Meetings

Law Librarianship Student

 

July 10, 2006: St. Louis

Conference of Law Library Educators webpage: http://lib.law.washington.edu/colle/index.htm 

Send content suggestions to Penny Hazelton. Send links to your more current syllabus – see the Educator Resources section – many are too old!

Reports:
Eleven students will be in the law librarianship program at SUNY Buffalo this fall. Jim also reported that the School of Informatics is being moved to the Department of Education at SUNY Buffalo.

Yvonne Chandler announced the receipt of another $700,000 grant to subsidize students who work toward their MLIS from the Western states.

Karen Brunner announced that the basic law librarianship class she teaches at Rutgers may go back to being offered once a year.

Drexel is offering 20% off tuition for students enrolled in their online degree program.

Lori Hedstrom mentioned that there were many fewer applications for West scholarships this year. The deadline was Feb. 28th and applicants must include a copy of their acceptance to library school with their application. Several of us mentioned that many students hoping to enter fall classes do not get letters of acceptance until late March. Information about this scholarship is on the COLLE website – so be sure to let your potential students know this source of financial aid! And thanks for the delicious breakfast again this year! We especially appreciate it at 7am….

St. John’s is revamping its library school.

U of Arizona now has an official certificate program in law librarianship for those earning their MLIS. Mike has three fellowships which include free tuition, $11,000/year, and the student works in his law library for twenty hours per week. He advertised these through National Association for Law Placement (NALP) this year and had many more applicants than usual.

U of Western Ontario had an intern work in their law library this year and really liked the experience.

Catholic U is redesigning its MLIS program and hoping to reinvigorate the law librarianship program. They have fourteen students in law librarianship this year, most going on a part-time basis.

Mary Matuszak mentioned that it is hard to hire qualified librarians. Specifically, she mentioned that resumes are poorly written, that she has concerns about online courses/degrees, and that she will be forced to hire people without the MLIS.

Other tidbits:

  • 69% of MLIS courses are online nationally!
  • A multi-day leadership institute with Maureen Sullivan will be held in Tucson in March 2007 and underwritten by AALL, for about thirty-five law librarians who are interested in higher level management jobs.
  • Two books that may be of interest:
    • Mary Whisner has a book that compiles all of her LLJ, “Practicing Reference” columns that will be published by Wm. S. Hein later this year. It will have two-tiered pricing to be attractive to use as a student textbook in law librarianship courses.
    • Michelle Wu and Leslie Lee are publishing a book on Law Library Management that will be published in 2007 by Wm. S. Hein.

Should we be aiming to update some of the great historical articles that have been written so they will reflect current affairs? Jim Milles brought this up. Anyone want to take a hand at collecting a list of the most important historical articles?

Ranking of law librarianship programs was discussed. Several people mentioned that the rankings should be ignored and that they are really just a popularity contest and once the criteria for ranking is known that schools just try to game the system. This year only Deans of library and information schools were asked to rank all the programs (we could find no practicing law librarians or law librarianship program directors who were asked to rank the schools). Others said that the rankings will not go away and that we should be happy that information and library schools are ranked generally – gives some prominence to the profession as a whole. No one knows if these rankings will be annual or not. The last ranking of library schools by US News was in the mid-1990s. One person commented that these rankings can be useful internally to help facilitate change.

The topic of internships came up. Barbara Traub has created and posted to the COLLE website a list of libraries willing to host interns. She wanted to know if there was some way to merge the lists created by NELLCO and other organizations with our list. She will look into that possibility. In the meantime, we do link to the NELLCO list from the internships page. Penny mentioned that she feels free to call on any law library to be a host for her law librarianship students. Some say yes and some say no!

What should the chapter’s role be with local library and information science schools? Some ideas that were shared were:

  • Volunteer to teach a course in a library school (not for free)
  • Work with library school staff on placement issues – resume writing, applying for law librarianship jobs, know the market
  • Participate in the new MLIS student orientation and in job fairs
  • Offer student grants and scholarships to attend professional meetings
  • Establish a student fee for membership in your chapter and a lower registration fee for programs
  • Advertise chapter activities at the school – school newsletters, posting on bulletin boards
  • Meet with library school deans to discuss ways to recruit students to law librarianship
  • Go to ALISE (Association of Library and Information Science Educators) meetings
  • Offer a mentor program between law librarians and students interested in law librarianship

Market for law library jobs was very robust this year – many jobs; not so many qualified applicants.

