Message from the President

Greetings, fellow VALLers.

Time has hurtled by at a startling pace as it is wont to do. I hope this message finds you all in good health and high spirits.

Our joint annual meeting with VLA last week was a great success. All of the programs presented by VALL members were very well-attended and well-received.

Congratulations again to the presenters: Tim Coggins, Suzanne Corriell, Fred Dingledy, Ben Keele, Terry Long, Bill Magee, Greg Stoner, Jeanne Ullian and Gail Zwirner. I had the opportunity to attend the programs offered by Tim, Suzanne, Fred and Ben, which were at a perfect level of complexity to be of value to law librarians and non-law librarians alike.

By chatting with other conference attendees, I found that they all had very positive things to say about each VALL program. The venue, activities and personal interactions made the conference a very rewarding experience for me. I had the chance to re-connect with library school classmates and professors, have lunch with some VALL members each day, and celebrate in excellent company at the Thursday night social.

I only wish that VALL member attendance at the conference had been more robust. I’d very much like to know what factored in to your decision to attend or not attend the conference. Cost, distance, programming, or something else entirely? I invite you to share your feedback with me or Suzanne Corriell, VALL Vice President and Programs Committee Chair [scorriel@richmond.edu]; we would very much like to factor membership preferences into future partnership planning.

In my first message as your President, I outlined objectives in three areas: leadership, growth and pride. The following is a status report concerning the first two objectives and other recent developments.

Leadership

Executive Board Meetings:

The Executive Board met via telephone conference in June and September. Both meetings were productive and well-attended. Outside of meetings, I have also communicated regularly with officers, committee members and VALL members at-large. Thank you all for your initiative and responsiveness. Donna Bausch and Jennifer Sekula, our Grants committee co-chairs, have been especially communicative and responsive. Thank you both! I have seen evidence, time and again, from nearly every committee that they are truly committed to VALL’s continued success.

Leadership Handbook:
Edits are well under way in updating the leadership handbook. I hope to release an updated version in January 2012. Many changes are being made to account for last year’s bylaws amendments. Here are some other changes being incorporated into the Handbook, which were briefly discussed during the October 28 business meeting:

1. Recruitment committee responsibilities and list-serv administration are being placed under the auspices of the Membership committee.

2. Creation of an Audit committee, at the request of current and past Treasurers.

Other updates:

VALL has adopted the “Private” list-serv policy as required by AALL. All members in good standing will be added to the list-serv by the administrator. Others may request to be added to the list-serv, but cannot be added without administrator approval. We consider the list-serv a member benefit; additions outside of VALL will be very rare.

Copyright and discussion forum statements for Wiki and VALLTalk are forthcoming. The draft statements were distributed at the business meeting and will be posted on the Wiki today. Please submit any comments to me by Tuesday, November 15, 2011.

Growth

Meetings:

The joint program with VLA was a wonderful experience. I learned a great deal working with Lisa Varga (VLA CEO and Conference Committee Chair), Matthew Todd (VLA President) and the conference committee as they planned the conference. Matthew and Lisa each expressed an interest in partnering again next year. We think a less frequent formal partnership would be best for VALL, but I assured them both that VALL’s partnership did not end at the stroke of 4:00 p.m. on Friday, October 28. The VLA conference is an excellent forum for VALL members’ specialized knowledge. We can help improve legal information literacy by sharing our knowledge with librarians across the state. Please plan to submit program proposals for VLA’s next conference.

In the coming months, I will work with the Programs Committee to develop a strategy for maintaining communications with proper contacts at national and local chapters of library associations, such as LLSDC, SLA, VASLA and VLA. A programs page will be added to the VALL Wiki, which will be updated with links and information concerning program/presentation opportunities.

Membership:

As of today, VALL has 120 members in good standing. Each member has been added to the list-serv and has received or will receive a copy of the directory. The membership committee has done a phenomenal job with outreach, follow up and with the directory itself. I sincerely appreciate Chris Vassey’s initiative and leadership in her role as committee chair. Lisa Reinhard and Cathy Palombi have also actively contributed to the committee; thank you both for all of your contributions.

Thank you again for this opportunity to serve.

Michele Gernhardt

VLA/VALL Conference Oct. 27-28, 2011

The joint conference was held at the Renaissance Portsmouth Hotel & Waterfront Conference Center

Photographs by Ben Almoite

Conference attendees were able to enjoy this view from their hotel

The Port Towne Magic Jazz Band at the conference's Grand Opening ceremony

Right after the ribbon cutting, with VLA President Matt Todd, Rebecca K. Miller and VLA Past President John A. Moorman

Eager librarians waiting to enter the exhibit hall

VLA President Matt Todd, with Keynote Speaker Rebecca Kamen

At the Opening General Session: Elizabeth Tai, Diantha McCauley, VALL President Michele Gernhardt, and VALL Vice-President/President Elect Suzanne B. Corriell

Portsmouth Mayor Kenneth I. White speaks at the Opening General Session


Keynote Speaker Rebecca Kamen, Professor of Art at Northern Virginia Community College


Printed book turned into artform by one of keynote speaker Rebecca Kamen's art students


From The Legally Literate Librarian session: Greg Stoner, Williams Mullen; Terry Long, VA State Law Library; and Jeanne Ullian, Williams Mullen


From the Conference Social: VALL President Michele Gernhardt and Ben Almoite, from the VA State Law Library


Librarians know how to have a good time at the conference social!


President Michele Gernhardt leads the VALL Business Meeting


The Portsmouth Naval Shipyard Museum -- one of the local attractions conference attendees were able to enjoy





Lovely house in Olde Towne Portsmouth

Gone With The Wind:

The Literary Legal Complexities of a Bestselling Novel

By Donna Bausch

“There was a land of Cavaliers and Cotton Fields called the Old South... Here in this pretty world Gallantry took its last bow... Here was the last ever to be seen of Knights and their Ladies Fair... Look for it only in books, for it is no more than a dream remembered. A Civilization gone with the wind...”

Author Ellen Brown assured her VLA audience that she went to law school because she wanted to become a law librarian. Music to my ears. After graduating from the University of Richmond, and faced with significant law school loans, she practiced law at Hunton & Williams, Dominion Virginia Power and the Attorney General’s Office. Her passion for books eventually led her to open a rare book business and write for the publication Fine Books and Collections. On a visit to interview John Wiley, the world’s foremost collector of Gone With the Wind memorabilia, she recognized a gap in the scholarship, realizing that she would like to read a book that would tell the story of GWTW, the book itself.

Brown and Wiley decided to chronicle the legal history of the novel. Not an easy task. Mitchell’s papers, though housed at the University of Georgia, remain tightly controlled by the powerful Mitchell Estate. Mitchell has but a single living heir, an unmarried nephew in his 70’s. However, the Estate boasts a full panoply of lawyers to protect the interests of the Mitchell legacy. Brown and Wiley were the first authors granted permission to access Mitchell’s business papers. In addition, they traveled to archives and libraries all over the country in their quest to create an accurate chronology of the legal history of the book.

Margaret Mitchell’s masterpiece continues to elude the respect it deserves. It won the Pulitzer and the National Book Award and lost the Nobel Prize only to Pearl S. Buck.

How did lowly Margaret Mitchell land a book deal? There is the apocryphal fairy tale version of the story and then there is the truth. In the fairy tale, Harold Latham, prominent MacMillan editor discovers unknown housewife Mitchell’s manuscript. Latham was happy to let this version be believed, but in reality a young female Macmillan editor named Lois Cole was responsible. Mitchell’s publishers were disdainful and disrespectful of her. Mitchell garnered only $50,000 from the movie rights to the book.

