VLA Council Meeting, June 8, 2016

Submitted by Lara Dresser 

Highlights of the VLA Council Meeting:

·         Seeking submissions for the 2016 annual edition of the Virginia Libraries Journal—deadline August 1^st: http://www.vla.org/call-for-submissions--virginia-libraries-2016

·         The VLA is applying for a library license plate with the DMV. The VLA license plate committee is having a slogan contest (ends June 16). The VLA Executive Committee and license place committee will choose the slogan that will be used on the license plate.

·         2017 VLA Election of Officers begins in August. Each candidate spoke about their qualifications. Statements and biographies can be viewed here: http://www.vla.org/assets/2017%20vla%20candidates%20for%20executive%20committee%20office%20final.pdf

·         VLA annual meeting will be held at the Homestead, October 26-28^th.  VLA is still seeking sponsorships and vendor exhibits: https://vla.memberclicks.net/index.php?option=com_mc&view=formlogin&form=216953&return=L2luZGV4LnBocD9vcHRpb249Y29tX21jJnZpZXc9bWMmbWNpZD1mb3JtXzIxNjk1Mz9zZXJ2SWQ9NTUzMCZvcHRpb249Y29tX21jJnZpZXc9bWMmbWNpZD1mb3JtXzIxNjk1Mw==

·          Discussion about the implications if Prince William County decides to privatize their public library systems, open list-servs for non-members to encourage participation, and ways to promote Constitution Day

·         VLA Council Meeting moved up one week to September 9^th

President's Message

Hello, VALL members and happy summer! 

As my term as President has now come and gone I would like to take a moment to thank all VALL members for a great year for our organization and look forward to many more milestones and achievements!

To my colleagues on the executive board - thank you for all of your hard work and support in helping me through this year and for a wonderful year with VALL.  My special thanks as well to past presidents for answering all of my questions!

To all VALL members – thank you for your ongoing participation, ideas, and excitement for new programs and opportunities to come.  I look forward to what comes next for our organization!  Thank you for giving me this opportunity to lead VALL in 2015-16. 

I have no doubt that the new executive board with Patty Petroccione at the helm will bring more great things for VALL.

I hope to see many of you in Chicago at the AALL annual meeting! 

Stephanie

Carnegie African Diaspora Fellowship

Congratulations to Anthony Ikwueme, director of Ehrhorn Law Library, Liberty University School of Law, on being awarded this prestigious fellowship!

Here is more information about the award and what Tony will be doing over the summer: Carnegie Fellowship

Tony will be headed to Nigeria. "My first task will be to help develop a curriculum for legal education that focuses on skills as a critical component of current legal education in the 21st century. Along with that, I will be helping them explore alternate legal research methods beyond the non-existing electronic resources," he said.

We know that Tony is up to the challenge and we look forward to hearing and reading about his experiences with this fellowship.

Grant Recipients

Congratulations to the following VALL members for being award grants to attend the AALL Annual Meeting in Chicago in July:

The Barbara Cummings Grant; AALL Chapter Registration Grant:
Alison Hancock
Williams Mullen

VALL Grants:
Greg Stoner
McGuireWoods

Jason Zarin
University of Richmond School of Law Library

Alex Jakubow
University of Virginia School of Law Library

As a condition of receiving the grants each recipient will be writing an article for the blog about their experiences at AALL. We look forward to reading about what they gained from the annual conference.

VALL Spring Meeting at Washington & Lee

The Spring Meeting was held on April 8, 2016, at the Washington & Lee Law School in Lexington. About 30 VALL members made the drive to Lexington on a cool and clear day to attend the programs and witness the changeover of officers.

It was a beautiful drive into Lexington

Fred Dingledy from William & Mary, and Jane Baugh from Woods Rodgers enjoying a cup of java before the meeting

Anthony Ikwueme from Liberty checking into registration

VP/President elect Patty Petroccione at the registration table

Andrew Winston from the Law Library of Congress and Dana Deseck-Piazzon from the National Center for State Courts

President Stephanie Miller welcoming attendees

Terry Long from the State Law Library and Joyce Manna Janto from the University of Richmond, presenting the first portion of  Enhancing Our Information Arsenal. Joyce shared some of her favorite non-legal resources including newspapers.com (includes smaller state and local newspapers which can give a different depth and perspective to a legal issue or case); iPoll (polling data); Policy Map (for census, tracking and demographics data) and much more. Terry shared her top 11 reference sources including Legislative Services; Legislative Information Services; Reports to the General Assembly, and also gave an update on the State Law Library's archival projects.

