VLA Council Meeting, January 27, 2017

submitted by Suzanne Corriell

VLA Conference is October 11-13 at the Hilton Main in Norfolk.  The call for proposals is open, with a March 15 deadline.  (This is earlier than usual.)

Call for Proposals

The theme is Breaking Barriers, Building Bridges.  The keynote speaker will be Margot Lee Shetterly, author of Hidden Figures; Friday's keynote speaker will be ACRL President Trevor Dawes.

There will be no preconferences, but tours and other activities instead.

Membership - dues haven't been raised since 2009; Lisa and the Executive Board are investigating institutional membership ideas that might increase membership and participation

The Nominating Committee reminds members that they need to VOTE for candidates in August/September.  Last year's election only received a 30% response rate.

ALA Council - at Midwinter, they voted to add a fourth directive regarding equity, diversity, and inclusion.  The 2018 ALA Conference in New Orleans will have fewer sessions, in response to attendee feedback.

Legislative Program - members are urged to stay informed about the legislative update, at Legislative Updates

HB 2191 is an especially hot topic this year; contact your legislator is you have opinions about it.

There have been measures introduced in the GA that would allow the Library of Virginia to reinstate some positions and/or reinstate some reading room hours.  Nothing has yet passed.

Executive Committee - changes are being made to the criteria for awards, to reflect the inclusion of professional associates as nominees; the VLA Manual is also being revised for consistency issues.  The Scholarships Committee will likely award 3 scholarships this year and 3 scholarships next year, thanks to an extra significant donation.

Designated Agenda for 2017: Agenda

Section VIII has been added in order to implement a recommended strategy for addressing intellectual freedom in Virginia; section V adds diversity.

ALA has suggested that state chapters draft a statement of core values - the Executive Committee will be working on this, as well as beginning a new strategic planning process.

VLA Professional Associates Conference - will be May 22 at the Marriott City Center in Newport News

The committee is seeking new members for the board.

The website has been updated and upgraded with the banner (to generate advertising revenue) and new "meet a member" features.

The Technical Services and Technology Forum will be hosting collection management workshops this spring/summer, and has recently launched a Facebook page.

Donating to the Barbara Cumming Continuing Education Fund

VALL members privileged to work with Barbara Cumming were struck by her professionalism, generosity, and depth of knowledge in construction and government contract law research. Barbara exemplified the finest qualities to which a law librarian can aspire. Although she had a challenging position with a busy law firm considered a national leader in its field of specialization, Barbara always took the time to teach, to share, and to assist her colleagues. No one could have asked for a finer law firm library colleague.

To perpetuate her memory and commemorate her spirit of service, a VALL Grant, the Barbara Cumming Continuing Education Grant has been established in her honor. The Barbara Cumming Continuing Education Grant is intended specifically to support the professional development of VALL’s law firm librarians. Grant applications should be emailed to Joyce Manna Janto, jjanto@richmond.edu, or Jennifer Sekula, jeseku@wm.edu, co-chairs of the Grants Committee.  

If you are interested in donating to the Barbara Cumming Continuing Education Grant please click here for a donor card.

VALL Grants

It's that time again to remind folks that VALL Grants are available!

The deadline for applying for a VALL Grant is by 5 pm on April 7, 2017. Please click on link for application form and the process for submission: Grant Application Form

Morris L. Cohen Student Essay Competition

Ninth Annual Morris L. Cohen Student Essay Competition

The Legal History and Rare Books (LH&RB) Section of the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL), in cooperation with Cengage Learning, announces the Ninth Annual Morris L. Cohen Student Essay Competition. The competition is named in honor of Morris L. Cohen, late Professor Emeritus of Law at Yale Law School.

The competition is designed to encourage scholarship and to acquaint students with the AALL and law librarianship, and is open to students currently enrolled in accredited graduate programs in library science, law, history, and related fields. Essays may be on any topic related to legal history, rare law books, or legal archives. The winner will receive a $500.00 prize from Cengage Learning and up to $1,000 for expenses to attend the AALL Annual Meeting.

Winning and runner-up entries will be invited to submit their entries to Unbound, the official journal of LH&RB. Past winning essays have gone on to be accepted by journals such as N.Y.U. Law Review, American Journal of Legal History, University of South Florida Law Review, William & Mary Journal of Women and the Law, Yale Journal of Law & the Humanities, and French Historical Review.

The entry form and instructions are available at the LH&RB website: http://www.aallnet.org/sections/lhrb/awards Entries must be submitted by 11:59 p.m., April 17, 2017 (EDT).

VALL at VLA 2016 Annual Meeting

by Evelyn M. Campbell

There are few things that can rival a crisp Fall day in Hot Springs, VA, even when foliage is not quite in its glory. More than 500 people attended the Virginia Library Association's Annual Meeting from Oct. 26 - 28, at the Homestead.

I had submitted four programs designed to build a legal reference foundation for public librarians, and was glad when Legal Reference 1: Providing Legal Reference Without Breaking the Law, was accepted with a request that I combine it with Legal Reference 4: Legal Reference Questions from the Trenches - You Asked and We Are Answering.

It was an opportunity for us to test the waters and see how receptive public librarians would be to a series of programs or workshops on legal reference. 

Virginia State Law Librarian, Gail Warren, agreed to talk to the attendees about Virginia's Unauthorized Practice of the Law, and VALL President, Patty Petroccione, joined her in answering legal questions that VLA members had submitted.

