Welcome to the fall issue, which has some amazing news fromthe Warren E. Burger Library. Be sure to read Simon Canick'sreport on Floods! and how the library staff is coping with theafter-effects of not one but two floods in the library this summer.

We have coverage of AALL programming during the annual meeting by our fourgrant recipients. Wondering how some of the government libraries prepared for theJuly 1 government shutdown? You will want to read our Member-to-Member columnto learn more. Two of MALL's committees are profiled in this issue. Learn whatmembers of the Legal Research Institute and the Technical Services group work onduring the year.

Legal Research Institute is underway, but it's not too late to attend some of the alwaysinformative sessions. See the registration form near the end of the issue for a list ofthe remaining programs.

Fall also brings the first MALL meeting of the year. Mark your calendars for Monday,October 17, for our meeting at University of St. Thomas School of Law. We hope tosee many of you soon.

NEWSLETTER

President’s Column..............2

AALL Reports:

•Bringing Home AALL 2011. 3

•Hear Ye, Hear Ye...............8

•Effectively Managing........11

•Report from Philadelphia..14

Committee Profile: LRI........17

Committee Profile: TS-SIG..18

Floods!..............................19

Summer Picnic Photos ........22

CLE Corner.......................24

Upcoming Conferences......25

UELMA..............................29

Member-to-Member..........30

Member News...................31

Announcements ................33

MALL NewsletterVolume 38, Issue 2; Fall 2011

Anita AndersonJanelle Beitz

Karla GedellAndrea Fraser

Sarah YatesKaythey Windyk

Pauline AfusoSimon CanickSarah Mulligan

Mila RushMary Rumsey

Susan VossbergRegina Watson

Volume 38, Issue 2 (Fall 2011)

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I’m amazed that it’s time for the fallnewsletter already. Looking back onthe summer I think of two topics ofrumination that I have regarding theAALL Annual Meeting. First is theimportance of continuing to learn andgrow in your professional life. I alwaysleave the annual meeting with newideas and with a sense of excitementabout my job and being a lawlibrarian. Second, I really appreciatethe opportunity to meet new peopleand make connections with otherlibrarians and libraries. The longer Iam a law librarian, the moreconvinced I am that I made the rightchoice in careers. Law librarians aresmart, inquisitive, risk-taking,innovative, fun, and crucial to the legalprofession. The programs I go to andthe people I meet while attending theannual meeting reinforce this idea forme every year.

I realize that not everyone is able toattend the annual meeting. While it isfun and exciting and beneficial to getaway and attend a conference inanother part of the country, we dohave educational and networkingopportunities available right here.MALL puts on at least three educationalmeetings (fall meeting, spring meeting,and spring conference) and one socialevent (holiday party) per year. Thisyear, MALL added a new social

event—the summer picnic. Itwas well attended, and I lookforward to it becoming anannual affair. In addition, theDowntowners Group and theTechnical Services SIG offerprogramming targeted to theirrespective groups. I hope youwill participate in MALL eventsthis year, both educational andsocial. Ideas for events andvolunteers are always welcome!

Elizabeth ReppeLaw Library Manager

Dakota County Law Library

Volume 38, Issue 2 (Fall 2011)

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“The Supreme Courtand Free Speech” (keynote speech,opening general session).

Dahlia Lithwick, the keynote speaker,writes the Supreme Court Dispatchesand Jurisprudence columns as asenior editor at . For this keynotespeech, she discussed “how theSupreme court is fracturing overspeech issues, and how the press andthe public are both causing it andsuffering for it.”

Ms. Lithwick talked about severalrecent cases on free speech, cases thatdemonstrate quite unexpected splits inthe Court, not five to four, but someother ratios. For example, ClarenceThomas and Stephen Breyer are onthe same side in a seven-to-twodecision in the case in Californiaabout violence in video games. Or inthe eight-to-one Snyder v. Phelps case,eight justices and the media disagreedwith Samuel Alito and the public.

