VALL Annual Meeting Oct. 29, 2010

VALL President Tony Ikwueme opening the annual meeting

It was a crisp sunny morning ... one of those beautiful Fall days in Charlottesville when about forty members met at the University of Virginia for the association's annual meeting.

Members enjoyed a continental breakfast courtesy of the LexisNexis Librarian Relations Group before trooping into the first program, The Googlization of Everything which was presented by UVA Associate Professor Siva Vaidhyanathan. It was a scintillating, highly informative program which made you look at Google in a whole new perspective. If anyone ever thought Google was their friend, this program dispelled that notion.

As one VALL member said, "I could have listened to him all day long."

VALL members who missed this opportunity to hear Vaidhyanathan speak, will have an opportunity to read The Googlization of Everything which is scheduled to be published in early 2011.

Siva Vaidhyanathan entertaining and scaring VALL members with the workings of Google

Vaidhyanathan's program was followed by Reference 2010: The Sky is Falling and a New Day Dawns. Ben Doherty and Kent Olson from UVA's Law Library played the characters of Gloom and Doom, and took us through various adverse reference scenarios (the Sky is Falling) and offered a different view of the situation (a New Day Dawns).

Ben Doherty and Kent Olson masquerading as Gloom and Doom

VALL members being deGooglized

After a delicious lunch (courtesy of West) members went into the business meeting where all the proposed amendments were unanimously approved.

The next VALL meeting will be the Winter Meeting in 2011. Stay tuned for more information!

Beginning My Journey to the Summit

by Heather Hamilton

In May of 2009, I graduated from law school with the goal of becoming a law librarian. I had received my library science degree in 2006 and three years of law school had convinced me that I belonged in a law library.

In September of 2009, I began my first job as a law librarian. One thing I had heard from the start was that the Annual Meeting of AALL was an essential activity for all law librarians, and certainly for new librarians. It was with great anticipation that I looked forward to July 2010, when I would head to Denver and finally find out for myself what the Annual Meeting was all about. My trip was made possible by my employer, the University of Richmond, and by a grant from VALL, both of whom I am indebted to, because the Annual Meeting was everything I had hoped it would be, and then some!

One thing I had heard from others, but wasn’t fully prepared for was just how exhausting and overwhelming those 4 days of programs could be. I attended CONELL on Saturday and that alone made me realize the importance of pacing myself. CONELL was an exciting whirlwind of meeting others, be they newbies to the profession, like myself, or seasoned veterans who offered sage advice on how to get the most out of my time at the Annual Meeting. Between making as many contacts as I could, and being whisked around Denver on an amazing tour of the city and its surroundings, I was exhausted Saturday evening. Exhausted-and exhilarated-at the prospect of meeting even more people and learning about what had brought such varied people into this unique profession.

The bulk of the conference, for me, was spent in programs, meetings, and volunteering to man the SEAALL table in the exhibit hall, though I did make time on Tuesday to go white water rafting, wherein I almost died (not really) and broke my middle finger on my right hand (really). The moral of that “program” was that I’m better off sticking to the programs offered by AALL and not creating my own excitement at the conference.

Of all the programs I attended, the one that stuck out most in my mind was, “Starting Off on the Right Track: Avoiding Mistakes Common to New (And Not-So-New) Instructors.” One reason this program resonated with me is that I was preparing to teach a class for the first time once school began in the fall. The information I gained from the speakers shaped the planning and preparations I put into my class, including giving me a great activity to use with my students in the first session. As I looked around the room at others attending the program, I was comforted to see a mix of new librarians and librarians who had been teaching for years. It brought home that AALL is an organization that never stops being useful to a law librarian. As I progress through my career, I will need to meet others outside my own library and to learn from the experiences of law librarians across the country.

To me, that was the greatest lesson I took away from the Annual Meeting and I can’t wait for next summer and the chance to further broaden my horizons professionally!

Don't Miss VALL Annual Meeting!

It's only two weeks away! Please submit your registration as soon as possible. The registration deadline is Friday, October 22 (if you send your registration form by e-mail to mgernhardt@hunton.com). Mailed registration deadline is Monday, October 18.

Access the Meeting Information and Registration Materials here: http://vall.pbworks.com/2010-Annual-Meeting

Don't miss this opportunity to meet with colleagues in lovely Charlottesville!

AALL President Joyce Janto

Why did you become a law librar­ian?

I became a librarian because of Susan St. James. When I was 12, she was in a TV show called “The Name of the Game.” She was a researcher and the hero could never nail the bad guys without the information she dug up for him. To me, researcher equaled librarian. When I was in high school, at the height of the feminist movement, we were discouraged from entering “female” careers. So I said I wanted to be a lawyer. But I still really wanted to be a librarian. In college, I entered a program to become a school librar­ian and got my B.S. in Education from Clarion State College in Clarion, Pennsylvania. I became a high school librarian and began working on my M.L.S. at Pitt. While there, I was a student assistant in the tech services area of Pitt’s Law School Library. It was an epiphany. “There are law schools, and they have librarians!” I immedi­ately dropped my copyright class to take academic library management. A career choice was made and I’ve never looked back

How did you first get involved in AALL?

My first involvement was with the Committee on Relations with Informa­tion Vendors (CRIV). At the time, there were guidelines for law book publish­ers in the C.F.R. CRIV was working on ways to strengthen those guidelines - we hoped to make them regulations rather than guidelines. Unfortunately we weren’t successful and the guide­lines were eventually removed. Early in my career, I was also active in the Technical Services SIS. I served on the Acquisitions Sub-committee and was the acquisitions columnist for the TS/OBS newsletter.

