The ALL-SIS Programs Committee received an exciting selection of program proposals. Along with the Programs Committee Chair, Paul Moorman, the members of the committee, Kate Irwin-Smiller, Kathleen McLeod, Bob Nissenbaum, Camilla Tubbs, and I, carefully reviewed each of the proposals. The ALL-SIS Program Committee forwarded its recommendations to the AALL Annual Meeting Program Committee for Review. A total of eight ALL-SIS sponsored programs were accepted: five AALL programs, one AALL workshop, and two ALL-SIS programs.
W-4: The Academic Law Library of 2015: Predicting the Future and Making It Happen
Date & Time: Saturday, July 25, 8:30 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.
Competency: Library Management
Audience: Academic law library senior managers
Workshop participants collectively will work with facilitators to develop scenarios for the academic law library of 2015 in the context of the changing academic legal environment: increasing competition among law schools, changing faculty demographics, millennial students, increase in multidisciplinary legal scholarship, reallocation of library space, and the retirement of many current library directors. Participants will contribute their individual and institutional perspectives and explore possible scenarios collectively in highly interactive breakout sessions. “Think outside the box” participants will identify possible futures, as well as the action steps to achieve them.
A-5: Legal Research Questions on the Bar Exam: Preparing Our Students
Date & Time: Sunday, July 26, 1:30 - 2:45 p.m.
Competency: Teaching
Audience: Law library directors, legal research instructors, private law librarians, reference librarians
The President of the National Conference of Bar Examiners, Erica Moeser, will join a group of academic law librarians and two law library directors in discussing the issue of legal research questions on the bar exam. The group will also explore the best method of preparing law students for legal research bar exam questions.
B-4: Understanding the Mean: How the Average Law Librarian Can Encourage Empirical Research Initiatives
Date & Time: Sunday, July 26, 3:00 - 4:00 p.m.
Competency: Reference, Research and Patron Services
Audience: Librarians interested in conducting empirical research and implementing support programs for empirical research
This program will provide an introduction to empirical research methods and assist librarians in understanding how two academic law libraries and a law and legal studies librarian at an academic library have supported empirical legal research initiatives. Speakers will discuss their experiences in supporting empirical legal research initiatives and provide advice on the types of support law librarians can provide. Speakers will also suggest avenues for law librarians to develop a greater familiarity with empirical research methods.
C-3: Latest Trends in Library Automation: Building Creative and Inspiring Discovery Platforms
Date & Time: Sunday, July 26, 4:15 - 5:15 p.m.
Competency: Information Technology
Audience: Librarians who want their patrons to use their information resources effectively and innovatively
This program address next-generation library interfaces and what the future holds for merging currently disparate resources or silos of information. Some next-generation discovery platforms include AquaBrowser, Encore, Endeca, Primo, WorldCat Local, and NELLCO’s Universal Search Solution. The program is intended to update participants on current innovations in library automation technology.
E-2: Chat 2.0: Renovating Virtual Reference
Date & Time: Monday, July 27, 10:00 - 10:30 a.m.
Competency: Reference, Research and Patron Services
Audience: Librarians who want to implement or improve their library’s virtual reference services
This program will discuss how one library, Georgetown University Law Library, renovated its popular and heavily used chat service after conducting a scientific evaluation of the chat transcripts. The program speakers discuss the findings of the study - specifically, who uses chat reference and what types of questions they ask. The program will also address the administrative and management issues surrounding the study - specifically, how the study was designed and undertaken and how the library’s chat reference service was improved in response to the study.
K-6: What We Learned from Our SAILS: Using Law Students as Human Subjects and Measuring Law Student Information Literacy
Date & Time: Tuesday, July 28, 3:30 - 4:00 p.m.
Competency: Reference, Research and Patron Services
Audience: Academic law librarians and academic law library administrators; instructional law librarians; law librarians who are interested in human-subjects research
Program speakers will discuss their experiences with Institutional Review Board (IRB) review, present concepts fundamental to standardized assessment, and examine detailed findings from their administration of ACRL’s Project SAILS, a standardized measure of Information Literacy to Rutgers Law Students. Speakers will also present the results from their post-SAILS survey measuring law students’ attitudes toward and perception of legal research in general, and their skills in particular.
Beyond the Ivory Tower: Reaching Out to Practicing Attorneys and Law Firm Librarians to Improve Legal Research Instruction
Date & Time: Monday, July 27, 10:45 - 11:45 a.m.
This program will explore three outreach efforts: Brigham Young University’s “Practitioners’ Council,’ in which law librarians meet with a group of practicing attorneys to discuss legal research; Yale Law School’s tradition of inviting law firm librarians to guest lecture in legal research classes; and a Georgetown law librarian’s survey and subsequent study comparing opinions of academic and practitioner law librarians regarding essential legal research skills and materials.
Weed, Shelve or Store?: Making the Hard Decisions
Date & Time: Tuesday, July 28, 2:30 - 3:15 p.m.
Academic law librarians will gain knowledge and expertise on how to acquire useful space for new materials by weeding, storing, or withdrawal of periodicals. Speakers will bring their own idea about what “best practices” should be, and a summary of their weeding endeavors.