Blog

Edgar Award presented to Darcy Kirk

Darcy Kirk was presented the Edgar Award at the recent Fall Meeting. Due to the virtual format of the meeting, we arranged the presentation of the award to be done via a video. We reached out to a handful of current and former colleagues and friends of Darcy to contribute tribute videos, arranged for a brief outdoor presentation to be video recorded, and then edited everything together into a presentation video which was shared during the lunch break. You can view the video here.

We would like to thank everyone who helped make this award and its special presentation possible.

Technology Committee Update

The LLNE Technology Committee continues to maintain and develop the LLNE.org website, support the LLNE and Executive Board listservs, and implement and maintain automated membership tools. Specifically, over the last couple of years, Artie and Alex have implemented Memberpress, which is an automated membership tracking and payment tool, improved search engine optimization so that LLNE.org shows up higher in search engine result, and brought the website back online after a serious hack. We also reviewed several options and selected a new listserv platform, Mail-List, after AALL’s listserv became unfeasible as well as reviewing several video platforms and selecting Vimeo for LLNE’s hosted videos.

After the website was hacked, Artie and Alex took several steps to increase security, including changing a plethora of passwords, purging unused website plugins and updating out of date ones, and ensuring continuous backups of the entire site.

We work with many of the other LLNE committees to support their goals and Artie and Alex are always happy to help with anything relating to the website or listserv. Help can include training committee members on using the WordPress system, updating web pages on their behalf, or aiding them in finding technological solutions, such as Memberpress.

Join us for LLNE Trivia Night

In association with our Fall 2020 meeting, we are having a trivia night fundraiser on 10/28 at 7:30 pm to benefit RE·Center Race & Equity in Education.

You can bring your own team or just show up and be placed on a team with spooky strangers.

We want this to be a fun way to build community and raise money.

All you need to do to play is to make a donation in any amount to the charity and register at this link:

https://rwu.zoom.us/j/92622842334?pwd=WGZ6Q25xZUpOVE5xaGVadGxqNnE0UT09

Information on how to donate can be found on the flyer, below:

If you have any questions, please email me!

Thank you,

Nicole P. Dyszlewski, LLNE President

LLNE Scholarship News

  • LLNE members who are enrolled in an accredited degree program in Library Science or in an ABA accredited law school are eligible for one of our academic scholarships. We encourage you to apply!
  • LLNE  members who wish to access to continuing education and training opportunities by providing for programming beyond the biannual LLNE meetings and the annual AALL meetings may apply for one of our continuing education scholarships.
  • We anticipate opening applications for our meeting scholarships when LLNE imposes registration fees and meetings necessitate travel.
  • Please contact the Scholarship Committee for more information.

This October, we awarded one of our academic scholarships to student member Brian Quigley. So, we’d like to take this opportunity to let the LLNE community hear from Brian, and we wish him well in his studies.

Hello all- I am a recipient of the LLNE Academic Scholarship. I would like to thank the LLNE for your generous support of my education. I graduated from UConn with an English degree and attended Washington & Lee for law school. After that, I spent a year at a firm specializing in Workers’ Comp defense

During law school, I was interested in a career as a law librarian. Research has always been my interest and strength, but I was hesitant to commit to more schooling. I’ve been enjoying my MLIS program, and am looking forward to taking a different path while still using my law degree.

While studying, I have been working part time doing real estate closings. I enjoy rock climbing, archery, and hiking in my spare time.

The LLNE Academic Scholarship has helped me to get closer to my goal of becoming a law librarian. Thank you again for your generous support.

LLNE Government Relations Committee Report (October 2020)

Due to the COVID-19 closures of the various statehouses, we have no legislative activities to report on. The LLNE GRC is working on updating its website by revising some outdated information and adding links to the legislative pages of all six New England states. In last month’s Blog we reported that Past LLNE President Catherine Biondo has been appointed to the AALL GRC Government Relations Committee and also serves as liaison to LLNE.

Report from the LLNE Education Committee (October 2020)

Report from the LLNE Education Committee
Co-Chairs Jessica Panella & Maureen Quinlan

The Law Library at the University of Connecticut School of Law graciously agreed to host a virtual fall 2020 LLNE Conference. The topic was Dismantling Bias. It was the third virtual LLNE conference. LLNE had hosted a spring 2020 virtual meeting in April and the fall 2018 conference was a webinar. Plans are underway for conferences during 2021.