The program was well attended and attendees were lining up later to ask questions. They were very interested in our plans for a series of legal reference workshops designed for public librarians. We also provided the attendees with a handout of the legal websites that we referenced and one attendee in her evaluation called it "gold".

Patty Petroccione, Evelyn Campbell & Gail Warren before the start of the program

Gail Warren discussing Virginia's Unauthorized Practice of the Law

Gail and Patty giving attendees best practice tips on how to handle legal reference questions

VALLers, Amy O'Connor from the University of Richmond Law Library, and Suzanne Corriell from the Fourth Circuit Library, presented Promote, Praise, Repeat with People: Enhancing Your Staff Morale with Effective Performance Appraisals.

Barbie Selby talking about identity theft

Barbie Selby, from the University of Virginia, presented: Identity Theft - A First Hand Perspective.

Caroline Osborne, from Washington & Lee University School of Law, presented The Alchemy of Your Career: Spinning Straw into Gold.

VLA President, Martha Hutzel, cutting the ribbon to the exhibition hall 

VALL Fall Meeting at Lewis Ginter

by Patricia Petroccione

If you weren’t at the VALL 2016 Fall Meeting on October 14, you missed a very engaging event. Lara Dresser and the program committee, Alison Hancock and Chris Vassey, put much thought and effort into planning the entire day, which began with a light breakfast and ended with an invitation to stroll the grounds of the Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens. The meeting was held in a room with a lovely view of the gardens. We were honored to have Donna Nixon, Electronic Resources Librarian at UNC Law Library, as our AALL Executive Board visitor.

AALL Executive Board visitor, Donna Dixon (photo courtesy of Ben Almoite)

The program included the timely topic Cybersecurity Trends, quite appropriate since October was National Cyber Security Awareness month. The speaker, Joseph Racynski, technology manager at Thomson Reuters provided a sobering overview of the types and effects of data breaches. Fortunately, he offered several recommendations to enhance security, such as update patches and perform internal security audits. The second program on Competitive Intelligence was very enlightening. Michelle Gernhardt, Hunton & Williams, and Arlene Fletcher, Crowell & Moring, highlighted how analytic and research skills may be combined to gather and interpret information to enhance an organization’s strategic decisions. It is a developing field in which librarians should prepare to participate. The final presentation was a workshop led by John Worth of Virginia Commonwealth University. He provided excellent strategies and examples for managing and advancing one’s career. At the conclusion of the meeting, there was an opportunity to explore the gardens, or wander through the extensive and tempting gift shop.

 

Attendees enjoying breakfast before the program (photo courtesy of Patty Petroccione)

 

The time and dedication of our wonderful presenters is greatly appreciated, thank you all. We also value the support of our sponsors, Thomson Reuters, Wolters Kluwer, Bloomberg Law, Priory Solutions, LexisNexis and SirsiDynix; thank you as well.

VALL President Patricia Petroccione opening the meeting (photo courtesy of Ben Almoite)

Finally, thank you Lara, Alison and Chris for an inspiring and interesting day of information, delicious food and the great outdoors.

See you all at the Spring meeting on April 21, 2016.

Carnegie African Diaspora Fellowship (CADF) Project on Co-curriculum development and alternative research method in Nigeria

by Anthony Brown Ikwueme

As one of the recipients of the Carnegie African Diaspora Fellowship (CADF) Award for 2016, I was in Nigeria from May to July of 2016 at the University Of Nigeria Faculty Of Law, Enugu Campus, where I worked with the law faculty to jointly develop a new curriculum and teaching methodology with substantial practical contents. Ultimately, the goal of the project was to help the law program at the host institution train law students who would be practice-ready upon graduation.

 

Nigeria is a common law country with over 170 million population, making it the most populous and arguably the biggest economy in Africa. The regulation of the program of legal education in Nigeria is shared between the Council of Legal Education (hereafter “the Council”) and the Nigerian Universities Commission (NUC). The Council is charged with the regulation of the contents of legal education in Nigeria, while the NUC has the statutory function of approving law programs at the universities and maintaining quality of legal education in Nigeria.  The law program comprises a 5-year undergraduate or 4-year direct entry program at any Nigerian accredited law faculty. Upon graduation, a law student then proceeds to the Nigerian Law School for another year of vocational legal training prior to admission to the Bar. 

Law Students Week

The project involved a review of the host institution’s curriculum, establishing legal clinics, partnering with law firms and courts to provide students with practical experience, and finally developing an alternative research method to supplement the poorly existing electronic sources for doing legislative history research.   

  

First, I established stakeholders’ buy-in of the project without which full implementation of the proposals would be impossible. I successfully reviewed their curriculum and made suggestions on areas needing change in order to effectively integrate bibliographic instruction with practice-based courses. Also, the host institution had an extinct Law Clinic program. Rather than introduce a new one, I offered practical steps on how to revamp the program in the face of lack of funds that characterize public education in Nigeria. I adapted an alternative means of doing legislative history research in the absence of any developed method, which combines resources at the office of the Clerk of the State Assembly and daily newspapers that are in circulation within the host institution state. 

Finally, I offered suggestions on how to help students improve their writing skills by incorporating legislative research into Legal Methods course as part of the proposed Skills program for the host institution. Besides these successes, I wish I had the opportunity to see my proposal on how to revamp the Law Clinic, as well as the attachment to courts and private law firms, fully implemented before the end of my trip. I hope to go back sometime in 2017 after the host institution would have started implementing the proposals. This project would not have been possible but for my sponsors - the Carnegie Corporation of New York and the Institute for International Education (IIE).