The National Conference of Bar Examiners is considering creating a stand-alone legal research bar examination.

Attendees

Billie Jo Kaufman, American University Law Library (Catholic)
Paula Waddee, US Court Appeals 5th Circuit
Karen Brunner, Riker, Danzig, Scherer, Hyland & Perretti (Rutgers SCILS)
Mary A. Hotchkiss, University of Washington Law School (U Washington iSchool)
Fred Barnhart, Loyola University, Chicago (Dominican)
Charles Dyer, retired from San Diego County Law Library, www.charlesdyer.com
Lori Hedstrom, West Librarian Relations, lori.hedstrom@thomson.com
Barbara Traub, St. John’s University Law Library
Mike Chiorazzi, U Arizona Law Library
Mary Matuszak, New York County-DA
John Sadler, University of Western Ontario Law Library
Martha Hale, Dean, Catholic University School of Library and Information Science
Patricia Evans, Supreme Court of the US Library (Catholic U SLIS)
Pamela Barnes Craig, Law Library of Congress (Catholic U SLIS)
Dan Martin, Loyola U – LA
John Christensen, Washburn U Law Library
Jim Milles, SUNY Buffalo
Yvonne Chandler, Professor U North Texas Library School
Hollie White, Arizona State U
Penny Hazelton, University of Washington Law Library (scribe)

July 18, 2005: San Antonio

I am the unofficial chair for this caucus. Send me any changes or corrections. Penny Hazelton.

Nearly thirty librarians and deans braved the heat and humidity to attend our 7am meeting at the Riverwalk Marriott in San Antonio as part of the 2005 Annual Meeting of AALL. We enjoyed a very nice breakfast, thanks to Lori Hedstrom at West. The caffeine was appreciated, too! We had introductions around. Some of the highlights:

Remember to check out the Conference website. A lot of great new material has been added, including:

  • Information on how to access CALI lessons
  • Internship hosts – libraries willing to host students for paid (sometimes) and unpaid fieldwork/internships/externships/practicums (thanks to Barbara Traub at St. John’s who put this together and is willing to keep it up to date)
  • Fellowships – If your library has an assistantship or fellowship, please send the information to Penny Hazelton.
  • Course syllabi – some are more current – please send links to each of your course syllabi

CALI exercises – LaVonne Molde, from CALI, passed out the new CALI CD and a list of the forty-five legal research lessons. A couple librarians have experimented with these lessons. Add your suggestions to the webpage (see http://lib.law.washington.edu/colle/EdResour.htm#cali) by sending them Penny Hazelton.

University of Texas law and information schools are talking about a possible joint JD/MLS.

Robert Mead at Emporia State/U Kansas law librarianship program reports there are now seven courses offered!

Dan Dabney is working on some research dealing with subject indexing and the law.

Mike Chiorazzi at ASU has four fellowships for law librarianship students!

Jim Milles at SUNY Buffalo has 14 students in the law librarianship program at this time – eight are in law school and will earn joint JD/MLS and 6 already have a JD and are working on their MLS.

North Carolina Central has a joint JD/MLS degree.

Raquel Ortiz from BU reports that NELLCO has an internship clearinghouse on their website. Check it out under Events/Initiatives: http://nellco.org/index.cfm?page=internships.

The Law Librarians of New England has a new scholarship for a student earning a JD or MLS.

Discussion Items

  • Textbooks for various classes: please check the COLLE website for texts people have used before.
  • Technical services articles are generally very old and out of date. Can we encourage TS librarians to write some newer ones? I just found two articles I still like (from Penny):
    • Charlotte Levy, "Starting a Law School Library," 70 Law Lib. J. 290-308 (1977) [this article discusses the processes and records you need to keep – even though dated, I really like to assign this when we talk about acquisitions, especially.
    • Kent Milunovich, "Issues in Law Library Acquisitions: An Analysis," 92 Law Lib. J. 203-215 (2000.
  • New Student Caucus under AALL – how to harness the power of students in the association. Student chapters in library and information schools? Normally a small number. Perhaps there should be a virtual student chapter of AALL?
  • Should we create our own textbook? Haworth might publish. The problem is the courses vary a great deal in content. What are the classic articles that people entering the profession should have read or know about? This is the beginning of a list (see Educator Resources). We will post on the website and ask that you send suggestions to Penny Hazelton.