This is caused by the justices’sometimes contradictory attitudesto free speech and privacy, bytheir very complicatedrelationship with the media, andby their anxiety about technology.Technology makes private speecha matter of public speech;technology changes the lines,and the law has not caught up.

Some interestingcharacterizations:

“Mortal combat”: Elena KaganLeast funny: ScaliaDeeply divided re free speech:Alito and ScaliaMost libertarian: ThomasClothing: a form of speech

To end on a positive note, she saidthat even two hours of watchingoral arguments would givesomeone a very high regard of theSupreme Court—it does importantwork and is not partisan.

“WikiLeaks,Intelligence, and the Law ofSecrecy

This was the hot topic for thisannual meeting. ChristopherVallandingham (Florida)coordinated, moderated, andspoke. He prepared a five-pagehandout that he recommended for

AALL ReportsMila Rush

RetiredBringing Home AALL 2011

Welcome to AALL!

Volume 38, Issue 2 (Fall 2011)

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pre-presentation reading. It is mainlybibliographic on the topics of classification ofinformation, protection of classified information,and security clearances. It includes primarydocumentation, relevant congressional hearings,and law review articles.

Mr. Vallandingham said that the three levels ofclassification are based on the level of damagedisclosure can cause to the national security:

1) top secret: disclosure is expected to cause“grave damage”

2) secret: disclosure is expected to cause“serious damage”

3) confidential: disclosure is expected to cause“damage”

He also enumerated the different forms ofinformation that could be classified.

The other speaker was Jan Goldman (FBI andGeorgetown University). Dr. Goldman is the“author or editor of numerous articles and booksincluding

(volumes 1 & 2), and the recently

declassified by

Cynthia Grabo (Scarecrow Press, 2010). He isthe editor of the

and an organizer of the firstinternational conference on ethics andintelligence in 2006. Dr. Goldman is a foundingmember of the non-profit InternationalIntelligence Ethics Association.”

He was an entertaining speaker; below are mydisjointed notes:

Intelligence is information for the future.Law is building a case on something that hasoccurred.The estimates that a millionfolks can have “top secret” information.Intelligence classification is based on sourcesand methods first, then on the level of damageit can cause.

Rumint: rumor intelligence.Analysis vs. assessment. Analysis: whatknow; assessment: what believe.Terminology is very important. Informationvs. intelligence.We tend to over-classify.Reverse classification: we classify somethinginsignificant, which makes it significant.Classifying brings attention to the matter.We need to rework how to classify in thisage of technology.

“We the People:Constitutional National Treasures inPhiladelphia Archives.”

I was a bit late to this program andpresumed I came upon William Ewald’s talk.He appeared to be speaking from thehandout of an article bylined by John P.Kaminski entitled “Treasures from theFounding of the Nation.” Among manytreasures in the Historical Society ofPennsylvania (HSP) are six manuscripts andprinted documents on the genesis of the newgovernment and the eventual Constitution ofthe United States. Mr. Ewald went on to talkabout the work of the Convention of 1787and of the Committee of Detail and itsmembers. The Committee of Detail wrotewhat got submitted, and among its mainwriters were James Wilson (Pennsylvania),

AALL If you are a fan of Fresh Air with Terry Gross, here is wherethe magic happens.

Volume 38, Issue 2 (Fall 2011)

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committee chair John Rutledge (South Carolina),and Edmund Randolph (Virginia). James Wilsonpenned the phrase “We the people,” and, Mr.Ewald said, since Wilson wrote cleanly, hecleaned the language of documents and his copyoften went as the final copy.

The Kaminski article is fascinating to read. Thisquotation resonates rather strongly: “In all ourdeliberations we kept steadily in our view, thatwhich appears to us the greatest interest of every

trueAmerican, theconsolidationof our Union .. . Thisimportantconsideration,seriously anddeeplyimpressed onour minds, ledeach State intheConvention tobe less rigidon points ofinferior

magnitude . . .” The last paragraph of the articlesummed it up, thus: “These six treasureddocuments in HSP’s extraordinary holdings,taken together, show how the new Constitutionevolved and how the final proposal waspresented to the convention delegates, toCongress and the state legislatures, and to theAmerican people, setting the stage for aremarkable public debate that demonstrated thathuman beings using reason and choice coulddecide what kind of government they wanted.”