An interesting aspect of the history of GWTW is the role of Stevens Mitchell, Margaret Mitchell’s brother, an estate and trust attorney with no experience in publishing, but the only attorney Margaret was willing to trust. From the time of her book deal forward, Mitchell’s life was completely overtaken by the book’s success and others attempting to capitalize on it. She felt exploited and was one of the earliest authors to assert rights to her intellectual property. The positions she took, though unsubstantiated when made, eventually became the law.

One example is the sequel. There was a rumor that a reader could send $1 to Macmillan and the “real” final chapter of GWTW would be sent to you. This was at a time when the price of the entire book was $3. Everyone wanted to know what had happened to Scarlett and Rhett. Unauthorized sequels abounded. There were contests to write a sequel and the winning entry posited an absurd kidnapping plot. Stevens Mitchell stood firm and the law of copyright eventually followed. No unauthorized sequels.

An even bigger issue was international copyright. GWTW was even more popular abroad than in the U.S. It was translated into countless languages. Technically, Macmillan owned the foreign rights, but decided to return them to Mitchell. This was a complex, burdensome mess. The U.S. was not then a signatory to the Berne Convention on Copyright. There had not been great demand for American authors’ works abroad, but conversely, our publishers could pirate foreign works with impunity. Mitchell ended up spending almost all her profit from the book on this fight. Her efforts eventually led to the 1950 move of the U.S. to join the Berne Convention.

Mitchell died childless in 1949. Her book was her child. Her litigious estate continued her fiercely protective maternal stance. Most books about Mitchell have been less than sympathetic. Brown urges us to view Mitchell as a strong southern woman who stood up for her rights at a time in history when this was not appreciated by the powerful. This year marks the 75th anniversary of the book and the 150th anniversary of the Civil War. It’s time we give Margaret Mitchell and GWTW their due.

The words of Scarlett’s father about his beloved Tara can be applied to the book itself:

“Land is the only thing in the world that amounts to anything, for ’tis the only thing in this world that lasts.”

If you were not able to hear Ellen Brown, “As God is My Witness”…you missed a wonderful program! Thanks to Gail Zwirner for proposing this fascinating program.

And, if you love GWTW as much as I do, run, don’t walk to your local bookstore and purchase:
Brown, Ellen F. and John Wiley. Margaret Mitchell's Gone With the Wind: A Bestseller's Odyssey from Atlanta to Hollywood. Lanham: Taylor Trade, 2011.

Measuring the Soft Stuff

by Lara Dresser

Cynthia Hart, Virtual Librarian at Virginia Beach Public Library, gave an engaging presentation on combining social media strategies and web and marketing plans to increase a library’s Return on Investment (ROI) by building awareness, increasing customer satisfaction, and lowering costs.

It was not surprising to hear that socially engaged companies are more successful, people want to engage with companies on social media, and ‘good brands’ can evoke emotional responses. Suggestions included using social media to manage your brand, tell your story, advertise your services, and to simply be part of the conversation.

The discussion of social metrics focused on the importance of identifying your goals and finding ways to capture and quantify information that is generally qualitative, such as buzz, reach, sentiment, influence, and engagement, to determine if you’re meeting those goals.

A variety of online tools were presented, such as Facebook Insights, Google Analytics, Twitalyzer, and Webfollow, that allow you to measure various web and social media events. These tools give you access to valuable data such as downloads/uploads, time spent on pages, ratings, followers, subscribers, retweets, testimonials, ratings, reviews, shares, and click-throughs.

In addition to being entertaining, this presentation opened my eyes to the dizzying diversity of online tools that can be used in powerful and creative ways to promote libraries. It is exciting to imagine what’s next in this surprisingly diverse and constantly evolving intersection.

What Can I Do With This?:

Deciphering Copyright and Fair Use Notices

By Fred Dingledy

Librarians find themselves dealing with numerous issues in their everyday work; one of their least favorite issues is probably dealing with copyright. How much of a journal can you copy to fulfill an interlibrary loan request? Can a professor play a movie clip in a class without getting permission from the movie studio first? Overreaching copyright notices included in some publications don’t help matters, making the reader think that doing anything besides reading the article on the screen requires permission from the publisher. There are alternatives to traditional copyright licensing, such as Creative Commons, but those alternatives are not always well-known or understood.

To help answer librarians’ questions about copyright and fair use, Ben Keele and I from the William & Mary Law Library - presented “What Can I Do With This?: Deciphering Copyright and Fair Use Notices” at the VLA/VALL Joint Conference on October 27. The presentation was aimed at a non-law-librarian audience, so I began with an introduction to copyright basics: what rights a copyright holder gets, what can be copyrighted, what infringement is, the Section 108 defense to infringement for libraries, and fair use.

Next, Ben discussed the importance of copyright notices and where to find them: copyright notices are the best place to discover exactly what the copyright owner is willing to let you do without having to specifically ask their permission. However, as Ben pointed out, sometimes the copyright notice will try to preclude the user from exercising their fair use rights, as with the notice on the website for the journal Nature. Ben provided another example, though, of a database provider (EBSCO) that specifically allowed for fair use in its copyright notice.

Ben then went on to describe alternative models of licensing copyright, such as Creative Commons and the GPL (General Public License). These models allow the copyright holder to easily tell readers what they have permission to do with a work in standardized terms, such as allowing educational use but precluding commercial redistribution or requiring attribution.

The questions from the audience demonstrated the weakness of fair use as it currently stands: no one knows what it is. These days, public discussion of fair use seems to be dominated by antipodean camps: content owners who think there should be no such thing as fair use, and the “information wants to be free” group which believes that everything is fair use. Librarians, caught in between, want a clear answer: how much of a work can I copy and still have it fall under fair use? Unfortunately, the answer we have to give is: it depends. We outlined the factors that go into deciding fair use and provided links to worksheets that librarians can use to determine if their use would probably be considered a fair one. We also made sure to emphasize to the audience that they shouldn’t panic – as a rule, not many libraries have been sued for copyright infringement to date; while it’s always best and simplest to ask permission first if they’re not sure, as long as someone have analyzed the use ahead of time, if it seems like a fair use, librarians should be fine in proceeding.

We had a good time presenting at the conference – the volunteers were friendly and the audience asked good questions. We hope to be able to present again in the future!
The Powerpoint slideshow from the presentation is available at http://scholarship.law.wm.edu/libpubs/28/ .

Questionable Content-Remove It? Keep It?

By Lara Dresser

Tim Coggins and Suzanne Corriell, from the University of Richmond School of Law, delved into the thorny topic of First Amendment restraints on collection management choices of libraries. Selection, removal, and even relocation of books in libraries have all been challenged on First Amendment grounds.

Despite the lack of clarity and cohesion in this area of the law, Corriell and Coggins did an excellent job of summarizing the salient points from the seminal U.S. Supreme Court case on book removal, Board of Education v. Pico, as well as relevant analysis from several lower courts. In a plurality opinion, Pico stated that the school board’s removal of books was impermissible if the intent was to deny access to ideas the school officials disagreed with. The key element in this case was motivation, and many lower courts have adopted this standard as well.

The message is that removal of materials is likely to be viewed as suspect, and that motivations that discriminate based on content or viewpoint are likely to be unconstitutional. Although courts have conceded that school boards have discretion to remove materials that are “pervasively vulgar,” lacking in “educational suitability,” and contain “factual inaccuracies,” public libraries probably have less discretion in the decision to remove materials.

