VOLUME 30
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Message from the Chair Jack McNeill This, my first message as chair, has me thinking about beginnings and endings. I want to thank my predecessor Beth Adelman for her strong leadership and for making the annual meeting a success. I also want to acknowledge the work of outgoing board members Sara Sampson, and Filippa Anzalone. On the flip side, we must acknowledge that all endings are the beginning of something else. I want to congratulate Kumar Percy Jayasuria and Ed Hart and acknowledge to continuing work of Margaret Schilt. I want to thank everyone who volunteered for committee work. Unfortunately, there were far more volunteers than positions. If you were not selected, please do not be discouraged. There will be some additional work over the year that may require your skills. I still have your names and will be digging into the list during my term as chair and I will forward the list to my successor. I look forward to working with everyone and having a successful year. One of our first challenges will be a response to the ABA revisions to the Standards for Approval of Law Schools. The Revision Committee has floated changes to library director standards that, in my view, will profoundly affect not only the governance of academic law libraries, but also on the career paths of every academic law librarian. Any response we have must be tempered by the reality that the effects of the 1996 consent decree between the Department of Justice and the American Bar Association regarding the accreditation of law schools are still filtering down. The ABA no longer has the ability to manage legal education in the same manner as it once did. We must also recognize that the Department of Education which supervises the ABA’s accreditation work has moved the ABA from maintaining standards based on inputs to standards based on outputs. However, to the extent that the ABA Standards do set forth credentials for academic positions, including academic library directors, those credentials should be based on the foundational capabilities of the library director as evidenced by the holding of academic degrees appropriate to the position – as would be expected in every other academic position. The Standards should not be diluted simply because a number of powerful and vocal deans desire to have more power over their libraries. The ability of deans to select individuals with little credentials, who would have less knowledge of what resources are required to provide quality library services, and who would be more beholden to the dean, would place law libraries in a weak position with adverse ramifications to services, librarian status, and ultimately the profession itself. The ability of the ABA to determine many aspects of accreditation may be ending and new accreditation structure is emerging. In keeping with endings and beginnings, as the old adage says, “today is the first day of the rest of our lives.” We will be heard for we are fighting to define law librarianship for the next hundred years. Whatever changes to the ABA standards that are ultimately enacted our profession will remain strong. Our profession lives because each day, by our actions, we define what it is to be a law librarian. |
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Deadline for Next Issue: January 21, 2011 |
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Last updated: September 10, 2009