Revised June 23, 2023
Article I: NAME
The name of this special interest section of the American Association of Law Libraries (hereafter the Association) shall be the Library Systems & Resource Discovery SIS (hereafter the Section).
Article II: OBJECT
The LSRD-SIS provides leadership and guidance in the areas of library systems as well as discovery of library resources within the frameworks of those systems. The SIS explores, promotes, and shares information related to open-source as well as proprietary Integrated Library Systems (ILSs), Library Management Systems (LMSs), Library System Platforms (LSPs), Discovery platforms, Institutional Repositories (IRs), and digital repository platforms.
- The SIS supports law libraries by looking both within and outside of the law library community and seeks to partner with those various communities when appropriate.
- The SIS provides professional development opportunities for the law library community to disseminate innovation and promote potential transformation.
Additional focuses include:
- Fostering scholarly communication between stakeholders of repositories and their coordinators to improve findability of library resources.
- Promoting interoperability through programming/coding such as APIs (application programming interface or protocols such as Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting (OAI-PMH).
- Investigating and sharing new ways to use metadata and Persistent Identifiers (PIDs) that enhance discovery of scholarly publications and user access to information.
- Facilitating the exchange of information about systems among their members.
The section shall conduct its affairs in conformity with the Bylaws of the Association.
Article III: MEMBERSHIP
Membership shall be open to any member of the Association requesting affiliation with the Section as provided in the Bylaws of the Association. Membership shall be renewable each year.
Article IV: OFFICERS
Section 1. Officers.
The officers shall consist of a Chair, a Vice-chair/Chair-elect, a Past-chair, a Secretary/Treasurer and two (2) Members-at-Large.
Section 2. Duties of Officers.
These officers shall perform the duties as specified in the current Procedures Manual for the Section.
Section 3. Terms of Office.
The Vice-chair/Chair elect shall serve a three-year term, the first year as Vice-chair, the second year as Chair, and the third year as Past-chair. A new Vice-chair/Chair-elect shall be elected each year. The Secretary/Treasurer shall serve a two-year term, and shall be elected every other year. The Members-at-Large shall serve two-year terms, with the terms staggered so that one new Member-at-Large assumes office each year. Officers shall serve from the adjournment of the annual meeting of the Association until the adjournment of the subsequent annual meeting of the Association.
Section 4. Nominations and Elections
(a). The nominating committee shall nominate at least one candidate for each office.
(b). Only those members of the section holding individual or designated institutional membership in the Association are eligible to hold office.
(c). The names of candidates, together with their written acceptances, shall be presented by the nominating committee to the chair of the Section in sufficient time to enable the chair to inform members of the Section of the nominations.
(d). Further nominations may be made upon the written petition of five (5) members of the Section. Such petitions, with the written consent of the nominees, shall be filed with the secretary/treasurer, who prepares an official ballot, including nominations by petition.
(e). The secretary/treasurer shall provide a copy of the ballot to each member of the Section. Marked ballots shall be returned to the secretary/treasurer by a specified deadline. Provision of ballots, election and notification may all be done electronically.
The candidates receiving the largest number of votes shall be elected and shall be so reported at the annual meeting of the Section, at which time any print ballots shall be destroyed. All candidates shall be notified of the results of the election at the earliest possible time.
(f). All of the above procedures must be scheduled and executed so that elections are completed at least two (2) months prior to the date of the Annual Meeting of the Association.
(g). In case of a tie vote, a run-off election shall be held at the annual meeting or by distributing ballots to the members of the section.
(h). All vacancies in offices shall be filled by the executive committee for an interim term until the next regular election of officers, at which time said vacancies shall be filled by election, except that the vice chair/chair-elect shall automatically become chair upon a vacancy in such office and shall continue in that office until the expiration of the term for which that person was originally elected to serve as chair.
Article V: MEETINGS
Section 1.
There shall be an annual meeting of the Section held in conjunction with, or during, the Annual Meeting of the Association. The scheduling of the annual meeting during the annual meeting of AALL shall be cleared with the annual meeting program chair, or as otherwise provided in the AALL Bylaws. Meetings shall be open to all members of the Association (AALL), but no person may vote in any meeting who is not a Section member in good standing.
Section 2.
A quorum shall consist of the members present at the meeting.
Article VI. EXECUTIVE BOARD
Section 1. Membership.
There shall be an Executive Board consisting of the officers named in Article IV, Section 1 and the Chairs of standing committees.
Section 2. Duties.
The Executive Board shall conduct the business of the Section during the period between annual Section business meetings provided that none of its acts conflict with the Bylaws of the Association and of the SIS.
Section 3. Meetings.
The Executive Board shall meet during the annual meeting of the Association.
Section 4. Quorum.
A majority of the Executive Board members constitutes a quorum at any meeting of the Executive Board.
Article VII: COMMITTEES
Section 1.
There shall be such standing committees, administrative committees, or special committees as the Executive Board shall create, or shall be created by a majority vote of the membership at any official meeting of the Section. Members of these committees must be members of the Section. Unless otherwise provided, committee chairs shall be appointed by the Vice-chair/Chair-elect and must be approved by the Executive Board of the Section.
Section 2. NOMINATING COMMITTEE.
There shall be a nominating committee appointed by the Executive Board, to consist of three (3) members in good standing of the Section. None of these three (3) shall be a member of the Executive Board, and none of these three (3) shall be a candidate for office at the succeeding election. Each member of the committee shall serve for a term of one year. The Chair of the committee shall be designated by the Executive Board.
Article VIII: AMENDMENTS
Section 1.
These bylaws may be amended at the annual meeting of the Section by a majority of the members of the Section present and voting, or by majority of the votes cast by a mail or electronic ballot conducted by the secretary/treasurer.
Section 2.
30 days in advance of voting, notice of proposed amendments shall be provided to the members of the Section either electronically, by mail, or published in the newsletter of the Section.
Section 3.
If the bylaws will be amended at the annual meeting, members of the Section unable to attend may submit proxy votes to the secretary/treasurer prior to the meeting.
Article IX: PARLIAMENTARY AUTHORITY
The Section shall conduct its affairs in conformity with the bylaws of the Association. The rules of order mandated by the bylaws of the Association shall govern all deliberations of the Section.