Dispatches from AALL Philadelphia – something I learned: presentation resources

From Diane D’Angelo: Want to create cool animated presentations? Check out Powtoon! It’s a free resource that will help you captivate & engage students. Attorneys, judges, faculty and deans will also be drawn in to what you have to say with this fun way of presenting. http://www.powtoon.com

Service Committee Update

By the Service Committee

This year, the LLNE Service Committee was LLNE’s largest committee in terms of number of members. In one year our membership tripled in size! Although this has been an exciting year of growth for our committee, it has not come without some growing pains. Part of what makes working on such a large committee fun and dynamic is the diversity of geography, viewpoint, and skill set. Part of what makes working on such a large committee intimidating and daunting is the diversity of geography, viewpoint, and skill set.

This year the Service Committee tried a new format where we broke down into two smaller subcommittees to tackle year-long projects. This allowed each of the subcommittees to feel ownership over their work, but also led to some floundering. One subcommittee worked on creating and implementing an online platform to provide resources about legal reference to New England non-law public librarians (for more info on the new LLNE Legal Link, see http://llne.org/legal-link/) while the other subcommittee worked on planning outreach to public non-law librarians in person through regional networking and professional development opportunities (for more information on this project, stay tuned for more updates!). The two projects were discrete in focus but aligned in vision.

What we learned from this year was immense. We have identified ways to improve our outreach attempts to regional non-law public librarians and are just now releasing the LLNE Legal Link. We have also learned more about ourselves as a committee. We have learned that we need to try a different structure. We have come up with a plan to define our roles within the committee through the use of position descriptions. This allows all volunteers to be more aware of the extent of the projects they are signing up to work on, as well as the nature of the service commitment.

While we are working on defining the duties of committee members, we are also in the process of developing roles for LLNE members who may want to help work on our projects without signing up for one more committee! We have gotten feedback that some librarians have the heart but not the time to commit to our work, and we are developing opportunities for those among our membership who may not be ready or able to commit to committee membership (and meetings and obligations!) at this time.

Our year has been busy. Please check out our new LLNE Legal Link webpage, our poster session at AALL, and our annual report at the LLNE annual meeting for more details about our on-going projects. Also, please consider giving of your time and talents. We are nothing without our members and invite you to reach out to us to discuss possible opportunities for volunteerism and service in the coming year.

LLNE at AALL 2015: Exhibitors, Presenters, Award Winners, and Leaders

By Raquel Ortiz, Membership Development Committee Chair

Heading to Philly later this month? LLNE will be well represented, so here are some tips on who and what not to miss during the conference.

Starting at Saturday’s Exhibit Hall Ribbon Cutting Ceremony/Opening Reception and throughout the conference, drop by the LLNE table. We will have highlights from 2014-2015, information about the LLNE Legal Link, giveaways, and a prize raffle perfect for Philly! While you’re at the table, sign up as a volunteer to help us plan LLNE’s 70th Anniversary next year. Pat will also be there at times during the conference, when he’s not visiting old friends in the Exhibit Hall or checking out Philly.

Also during the Opening Reception, stop by the AALL booth and congratulate our AALL award-winning members, who will be photographed from 5:30-6:30 that evening.

On Sunday night from 6 to 8pm, please join members of the LLNE Executive Board for our Meet and Greet at Vintage Wine Bar, a short walk from the convention center and the conference hotels. Business optional, casual conversation and fun are a given!

If you have not already done so, please register for the LLNE Annual Business Meeting and Luncheon on Tuesday. While you enjoy a lovely meal, catch up with friends and meet new LLNE colleagues, participate in our business meeting, and vote on our candidates for LLNE office.

Throughout the conference, our members will be busy receiving AALL awards, section awards, presenting programs and poster sessions, and wrapping up or stepping into leadership roles. Congratulations to the following members, who put the Leadership in LLNE!

