Annual Report: 2003-2004

June 2004

The Computing Services SIS made progress in a number of areas over the past year, while continuing to carry out functions that it has traditionally performed well. Our biggest accomplishment was increasing the visibility of our section, which hopefully will motivate our membership to further achievement.

Electronic Election

We held the very first all-electronic election in AALL history, thanks to CS member and past-chair, Ken Hirsh. As chair of the bylaws committee, Ken drafted an amendment to allow for electronic balloting, which was subsequently approved. He then set up a secure electronic voting mechanism that is more efficient and cost-effective than paper balloting, while preserving each member's right to a secret ballot. After our election was held and publicized in April, we received requests from other sections on both the bylaws requirements and technical aspects of conducting electronic elections. Ken will share his expertise on this at the SIS Council business meeting in Boston this July.

Publicity

The CS-SIS also achieved greater visibility among the entire association by submitting articles for almost every issue of AALL Spectrum's "SIS News" column. Activities that were highlighted include CS-sponsored educational programs, service initiatives, philanthropic work, accomplishments of our SIS as a whole, and the noteworthy accomplishments of our individual members. CS-SIS events will also be featured in every daily issue of the annual meeting newspaper in Boston, "The HUB."

Communication

We continue to look for ways to expand opportunities for communication with and among our membership. We have three primary means of communication, all of which act primarily as announcement vehicles. Our Web site, at http://www.aallnet.org/sis/cssis/, contains links to CS information and resources. We are completing an overhaul of the Web site's design, which will result in an improvement in its look, usability, and ease of revision. We published two issues of our newsletter, Connecting..., in December and June. Both issues were published in electronic format via our Web site, resulting in savings of hundreds of dollars in printing and mailing costs. Our e-mail discussion list, CSSIS-L, was auto-populated in the early autumn with all of our members' e-mail addresses, ensuring full distribution of messages to our membership. Since the most effective channel of active communication among our members continues to be the in-person encounter, we have made efforts to increase turnout at our annual meeting and CALI conference events through the judicious use of prizes and giveaways.

Philanthropy

The CS-SIS increased its giving on behalf of the association by making a $1,000 pledge to the George Strait Minority Scholarship Endowment in order to help this worthy cause reach its $100,000 goal this year. We also continued to provide financial assistance to librarians who hold promise of future involvement in the law library profession, especially those who are directly involved in providing technology support of any kind within law libraries. This year's grant recipients are:

Service

We increased our activities of service to the profession in three areas. First, the CS-SIS Job Descriptions Database expanded to over 700 entries this year. Employers who are creating or revising their job descriptions can use this resource as a collection of models to work from. Second, we are working on a similar database to highlight the collection strengths of academic law libraries in the United States. Third, we are working on an adaptive technologies addition to our Web site to help Web page creators improve accessibility in their Web page designs.

Annual Meeting

Four CS-sponsored programs were approved for the 2004 annual meeting:

Other CS meetings and events in Boston will include:

Executive Board

The Nominating Committee put together a competitive slate of candidates for our two offices in contention this year. Congratulations to our new officers:

They will join the continuing members of our 2004-2005 Executive Board:

A fond farewell and huge thank-you to our Board members whose terms are expiring:

Committees

The Computing Services Special Interest Section has concluded a year of growth and stability. We accomplished a number of things, but much work remains for the future. With continued strong leadership and active participation, great things are possible.

Respectfully submitted, Don Arndt, CS-SIS Chair, 2003-2004