Helpful tips included avoiding the appearance of arbitrariness and adopting and adhering to procedures. The presentation ended with a lively discussion about the University of Richmond School of Law’s experience with a patron objection to one of their resources. The presentation sparked interesting and robust debate on a critical issue all librarians should be contemplating!

Behind the Scenes of the Legally Literate Librarian

By Greg Stoner

At the recent VLA/VALL Annual Conference, I helped contribute to the program "The Legally Literate Librarian," with my colleague, Jeanne Ullian, and Terry Long, from the Virginia State Law Library. Our program focused on providing an introduction to commonly used legal terms and explaining how to read and interpret a case. While the topic may seem somewhat elementary, we imagined this presentation could be very helpful to librarians who encounter legal questions in their work and may not be able to understand a legal citation or have little familiarity with core resources such as reporters, legal dictionaries and encyclopedias.

I found that the process of planning a program and working with a team of dedicated VALL members was personally very rewarding. Isabel Paul, who was unable to be at the conference, helped us brainstorm about ways to approach the topic and concepts to cover. Jeanne quickly took the lead on the project and helped develop the program plan, identified a case to discuss, and compiled a series of useful handouts for the attendees. I worked on creating the PowerPoint presentation, and Terry contributed sage advice and additional ideas for the program. In the end, I think we all helped contribute to a program that combined our experience and unique insights in working with different types of patrons (attorneys, judges, public, etc.). Our feedback was very positive and suggested the program was right on target for many of our attendees.

Overall, as noted, I very much enjoyed being able to help out in delivering a program of interest to such a diverse audience. It is my hope that this program, as well as others held at the conference, draws attention to the hard work going on in law libraries and the dedication of our members to promoting legal information literacy to the larger community.

For those VALL members who are considering presenting in the future, I highly encourage it! Not only will you be able to help others learn - you will probably learn something too. My thanks to Jeanne, Terry, Isabel and Ben Almoite (who gave our group a great introduction) - it was both an honor and a pleasure working with you!

Private Screenings:

Using Short Individualized Screencasts as a Library Instruction Modality for Off-Campus Students

by Suzanne Corriell

Can you use the power of pictures in your job as a reference librarian? Yes, you can – easily, effectively, and economically, according to Brad MacDonald, Distance Learning Librarian for Jefferson College of Health Sciences in Lynchburg.

MacDonald’s program focused on the process for creating short, customized tutorials specifically tailored to student research requests. This program looks at “screencasting” in a different light from many other library conference programs: MacDonald is not a perfectionist. He advocates for loosely scripted screencasts, done on the fly, in response to a single student query.

MacDonald recognized the power of pictures in education when in the Peace Corps in Papua New Guinea. While there, he worked with over 11,000 graphical technology documents on microfiche. At 9000 feet elevation (and in a time of no internet), these documents’ graphics were used to teach about agriculture and water use. Once he began working as a distance reference librarian, he realized that he could use the same techniques for teaching through pictures using screencasts.

Distance learning students submit requests to MacDonald using a form created on EmailMeForm; information to be provided on the form includes professor, due date, and databases and keywords already searched. MacDonald then uses Jing to create a short, customized screencast to send to the student showing all of the steps to complete the request.

When responding to the student, he sends an email with a brief explanation (including length) of the video, a reminder to turn on the speakers, a suggestion to view the video once before re-watching it to take notes, and an offer to follow up if the video’s steps are unclear or the student needs further guidance. MacDonald later sends a user satisfaction feedback survey (using a Google Docs survey) to find out if the process worked for the student and if the student would use it again.

The program showed that screencasting can be done inexpensively, without a significant time or monetary investment. Jing videos are limited to five minutes, requires no download on the recipient’s side, and are stored remotely. It seems like an ideal method to demonstrate to a student how to conduct a search in an appropriate database or highlight new features in a database for faculty members. Just don’t forget to turn on the speakers!

Welcome to Catherine!

Catherine G. OBrion has joined the Virginia Supreme Court Law Library as Librarian-Archivist.

Catherine grew up in Richmond, Virginia, in the Bon Air area. She attended the University of Virginia, where she earned both undergraduate and master's degrees in history and, in 1997, a Ph.D. in history. In 2002, she earned a graduate certificate in archives and records management from Western Washington University in Bellingham, Washington. Catherine has worked as an archivist at Virginia Tech, the Presbyterian Historical Society in Montreat, North Carolina, and, most recently, the Library of Virginia.

She is married to Chris OBrion, who is also from Richmond. They have two daughters, Carrington, who just started her first year of college, and Grace, who is in the fifth grade. Catherine lives in western Henrico County. She enjoys trying new restaurants, going to plays, shows, and movies, reading history, hiking with her two dogs, and visiting historical sites and parks with her husband and daughters.

In addition to responsibility for identifying, appraising, documenting and directing the safekeeping of judicial branch archival records, both print and electronic, and other historically valuable items in the Supreme Court of Virginia Archives, Catherine will coordinate the Oral History Program and other projects of the Supreme Court of Virginia Historical Commission. She is already busy processing items in our archival collection including the personal papers of four justices, historical court records, manuscripts, photos, and other items, supervising the library's student interns from VCU's history department, and, last but not least, assisting judicial staff and researchers by identifying appropriate research materials, retrieving items, and assisting in their use.

VALL welcomes Catherine and looks forward to seeing her at upcoming meetings.

To WestlawNext or Not? That is the Question.

by Nancy Loewenberg

I’d like express my appreciation to VALL for its generous grant that enabled me to attend the AALL Annual conference in my hometown of Philadelphia. In addition to the meeting’s excellent and relevant programming, being able to visit some of my old stomping grounds, such as the Rittenhouse Square branch of the Free Library of Philadelphia, made this one of the more memorable AALL meetings for me.

I attended the highly anticipated session entitled “The New Generation of Legal Research Databases: Eighteen Months Later”. Based on the healthy size of crowd that gathered for this last session on the last day of the conference, many librarians shared my interest in the impact that WestlawNext, Thomson Reuters’s next generation of research service, has had on the legal research landscape since its introduction in February, 2010. The panel represented both the law firm and law school environments.

Prior to the conference, a survey was sent out to the AALL membership to gauge how WestlawNext has been received and the May, 2011 results were both interesting and instructive. The survey demographics were skewed towards law firms, with 76.7% of the respondents from firms; law schools were represented by 18.4% and government agencies/court/corporation libraries by 4.9%. The survey indicated that 48% of the total respondents had already rolled out WLN with 52% having not yet implemented the new platform. The survey showed a much greater adoption of WLN by law school libraries where cost considerations are not a factor. An informal poll was taken of the audience in the meeting room and it confirmed that there has been much greater adoption of WLN by law schools.

The survey revealed that there was still a lot of indecision among libraries that had not yet rolled out WLN, with 63% indicating that they had not yet made the decision to introduce it. Reasons for a delayed roll out included most prominently cost and pricing structure, the quality of the product, the limited scope of its content, and the fact that the product was still evolving.

Comments made by the panel about their experiences with WestlawNext, as well as additional survey results shed light on both its strengths and drawbacks. The strengths included ease of use with a simple, Google-like interface, particularly and predictably popular with students and younger attorneys; the folder and folder-sharing feature; faceted/aggregated search results which expose the researcher to new material; and the new search algorithm. Biggest drawbacks to WLN included most emphatically the cost; pitfalls with an oversimplification of research; a lack of precision; and the new platform not being conducive to power searching.

