Government Relations Committee Update

By Anne McDonald & Emilie Benoit, Co-chairs, LLNE Government Relations Committee

Massachusetts Legislative Update

The UELMA in MA Subcommittee of the LLNE GRC continues to advocate for the passage of H 43, the UELMA bill.  The Massachusetts Bar Association House of Delegates voted to support H 43 on May 19, 2016. We thank Marnie Warner for her advocacy efforts with the Massachusetts Bar Association and thank all members of the UELMA subcommittee for their hard work and dedication.  According to Emily Feltren of AALL’s Government Relations Office, Massachusetts is the second state bar association to support UELMA, after Connecticut.

H 43 remains in the Massachusetts House Ways and Means committee. Marnie Warner, of the UELMA in Massachusetts Subcommittee of the LLNE GRC, reports that given the current budget shortfall, she does not expect any movement until the budget is settled.  Even though formal legislative sessions end at the end of June, legislators continue to meet informally, retaining the ability to vote on bills, until the end of December.

There is still time for LLNE members who are Massachusetts residents to contact their legislators and urge passage of UELMA.

The Massachusetts Public Records bill was signed into law on Friday June 3, 2016. It promises to make government more transparent, according to the Boston Globe.

 AALL GRO News

June 13, 2016, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the FOIA Improvement Act (S.337), sending the comprehensive Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) reform bill to the President’s desk. He is expected to sign it before the 50th anniversary of FOIA on July 4th.  The bill updates FOIA by codifying the directives previously established in memoranda by President Obama and Attorney General Holder. It requires that information be available to the public in electronic format and limits the time period that federal agencies can keep internal information confidential.  Here is a link to AALL’s Washington Blawg.

 Librarian of Congress Nomination Progresses

 On June 9, 2016, the U.S. Senate Rules Committee voted to recommend that the nomination of Dr. Carla Hayden as the next Librarian of Congress be approved by the full Senate.

We are hopeful that the Senate will take up the nomination without delay.

Please urge your Senators to vote to confirm Dr. Hayden, through AALL’s Legislative Action Center.

Legislative Advocacy Training at AALL

 For those of you who will be at AALL, there is still time to register for the Legislative Advocacy Training on Saturday July 16, 2016. It will feature a speaker from Congressman Mike Quigley’s office and an opportunity to meet AALL members who will share their experiences in the legislative process. Here is a link to the draft agenda.

The LLNE Government Relations Committee is providing this information to you to further its committee charge to keep you apprised of developments which may be of interest to you as an informed law librarian.

Service Committee Shares “Legal Link” With SNELLA

By Joshua LaPorte

Mike VanderHeijden and I presented Legal Link, the Service Committee’s online tool-kit for public librarians, to the Southern New England Law Libraries Association (SNELLA) at an event at the UConn School of Law Library on April 19th.

At the program, we discussed the background of the Service Committee’s “outreach to public libraries” initiative, how Legal Link fits into that larger focus, gave a tour of Legal Link, and solicited feedback from SNELLA’s members on topics we should include as we further develop the site.  Some ideas floated were including patent searching, lawyer referral resources, and business development topics.  We also discussed similar efforts being made here in Connecticut to equip our public library colleagues to help patrons with legal research as a tool to mitigate access to justice issues.

The Service Committee is working on developing content for Legal Link, and the feedback from SNELLA was extremely useful as we determine what should be included on the site.

LLNE Wins Big!

By Diane D’Angelo
LLNE President

LLNE was well represented on the list of AALL award winners for 2016 — even our organization won an award!

These awards are just one more reminder of how incredibly talented our members are.  Building friendships and collaborating with these folks and many others like them is one of the great benefits of being an active member of LLNE.

Congratulations to the following LLNEers:

1.) Marian Gould Gallagher Distinguished Service Award: S. Blair Kauffman, Law Librarian and Professor of Law, Yale Law School

2.) Chapter Professional Development Award: LLNE — special thanks to Nicole Dyszlewski, LLNE Secretary and Research/Access Services Librarian at Roger Williams University School of Law Library & Alex Burnett, Associate Law Librarian at the Maine State Law & Legislative Reference Library

3.) Best Public Relations Tool Kit: The staff at Roger Williams University School of Law Library

The ABA Techshow: Teaching Technology for the Future of Law Practice

By Artie Berns

I recently attended the ABA Techshow in Chicago. The following are some of the highlights:

Prior to the actual event I attended a Dean’s Roundtable event, Teaching Technology in the Academy: Are We Finally at the Tipping Point. This event was hosted by Chicago Kent School of law and included a lively panel discussion about the modes and methods of teaching technology in the legal academy.  For me, the main take-away was that while we in the legal academy can theorize about what we should be teaching with regard to technology, a better indicator of what is needed is what the firms hiring our students want them to know when they arrive.  This event will be evolving into an actual academic track in next year’s Techshow. For more information about the upcoming academic track contact Michael Robak, robakm@umkc.edu.

