Return to the AALL website American Association
of Law Libraries 		Social Responsibilities
Special Interest Section

SR-SIS Newsletter, vol. 11, no. 1 (October, 2000


by Carol Billings

Our Social Responsibilities Program Committee is pleased to report that on August 1 1 we submitted six program proposals representing a wide variety of social issues to AALL's Annual Meeting Program Selection Committee. This year's AMPSC, chaired by SRSIS member Kathie Sullivan, has been hard at work since early summer planning for Minneapolis, where the theme will be "2001: New Realities. New Roles." We expect to be notified about AMPSC's choices by around October 1.

Our SR Committee--Allison Alifano, John Davey, George Jackson, Marilyn Nicely, Nickie Singleton, Laura W'hitbeck, and Carol Billings--met in Philadelphia to brainstorm about possible topics and after returning home, communicated regularly by phone and e-mail to turn their ideas into polished proposals. The following topics were sent to AMPSC for approval:

  1. "Pornography on the Internet: A New Reality." A discussion of theoretical and practical issues that librarians face in trying to avoid offending some patrons without censoring information access for others.
  2. "Where There's a Will: New Realities in Your Personal Legal Documents." To help us get our legal affairs in order, an experienced attorney will discuss state laws, marital status, property ownership and other considerations in estate planning and the creation of documents necessary to protect our loved ones.
  3. "American Indian Law: The New Reality of Native Sovereignty." The basics of federal Indian law and tribal law, accompanied by bibliographic resources.
  4. "Appointments with Destiny: Anticipating a Changing Supreme Court." Experienced Supreme Court watchers speculate about how the cast of justices may change during the next few years and how their interpretations may alter the legal landscape.
  5. "Religion and Public Education: Is Separation Realistic?" As the separation of church and state remains a heated debate topic in the public school arena, legal scholars will guide us through the quagmire of Establishment Clause jurisprudence, prognosticating about what lies ahead.
  6. "Cyber-Sovereignty: American Indian Tribes and the Internet." As large numbers of American Indian tribes embrace the Internet as a means of community-building, economic development, and improved communications, the issue of providing access to remote areas has created concerns about how to bridge the digital divide. The committee also communicated with several other SIS's, chapters, and committees, agreeing to sign on as co-sponsors of program proposals on capital punishment, transgender civil rights, the digital divide, and the elimination of bias in LC subject headings. Our Internet pornography proposal is cosponsored by the State, Court and County Law Libraries SIS.

Keeping Up With the First Years

Law librarians look to increase salaries while economy is good

An article by Anthony Aarons of Law.com focused on an AALL educational program that was sponsored by SR-SIS. The program, "Do Our Salaries Reflect our Leadership?" was featured in the July 17, 2000 issue of Law.com under their news for legal professionals.

Aarons' article stated,'The key for law librarians is to shed what many agree is a passive stance during negotiations. Law librarians need to ask for high salaries and must be prepared with comparative salary figures and better job descriptions that reflect librarians' growing role at most firms.

For more go to http://www.law.com. Search: news keyword: aall.

DISJOINTED RAMBLINGS FROM THE CHAIR...

As I finally (Prano made me) sit down to write my first column, my mind grows blank, what inspiring, or controversial things can I say?? Or shall I just tell you what's been going on since the meeting and what's being planned ....

First, a recap of the annual meeting .... Our programs were well attended, the business meetings were packed and productive, the outreach program to the schools was a huge success and the discussion and presentations at the Diversity Symposium were thought provoking.

Next, a quick summary of what's in the works Carol Billings has been working on our program submissions for the next meeting and headquarters has already begun the scheduling process for next year's business meetings and programs as the endless cycle of planning for the annual meetings continues. John Davey has begun the critical task of finding at least one qualified, committed member to run for Vice-Chair/Chair Elect in this coming spring's election.

