The culmination of a two-year effort by the private law library community to explore ways to embrace change, demonstrate value, and learn about leading-edge trends, this one-day program has speakers and thinkers on a variety of engaging topics. Esther Dyson will deliver the keynote address; Jim Jones of Hildebrandt and David Curle of Outsell, Inc. are among other speakers. There will be break-out programs that dissect law firm management and presentations by high-level consultants, ground-breaking practicing librarians, and law firm C-level administrators.
Participants will take away the practical skills and essential information to be a change agent in their law firms.
Separate registration fee: $145.00 - be sure to register well in advance of the June 17 deadline!
This program examines three successful programs for supporting the scholarship of librarians. Creators and administrators of these programs will discuss how the programs were implemented and advise on how they could be replicated by other libraries or groups. Successful participants in each program will discuss how the programs helped them produce publishable scholarship.
The three programs represented are (1) the Boulder Conference, (2) Georgetown Law Library's Scholarly Writing program, and (3) AALL research grants. The Boulder Summer Conference on Legal Information: Teaching and Scholarship allowed librarians to workshop their papers related to legal research pedagogy. Georgetown’s new program of a mini-sabbatical and library support group was established in response to an increasing interest in scholarly writing. AALL research grants provide support to librarians doing a wide range of research.
Emerging technologies are touching all aspects of the law library. Join us for a smorgasbord of tools and gadgets that will help you create, organize and deliver information, increase productivity, and connect with users. Move from table to table as tech-savvy law librarians demonstrate a variety of hot new technologies.
Roy Sturgeon will discuss at the Asian Law Interest Group meeting his almost-completed article on historical free-speech episodes from China’s long and rich history. Additionally, he will discuss contemporary free-speech developments, including writer Liu Xiaobo’s 2010 Nobel peace prize and the April 2011 “disappearance” of artist Ai Weiwei.
For many years, the requirement that a law librarian possess a law degree was almost exclusively seen in job postings for academic positions, usually at a supervisory level. However, this requirement is now often associated with even entry-level jobs in all types of law libraries. This program posits two fundamental questions: Do we need law degrees to do our job, and is a law degree a sound financial and professional investment for a law librarian today? A panel of librarians will provide differing viewpoints in answering these and other questions regarding the place of the JD in the profession.
It is said that using open source software is like getting a free puppy—both have no upfront costs, but require a lot of effort on the backend. In this program, Fang Wang, a digital information management librarian at Texas Tech University's School of Law Library, will share her experiences with establishing open source institutional repositories and discuss why her library adopted a “free” puppy. She also will discuss the challenges her library faced, including keeping the software current, facing development issues, and implementing staff training.
The first half of this program will be devoted to examining some of the political, regulatory, and technological challenges involved in implementing the FCC's National Broadband Plan. The second half will be devoted to a real-time, hands-on broadband demonstration examining FCC tools to measure and/or educate users regarding broadband access. Attendees are encouraged to participate using their laptops, cell phones, and any other devices capable of browsing the web.
Emerging technologies have become an important tool for enhancing staff productivity and patron services in law libraries. Because they often represent a substantial investment of staff and resources, making an informed decision on what technologies are appropriate for your library is critical. This program will provide some practical guidelines for participants to use to make the most knowledgeable decisions, such as who to involve in evaluating new tools; how to balance project costs, staff time, and user benefits; and when/how much/with whom to communicate throughout the process.
As Benjamin Franklin said, “Drive thy business, or it will drive thee.” Make sure that your firm’s management committee knows how well you are managing the library. Have a formal program of library promotions, from the 30-second elevator pitch to the detailed footnotes in a departmental annual report. Libraries that publish news about their services and brand themselves as the “go to” department for research, current awareness and knowledge management enjoy a higher profile. Among the ideas to be examined: hosting a research fair, reporting statistics that affect the bottom line, publishing a departmental newsletter, and branding the library.
While subject headings describe what an item is ABOUT, genre/form terms describe what an item IS. Genre/form terms in the OPAC help users target or limit their searches to specific types of materials like law reviews or court decisions and opinions. The program will describe how the LC law genre/form terms were developed and how to implement and utilize these terms in your library.
In 2003 at Chicago-Kent, part of the law school’s faculty support staff began reporting to the library director, which created an unusually rich opportunity for collaboration. Now the librarians and faculty support work together to expand library and educational technology services. This program will discuss how the librarians trained and collaborated with the faculty administrative assistants and how both groups have worked together on everything from course websites, to posting articles to SSRN and ExpressO, to creating a Library Virtual Tour (seen here: http://bit.ly/dtclibrarytour), a production that would not have been possible without extensive expertise of both librarians and faculty administrative assistants, and a collaborative attitude from all involved.
Mnemonics, techniques to improve the memory, have been a subject of continuing fascination, especially just before exams. The Romans systematized the memory technique of storing places in one's mind and then associating striking images with those places. We will explore techniques, especially visual, meant to help one learn and remember the rules of Roman law. Jolande Goldberg, 2011 Distinguished Lectureship Award Winner, will join us in this discussion of visual presentations of the law.
Recently, there have been calls in several states for constitutional conventions. A proposal in California was ultimately dropped because of funding, but proposals elsewhere -- including Pennsylvania -- remain under consideration. A state constitutional convention creates many issues, including delegate selection, funding, and possible limitations on the power of the convention. This program will examine the proposed constitutional convention in Pennsylvania, and compare it with proposals in other states.
