My favorite film on technical services professional development (t.s. p.d.) is It’s A Wonderful Life. The film reminds me how dependent we all are on those around us, and what a community would be like without the contributions of each person. I wonder what technical services law librarianship would be like without your contributions? How have you given to the community of librarians in our profession?

As I begin this column, I think what would professional development among OBS & TS law librarians be like without the life of others, especially Brian Striman? Brian wrote the inaugural Research & Publications column for TSLL in 1992 (v. 18, no. 1, p. 8), beginning with this prescient declaration:

"The purpose of this new column is to provide the following information: 1) to report on the research activities of our colleagues (if known); 2) to provide a research "idea pool;" 3) to discuss research methodology; and 4) to include publishing opportunities for technical services law librarians."

Brian started TSLL’s Research & Publications column as an outgrowth of his prior work as 1) Chair of the TSSIS Ad Hoc Committee to Investigate Publishing Opportunities for Technical Services Law Librarians 1989-1991 (appointed by Renee Chapman); 2) member of the AALL Standing Committee on Research 1989-1993; and 3) founder and coordinator of the OBS/TS Open Research Roundtable 1992-1998 (appointed by Alva Stone). Since 1992, Brian authored 10 R&P columns (and various other p.d. notes and reports) in TSLL, sharing over 50 publishing opportunities, 32 ideas and articles about t.s. p.d., and 30 TS and OBS colleagues’ publications and presentations. In addition, he spearheaded the OBS/TS Joint Research Grant, and chaired that committee its first year (1997-98).

I highlight Brian’s important work since his example of creative initiative and service for each of us is itself an example we can follow in our personal development as technical services law librarians. And since Brian "George Bailey" Striman is so busy sharing what others are doing, I don’t think he’ll get around to talking about himself or his "wonderful life" as a technical services law librarian. (For additional inspiration, read the twenty-five technical services lives profiled in Cataloging & Classification Quarterly, vol. 25, nos. 2/3-4, 1998. An additional source of ideas is Charles W. Bailey’s new Version 20 of his Scholarly Electronic Publishing Bibliography at http://info.lib.uh.edu/sepb/sepb.html.)

Publishing Opportunities
I work in my law library’s Technical Services Department as a Government Documents/Microforms Librarian, so many of the p.d. opportunities I’m highlighting are related to government documents. However, most of the following are open to non-government librarians in technical services law librarianship. If you discover others, Ellen McGrath and I would be interested in sharing them.

Carol Avery Nicholson (University of North Carolina) seeks volunteers to assist with an upcoming update to the Law Library Systems Directory. Contact her at: cnichol@email.unc.edu or (919) 962-1199. Look for her survey updates this Winter.

The editor of Trends in Law Library Management and Technology, Mark Estes (Holme Roberts & Owen LLP, Denver), welcomes technical services contributors (and book reviewers). Contact him at: mestes@csn.net or (303) 866-0260. Mark Estes made the July 1998 cover of Library Journal for his article on law librarians and the Internet.

Cataloging Government Documents: A Manual of Interpretation for AACR2 (1984) is currently being revised by Rhonda Marker (Rutgers) under the auspices of the ALA GODORT Cataloging Committee, and she seeks assistance from law librarians. Rhonda Marker needs a chapter written on cataloging legal publications (govt. docs), including loose-leaf services. She is also very interested in receiving anyone’s examples of "thorny cataloging problems." Contact her at: rmarker@rci.rutgers.edu or (609) 426-1536, through December 1998.

Another government documents forum looking for more technical services programs is the annual Federal Depository Library Conference in Washington, D.C. (next one is April 12-15, 1999). The August 15, 1998 issue of GPO’s Administrative Notes (vol. 19, no. 10), at http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/dpos/adnotes.html#4, asks for librarians to volunteer as speakers or suggest speakers and topics. The deadline is Oct. 30, 1998. Contact Sheila McGarr, Chief, Depository Services Library Programs Service (SLLD), in Washington, D.C., at: smcgarr@gpo.gov or (202) 512-1119.

The U.S. Government Printing Office’s Administrative Notes: Technical Supplement has a section called "Readers Exchange," which includes notes by non-GPO contributors on government documents, including processing, cataloging and related issues. The current editor is Laurie Beyer Hall (GPO, Washington, D.C.), at: lhall@gpo.gov or (202) 512-1062. See also http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/dpos/techsup.html.

The Journal of Government Information (formerly Government Publications Review) includes articles and book reviews that sometimes pertain to the technical services aspects of government documents. The current Editor-in-Chief is Steven D. Zink (University of Nevada, Reno), at: stevenz@ unr.edu or (702) 784-6500, ext. 253. See also http://www.lib.auburn.edu/madd/docs/jgi/title.html.

Acquisitions and other t.s. law librarians ought to contribute to the Law Library Journal’s informal series of state legal practice materials (waiting for some 30 states!). The most recent one (on Wisconsin) mentions the assistance of TSSIS member Virginia Meier, at 90 LLJ 219 fn. * (1998). Frank Houdek (Southern Illinois University) is LLJ’s editor at: houdek@siu.edu or (618) 4538788.

Another opportunity is the AALL Government Documents State Documents Bibliography Series. See http://www.aallnet.org/sis/gd/stateb.html for a list of the 45 U.S. state and Canadian provinces done so far. Only 10 have been revised or completed since 1990 (in pre-Internet days), so there are more possibilities here than you may first think. Contact the current GD-SIS chair, Charlene Cain (Louisiana State University), at: llcain@lsuvm. sncc.lsu.edu or (504) 388-4957. Brian Striman & friends did Nebraska’s state docs bibliography in this series ten years ago, another example of his life of service.