Welcome to Kimberly Edwards!

Kimberly is the new librarian at Williams Mullen's Virginia Beach office.

The Tidewater area is home to Kimberly who was born and brought up in Williamsburg.

"I am happy to be back in the Tidewater area near my parents and sister," Kimberly said.

She received a B.A. in History from James Madison University in 2006. After graduating from JMU, she worked in the accounting department of a law firm in Washington, DC. After a year with the firm she applied for and was promoted to a paralegal position with the Aviation Finance group. She stayed with the firm for three years in the position and then decided to return to graduate school to get a degree in library science.

Kimberly attended the University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill and graduated with a Master's in Library Science in 2012. While at UNC she worked at the Health Sciences Library.

She is excited to be back in the law field. When Kimberly is not at work, she loves to read and also likes to do any kind of outdoor activities. She loves to travel and is SCUBA certified so she takes the opportunity to dive whenever she can.

We look forward to seeing Kimberly at future VALL meetings!

Around Boston

 Boston is such a scenic city.

Griffin's Wharf where the Boston Tea Party took place.

 Bunker Hill Memorial as seen from the water.

USS Constitution also known as Old Ironsides

Old State House

Baseball fans will recognize this ...

VALL Luncheon ... everyone's suddenly camera shy.

More VALLers at lunch.

Suzanne Corriell and Lyn Warmath deep in discussion.



Reasonable Minds Will Differ

by Marie Hamm

Fanieul Hall, the Old North Church, Mike's Pastry! Boston is my very favorite AALL locale, so when I was awarded a VALL grant to attend I did a little happy dance.  Connecting with colleagues and countless cannoli? It's a win-win! Which brings me to the story of how Gail Zwirner and I teamed up to sell a used Mustang to an anonymous firm librarian in a three minute transaction in the Hynes Convention Center. . .

The principles of Fisher and Ury's Getting to Yes came to life in a session entitled Reasonable Minds Will Differ: So Why Not Work Together to Resolve Conflict? Moderated by VALL President Suzanne Corriell, and presented by former University of Richmond School of Law Dean John Douglass.

In a deja vu moment for anyone who took a negotiations class in law school, participants were handed a hypothetical. One party was a used car salesman who needed to close a deal; the other needed a new ride at a reasonable price. Each essentially had a bottom line and a top dollar—a BATNA (Best Alternative to Negotiated Agreement) as Fisher and Ury would term it. And the negotiating began. Snippets of conversations around the room reflected typical used car salesman tactics. (I'd get fired if I let it off the lot for that; this car has the best safety record of any car ever made!)

The three minute brouhaha was an example of tradition zero sum gain. Anything that one person gets has to be taken away from the other person. Dean Douglass referred to this as Miranda Rule approach to negotiating (anything you say can and will be used against you!) All too often effective communication falls by the wayside as this positional bargaining takes root in our everyday conflicts. A battle of wills ensues. The prevailing party is simply the one who holds out the longest.

The second scenario started out in much the same way. Two customers walk into a corner grocery. Each has been sent to buy an orange. Not surprisingly, there is only ONE orange available within a gazillion mile radius. (Also not surprisingly, the price on the only orange in town suddenly goes up quite considerably.)

One customer needs the orange for her neighbor, who in turn must have it to bake his famous orange cake for the orphans. The other must have it so that his ill-tempered boss will be able to enjoy his required morning orange smoothie. A couple of animated phone calls later we learn more about the underlying needs of each party. It becomes clear that the neighbor only needs the zest of the orange, while the employee merely requires the juice.

The lesson, of course, is that there is an alternative to positional bargaining. By focusing on needs rather than positions, the possibility of not only solving the conflict but also of reaching a common goal develops. The elusive win-win.

I returned from Boston exhausted, but invigorated. The time spent catching up with colleagues, communicating with vendors, and making new connections was invaluable and I’m truly grateful to VALL and the grants committee for the opportunity to attend.

A Great Conference in Beantown

by Evelyn M. Campbell

When you come away from a meeting exhausted but at the same time energized by the programs you attended, inspired by the speakers and ideas you heard, and bolstered by the colleagues you encountered, it is safe to say that you've had a very productive meeting!

Attending AALL's 105th Annual Meeting and Conference was a shot in the arm for me and I have come home brimming with ideas. I owe a big "thank you" to the VALL Grant Committee for the travel grant to attend the conference. I am deeply grateful for this opportunity and I want to write about every single program I attended but I shall refrain from making everyone cross-eyed, and shall highlight the programs I found particularly useful.

Since WestlawNext has been on my institution's radar for about a year or so, I wanted to make sure that I attended the session The New Generation of Legal Research Databases: 2012 Boston Sequel and I am glad I did. The room was packed with people lining the walls and sitting on the floor. I believe this program was supposed to be a follow-up or sequel to the WestlawNext program that took place in Philadelphia last year.

I thought Victoria J. Szymczak, Jean J. Davis, Emily Marcum, Susan Nevelow Mart and Jean P. O'Grady, did a valiant attempt to address this, but it is difficult to hold a meaningful discussion about databases that are still evolving and incomplete. What I took away from this was -- hang on to your Westlaw.com or classic Westlaw because WestlawNext is not it for now. The panelists had lots of questions about when particular content would be migrated.

What was of particular value to me were the responses from the Westlaw, Lexis and Bloomberg reps who were at this program. My institution is a Westlaw user and some of our librarians had been getting conflicting stories about whether our Westlaw.com would go away, so it was good to hear the West rep say that there was not a "sunset" period for Westlaw classic. His comment about clients migrating quickly drew a swift response from the panel who wanted to know "Who ARE these people we keep hearing about?" We were not enlightened that day.

