VOLUME 20
ISSUE 3
Summer 2001

Inside this issue:

• ALL-SIS Reception at AALL
• ALL-SIS Schedule for Minneapolis
• Committee Opportunities
• CONALL 2001 Roundtable
• Hicks Award Winner
• LEXIS-WESTLAW Vendor Roundtable
• Member News & Updates
• Practitioner's Toolkit
• Strategic Planning
• New Task Forces
• Volunteers Needed

ALL-sis EYES on MINNEAPOLIS

By Ruth J. Hill, 2000-2001 ALL-SIS Chair
Head of Reference Services
Rains Law Library
Loyola Law School, Los Angeles

Where has ALL the time gone? In a few short weeks, another challenging year for the Academic Law Libraries SIS will come to an end and I will conclude my term as Section Chair. In this my final column, I would like to bring you up-to-date on the work of the Section this past year, inform you of the Section activities planned for Minneapolis, and to extend my thanks to Section members for their efforts in making this a productive year.

I want to thank Susan Lewis-Somers and Anna Teller of the Nominations Committee for their work. Congratulations to our newly elected officers:  Merle Slyhoff, Vice-Chair/Chair-elect and Bonnie Koneski-White, Executive Board Member.

The Awards Committee, chaired by Merle Slyhoff, has made its selection for the Hicks Award. This award is given in recognition of outstanding contributions to academic law librarianship. The 2001 recipient is Frank Houdek. Our congratulations to Frank! The Hicks Award will be presented at the Section Reception on Tuesday, July 17, at the University of Minnesota.

The 2000-01 Education Committee had four program proposals accepted for the Minneapolis meeting. Our thanks go to Dwight King, committee chair, and to Caroline Susta, Marjorie Crawford, and Joan Howland for their efforts in coordinating these programs.

The roundtable committees worked during this year to develop discussion group topics of interest to Section members. Six roundtables are scheduled for the annual meeting. Your ideas and suggestions are important to the growth of the Section. So, please plan on attending several of these discussion meetings. Of special note is the strategic planning committee's roundtable discussion scheduled for Tuesday, July 17 from 12:15 - 1:30 pm. See the schedule of Section activities in this newsletter for the dates and times of all programs and roundtables.

The Membership Committee, chaired by Mary Ann Nelson, will oversee the Section's table in the AALL activities area. Mary Ann needs your help in staffing our table in the exhibit hall. Please volunteer! If you are available, please contact her at mary-nelson@uiowa.edu.

The CONALL Committee (Convocation for Newer Academic Law Librarians) will present a roundtable program on "Meeting Publication Requirements" on Tuesday, July 17 at 12:15 - 1:30 pm. While CONALL focuses on newer academic librarians, the more "seasoned" members of our Section may find this session beneficial. Kumar Percy and his committee are to be congratulated for planning this very informative and useful roundtable discussion.

Other important events scheduled for Minneapolis include:  the Section Business Meeting (Sunday, July 15), the Section Lunch (Sunday, July 15), directors' breakfast and middle managers' breakfast (Monday, July 16), and the Section Reception at the University of Minneapolis (Tuesday, July 17). See the schedule of Section activities in this newsletter for the times of these events.

I am truly grateful to have had this opportunity to serve as your Section Chair. It has been a busy year! But well worth all the paper work, scheduling and deadlines. I am confident that the results in Minneapolis will be to your satisfaction.

As I conclude my year, there are many to thank for their hard work and commitment. First, I want to thank our executive board:  Rosalie Sanderson, Beth Smith, Paul George, and Tory Trotta for their assistance during this past year. Thanks also to Shaun Esposito, newsletter editor, and David Burch, webmaster. Volunteers are the life-blood of ALL-SIS. So thanks to all of you who volunteered to work for our Section this year. I encourage you to answer the call to volunteer for committees and new task forces from our incoming Chair, Rosalie Sanderson. There is still much to be done to make our Section the brightest star in the AALL universe.

I look forward to seeing you ALL in Minneapolis! RJH