Technology is supposed to make our lives easier, but things change so fast that it's difficult to keep up. Join us for a fast-paced survey of technology currently being used in law firm libraries.
Libraries and open source communities share a lot of similarities, making it a logical decision for libraries to both use and participate in open source development. Nicole C. Engard, Director of Open Source Education at ByWater Solutions and author of Practical Open Source Software for Libraries, will explain how libraries can get involved in open source development and take advantage of the power of applications that have been developed by active communities.
In August, 2004, the SEC decided to release all comment letters free of charge, to expand the transparence of the comment process, and to have the information available to a broader audience. This program is an introduction to the SEC comment letter process, which will define the various types of comment letters and responses. The questions of “Why are comment letters important?” and “What are the various time constraints relating to the deals they involve?” will be addressed. Search techniques for searching for precedent in SEC comment letters will be explored.
Jolande Goldberg, of the Library of Congress, Policy & Standards Division, Acquisitions & Bibliographic Access Directorate, will introduce the latest Law Classification schedule, KIA-KIK, covering indigenous peoples of the western hemisphere. Dr. Goldberg will also present the new LOC portal, which is a remarkable development, both technically and in its ability to make indigenous peoples visible within the law classification. Additionally, the LOC portal can provide easier, direct access to the documents of indigenous peoples’ history and current conditions.
New technologies and the recent availability of bulk downloads of federal government information allow for the creation of new ways to visualize and understand the underlying information. This program looks at technology-based tools used to create new products or "mashups" from government data. Once participants gain an understanding of current and developing mashups, our speakers will explore the copyright questions involved with these products and tools.
Sharpen your Google search skills, and learn how to teach these same skills to lawyers and staff. This session will cover what librarians need to know about Google Scholar and Google Books, and will demonstrate the best techniques for getting fewer, but better, results from Google searches. It will also show some of the latest Google tricks from the lib, including WonderWheel, Google Instant, and Google Trends.
During Argentina’s “Dirty War” (1976-1983), the military attempted to destroy all documents and physical evidence that thousands of people were arrested, tortured, murdered, and disappeared or forced into exile. Ms. Gloria Orrego Hoyos, the recipient of the 2011 FCIL Schaffer Grant for Foreign Law Librarians, will discuss the contribution of librarians and archivists as sources of law and information, and as protectors of evidence in the construction of a new democratic society and the restoration of rights, justice, heritage, memory, and identity.
Librarians are known to wax eloquently about the virtues of a strong relationship between the public and technical service operations within the library. On a day-to-day basis in our libraries, however, library staff may do little to build and foster these relationships. In worst case scenarios these units may actually work against each other much to the detriment of community members. For those librarians who want to create a great experience for their community members, they will need to do much more than just give lip service to a productive connection between the public, technical and system units in their organizations.
In this talk, Steven Bell, Associate University Librarian for Research& Instructional Services at Temple University, will explore what it means to design and implement a holistic user experience in a library setting. Doing so requires the delivery of a consistently great user experience at all library touchpoints, and that only happens when the entire organization works together to create an environment of totality. Steven will introduce the Experiential Brand Statement concept as a framework for bringing staff together to discuss and design the library user experience.
Fordham Law Library hired a reference librarian/empirical research specialist and other academic law libraries are including knowledge of empirical research methods into their reference librarian job descriptions. At the Harvard Law School Library, there are two empirical research positions: empirical research fellow and empirical research consultant. Duke University School of Law has an empirical research associate position, as well as a reference librarian who coordinates the library’s Empirical Legal Research Program. These are a few examples of how law libraries are responding to faculty’s increasing demand for empirical legal research support. While other sessions have focused on resources for doing empirical work, this program focuses on how academic law libraries are meeting the needs of faculty members by creating empirical positions within or in conjunction with the library. It will address the factors that led these institutions to create the empirical legal research programs and the structures of these programs. Panelists will discuss how the programs were implemented, and will evaluate the programs’ strengths and weaknesses.
This program will present current practices for cataloging print integrating resources (updating loose-leafs). Discussion points include creating original records for new editions, as well as revising existing records to link to new formats, particularly electronic versions. Additionally, the program will cover previous cataloging practices in light of the Program for Cooperative Cataloging (PCC) guidelines, why a variety of treatments in shared bibliographic databases exist, and how to deal with the records encountered.
Do you aspire to become an academic, firm, or court library director? Do you think you’re ready for middle management or to serve as a committee chair? Are you new to one of these roles and in need of advice? Join seasoned veterans and newbies to the job you have or desire in a town hall discussion about the challenges and rewards of these positions. Coffee will be provided.
Regardless of how widely it is adopted, the newly-developed cataloging code, Resource Description and Access, will affect all of us in libraries profoundly - even if we’re not responsible for cataloging materials. Please join Jean Pajerek and Pat Sayre-McCoy as they lead a lively discussion on the recent information from the three U.S. national libraries, the decisions libraries need to make about RDA, and the impact of the new code on our institutions - especially in the area of library technical services.
Missed the PLL Change as Action Summit? No problem – this recap will review the highlights of speakers’ presentations and breakout groups, and touch back on the related webinars and presentations held throughout the previous winter and spring.
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.
Comprehensive and reliable statistics on patent prosecution and litigation will form the basis for future patenting strategies, and IP attorneys will rely on librarians to give them a broad picture of worldwide patenting activity. This program will address the basic strategies in finding necessary data, and will educate librarians about both free and subscription sources for this data. Current limitations of the data will also be addressed.
