President's Message, Dec 21, 2018

Greetings VALL members,

I hope this message finds you well and looking forward to a festive (or quiet, depending on your preference) holiday season!

It is hard to believe that two months have passed since our fall meeting at the Libbie Mill Library in Richmond.  The meeting was a great success and featured educational sessions focusing on the theme of innovation.  

We heard from Lance Odegard, National Director of Technology at Thomson Reuters, on innovation in the legal industry.  A panel including Alexis Sharp of Hunton Andrews Kurth, Amy Wharton of the University of Virginia Law Library, and Chris Lange, an attorney at LeClairRyan, described innovation stories at their organizations.  Caryn Foster Durham of Durham Strategy + Consulting led a workshop on how to articulate and build a personal brand.  

We also received a tour of Libbie Mill Library, a true 21^st century library with a spacious, daylit interior, individual and interactive areas, and a 3-D printer.

I wanted to update you on a few things.  (If you attended the Fall Meeting, you will have already heard about some of them.)

Spring Meeting:  As you have hopefully seen from Chris Vassey’s “save the date” message, our Spring Meeting will be held on Friday, May 3, 2019, at the offices of Hunton Andrews Kurth in Richmond.  The Programs Committee is developing a slate of educational sessions for the meeting, and based on the Fall Meeting, I expect that it will be “must see” programming—highly relevant, informative, and timely.  Please plan to attend, I am looking forward to seeing you there!

Member Spotlight:  The Communications/Public Relations Committee has published the first of its new quarterly member spotlights on the VALL Talk blog.  The first highlighted member was Suzanne Corriell, circuit librarian of the Fourth Circuit Library.  Anticipated future publication months are January, April, August, and November.  If you have a recommendation for a member to highlight, please reach out to Alexis Sharp, chair of the committee.

Website:  Our expanded website committee, chaired by Stella Naulo, has been researching and evaluating options for creating a new site for VALL.  The committee has done a lot of work on this already and I am looking forward to updating you more about this.

Chapter Leadership Handbook:  Suzanne Corriell has been reviewing the chapter leadership handbook with an eye toward possible revisions to bring the handbook up-to-date and ensure its ongoing value as a resource for the effective operation of VALL, and further updates on this will be forthcoming.

Law Libraries Column in Virginia Lawyer:  The Law Libraries column in Virginia Lawyer magazine is a mainstay of our association and an excellent way to display our expertise to one of our primary patron groups:  attorneys in Virginia.  VALL members have continued to contribute articles to this column, and that is greatly appreciated.  If you have not yet written for the Law Libraries column, I encourage you to consider it.  It is a great way to highlight the value of our profession to Virginia attorneys and to get experience with writing and publishing professionally.  If you are interested in writing for Virginia Lawyer, please contact one of the co-chairs of the Publications Committee, Marie Summerlin Hamm and Greg Stoner.

Grants:  Patricia Petroccione (Walter T. McCarthy Law Library) was awarded a grant to attend the AALL 2018 Annual Meeting.  There is an opportunity for one or more additional members on the Grants Committee; if you are interested in serving, please contact the chair, Joyce Janto.

Membership:  Doris Morgan has taken over as membership chair, replacing Chris Vassey, who is the vice president/president-elect.  Please continue to be on the lookout for potential new members, such as law librarians who are new to Virginia and library students or law students with an interest in the profession.  It would be wonderful to grow our ranks from the next generation of law librarians.

Legislative Awareness:  At the Fall Meeting, David Knight, chair of the Legislative Awareness Committee, reported on several new Virginia and federal statutes of interest to law librarians.  A hard copy summary of that report is available; for a copy, please contact David or me.

If you have an interest in getting involved in one of the initiatives or committees mentioned above, please let me or the appropriate committee chair know.  There are many ways to make a contribution to VALL, and your involvement is what makes VALL a vital professional organization!

Also, as a reminder, the AALL 2019 Annual Meeting will be held July 13-16, 2019 in Washington, D.C.  This will be a rare opportunity to attend an AALL meeting that is relatively close by for many of our members.  Among other things, it will include sessions presented by some of my Law Library of Congress colleagues, and we are planning at least one event at the Law Library, so I hope I will see you there. 

I hope you all have happy holidays and a wonderful year to come.

Andrew Winston

  

In and Around VALL: New members

Welcome to these new VALLers!

Kate Boudouris - University of Virginia Law Library

Jeanine Cali - Prince William County Law Library

Heather Enderle - Cowan Gates; City of Richmond Sheriff's Office Library

Amy Harrison - Williams Mullen

Jocelyn Mitchell Manion - U.S. Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit Library

Sarah New - University of Virginia Law Library

Franklin Runge - Washington & Lee University, School of Law

Spotlight: Suzanne Corriell

submitted by PR Committee

Name: Suzanne B. Corriell

Organization: U.S. Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit Library

Title: Circuit Librarian

How did you become interested in law librarianship? I volunteered at a public library throughout high school. After college, I was researching law school options and discovered I could combine law and librarianship. While in law school, working with librarians on law review and as a student employee solidified the decision.

What is your favorite moment of your career so far? Chairing the planning committee for the 2018 Federal Court Library Conference is a recent favorite. We highlighted the work we’ve done in the past two years and continued to move forward with our strategic plan. Our committee was enthused and entertaining, we had dynamic keynote speakers  and sessions, and even prepared an app for the conference. I learned quite a bit from working with such a diverse, dynamic team; and I learned a lot about leadership and time management.  While it was intense work, it was very rewarding. It all came together really well.

What is your favorite part of VALL? The people. It’s fantastic to have a network of law librarian professionals across the state that band together to help one another.