There was no pinning any one of the reps down as to what content would be migrated when ... it was the equivalent of wrestling with a slippery eel. I'm keeping my Westlaw.com and will diligently work with WestlawNext, and dread the thought of having to tell the Legal Studies faculty that they will have to teach both ... perhaps next year.

Another program that I attended which was of particular interest was Embedding Librarians to Add Value to Your Institution. This is something that South University has already been doing for a number of years and I wanted to see how other people were doing their programs. I discovered that this is something that is still in its infancy in many libraries but it is really another way to build relationships and alliances between the library and its patrons/clients/organizations. Marguerita T. Young-Jones from Reed Smith shared her experiences about being embedded in her firm's intellectual property group. I learnt a few things I hadn't quite realized before but I came away knowing that my library had long been on the right track, and I also came away with an idea for a program for next year's annual meeting in Seattle. Now to wait till October to see what the "theme" is for the 106th Annual Meeting.

In Hot Topics in Copyright For Librarians I learned a little more about that pesky little thing -- orphan works. It is still not a perfect science as to what you need to do to find that elusive owner or copyright holder of an orphan work but you have to make and document your good faith attempts -- do diligent web searches and physical searches before you use any of the works in question.

I learned something from every program I attended and also from observing the vendors in the exhibition hall. The guys from Research Solutions are still the most engaged bunch -- they are friendly, they make eye contact and they talk to you whether you are interested in their product or not. The other vendors could learn a thing or two from these guys.

But my absolute "favorite" was the guy who was manning the AALL booth on Tuesday morning before lunch and I had to go to get a replacement registration card because my entire card had fallen out of the cheap plastic holder. He never once looked at me or greeted me when I came up to him, he slammed things around the table and then glanced at the empty plastic holder I held out and snarled at me "How did you lose that?" The retort I wanted to make was "That's the stupidest question I've heard in a long time. If I knew that I wouldn't be here dealing with your friendly self and if you took some of that very pricey registration fee that we pay and got us some decent name holders this wouldn't happen" but instead I just told him I didn't know and that I had retraced my steps and couldn't find my card. Note to self -- bring tape next year to tape shut all the edges of the plastic name holder or bring one's own.

He was just a little irritant on the last day of a great conference with lots of educational programs, catching up and networking with friends and colleagues in a great city.

Keynote Speaker, Richard Susskind

Tomorrow's Legal Marketplace?



Richard Susskind spent 75 minutes sharing with AALL attendees his vision of what the legal marketplace would look like in 15 - 20 years. The message was clear -- if the US legal marketplace does not innovate, it will be left behind Europe and the rest of the world.

He made a clear distinction between automation vs. innovation. It is not enough to automate (to use technology to improve current legal processes). He talked about innovation as the use of technology to do what was not possible before.

He certainly gave attendees lots of food for thought about where law librarianship should fit into this new legal marketplace. Law librarians are uniquely qualified to be legal knowledge engineers, legal technologists, legal process analysts and legal project managers.

Speakers background: Professor Richard Susskind, OBE, is an author, speaker, and independent adviser to major professional firms, in-house legal departments, and national governments. His main area of expertise is the future of legal service. He has a law degree from the University of Glasgow, and a doctorate in law and computers from Balliol College, Oxford. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and the British Computer Society.







AALL Opening Ceremony, July 21, 2012

The 105th American Association of Law Libraries Annual Meeting opened in Boston on Saturday, July 21, at 5 pm at the Hynes Convention Center.

The sign at the entrance of the Hynes Convention Center welcoming AALL attendees to the annual meeting.

Outgoing AALL President Darcy Kirk "herding" her flock together.

AALL President Darcy Kirk telling attendees that there were over 1,800 registered for the annual meeting.

 It's official -- the ribbon is cut, the Exhibit Hall is open and the meeting has begun. Attendees were treated to light hors d'ouerves as they visited the exhibitors.



Job: Librarian

Librarian - Williams Mullen (Richmond Office)

Williams Mullen an award-winning AmLaw 200 firm, is well regarded for providing comprehensive legal services to regional, national and international clients in a wide variety of general and specialty practice areas. With about 275 attorneys and ten offices throughout the Mid-Atlantic, the firm delivers innovative, team-supported solutions to support its clients’ diverse business activities. Close working relationships with clients have been the foundation of Williams Mullen’s progressive approach to law practice since the firm was founded over 100 years ago in Richmond, Virginia, where the firm maintains its headquarters today.

Williams Mullen is seeking a Librarian responsible for all tasks associated with the operation and maintenance of the library in the Richmond office. The librarian will support local and firm wide library projects and initiatives. The candidate must have a professional presentation and have a team player attitude.

Responsibilities:
• Conduct research using a variety of on-line and print resources.
• Provide guidance to the attorneys and paralegals on sources and strategies for research.
• Record incoming books and periodicals using a library software system.
• Recommend resources and solutions regarding practice group needs.

Requirements:
• 3-5 years of law library or comparable experience including familiarity with legal research in print and online resources.
• Must have strong organizational skills and ability to multi-task.
• Experience working with patrons and handling research, inventory, and collections.
• Superior customer service skills.
• Strong knowledge of online databases and other research systems.
• Must have confidence, knowledge and positive personality and the ability to function independently.

Visit the Williams Mullen website to apply online.