Catherine Biondo appointed to AALL’s Government Relations Committee

We are pleased to announce that Catherine Biondo, a past LLNE President, has been appointed to a three-year term on AALL’s Government Relations Committee  (AALL-GRC) . The AALL GRC’s purpose  is to advance AALL’s legislative and advocacy efforts, both state and federal. Catherine informs us that some of the issues on which the AALL GRC is currently focusing include: additional COVID-19 related economic relief for law libraries; greater access to court records through PACER; and a modernized Federal Depository Library Program.  The AALL GRC liaisons keep SISs and Chapters informed about the Committee’s work and are available to answer policy-and-advocacy-related questions throughout the year.  

We asked Catherine what motivated her join the AALL GRC and about her past government-related experience.  Here is her response: 

I’d say my interest in government issues began in college.  I earned my A.B. in Government, with a Concentration in International Relations, from Cornell University. While at Cornell, I was the Editor of a non-partisan political journal called the Cornell Political Forum and a member of Model Congress (we hosted a conference for high school students to act as members of Congress and introduce and debate bills).  I also volunteered on a local political campaign. Rather than work in government, though, I went into law.  I earned my J.D. from St. John’s University School of Law and became a member of the New York and Connecticut bars.  I then worked as a research clerk for the Connecticut Superior Court, and practiced law for a few years, before deciding to become a law librarian.  I earned my M.S.L.S. from Simmons.   

My interest in government reignited when I had the opportunity to work with members of LLNE’s Government Relations Committee on UELMA when it came before the Massachusetts legislature during my presidential term.  [The LLNE GRC and its UELMA in MA Subcommittee]had done such a wonderful job tracking UELMA and preparing materials, and I found it really exciting to be a part of the process of effecting change in government (or at least trying to! ) That’s why I decided to apply to join the AALL GRC; to become more aware of the issues affecting libraries, learn to advocate better for those issues, and connect with librarian colleagues across the country who are active in this area.  

We are both former members of the AALL GRC, having each recently served three-year terms (not at the same time), and so we know from experience how much Catherine will enjoy serving on the AALL GRC. We look forward to a very productive time working with Catherine and the AALL GRC. The AALL GRC is fortunate to have someone with Catherine’s skills, talents and enthusiasm! 

Anne McDonald,  Co-chair, LLNE Government Relations Committee

Emilie Benoit, Co-chair, LLNE Government Relations Committee

Volunteer! Please!

Hi, LLNE members,

This is a great time to volunteer for an LLNE committee or project! 

I know it may not seem like a great time because we are all busy and picking up new and unexpected COVID-related duties, but it is! 

So much about 2020 has been disconnecting. We may be working outside of our comfort zones, outside of our offices, outside of our routines, or even outside of our job descriptions. One thing that can make us feel more normal is connecting with other library workers and giving back to our profession. We have some exciting projects planned this year to keep us connected and we would really appreciate some volunteers.

In order to volunteer for an LLNE committee or project, go to https://llne.org and click the link at the top of the page to fill out a short form with your preferences. We will be in touch!

Finally, now is the time to renew your memberships. On behalf of myself and the LLNE Executive Board we are so grateful that you choose to be a member and be engaged with the work of our organization.

Thank you,

Nicole

Nominations Committee and Election Information: Slate of Officers

Dear LLNE Members,

The Executive Board is writing to let you know that the LLNE Nominations Committee, appointed by the LLNE President and made up of Christine Dulac (Chair), Karen Rutherford, and Diane DiAnglo, present the following slate candidates for the 2020 LLNE Elections:

Michael VanderHeijden, from Yale Law School, will be running for the VP/President Elect position.

Christie Schauder, from WilmerHale, will be running for the Secretary position.

Jessica Panella, University of Connecticut School of Law will be running for the Co-Educational Director position.

Per the LLNE bylaws, additional nominations of LLNE members in good standing is allowed. Any additional nominations must be submitted in writing to LLNE President, Robert DiFabrizio and Nicole Dyszlewski 60 days before the LLNE elections.  The additions nominations need to be endorsed by at least ten LLNE members in good standing.  With these deadlines in mind, the LLNE elections will take place on August 1, 2020.

Voting will be held online. 