July 12, 2004: Boston

A record turnout enjoyed a continental breakfast provided by West (thanks, Lori Hedstrom!) at our 7am meeting in the Sheraton, Boston at the AALL Annual Meeting July 12, 2004. Each person introduced him/herself and explained the connection they have to library education and law librarianship.

Some highlights:

The Conference of Law Library Educators (COLLE)(us) has a newly updated webpage now located from the University of Washington Gallagher Law Library homepage, http://lib.law.washington.edu/colle/.

  • The information was current as of the spring of 2004. If you need to change anything or add a link to your new syllabus, please contact me so we can keep this as current and helpful as possible!
  • Many thanks to Dr. Yvonne Chandler who recognized the need for those who teach in library schools to have access to information about teaching in this unique venue.
  • University of Denver was reaccredited by ALA.
  • Gretchen Van Dam is chairing the Special AALL Committee, Graduate Education for Law Librarianship. Their charge is to promote law librarianship education and work with the recruitment and diversity committees.
  • Catholic University is looking for a full time professor for their law librarianship program. (Contact Dean Martha Hale.)
  • Five of the fifteen students in the new University Texas Legal Informatics PhD program have law degrees.
  • Florida State University has a new Joint JD/MS program and offers continuing education courses in law librarianship for people with one degree or the other. (Contact Faye Jones.)
  • CALI lessons may be great tutorials for legal research classes. Penny will talk with John Mayer at CALI to see if these can be made available to information/library school students in law librarianship courses.
  • Recruitment of people into the profession was discussed at length. Some ideas:
    • offer practicums and internships to lure MLIS students into law librarianship
    • have job links on the COLLE website to AALL jobs and chapter websites
    • create fellowships and subsidize library education
    • build relationships with the Association of Legal Administrators and paralegal groups
    • look for good students in law school
    • create AALL student chapters
    • coordinate internships in local areas
    • do open houses in law libraries for local librarianship students
    • create interest in law librarianship by doing legal research institutes for local librarians in other types of libraries
    • have local chapters work with local library schools
  • Barbara Traub at St. John's University will try to create a list of law libraries that will host students for internships/fieldwork/practicum experiences. We can post this on the website.

Attendees

Penny Hazelton, University of Washington
Faye Jones, Florida State University
Leanne Battle, LexisNexis
Billie Jo Kaufman, American University
Ann Fessenden, US Courts, 8th Circuit
Martha Keister, University of Denver
Marc Silverman, University of Pittsburgh
Barbara Traub, St. John's University
Linda Fariss, Indiana University
Barbara Fullerton, Locke Liddell & Sapp
Mike Bernier, BNA
Gretchen Van Dam, US Courts, 7th Circuit
Rob Mead, University of Kansas
Martha Hale, Catholic University Library School
Margie Axtmann, University of St. Thomas, Minneapolis
Patti Monk, Oklahoma City University
Yvonne Chandler, University of North Texas SLIS
Anne Klinefelter, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Jonathan Franklin, University of Washington
Anne Cottongim, Wayne State University
Janet Hirt, Vanderbilt University
Jeanne Price, University of Texas at Austin
Karen Brunner, Rutgers University
Emily Urban, Vanderbilt University
Nancy Johnson, Georgia State University/Clark Atlanta
Cherrie Feenken, Samford University Law Library/ U Alabama
Mark Estes, University of Denver
Jon Christianson, Washburn University
John Gathegi, Florida State University SLIS
Lori Hedstrom, West

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July 14, 2003: Seattle

Thanks to West for breakfast again this year!

The chair forgot to take notes except to report that the COLLE website would be moved to the University of Washington and will be updated by Penny Hazelton's student assistants.