LLNE Communications Committee Report (October 2020)

Your committee co-chairs, Sara and Ellen have been busy planning a full slate of content for this upcoming year. We’ve had so much fun seeing everyone’s pets in our Zoom meetings we decided to launch a new blog post series introducing members of the Executive Board through interviews with their pets. You can also look forward to regularly scheduled blog updates from committees, a new Facebook page, and a few fun virtual social events. We also want to hear from YOU, our members! We welcome suggestions for new or improved communication channels, feedback on your communication likes and dislikes, and committee volunteers to work on special projects!

LLNE Service Committee Report (October 2020)

With the SNELLA Service Committee, we undertook two projects in conjunction with the Fall Meeting.  First, is a transcription project hosted on the Library of Congress website.  Members are encouraged to go to any of the following sites and transcribe historical documents to make them more accessible to the public.

The committees are also asking members to donate to the RE∙Center, an organization that works to promote racial equality in education.  For more information on the RE∙Center, visit https://re-center.org/.  To make a donation, go to https://bit.ly/LLNE_RECenter, select “I would like to dedicate this donation”, and type in LLNE Service Project.  As part of our donation drive, LLNE will be hosting a Trivia Night on October 28th at 7:30 pm EST via Zoom.  The event will be hosted by TTodd and prizes will be sponsored by Lexis.  Registration information will be sent out soon.

LLNE Technology Committee Report (October 2020)

The technology committee continues to maintain the website and listserv. Recent activities include, reverting website to previous version when updating a plug-in caused a crash, working with membership committee & treasurer to get memberships renewed, llne.org accounts updated, & mail-list updated.

Meet LLNE’s President: An exclusive interview with Boaty McBoatface about life with Nicole Dyszlewski

Hi, LLNE members! My name is Boaty McBoatface Dyszlewski and I am the LLNE’s “first” dog. My mom is Nicole the current President of LLNE and the Head of Reference, Instruction, & Engagement at Roger Williams University School of Law Library. I was interviewed this October by the pup-arazzi, the co-chairs of the LLNE Communications Committee. They will be presenting interviews with the pets of the LLNE Executive Board in an attempt to allow LLNE members to get to know the board better. Here is their first interview and I am pleased to present a transcript of our conversation:

Ellen: Hi, Boaty McBoatface. Thanks for sitting down with us today.

Sara: Thank you for granting us this exclusive interview.

Ellen: We want to get to know the real Nicole better and we thought we could start by asking you a few questions.

Sara: What does Nicole do for fun?

Boaty: Nicole really likes to talk. She really likes to talk. She also likes to play board games, watch horror movies, read books about serial killers, and she is an iced tea snob. She also collects Presidential Pez dispensers and loves to travel. Her most recent, pre-COVID trip was to Poland.

Ellen: What is your favorite thing about Nicole?

Boaty: She is a really big thinker. And she saved me from a shelter in New Orleans. So really I have 2 favorites.

Sara: What is your least favorite thing about Nicole?

Boaty: This is easy. I have two. One is her weird obsession with Justin Bieber. She says it’s ironic but I don’t know. The other is that every Halloween she dresses me up in a costume. This is my low point every year. I have tried to explain to her that this is undignified for a dog of my age and stature but she doesn’t relent. Look at the pictures. I’m clearly miserable.

Ellen: What is Nicole’s favorite guilty pleasure?

Boaty: Nicole is an unabashed fan of reality tv so I don’t think I could call that her guilty pleasure. I think I would say her guilty pleasure is Jason Derulo. Did you know that he has a greatest hits album? I do.

Sara: We are down to our final question, if Nicole won the lottery, what would she do with the money?

Boaty: We have discussed this at length so I am confident in my answer. Nicole is really passionate about deconstructing the prison industrial complex, so she would use funds to work towards that. She would also buy me a puppy, she promised!

Sara: Thank you for your time today! Next month we will be speaking with Allegra, Andante, and Parker Frentzen