The latest flap .... The Council of SIS chairs has asked the Executive Board to address the issues of prominent displays of vendor-sponsor names on annual meeting materials. The specific incident which triggered this was the positioning of Lexis' name on the badges and the accompanying lanyard, and concern that this was excessive and eclipsed our association name. Here is Roger Parent's response: Please feel free to share my remarks with our SIS members who are concerned about the LEXIS promotion in Philadelphia. As you know, I'm responsible for offering LEXIS the opportunity to place their logo on our registration name tags and lanyards. This was my idea, not theirs. At no time did LEXIS pressure AALL to promote their company in this way in Philadelphia.

When the Board expressed concern about my action after I informed them, Margie worked with me to make this action as uncontroversial with our members as possible. She worked with me and LEXIS to address the need to recognize and thank the company for their outstanding support of the Association, without offending the registrants with excessive commercialization. It was not an easy goal and I think we were only partially successful.

There are two things to keep in mind about my offer to LEXIS: First, on behalf of AALL I approached LEXIS and asked for a contribution of $10,000 to pay for a portion of the extra $25,000 in costs associated with outsourcing registration processing. In exchange for this contribution I offered LEXIS prominent recognition on registration materials that were mailed prior to the Annual Meeting and on registration badges. This was a very unique offer that I made only to LEXIS because of their support of the Opening Reception. If LEXIS had refused, I would not have made the offer to anyone else.

Second, the Opening Reception represents by far the largest contribution to AALL and to registrants. The event costs in excess of $100,000.

Without LEXIS' support registrants would have had to pay $50 for an Opening Reception ticket in Philadelphia. I believe that when a company makes this level of commitment to the association and to our members, we need to be sure to recognize them in a commensurate way.

I hope this information is helpful. Please let me know if you would like additional information.

-Roger H. Parent, Executive Director,
American Association of Law Libraries

I~ A call for volunteers and candidates What message from any chair would be complete without this time honored plea?? If you have any special interests or talents, please give me a call (408-5545139) or send me an email (eplatt(cDscu.edu) and I will do my best to find you a spot where your talents can shine. If you're interested in being the Vice-ChairIChair Elect, don't be shy, there's no shame in selfnomination - especially when everyone else thinks somebody else is going to fill this key role and no one steps forward at all! And that is all .... Well my evening reference shift has come to an end, I am going to sign off. Keep those cards and letters com ing .... And maybe next newsletter I can get Bruce to ghost my message!

ELLEN PLATT

PHOENIX RISING: RESEARCH REVISITED by Bruce Kleinschmidt

In June I got a curious email message from a stranger. It simply asked me if I was the person who had written an article in 1974 about a lynching that occurred in South Carolina in 1898. I replied that I was the author and I would be delighted to help as I still had a great deal of my research. And thus I began to communicate with a fellow from Greenwood, South Carolina, who had come across my senior history paper while doing research in his county library. Someone had mentioned to him that on Election Day in 1898 eight black men were lynched for attempting to vote at the precinct known as "Phoenix." My correspondent had the good sense to visit his library and there found my paper. So he tracked me down from my college's alumni website.

You can imagine my pleasure in his interest. As it turns out, I was the last living link to the riot. I had interviewed an 86-year-old woman back in 1974. At that time she was the only eyewitness to the lynching who was known. I was the only one who bothered to coax any comments from her. And it wasn't easy. She was scared to talk about what she had seen at age seven, even though all the others were dead. A lot of that was also fear of describing her father as a member of a lynch mob.

My writer is preparing an application to the State of South Carolina Department of Archeology to exhume the mass grave and erect appropriate tombs for the dead men. I still had the film I took in 1974 so he could see what the land looked like and where I was told where the lynching tree was, already cut down then, and approximately where the grave was, since the creek had changed course slightly. The men were lynched at the white church and buried at the edge of the land owned by the white church.

Now the foregoing paragraph is odd.

Read it again. Why would a tree be more important than the graves? The tree stood as a warning that people who tried to escape from their place in that culture were going to be punished. And people who did something like trying to vote did not deserve the dignity of their own grave. It was clearly recorded in 1898, by the reporters covering the situation, that the dead men were not going to be rewarded a burial at the black church because that might make them heroes.