To round out this program, which was focusedon James Wilson and his work on theConstitution, the second handout is “Suggestionsfor Researching James Wilson’s Life and Works,”prepared by the program’s coordinator andmoderator Galen L. Fletcher (Brigham YoungUniversity).

The second speaker was Lee Arnold of theHistorical Society of Pennsylvania. He startedwith a brief narration of his path to the HSP.A farm boy in Wisconsin, he was bored withhis job shoveling snow and decided to checkout the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee.From two night school possibilities, he choselibrary school and went on to work atPrinceton after graduation. He took a classin archives at Temple, and he liked it somuch that he took two more, which led to hisemployment at HSP.

When Mr. Arnold arrived at HSP, he foundversions of the Constitution in loose foldersmainly. Now the vault of constitutionaldocuments are “guarded” by four sets oflocks, the last being a padlocked case. Andonly two people (one being Mr. Arnold) areauthorized to open those locks. Additionally,the National Constitution Center borrowswhat it needs for its displays.

How many constitutions are there? Theanswer depends on how they are counted.Mr. Arnold’s own answer is eighteen,counting all those printed in 1787 orpublished in Germany in 1788.

“Coding Potpourri: A Surveyof Programming Languages and Tools Usedin Library Applications Today.”

As the title indicates, this was a programdealing with a mixture of programminglanguages currently in use in libraries. Thespeakers provided introductory materials for,and the coding rules of, their respectiveprogramming languages. They showedactual selection of elements, how to write thecoding, and how to format. They gaveexamples of how each has used aprogramming code to create tools for theirrespective patrons.

The first speaker was Nicole Engard ofByWater Solutions. She talked about MySQL(My Structured Query Language) and said

Hope Porter was responsible for creating the greattable display for MALL. Kudos to her - manypeople stopped by to admire it.

Volume 38, Issue 2 (Fall 2011)

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that it is used to organize data in a structuredway, so it is good for report generation. For anexample, she showed how to create the table“branches,” including how to read a tablestructure, how to insert data, and how to queryMySQL.

The next speaker was Ted Lawless of BrownUniversity, talking about getting started withPython. Python is a “high-level” interpretedlanguage, similar to Perl and Ruby. It is widelyused in academia, industry, and newsorganizations.

Mr. Lawless demonstrated how to read data fromspreadsheets, how to combinedata from two sources, how tosearch records via Z39.50,how to create MARC records,how to generate reports fromone’s ILS, how to harvest datafrom websites. From thefunctionalities he demoed, it isvery easy to see how librariescan utilize this language; forexample, his library has aMySQL script that runs everynight to pull data from the ILSand place the report on theirwebsite built with Django, themost popular Python webframework.

Like the other speakers, hecited several resources forlearning and working withPython.

The third speaker was Jason Eiseman (Yale)talking about HTML5. He started with a briefhistory and the current status of this World WideWeb Consortium standard. It was started in2008, is expected to be a candidaterecommendation next year, and is expected to befinished in 2022.

It is important today because all the standardbrowsers (Firefox, Chrome, Internet Explorer 9,

Safari, and Opera) support HTML5 at thistime. It is popular with smart phones.

One of the design principles of HTML5 is tosupport existing content. It uses semantictags to structure an HTML document, hasgood accessibility for working with screenreaders, and has a lot more support foradditional microformats. It has rich Internetapplications. He showed some actualexamples of how it has been utilized at YaleLaw Library.

The last speaker, Tom Boone of Loyola LawSchool, gave a presentation on Cascading

Style Sheets (CSS). CSS makesthe content of a web pagereadable, as evidenced by theexamples of sites without CSSthat he showed.

The cascading feature hasvaried from time to time. Stylerefers to choices of font, fontsize, format, color, and otherproperties. There are threekinds of stylesheets: linked,embedded, and inline. Booneillustrated each.