Attendees

Penny Hazelton, U Washington
Jean McBride, Duquesne U
Robyn Rebollo, West
John Christensen, Washburn U
George Pike, U Pittsburgh
Nancy Johnson, Clark-Atlanta
Barbara Golden, College of St. Catherine’s
Lori Hedstrom, West
Mike Bernier, BNA
Christopher Vallandingham, UFL
Mary Hotchkiss, U Washington
Rob Mead, KU, Emporia
Yvonne Chandler, UNT
Barbara Traub, St. John’s
Mark Schwartz, West
Sara Robbins, Pratt
Mark Bernstein, UNC
Michael Roffer, NYU
John Sadler, U Western Ontario

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July 22, 2002: Orlando

After introductions around the table, we talked about several things:

  • Requested adjusting the deadline for the Student Division of the AALL Call for Papers of the Chair of that committee.
  • How can we market our law librarianship education programs and recruit more people into the profession?
    • Ideas: AALL student chapters; programs for bar associations; look at paralegals and paralegal schools; law school career services programs; library staff to library school; job shadow; tours of law libraries; mentoring; minimum published salary to post jobs with AALL is ridiculously low.
  • Reminded about the COLLE website at U North Texas - send syllabi!
  • BNA electronic products are available for librarians teaching in library schools.
  • There are distance education MLIS programs at FSU, U Missouri Columbia, U Illlinois (LEAP) and U Washington.
  • Textbooks people use are Legal Research in a Nutshell, Finding the Law, and Winning Research Skills.

Attendees

Penny Hazelton, U Washington School of Law
Joyce McCraig Pearson, University of Kansas, Emporia/KU
Bob Grover, Emporia State University
Rob Mead, University of Kansas, Emporia/KU
Mike Bernier, BNA
Dan Dabney, West, UW Madison
Keith Ann Stiverson, Chicago-Kent, Dominican
Karen Brunner, Riker Danzig, Rutgers
Barbara Traub, St. John’s University Law
Ken Svengalis, RI Law Press, URI
John Christensen, Washburn Law School
Mark Bernstein, Duke
Mary Hotchkiss, U Washington
Marc Silverman, U Pittsburgh
Jim Milles, U Buffalo
Christopher Vallandingham, U Florida
Sarah Hollingsworth, U Washington
Mark Schwartz, West Group
Lori Hedstrom, West Group
Nancy Johnson, Georgia State, Clark
Kathie Price, NYU, LIU
Resa Kerns, University of Missouri-Columbia
Jane McMahon, West, California
Paul Healy, U of Illinois
Gretchen Van Dam, US Court of Appeals, Dominican
Carole Hinchclift, Ohio State, Kent State
Sam Trosow, University of Western Ontario
Susan Broms, University of Pittsburgh

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July 16, 2001: Minneapolis

After a brief reminder of our purpose in getting together and a thanks to West for breakfast, each attendee introduced him/herself. Each person shared some news/information from their past year.

Some of the News

  • U Arizona has a new certification program for law librarianship.
  • U Pittsburgh's library school is now part of the College of Information Sciences.
  • U Buffalo has started a joint JD/MLIS degree program.
  • U North Texas teaches a distance legal research class which includes a 3 day weekend on site and is followed with a web-based course.
  • Emporia State and U Kansas Law School have created a Masters in Legal Information Management and is offering 2 courses.
  • U Texas has no specialization in law librarianship but there is a general class and students can do special projects in law librarianship.
  • U Missouri Columbia has a library school within the Department of Education and they are doing a distance ed class with St Louis, Omaha and Kansas City.
  • FSU has a joint JD/MLS program approved and everything can be done through distance education.
  • Dominican now has two law librarianship courses.
  • Rutgers U has a course in Information Resources in Law taught every two years.

Attendees

Penny Hazelton, U Washington School of Law, UW Information School
Karen Brunner, Riker Danzig, Rutgers SCILS
Prudence Dalrymple, Dean, Dominican University
Nancy Johnson, Georgia State U, Clark/Atlanta U Library School
Beth Youngdale, U Texas Law School
Robin Gault, Florida State U
Susan Kiefer, Hamline U Law School, St. Catherine/Dominican
Mary Wagner, College of St. Catherine
Robert Mead, U Kansas, Emporia State
Martha Dragich, U Missouri-Columbia, U Missouri-Columbia
Roberta Shaffer, U Texas Library School
Barbara Traub, St. John's U Law School
Bob Grover, Emporia State U School of Library & Info Mgmt
Lori Hedstrom, West Group
Yvonne Chandler, U North Texas School of Library and Info Science
Jim Milles, SUNY Buffalo, SUNY Buffalo
Sam Trosow, U Western Ontario School of Library Science
John Sadler, U Western Ontario School of Library Science
George Pike, U Pittsburgh Law School, U Pittsburgh
Mike Chiorazzi, U Arizona School of Law
Sara Robbins, Brooklyn School of Law
Nancy Trohy, Clausen Miller, PC, Dominican U

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July 18, 2000: Philadelphia

The chair forgot to take notes.

