Strategic Plan

Strategic Directions 2012

Mission Statement

Motto: We lead — We educate — We serve.

The Technical Services Special Interest Section (TS-SIS) of the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL) serves the interests of our members engaged in acquisitions, cataloging & classification, collection & preservation of information, serials control, and management, including management of digital resources. We provide members with opportunities for continuing education, research, networking, leadership, and advocacy to promote our vital role in the exchange and accessibility of information. The Section forges partnerships with non-law librarians in order to develop and monitor national and international initiatives and standards. TS-SIS upholds the vision and strategic directions of AALL.

Strategic Directions

Strategic direction 1: Broaden membership’s sense of community and develop leaders

  • Specific action 1.1: In the annual membership survey, increase the emphasis on the importance of volunteers for various committees; give priority to members who have not served on a committee to encourage participation
  • Specific action 1.2: Request that the Joint Reception Committee appoints a greeter at the Joint Reception to occupy a table at the entrance and provide nametags, with distinctive nametags for first-timers
  • Specific action 1.3: Introduce new technical services librarians at Annual Meeting roundtables
    • Create profiles or “spotlight” articles featuring newer TS-SIS members (less than 5 years) in Technical Services Law Librarian or on the website
  • Specific action 1.4: Ensure that the TS-SIS Chair or another designated officer is present at CONELL every year to publicize TS-SIS with the goal of recruiting new members
  • Specific action 1.5: Encourage TS-SIS members to participate in the AALL mentoring project, and promote informal mentoring relationships within TS-SIS
    • Facilitate a “Discussion of the Month” where all TS-SIS members could exchange information on best practices, problems, and other concerns related to technical services
  • Specific action 1.6: Specifically increase the visibility of non-catalogers by encouraging all technical service librarians to become leaders
  • Specific action 1.7: Develop and maintain strong partnerships with other related organizations, library schools, and vendors
    • Promote member awareness of current issues discussed at other professional conferences (ALA, ALCTS, NASIG, Charleston Conference, etc.)
      • Highlight members’ participation in such programs by featuring regular reports in Technical Services Law Librarian as “Member Notables”
      • Also feature reports in the TS-SIS “AALL Community” space, and/or on the website
    • Invite a dean and/or faculty member who teaches in the areas of technical services or law librarianship as TS-SIS VIP
      • Enlist support from VIPs to promote technical services in law librarianship as a career
      • The dean or faculty member should be from the same state or region where the annual meeting is held to reduce costs
      • Encourage VIP to participate in round-tables and TS-SIS social events
    • Partner with vendors in enhancing products and services

Strategic direction 2: Provide timely, cost-effective and high-quality programming for continuing education

  • Specific action 2.1: Solicit members for the TS-SIS Education Committee who represent a cross-section of technical services interests, and include a balance of new and more experienced members
  • Specific action 2.2: Explore web-based training opportunities and publicize them to members via the Technical Services Law Librarian, TS-SIS discussion forum (AALL Communities) and the TS-SIS website
  • Specific action 2.3: Establish a more formal system for designing, proposing, and supporting programs and workshops, to include these actions (AMPC)
    • Vigorously solicit ideas and be alert to issues of interest for program proposals
    • Stay abreast of programming at other conferences for possible topics
    • Encourage pre-meeting submissions of first drafts of program and workshop proposals for the following year’s meeting in order to have them ready for distribution and discussion at the Education Committee meeting
    • Submit a mix of program proposals that target both new and experienced TS-SIS members
    • Establish that the Education Committee will focus on less overlap of program proposals when it submits its rankings to the Annual Meeting Program Committee (AMPC)
    • Implement improvements to the program and workshop development process through AALL’s Continuing Professional Education Committee and AALL’s Annual Meeting Program Committee.
  • Specific action 2.4: Provide scholarships and grants to defray cost of continuing education attendance for members
    • Provide grants specifically for annual conference
    • Provide assistance for webinars and other AALL-sponsored continuing education events throughout the year
    • Provide sponsorships that would allow some continuing education events to be provided to all TS-SIS members for free
  • Specific action 2.5: Continue to use Technical Services Law Librarian and the TS-SIS website for educational purposes
  • Specific action 2.6: Create TS-SIS sponsored webinars to deliver education outside the Annual meeting
    • Apply for AALL grants to create and provide webinars
    • Ensure that these are archived on aall2Go and/or the AALL Learning Center
    • Research the feasibility of creating a TS-SIS YouTube channel or other appropriate social media site that would post materials not available on AALL servers
    • Work with the AALL Continuing Professional Education Committee on developing more technical service programs outside the Annual Meeting
  • Specific action 2.7: Facilitate and post digital recordings of TS-SIS sponsored programs from AALL annual conference through the TS-SIS website

