Committee News – Page 11 – Law Librarians of New England

Massachusetts UELMA Update

By Emilie Benoit and Anne McDonald, Co-Chairs, LLNE Government Relations Committee

As noted in our July, 2015 blog, the Massachusetts UELMA bill H. 43 was reported favorably out of the House Judiciary Committee following its May 27th hearing, and is now in the House Ways and Means Committee.

Michelle Pearse addressed members in attendance at LLNE Fall meeting at Roger Williams University School of Law, on the behalf of subcommittee Chair Barbara Morgan, about the UELMA in MA Subcommittee’s recent activities. She asked those LLNE members who are Massachusetts residents to contact their representatives, especially those who sit on the House Ways and Means committee.

LLNE President Diane D’Angelo sent a letter dated September 30, 2015 to Representative Brian Dempsey, Chair of the House Ways and Means Committee, urging him to favorably report the bill out of his committee. The letter stresses the importance of adopting UELMA. The full text of the letter, as well as the UELMA in Massachusetts information webpage, can be found here.

Most other New England state legislatures have adjourned for the year and will reconvene in January 2016.

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

Archives committee updates

With summer officially behind us, the Archives & History Committee is ready to get started on its agenda for the year. We’ve got a number of things planned, many of which would benefit from member input!

First and foremost, we’ll be conducting an inventory of our holdings. There are three main reasons for this: 1.) it allows us to spot any acquisition priorities, gaps in our holdings, etc., 2.) it gives us a chance to revisit the processes we have in place and see if any need updating, and 3.) it lets us know what cool stuff we have and how best to showcase it!

One of the best ways to highlight our material is through this site, llne.org. So another key goal we have is to increase the activity on the Archives & History portion of the site. And this is where the member input part comes in. Let us know what you’d like to see on the site. Thoughts, ideas, or questions—however general or specific—are welcome, encouraged, and appreciated.

Lastly, we’ll also be starting to think about how we store our born-digital materials (i.e., those things that do not have a physical format). Getting a solid digital preservation policy is key, as we are all aware of the growing number of things that only exist as ones and zeroes. We’ve got a full plate for this year, but like I said in the previous post, I’m really excited about getting started.

LLNE Fall Meeting Update

By the Planning Committee

This year’s Fall LLNE meeting Successfully Supporting & Igniting Innovation is being hosted by the staff of the Roger Williams University School of Law Library and is being held in Bristol, RI. If you have never been to Bristol you are missing out. While it is best known for its festive (some might say over the top?) 4^th of July celebration, it has also recently been recognized as a leaf peeping destination. According to TripAdvisor, Bristol is one of “23 of the most scenic North American destinations for leaf peeping this autumn.”

If you haven’t already registered for the LLNE Fall meeting, registration will be open until September 25^th. For more information about what Bristol has to offer as a weekend destination, see the meeting’s website. Also, scholarship applications are still being accepted at this time.

We are looking forward to the meeting and looking forward to showing you all Rhode Island has to offer!

Fall Meeting Service Project: Helping Out is as Easy as Pi

Who: You, as an individual and/or your library

What: Help the Girls Who Code Club at Rochambeau Library!

How: There are a couple of ways to help:

Buy a Raspberry Pi on Amazon and bring it to the fall meeting on October 2^nd at Roger Williams.
Make a monetary donation
1. In person at the fall meeting
2. Can’t come to the meeting, but still want to help? Contact Jessica Jones or Josh LaPorte.

Questions? Contact Jessica Jones or Josh LaPorte.

Fall Meeting Plenary Speaker Announced

The LLNE Fall Meeting Planning Committee is excited to announce Margaret Hagan as our plenary speaker for the upcoming Fall meeting at Roger Williams University School of Law in Bristol, RI.

In keeping with the theme on innovation, we will be mixing the day up by hosting Ms. Hagan remotely via Skype during our lunch time.

Margaret Hagan is a Fellow at the Center on the Legal Profession at Stanford Law School & a Lecturer at the Stanford Institute of Design (d.school).

While a student at Stanford Law, Ms. Hagan built Law Dojo to make studying for law school classes more interactive. She also started the blog Open Law Lab which was chosen as one of the top 100 legal sites by the ABA Journal in 2014. While a fellow at the d.school, she launched the Legal Design Initiative (formerly the Program for Legal Technology & Design), experimenting in how design can make legal services more usable, useful & engaging.

One of Ms. Hagan’s projects may be especially interesting to law librarians. The Visual Law Library is a free online collection of law visualizations, including infographics. One fun example is Mistake Defenses to Crimes at http://www.legaltechdesign.com/visualawlibrary/2014/02/13/mistake-defenses-to-crimes/.

The RWU law library staff has been at work on the upcoming meeting for months and is very excited that Margaret Hagan will be joining us. We are looking forward to sharing the day with LLNE members discussing innovation.

Please register now for the LLNE Fall Meeting, Successfully Supporting & Igniting Innovation.

Invitation to Innovation

Innovation surrounds our profession. Constant changes in legal technology, the practice of law, librarianship, information politics, and organizational culture often represent tremendous creativity and innovation.

You are cordially invited to join us for the LLNE Fall Meeting titled Successfully Supporting & Igniting Innovation which will be hosted by Roger Williams University School of Law Library in Bristol, RI on October 2, 2015. The RWU law library staff has been planning this meeting for months and is looking forward to sharing the day with you talking about innovation! We are trying to strike a balance between the theoretical, the practical, and the fun. We are also showcasing all Rhode Island has to offer on the innovation front.