Attendees

Carla Pritchett, LSU
Julia Wentz
Linda Fariss, IU
Marc Silverman, U Pittsburgh
Beth Youngdale, UT
John Sadler, U Western Ontario
Tom French, Syracuse
Scott DeLeve, U Miss
Mary Hotchkiss, U Washington
Roberta Shaffer, UT Austin
Jonathan Franklin, U Washington
Martha Dragich, U Missouri
Joe Custer, U Kansas
Anne Klinefelter, UNC
Melanie Harshman, UT Austin
Nancy Armstrong
Sara Robbins, Pratt
Nancy Johnson, Clark-Atlanta
Nancy Tuohy, Dominion U
Joanne Dugan, West
Tom Fleming, Catholic
Mike Chiorazzi, U Arizona
Yvonne Chandler, UNT

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July 19, 1999: Washington, DC

The Conference of Law Library Educators met in Washington, D.C. on Monday July 19, 1999 at 7am in the Renaissance Washington D.C. Hotel. Twenty-one librarians and others were in attendance (list follows) despite the early hour and the fact that the meeting was inadvertently scheduled at the same time as the Academic Law Library Directors Breakfast.

Since this group changes from year to year, introductions around the table were made and each person explained their reason for attending this meeting. In addition to the usual law librarian suspects, two special guests attended. Dr. Tom Childers, Dean at Drexel College of Information Science and Technology, was a chapter VIP. Bruce Fraser, a PhD candidate at FSU School of Information Studies, distributed a copy of a proposal being considered on his campus for specialized web-based courses in legal information resources and legal informatics.

Then the following topics were briefly addressed:

  • AALL Task Force to Enhance Law Librarianship Education - report by Penny Hazelton, Chair. Survey of all library/information school deans and directors and teachers, fall 1998. Found 73% of US graduate programs offer course in law librarianship/legal research. Survey summary to be published by AALL fall 1999. The Task Force also announced the creation of “Education for a Career in Law Librarianship,” a new part of the AALL webpage (to be completed by Oct. 1999). This page will have references for people who might be contemplating a career in law librarianship and will include lists of graduate schools with specialized courses, joint JD/MLS programs, and the like. The Task Force will concentrate this year on other ways to increase the number and variety of law librarianship/legal research courses taught in graduate programs.
  • Incoming AALL President Margie Axtmann indicated that she is very interested in the issue of library education this year. She has asked several members of the Task Force to work with her on a Member Briefing that will appear in a fall issue of AALL Spectrum.
  • For Yvonne Chandler (UNT), Penny Hazelton distributed a copy of the webpage Yvonne created for the Conference. This web page is for teachers of law librarianship courses in graduate programs of library and information science. Several suggestions were made including: add textbook used; list only those teachers of law librarianship courses who send a copy of their syllabus (the AALL webpage will have the complete lists of teachers and schools offering courses); keep only the most recent syllabi for any one professor on the webpage - put on the UNT site rather than just link to other pages since we don't want them to disappear once the course is not being taught; contact person for free WESTLAW and LEXIS-NEXIS to students taking law librarianship courses in library/information science programs; information on how to subscribe to the Conference listserv.
  • Jonathan Franklin gave a short report on the American Library Association Congress on Professional Education. He served on the steering committee and attended the conference itself in spring 1999. His recommendations to the AALL Executive Board highlighted areas that AALL should investigate including educating those who teach law librarianship/legal research courses in graduate programs, recruiting and mentoring new people into the profession, and continuing the dialogue between LIS educators and law librarian practitioners.
  • Anne Fessenden, chair of the AALL Recruitment Committee, passed out the brochure that AALL just reprinted, “Finding Your Way in the information Age.” This is aimed at attracting people to law librarianship. She reminded us that as teachers in library schools we see many potential law librarians every day. Think of recruiting the best and the brightest!
  • Penny Hazelton agreed to schedule this meeting again next year and will avoid the conflict with the Academic Directors' Meeting. For AALL purposes, the Conference is a caucus and entitled to free use of a meeting room at the AALL Annual Meeting and listing in the program.

