One of the LLNE Education Committee’s tasks includes finding institutions to host the LLNE semi-annual Meetings. Each spring and fall LLNE holds an educational conference and chapter business meeting. This tradition goes back to 1948.
During Covid-19 LLNE has continued this tradition. In spring of 2020 LLNE hosted a virtual meeting and in the fall of 2020 University of Connecticut School of Law Library hosted a webinar and meeting on Dismantling Bias.
Another tradition is providing an annual Legal Research Instruction Program. The 2021 program will start on March 17th. Suffolk University School of Law Library will round out the programing by hosting the meeting for spring 2021. The Education Committee is soliciting ideas from members for topics or suggestions on ways to improve the format or delivery of these LLNE’s educational programs. Please reach to the Co-Directors Maureen Quinlan and Jessica Panella.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The LLNE and SNELLA Service Committees are happy to announce two ways for you to give back in conjunction with the Virtual Fall 2020 Meeting on Dismantling Bias.
First, you can donate to the RE∙Center, 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/. To make a donation, go to 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.
Hold onto your receipt! Soon, we will be announcing a great virtual event to raise funds for Re-Center and we want you to be part of it. More information to come…
The committees are also promoting a number of transcription projects through the Library of Congress. The transcription process is easy and just a few pages can make a huge difference in discovery and education. Check out the following transcription projects:
Click on a link, choose a page, and start typing away. Before you know you will be submitting pages that will be more accessible to everyone. What are you waiting for! Get transcribing.
If you have any questions, please contact the LLNE Service Committee chair at jessica.almeida@umassd.edu.
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.
With everyone currently cooped up at home, the Service Committee thought it would be a great opportunity for members of LLNE to once again donate their time to help transcribe historically significant documents. The Boston Public Library is asking for the public’s assistance with transcribing its digitized collection of 19th century handwritten correspondence between anti-slavery activists; doing so will improve the collection’s visibility, accessibility, and searchability for users.
Simply visit https://www.antislaverymanuscripts.org and click “Start Transcribing.” You will then be prompted to create an account before starting. The BPL has put together a great tutorial and field guide to help new volunteers, and you can transcribe as little or as much as you’d like—whenever you’d like! Please note that the project is currently not supported on mobile devices.
If you have any questions or comments about this project, please feel free to contact Kaitlin Connolly at Kaitlin.Connolly@mass.gov.
First, we hope you are safe and healthy, and that your family members are also safe and healthy.
Second, we would like to invite you to our LLNE Online Spring meeting. This meeting is intended as a celebration of the resilience of our community, all of whom have been going above and beyond to support their work places and institutions. While we recognize that not everyone may be well enough or interested in attending a meeting, we are hoping to provide community and togetherness by holding this meeting.
Third, a few notes about the day.
This is being provided for free for members of LLNE and some other
local organizations. We decided against seeking sponsorship because this
event is the result of the hard work of our community and we wanted to
promote that.
You can register for each session separately. We do not expect you
to stay for the whole day. Rather, you should come and go as you feel
appropriate and as you feel the sessions apply to your work,
Several of the sessions are unconference discussion sessions. Feel
free to veer off topic or bounce around topics. This day is for our
members and the session titles are just a starting point.
You can snack, drink tea, or eat lunch during the sessions.
The sessions are being recorded. We are trying to increase access
to members who could not participate but would like to view the
content.
Finally, gratitude is in order. We would like to thank the staff at
BC Law who were in the midst of planning an in-person Spring 2020
meeting when COVID-19 happened. They have graciously agreed to
participate in one of our sessions online. Thanks also go to Shira
Megerman and Maureen Quinlan, LLNE’s Education Directors who didn’t
flinch when we discussed making this an online meeting and have done so
much work so quickly. Next, we should thank BU Law for providing us the
technology we will be using. Finally, I would like to thank the entirety
of the LLNE Executive Board. They have been such kind and gracious
problem solvers, and have given generously of their time, even during
this crisis.
Onward,
Nicole P. Dyszlewski, LLNE Vice President on behalf of the Executive Board