  • Section Award winners: Blair Kauffman (ALL-SIS), Meg Kribble (CS-SIS)
  • Poster Sessions: Timothy Dannay, Nicole Dyszlewski, Corinne Griffiths, Rebecca Martin, Jessica Panella, Jennifer Robble
  • Programs: Nicole Dyszlewski, Scott Matheson, Sarah Ryan, Michael VanderHeijden, Ron Wheeler
  • Special Interest Sections: Jennifer Allison, Patrick Butler, Melanie Cornell, Steven Alexandre DaCosta-Ellis, Laurel Davis, Nicole Dyszlewski, Stephanie Edwards, Christine Iaconeta, Jordan Jefferson, Susan Karpuk, Catherine Kellett, Jocelyn Kennedy, Liza Rosenof, Sarah Ryan
  • AALL Committees: Patrick Butler, June Casey, Nicole Dyszlewski, Darcy Kirk, Meg Kribble, Jootaek Lee, Anne McDonald, John Nann, Anupama Pal, Ron Wheeler
  • AALL Board: Katherine Coolidge, Ron Wheeler

Did we miss you on our list of LLNE stars? Please email rortiz@rwu.edu so that you can be counted!

 

 

Government Relations Committee Update

By Anne McDonald, Co-Chair, LLNE GRC, and Emilie Benoit, Co-Chair, LLNE GRC

PUBLIC ACCESS TO COURT RECORDS

The Massachusetts Trial Court’s Public Access to Court Records Committee held a public hearing on June 15, 2015 to hear comments regarding public access to court records.  Newly implemented changes in the Trial Court’s online access policies have resulted in many users losing eligibility for online accounts which are now restricted to attorneys with Board of Overseers registration.

Bob DeFabrizio, President of the Association of Boston Law  Librarians , (ABLL) expressed the concerns of firm law librarians, and LLNE’s President Mindy Kent stated that providing greater access to court records would allow law librarians to provide more aid to their users, including self-represented litigants, and make it easier for court personnel to do their jobs more effectively. Mindy’s testimony was cited in a Boston Globe article on the hearing.  You may read Mindy’s  written comments submitted to the committee here.

AALL  President Holly Riccio  also submitted written comments, urging the Trial Court to provide law librarians and other users with the same level of no-fee access to court docket information that was previously available. The letter also states that many states and the United States Supreme Court are moving towards greater public access.  We thank  President Riccio and AALL’s Government Relations Office Director Emily Feltren for their support.  See the  AALL website for Holly’s comments.

MASSACHUSETTS UELMA BILL

Massachusetts UELMA bill  H. 43  was reported favorably out of the House Judiciary Committee following a May 27th hearing  and is now in the House Ways and Means Committee.  The UELMA in Massachusetts Subcommittee of LLNE’s GRC has been spearheading this effort and will meet soon to strategize on the next steps.  The Subcommittee’s Chair Barbara Morgan  testified on behalf of LLNE . Here are some excerpts from her prepared testimony.

“As a law librarian, I am concerned about access to both current and historic Massachusetts legal material. If you visit a Massachusetts law library, you’ll find the General Laws of Massachusetts available in print. It’s easy for me to provide access by placing these books on a shelf and it’s easy for me to preserve access to past laws by keeping the older volumes. It’s also easy for someone using these volumes to tell that they’re looking at an authentic text by inspecting the title page. I don’t currently have the same ability with electronic versions of legal materials.

UELMA will ensure that if an online version is deemed official, it will guarantee the same level of trustworthiness traditionally provided by print legal publications. UELMA provides for a technology neutral, outcomes based approach that will give Massachusetts flexibility in making sure that official legal material, solely available online, will be authenticated, preserved and made permanently available to the public.” 

We thank all members of the UELMA in Massachusetts Subcommittee for their persistence and dedication.  We also thank LLNE members who reside in Massachusetts and who have supported this effort by contacting their state legislators.

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.