Almost immediately, most of the black families in the Phoenix area of Greenwood Co., South Carolina signed peonage contracts to work in Mississippi. To me that was always the mystery of the lynching. How had those folks who left fared?

Well, your narrator was humbled by this experience. Who would have thought that the research of a college senior would be of value twenty-six years on to someone who wanted to correct an injustice? I certainly hope that the grant is approved and that I can be there when a monument is unveiled.

But an ending couldn't come without the middle. I hope Miss Watson, the reference librarian I worked with in 1974, senses how much I still appreciate her assistance in my research and the fact that she got my research cataloged and into the collection of her library.

Bruce Kleinschmidt

Minutes of the Annual Business Meeting of the Social Responsibility Special Interest Section, American Association of Law Libraries Sunday, July 16, 2000
  1. The Meeting was called to order by John Davey at 4:05 p.m.
  2. Reading of the Minutes from the 1999 Meeting was dispensed with; Minutes approved.
  3. Mark Mackler delivered the Treasurer's Report.
  4. Reports from the Committees:
    1. For the Standing Committee on Lesbian and Gay Issues: Laura Whitbeck reported that there has been no substantive activity regarding the Holoch Bequest, The Vendor Survey and the Bibliography. The Annual Reception will take place on Tuesday in the Presidential Suite.
    2. For the Standing Committee on Service to Institutional Residents: Rebecca Trammel was absent due to illness. There was no report.
    3. For the Education Committee: Carol Billings reported that the deadline for Proposals is August 14. They should be submitted in priority order. These programs will take place on Sunday during AALL. Carl recommended that we get ideas by looking at tile current news: Supreme Court developments, the death penalty, human genome mapping. Carol also mentioned that several other SIS's had their proposals ready by the tinge of their respective business meetings.

    John floated the idea of earlier elections for our SIS officers.

  5. Old Business:
    1. Ellen Platt attended an SIS Leadership Retreat. It focused on leadership qualities and the role of the various SIS's. The problems faced by other SIS's are similar to ours.
    2. John Spoke about tile Book Drive for the Philadelphia Public Schools.
  6. New Business:
    1. Election Results: Carol Billings, Vice Chair/ Chair Elect; Mark Mackler Secretary/Treasurer (2 years).
    2. Newsletter editor: Prano Amjadi
    3. Webmaster: Rebecca Alexander Prano reminded everyone about tile importance of submitting material for the newsletter. Rebecca was acknowledge for her terrific work on our Website.
    4. Other new business:
      1. Isn't it time to update our SIS brochure`?
      2. We have about 200 members.
      3. How about the idea of mailing the brochure to new AALL members? Also how about mailing the Newsletter to other SIS's and Committees, e.g.; The Diversity Committee, AALL Board Members and the AALL, Executive Committee?
  7. Installation of Officers. Ellen Platt was installed as new Chair of the SIS. She restated the importance of early program proposals, early elections, and outreach to other SIS's.
  8. The meeting was adjourned at 4:55 p.m.

Mark Mackler
Secretary/Treasurer

As we go through the year, please feel free to contact me with any of your ideas for the Standing Committee. One of my goals this year is to increase the visibility of the Standing Committee and lesbian and gay librarians in AALL. I think our major projects can serve this purpose, but we also need better use the available media.

The Standing Committee newsletter, COLLAGE, has ceased publication. Instead of creating a separate newsletter for an additional expense, with some of the same content as the SR-SIS newsletter, all Standing Committee news will all be included in the SR-SIS newsletter. Please remember that Standing Committee members are requested to be members of the Social Responsibilities SIS and pay the $12.00 dues. Many thanks go out to Prano Amjadi for her fine work over the years as SR-SIS newsletter editor, and for continuing in that capacity again this year! Please support her and the newsletter by submitting articles of interest, opinion pieces, etc.

