It is newsletter time again, and I wanted to take a moment to update the Automation and Scientific Development SIS membership about some of our section activities.
Throughout the year, the section assisted various AALL groups: the Social Responsibilities SIS home page (James Duggan designer), the Reader Services SIS Pathfinder Clearinghouse program (Kory Staheli designer), and some time ago, the experimental loading of the Foreign, Comparative, and International Law Librarians newsletter (Lyonette Louis-Jacques then president). We previously assisted by hosting the Northern California Association of Law Libraries (Joan Loftus designer) web page, as well as the Southern California Association of Law Libraries web page (Cindy Chick designer). Through the hard work of the members above, all of these resources can be browsed through AALLNET.
In addition to web pages, we created several new law library related listservs:
As always, look for a large number of ASD SIS sponsored programs at the next AALL Annual convention.
Most of my SIS energy has been consumed by the continued development of the AALLNET web pages. Several weeks ago I met with Patrick Kehoe (AALL President), Frank Houdek (AALL Vice-President/President Elect), Roger Parent (AALL Executive Director), and Tom Fleming (a representative from Private Law Libraries SIS) to discuss basic home page design issues. Recently, I spent a day and a half in Chicago training AALL headquarters staff on how to directly add (and modify) information on the AALLNET web site. I must thank Roger Parent and his staff for putting up with me, and for their willingness to "dive" into web building. Good work all.
By now, most of you are aware of the AALLNET home page URL.
Special features of AALLNET include:
Please be patient with us; as the site moves from "a construction phase" to something more "user friendly," design improvements will come. But we need to hear from you! Send corrections, comments, and additions to me: Phone: (913) 231-1010 ext 1041, Fax: (913) 232-8087, Internet: zzfolm@acc.wuacc.edu.
I am particularly interested in linking any existing SIS, Chapter, and other AALL subgroups web or gopher sites to the AALLNET web.
In addition, please check out: http://lawlib.wuacc.edu/washlaw/lawcat/lawcat.html. This page is a comprehensive listing (URL) of all known AALL member law library online catalogs telnet addresses, phone numbers, telefax numbers, ARIEL document delivery addresses, as well street addresses. Please send me any corrections.
In my capacity as Chair of the SIS I spoke at the Wyoming Bar Association meeting (discussing how the section was involved in shaping Internet development in the legal field), as well as the American Continuing Legal Education meeting. I anticipate speaking about the section at the Meetings of the Kansas Bar Association and the Kansas City Bar Association.
For two years now, our SIS (and Washburn) has installed the Internet Computer Lab for the Association of American Law Schools Annual Convention. That reminds me; I really do need someone from the section to step forward and help out with the growing number of technical installations we are involved in. Typically, all room, board, and transportation is paid for by the requesting group. Anyone interested in some technology related volunteer work?
Finally, as a point of interest, at Washburn we have gained considerable experience creating full text retrieval systems on the web, and by the time you receive this newsletter, you should be able to search:
at the Washlaw web site: http://lawlib.wuacc.edu/washlaw/washlaw.html
Our section may be involved in the installation of the Internet Computer Lab at the AALL Annual Meeting in Indianapolis. Volunteers anyone?