This program was very thought-provoking and inspired me to closely follow the dialog being conducted in the law library community about this new addition to the legal research arsenal. The stakes are high in terms of the quality and reliability of research results and we are understandably motivated to make the right decision for what best serves our institutions. If you are interested in a further discussion of the implications of WestlawNext, I recommend Ronald Wheeler’s article in the Summer 2011 issue of Law Library Journal, found at http://www.aallnet.org/main-menu/Publications/llj/Vol-103/2011-03/2011-23.pdf. To level the playing field, I recommend you read the response by a senior member of the WLN development team to questions and misconceptions raised about the new service that appeared on the rethinc.k blog this month: http://www.jasnwilsn.com/2011/10/03/on-westlaw/ and http://www.jasnwilsn.com/2011/10/05/part-2-on-westlawnext-westsearch-and-haters-a-brief-interview-with-mike-dahn-of-thomson-reuters/.

Volunteer for AALL AMPC

AALL is now accepting applications for the 2012-2013 Annual Meeting Program Committee (AMPC).
http://www.aallnet.org/Home-page-contents/NewsCallout/volunteer-ampc.html
Applications for AMPC are due November 1. (Note: The committee volunteer form for all other AALL committees will open on February 1. )

My AALL Experience

by David Knight

Many times at conferences, the keynote speaker’s address is something going on in another room while attendees run from booth to booth in the exhibit hall gathering as much vendor swag as possible. That was not the case at the AALL Annual Meeting, as the ballroom for the keynote speaker was packed beyond capacity, as many attendees, including myself, found a nice spot in the floor to listen to Dahlia Lithwick. And although she spoke for the full time allotted, and may have even gone over by a bit, hardly anyone left before she finished and it appeared as if the audience would’ve liked to continue to ask questions well into the next session.

Lyn Warmath recently posted her thoughts on Dahlia’s address as well, but I would like to discuss a different aspect of it. To me, the most thought provoking part of her address was about how technology is changing what we consider, or once considered, free speech. She drew an analogy about how yelling fire in a crowded movie theater was not free speech. But because social media and technology now allows for more direct, immediate communication, some question whether the movie theater is now the world. The omnipresent media we live with, combined with technology, can amplify private speech into public speech, and if public speech becomes assaultive, it should no longer be free. That technology outpaces the law is not a recent phenomenon. The difference we see today, she pointed out, is that technology forces us to alter our paradigm of what we might consider free speech more than ever.

One of the most memorable sessions I attended was Providing Excellent Service in Law Libraries: Hold the Pickles, presented by Vanessa Uribe from El Dorado County Law Library, and Kelly Browne from Sacramento County Public Law Library. Their model was inspired by a customer service training program developed by the owner of Zingerman’s Deli in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Zingerman’s Deli has become renowned in the small business circles as having a great employment culture. Zingerman’s model is so successful that the company set up a separate training company to meet demand.

According to this model, there are five steps to overhaul an organization’s culture: teach it, define it, live it, measure it, and then reward it. In the training step, one should remember the 5-90-5 rule, meaning that while 5% of people are born with great service instincts, another 5% would or could never provide great service. However, 90% of people fall in between, so it’s important to teach the desired method of service or tone of culture by example from the top down. In teaching great service, one must define it. Definitions might include, but are not limited to, making eye contact with the person being served, affirm any frustration and stop doing what you were doing when the customer approaches. Also taught in this step is how to best handle a complaint about service and the precept of “fairness is on another planet”. By this, it means employees should keep in mind that complaints are not to be taken as a personal attack. After great service is taught and defined, the organization must live it as systematic. Once it is systematic, it should be measured, comparing complaints against successes. And finally, are those who consistently deliver great service recognized or rewarded? Think not only of recognizing or rewarding individuals, but groups as well.

Many libraries and organizations across the country have implemented Zingerman’s model and changed their culture for the better. Who knew a small deli in a college town could have such an impact? This just goes to show that great ideas can come from anyone, anywhere.

High Anxiety at the High Court

by Lyn Warmath

I was a fortunate recipient of a very generous grant from VALL this year. The grant enabled me to attend AALL’s annual meeting in Philadelphia, one of the best conferences I have attended. I am pleased to describe a session I attended at the meeting, the keynote address by Dahlia Lithwick, a senior editor and legal correspondent at Slate Magazine, a columnist for Newsweek, a guest columnist for the op-ed page of The New York Times, co-author of a legal humor book, Me v. Everybody: Absurd Contracts for an Absurd World, and I Will Sing Life: Voices from the Hole in the Wall Gang Camp, a book funded by the late Paul Newman about seven children from a camp for children with life-threatening illnesses.

In addition to her many writing skills, Lithwick is a compelling speaker and skillful observer of human nature. Lithwick described her observations of United States Supreme Court justices over the years and their evolving love/hate relationships with the press and the public. Although the justices rely on the media to talk to the public, Lithwick notes the justices go to great lengths to demonstrate they do not need the media, while obsessively following the press.

According to Lithwick, the justices’ anxieties have increased over the years as technology has transformed the speed with which free speech can turn into assault. Lithwick has observed the justices’ increasing anxieties about technologies that have blurred the lines between public speech and private speech and she concludes the justices are not adapting well or enjoying these lessons.

Lithwick sees a court in retreat because it mistrusts a press and public it cannot control. But at the same time she expresses hope that the justices will learn private places no longer exist, overcome their fears, roll in the cameras and provide much greater transparency.

If you missed Dahlia’s address or would like to hear it again, it is available at AALL’s web site.

AALL/LexisNexis Call for Papers

Have you been thinking of writing an article of interest to law librarians? The AALL/LexisNexis Call for Papers Committee has just the incentive to get started.

The Committee is soliciting articles in four categories:

Open Division: for active and retired AALL members and law librarians with five or more years of professional experience.

New Member Division: for recent graduates and AALL members who have been in the profession for less than five years.

Short Form Division: for AALL members. Articles in this category will be shorter than a traditional scholarly article, and appropriate for publication in AALL Spectrum, a bar journal, chapter or SIS newsletter.

Student Division: for students in library, information management or law school. Participants in this division need not be members of AALL. To submit in this category, you must have been enrolled in law school, or in a library school, information management, or an equivalent program, either in the Fall 2011 or Spring 2012 semester.

Submissions in the Open, New Member and Short Divisions must be submitted by March 1, 2012. Articles in the Student Division must be received by May 15, 2012.

The winner in the Open, New Member, and Student Divisions will receive $650 and the Short Form Division winner will receive $300 generously provided by LexisNexis®, plus the opportunity to present the winning paper at a program during the 2012 AALL Annual Meeting in Boston!

Winning papers in the Open, New Member and Student Divisions are also considered for publication in the Association’s prestigious Law Library Journal.

For more information, a list of previous winners, an application and instructions on how to submit your article, please review the information below. Winning papers from earlier competitions can also be found athttp://works.bepress.com/aallcallforpapers.

If you have any questions, please contact a member of the AALL/LexisNexis Call for Papers Committee: Chair, Jennifer Lentz, Vice-Chair, Mark Podvia, Benjamin John Keele, James P. Kelly, Jr., or Shawn G. Nevers.

Calling VALL Writers ...

The Publications Committee is looking for writers for upcoming columns in the Virginia Lawyer. There is an opportunity to write a 750-word article for the Law Libraries column and also for the February Family Law issue (deadline Jan. 8, 2012) and Senior Lawyers issue (deadline March 12, 2012). If you are interested please contact Gail Zwirner at gzwirner@richmond.edu.

