Wednesday, August 2, 2017
AALL Hall of Fame Award: Joyce Janto
Congratulations to VALL's own Joyce Janto for the well deserved award! Read more about it Award
Monday, June 5, 2017
Seeking candidates for the VALL Programs Committee for 2017-2018
by Andrew Winston
Committee work will
involve working with me (as committee chair) on the 2017 Fall Meeting
and 2018 Spring Meeting. The 2017 Fall Meeting will be at a joint
meeting of VALL and the Virginia Library Association. To meet VLA’s
planning timetable, some of the work required for the Fall Meeting (such
as venue and program selection) has already been completed, while there
remain a number of opportunities for planning, publicizing, and
carrying out the meeting to help make it a success. Planning for the
2018 Spring Meeting will involve a full process, including selecting the
venue and presentations, making the other meeting arrangements, helping
to publicize it, and handling logistical tasks leading up to and on the
day of the meeting. We will also be responsible for a VALL event at
the AALL Annual Meeting in Austin this July.
Committee
members will need to be able to commit to actively participate in the
tasks described above, to complete committee work conscientiously in
accordance with the timelines that the committee will set, and to be
available to start in the second half of this month (or sooner, if you
are available). (Prior event-planning experience is not required!) If
you are interested in serving on the Programs Committee, please let me
know by June 14 by sending me a short (1-2 sentence) statement of
interest confirming your interest and availability (and any relevant
experience you wish to highlight). It is a great opportunity to help
create educational and networking value for VALL members.
Andrew Winston
Vice President, VALL
Senior Legal Reference Librarian
Law Library of Congress
VALL Executive Board
L-R: Andrew Winston (VP/PE); Lara Dresser (President); Dana Piazzon (Secretary); Patty Petroccione (past President). Not in picture: Doris Morgan (Director); Alexis Fetzer (Director); David Knight (Treasurer); Evelyn Campbell (Ex-Officio).
Photo by Fred Dingledy
Tuesday, May 30, 2017
Insider Tips on FOIA in Virginia
by Donna Bausch
Presenters: Natalie
Womack, DEQ FOIA Officer
Alan Gernhardt, Senior Attorney, Virginia
FOIA Council
Natalie Womack came to the Virginia Department of
Environmental Quality (DEQ) after three years at the Federal Bureau of
Investigation. She contrasted FOIA procedure
at the federal and state level. In
Virginia, response is far timelier than at the federal level, and the
commitment is to be as responsive as possible in releasing all requested
information permissible by law.
(Photo of Natalie Womack by Fred Dingledy)
What is DEQ? The
Department resulted from the 1992 merger of the Air, Water and Waste
Boards. DEQ’s mission is to protect the
health and well-being of the citizens of Virginia.
Womack wants FOIA requesters to keep in mind that a “no
record” response may mean either that 1) a record never existed or 2) that the
record once existed but no longer exists, due to Public Records Act retention
policy limitations.
There is a 5 day response timeline, which can be extended
another 7 days with adequate agency justification.
FOIA provides access both to public records and to public
meetings. Womack focuses on the records
side.
All items are “records” – if they are in agency possession,
stored or owned, regardless of physical form; “letters, numbers or words” relating
to the business of the agency.
FOIA requests can be made in person, by mail or email. The DEQ website includes a video Womack
narrates instructing requesters how to prepare requests.
Be as specific as possible in your request. Include any potentially relevant information
which can narrow the search. Limit the
request to a specific time frame.
Fishing expeditions can be expensive.
DEQ is philosophically inclined to provide requesters
with anything relevant. But keep in mind
that the FOIA Officer is a FOIA expert, rather than a scientist or subject
matter expert!
Most importantly, Womack provided her direct contact
information:
804-698-4085
If all FOIA officers are as charming, funny and dedicated
to their work as Womack, our tax dollars are well spent.
Alan Gernhardt has done this type of work since 2004, and
it shows. He showed a facility with the
subject matter and familiarity with the complex issues which result that was
truly impressive and laced his presentation with humor and memorable war
stories.
He posited that FOIA policy attempts to put the lofty
ideal of “informed” consent of the governed into practical effect.
(Photo of Alan Gernhardt by Fred Dingledy)
The general rule is that all public records are open
unless they fall within one of the 150 records and meetings exemptions, which
are quite specific. (For example, one
exempts release of the subscriber list of a state agency produced wildlife
magazine.)
FOIA is not intended to be an adversarial process.
Clarity of communication is often the issue.
Gernhardt walked us through the Council’s extensive web
resources.
Useful forms and sample letters are included, including
court forms. Advisory Opinions of the FOIA
Council are searchable. Also see the
Coalition for Open Government site which gathers Advisory Opinions by topic.
Regarding costs, public bodies are encouraged to price
the cost of providing a “page” of records and publishing this so that
requesters can plan accordingly.
Reasonable charges/actual costs are permissible. Actual costs can be shockingly high. For example, it can cost $1000 per employee
for a month’s worth of email “data dump”.
Hence the wisdom of carefully targeting the request as to time period
and persons to whom the request should apply.
Agencies may charge for the time it takes for redaction
search and execution. Some recent Port
Authority requests, for example, have cost requesters upwards of $200K.
Gernhardt joked that an example of an ideal FOIA
transaction is a bus rider asking a bus driver for the bus route schedule and
being handed one. Quick,free and
complete.
Although this summary barely scratches the surface of
the valuable information shared by these experts, rest assured that our time
was well spent in this session and that we
have a better understanding of the complexity of FOIA in action and an
appreciation for the work of individuals tasked with responding to FOIA
requests.