What is something you would want people to know about you (hobbies, interests, passions, etc.)? While I do not do any cooking at home, I outsource myself to the Feed More community kitchen twice a month. It’s a lot of fun and it gets me out of my comfort zone. It’s a great way to give back to an amazing organization.

What is a guilty pleasure you cannot live without? My initial answer was beer (India Pale Ale), but then I started thinking about fried chicken.  So, let’s combine them for beer-battered fried chicken.

If Hollywood made a movie of your life; who would you like to see play the lead role as you? Tina Fey. But mostly as Liz Lemon: she cares deeply about her work and her team, she's a feminist, she really likes food, and she's able to laugh at herself. 

New Home for Henrico County Municipal Government & Law Library

by Ben Almoite

On May 2018, the legal collection of the Henrico County Public Library transferred to the Tuckahoe area library, located at 1901 Starling Drive, Henrico, VA 23229.

For almost the last thirty years, the law library had been located at the Henrico County Courthouse, at the Western Government Center. Due to a large and lengthy court renovation project, the special collection was permanently moved from the courthouse to the lower floor of the Tuckahoe Library.

All titles in the collection are reference materials and cannot be checked out. The law library is free and open to the public anytime the Tuckahoe Library is open:

Monday – Thursday, 9 am – 9 pm

Friday – Saturday, 9 am – 6 pm

Tuckahoe Library Adult Services staff can help with basic reference questions. For assistance with more detailed inquiries, a legal reference specialist is available.

For more information about our collection, please visit us or call the Tuckahoe Library at 804-501-1910, ext. 5.

Ben Almoite

Law Librarian

Tuckahoe Area Library

https://www.henricolibrary.org/collection/municipal-government-law-library

Virginia Library Association Council Meeting highlights (June 8, 2018)

submitted by Terry Long, VALL liaison

·         Membership is at 770; some members have yet to pay their dues.

·         National Library Legislative Day went well with over 30 Virginia librarians participating. They met with staff of senators, Kaine and Warner, and several of the representatives’ staff.

·         Jobline revenue is on target.

·         Logo has been freshened up by deepening the color.

·         Travel grants have been made from VLA to two librarians to attend the Joint Conference of Librarians of Color in conjunction with ALA this summer.

·         The executive director of VLA, Lisa Varga, and the executive committee are going to be more intentional about offering networking opportunities and programming for people of color.

·         A Code of Conduct for VLA events is being developed.

·         The VLA Professional Associates Conference in May had 178 attendees. The location in Williamsburg is popular but other locations that are perhaps more centrally located are being explored. The Professional Associates forum is also trying to think outside of the box for changes in how, when and for how long the conference is held.

·         The annual conference for VLA will be held September 26 to 28 at the Williamsburg Lodge. Lisa hopes registration will be up by the end of June. There will be sessions for different learning styles. There are 65 vendor booths available; all but 4 have been sold. Something new this year will be an introvert lounge and an extrovert lounge.

·         The good news this year for Virginia’s public libraries is that state-aid to libraries was increased – a real miracle in light of the General Assembly’s battle over the budget.

·         Library of Virginia will have a booth at the State Fair this year and are asking for librarians to volunteer to staff it.

VALL Spring Meeting, April 20, 2018

Thirty-eight people attended the VALL Spring Meeting at the University of Virginia Law School Library on Friday April 20. 

On the agenda that beautiful spring day were three programs; a business meeting where VALL said goodbye to outgoing president, Lara Dresser; secretary, Dana Deseck-Piazzon; director, Doris Morgan; and welcomed incoming president, Andrew Winston; vice president/president elect, Chris Vassey; director, Liz Schiller; and secretary, Megan Scanlon; at the end of the meeting attendees were given the opportunity to tour the library.

Thank you to Micheal Klepper for the photos.

Registration Table

 

An opportunity to catch up L-R: Chris Vassey, Wendy Maines, Lara Dresser and Amy Wharton. 

Attendees getting ready for the meeting progams.

Gail Zwiner presenting Serving On a Public Library Board a/k/a How to Stay Busy in Retirement.

 

Wendy Maines speaking to VALL members about Mindfulness for Law Libraries

 

 Cathy Palombi from UVA Law Library and Gail Zwirner.

 Outgoing VALL president, Lara Dresser, and incoming president, Andrew Winston.

Greg Stoner, Joyce Janto and Suzanne Corriell on the panel of Metrics in Law Libraries.

Candidates for Executive Board: 2018/2019

Vice President/President Elect: Christina Vassey

Chris Vassey

Chris is the client services manager for Thomson Reuters.

Since joining the company in 1995, Chris has served in a number of roles, including law firm account manager, regional manager and director of academic account management.   

She received her J.D. from the University of Kansas School of Law (1994) and her bachelor's degree in political science from the University of Kansas (1990).  

Chris has served as VALL membership chair since 2012 and was secretary 2014-2016.  She is also a member of the board of trustees and chair of the development committee for ART 180.  

Chris lives in Richmond, Virginia, with her husband, Brett, and 18-year-old son, Hayden, who is headed for Wake Forest in Fall 2018.  

Director: Elizabeth Schiller
 

Liz Schiller

Liz Schiller recently joined the University of Richmond School of Law as a Reference and Research Services Librarian in the Muse Law Library and teaches legal research in the first-year program.

Prior to coming to the University of Richmond, Liz served as a Reference Librarian and Law Librarian in the Congressional Research Service at the Library of Congress. 

Liz is an active member of the American Association of Law Libraries and served as the President of the Law Librarians’ Society of Washington, DC.

 

Secretary: Megan Scanlon