2008 Mid-Year Meeting
Workshop for Law Librarians
June 1 – 4, 2008
Renaissance Cleveland Hotel
Cleveland, Ohio
 |
Why Attend?
Academic law library directors play multiple roles in their institutions. As faculty members, law library directors teach, conduct research, serve on committees and often play a leadership role in law school governance. As scholars, law library directors have contributed to the scholarly dialogue in many fields, not limited to law librarianship. As administrators, they are often responsible for the largest budgetary units in the law school and increasingly have responsibilities for technology and other areas beyond the library.
Throughout the history of the profession, stellar law librarians such as Art Charpentier, Robert C. Berring, Morris Cohen, Francis Farmer, Marian Gallagher, Frederick C. Hicks, Roger Jacobs, Mary Oliver, Miles O. Price, and William R. Roalfe paved the way for their colleagues as professors, scholars and administrators. They set the standards and forged an identity for law librarianship.
In the twenty–first century, it is time for academic law library directors to re–examine their role in legal education. The past quarter century has presented dramatic changes in the legal publishing industry, publication formats, the means of access to legal information, and the place of the library in the law school. Changes in the legal profession – globalization, mergers, mega–firms – have all affected legal education. Legal education is itself in an intense time of changes in curriculum and research, competition, and limited resources.
The 2008 AALS Workshop for Law Librarians is aimed at current law library directors, those who aspire to the position, and anyone interested in the future of the library in legal education. The first plenary speaker will highlight the many, sometimes conflicting, roles of the twenty–first century law library director. The opening presentation will be followed by small group sessions in which workshop participants will have the opportunity to discuss the pivotal question of the role of the law library director, what it is and what it should be.
The workshop will then present an unusual opportunity for open dialogue on the matter of faculty status for law library directors. After a plenary discussion of present approaches to faculty status for law school clinical faculty, legal writing instructors, and library directors, participants will be organized into small groups and asked to suggest ideal language on law library director status. On the second day, presentations on writing for tenure and teaching substantive courses will be followed by opportunities to discuss these important elements of the director’s role as a faculty member.
The final day of the workshop will be all about relationships, and will begin with a panel discussion of the challenges of working with law school deans and with other university and law school administrators. A variety of concurrent sessions will follow, covering topics focusing on the law library director as CEO. The workshop will close with responses and reactions from representatives of next generation of law library directors.
The Workshop will present a unique opportunity for law librarians to consider core professional issues. The program is designed to provide a nexus for dialogue and discourse among law library directors who have well–established careers, newer academic law library directors, but most especially for those who aspire to be directors in the future.
Regardless of where they are currently in their careers, law library directors still must choose between sitting back and watch the future happen, or take an active role in creating it.
~Planning Committee for the Workshop for
Law Librarians
Rhea Ballard–Thrower, Howard University
Richard A. Danner, Duke University
Penelope A. Hazelton, University of Washington, Chair
Tracey L. Meares, Yale Law School
Who Should Attend?
This Workshop is for all law librarians and law librarian directors.
When is this Conference?
The workshop will begin on Sunday, June 1 with registration at starting at 5:00 p.m., followed by two and a half days of plenary, concurrent and small group discussion sessions. The workshop will conclude at 12:15 p.m. on Wednesday, June 4. In addition to the program sessions, receptions will be held on Sunday and Monday evenings and luncheons will be held on Monday and Tuesday.
Where is this Conference?
The workshop sessions and sleeping accommodations will be at the Renaissance Cleveland Hotel, 24 Public Square, Cleveland, OH 44113. The room rate is $169 for single or double occupancy. This rate is subject to a 15.25% sales tax. Children staying in the same room with their parent(s) are free of charge. This hotel is non–smoking.
How Do I Register?
The Workshop for Law Librarians is part of the AALS Mid-Year Meeting. The Mid-Year Meeting consists of three professional development programs: The Workshop for Law Librarians, the Conference on Constitutional Law and the Conference on Evidence. The registration fee for the workshop is discounted 50% when signing up for the entire Mid-Year Meeting. You can choose to register for the two Conferences and/or Workshop using the form in this brochure (page 15). When registering for the AALS Conference on Evidence, you are automatically registered for the AALS Conference on Constitutional Law and can attend sessions at both Conferences. Attending the AALS Workshop for Law Librarians requires a different fee. You will receive a discount of half of the workshop registration fee by registering for all three programs.
 |