Over the past year, the Social Responsibilities SIS has achieved milestones and made contributions to the community at large.

Our Standing Committee on Lesbian and Gay Issues celebrates its 20th anniversary in 2005 with a program at AALL in San Antonio. Longstanding members of the SC will talk about then and now and the role the group has played in AALL. The SR assisted the Legal Information Services to the Public SIS in their effort to ask AALL leadership for assistance and guidance on submitting court briefs in cases dealing with issues important to our members. In November 2004 the AALL Executive Board passed such a policy. This issue arose because we wanted to submit an amicus brief in a Florida case challenging the elimination of prison law libraries.

The SR Book Drive grows into its seventh year! This service project continues to help needy children in our Annual Meeting host cities and allows our members to make a personal connection to the communities. We provided monetary assistance to help in the effort to rebuild libraries destroyed by the devastating Asian tsunami of December 2004.

Whether here or abroad, the SR-SIS works to raise awareness and assist those in need when possible. It is an honor to work with a group holding such a mission and with such committed and dedicated people. Thank you for the opportunity to serve as your Chair in 2004-05.

Ann Hemmens, Chair
Social Responsibilities SIS
hemmens@u.washington.edu

The SR-SIS ballots for this year's election have been counted and the Nominations Committee is pleased to announce that Elvira Embser-Herbert has been elected as the incoming Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect. Please join the Nominations Committee in congratulating Elvira and in thanking Courtney Selby for agreeing to run for office.

This year's ballot also included proposed changes to three bylaws amendments. The Nominations Committee is please to announce that all three bylaws amendments passed. A brief summary of the amendments appears below and background information and the text of the amendments can be found at http://www.aallnet.org/sis/srsis/sr-sis_bylaws_amendments_FINAL.pdf.

Amendment #1 - PASSED

This amendment allows the SR-SIS to conduct electronic elections for officers instead of requiring a paper ballot.

Amendment #2 - PASSED

This amendment allows the Nominations Committee to select a minimum of one candidate per office rather than requiring that two candidates be presented for each office up for election.

Amendment #3 - PASSED

This amendment sets out the procedure for amending the SR-SIS bylaws.

Submitted by
Alison Alifano, Chair
SR-SIS Nominations Committee

Please attend the two SR-SIS programs at AALL 2005 in San Antonio.

• Program A-5: Visionary Collection Development: Strategies for Building Legal Collections on Emerging Social Issues (Sunday July 17 th 10-11:30am)
• Program Coordinator: Larry Reeves, Senior Reference Librarian, Loyola Law School
• Moderator: Courtney Selby, Collection Development Librarian, University of Tulsa Law Library
• Program F-6: Realizing Visions and Valuing History: Twenty Years of the Standing Committee on Lesbian and Gay Issues (Tuesday July 19 th 9-10am)
• Program Coordinator & Moderator: Elvira Embser-Herbert, Circulation Librarian, University of Minnesota Law Library

For more information on these programs, see the Fall 2004 SR-SIS Newsletter (http://www.aallnet.org/sis/srsis/newsletter/volume14/no1.html#Antonio) and the Preliminary Program (http://www.aallnet.org/events/05_PreProgram.pdf).

Students reading in a San Antonio Elementary School Library.

The Social Responsibilities Special Interest Section (SR-SIS) is coordinating the 7 th annual children's book drive in San Antonio. The theme this year is Fiesta of Books. This year's efforts will benefit the San Antonio Independent School District's most needy school libraries. These schools have high numbers of at risk children, and most of their populations identify as both ethnic minorities and as economically disadvantaged.