Thanks also go to Rebecca Alexander for maintaining the SR-SIS website, including the Standing Committee portions. We hope to include more and more information at the site, so please visit it often http://www.aallnet.org/sis/srsis/ In addition, you may find instructions on how to sign up for the listserv there at http://www.aallnet.org/sis/srsis/subscribe.htm

I look forward to working with all of you this year!

Minutes of the Annual Business Meeting
of the
Standing Committee on Lesbian and Gay Issues
Social Responsibility Special Interest Section, American Association of Law Libraries
Annual Business Meeting
Sunday, July 16, 2000

In the absence of Chair Todd Bennett, Chair-Elect Laura Whitbeck called the meeting to order at 5:10 p.m.

Treasurer, Jim Braden, reported briefly on matters related to the reception scheduled for Tuesday, July 18th. $480 had been received as of July 12th.

The Treasurer also reported on the status of the funds from the Holoch bequest. AALL is acting as the steward for these funds. The principal of $10,000 has accumulated $2,288 in earnings.

Approval of the Minutes
A motion was carried to approve the minutes of the Standing Committee's business meeting of July 19, 1999.

Old Business

  1. Holoch Bequest and Committee
    The Chair-Elect thanked Carol Alpert, Camille Broussard, James Duggan and George Jackson for volunteering to work on an ad hoc committee to allocate the money. $500 per year will be used for scholarship awards. The volunteer group is charged with establishing guidelines for the award. The Chair-Elect moved to entrust the group with the decision making power to make the award. The motion was carried.
  2. Vendor Employment and Benefits Committee
    A survey of legal information companies and their gay-related employment policies. Scott Burgh summarized remaining to be done: establish list of vendors; prepare questionnaire. Scott also noted that Martha Brown will provide an electronic list of all vendors.
    Volunteers continuing work on this project are Scott Burgh, Albert Brecht, and Marilyn Nicely.
  3. Bibliography "Sexual Orientation and the Law"
    Camille Broussard volunteered to update the bibliography. In addition, Camille announced that the New York Law School Journal of Human Rights is having a symposium to honor Art Leonard and Lesbian and Gay Law Notes. Camille suggested that perhaps the bibliography can be published in their journal. Publication deadline will be in November 2000.
  4. Diversity Committee of AALL
    George Jackson encouraged Standing Committee members to attend the Diversity Committee's program on racial and sexual profiling, and requested ideas for next year's topic.

New Business

  1. Election of Officers
    By acclamation, the membership elected officers for 2000/2001. Laura Whitbeck will serve as Chair, Jim Braden will serve as Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect, Jeff Burns will serve as Treasurer and Mary Burgos will continue as Secretary.
  2. Reception Committee for Minneapolis Meeting
    Chair-Elect acknowledge the underwriting support of Lexis for Philadelphia reception. Reception location was changed from the William Way Center to president's suite due to delays to elevator repair at the Center. The Chair-Elect also thanked Michael Saint-Onge for arranging the new location in the president's suite. The Chair-Elect moved that the Standing Committee contribute towards the Center's elevator repair expenses. Motion passed. Puvill-Libros volunteered to contribute as well.
    Chair-Elect asked George Jackson to coordinate next year's reception.
  3. Programs for "2001: New realities, New Roles" due August 14th, 2000.
  4. COLLAGE newsletter
    Chair-Elect proposed to cease publishing COLLAGE and to incorporate Standing Committee new into SR/SIS newsletter. Membership in favor.
  5. Additional items/Announcements
    Chair-Elect thanked Rebecca Alexander for her work on the web site.
    Mary Hotchkiss acknowledged the passing of Curtis Robbins in May 2000.

    Meeting was adjourned at 5:55 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Mary Burgos
Secretary

Programming News Stops the Presses

Congratulations to Carol Billings and the Education Committee and all the program coordinators!

The following SR programs were accepted for the 2001 Annual Meeting in Minneapolis: