AALL Annual Meeting and Conference

Registration - Sunday

ALL-SIS Breakfast and Business Meeting (sponsored by LexisNexis)

Exhibit Hall

The Supreme Court and Free Speech 

How the Supreme Court is fracturing over speech issues, and how the press and the public are both causing it, and suffering for it

Dahlia Lithwick is a senior editor at Slate, and in that capacity, writes the "Supreme Court Dispatches" and "Jurisprudence" columns. She is a biweekly columnist for Newsweek. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, Harper's, The Washington Post, and Commentary, among other places. She received the Online News Association's award for online commentary in 2001 and again in 2005, for a series she coauthored on torture, and was the first online journalist invited to serve on the Steering Committee for the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. She is the co-author of "Me v. Everybody: Absurd Contracts for an Absurd World," a legal humor book, and "I Will Sing Life: Voices from the Hole in the Wall Gang Camp", a book about seven children from Paul Newman's camp with life-threatening illnesses. She lives in Charlottesville, VA with her husband and two sons.

This session will be webcast live here.

Target Audience: Electronic services librarians, acquisitions librarians, solo librarians, library directors

Learning Outcomes:
1. Participants will be able to identify and list the best practices to employ when considering the acquisition of a new electronic resource.
2. Participants will be able to design and conduct an electronic resource trial using a focus group comprised of stakeholders within their institution.

This program will highlight the best practices to use when evaluating a new electronic resource for acquisition. These best practices are gleaned from the library literature, published surveys, and the experiences of the presenters. Best practices include: "try before you buy," obtaining stakeholder involvement, benchmarking, and using an electronic resource evaluation checklist, among others. The program will focus on four areas: 1) the electronic resource evaluation checklist, 2) selection and coordination of a trial focus group, 3) the cost-benefit analysis, and 4) subscription versus ownership and other licensing options. Other considerations to be examined include: authentication, user interface, content appropriateness, search capability, browsing capability, currency and archives, vendor support, training, user statistics, bill back mechanisms, online documentation, and formatting. In addition, the program will present questions to be asked of other stakeholders in the acquisitions process (e.g., the IT department, catalogers, public services). Program materials will include a sample electronic resource evaluation checklist and bibliography.

Target Audience: Technical services librarians, electronic resources librarians, library directors

Learning Outcomes:
1. Participants will be able to compare and contrast the advantages and disadvantages of various ERM systems in order to select a system that best meets their institution's needs.
2. Participants will be able to list workflow and implementation tips from different ERM systems users and to plan a smooth and positive installation of a new ERM system.

As libraries add more electronic resources to their collections, there will be a greater need to manage and maintain these resources effectively and efficiently. By viewing what ERM systems are available in the market place and identifying special features of each system, librarians responsible for electronic resources will be better equipped to select an ERM system that best fits their institution's needs. Librarians with limited resources will benefit from the demonstration of a locally developed, or an open source, ERM system. Insights into the pros and cons of using different ERM systems will also be shared.

Target Audience: Library managers from all types of libraries involved with the budget or the budgeting process

Learning Outcomes:
1. Participants will be able to educate decision makers on the effects budget reductions will have on library services.
2. Participants will be able to formulate a plan to minimize the impact of reductions and lobby successfully for it.

Library budgets are stagnant or being reduced, and administrators are faced with making hard choices of “what” and/or “whom” to cut. In the current economic climate, libraries are often targeted for reductions because everything is perceived as being “online.” An informative dialogue role-play will be presented by a director and a technical services head in a law library that suffered two recent 10 percent budget cuts, with another one in the offing. How do you deal with these budget reductions? Do you eliminate or decrease the quality of services, stop binding, buy fewer materials, or reduce staff? This program will offer a range of ideas to cope with stagnant or reduced budgets, when you already feel like you’re “down to the bone.”

ALL-SIS Reception and Awards (sponsored by Wolters Kluwer Law & Business)

TS-SIS Acquisitions Standing Committee Meeting

There is no charge for this event, but separate registration is required by June 17.

Target Audience: Directors, public services librarians, IT professionals, and non-catalogers in technical services in all types of libraries

Learning Outcomes:
1. Participants will be able to understand RDA's new approach to relationships between authors and works, how this new approach needs to be accommodated, and how it can be utilized by public services librarians.
2. Participants will be able to assess RDA's new approach to dealing with publishing patterns and resolving challenges posed by diversification of electronic and online media, and how this approach can be utilized by acquisitions and serial librarians.

Resource Description and Access (RDA), the new cataloging code published in June 2010, is based on a recently formalized philosophy for providing access to materials. It is written with the international world of computers and online access strongly in mind along with the relationships of information elements. Librarians, other than catalogers, may not know much about this new code, nor may they know how these new standards for metadata creation will affect public services and technical services areas other than cataloging. Most may also not be aware of its possible applications outside of integrated library systems. "RDA for Everyone" will bring together a respected law cataloger/RDA tester, a well-known associate director/professor of legal research, and a reference and technology librarian (who is also the Chair of the Education Committee of the CS-SIS), to relate a brief history and description of RDA, explaining how it affects discovery and use of information, and how it has potential use outside the traditional library catalog.

Exhibit Hall

Target Audience: Librarians who understand the basics of leading or actively participating in meetings can benefit from advanced facilitation techniques

Learning Outcomes:
1. Participants will analyze techniques for maximizing involvement from all meeting participants.
2. Participants will compare methods for managing unproductive meeting behaviors, such as negativity, indecisiveness, and unresponsiveness.