Transformative Legal Tech Expanding Access to Justice
by Donna Bausch
Presenter: Roger
V. Skalbeck, Associate Professor of Law and Associate Dean for Library and
Information Services, University of Richmond School of Law
(Photo of Roger Skalbeck by Fred Dingledy)
Virginia is late to the game in A2J, but thanks to the Virginia
Access to Justice Commission, of which State Law Librarian Gail Warren is a member,
and the work of Roger Skalbeck and Patty Petroccione who both serve on the Access
for Self-Represented Litigants Committee, there is hope on the horizon.
Democratization of access was a theme of Roger’s remarks.
Roger discussed:
1. National projects
2.Tech initiatives
3. Emerging technologies
4. Virginia examples
1. National projects
2.Tech initiatives
3. Emerging technologies
4. Virginia examples
Here’s a sad fact – Americans invest more in pet
Halloween costumes than on Legal Aid.
Recently, two states (Alaska and Hawaii) have been
identified as pilot sites for “single online statewide access portals for
seeking help with civil legal needs”. These will be Microsoft/probono.net portals emphasizing inclusive
design.
Free
Legal Answers
For nearly a year, Virginia has made available Free Legal
Answers.
This site allows members of the public who income qualify
and who are not incarcerated to ask up to 3 legal questions per year and
receive asynchronous answers from anonymous Virgiinia attorneys. No attorney client relationship is
established.
Participant numbers are modest to date, but VALL members
can play an important role in encouraging lawyers to participate and letting
members of the public know about this resource.
Lawyers can log/document pro bono hours via the site.
Selfhelp.vacourts.gov
Provides resources and links to forms and videos designed
for self-represented litigants. Gail
Warren had a large role in making this resource available.
Valegalaid.org
Provides a growing array of information for SRLs. This site is currently undergoing redesign to
improve findability and understandability.
A2J
Author
Access to Justice Author is cloud based software that
delivers greater access to justice for self-represented litigants by enabling
non-technical authors from the courts, clerk’s offices, legal services
organizations, and law schools to build and implement user friendly web-based
interfaces for document assembly. A2J
Guided Interviews take complex legal information from legal forms and present
it in a straightforward way to self-represented litigants. A2J Guided Interviews remove many barriers
faced by self-represented litigants, allowing them to complete and print court
documents ready to be filed with the court system. 3.5 million A2J Guided Interviews run and 2
million documents assembled since 2005.
A2J Author is free to interested court, legal services organizations,
and other non-profits for non-commercial use.
Not currently in use in Virginia.
Plans are afoot to involve University of Richmond law
students in a plain language legal drafting project. Roger encouraged other academic law libraries
to pursue similar opportunities.
There is a plan to fully automate court forms already
available at:
Those which will be automated first will be the name
change and fee waiver forms.
Progress is underway towards increased access to justice
in the Old Dominion and VALL members continue to play a crucial role in
advancing these efforts.
Tuesday, May 23, 2017
Digital Collection of Jefferson's Books at UVA Law Library
Digital versions of Thomas Jefferson’s collection of law books will soon be available online for free nearly 200 years after he founded the University of Virginia. Click here for story:Digital Collection
Wednesday, April 12, 2017
Virginia Library Association Council Meeting - April 7, 2017
Submitted by Terry Long
One
of the items Suzanne Corriell reported on from the last VLA Council meeting was
the following: [At the Council meeting
they make] you PAY if you use an acronym and don't define it. There was
about $10 in the jar to start from their executive session yesterday; I think
that was up to $15 by the end of the meeting! Hilarious. Well, yours
truly had to pay up this time. I did not define FOIA! I wasn’t the only one
who was fined. I think they are up to $20 now!
As for the other
items discussed/reported on at the Council meeting:
·
Unfortunately, not enough money was committed to
the library license plate initiative to have one issued. Any money received by
VLA for this project is being refunded.
·
There was no gain in state aid by the legislature,
however it was not cut. The Legislative Committee has started planning next year’s
agenda.
·
Discussed how to improve communication with
membership in order to keep them informed of VLA Council’s operation and
actions.
·
Lisa Varga, Executive Director, reported there
has been interest in developing a marketing forum within VLA.
·
30 people applied for 3
available scholarships. Each scholarship is for $2500 and is awarded to students
pursuing their MLS/MSLS degree
·
VLA’s Annual meeting will be at The Main, a
Hilton brand hotel, in Norfolk, October 11-13. VALL will have a program track
as will VLACRL.
o
Margot Lee Shetterly, author of Hidden Figures is the keynote speaker
o
Lisa Varga and Patty Petroccione, VALL president, are inviting Ron
Wheeler, AALL President as a speaker.
o
There will be tours of Norfolk and the new
Slover Public Library
o
They have received more program proposals than
anticipated. There will be 88-100 programs offered over two days.
o
New members will have special activities, Sips
and Sweets featuring dessert tastings at several restaurants. They will also
have a breakfast at the meeting on Friday.
·
Intellectual Freedom Committee will have a
conference next year on creating strong collection development policies. The
committee will meet for a half day retreat on how to be proactive, i.e. promote
1st amendment rights. They are
considering sponsoring a library legislative day at the General Assembly.
·
The Library of Virginia is quite concerned about
the fate of IMLS. If it is not funded, the Library Development Division will be
reduced to two people and the summer reading programs will not be funded.
·
The General Assembly restored some funding to
the Library of Virginia to restore hours and add some staff.
·
There is an interesting new exhibit at the
Library of Virginia: Teetotalers &
Moonshiners: Prohibition in Virginia, Distilled.
Acronym key:
AALL American
Association of Law Libraries
IMLS Institute
of Museum and Library Services
MLS Master
of Library Science
MSLS Master
of Science in Library Science
VALL Virginia
Association of Law Libraries
VLA Virginia
Library Association
VLACRL Virginia
Library Association College and Research Libraries
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