Welcome, Meredith Duval!

Meredith is the newest reference librarian at McGuireWoods in Richmond. Previously she was with Troutman Sanders in Washington, DC.

She grew up in Chicopee, MA and moved to Maine to attend Colby College. Meredith graduated from Boston College Law School in 2009 and Simmons College Graduate School of Library and Information Science in May 2010.

She met her fiance, Kevin O'Brien, while in law school, and they decided to move back to Richmond which is Kevin's hometown.

Meredith lives in the Museum District with her cat, Mr. Man, and enjoys running marathons in her spare time. "My dad is my marathon running partner so that's fun too," Meredith said. Her most memorable marathon was the Stowe Marathon in picturesque Vermont.

And when she is not running marathoms, she is not above indulging in other types of running ... for instance the "Mud Run" in Richmond in May (see photo of a mud-splattered Meredith with fiance Kevin).

Message from the President

Dear VALLers,

It is with a deep appreciation that I write to commend our members for turning out en masse for the recently held annual meeting.

I see a rekindling of interest in the association as exemplified by the high attendance. Our association is not only active, but continues to respond to the challenges of our members. In this regard, we realized the importance of effective information dissemination and have used that to a successful end in re-energizing the membership base.

We also realized that times are hard and responded accordingly by amending our bylaws so that our association does not place too much demands on the members. In all of these my gratitude goes to the members and committee chairs who continue to give their time and talent so that our association remains strong.

As a dynamic association, we do not content with doing just the things that make us visible and viable. To the contrary, we step up to the challenge by doing the things that will continue to mark us information experts and managers, focusing always on the best interests of our members.

To this end, we will continue to use our Listserve, Blog and Wiki to help members with research problems and bring job opportunities to our members. We will also continue to expand our efforts at attracting new members, while at the same time promoting mentorship for the younger members in building successful career paths.

Just recently, too, we have come up with a social program that will enable members to network from time to time on a rotational informal basis. In all of these, I applaud the vision of some members and committee chairs who continue to volunteer their time and creative minds to our association. On a final note, there is still room for improvements. With your help and commitment we will continue to make our association great.

Thank you.

Anthony Brown C. Ikwueme

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