This meeting attempts to engage successful innovators in our field and in New England in a discussion about why innovation is important and how we can support innovation among ourselves, for our patrons, at our institutions, in the practice of law, and as learning facilitators. The morning will feature panelists who will discuss the importance of supporting an innovative culture and the afternoon will feature an unconference.

For those of you who had the opportunity to attend the AALL Annual Meeting this year, you may have noticed an interactive whiteboard display for attendees to contribute ideas and sketches to during the course of the event. In the spirit of innovation, we are planning on having a similar reflective graphic available for conference attendees to express ideas on creating and supporting library and legal innovation. Created by a librarian/artist from New Hampshire, this experience promises to be unique and fun.

Registration is now open. More information will be posted as it becomes available. If you have questions about lodging, the program, or registration, please contact Raquel Ortiz at rortiz@rwu.edu.

Photo Credit: Kathleen MacAndrew

Service Committee Update

By the LLNE Service Committee

Earlier this summer the Service Committee launches its legal research web portal aimed at public librarians, LLNE Legal Link. It got a great reception at AALL in Philadelphia and the Committee hopes to continue expanding the project over the next year. The Committee developed postcards to help publicize the project to public librarians. Please consider picking some up at the upcoming Fall LLNE meeting and bring them back to public libraries near you.

Currently, the portal hosts a directory of public law libraries available in each state, as well as information on how a bill becomes a law in each New England state. The Legal Link will likely expand to connect its users to local legal aid organizations, legal research guides for a variety of topics, best practices, and links to state statutes, court rules and regulations. While the main goal of Legal Link is to serve as a clearinghouse for legal information, we are also interested in creating commentary and new content to help explain how to adequately use these resources.

At AALL, the Committee also presented a poster session describing its work on the public library legal book drive during 2013-2014. It was the only poster session during AALL that a chapter had created and there was interest in potentially recreating the project from other chapters across the country.

Over the next year, the Committee will continue its work on LLNE Legal Link and also develop roles for LLNE members who may want to contribute to the project without serving as an official member of the committee. These members would provide assistance with concrete tasks or questions the Committee has. If you are interested in learning more please contact a Service Committee member.

Government Relations update: American Association of Law Libraries sends letter to President Obama on Qualifications of Next Librarian of Congress

Press release
Contact: Cara Schillinger
Director of Membership, Marketing, and Communications
312.205.8020
cschillinger@aall.org

CHICAGO, August 3, 2015 — The American Association of Law Libraries (AALL) today
submitted a letter to U.S. President Barack Obama recommending he nominate a
visionary leader with a deep commitment to preserving cultural memory as the new
Librarian of Congress to replace Dr. James H. Billington, who is retiring from the
position effective January 1, 2016.

The Librarian of Congress heads the Library of Congress, recognized as the United
States’ de facto national library and the largest library in the world. The librarian also
oversees the U.S. Copyright Office, Law Library of Congress, and several other service
and support units.

Dr. Billington, the 13th Librarian of Congress, has served in the role for 28 years, after
being appointed to the position by former President Ronald Reagan in 1987.
AALL’s letter asks President Obama, during his search for the next Librarian of
Congress, to consider qualified candidates, including law librarians, who will provide
strong leadership on issues affecting libraries in the digital age — such as preservation
of and permanent public access to born-digital and digitized materials.

AALL believes the next Librarian of Congress should have a transformative vision of a
strong, responsive, and modern Library of Congress for the 21st century and beyond;
possess a sophisticated understanding of how technology can improve library
operations and promote access and preservation; and display a commitment to
transparency, public participation, and collaboration.

The full text of AALL’s letter to the president is available at bit.ly/AALLlocrec. For more information about AALL and its other advocacy efforts, please visit www.aallnet.org.

Hello from the Archives Committee

By Ron Oppenheim

Greetings, fellow LLNE members! I’m Ron, the new chair of the Archives & History committee. I’m writing a quick post to introduce myself and let everyone know how excited I am to help preserve LLNE’s history. Now, you may be wondering just how genuine could one’s excitement be towards this endeavor? Well, let’s just say that as the archivist for an insurance company, I am used to working with materials whose ability to inspire enthusiasm aren’t, ahem, readily apparent. That, and like many of my fellow librarians, I find joy in organizing things. So whether it’s teasing out a story hidden in some old documents or getting the satisfaction knowing that everything is in its proper place, I am excited to get to work. In the meantime, if you have any questions or requests, please feel free to email me!

LLNE Legal Link Launches!

By the LLNE Service Committee

The Service Committee is proud to announce that LLNE Legal Link, our legal research web portal, is now live and you can access it here and from the LLNE homepage. We will be debuting the website at AALL this week in Philadelphia, passing out postcards at the LLNE booth, so be sure to help spread the word!

The idea behind Legal Link was to create a legal research portal for public librarians, where they can find relevant legal information for the New England region all in one place. Instead of reinventing the wheel, Legal Link will serve largely as a curator of legal content – linking out to resources that LLNE members trust and use often so that non-law librarians in the region will have quick and easy access to useful reference materials. Because the portal is freely accessible from our website, we also anticipate it serving as a tool for pro-se individuals who are navigating the legal research world on their own.

As of now, the site hosts a directory of public law libraries available in each state, as well as information on how a bill becomes a law in each New England state. Going forward, we hope to grow Legal Link by connecting its users to local legal aid organizations, legal research guides for a variety of topics, best practices, and links to state statutes, court rules, regulations, and more. While the main goal of Legal Link is to serve as a clearinghouse for legal information, we are also interested in creating commentary and new content to help explain how to adequately use these resources.