LLNE Archives: Cooks Reports Salad Dressing Recipes

By Heather Pierce

salad1 Summer time to farmers markets is like the bat signal to Batman and with all these farmers answering the call to provide fresh veggie goodness people are going to be making a lot of salads. So the most important question here is what kinds of dressings will you use? Well look no further than LLNE’s good old Cooks’s Reports for those answers. Here are six dressings that will add a bit of awesomesauce to your salad creations.

salad2

 

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LLNE President Melinda Kent quoted in Boston Globe article on public access to court records

Melinda Kent, LLNE’s president, recently testified in the recent June 15th public hearing before the Trial Court Public Access to Court Records Committee to provide comment concerning the public’s access to publicly available court case records. You may read her written comments submitted to the committee here. She was also quoted in Boston Globe article about the proposed changes. Mindy argued that allowing greater access would help librarians as we aid various users of the court system.  You can read the whole article here:

Mass. courts hear pleas for Web access: Data is available on federal system http://bit.ly/1Lfpnal

Bob DeFabrizio, LLNE member and Co-Director of Education also testified in his capacity as President of the Association of Boston Law Librarians (ABLL). AALL also submitted testimony which is available on the AALL website. A list of people registered to speak at the hearing and a list of the members of the Trial Court Public Access to Court Records Committee also appear on our website.

Law and Technology: Canva

By Carli Spina

No matter what your exact job title is, you probably find yourself working on design projects from time-to-time. Whether you are creating posters for an upcoming event, adding content to your library’s website or blog, or creating internal documentation for processes and workflows, graphic design is a feature of a huge array of different library projects. While a client’s job gets done with a Graphic Design Service Subscription, a designer has a series of works to do. If you work on these sorts of projects every day, you probably have your favorite (and likely expensive) graphic design software installed on your computer. But, if you only work on these sorts of projects occasionally, you may find the steep costs and learning curves of this software daunting. Canva is a great tool for anyone in this situation. This web-based graphic design tool is free and quite easy to use and offers you the option to keep costs down by finding your own media to add to your project or to use premium Canva images and templates for a reasonable cost (usually $1 per item).

Canva1
When you first log onto Canva, you are given the option to create a design either based on your own custom dimensions or by using one of the available project types. These run the gamut from the dimensions needed for common types of social media posts to the dimensions needed to create slides for a presentation, so you will frequently find an option that meets your needs. Even if you don’t find the size you need, you can easily specify your own dimensions.

Canva2
Once you select your dimensions, your new project will automatically open and prompt you to select a layout. You can instead opt to create your own custom layout, but it is nice to have the option to use one of the included layouts as a starting point. Though not all of the available layouts are free, any that are not free are marked, as is true of all premium content in Canva. One of the nicest features offered by Canva is its integrated image search. This tool allows you to search for images from within Canva when you need them for your project. Some of the images that are returned will be premium images (most, if not all, of which cost $1 each), but generally you will also find free images this way. If you can’t find the right image for your project, you can also upload your own images, which allows you to maintain complete control over the final product. Canva also offers a number of fonts and logos that can help to give your project a professionally designed appearance.

Canva3

Your project will automatically save as you work on it. Drafts or completed projects can be shared using the unique URL given to each project and you can specify whether you want the shared project to be editable or not. By default, only you are able to edit the project. Canva also has an integrated option to share projects directly to Facebook, Twitter, or email if you want to solicit feedback on your design. You can also download your project as a PDF or PNG file, at which point you will be asked to pay for any of the premium content that you used.

If you are new to graphic design (or have patrons who are), Canva also offers a number of resources to help you get started. Canva users can opt to make their projects public and those projects all end up in the “Design Stream,” which is part gallery and part social network. This can be a great place to look to see what others have done with the tool and to get inspiration. Canva also offers tutorials that are designed to walk even someone who has no design experience through many of the basic principles of graphic design. If you are interested in offering classes to teach your patrons about graphic design, Canva also offers lesson plans that make it easy to integrate Canva into this type of programming. All of this content is free, which makes it a great perk for Canva users. I’ve been using Canva off and on for months and I think it is a great tool for library design projects.

Government Relations Committee Update

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

The Vermont legislature passed H 490, the state budget bill on May 16, 2015 without restoring cuts to the Vermont Department of Libraries’ budget.  Vermont State Law Librarian Paul Donovan thanked LLNE for its support, saying “LLNE’s done all it can, and we’re very, very grateful.”   We have no definite word yet as to what will happen next, far as the state law library is concerned, but we will keep LLNE members posted.  LLNE’s letter to Vermont legislators is posted on the Vermont Library Association’s website.