Excellence in Marketing Award Winners

Check out the latest issue (Sept/Oct 2011) of Spectrum for a listing of all winners in the different categories. Congratulations to VALL for winning the Best Campaign award for articles published in the Virginia Lawyer and Virginia Lawyers Weekly.

Here is the link to pg. 16 (cut and paste into your browser):

http://www.aallnet.org/main-menu/Publications/spectrum/Vol-16/No-1/pr.pdf

This was possible because of the hard work and involvement of VALL members. When the opportunity arises don't forget to volunteer to write an article! We have many talented writers in VALL.

Welcome Nick!

Nicholas Stump is the new reference librarian at the Appalachian School of Law Library.

Nick grew up in Buckhannon, West Virginia. After attending WVU for both his undergraduate and law degrees he moved to Buchanan County, Virginia (pronounced the same!) to work at ASL.

Nick was a student worker at WVU's Law Library during his law school days.

When he's not answering reference questions for students and faculty, he's often found hiking out in the mountains.

VALL welcomes Nick and looks forward to meeting him at future VALL meetings.

VALL Business Meeting Oct.28

The next VALL business meeting will be held Friday, October 28, 2011 at 10:45 a.m. in the 1st floor Amphitheater of the Portsmouth Renaissance Hotel and Waterfront Conference Center. The address is 425 Water Street, Portsmouth, VA 23704.

Please submit all proposed agenda items to Michele Gernhardt (mgernhardt@hunton.com) by Friday, October 21.

Register for the VLA/VALL Annual Meeting!

by Michele Gernhardt

The VLA/VALL Annual Meeting is a little over a month away. Remember to reserve your room(s) at the Portsmouth Renaissance Hotel &Waterfront Conference Center before September 26 to ensure you get theVLA Group rate. ($125/night plus taxes and fees. Price includes hotelparking and internet access in your room. A few rooms are also being offered at the current Government rate.) September 26 is just one weekaway! To link to the hotel and for more information about the VLA AnnualConference, please visit http://www.vla.org/?page_id=3950.

We lookforward to seeing you October 27-28 in Portsmouth...come a day earlyand join us for Preconferences on October 26!

Teaching Advanced Google

by Laurie Claywell

Don MacLeod, manager of knowledge management at Debevoise & Plimpton, pointed out at the beginning of the sitting-in-the-aisle room only PLL-SIS program Teaching Advanced Google that our patrons are going to use Google so we might as well help them to get the most from it. I confess I felt a little better hearing him say that out loud since I had come to the same what I thought of as defeated conclusion about a year ago. (The words “really…really?” are frequently poised on my lips when someone says “ok, I’ve checked Google but not sure where to look next.”) Don is right. They’re going to use it so let’s help them to ask a better question. Basic Google is good but Advance Search gives a shorter list with more relevant hits.

To find Advance Search, click on the Options gear icon in upper right corner, then click on Advance Search. Don referred us to the Advance Search tips available as a link on this page (upper right corner).

The syntax tools and filters are great options for forcing and eliminating search terms. A user can take advantage of the Advance Search template or, alternatively, just memorize the syntax tools, i.e., + [search for the literal term], - [eliminate term from the search] , ~ [employ synonyms; our speaker didn’t see a lot of need for more search terms but I can see where it would be useful for things like cellular/wireless/mobile or property/land/real estate], and, lastly, site: [site search](my favorite, too, Don!) A site search allows you to target a specific web site. It’s a good way to dig down on a specific site or to pick up on items that don’t get hits using a site’s sometimes less than adequate search feature.

Other very useful features are the built-in reference tools [what time is it in “x”; currency converter; calculator (5*9)+3 ]. The complete list of tools is on the Advance Search tips page -- click on “special search features.”

Another useful tool was actually pointed out by someone in the audience. He advised us that neutral results can be obtained by inserting Pws=0& after the question mark in the Google search results string. From what I have heard, it may not work with Google Instant so you may want to consider turning off Instant if you want neutralized results. Another option for turning on and off personalized search:

1. Log out if you are logged into a Google account. It should simply say Sign In with no mention of your name in the upper right hand corner.

2. Click on the gear icon on a search results page and select Web History. [the Web History choice seems to appear only on the results page, not the Google home page]

3. Select ”Disable customizations based on Web History.”

I think the frequent excited murmuring of “oh!” and subsequent furious scribbling from those around me during this program is what gave me the greatest insight: what we may take for granted may be new to others. I was reminded to not assume my users know about these tools. Posting tips on the library’s intranet page isn’t enough – hence the need for this PLL SIS program. We need to teach sessions on using Google effectively – ‘cause they’re going to use it. Really.

Volunteer at the VALL/VLA Conference in October!

Volunteers are needed to assist with facilitating sessions during the 2011 VLA Conference to be held October 27-28 at the Renaissance Portsmouth Hotel and Waterfront Conference Center. If you are interested in being a volunteer during the conference, please contactLydia Williams by email at williamslc@longwood.edu or by telephone at434.395.2432.

Bobbie Jane Denny, 1947-2011

It is with sadness we note the death of former Valler Bobbie Jane Denny, who passed away in Grafton, IL on July 28, 2011. Bobbie had been an active member of VALL and was president of the association from 2003-2004 before her retirement in 2006.

Below is a picture and obituary which were published in the Jacksonville Journal-Courier on July 30, 2011:

Bobbie Jane Denny, 63, of Grafton, and formerly of Roodhouse, died Thursday afternoon, July 28, 2011, at her home on the Mississippi River.

Born in Springfield Nov. 6, 1947, she was the daughter of the late James E. and Alene I. "Icky" (Sprague) Denny.Surviving are a daughter, Laura (husband, Bill) Ripol of Richmond, Va.; a son, Mark (wife, Randi) Dain of Fairfax, Va.; four grandchildren, Dain Ripol, Anne-Katharine Ripol, Derek Dain and Luke Dain; a brother, James G. Denny of Beardstown; and her niece, Lauren Denny of Roodhouse.

Bobbie was preceded in death by her parents, World War II Army Air Corps veteran, retired Air Force Master Sgt. James Denny and Alene I. "Icky" Denny. A sister, Joan Carol Denny, who died in infancy, also preceded her in death.

She graduated as valedictorian of North Greene High School Class of 1965. Bobbie attended the University of Illinois receiving her undergraduate degree in psychology with honors and a master's degree in education. She then attended American University in Washington, D.C., where she obtained a Juris Doctorate degree. She later earned a master's degree in Library and Information Science from Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.

Bobbie was a public school teacher and counselor in Illinois. In 1974, she moved to northern Virginia where she had a private law practice for over 20 years. She also was director of the Fairfax County Law Library for 10 years retiring in 2006, returning to Illinois in 2007.

In addition to many academic honors, successful careers in multiple professions and world travel, Bobbie took great pleasure in the finer things in life. She attended Roodhouse Methodist Church as a child, and after coming back to Illinois was a member of The Living Word Church in Alton. She enjoyed painting and was an avid golfer.

Bobbie loved animals, had many pets and was a horse enthusiast. She loved her childhood in Roodhouse, surrounded by friends and family growing up, many of whom were with her on the day she passed.

Visitation will be from 4-5:30 p.m. on Monday at Airsman-Hires Funeral Home in Roodhouse. Following visitation, graveside rites will be held at Fernwood Cemetery in Roodhouse. Memorials may be made to The Living Word Church. Condolences may be left online at http://www.airsman-hires.com/

Free OCLC On-line Classes for VA Librarians

From Terry Long

LVA has contracted with OCLC to offer hundreds of free on-line classes for Va. librarians. The classes range from Excel and other applications to library management, cataloging, etc.