More than one program I attended discussed the impact of expert systems on the practice of law.  In this context an expert system is one in which a computer conducts guided interviews to solve a particular legal problem, for instance in the program How to Hire a Robot – or Using Experts Systems in Today’s Law Firm an expert system was designed on the spot which would allow an end user to determine if they can obtain a divorce or annulment under Illinois law. Other expert systems are used to provide services for pro se litigants, for example Illinois Legal Aid Online (www.illinoislegalaidonline.org) uses A2J Author (http://www.a2jauthor.org) to help self-represented litigants to create legal forms for common legal problems.  Here in New England, the Massachusetts-based Committee for Public Counsel Services (https://www.publiccounsel.net/) uses QnA Markup (http://www.qnamarkup.org/) to help guide people to various legal resources. In the long term it is thought expert systems will be used for the automation of boring or repetitive tasks which will allow attorneys to spend their time addressing more complex and thought intensive tasks.

Several programs taught attendees to maximize the use of existing technologies such as Word, Excel, and Acrobat Pro.  Another very interesting program discussed the deep/dark web and how to conduct research there and why you would want to.  I discussed this program on the my law library’s blog, Spot-on Legal Research (http://wnelawlibrary.blogspot.com/2016/03/below-surface-web.html).  All told, I walked away from the ABA Techshow with a much better idea about what technologies we should be teaching to law students both today and in the future.

Generosity: A Message from the LLNE Membership Committee

By Nicole P. Dyszlewski

Because the Service Committee’s Spring project benefits the Rhode Island Department of Corrections Library System and I am a Rhode Island law librarian, I have been receiving the donations here in my office at Roger Williams University Library. I have been so impressed by the generosity of LLNE members. While the book drive, Bringing Books Behind Bars, is being organized by the Service Committee, and I am sure that committee will thank all donors fully, I just wanted to take a moment from behind the wall of donated books in my office to point out what is obvious to me. It is obvious to me that LLNE is a community of thoughtful, generous, and committed members.

Book Drive Pic

Every morning for the last few weeks I have come in to my office to find packages from Amazon. These books have been donated from active librarians and retired librarians from government, academic and private firm libraries from several New England states. Several people have even donated multiple books! It is clear from the response to the Service Committee’s call to action that the members of our organization are engaged and involved in this project.

Many professional organizations (including our own) have lately suffered from a decrease in members. In addition, leaders of these organizations, and LLNE in particular, work hard to assess how actively engaged members appear. LLNE uses data such as number of attendees at meetings and responses to listserv posts on issues to gauge the connectivity and vibrancy of the organization. These conversations and changes made to organizational processes are important. If you have ideas on how LLNE can continue to serve its members, the Membership Committee and all of LLNE leadership would be happy to speak with you. This conversation continues and we invite you to be one of the participants as we move forward.

Bringing Books Behind Bars Book Drive

LLNE Spring Service Project - Copy

By the LLNE Service Committee

In association with the 2016 Spring Law Librarians of New England (LLNE) Meeting, the LLNE Service Committee has organized a book drive for the Rhode Island Department of Corrections library system. The Service Committee has met with library staff of the prison system and has worked with volunteers to compile a list of needed acceptable books. 

All books donated must be from this list and must be donated in new condition based on the institutional rules.

The list of books can be found at: http://www.amazon.com/registry/giftlist/1R2951TFE7498

We have chosen a wide variety of titles which are both legal and non-legal.  We have also chosen titles at a variety of price points.

Donations can be purchased on Amazon and mailed to:

Nicole Dyszlewski

Roger Williams University School of Law Library

10 Metacom Ave

Bristol, RI 02809

In addition to the book drive we will also be engaging in an advocacy effort to ask prison officials to make the rules about acceptable material more lenient and more standardized. If you are interested in learning more about this project, please contact one of the co-chairs of the Service Committee, Joshua LaPorte (Joshua.laporte@uconn.edu) and Jessica Jones (jjones@socialaw.com).

The Spring 2016 LLNE newsletter is up!

You can read the current issue here and check out previous issues here.  In this issue you’ll find information about accessing government information, the Spring LLNE/ABLL meeting, member updates, and all your favorite features like Dear Miss Nomer and What Are You Reading.

Thanks to everyone who contributed!

Education committee update

By Elliot Hibbler

It is “Sunshine Week” this week! No, it is not about the weather (the warm temperatures have not correlated with clear days so far) but about open government and freedom of information. This week, we have seen the Senate pass a bill, S. 337, related to improving FOIA. Many such bills are also at various stages of the legislative process at the state level.

Which reminds me…the LLNE / ABLL Spring meeting is coming up soon!

We have a great day of programming planned. We will be looking at access to government information from a policy level, and also getting into the specifics of how access is working in practice. We’ll also look at projects shaping the future of access. There is still time to register at lawlibraryguides.neu.edu/LLNE2016!

Service Committee Update

By the LLNE Service Committee

The Service Committee continues to focus its efforts on making connections and building partnerships with public libraries in the New England. This Spring the co-chairs of the service committee will be presenting a session titled Successful Strategies for Managing Law-Related Patron Inquiries at the Rhode Island Library Association (RILA) Annual Conference in Warwick, RI. This will provide an opportunity for the Service Committee members to meet public librarians with an interest in law and to showcase LLNE’s Legal Link project.

For the third year in a row, the Service Committee worked with the LLNE Education Committee and the Legal Research Instruction Program (LRIP) to offer two scholarships to New England area public librarians interested in taking the LRIP course. The two librarians who received the scholarships this year were April Pascucci, Library Technician at the U.S. Court of Appeals Library for the First Circuit and Jazmin Idakaar, Generalist Librarian I of the Mattapan Branch of the Boston Public Library.