Submitted,
Penny Hazelton, Convenor

Attendees

Carla Pritchett, Loyola, New Orleans, LSU, Baton Rouge
Bruce Fraser PhD, Student, FSU School of Information Studies
Sam Trosow, U California, Berkeley, formerly San Jose State & U of Arizona
Donna Bausch, Norfolk Law Library, Catholic University of America
Mary Jawgiel, AALL
Nancy Johnson, Georgia State University, Clark Atlanta
Martha Dragich, U Missouri-Columbia, U Missouri-Columbia
Virginia Wise, Harvard Law, School Simmons
Mary A. Hotchkiss, U of Washington School of Law, U Washington School of Library & Information Science
Joel Fishman, Allegheny County
Karen Brunner, Riker Danzig Scherer Hyland & Perretti, Rutgers
Ann Fessenden, US Courts - 8th Circuit, U Missouri-Columbia
John Christensen, Washburn U, formerly, Emporia State
Jonathan Franklin, U of Michigan, U of Michigan
Madison Mosley, Stetson College of Law, U of South Florida
Amy Osborne, U of Kentucky, U of Kentucky
Tom Childers, Drexel University, Drexel University
Regina Smith, Jenkins Law Library, Drexel University
Susan Broms, U of Pittsburgh, U of Pittsburgh
Nancy Tuohy, Clausen Miller, P.C., Dominican University
Mike Miller, Maryland State Law Library, U of Maryland
Penny Hazelton, U of Washington

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July 13, 1998: Anaheim

Sixteen bright-eyed and cheerful folks met on July 13, 1998 at 7:30 am to talk about activities associated with teaching in library schools. This casual AALL caucus has been meeting every year since 1986. We talk about whatever comes up. We always like an update on people’s activities and who is teaching what and where. The group changes like the sea as librarians move in and out of these teaching positions. However, it is wonderful to know that so many of us are connected with library school education in one-way or another.

Announcements and discussion issues worth mentioning:

  • Two new library schools are at Penn State U and U of Denver.
  • Yvonne Chandler has been teaching 6 courses at once!
  • Yvonne Chandler has agreed to collect syllabi for courses taught in library schools. She will put them on the web – send her YOURS! Every year 2 or 3 librarians who have not taught before are interested in what we have been doing – sharing is good. Thanks, Yvonne.
  • Many of us teach in the summer. Most polled get paid for this work.
  • We talked about the textbooks used. Most who were at the meeting use Berring, Finding the Law, with the Johnson supplement. Some use Kunz and like it because it covers secondary sources first.
  • We were pleased that Faye Vowell, Dean of the School of Library and Information Management at Emporia State University (KS), joined our group discussion. Emporia is considering expanding its law librarianship offerings.
  • Please note there is a listserv for this group: lawlibed@aall.wuacc.edu. We don’t post lots of messages, but it is nice to know there are some colleagues out there doing what we are doing. Feel free to join! Use the usual protocol.

Other activities of note:

  • Penny Hazelton, Robert Shaffer, Jonathan Franklin, Regina Smith, and John Christensen have been appointed by AALL president Jim Heller to the Task Force to Enhance Law Librarianship Education. The Task Force is looking at ways AALL can help facilitate creation and offering of regular courses in law librarianship. The report is due to the Executive Board in 1999. Committee members will be surveying all library schools to gather factual data about course offerings, teachers and the like.

Attendees

Penny Hazelton, U Washington
Mark Estes, U Denver
Jonathan Franklin, U Michigan
Arundhati Satkalmi, St. John’s
Jim Hambleton, UNT
Melanie Putnam, Ohio State
Margie Axtmann, St. Catherine’s
Nancy Johnson, Clark-Atlanta
Yvonne Chandler, UNT
Ellen Gibson, SUNY Buffalo
Marc Silverman, U Pittsburgh
George Pike, U Pittsburgh
Michael Miller, U Maryland
Jim Fox, Penn State
Faye Vowell, Emporia State
John Christensen, Washburn

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