ALL-SIS Middle Managers’ Breakfast Meeting

The 2006 ALL-SIS Middle Managers’ Breakfast Meeting was held according to the plan between 7:00 - 8:30 a.m. on July 11 in St. Louis Renaissance Grand Hotel - Landmark Room 4. Approximately 120 people attended this meeting. Two people paid cash at the door (remember to register for the ALL-SIS Middle Managers’ Breakfast Meeting when filling up the annual meeting’s registration form next year).

Our topic this year was Stay as Middle Manager and Be Happy and the panelists of the meeting were:  Michael Slinger, Director of Cleveland State University School of Law Library; Filippa Marullo Anzalone, Director of Boston College Law Library; and Joyce Janto, Deputy Director of University of Richmond School of Law Library. After Elizabeth Adelman, the meeting moderator and the Head of Collection Management of the University at Buffalo Law Library, introduced the topic and the panelists, the panelists discussed their experiences, policies, and insights to energize their library’s professional staff to be interested and happy in their jobs. First, Ms. Anzalone shared her policy of letting her staff develop teaching and writing interests in legal subjects, not just traditional library and information science. Then, Ms. Janto shared her experiences of participating in AALL and its local chapters as well as other volunteer opportunities to be self-fulfilled. Finally, Mr. Slinger shared his insights about how to communicate with library directors. The panelists also answered questions from the audience.

The ALL-SIS Middle Managers’ Breakfast Meeting has become a very popular forum for middle managers of academic law libraries to discuss common issues that we are interested in. I highly encourage middle-manager or would-be middle-manager librarians to attend this event annually.