Alison Hancock and Lara Dresser from Williams Mullen sharing with VALLers the web alert tools that they use at their firm and provided a chart with an overview of the various tools.

Fred Dingledy educating us on The Corpus Juris Civilis.

Those of you who missed Fred's account of Byzantine Emperor Justinian I and his creation of the Corpus Juris Civilis, can read up on the presentation here: Corpus Juris Civilis

VALLers paying rapt attention to the presentations

Fred receiving a "thank you" gift from Patty

Terry and Patty

Joyce and Stephanie

Alison and Stephanie

Lara and Stephanie

Stephanie receiving VALL's "thank you for being president" gift from Patty

Sometimes there isn't enough wine .... a thank you from Patty

The VALL Executive Board 2016-2017: L-R: Patty (president); Stephanie (immediate past president); Andrew (secretary); Meldon Jenkins-Jones (director); Doris Morgan (director); Lara (vp/president elect). Not in picture: Alison Hancock (treasurer); Evelyn Campbell (ex officio)

Patty, Alison, Chris Vassey (former secretary) and Stephanie

After the meeting Stephanie led VALLers on a tour of the law library (photo courtesy of Fred Dingledy)

Yes, that is a chess table (photo courtesy of Fred Dingledy)

Reading room in the History Room (photo courtesy of Fred Dingledy)

In the stacks (photo courtesy of Fred Dingledy)

 Level 1A of the library (photo courtesy of Fred Dingledy)

 

The Powell Suite named for Associate Justice of the US Supreme Court, Lewis F. Powell, Jr. (photos courtesy of Fred Dingledy)

Photo courtesy of Fred Dingledy

 Powell memorabilia (photo courtesy of Fred Dingledy)

The group that stayed for the Saturday winery tour braved cold and windy weather to sample the offerings at Rockbridge Winery.

VALLers and spouses looking very happy and this was only the first stop! (photo courtesy of Donna Bausch)

VALL members took advantage of everything that Lexington had to offer. Some were able to head to the Virginia Military Institute and watch the parade. (photo courtesy of Donna Bausch)

What VALL Does for Us

by Gail Zwirner

I retired a year ago after a 42 year career in law, first as a paralegal, then as a librarian.  Last year you honored me by making me a Lifetime Member.  On this anniversary, I reminisced about my career, of which VALL was a big part.  Many times we are asked to do things for VALL – serve as officers or committee chairs, host meetings, staff the PR table at AALL, do presentations for Bar groups, or, as the biggest offender, ask members to write for the Virginia Lawyer column.  (I haven’t been nicknamed the VALLkyrie for nothing.) 

However, it occurred to me that VALL has done a lot for me and all legal professionals in Virginia in providing access to information.  For newer members who may not be aware of some of VALL’s accomplishments, let me remind you of a few:

·         Through its Preservation Committee, VALL worked with firm managing partners to encourage Lexis and Westlaw to create a comprehensive database of Virginia case law.  Both vendors initially started with a database of 25 years and law librarians complained that limited coverage was dangerous for their patrons doing online research.  They reached out to the people whom VALL thought would have the biggest influence – the law firm online users who pay the bills – and Virginia became the first state to have comprehensive coverage.  Both vendors followed soon nationwide.  

·         Another gap in information access was a lack of an administrative code.  VALL had members work with the Virginia Code Commission and encourage them to move forward with a long-overdue codification of Virginia regulations.  At the time, Virginia and Mississippi were only two states not having a code.  Over two General Assembly sessions, the statute was changed to allow for a code and then, based on feedback from practitioners excited about the project, they amended the statute to include the requirement for agency publication of lists of guidance documents – those pesky internal agency documents, manuals, etc. that state attorneys would bring to hearings and private practitioners would have no idea they ever existed.  Even better, technology has allowed those lists to expand with links to the full document.  There is rarely a need to call the agency for a copy.  

·         In the early days of web access, law librarians were consulted regularly about functionality of the sites.  For example, the State Corporation Commission’s website has improved greatly in its functionality since its initial release.  The General Assembly website has added searchable databases for the codes, maintained access to prior session content, and added full text of House and Senate documents.  

·         VALL continues a nearly 20-year collaboration with the Virginia State Bar by contributing a regular “Law Libraries” column to the Virginia Lawyer.  The VL editor cites the VALL articles as some of the most-linked contributions in the journal. 

Thanks for all the volunteers who have contributed to the ongoing success of VALL.  Over the years you will realize how much VALL gives back.