Strategic direction 3: Create more visibility for TS-SIS within AALL

  • Specific action 3.1: Increase collaboration with other Special Interest Sections
    • Provide annual financial support (with OBS-SIS) for the joint research grant and actively recruit applicants
  • Specific action 3.2: Support publication and research aspirations of members
    • Encourage members to submit articles to Law Library Journal, Spectrum and other publications that reach a wider audience
    • Publicize member publications on the AALL website and in Technical Services Law Librarian
  • Specific action 3.3: Publicize the work of TS-SIS in the “From the Chair” column in Technical Services Law Librarian and in the “Special Interest Sections” column in the AALL E-Newsletter
  • Specific action 3.4: Maintain a highly visible presence at the TS-SIS activities table in the exhibit hall
  • Specific action 3.5: Investigate the feasibility of establishing TS-SIS liaisons to the “type-of-library” special interest sections: Academic Law Libraries SIS; Private Law Libraries SIS; and State, Court and County Law Libraries SIS
    • Differentiate the work of TS-SIS and OBS-SIS to avoid confusion among non-members
  • Specific action 3.6: Solicit members to assist Webmaster in maintaining the TS-SIS website and keeping it up-to-date with new information and design enhancements
    • Post items of interest regularly
    • Update website with names of new officers, committee chairs, and representatives in August of each year
    • Compose and add an FAQ section to the website
  • Specific action 3.7: Encourage use of the TS-SIS online community
  • Specific action 3.8: Encourage members to serve on AALL committees
  • Specific action 3.9: Submit at least two technical services librarians to run for the AALL Board each year

Strategic direction 4: Promote better communication between TS-SIS leadership and general membership

  • Specific action 4.1: Post TS-SIS board minutes online and notify membership
    • May be posted in “AALL My Communities” or other parts of AALL website, such as the TS-SIS home page
    • Notify members as to specific location through discussion list and/or other regular communication channel
  • Specific action 4.2: Develop regular feedback mechanisms, throughout the year and at the annual meeting, such as virtual “Town Hall” meetings, Q&A sessions, and/or surveys
  • Specific action 4.3: Encourage more members to participate and serve on TS-SIS committees
  • Specific action 4.4: The TS-SIS Chair will solicit and give updates from the various committees and other officers, if the committee chairs or other officers cannot be present during the Executive Board meetings

Strategic direction 5: Advocate for technical services librarianship as a profession

  • Specific action 5.1: Develop presentations and other resources to help managers (academic, government, private) better understand technical services and related “policy” issues
  • Specific action 5.2: Encourage collaboration among law librarians by developing materials, programming, and initiatives that involve a broad cross section of AALL membership
  • Specific action 5.3: Design a workshop or webinar series that explains the foundations of technical services to solo and non-academic librarians who have performed technical services functions
    • Highlight competencies
    • Focus on all major technical services functions (cataloging, acquisitions, serials, etc.)
    • Disseminate materials via website to library schools
  • Specific action 5.4: Publish recruitment materials regarding technical services functions for library students and non-technical services librarians thinking about a career change
    • Highlight competencies
    • Focus on all major functions (cataloging, acquisitions, serials, etc.)
    • Disseminate materials via website to library schools
  • Specific action 5.5: Create a mentorship group that will help technical services librarians who are facing downsizing, severe budget cuts, and/or job elimination
    • Consider grants for unemployed technical services members to pay for SIS membership fee
    • Actively promote job openings, in tandem with the AALL job bank
    • Work with other SIS groups to cross-train technical services librarians so that they attain more skills and are more “employable” in library job markets
  • Specific action 5.6: Work with local AALL chapters to promote technical services as a career in library schools
  • Specific action 5.7: Collaborate with colleagues in non-law libraries to promote national and international standards and develop new and advanced methods for technical services
  • Specific action 5.8: Broaden our perspective and diversify our skills so that we may effectively manage digital library collections, institutional repositories, and digital preservation.

Adopted July 22, 2012 at the TS-SIS Business Meeting, Boston, Massachusetts.