We are happy to report that the Book Drive is well under way! We have already received many wonderful books and donations. We hope that you will participate in this year's book drive. It is easier than ever! You can go to Amazon.com to choose from the Book Drive Wish List (click on the “Wish List” link and then search for “AALL” or “Fiesta of Books”), and your donation will be shipped directly to the Book Drive Team. Other options include bringing your donation with you to the conference and donating at SR-SIS table, or sending your donation check made out to AALL to:

Fiesta of Books c/o Barbara Lah
University of New Mexico School of Law Library
MSC 11-6080
Albuquerque, NM 87131-0001
lah@law.unm.edu

Submitted by
Barbara Lah

Annual Reception

Please join us the evening of Tuesday July 19, between 7:00 and 10:00 p.m., (following our annual business meeting) for our annual reception. This year's reception, celebrating the Standing Committee's twentieth year, will be held at Boudro's, 421 E. Commerce, at Presa, a short distance from the San Antonio Convention Center. The reception will feature fine hors d'oeuvres and desserts and a cash bar. The requested donation is $15. Please see the announcement and invitation in this newsletter.

This year's reception has been made possible by the generous contributions of our major sponsors, LexisNexis and Thomson-West. An additional contribution was provided by Commerce Clearing House. Please let our sponsors know how much we appreciate their continuing interest in and support of the work of the Standing Committee.

Proposed Bylaws Changes

At the Standing Committee's annual business meeting, to be held Tuesday July 19 (5:15 p.m. – 6:15 p.m.), we will consider and vote on some amendments to the Standing Committee bylaws. A copy of the proposed bylaw changes may be found in this newsletter. For reference, a complete copy of the current bylaws may be found on the SR-SIS website: http://www.aallnet.org/sis/srsis/lgbt/bylaws.html.

The proposal seeks to restructure our board by combining the positions of treasurer and secretary. Due to recent clarification of the relationship between the Standing Committee and the SR-SIS, it was determined that a separate position of Standing Committee Treasurer is no longer necessary. The new position of Secretary/Treasurer would be responsible for coordinating with the SR-SIS Treasurer on matters of donations to and receipts of the Standing Committee.

We also are proposing to change the bylaws amendment procedures to specifically allow e-mail notification of members and to change the voting requirement, from a simple majority vote with a quorum of thirty, to a two-thirds vote of an easier-to-reach quorum of twenty.

Bibliography on Sexual Orientation and the Law

An update to the bibliography of sexual orientation and the law is currently under preparation. The bibliography was originally published in 1994 at 86 Law Library Journal 1. We are hoping for the 1993-2004 update to be ready for submission to the Law Library Journal sometime next year.

Thanks go to James Donovan and Stephanie Wilson for their hard work in updating the bibliography. So far they have collected an enormous number of citations to books, cases and articles covering the last ten years and have revamped the subject indexing from the original. If anyone is interested in volunteering their services on the bibliography, particularly in writing annotations, please let us know.

Twentieth Anniversary Program

Please join us in San Antonio for program F-6, entitled “Realizing Visions and Valuing History: Twenty Years of the Standing Committee for Lesbian and Gay Issues.” Moderated by Elvira Embser-Herbert, the program features a panel discussion on the founding and history of the Standing Committee. Speakers include long-time Standing Committee members Carol Alpert, Albert Brecht, Camille Broussard, Laura Gasaway, George Jackson, Marilyn Nicely, Scott Pagel and Ann Puckett. As stated in the program description, “[t]he audience will be part of this casual campfire reminiscence, listening to the panelists' experiences, visions and ideas for the vistas ahead.” The program will be offered on Tuesday, July 19 at 9:00 a.m.

Submitted by
Jeffrey J. Berns, Chair
Standing Committee on Lesbian and Gay Issues

In 2004, Rebecca Trammell, Chair of the Standing Committee, updated the federal and general sections of Werner's Manual for Prison Law Libraries, 3 rd ed., published by William S. Hein.

If you are interested in working on any of the projects of this Standing Committee, please attend the Business Meeting at AALL in San Antonio (Monday July 18 th 7:45-8:45am). We are a small group with a lot of big ideas – so we look forward to all newcomers. Some of our projects include - adding more libraries to the online Directory of Law Libraries Serving Prisoners, updating the Recommended Collections for Prison and Other Institution Law Libraries (1996 ed.), and creating a webpage with information on donating books to prison libraries.

