Ben on the value of the AALL Annual Meeting and why the connections made there are so important
Ben Doherty is the Head of Library Instruction and a Research Librarian at the University of Virginia Law Library in Charlottesville, Virginia.
WHY DID YOU JOIN AALL?
I joined AALL when I first started as a librarian at the University of Virginia (UVA) Law Library because the library provides memberships to all of its librarians. It was just automatic that we were part of our professional associations.
WHY DO YOU STAY A MEMBER?
I believe in collective power. Librarians are undervalued as a profession. At the UVA Law School, most of the people who work in the library only earn a small fraction of what the law professors earn. Professional associations such as AALL are important so that we connect with one another as a large group, beyond our individual work settings. Those connections are important to maintaining, or even increasing, our value as a group of people who provide a vital service to society.
WHAT ONE MEMBER BENEFIT IS MOST VALUABLE TO YOU?
The AALL Annual Meetings. We have had to pause from having the Meetings in person to keep everyone safe during the pandemic, but I hope that we’re able to get back to them sometime in the future. I think it’s important to be able to get away from your work or home setting and connect with your colleagues in a new place. AALL has set up some terrific opportunities where we have been able to connect virtually, and I have met some wonderful colleagues online who I may never have met in person. However, I think the chance to get together in person in a fun city is so important.
WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE MEMORY ASSOCIATED WITH AALL?
In my first few years as a librarian at UVA Law, my colleagues Micheal Klepper, Cathy Palombi, Taylor Fitchett (the director at the time) and I put together a AALL Annual Meeting presentation for which we all dressed up in costume and put on a skit as a way of discussing organizational leadership styles. At Taylor’s insistence, we rehearsed weekly for about six months before the presentation. It turned out to be a lot of fun and we got a big audience for it at AALL. The best part, though, were those weekly rehearsals—a fun way to really work closely with your colleagues.
WHAT DO YOU ENJOY DOING OUTSIDE OF WORK?
I like spending time with my spouse, Lisa Woolfork, and my family. I especially like cooking dinner for them each night. I like to garden and sit with the bees and the birds. I’ve always liked running, and that’s been especially good for me during the pandemic—it’s often a solitary activity for me and a nice, safe way to get out into the world. Lisa and I are also involved with the anti-racist activist community in Charlottesville, often getting out into the streets to protest injustice and oppose white supremacy. We’ve met some truly wonderful people through that activism work.
WHAT BOOK(S) ARE YOU CURRENTLY READING?
I am currently rereading Michelle Alexander’s The New Jim Crow as part of a Common Read discussion group at the UVA law school. It’s such an important book showing why as a society we need to abolish our current system of criminal “justice.” During the pandemic, I’ve been trying to read a little poetry each day, including poems by Rita Dove—who is a member of the English Department at UVA. I also just started reading Louise Erdrich’s The Night Watchman. I really like her work. This is the second of her books I’ve read during the pandemic.
WHAT’S YOUR FAVORITE TRAVEL/VACATION DESTINATION?
I’m lucky to have family in New York City, the Massachusetts’ coast, Florida, and Dallas—all wonderful places to visit, when we’re not in a pandemic. Beyond family visits, I really like California—particularly Los Angeles. Lisa and I have been there for vacation and conferences and always have a great time. Great people and terrific food. We were supposed to go to Paris this past summer for Lisa’s 50th birthday, but had to postpone because of the pandemic. I hope we can get there sometime in the near future.