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.
LLNE members will be voting to fill three open positions this spring: Vice-President/President-Elect, Treasurer, and 1 Education Director position. If you know someone who would be great in one of these roles, please reach out to one of us by March 16th with your nominations.
Goulston & Storrs in Boston is looking for a qualified candidate for an open Competitive Intelligence Analyst position:
SUMMARY: Reporting to the Manager of Research Services, and working as a member of the Knowledge Services team, the Competitive Intelligence (CI) Analyst is responsible for providing timely, actionable research in support of strategic initiatives and various ad hoc analyses and projects. This position is highly collaborative with the Knowledge Services team, business operations teams, and practice groups. The CI Analyst participates in Knowledge Services’ outreach to stakeholders by monitoring and proactively delivering news and intelligence. The ideal candidate will have strong interpersonal and research skills, and will be adept at multitasking and prioritizing work.
I log into my work email for the first time today and am greeted by several emails from familiar LLNE names. With an ever expanding subject line that includes as least 4 “RE: [EXT]s,” my eyes scan the email in the hopes of seeing a resolution from my co-webmaster. Absent any such resolution, I start from the beginning and identify that this is not a crisis email like the ones that we’ve gotten for our hacked website or after I broke the website while trying to update plugins. This time, it’s just a request to help build a form for facilitating registration and payment for the upcoming Legal Research Instruction Program. Since I have a busy morning reference shift ahead of me, I email the concerned parties that we will work on this request later in the day.
In the meantime, I email my co-webmaster to see if he is able to address this today. He’s too busy with real job duties, so I offer to take this one.
Afternoon:
After reviewing the specific needs of the registration form, I log into Jotform to see if I can recycle a similar form that we’ve used in the past. Luckily, the previous form is still there. I duplicate the old version, tweak some dates, and give it a test drive. Once it passes the test drive, I email the co-webmaster to check my work. Since he created the original form, I want to make sure that the form will link with Paypal correctly. After a brief Zoom meeting, I respond to the original email thread with a direct link to the form. Proud of myself for finishing this task without breaking a sweat, I close my work laptop for the day.
Night:
The latest episode of WandaVision just wrapped up and I check at my work email, hoping to get a jumpstart on weeding out spam email before my busy morning tomorrow. The unusual amount of new “RE: [EXT]” subject lines is alarming. With a swift touch of a button, my work laptop fires up. It appears that I prematurely patted myself on the back for a job well done this afternoon. While I had correctly created a new registration form, the old form was still linked online and causing confusion. I quickly reassure the interested parties, deactivate the old form, and send out the current link again.
Hi! We are Phoebe and Rupert and Josh LaPorte is our person!
Picture of Phoebe and Rupert on a red carpet with a blue dog bed.
Ellen: Hi, Phoebe and Rupert. 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 Josh better and we thought we could start by asking you a few questions.
Phoebe: I really don’t understand why you want to talk to me about Josh when you could talk to me about myself, but whatever cranks your tractor.
Rupert: I love Josh, he is my favorite human. What would you like to know?
Sara: What does Josh do for fun?
Phoebe: Josh likes to cook and I always supervise him in the kitchen. He bakes a lot of bread and will never give us any of the dough because he read that it can expand in our stomachs and make us blow up but I think that is an unproven theory and the only way we can prove it is incorrect is if Josh gives me some dough.
Rupert: Josh knows I love vegetable scraps and always gives them to me when Phoebe isn’t looking. If she sees she steals them.
Phoebe: Those two are thick as thieves. Men always sticking up for each other. I should get those scraps!
Ellen: What is your favorite thing about Josh?
Rupert: Josh spends a lot of time on the couch watching 1980s tv; The Golden Girls, Dynasty, Designing Women, Murder She Wrote. He lets me snuggle on the couch with him. I love big hair and shoulder pads and time on the couch.
Phoebe: Josh is very easy for me to boss around. He is such a sucker for cute looks, which means I get more things to eat. And yes, those people in the 1980s lived by my motto (paraphrasing Dolly Parton): The bigger the hair, the closer to God.
Sara: What is your least favorite thing about Josh?
Phoebe: Josh simply refuses to acknowledge that I am a grown dog and can make my own decisions. I have to bark a lot to get through to him. He also fails to see that I need several meals a day; after all, one must keep one’s strength up!
Rupert: Josh spends a lot of time at this place he calls “work.” I really hate when he goes anywhere without me and it’s been nice having him spending more time at home with me because of what he calls “the pandemic,” whatever that is.
Ellen: What is Josh’s favorite guilty pleasure?
Phoebe: Josh is always listening to Céline Dion. If I have to listen to “where does my heart beat now” one more time I will eat Josh’s slippers just to teach him a lesson. Do you know all the lyrics to “Ne Partez Pas Sans Moi?” Unfortunately, I do. I also know that Céline won the Eurovision Song Contest in 1988 with that awful song. Josh even makes us watch the terrible video with Céline wearing a grotesque and horrible white ballerina skirt with a double-breasted blazer and terrible permed hair. Emetic!
