New Member Spotlight

A Michigan native, Deborah Darin lives in Milwaukee, Wisconsin now. She received her bachelor’s degree in History from the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor and her law degree from Wayne State University in Detroit. She practiced public interest law in Detroit for a few years, representing clients in landlord/tenant, housing, consumer and employment cases. After moving to Milwaukee with her husband, also a lawyer, Deborah worked as an attorney for a nonprofit environmental law organization and as a commissioner on three Milwaukee administrative boards over the years.

Between Detroit and Milwaukee, she had years of law practice and enjoyed advocacy work. But she says she had always been just as interested in research and writing, and education, which had been a significant aspect of many of her professional endeavors, especially the environmental work. So after her son was born, Deborah went back to school to get her MLIS. She earned her degree at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in December, 2007.

Right now, she is co-authoring a book with the Director and the Associate Director of the Marquette University Law Library. This collaboration with fellow professionals provides a way for her to increase her proficiency as a beginning law librarian. The book is Wisconsin Legal Research, part of the Carolina Academic Press state law legal research series. Deborah says, “The book is a great opportunity to write and think about Wisconsin law and legal sources, and produce a reference tool that law students and others can use. I appreciate how important it is for beginning lawyers to have solid research help as they learn the practice of law.”

She also taught a few class sessions of an advanced legal research course at the law school this past semester. She looks forward to more teaching, reference, and research opportunities as she moves forward in the profession. In addition to professional pursuits, Deborah enjoys novels, gardening, and watching her son play baseball.

Deborah joined ALL SIS to learn as much as she can and meet other librarians. She hopes to have a long career and many opportunities to participate in ALL SIS and other aspects of AALL. She doesn’t think she will be attending the Annual Meeting this year, but hopes to be a regular in the future!

Barbara Scanlon has been the Electronic & Systems Services Librarian at the University of Michigan Law Library since November 2007. She began working at the U of M Law Library as a student and was later hired on full-time. On being a new librarian she said, “I’m new to the profession and ready to take on new challenges.”

Prior to becoming a law librarian, Ms. Scanlon enjoyed a career as a singer, dancer, and actress on Broadway. She also performed in national tours and regional theater. In her spare time, she continues to perform at a local church and at various theatre and choral events. She also pursues her interest in photography by taking classes and capturing pictures for the library.

Ms. Scanlon obtained her undergraduate degree from Michigan State University in Music (Vocal Performance) with minors in Math and Piano. She earned her Masters of Science in Information (MSI) from the University of Michigan in December of 2005.

She was pleasantly surprised to find herself a member of ALL-SIS. She said, “I welcome the opportunity to become a part of a community of my fellow professionals.” Please welcome Barbara Scanlon to the Academic Law Libraries SIS!

ALL-SIS members welcome Mitchell Silverman to the Special Interest Section. Mitch is originally from Brooklyn, NY, but he has spent most of his life in South Florida. He lives in Hollywood, midway between Ft. Lauderdale and Miami. Currently he is a distance learning student in the library school of Florida State University (FSU). Mitch has an undergraduate degree from New College of Florida, in Sarasota, Florida, which is the honors college of the FSU System. He went to FSU for his J.D.

While Mitch is finishing his library education, he is working as a sole practitioner. He specializes in estate planning for small estates, business counseling, and contract drafting and review. Also he volunteers as a Senior Reference Administrator with the Internet Public Library’s (IPL’s) Ask-A-Question service, www.ipl.org/div/askus/. He supervises three people who process, sort, and sometimes answer the questions submitted and sometimes answers a question himself. He also has done extensive work on the IPL’s patents, trademark, and copyright FAQs page.

Besides estate planning and small business law, Mitch is interested in dispute resolution. In fact, he is qualified as a mediator and arbitrator. Civil liberties law, especially First Amendment issues and intellectual freedom, is also of interest to him. In library school he was quite fascinated by his Information Policy course.

When asked about his mentors, Mitch first mentioned his boss at IPL, Cathay Crosby who is the Assistant Director, User Services for the IPL. Under Cathay’s supervision, Mitch became comfortable with answering reference questions and able to do supervision himself. She has motivated him to anticipate a career in reference. Other mentors mentioned were his New College thesis sponsor Mac Miller, the sine qua non of his undergraduate education; his law property and legal ethics professor Rob Atkinson; his clinical professor Paolo Annino; his friend Susan Elliott who urged and helped him to go to library school; his library school advisor and professor Mellissa Gross; and his wonderful wife Becky.

Mitch enjoys spending time with his wife Becky, pursuing his studies, reading both for school and pleasure, practicing the law, and hanging out with friends. He would very much like an internship or a position that would allow him to combine his interest in the law, his desire to help people with their information needs, and his interest in technology - especially if it could be in South Florida!

Welcome, Mitch!!!