AALL 2016: Hopeful for the Future

by Greg Stoner

This July, with extremely generous support from both VALL and my employer, I attended the AALL Annual Meeting in Chicago. As I had previously attended the Annual Meeting only once before (in 2010), I was particularly excited to be able to participate once again. The theme of this year’s meeting, “Make It New: Create the Future,” also really resonated with me as it emphasized the ever-evolving and important role information professionals play in defining our roles and helping to identify and shape the services we can provide in our institutions.

During the conference I attended a number of sessions: some focusing on areas I felt I knew a great deal about, as well as others where I admittedly knew very little. Several of the sessions I attended were related to topics that I found particularly relevant to my current work, such as programs dealing with the evaluation of electronic research resources and the utility of usage statistics and other metrics in determining value. The variety of programming was particularly noteworthy as I felt I gained valuable exposure to new areas of interest and further insight in other areas of benefit to me, my colleagues and my firm. I also valued the opportunity to spend a good bit of time in the exhibit hall, learning firsthand about various research resources and services and discovering new products and solutions that may be useful in the future. In the end, I was mentally exhausted but all the better for it.

I also thoroughly enjoyed attending the annual meeting as it reinforced a conclusion I drew when I first attended the meeting as someone just entering the law library field (see http://valltalk.blogspot.com/2010/08/mapping-future-at-aall-annual-meeting.html). I’ve progressed in my career during the past few years, learned a lot, and met a ton of amazing helpful, supportive and encouraging people along the way – many of them VALL members! I’m still impressed by what we do as professionals and encouraged about what the future holds for our profession. I’m honored to be part of this community and appreciative of VALL’s support of my attendance at the meeting.

AALL 2016: A Noob’s Perspective

by Alex Jakubow

Attending the recent AALL meeting in Chicago symbolized my formal transition into academic law librarianship.  I never attended law school.  I never received any formal training in library science.  Instead, I spent most of my twenties earning a Ph.D. in political science.  The data science skills I acquired during the course of my studies and in my first few jobs after graduation prepared me for my current role as an empirical research librarian, but this path to law librarianship missed many of the important foundational milestones commonly crossed by most other individuals in our profession.

Attending AALL helped me fill in several of those gaps.  The pre-AALL Conference for Newer Law Librarians (CONELL) provided a fun and inviting environment for learning about our profession and forging connections with other librarians who are new to the field.  Each session I attended, each vendor with whom I spoke, and each introduction I made helped me conceptualize our profession with greater clarity and vividness than anything I have read about law librarianship.

Substantively, the AALL programming provided very accessible, yet informative, introductions to many of the current issues, ideas, strategies, and tools circulating in the field.  As a data scientist, I gravitated towards sessions that focused on the role of big data in law librarianship, metrics for benchmarking the performance and practices at different academic law libraries, and new database solutions for documenting and showcasing faculty scholarship.  Additionally, I found Will Evans’ keynote on ‘Lean Startups’ particularly inspiring and insightful.  I returned from Chicago with a handful of new ideas about how to provide more efficient data service to library patrons without sacrificing added value.

All of this rumination and reflection about the field occurred within a friendly and supportive environment.  I engaged with brilliant, devoted, and fun minds who not only shared their insights and experiences about law librarianship with me, but took equal interest in my own experiences as a social scientist.  I attended the business meeting of AALL’s Empirical Research Caucus, and I look forward to continuing transdisciplinary conversations about the role of data science in law librarianship with other interested individuals.  The Caucus is strongly considering proposing a program on empirical legal research for AALL 2017, and I am excited to be part of the planning process.  My involvement with the Caucus is a pleasant reminder that the transition to a new career is substantially easier when the professional culture values the diversity of experiences and perspectives among its constituent membership.  For that, I am particularly grateful!

With generous support from VALL, I was able to attend my first AALL conference this year.  I thoroughly enjoyed engaging with so many brilliant and fun minds, as well as learning about our discipline. Being present at AALL this year has only reaffirmed me in my decision to leave political science behind.  Law librarianship is my new professional home.  

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.