Thank you to the Nominations Committee for their outstanding work.

If you have any questions, please contact Nicole and Bob.

LLNE 2020 Spring Meeting Service Project

With everyone currently cooped up at home, the Service Committee thought it would be a great opportunity for members of LLNE to once again donate their time to help transcribe historically significant documents.  The Boston Public Library is asking for the public’s assistance with transcribing its digitized collection of 19th century handwritten correspondence between anti-slavery activists; doing so will improve the collection’s visibility, accessibility, and searchability for users.

Simply visit https://www.antislaverymanuscripts.org and click “Start Transcribing.”  You will then be prompted to create an account before starting.  The BPL has put together a great tutorial and field guide to help new volunteers, and you can transcribe as little or as much as you’d like—whenever you’d like!  Please note that the project is currently not supported on mobile devices.

If you have any questions or comments about this project, please feel free to contact Kaitlin Connolly at Kaitlin.Connolly@mass.gov.

Save the date for the LLNE Spring Meeting!

Dear LLNE friends and colleagues, 

The spring LLNE meeting is going to be at Boston College Law School—this is a “save the date” announcement.   

The conference will be on Tuesday, April 28, 2020, and the theme is Well-being and Mindfulness in the Legal Profession.  We will have speakers from the Mindfulness in Law Society, from the SJC Well-Being Committee, from Lawyers Concerned for Lawyers, Boston firms, schools, etc.  Some listening, some practicing–a day to learn and recharge your spirits.  Details about registration to follow.  

Thank you and enjoy the week. 

Peace, Filippa and the BC Law Library Team

UELMA in MASSACHUSETTS UPDATE

 A public hearing on the Massachusetts UELMA bills H. 64.and H. 3294 was held on September 17,2019 before the Joint Committee on the Judiciary. Catherine Biondo, LLNE’s Immediate Past President testified  on behalf of LLNE and submitted the following supporting documents to the Joint Committee:

One-pager explaining H. 3294 and H. 64 and UELMA in Massachusetts

AALL Chart showing that 21 states plus the District of Columbia have enacted UELMA as of August 2019.

There will be opportunities for attendees to become involved in helping to pass UELMA at the LLNE fall meeting at Harvard.  

If you are from Massachusetts and not attending the LLNE meeting, please take time to contact your state Representative by letter or email and encourage them to support H. 64 and H. 3294 and specifically to contact members of the Joint Committee on the Judiciary to favorably refer the bills out to a full vote in the House.

Once the bills are before the full House, LLNE will engage with members of the Massachusetts Bar Association and the Massachusetts Library Association to lobby for passage of UELMA.  Both the MBA and the MLA have endorsed UELMA.


We thank the members of the LLNE GRC UELMA in MA Subcommittee and the legislators who have supported our efforts. Special thanks to Marnie Warner, LLNE GRC UELMA in Massachusetts Subcommittee member, for her contributions to this report.

Anne McDonald, Co-Chair, LLNE Government Relations Committee

Emilie Benoit, Co-Chair, LLNE Government Relations Committee

Learned Hands: LLNE Fall Service Project

In honor of the LLNE Fall Meeting titled “Artificial Intelligence and Algorithms in Law Libraries and in Legal Practice”, the Service Committee is promoting the use of the online legal game, Learned Hands.  Developed by the Stanford Legal Design Lab and Suffolk’s Legal Innovation and Technology Lab, Learned Hands is a crowdsourcing game that helps develop access to justice technology.  The game asks players to spot possible legal issues in real people’s stories.  When you spot a legal issue, you are teaching the technology how to spot the issue as well.  The technology will then be used to help link legal resources to the people who are searching for help. Anyone can play!  To participate, go to https://learnedhands.law.stanford.edu/.  Creating an account only takes a minute.  Once you have an account, start reading stories and answer questions about any legal issues you find.  You accrue points for every question you answer.  Our goal is to reach 50,000 points by the end of November!  To help us reach that goal, please email me (jessica.almeida@umassd.edu) your username so we can add your points to LLNE’s overall total.

