LLNE Fall Service Project Wrap-Up: The RE∙Center of Hartford, Connecticut

This fall, the LLNE and SNELLA Service Committees joined forces to raise money for the RE∙Center of Hartford, Connecticut.  The RE∙Center is an organization that works to promote racial equality in education.  The RE∙Center offers anti-racism programming to students, educators, and the community.  For more information on the RE∙Center, visit https://re-center.org/.

As part of our project, LLNE hosted a trivia night to raise funds for the RE∙Center on October 28, 2020.  LLNE members, law librarian colleagues, family, and friends from across the country joined us in a fun trivia tournament hosted by TTodd of Jeporardy and Washington Post fame.  Congratulations to the team from Yale for coming in 1st place! The winning team members received amazing prizes courtesy of the event’s sponsor, Lexis. 

Missed the trivia event and still want to give to this great cause?  There is still time to give!  Just visit https://interland3.donorperfect.net/weblink/weblink.aspx?name=E331556&id=1, select “I would like to dedicate this donation”, and type in LLNE Service Project.  

Finally, the Service Committee is happy to report that this initiative has raised $1,322.78 for the  RE∙Center!  Thank you to all of our members who donated and were part of our first ever virtual trivia event.  If you have an idea for a future service project or would like to join the Service Committee, please email Jessica at jessica.almeida@umassd.edu.  

LLNE & SNELLA Present “Dismantling Bias” Fall 2020 Virtual Meeting

The University of Connecticut School of Law Library is proud to host the LLNE & SNELLA Fall 2020 Virtual Conference on October 16, 2020. The conference is free to attend and registration is now open.

As law libraries continue to develop programs and initiatives relating to equity, diversity, and inclusion, the conference will focus on manifestations of bias within law libraries and the role of libraries in dismantling that bias. Sessions will increase participants’ knowledge of bias, deepen their understanding of different forms of bias, and identify biases within law libraries and collections. Being an election year as well as the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment, the conference will also examine biases and barriers to voting, as well as libraries’ role in overcoming those barriers.

Participants of the virtual conference will come away with an increased ability to:

  • Address their own personal biases
  • Recognize biases within their communities, law libraries, and collections
  • Identify potential ways in which libraries can eliminate voter suppression
  • Discuss potential solutions on how law libraries can continue these conversations at their own institutions

To learn more about the virtual conference, visit our LibGuide.

Upcoming SNELLA Access to Justice Conference

By Mike VanderHeijden

For those of you interested in Access to Justice, SNELLA’s Spring Meeting is focused on A2J issues in Connecticut. Please see details, below.

The Southern New England Law Libraries Association (SNELLA) will host our Spring Meeting at UCONN Law’s campus on Tuesday, May 8, 2018. The day promises to be an great day of practical information about legal services to the public in Connecticut. If you aren’t a member and are interested in joining or you have any questions you talk to me or you can fill out the form here.

 

A2J: Law Libraries and Service to the Public

Tuesday, May 8, 2018 | 9:30-2:30

UConn Law School, Starr Reading Room, 55 Elizabeth Street, Hartford, CT 06105

Register here by May 1, 2018

$25 for Members | $30 for Non-Members

Schedule:

9:30-10:15: Registration, Continental Breakfast, & Welcoming Remarks

10:15-11:15: A2J in the Courts: Connecticut Court Service Centers. Presenters, Desiree Biggs, manager Court Service Center in Hartford & Alexandra Gillett, Program Manager for the Court Service Center Program.

11:15: Break

11:30-12:30: A2J Education: Law libraries and public librarians. Presenters, Anne Rajotte, Head of Reference Services, University of Connecticut School of Law & Christopher Roy, Law Librarian II, Connecticut Judicial Branch Law Library at New Britain.

12:30-1:30: Lunch

1:30-2:30: A2J in Public Libraries: Redefining Access to Legal Assistance for Immigrants. Presenters from The American Place Adult Education & Immigration Services at the Hartford Public Library

2:30: Closing remarks and tour

 

For directions and maps, see https://www.law.uconn.edu/about/maps-directions.  Please park in Lot B.

LLNE /SNELLA Fall Meeting: Hysteria, Hyperbole and Witch Hunts: 1697 & 2017 Report

By Anne McDonald

This was a very interesting meeting that tied together the above themes and shed light on many common assumptions.  Here are some highlights.

Salem, Massachusetts is indelibly associated with witchcraft, but it was not the first place to hold witchcraft trials in the colonies or even in Massachusetts.  Witchcraft trials started in Europe and were then carried over to the colonies.  The earliest witchcraft accusations in the English colonies took place in Virginia: the trial of midwife Joan Wright. Her neighbors testified that she caused the death of a newborn. She was acquitted despite admitting that she had some knowledge of witchcraft.   Mark Podiva of West Virginia University College of Law gave the keynote speech, saying we need to focus on implicit and explicit bias in sources, both historical and current.

Anne Rajotte of the UConn Law Library discussed Connecticut witch trials, which were lesser known than the Salem witch trials because the trials were spread out over many years and information was scattered.  Salem’s witch trials, while not the earliest, are the best known, perhaps because of the high number of deaths in a short period of time. Between June and September 1692, nineteen men and women were hanged for witchcraft in Salem.

Amazingly, there was a time when the courts allowed “spectral evidence”; if a witness said the accused came to him in a dream, that could be admissible as proof of the devil’s work.   The witchcraft laws all had biblical language.  Rhode Island had a statute forbidding witchcraft from 1647 until it was abolished in 1767. There was never a prosecution for witchcraft in Rhode Island.

Witch trials serve as an early example of fake news, the first Salem trial was started by bored teenagers spreading lies. They listened to a servant’s stories, after being told they were not supposed to, then said she cast spells on them.  There are still witch hunts going on in parts of the world, most frequently in developing countries. When people get sick, witchcraft is suspected.

Gary Smith of the Berkshire Law Library, who is both a librarian and art historian, showed and discussed a painting by a 19th century artist named T.H. Matteson of the “Witchcraft Trial of George Jacobs.”  It was painted in 1855.  He showed how art can help us remember things.

John Barden and Mike Hughes gave interesting, edgy, humorous presentations that kept us awake following lunch.

The last speaker, Ron Wheeler, put us in a deep, reflective mood when he read from his  article about his lifelong journey towards empathy, which sums up the theme and main takeaway of the entire program.  As Tanya Johnson notes in the SNELLA newsletter, misunderstanding and lack of empathy can lead to horrific consequences.

I would like to thank Ellen Phillips of LLNE and Jordan Jefferson of SNELLA for their joint efforts in putting together this program.  I would like to thank LLNE for arranging for the services of professional CART reporters Stephanie Farrell and Kathleen Dwyer, who worked hard all day to make the program accessible to me.

Here is a link to SNELLA’s January 2018 newsletter with two items related to the Salem meeting: Anne Rajotte’s article: Witch Trials in Connecticut on pages 3-4, followed by Tanya Johnson’s report titled “10 Things I learned at the LLNE/SNELLA meeting in Salem.”

Save the Date!

The fall conference will be Friday, November 17, 2017 at the Salem Waterfront Hotel, 225 Derby Street, Salem, MA 01970.

The topic of the conference is Hysteria, Hyperbole, and Witch Hunts: 1697 & 2017.

This year LLNE will be partnering with SNELLA for an interesting and informative day dedicated to historical legal research in the context of the Salem witch trials, teaching information literacy in an era of fake news, online civic reasoning, detecting bias in research sources, fact checking, and more.

Check out the libguide for preliminary information! More details to follow in the coming weeks!