He said a couple of the latestin CSS development are:

Adaptive web design: asingle web page with CSS thatadapts to any size screen.

CSS3: developing stan-dard that includes animation, rota-tion, scaling, and skewing.

“Cool Tools Café.”

This is a Computing Services SIS program onemerging technologies. Based on interest,each attendee went from station to stationwhere presenters demonstrated from one toa few tools and gadgets.

Liberty Bell

Volume 38, Issue 2 (Fall 2011)

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The following are the topics/titles at the differenttables/stations. If you want further information(presenters, descriptions, and URLs), see thishandout.

Topics/Titles:

1. The DRAGNET legal search engine—whatit is and how we did it

2. Upgrade your image—how to use Fire-Shot, Picnik and Snagit

3. Comparison of video creation tools, com-puter mobile

4. Create easy animated video shorts withGoAnimate

5. ShowMe (and) more! iPad apps for teach-ing

6. Putting your iPad to work: tools for docu-ment management

7. Mobile legal research applications for iP-ads (FastCase & Westlaw Next)

8. Just for fun: iPhone and iPad apps for funand leisure

9. “Taking your office with you”: productivityapps for the iPhone

10. Display your data easily in five ways usingSimile Exhibit

11. QR codes in libraries12. Current awareness tools13. Games, gadgets and gimmicks: fun with

the Android14. Productivity apps for the Android platform15. Remote access tools for collaboration and

instruction (Joinme, Logmein, and Drop-box)

16. Communicating with patrons for free(Comm100 & GoogleVoice)

17. PowerPoint alternatives: tools for creatingnon-linear presentations

“EOS International Seminar.”

EOS.Web is an integrated library systemencompassing all the basic functionalities of webOPAC, acquisitions, cataloging, circulation,serials management, Z39.50 client and server,knowledge builder, reference tracking, indexer,electronic content management (ECM), ILL,

federated search, media booking, and reportwriting.

Steven Lastres of Devoise delivered apresentation from the package user point.He talked about Project NYLI OPACintegration (NYLI = New York Law Institute).Some things he said:

“Just in time” instead of “just incase.”Can analyze what percentage of col-lection is used.Anything not used in six months iscanceled.By using RFID, a daily thirty-minutewanding allows them to know whereitems are.Can proactively monitor the dollar.ECM: e-journals in MyRouting.Ask ELI: reference database, not onlyanswers the question, but gives link tothe document and the bibliographicrecord.Timesheet tracking. To bean counters,metrics are very important.Streamlined data entry in theknowledge base.Measurable reporting statistics.Can create practice pages.Helps on-demand training for endusers.

Volume 38, Issue 2 (Fall 2011)

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Four score, no, make that five score, and. . . well, a long time ago, the foundingmembers of the American Association ofLaw Librarians decided that it would bea good thing to meet once a year, tomingle, to learn, to regroup. Because ofa generous grant from MALL, I was ableto attend this year’s meeting, and I thinkI have to agree, the yearly meeting is avery good idea. A couple of sessionswere more memorable than others;hopefully you will think so, too.

On Sunday afternoon, I was one of thirtypeople attending the writing workshopled by Princeton’s David Hollander, lawand legal studies librarian, and AmandaIrwin Wilkins, director of the PrincetonWriting Program. This session was aworkshop to help people interested inscholarly writing, and the curriculum wasbased upon the workshops that are partof the Princeton Writing Program. Assuch, it was very different from otherwriting programs sponsored by AALLthat I have attended. For this very shortsession, both leaders effectively led thegroup through their planned program.

Because this session was only an hourand fifteen minutes, the workshopfocused on a few key points in scholarlywriting, addressing mainly the issue of

in writing, and how authors use itto present their point of view.

