annual business meeting on Sunday, July 18.

I thank Tory Trotta, Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect, and Marguerite Most, Secretary-Treasurer, for their work on behalf of the SIS this year, as well as all of the committee chairs and committee members. I particularly want to thank James Durham for his work on this newsletter. Kudos to Beth Smith, the ALL-SIS webmaster, for placing The ALL-SIS Newsletter online. I hope that each of you will volunteer to help Tory next year with the work of our SIS. I am extremely grateful for the opportunity to serve the SIS and AALL; and I look forward to seeing as many of you as possible at various events in Washington, D.C.