LLNE Immediate Past President Catherine Biondo testifies in support of UELMA

On September 17, 2019, LLNE Immediate Past President Catherine Biondo testified in support of UELMA (H. 64 and H. 3294)  at the Joint Committee on the Judiciary hearing on the bills. A copy of her written statement has been posted on the LLNE website along with other information about the UELMA bills in Massachusetts this session on the UELMA Advocacy for Massachusetts page

Spring Service Committee Project: Helping Transcribe a Journal from the Rhode Island Equal Suffrage Association (1888-1892)

This year the LLNE Service Committee continued to work closely with the Rhode Island State Archives for its 2019 spring project.  Participants transcribed handwritten document pages virtually, from the comfort of their own homes or offices, which was a different approach to the transcription party that was held on Roger Williams University’s Providence Campus in November of last year.  Participants received 5 pages (with the ability to request less or more to work on) from the Rhode Island Equal Suffrage Association (RIESA) journal, which is comprised of minutes, written in late 19th century cursive, of the meetings held between 1888 and 1892. Also included for participants were transcription tips and helpful resources on how to read historical handwriting.

I was unable to attend the transcription party in November, so Iwas excited to be given an opportunity to transcribe pages virtually.  I’ve worked on transcription projects in the past for my place of employment and as a volunteer for the genealogical research site FamilySearch, and over time I’ve found that I actually really enjoy it.  Older handwriting can be incredibly frustrating to read, and it often requires a bit of detective work; getting a sense of the way the author stylized certain letters and words and figuring out the context of the document, if it’s not immediately apparent, can often provide important pieces to the puzzle.  And what librarian doesn’t like a little bit of a research-related challenge?

I was assigned five pages in the RIESA journal that were a summary of a meeting held in 1891, and the main topics that were discussed included the need for women in law and government, the enfranchisement of women, and the protection of children factory workers.  It was incredibly easy to view the document online (no downloading was necessary) and write my transcription in Word.  I was fortunate that the secretary who took the notes for this particular meeting wrote relatively clearly, and it may have taken me no more than an hour of my time altogether to transcribe the pages.  There were a couple words I scratched my head over (like “grogshop”???), but by the end I was confident that I had everything transcribed correctly—spelling and grammatical mistakes included, even though it’s sotempting to make corrections!  It was also neat to read first-handabout the different speeches given during this spirited meeting by well-known names such as Mary Ann Greene and William Lloyd Garrison, with Anna Garlin Spencer presiding over the meeting.

Once the transcription was complete, I emailed the file to the Rhode Island State Archives.  While certain types of documents can be fed through optical character recognition (OCR), transcribing handwriting requires manual effort and time; it felt good to be able to help provide greater access to this important association’s records for researchers and the general public.  

Kaitlin Connolly

LLNE Service Committee

State Library of Massachusetts

Kaitlin.Connolly@mass.gov

Service Committee Transcription Project: Wrap-Up

The LLNE Service Committee would like to thank everyone who helped us transcribe documents for the Rhode Island State Archives this year.  

In the Fall, the committee hosted a transcription party with State Archivist, Ashley Selima.  LLNE members transcribed documents from the Rhode Island Suffrage Association from 1868-1871 and 1888-1892 at the Roger Williams Law Providence Campus.  Transcribers were then treated to a tour of the Rhode Island State Archives and a social hour at a local restaurant.  The committee would like to thank Roger Williams Law Providence Campus for the fantastic space and technological support.  We would also like to thank to LLNE and Lexis for sponsoring the event.  

After the party, members of the Service Committee wrote an article titled “Hosting A Successful Transcription Party”, which was published in the March/April 2019 issue of the AALL Spectrum.

In the Spring, the Service Committee took the transcription party on the road.  LLNE members from all over transcribed historical documents from the comfort of their home or office.  The committee is happy to report that we had 23 volunteers transcribe over 100 pages of the Rhode Island Equal Suffrage Association Journal from 1888-1892.  Thank you to everyone who volunteered and made this project a success!  

All the transcriptions will help make these fascinating historical documents more accessible to everyone.  The LLNE Service Committee would like to thank the Rhode Island Secretary of State’s office and RI State Archivist Ashley Selima for providing this wonderful opportunity.  

Thank you to the members of the Service Committee for all their work making this project a reality.  We are always looking for more volunteers!  If interested, email Jessica at jessica.almeida@umassd.edu.