Go to: va.webjunction.org
Users have to register and have a Va. library address.

If you or your staff try and have any problem email: cindy.church@lva.virginia.gov

VALL Committees 2011 - 2012

by Suzanne Corriell

Bylaws:
To review and revise the VALL Bylaws and Constitution as directed by the Executive Board or as needed.

Anthony Brown Ikwueme – Chair and Board Liaison
Suzanne Corriell
Julie Stuckey

Collaborative Communication Initiatives:
Purpose: In charge of collaborative communications efforts such as the VALLTalk blog and the VALL Wiki.

Evelyn Campbell – Chair and Board Liaison
Ben Almoite
Amy Wharton

Grants:
Purpose: To publicize, award, and administer grants. This is our version of the Big Give!

Donna Bausch – Co-Chair
Jennifer Sekula – Co-Chair
Laurie Claywell
Nancy Loewenberg
Patty Petroccione – Board Liaison

Legislative Awareness:
Purpose: To monitor and inform members of pending federal and state legislation, citizen referendums, executive and administrative action, and judicial review of laws affecting law libraries.

Isabel Paul – Chair
Lara Dresser
Patty Petroccione – Board Liaison

Membership:
Purpose: To promote chapter membership, maintain a current membership database, and publish an annual membership directory.

Christina Vassey – Chair
Lisa Reinhard
Cathy Palombi
Michele Gernhardt – Board Liaison

Nominating Committee:
Purpose: Prepare annual slate of candidates for Chapter offices.

Fred Dingledy – Chair
Michele Gernhardt – Board Liaison

Placement:
Purpose: Communicate new job openings to VALL members by posting announcements on the VALL list-serve and website.

Gail Warren – Chair
Heather Casey
Evelyn Campbell – Board Liaison

Preservation:
Purpose: Encourages, coordinates, and promotes the preservation of law-related resources and information.

Sally Wambold – Chair
Frosty Owen
Amy Wharton – Board Liaison

Programs:
Purpose: To design, plan, and implement educational programming for the Chapter.

Suzanne Corriell – Chair and Board Liaison
Jean Holcomb
Meredith Duval
David Knight

Public Relations:
Purpose: To explore ways to highlight the contributions of law libraries and librarians to the legal and library communities and to promote law librarianship as a profession.

Joyce Manna Janto – Chair
Leanne Battle
Amy O’Connor
Patty Petroccione – Board Liaison

Publications:
Purpose: Explore opportunities for VALL to publish in professional sources.

Lyn Warmath – Co-Chair
Gail Zwirner – Co-Chair
Ben Keele
Gregory Stoner
Suzanne Corriell – Board Liaison

Thanks also go out to the holders of VALL's administrative positions:
VLA Liaison – Terry Long
Postmaster - Terry Long
Handbook Editor - Jennifer Sekula
Wiki Administrator - Amy Wharton
Blogmaster – Evelyn Campbell
Archivist - Gail Warren

VASLA Summer Meeting at VCU's James Branch Cabell Library

Come network and learn at the VASLA Summer Meeting on Friday, August 5.

The programs and presenters promise to be quite engaging.
Plus, the half-day schedule means you can be through by lunch-time.

Check It Out! Lending E-Readers and iPads at VCU Libraries Karen Cary, Head, Collection Management, VCU Librarieswith Mary Anne Dyer, Catalog Librarian for Digital Asset Management, VCU Libraries

Managing the Perfect Storm: Will e-books save libraries? Sally Wiant, B.A., M.L.S., J.D., Professor of Law, Washington and Lee University

Life as a mobile developer: Fitting your data to users on the go. Ron Duplain, Lead Android and Mobile Web Engineer at WillowTree Apps (Charlottesville, VA).

To register, fill out the form at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/DNYNMQY and send your registration fee ($15 for members/$25 for non-members) to:

Megan Nunemaker
National Radio Astronomy Observatory Library
520 Edgemont RoadCharlottesville, VA 22903

More detailed directions and parking information to follow. Please contact Bettina Peacemaker at bjpeacemaker@vcu.edu or 804-828-8960 if you have any questions.

VALL Social@AALL

The deadline is fast approaching to RSVP for the VALL luncheon. This is a popular event so be sure that you RSVP by Monday, July 11, 2011 to Suzanne Corriell. Please click here for details and form: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1AmwujOwiR5TEDx3ZjthuPKYzsh0cn7wXzDdbWHziMpY/edit?hl=en_US

News from UVA's Arthur J. Morris Law Library

The University of Virginia Arthur J. Morris Law Library is undergoing summer renovations, including carpet replacement and a new Reference Desk. You can follow news of the transformation in the Morris Library’s blawg, “MoreUs” (http://uvalaw.typepad.com/library/) and on their Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/uvalawlibrary), both launched this spring.

Hunton & Williams Law Library: A Brief Photographic Tour

By Michele Gernhardt

I recently took several photos of the main library in the Richmond office of Hunton & Williams so that our fantastic blogmaster could update the images on the VALLTalk page. I ended up taking quite a few photos, both of the library and its view of the James River and downtown Richmond.

If you'd like to take a little photographic tour of the library, you can do so here: http://vallphotos.shutterfly.com/pictures

I think I might add photos of the satellite libraries we have in the Richmond office in the near future. Enjoy the pictures!

News on former VALLER

Congratulations to Femi Cadmus who will be taking up her appointment in August as the new director of the Cornell University Law Library! Femi is currently the associate director for administration at Yale Law School's Lillian Godman Library.

We are very pleased for Femi and we wish her all the best!

Message from the President

It has been an honor serving as the 2010-2011 Vice President of the Virginia Association of Law Libraries. In coordinating our meetings this past year, each personal interaction with a library professional reinforced my respect for my colleagues and pride in my profession. Everyone I encountered was helpful, responsive and eager to take any steps to make each meeting a success.

It was a privilege working with Past President Anthony Ikwueme and the rest of the 2010-2011 executive board. I hope I can apply all that I have learned this past year to the benefit of VALL.
I know that I still have much to learn. I welcome any guidance and feedback that you are willing to provide to help me continue to develop as a librarian and as President of this organization.

I will work with the executive board, committee chairs and our membership make this year a successful one for VALL. I ask you to be as generous as possible with your limited time and boundless talents and knowledge to accomplish this same end. During my term as President, I intend to focus on organizational leadership, growth and pride. I have outlined my objectives below:

Leadership

Executive Board Meetings: It is my goal to ensure that the executive board is as accessible and responsive as possible. We will hold more frequent executive board meetings, with advance notice to members.

Leadership Handbook: The VALL Leadership Handbook will be updated to account for recent bylaw changes.

Growth

Meetings: I intend to work with the board and the program committee to explore ideas for enhancing future VALL meetings, such as long-term planning for joint meetings as well as for regular VALL meetings.

Membership: I will work closely with our membership chair to reach out to non-members in Virginia law libraries and law schools. I would also like to work with our grants committee to further develop our grants program.

Pride

VALL has existed in one form or another for thirty years. Our members and our organization have accomplished much that is worthy of recognition, celebration and remembrance. In order to preserve the institutional memory of VALL for future generations of Virginia law librarians, I intend to promote several projects in the coming year:

1. The digitization of every issue of the VALL newsletter. Gail Zwirner has entrusted her archives to me for the purpose of scanning them and adding them to the VALL Wiki.
2. Create a list of past executive boards on the VALL Wiki site.
3. Explore ideas for enhancing the “about VALL” portion of the VALL Wiki and updating existing content.