Rupert: I don’t mind if Josh listens to Céline Dion, as long as he lets me snuggle on the couch with him while he does it. But his real favorite guilty pleasure is baths. He is always in the tub and it bothers me because I can’t get in with him so I just lie on the bathmat until he gets out.
Sara: This brings us to our final question: If Josh won the lottery what would he do with the money?
Phoebe: Josh is always yammering on about community organizing and collective power. I think he would use the money to fund organizing efforts. This is dumb, he should use the money to buy a house with a big yard I can run free in!
Rupert: I agree with Phoebe. But I also hope that Josh will get a ramp so I can get on the couch by myself, I can’t jump up by myself anymore.
For the first time in LLNE history the annual legal research instruction program is going to be run entirely online. It will be a combination of synchronous and asynchronous instruction, using Zoom, various Google tools, video instruction, and the imagination of the great teaching librarians of the Law Librarians of New England.
The class will run on six Wednesday evenings from March 17th through April 22nd. The times of the synchronous class will vary based on the amount of asynchronous instruction for each topic, but each Wednesday will include at least one hour of synchronous online instruction. To register, fill out this Google form.
This is a great opportunity for newer library staff or staff who are learning to work with legal research resources in a different way. Instruction will include:
· Overview of the US legal system · Introduction to legal research methods, including using secondary sources · The role of case law, the courts and case finding tools, such as digests · The organization of statutes and conducting a legislative history · Finding regulations · Understanding administrative law · Finding transactional law documents · Finding information about businesses and people · Putting everything together with legal research strategy
For the course, you will have access to some of the more important legal research tools in the profession, however we will also cover how to do effective legal research without some of the more expensive resources.
You do NOT need to be an LLNE member to attend this course.
Course Fee: $150. Payable by check (see registration form) or credit card.
All public librarians are encouraged to apply for a scholarship, sponsored by the LLNE Access to Justice Committee, to attend our chapter’s Legal Research Instruction Program.
The Legal Research Instruction Program (LRIP) is a six-week seminar geared towards public librarians interested in learning more about law librarianship. Each week, a different aspect of legal research is covered — everything from an overview of the U.S. legal system, to finding business transactional documents.
The 2021 legal research instruction program is going to be run entirely online. It will be a combination of synchronous and asynchronous instruction, using zoom, the various google tools, video instruction, and the imagination of the great teaching librarians of the Law Librarians of New England.
The class will be run on six Wednesday evenings from March 17th through April 22nd. The times of the synchronous class will vary based on the amount of asynchronous instruction for each topic, but each Wednesday will be at least one hour of synchronous online instruction.
The LLNE Access to Justice Committee is providing two scholarships to cover the cost of registration. Applicants must be public (non-law) librarians from the New England region. Please use this google form to apply. Application deadline is March 8, 2021 and awards will be announced on March 10, 2021.
Please contact Josh LaPorte with questions, jlaporte@bu.edu.
We encourage all LLNE members to share this scholarship opportunity with their local public libraries and any public librarians that would be interested in this excellent professional development opportunity.
Rereading the piece, I am struck by my enthusiasm – and how cliché it all reads, I was not providing new and insightful comments. But, it does remind me of the value of continuing to expand and renew our knowledge as knowledge professionals. And even for those of us with more experience, everything is new to someone.
As the newer co-Education Director (Can we pause and marvel at the fancy title) with Maureen Quinlan, I agreed to run because of the value of education for all members of our organizations.
Now, in a pandemic we have to rethink how we educate and connect members while keeping our libraries afloat. Somewhere I read that we need to remember we’re not working from home, we’re working from home during a pandemic. Now, many of us are also staffing open libraries. Its daunting, emotional work. Our members are also furloughed, laid off or job hunting. How can we help them and their professional development? So if you have ideas for education, or ways LLNE can assist members, please let Maureen, I or any member of the LLNE Board know.
It’s time once again to take action on the Uniform Electronic Legal Material Act (UELMA) in Massachusetts! Massachusetts Representative Carmine Gentile has re-introduced the UELMA bill (HD.469) and has urged our members to seek co-sponsorship. If you live in Massachusetts, please reach out to your state representatives and senators now and ask them to join on to this important legislation.
For a sample email or to discuss these efforts further, please email Catherine Biondo, LLNE GRC MA representative, on behalf of the LLNE UELMA in MA committee (cbiondo@law.harvard.edu). Also, if you choose to send an email, please bcc Catherine on your email or forward her a copy afterward.
Since the co-sponsorship deadline is approaching quickly, time is of the essence. Please contact your legislators by Friday, February 12.
Due to the pandemic, which prevented most state legislatures in our region from holding sessions, the LLNE Government Relations Committee does not have any legislative activity or policy initiatives of interest to law librarians to report. Our bit of good news: Catherine Biondo, Research Librarian at Harvard Law School and former LLNE President, is the LLNE GRC’s newest member and is serving as the LLNE GRC’s Massachusetts State Representative. As detailed in our September 2020 blog post, Catherine was recently appointed to the AALL Government Relations Committee and also serves as AALL’s liaison to LLNE.