After the success of the Joint Roundtable on Service to Pro Se Patrons and Prisoners at AALL in Boston, we are doing it again in San Antonio (Monday July 18 th 5:15-6:15pm). Please join us for a discussion of research into the collections (print and online) in U.S. state prison law libraries and innovative services to Pro Se patrons (self-represented litigants).

In November 2004 the Executive Board approved a policy allowing Special Interest Sections to submit court briefs in cases raising issues important to AALL. Below is a portion of the policy:

“If a Special Interest Section or other member entity wishes to file a brief in a court proceeding on behalf of the Association, a request to do so should be made in writing to the President, the Executive Director, or the Washington Affairs Representative. On copyright-related matters, the request may be submitted to the Chair of the Copyright Committee. The request should outline the facts of the case, the nature of the issue at stake, why the issue is important to AALL, the due date for the submission of the brief, and whether or not known counsel is available to prepare the brief and at what cost.”

A member of the AALL Washington Affairs Office will supervise the preparation and submission of the brief. If money beyond what is available in the Government Affairs Fund is needed to pay for the brief, an appeal may be made to the Board for funds.

In the summer of 2003 the Chair of Legal Information Services to the Public SIS (Amy Hale-Janeke) asked the SR-SIS to join them in providing monetary support for the preparation of an amicus brief in a Florida case involving prisoners suing the FL Department of Corrections for decimating its prison law libraries. This request fits in with the mission of the SR generally and the Standing Committee on Library Service to Institution Residents specifically, so we agreed to contribute financially. The brief was authored by Linda Friedman Ramirez (in FL) and Michael Kaye (of the San Diego County Public Law Library). The brief highlights the activities of the Standing Committee including the publication of Recommended Collections for Prison Law Libraries, which aids prison administrators in establishing reasonably adequate legal collections in prison law libraries. According to the brief, “[t]hat publication has established AALL as a recognized authority on legal information resources for prisoners.”

Unfortunately, our application to file the amicus brief in the Henderson v. Crosby case was rejected. The First District Court of Appeal in Florida “exercised its discretion to deny the motion in light of the number of amici curiae which have previously been granted leave to appear in this cause.” Although our voice was not heard in this particular case, the raising of this issue lead the LISP and SR to ask the Executive Board for an official policy on submitting briefs. And we now have one. The full policy is available on AALLNET, http://www.aallnet.org/about/AALL_Briefs_Policy.pdf.

Submitted by
Ann Hemmens

In response to the call for assistance from Sri Lankan libraries following the tragic South Asia tsunami of December 26, 2004, the Social Responsibilities Special Interest Section donated $1,000 to the Sri Lanka National Library & Documentation Services Board. On January 20, 2005, AALL Executive Director Susan Fox announced that "in Sri Lanka alone, the National Library has identified, either as destroyed or damaged, 177 school libraries, 53 public libraries and 68 libraries attached to religious institutions." The SR-SIS is honored to be able to offer assistance to help the people of Sri Lanka rebuild and recover.

In March 2005 Susan Fox announced that AALL has joined with other library organizations (American Library Association, Association of Library and Information Science Educators, Association of Research Libraries, Medical Library Association, and the Special Libraries Association) to create a nonprofit organization accepting and distributing donations to help rebuild the libraries destroyed by the tsunami. More information on this organization, the Library Disaster Relief Fund, is available at http://www.aallnet.org/press/disaster_relief_fund.asp.

More information about the condition of libraries in the area can be found on the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) website (http://tinyurl.com/48bzx) and the International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA) website (http://www.ifla.org/V/press/tsunami04.htm).

The SR-SIS Executive Board would like to extend a special "thank you" to Prano Amjadi for bringing this issue and request for action to the attention of the Board.

Submitted by
Ann Hemmens