Thank you for this opportunity to serve my fellow law librarians as your 2011-2012 VALL President.

Michele Gernhardt

Farewell to Barbara Baxter!

Retiring Director of Ehrhorn Law Library, Barbara Baxter & Dean Mathew Staver

VALL bids a fond farewell to Barbara and wishes her well in her retirement. Barbara has been a longtime friend to VALL ... hosting VALL meetings and participating in VALL programs. She began her academic career at another start-up law school, Regent University, from 1986-1990.

Barbara recalls that that was interesting because the collection was a gift from Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and all the books and microforms were shipped on trucks to Virginia. After her stint at Regent, Barbara became a legal indexer, until a former student from Regent and founding dean of Liberty University, Bruce Green, called her back into law librarianship.

"I work with such a wonderful staff and all of us have become quite close over these past seven years. We daily pray for each other and encourage one another. I will miss that time of fellowship and I will miss each and every one of them," Barbara said.

But she has been thinking and planning her retirement for a year and she will retire at the end of this semester. Barbara's plans may take her to a different country.

"I took a tour of Jordan and Israel this past January and absolutely fell in love with Israel. I plan to return to Israel the end of July for an extended stay. I have a few contacts in Israel but at this moment don’t know where I will be staying or what I will be doing. I am praying for God to open the right doors for opportunities there. I am packing up my belongings and putting everything in storage . . . signs of a true vagabond," Barbara said.

In the meantime Barbara will leave Ehrhorn Law Library in the hands of Anthony Ikwueme who will be acting director of the law library.

"It has been a blessing to work under Prof. Barbara Baxter for the past six years. Barb as she is fondly called takes keen interest in everything that concerns her staff. With her never-ceasing smile, she makes us believe that we can accomplish anything we set our minds on. Her leadership style motivates and fosters individual responsibility, accountability, and superior career opportunities. As our founding Director of Law Library, a position she held for seven years, it will be difficult to match her accomplishments. Barb particularly helped the Law School gain full accreditation in record time. The excellent ABA site team reports about the law library vindicate her sterling leadership qualities. We will miss her and we will continue her tradition of excellence," Tony Ikwueme said.

"I'm not sure how many VALL members realize that Barbara Baxter has been instrumental in getting two of Virginia's law schools off the ground. Without Barbara's labors, the countless eighteen wheelers which brought Oral Roberts University's former law library east to form the core of Regent University Law Library's collection would never have left Oklahoma," recalled Donna Bausch. " Without this library, there would not have been a law school in Virginia Beach. Once the trucks arrived, the work had only begun. It was not until Regent's law library program was fully in place that Barbara left Virginia. Many years later, some of Barbara's former colleagues who were helping Liberty plan a new law school realized that no one but Barbara could lead the law library planning effort. Once more into the breach, Barbara's steady hand helped lead another law school from infancy to stability. It is said that good things come in threes, so don't get too comfortable, Barbara, you never know from whence your next call may come. It's been a pleasure to call you a VALL colleague and friend. All the best in your future endeavors."

VALL wishes Barbara all the best in her new adventures wherever they may take her and hopes that she will keep in touch and keep us updated on her travels and work.

Welcome to Ben Almoite!

Andrea & Ben Almoite at an old lava flow in Hawaii's Volcanoes National Park

VALL welcomes Ben who is the newest librarian at the Virginia State Law Library, a division of the Supreme Court of Virginia, in Richmond.

He was previously a reference librarian with Keller and Heckman LLP in Washington, DC. He is a ‘Navy brat’ who was born in Portsmouth, VA, but grew up in San Diego, CA. After working at the San Diego County Public Law Library, Ben moved to Washington, DC to work and attend The Catholic University of America. While working in Acquisitions at the DuFour Law Library, he earned his Master of Science in Library Science degree. He graduated from CUA in 2009.

He met his wife, Andrea, while in Washington, DC. She is a University of Richmond alumna and is happy to be returning to Richmond. Because of Andrea, Ben visited Richmond a few times prior to moving here. A History major in college, he is aware of Richmond’s rich history and looks forward to exploring and learning more of the area’s past.

Ben lives in the West End of Richmond. In his spare time, Ben likes to play bar trivia (he watches Jeopardy! almost religiously), read on his Kindle, and sing. He misses his band “The Groove” back in California and longs to perform live again. So singing karaoke will have to do for the meantime or perhaps it's time for a "VALL" band.

VALL Membership Renewal

From Chris Vassey

Thank you for your commitment to our Association’s goals of developing and increasing the usefulness and efficiency of law libraries, promoting librarianship and fostering a spirit of cooperation among members of the profession. VALL is the only state-wide association dedicated to the unique needs and interests of law librarians and law librarianship. Through your support, we look forward to a productive and successful 2011-2012.

In the coming year, the association continues its dedication to you, as a law librarian, and to law librarianship through:

BENEFITS OF MEMBERSHIP
· Annual meetings
· Membership Directory
· Continuing Education Grants

OUR CONTRIBUTION TO YOU
· Networking opportunities
· Continuing education sessions and seminars
· Access to VALL Blog and wiki
· Publishing opportunities
· Legal reference tools

OUR CONTRIBUTION TO OTHERS
· Lobbying legislators for public law library funding
· Lobbying state officials to improve access to government information
· Providing speakers and educational programs to professional associations outside the field of law
· Representing members at the Virginia Library Association meetings
· Interacting with publishers to address members’ concerns and problems

Your continued membership in VALL insures your participation in these activities and our ability to represent the Association’s interests. Please take a moment today to renew your membership for 2011-2012 via the Membership Form available at the VALL Wiki. Completed forms may be sent to my attention at Chris Vassey, 5711 Harbour Ridge Road, Midlothian, VA 23112.

Position: Reference Librarian, Liberty Univ. School of Law, VA

Reference Librarian (Position #: 9002642)
Liberty University School of Law, Lynchburg, Virginia

The Liberty University School of Law, Ehrhorn Law Library, invites applications for a non- tenure-track full-time administrative faculty library position. The mission of the Law Library is to support the Law School in equipping future leaders in law with superior legal education in fidelity to the Christian faith expressed through the Holy Scriptures. Located on the Campus North of the Liberty University in Lynchburg, VA, Ehrhorn Law Library employs 5 librarians and 5 library staff, and serves a student population of 304.

All candidates must demonstrate a commitment to the law school’s Christian mission, scholarship, and service. The law school welcomes applications from minorities and women, and is committed to an ethnically diverse faculty.

Requirements:
Master of Library Science (M.L.S. or equivalent) and Juris Doctor (J.D. or equivalent foreign degree) from American Bar Association accredited institution. Some experience in an academic library environment is preferred.

Responsibilities:

• Provides extensive reference and research services in a technologically advanced environment serving a sophisticated and research-oriented faculty and student body.
• Participates as instructor in Legal Research, a component of the law school’s innovative, six semester Lawyering Skills program.
• Participates in the faculty liaison program.

• Participates in collection development of print and electronic resources.

• Participates in overall planning and implementation of new programs and procedures in the law library.

• Performs other duties as assigned by the Director of the Law Library.

• Attend seminars, conferences, and participates in local regional and/or national professional associations and activities. Monitors current events and, as time permits, contributes to scholarly discussions through writing articles, making presentations and other means.

Knowledge/Skills/Abilities:
• Excellent writing skills.