As many librarians learned in last year's AALL presentation on facilitation, a well-facilitated meeting can transform a regular work session into an extraordinarily productive event. Participants learned that a well-crafted agenda, thoughtful ground rules, optimal meeting space, and detailed minutes can all set the stage for a successful meeting. However, meetings can still go awry. A poorly facilitated meeting can make everyone dread meetings even if the meeting has been well-planned. Managing or facilitating behaviors is the final essential ingredient for success. Have you ever been in a meeting that is monopolized by one individual? Or someone offers a suggestion that is way off in left field? Perhaps you have been in a meeting where hostilities have erupted? Using video clips of actual meeting scenarios, the speakers will present advanced techniques for facilitating meeting behaviors.

Come meet the award-winning authors of the 2011 AALL/LexisNexis Call for Papers competition. Hear the authors discuss how they chose their topics, researched and wrote their articles, got past writer's block, juggled the challenges of writing while working 8-5, and other topics. If you want to hear the words of successful writers, you won't want to miss it.

ALL-SIS Faculty Services Roundtable

Target Audience: Administrators; technical, public, and access services staff

Learning Outcomes:
1. Participants will be able to explain alternative options to traditional library management systems and factors to consider when planning a migration.
2. Participants will be able to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the systems described and how these alternatives interact with systems already in place.

The web-based OPAC, and the more recent "discovery layer" craze, has had a positive effect on how people find resources in libraries. But has there been a corresponding change updating library operations? What will future library management systems offer in terms of the "back-end" staff interface relied upon so heavily to manage and deliver collections? Pressure to improve workflows, increase efficiency, and cut costs continues, but staff can only do so much with the tools they have. Will the next generation of library management systems finally break away from the traditional card catalog and print-based workflows? This session will examine the Open Library Environment (OLE) project and Ex Libris' Unified Resource Management (URM) framework, as well as explore the future of the library system staff interface.

Target Audience: All librarians engaged in the licensing of online materials

Learning Outcomes:
1. Participants will be able to identify and list the key provisions in license agreements for online materials and apply the provisions to the library and patrons' use of the licensed material.
2. Participants will be able to analyze and demonstrate knowledge of the major terms and conditions of an electronic license and with industry standards to library directors, financial officers, and vendors.

Librarians are regularly faced with reviewing and approving license agreements for the acquisition of online information sources. Lack of uniformity among publisher agreements can confuse the most-seasoned librarian and put the library at risk should a completed contract not meet expectations. In this session, a panel of experts will conduct a detailed review of the elements of a license agreement, including language restrictions and their meaning, payment terms, authorized users and uses, performance obligations, indemnification provisions, and definition of key terms. Panelists will also summarize relevant provisions of the Principles for Licensing Electronic Resources and the AALL Guide to Fair Business Practices.

Target Audience: All librarians who have a role in vendor contract negotiations

Learning Outcomes:
1. Participants will be able to analyze contract terms to better understand how those terms affect the end results of their negotiations.
2. Participants will acquire the tools to negotiate a favorable contract with a services vendor.

Vendor contracts are getting more complex, with finer print. Many librarians are involved in the contract negotiation process and need to be able to read and comprehend often complex contracts in order to get the most favorable terms for their libraries and institutions. Two attorneys who are involved in their large firms' vendor contract negotiations, along with their library directors, will discuss contract best practices, what elements to look for in a contract, and which clauses or provisions will render a contract unworkable. They will offer practical tips on negotiation skills, and on reaching a workable agreement with service vendors.

Target Audience: All law librarians

Learning Outcomes:
1. Participants will analyze e-book licensing models, focusing on implications for alternative pricing, digital rights management, license negotiation, and usability.
2. Participants will be able to discuss how e-books will impact the future of law libraries.

The future of e-books in law libraries is still unclear, despite the surging popularity of dedicated e-book readers such as the Kindle. Legal publishers have taken a cautious approach in developing e-books to date. In addition, e-book licensing, particularly in economically difficult times, will provide new challenges to law librarians. Representatives from leading legal publishers and e-book vendors will discuss what they see as the future of e-books and how it will change law libraries.

Librarians are often called upon to analyze, manage, and communicate about their budgets, despite perhaps having had no formal training in accounting or budgeting rules and procedures.  In this program, three librarians will introduce examples of tools they've developed to analyze and present budget data to library or institutional managers.  A discussion period will follow the presentations, during which attendees may discover helpful tips for both the new(er) and the more experienced librarian.

Target Audience: Anyone who publishes or plans to publish articles

Learning Outcomes:
1. Participants will be able to identify their rights as authors under current copyright law and determine which rights they want to retain.
2. Participants will be able to implement techniques to retain certain rights.

Now that institutional repositories, digital libraries, and scholarly communities such as SSRN are commonplace, it's difficult to anticipate future uses of a published work. Before submitting an article for review or upon acceptance of an article, it is important to read and comprehend the fine print in the publisher's author agreement. Author agreements may strip authors of basic rights afforded under copyright law. This session will educate participants about basic author rights and engage authors in the process of identifying rights that are a personal priority. In addition, participants will learn how to revise author agreements, select an appropriate alternate model agreement, and negotiate with publishers to maintain priority rights.

Target Audience: Technical services librarians, public services librarians, library managers

Learning Outcomes:
1. Participants will become acquainted with ways to utilize staff in more creative ways.
2. Participants will be introduced to new initiatives that can benefit their libraries and generate increased appreciation for technical services staff skills.

Shrinking library budgets often require reductions in materials and staffing, even as demands for library services continue to grow. Some libraries deal with this dilemma by bridging the previously well-defined distinctions between technical services and public services. Initiatives and projects on public services department "wish lists" can often be readily accomplished when goals are realigned to utilize the expertise and specialized skill sets of technical services staff. This program will explore techniques for building cooperative partnerships between the two departments. Managerial tips, best practices, ways of fostering innovation and creativity, and initiatives at various law libraries will be discussed.