How has AALL helped you develop professionally?

I’ve spent my entire professional career in one library. It would have been so easy for me to get stale, deal­ing with the same people and issues all the time. By being active in AALL, I’ve been exposed to many different ideas, people, and ways of doing things. I’ve worked on projects that I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to work on at Richmond. It has enriched my profes­sional life immensely, which is why I’m so big on having our staff volunteer as much as they can/want, too.
What has been your favorite Annual Meeting?

That’s a hard question! Reno was weird, but fun, since it was in a casino; San Francisco was memorable for the vendor dinner where our rep sprang for a bottle of Dom Perignon; then in Boston in 2007 I lost a member of the newer law librarian class during the city
tour; in San Antonio every party had a frozen margarita machine; or oh, you meant which one had my favorite programs? I guess that would have to be Anaheim, where I was a member of the Annual Meeting Program Committee. Definitely, that meeting had the best programs ever selected!

What’s going to be the biggest challenge of being AALL President?

The vendor issue. This year, AALL intends to hold a vendor colloquy. This colloquy will bring together librarians, publishers, and information vendors to discuss topics that are important to all of us and to hopefully help resolve some of the issues that are currently challenging all of us. As a first step in this process, I have named Steve Anderson of the Maryland State Law Library as chair of the planning committee for this colloquy. This committee is charged with developing an agenda for a meeting between all interested parties sometime in February 2011.

What has been your greatest accomplishment in AALL?

That is hard for me to say. Most of what I’ve done in AALL had been done in cooperation with others. I think one of the most satisfying activities I’ve been involved with in AALL has been the Academic Law Librarians Special Interest Section Middle Managers’ Breakfast. It was through attending and organizing some of them that I’ve met colleagues who have become friends.

In other law librarian organizations?

I’m proud of the fact that I’m a “founding mother” of Virginia Association of Law Libraries (VALL). We were originally a group of locals who met for lunch once in a while. I was on the committee that wrote the constitution and bylaws for what became the Richmond Area Law Libraries and then VALL.

What does it mean to be involved in a professional organization such as AALL?

A friend of mine has a sig file that quotes Teddy Roosevelt: “Every man has an obligation to contribute to the upbuilding of his profession.” I take that seriously. By being involved with professional organizations you can help shape the future of the profession. You can have an impact on the decisions that are made that can affect your library, your career. I think we all owe it to ourselves and our colleagues to do what we can to make the future a good one for librarians and libraries.

(Reprinted with permission from the July 13, 2010 issue of AALL Summit News)

When Joyce is not busy with AALL or library work, she reads mystery novels to relax. Her two favorite authors are Virginians -- Sharyn McCrumb and Donna Andrews.

VALL Annual Meeting Oct. 29, 2010

The meeting will be held at the University of Virginia Law Library. There is still time to register! Please click here for registration form and information: http://vall.pbworks.com/2010-Annual-Meeting

Mapping a Future at the AALL Annual Meeting

by Greg Stoner

Since beginning my work in a law library in October 2008, I've heard a number of great comments about the value of attending conferences and workshops. This year, with very generous support from AALL, VALL and my employer, I was able attend my first AALL Annual Meeting.

For those of you I have not had a chance to meet, I came into the law library world with experience in special libraries and museums. To say I'm still getting my feet wet in this new environment would be an understatement. That said, the annual meeting was a great opportunity to dive in to so many areas of interest to me.

On Saturday I attended CONELL. I had heard a lot of good things about CONELL, but it was even more than I expected. Our "class" (about 100 of us) learned about AALL and special interest groups, met many important leaders in AALL (including our new president, Joyce Janto!), and had a chance to speed network with some of our classmates. We then had lunch and a guided tour of the beautiful Denver area. It was exciting to get such a great introduction to the organization and meet so many other individuals just starting out in the field. For me, CONELL also served as a great road map of what to expect during the rest of the conference.

During the conference I spent most of my time attending sessions and exploring the exhibit hall. One of the most interesting sessions I attended was entitled "Mile High Summit on Training: Are Things Coming to a Peak?" The panel, which included law firm librarians, a law professor, and a current law school student, discussed the numerous issues faced in law schools and firms today regarding the research skills of new attorneys. Clearly, while much discussion will continue on this age-old topic, it was very interesting for me to hear about the new and innovative ways firms are addressing the issue, as well as the perceptions of faculty and students about new expectations and changing practices. On the whole, it was encouraging to see that each of these groups recognized that while they do not have all the answers, they do have a shared optimism that has the potential to go a long way in ensuring that meaningful progress is made.

Of all that I learned at the annual meeting, I think the most important thing I took away is a better sense of how truly special it is to have the opportunity to work in a law library. More than ever, I saw how librarians bring an extensive set of unique skills and experiences to the table that has and will continue to allow progress to be made both in their firms and schools. It was exciting and encouraging to see the virtually unlimited opportunities law librarians have to work together to expand and enhance the definition of what it is to be a law librarian. I have no doubts that the acquaintances made and lessons learned at this meeting have better prepared me to make more meaningful contributions in my work and our law library community.

Congratulations to Kent Olson!

2010 Joseph L. Andrews Bibliographical Award for Principles of Legal Research