2008 Mid-Year Meeting
Workshop for Law Librarians
June 1 – 4, 2008
Renaissance Cleveland Hotel
Cleveland, Ohio
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Program
Sunday, June 1, 2008
4:00 - 8:00 p.m.
AALS Registration
6:00 – 6:30 p.m.
Challenging Assumptions
6:30 – 8:00 p.m.
AALS Reception
Monday, June 2, 2008
8:45 – 9:00 a.m.
Welcome
John H. Garvey, Boston College and AALS President
Introduction
Penelope A. Hazelton, University of Washington and Chair, Planning Committee for AALS Workshop for Law Librarians
9:00 –10:15 a.m.
Law Library Director: Who Are We Today? Librarian, Administrator, Faculty Member
Michael G. Chiorazzi, The University of Arizona
The traditional role of the academic law library director is that of chief law librarian, responsible for building collections, organizing services, and managing staff and budgets to support the mission of the law school. Most law library directors have also been members of the faculties of their law schools, with responsibilities for teaching, obligations to produce scholarship, and participate in faculty governance. In recent years, law library directors have taken on other administrative responsibilities outside the library, often, but not exclusively, for information technology. This session asks: Can or should the law library director perform all three roles? Can they all be done successfully? Do added administrative responsibilities mean the faculty role is less important or hard to fulfill? Break out sessions will give the participants the opportunity to discuss the questions: Who are we today, and who should we be?
10:15 – 10:45 a.m.
Refreshment Break
10:45 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
Small Group Discussions
12:00 p.m. – 1:30 p.m.
AALS Luncheon
1:45 – 3:15 p.m.
Law Library Director: Redefined Status
ABA Standard & AALS Regulation
Barbara Bintliff, University of ColoradoClinicians
Elliott S. Milstein, American UniversityLegal Writing
Grace Calabrese Tonner, The University of Michigan
Accreditation standards suggest that a law library director’s faculty status should normally be in a tenured or a tenure track position while the standards for law school clinical faculty and legal writing instructors call for job security without tenure. Speakers at this session will discuss the accreditation standard for library directors, as well as the AALS Executive Committee Regulation regarding law library directors, and the standards for clinical faculty and legal writing instructors. What standard should be applied to law library directors? Is the present standard’s emphasis on tenure, with its implications for scholarship and teaching, in the long term interests of the profession?
3:15 – 3:45 p.m.
Refreshment Break
3:45 – 5:00 p.m.
Small Group Discussions
5:30 – 7:00 p.m.
AALS Reception
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
9:00 – 10:30 a.m.
Redefining Status: ABA Standard – Report and Discussion
The Monday afternoon groups will each draft an ABA standard on the status of law librarians. The leaders of the small groups will have met Monday evening to review these drafts and propose one draft of the standard. That draft will be the subject of a brief report by the group leaders during this session and of full discussion by all workshop participants.
10:30 – 11:00 a.m.
Refreshment Break
11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
Law Library Director: Scholar – Writing for Tenure
Nancy P. Johnson, Georgia State University
Martha Dragich Pearson, University of Missouri–Columbia
The literature of law librarianship can be described as the intersection between legal information systems and substantive legal fields. When writing for tenure, can your scholarship be in the field of law librarianship? How will this kind of work be measured against the tenure standards of your institution? Should you opt to work in traditional, substantive legal fields instead? Both points of view will be explored in this session.
12:00 p.m. – 1:30 p.m.
AALS Luncheon
1:45 – 3:15 p.m.
Law Library Director: Teacher
Laura N. Gasaway, University of North Carolina
Teaching is a common role filled by the Law Library Director, but should it be? If you do teach, how do you decide what courses to teach? Do you develop an expertise in admiralty or torts? Do you teach legal research classes? Do you simply pinch hit and fill in where needed? How do you balance teaching with your other administrative duties so nothing suffers? Outstanding teachers will share their tips and advice.
3:15 – 3:45 p.m.
Refreshment Break
3:45 – 5:15 p.m.
Small Group Discussions on Teaching
6:00 - 7:30 p.m.
Reception Sponsored by Cleveland-Marshall College, Cleveland State University
Buses start loading at 5:45 p.m.
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
8:30 – 10:00 a.m.
Law Library Director: All About Relationships
Claire M. Germain, Cornell Law School
Carl A. Yirka, Vermont Law School
In addition to their typical reporting relationship to the dean of the law school, law library directors work regularly with other administrators within their institutions, often as fellow associate or assistant deans. As directors of one of several libraries on a university campus, they work as well not only with a university librarian, but often with directors of other professional school libraries. The speakers at this session will discuss how to successfully manage these varied administrative relationships.
10:00 – 10:15 a.m.
Refreshment Break
10:15 – 11:15 a.m.
Concurrent Sessions – Law Library Director: CEO
- What Happens When Progressive Discipline Doesn’t Work
Rhea Ballard–Thrower, Howard University - Delegation
Roy Balleste, University of the District of Columbia - Understanding Assessment Tools
Kathy Carrick, Case Western Reserve University - Time Management
Wes Cochran, Texas Tech University - Negotiating Skills
Anne Klinefelter, University of North Carolina - Dealing with Budget Reductions
Margaret A. Leary, The University of Michigan - Working with Unionized Employees
Michael Slinger, Cleveland State University - Training, Evaluation and Evaluating for Merit
Michelle M. Wu, Hofstra University
11:15 a.m. – 12:15 p.m.
Library Director: Response from the Next Generation
Simon Canick, University of Connecticut
Vicenç Feliú, Louisiana State University
Mary Ann Hyatt, University of Oregon
This workshop will conclude with responses from the next generation of law library directors. Evaluation of the substance of the program of the past three days as well as some directions for future educational opportunities will be explored. How can current academic law library directors mentor those great law librarians who would like meaningful and exciting director jobs in the legal academy?
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