• Excellent oral communications skills including the ability to communicate in multiple settings, including one-to-one exchanges and group presentations with varied clientele.
• Excellent computer skills, with proficiency in MS Office applications, Macromedia Contribute, and other computer applications.
• Excellent problem solving abilities.


Salary and Benefits:
Salary and benefits are competitive with other Virginia academic law libraries.

To apply, go to https://jobs.liberty.edu/applicants/jsp/shared/search/SearchResults_css.jsp. For further information or questions, please contact Joseph Wiegand, Dean of Internal Affairs and Online Programs, 1971 University Boulevard, Lynchburg, VA 24502 or law@liberty.edu.

Deadline:
Open until filled.

Position: Librarian/Archivist VA State Law Library

Job description:

The individual filling this position reports to the State Law Librarian and is responsible for identifying, appraising, documenting and directing the safekeeping of judicial branch archival records, both print and electronic, and other historically valuable items. The librarian/archivist conducts research activities using materials in the library collection and the Supreme Court of Virginia Archive, providing reference and research assistance to judicial branch staff, attorneys and the broader legal community, including public patrons.

This position offers a competitive benefits package, which includes vacation and sick leave, 12 paid holidays, health insurance, retirement, life insurance, deferred compensation and short- and long-term disability.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities:
-- Processing archival collections including personal papers of judges and justices, historical court records, manuscripts, photos and media.
-- Creating, updating and enhancing finding aids, catalog records and related sources of information through the use of established collections management practices.
-- Assisting judicial staff and researchers by identifying appropriate research materials, retrieving items, assisting in their use, and returning items to the archive.
-- Answering judicial staff and public inquiries by performing necessary research using the Supreme Court of Virginia Archive and other collections in the Richmond metropolitan area.
-- Collaborating with library staff to identify, select and preserve electronic judicial branch documents for the Chesapeake Digital Preservation Group.

For more information and to apply online: http://www.courts.state.va.us/courtadmin/aoc/hr/jbrr/home.html

Renew Your Membership!

Don't forget to renew your VALL membership! Membership application form is here: http://vall.pbworks.com/w/page/23225994/Membership

VALL/VASLA Dine-Around

Report by Terry Long

The VALL/VASLA dine-a-round was held at Baker's Crust in Carytown on May 19th. Greg Stoner from WilliamsMullen and I were the only VALL members. Though it was a small group of seven, it was diverse. We had a librarian from SunTrust Bank, VCU business librarian, VCU/MCV archivist, Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals librarian who is a VASLA member (I'll have to talk to her about joining VALL.) and a library school student. I enjoyed the diversity of the group and hope that we will join with them again.

VALL/VASLA 2011 Spring Meeting

The joint Spring meeting was hosted by Regent University Law Library in Virginia Beach and was attended by about 25 members of both associations.

VALL President Anthony Ikwueme, VASLA President Heather Enderle and Jeffrey A. Brauch, dean and professor at Regent University School of Law, all had an opportunity to welcome attendees.

The program started with VALL's own Sally Wambold from the University of Richmond Law Library who presented A Sampler of Preservation Tools.

This was followed by Carl Childs from the Library of Virginia who spoke on Digital Preservation Efforts at the Library of Virginia.

During a break, attendees were taken on a tour of the Regent University Law Library. Renovations to the library had been completed in August of 2009.

After lunch which was sponsored by West, the program continued with John Glover, from Virginia Commonwealth University who presented Smartphone, iPads, Netbooks and Social Networking.

Melissa Christakos and Ryan Claringbole from the Chesapeak Public Library System presented Craft & Cache: Carefree Cloud Computing.

The day concluded with the VALL Business Meeting where VALLers bid farewell to outgoing President Anthony Ikwueme and welcomed incoming president, Michele Gernhardt.

VALL President Anthony Ikwueme

Incoming president, Michele Gernhardt thanking outgoing president, Anthony Ikwueme

Part of the VALL Board: L-R: Gregory Stoner, Michele Gernhardt, Suzanne Corriell, Anthony Ikwueme, David Knight.

VALL members enjoying the Spring sunshine in the atrium

John Glover from VCU speaking about Smartphones,
new technologies and social networking

Ryan Claringbole from Chesapeake Public Library System

Attendees learning lots of new things from the presenters!

Anthony Ikwueme socializing with VALLers




Regent Law Library's Nikki Powell and Teresa Parker-Bellamy

Fred Dingledy from William & Mary's Law Library

Donna Bausch and David Knight from the Norfolk Law Library


Many thanks to Bill Magee who took the photos and to Donna Bausch for coordinating the effort.

Renew Your Membership!

It's that time of the year again! VALL membership runs from June 1 to May 31, so don't miss this opportunity to renew your commitment to your professional association. Membership application form is here: http://vall.pbworks.com/w/page/23225994/Membership

Summary of VLA Council Meeting April 8

by Terry Long, Virginia State Law Library

Here are the highlights that should be of interest:

· The annual paraprofessional forum will be held on May 22-24 at the Koger Center in Richmond. For additional information http://www.vla.org/wordpress/?p=3387 (The Virginia State Law Library sent one of our staff to a one day workshop sponsored by this forum in Fall 2010 and she was quite enthused; we are sending both paraprofessionals in May. Consider sending someone from your library.)

· ALA’s Library Legislative Day is May 9-10 in Washington, D.C.

· Conference Planning has begun for VLA’s annual meeting Oct 27-28 at the Portsmouth Renaissance Hotel. As you know, VALL is partnering with VLA. Put on your thinking caps and put in a proposal for a program; the deadline is May 1. http://www.vla.org/wordpress/?p=1851

· VLA’s College & Research Libraries Chapter is sponsoring program on May 9th, Collections Unbound: New Formats and Models at VCU. For more information http://www.vla.org/wordpress/?p=3302

Message from the President

VALLers,

How time flies! Almost a year ago, although it feels just like yesterday, I stepped up to the call to be your servant leader. Just as there is time for everything, I have come to the end of my tenure.

I thank all the members, especially the members of my board and various committees. I also thank some people in particular, including Evelyn Campbell, Sally Wambold, Fred Dingledy and Michele Genhardt for their advice and untiring efforts at keeping our association strong and virile. With their help and the goodwill of all the members, I am glad to pass on the baton to a new executive. I am also filled with deep appreciation for my library Director, Prof. Barbara Baxter for her encouragement and support throughout my tenure. Julie Stuckey and Eric Kistler (my colleagues at the Ehrhorn Law Library, Liberty University School of Law), you guys made the difference in picking the pieces for me while I travelled to attend all VALL meetings this past year.

Working with a crop of talented and committed members made all the difference in the modest achievements VALL recorded during my tenure. We made our association more visible to the members and our community by exploiting the huge potentials that technology offers. This in turn allowed us to provide timely information to the members and increased attendance at VALL events. We also amended our Bylaws in order to reflect the current economic reality by cutting down the mandatory meetings of the association. This year, too, our association set up a grant in honor of our late colleague – Barbara Cumming. Thanks to the efforts and vision of Jean Holcomb, Donna Bausch, and Michele Gernhardt.

Gail Zwirner, Lyn Warmath, and Sally Wambold also did us proud by winning the prestigious AALL Marketing Award in recognition of the immense contributions of our association and her members to the library community and legal profession in Virginia. In all of these, I pride myself on the caliber of talents in VALL and their unwavering willingness to serve.

Thank you all for the opportunity you gave me to serve. It is particularly both honor and privilege for me to work with and get to know many of you individually.

I will always remain,

Anthony Brown Ikwueme