VOLUME 26
ISSUE 1
Fall 2006

Inside this issue:

• AALL Program Reviews:
  • Plenary I:  Linda Greenhouse on Writing Justice Blackmun
  • Plenary Session II:  The Great Hedgehog Speaks
  • ALL-SIS Middle Managers’ Breakfast Meeting
  • CONALL at Wash U:  Skitlettes and a Library Tour
  • Might As Well Face It, You’re Addicted to Wexis - Teaching CALR to Law Students:  What Do Students Really Need to Know When They Arrive at a Law Firm?
  • University of Oregon Team Pioneers Digital Collections
• Roundtables:
  • Collection Development Committee
  • Faculty Services Committee
  • Legal Research Instruction
• The ALL-SIS Archives:  Often Forgotten But Always Important
• ALL-SIS Committee Members: 2006 - 2007
• ALL-SIS Presents Frederick Charles Hicks Award to Roger Jacobs
• Continuing Education Task Force Formed
• Developments in Legal Education: A Short Note on Empirical Legal Research
• Member News
• Special ALL-SIS Grant Available to Support Attendance at Berring Symposium
• Why Do You Belong to AALL? Write it Down & Win!

Message from the Chair

Suzanne Thorpe
Associate Director for Faculty, Research, and Instructional Services
University of Minnesota Law Library
229 19th Avenue South
Minneapolis MN 55455
(612) 625-0187
s-thor@umn.edu

Fall Greetings!

As the days turn cooler and we head into another academic year, memories of the AALL meetings begin to fade. I hope, though, that the ALL-SIS programs, roundtable discussions, and social events that you attended will continue to resonate with you during the coming months. For those of you who were unable to come to St. Louis, the reports in this newsletter provide highlights of these excellent programs. Also, don’t forget to check out the photos and podcasts of various events and the PowerPoint slides from our two alternative programs on the ALL-SIS Web site (www.aallnet.org/sis/allsis/annualmeeting/2006/).

At our meetings in St. Louis, the ALL-SIS Executive Board decided to launch two new initiatives. First, we will explore programming that might be offered by ALL-SIS outside of the AALL Annual Meeting venue. A Continuing Education Task Force, chaired by Lee Peoples, has been appointed to investigate potential topics, partnerships with other SISs and Chapters, and ways of utilizing new technology such as streaming video and podcasting to deliver such programs. Our goal is to develop one or more proposals to submit to the AALL Continuing Education Grants Program for funding. If you recently attended a great workshop with presenters that you think ALL-SIS should consider tapping, please share this information with Lee (lpeoples@okcu.edu). Our second initiative will be to take a close look at the existing ALL-SIS Strategic Plan. The new Strategic Directions Task Force, chaired by Michelle Wu, will examine what has been accomplished since the plan was approved in 2002 and identify new goals for the ALL-SIS that embody the three goals and targeted objectives identified in the AALL Strategic Directions document. These goals will be presented to ALL-SIS members for approval at the Business Meeting in New Orleans.

Speaking of New Orleans, our Program Committee, chaired by April Schwartz, has been hard at work these past few weeks, reviewing and ranking 20 programs that ALL-SIS was asked to sponsor or co-sponsor. This committee has submitted its decisions to the AALL Annual Meeting Program Committee. Since ALL-SIS members typically develop great proposals, we are hopeful that our programs will be successful in the next phase of the competition. In addition to learning a lot in New Orleans, we can all look forward to our annual bash, the ALL-SIS Reception, which will be hosted by Michael Whipple and his staff at the Loyola University College of Law Library.

Other ALL-SIS committees are also gearing up and we will see many new articles, directories, toolkits, etc. contributed by our members again this year. Pay close attention to our Web site, as Diane Murley and her Web site committee unleash their creative abilities. You can keep informed of Web site additions and changes by subscribing to the RSS feed she recently made available. Stay tuned also for announcements of grants and awards. The newest grant is for attendance at the Berring Symposium. For details, see the article in this issue or www.aallnet.org/sis/allsis/news/berring-grant.asp.

I hope that you all will have enriching and productive months ahead as academic law librarians. As you go about your work, I urge you to think about new ways that a professional organization such as ALL-SIS can assist you. You don’t have to wait for another survey to share your ideas. Just send them to me (s-thor@umn.edu) or to any other member of the ALL-SIS Executive Board (www.aallnet.org/sis/allsis/directories/).

Best wishes,
Suzanne