VOLUME 25
ISSUE 3
Summer

Inside this issue:

• 8th Annual Children’s Book Drive
• 10 + 1 Great Places to Visit in St. Louis
• 2006 ALL-SIS Election Results
• 2006 ALL-SIS Middle Managers’ Breakfast
• AALL Annual Meeting:  Are You a Newer Law Librarian?
• AALL Wants YOU! Legislative Advocacy Training
• ALL-SIS Bylaws - Proposed Changes
• ALL-SIS Committee Volunteer Form
• ALL-SIS Committee Reports 2005 - 2006
  • Bylaws
  • CONALL/Mentoring
  • Continuing Status/Tenure
  • Education
  • Faculty Services
  • Legal Research
  • Legal Research Sourcebook
  • Membership
  • Newsletter
  • Website
• ALL-SIS NEEDS YOU!!!!!
• ALL-SIS’s Annual Meeting VIP
• CONALL
• Developing a Law Faculty Publications Database: The Georgia State University Law Library Experience
• Developments in Legal Education: Are Blogs Transforming Legal Scholarship?
• Gateway Arch/Jefferson National Expansion Memorial
• Legal Research Instruction Roundtable 2006
• Member News
• New Member Spotlight
• Octogenarian Innovators Behind (or in Front of) Academic “Firsts” List
• Profiles in History:  “First” Academic Law Librarians from Days Past
• Phoenix Team Builds an Exciting New Law Library
• Wanted:  Your Creativity

Message from the Chair

Michael J. Slinger,
Associate Dean, Law Library Director & Professor of Law
Cleveland-Marshall College of Law, Cleveland State University
1801 Euclid Ave.
Cleveland, OH 44115
(216) 687-3547
michael.slinger@law.csuohio.edu

The upcoming Centennial AALL Annual Meeting in July marks the end of my year as ALL-SIS Chair. I remain grateful and proud of the opportunity our membership has given me to serve in this important capacity. I follow in the footsteps of many outstanding Academic Law Library leaders who have served our SIS as Chair. I know that our SIS will continue to be well served by the leadership of the next Chair, Suzanne Thorpe, and then by her successor Michelle Wu. I really must take this opportunity to thank the members of my Board (Suzanne Thorpe, Susan Lewis-Somers, Carole Bredemeyer, and Carole Hinchcliff) for their hard work, help and guidance throughout the year.

It seems appropriate to me after one year as Vice Chair and another as Chair to reflect upon on our wonderful SIS, and make some observations concerning where I see our strengths, weaknesses and challenges for the future lie.

I believe our greatest strength is found in the many members who give so willingly of themselves to serve on committees, hold offices, and do the work that benefits us all. We have so many people who literally do the heavy lifting that makes this SIS function. I don’t have space in this column to thank all of the individual Committee Chairs and members who do so much, so I hope they will accept my sincere expression of gratitude in the form of this column. However, I do want to bring to your attention, so they can be publicly recognized, two of the unsung heroes who have worked so hard to make the activities of our SIS known to all of us. When you see our Webmaster, Diane Murley, and our Newsletter Editor, Leah Sandwell-Weiss, in St. Louis or elsewhere, please join me in thanking them for their extraordinary efforts and dedication to ALL-SIS.

Another major strength of ALL-SIS is the incredible array of interesting and useful programs crafted for the annual meeting by the Program Committee, which has been chaired for the last two years by Lee Peoples. Lee and his Committee make our ALL-SIS sponsored educational offerings second to none. A special thank you should go to our members who participate in the organization and delivery of these programs.

A third strength of ALL-SIS can be found in the numerous special projects undertaken by our Committees. To see the diverse offerings (and use them) one only has to go to our ALL-SIS web page. This year for example, one can take advantage of a new online archive of our past Newsletter issues; while our Collection Development Committee created a new Academic Law Libraries’ Collection Development Policies page (AALL login required). These projects are examples of the kind of useful work undertaken by our Committees to help our membership.

I could go on with more strengths because we have them in plentiful supply, but I do want to address what I see as a current weakness that we should address, i.e., the fact that 38% of law librarians employed at academic law libraries have not chosen to be current members of ALL-SIS. Any professional organization is only as strong as its membership. The fact of the matter is, for whatever reason, over a third of our potential membership is not participating in an SIS that is dedicated to improving the working and professional lives of academic librarians. We need these non-members to join us. If there are non-members at your law library, please ask them to become a part of ALL-SIS. Urge them to look at our web page and learn more about us. I can assure you that there is a place for them with us. They can be as active as they want to be with us. Opportunities are plentiful for professional involvement and networking. With your help we can bring more academic librarians into our SIS, which will be to everyone’s benefit.

Now as to our challenges, one would be hard pressed to find a time where the world of law libraries and legal information is in such a state of flux. Questions concerning how we do our work and support our patrons are a regular part of planning and strategy for most of us. We are often called upon to explain what we do and sometimes to justify our actions to our Universities. I believe that the role of law librarians has never been more vital and vibrant. The myriad places where information can be found require the unique talents of professional law librarians to navigate successfully on behalf of our patrons. But to be successful, we cannot work in a vacuum. We need the assistance of our own community of professional associations, including ALL-SIS, to help us. Collectively we are far stronger as a profession and we must make sure that ALL-SIS remains vibrant and responsive to our future needs.

On a completely different subject, elsewhere in this Newsletter, you will see that the ALL-SIS Bylaws Committee, chaired by Tom Hanley, has reviewed our Bylaws and in accordance with our rules is submitting some proposed language changes to be voted on by the membership during our ALL-SIS Business Meeting and Breakfast which is scheduled to begin on Sunday, July 9, at 7:00 a.m. The Board supports the Committees suggested changes and asks that you review this language.

I hope to see many of you at our programs and events in St. Louis. We will be honored by the presence of Bucky Askew, incoming ABA Consultant on Legal Education, as our ALL-SIS VIP. Mr. Askew has graciously agreed to offer some remarks during the ALL-SIS Business Meeting and Breakfast. We also look forward to a wonderful awards ceremony and reception on Tuesday night, hosted at Washington University Law Library by Phil Berwick and his great staff. Of course, there will be excellent programs, stimulating Committee meetings and the opportunity to network with old friends while we meet new ones. To paraphrase Judy Garland (somewhat incorrectly):  “See you in St. Louie, Louie, see you at the Annual Meeting.”

Best Wishes!

Michael