A recent article in Library Journal discussed the impact of the proposed budget cuts on Vermont and Connecticut libraries, stating that the common problem in both states is that policymakers have a different view of the modern day role of libraries and that it is important for library supporters to speak out.

The AALL Government Relations Office sponsored a very informative Online Advocacy Training session on May 13th entitled: Progress Report: UELMA Advocacy in 2015 and Beyond.   The webinar highlighted the most common challenges advocates face in trying to move UELMA in their respective state legislatures and lays out a roadmap towards overcoming these challenges. A link to the recorded program is here.

The Massachusetts UELMA bill H 43 is currently in the Senate Judiciary Committee. A hearing is scheduled for May 27th at 1 pm in room A-2.

Here is an update from the group’s Chair, Barbara Morgan.

“The UELMA subgroup is continuing to reach out to our legislators re: H43.

We anticipate requesting LLNE members in specific districts to help us move this bill forward in the near future.

Stay tuned to hear about ways you can ensure that legal material deemed official will be preserved and will be permanently available to the public in unaltered form.”

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

Enhance Your AALL Experience in Philly

By the Service Committee

Whether you’ve already mapped out your Annual Meeting schedule, or you plan to pick sessions on the plane, consider blocking off some time to volunteer in Philly. This year’s meeting needs lots of helpers to make sure everything runs smoothly in the following areas:

  • Registration Desk
  • Registration Bag Stuffing
  • Opening Reception
  • Library Tours
  • Hospitality Booth
  • Association Luncheon

Sign up today or ask questions at aallvolunteers2015@gmail.com.

This year’s meeting has an additional volunteer opportunity for Annual Meeting Pros: the First-Time Annual Meeting Host Program. Volunteers will be given the names and contact information for one or more first-time conference attendees. As a host, you would be expected to contact your newbies before travelling to Philly to give them an idea of what to expect, and answer any questions they have. Once you’re at the conference, spend some time with them and introduce them to all of the cool people you know. Want to make a difference in the life of a new law librarian? Email your name, contact information, and the number of first-time attendees you are willing to host (one, two, or three) to annualmeetinghost@aall.org.

Another Great Year to be an LLNE Member

By the Membership Committee

LLNE is having a wonderful year, which wraps up on June 30.   So far this year our members coordinated two terrific meetings, ran another successful Legal Research Instruction Program,  wrote for our blog on technology, teaching, and turning theory into practice, and within committees contributed blog posts on Archives & History, Government Relations, and Service.   Members have been awarded scholarships to attend the fall and spring LLNE meetings, have been honored by a number of AALL Awards, will be serving in AALL leadership positions, or are preparing to coordinate/present at the AALL meeting.

The Membership Committee has written about LLNE Life Membership, which the membership awarded to six retired members at the spring 2015 meeting, and the wonderful privileges that come with LLNE membership.  In December, we sent our first holiday card to the membership.  At the spring meeting, we had our first LLNE table and ran our first Twitter campaign #LLNEMeans where members told our followers what LLNE means to them.

At the fast approaching AALL meeting, we will hold our first Meet & Greet with LLNE Executive Board Members.  Look for an invitation in your email in June.  Look out also for the return of Pat the Pilgrim and more of his Twitter shenanigans.  We will have a wonderful table in the Exhibit Hall, highlighting LLNE’s year, so look for us during one of the Exhibit Hall breaks or whenever you have some time at the Exhibit Hall.

As the year ends, we take this opportunity to remind you that renewal notices will be sent via email to each individual member very soon.  If any colleagues from your institution have moved outside the area or have retired, please contact Raquel Ortiz, Membership Development Chair.  If you know of any law librarians in your area who are not members, please let them know about the wonderful benefits of membership and point them to our online membership form.   When you renew your membership, take a look at our volunteer opportunities.  Even if you can’t join a committee, be sure to share your wonderful ideas with the chair(s).

Finally, the LLNE Membership Development Committee wants to hear from you.  What kinds of activities, in person, virtual, or other, would you like us to take on for the benefit of LLNE members?  How can we encourage communication, collaboration, networking, and fun within LLNE?  Contact any committee member with your thoughts.