by Tal Noznisky
Sunday morning’s keynote speech drew in a pretty full house. Hundreds sat and listened to presenter David Weinberger discuss the state of libraries’ metadata. It’s a mess, he said, but something can be done about that: it can be ordered and repackaged as regular data. This begs the question: what is the difference between data and metadata? That’s a squishy topic. Libraries may objectively nonetheless repurpose data generated by means such as description or use into discoverable and shareable content. Doing so would, in Weinberger’s terms, be awesome. Awesome stuff gets the word out about a library’s resources and value.
Continue reading 'New Web Technology Affords Libraries More Awesome'»
by Grace Feldman
The AALL 2013 tidal wave has come and gone:
As we return to work and begin chipping away at a backlog of assignments, let’s reflect on how wonderfully LLOPS served the greater AALL community over the last several days. The hustle and bustle of LLOPS members volunteering at bag stuffing, hospitality and registration between attending programs, SIS events, committee meetings, workshops was truly amazing. Go LLOPS!
by Anna L. Endter
I’m back with a second report about my trip the ALA Midwinter Exhibit Hall. As promised in Part One, this post will 
focus on what I learned from talking with vendors.
Thomson Reuters
One of the products that Thomson was showcasing at ALA was EndNote, it’s citation management tool. Endnote is much like Zotero and RefWorks in that it was designed to help people organize and collect resources during the course of scholarly research. (As an aside, while it might seem like citation management is primarily an academic concern, attorneys in private practice also write articles and might benefit from learning to use one of these tools. And Zotero is free!). Continue reading 'ALA Midwinter Exhibit Hall: Part Two'»
by Anna L. Endter
A wrinkled t-shirt, as it turns out. This is a side effect of my shirt’s afternoon spent crumpled in a free ALA bag with other library swag and material. Today, I made a field trip to the ALA Midwinter 2013 Exhibit Hall.
Now, having just recently been to my first AALL Conference and experiencing that exhibit hall, I was curious to see how ALA does things. I was also looking for some perspective about the library profession generally since my focus has been on law librarianship. It was time to learn more about the larger world of linking people and information.
This post includes my observations about visiting the Exhibit Hall. Stay tuned for Part Two where I’ll report on my discussions with Thomson Reuters about its citation management tool Endnote and ProQuest about the Statistical Abstract of the United States.
Continue reading 'Today I Bought a T-Shirt: The ALA Midwinter Exhibit Hall, Part One'»
Announcing
The Third International Conference of the
Chinese and American Forum on Legal Information and Law Libraries (CAFLL)
Shanghai, China, June 10 – 12, 2013
This third international conference is sponsored by the Chinese and American Forum on Legal Information and Law Libraries (CAFLL), a non-profit U.S. organization, in conjunction with a similar organization in China represented by the China University of Political Science and Law (CUPL); East China University of Political Science and Law (ECUPL); Tongji University School of Law; and other prominent law schools in China. The host for this conference is ECUPL, located in Shanghai, China. The venue for the meeting will be the Renaissance Shanghai Zhongshan Park Hotel: http://www.marriott.com/hotels/travel/shabz-renaissance-shanghai-zhongshan-park-hotel/.
The Conference will be an opportunity for law librarians and legal information professionals to share experiences and exchange views about legal information access and development and law library management in both the United States and China. The theme of the conference is Collaboration: Information, Access, and Partnership. Topics will include public access to legal information, digital technology in libraries, internationalization of shared legal information, and more.
Registration information will soon be available at: http://cafllnet.org/annual-conference/.
Previous successful international conferences were held in Beijing (2009) with sponsorship from CAFLL, AALL and IALL and Philadelphia (2011) with sponsorship from CAFLL and AALL: http://cafllnet.org/annual-conference/. Speaker materials from the Philadelphia Conference are available at: http://www.law.northwestern.edu/library/cafll/presentationhandouts.pdf.
Gallagher Law Library is hosting a casual “Summer Legal Research Refresher” on two dates — June 18 and July 2, from 5-7pm, at the University of Washington School of Law, William H. Gates Hall. All law students working in Seattle this summer are welcome.
Students may choose a date that is most convenient, and register by submitting their specific questions and topics of interest that they you would like to discuss. Reference librarians will be on hand to suggest research strategies and recommend useful resources, specifically tailored to these topics. Snacks and summer refreshments will be provided.
Please see the flyer for details, and a link to the Registration Form.
Questions? Please contact Sherry Leysen (206.685.4476)
by Eli Edwards
Being new to Puget Sound, as well as law librarianship, I was particularly interested in the sessions for this year’s workshop, entitled “Moving Ahead When There’s No Money in the Budget: delivering information, developing skills, and serving the community in tough times.” The content and presenters were even better than anticipated, and I left with new tools and resources to try, new communities to explore, and new insight as to how state and local politics work. Continue reading 'Eli’s Take: Professional Development Spring Workshop 2012'»
by Stina McClintock
The last time I won something was in June of 2011. It was a $10 gift card to Black Raven brewery. Coincidentally, that was the same month that Kim Kardashian won the Glamour Entrepreneur of the Year. So it was a pleasant surprise to get in my email the word that I had been awarded a grant for the LLOPS Professional Development Conference last week, breaking my almost two year dry spell. Continue reading 'Professional Development Spring Workshop 2012'»
by Robyn Hagle
Don’t go looking up the lyrics for this song and think I’m trying to diss on anyone! It’s not about you; it’s about US and our future!
I recently accepted an assignment to serve on the AALL Futures Summit Planning Special Committee. The committee has been tasked with developing an agenda for and planning a Futures Summit to be held in Chicago in early November. The Futures Summit, which will be by invitation, will bring together newer and more seasoned members to discuss ways to engage, encourage and prepare new member law librarians for their future as the next leaders of the association and the profession. As the more seasoned generation of member law librarians prepares to retire, issues around communication, participation, and understanding of newer members will be critical to a healthy transition and the future of our association. Continue reading 'Talkin’ ‘bout my generation!'»
by Jan Lawrence
I was lucky enough to attend SLA in Philadelphia this year. It came smack in the middle of visiting family and a work trip to our So Cal office, so though I was a bit bleary-eyed, it was a worthwhile, stimulating conference. There seemed to be much franker talk about changes in our profession and adapting (or not) to those changes than I remember in past conferences.
Here is a potpourri of session tidbits:
Stephen Abram Looks to the Future: Getting out in Front of the Curve: Stephen Abram is a lively speaker, and he discussed knowledge and judgment. In making good decisions, knowledge is not always the most important thing. Good organizational judgment includes being open to different forms of knowledge; making organizational decisions using “cognitive diversity”; and drawing on people with different approaches to understanding information, with different mental toolkits. More good judgment includes living with the shadow of the future: Stephen gave the example of Norway’s and Dubai’s reactions to oil windfalls in their countries. Norway invested the money for the future; Dubai built a ski slope with artificial snow. Continue reading 'SLA and a Philly Cheesesteak on the Side'»
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