, defined by Gordon Harvey, “isthe ‘intellectual context’ that is

established at the beginning of apaper to suggest why the thesis isoriginal or worthwhile.” In the class, Ilearned that motive can come fromtwo places: from the primary sourcesor data, when the writer findssomething unusual or surprising inthe facts, or from the secondarysources, when the writer finds alimitation or disagrees with theanalysis. Hint: if you see the word

, motive is sure to be lurkingnearby. We were then given a coupleof excerpts to read in order to findthe motive of each paper and toidentify what words or phrases werethe clues that identified the motive. (Ifyou want to try this exercise yourself,try reading any article by JusticeScalia, as his writing is fraught withwords and phrases that identify hismotive for writing.)

The instructors next went overstrategies for “engaging secondarysources,” that is, ways to look at howto distinguish a new argument fromwhat has been written. Thankfully,these hints were written in thevernacular, so that a newbie writercould understand the differentstrategies. Some of them are:

Picking a fight—challenging ascholar’s argument and replacingit with your own

Playing peacemaker—identifyingconflicts between and amongscholars and developing a largertheory that encompasses them all

Hear Ye, Hear Ye:A Report from Philadelphia

Pauline AfusoLegal TaxonomistThomson Reuters

AALL Reports

Volume 38, Issue 2 (Fall 2011)

9

Leapfrogging (alternatively called “biting thehand that feeds you”)—agreeing with a scholar,but then identifying and solving a problem in thatscholar’s work

Overall, it was an interesting workshop, and I amglad that I went. I found it more valuable than otherwriting workshops I’ve been to because it did go indepth on techniques for scholarly writing andspelled out practical strategies for beginning writers.With all of the content, exercises, and discussion thattook place, this hour and fifteen minute sessioncould easily have been expanded to be a wholeafternoon session. For people like me, who have nothad experience in writing longer, scholarly works,this workshop was a worthwhile and eye-openingexperience.

Another session I went to that was very interestingwas “E-Books and the Future of Legal Publishing,”which featured speakers from Lexis/Nexis, ThomsonReuters, and YPB Publishing. Most of you know that Iwork for Thomson Reuters, and while I know a lotabout Westlaw, I know very little about the initiativesregarding e-books, and I was very interested inlearning more. June Liebert, the moderator, wasvery organized, and even though the session wasonly forty-five minutes long, she managed to get alot of questions to the speakers. Really, this was avery informative session.

The speakers began by answering a question thatthey had been given before the conference:“

”Scott Meiser, from Lexis, was the first to speak. Hesaw that the future for e-books was evolvingquickly, not just because of the technology orbecause customers were now asking about e-books. He said that expectations for the bookschanged, because customers are not limited toworking in an office—they can go anywhere andexpect their books and online content to beavailable. He saw that these demands wouldaffect libraries in different ways—content withmultimedia, new apps for reading content, ablurring of e-books and online databases. Therewill have to be new models for pricing and newways to think about digital rights management(DRM) and licensing, and lending tools will allhave to evolve in order to accommodate the e-content.

Dan Bennett from Thomson Reuters agreed withwhat was said and added that, for professionalreading, West has taken the approach that thecurrent readers aren’t sophisticated enough toprovide the bells and whistles that professionalswould expect from e-books. For example,footnotes and tabular material don’t really workwell with the Kindle. He sees updates for e-booksas being a big challenge, too. For libraries, heanticipates that it will be very messy because, fornow, there are no standard readers or apps. Untilthings become more standardized, libraries willhave a hard time deciding what content to get,because part of the decision will be based onwhether or not they will have readers that canaccess the content.

Steven Sutton, from YPB, pointed out that as adistributor, he works with publishers to get thecontent available in the format that the userwants. However, once end-users become used toworking with digital content, they will haveheightened expectations of the content. What ifthe user wants an e-book, or, more interestingly,what if the customer only wants part of a book?Libraries will have to rethink their collectiondevelopment policies and become more patron-driven when deciding what to purchase.

AALL MALL Table in all its glory.

Volume 38, Issue 2 (Fall 2011)

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The second prepared question was: “W

From Lexis: They will use different models asnecessary, borrowing from what they currently use forbooks and also what they use for software. Licensingplans, such as enterprise licenses, pay-per-use, orlending from the publisher are all options they areconsidering, and it will definitely be customerpreferences that will drive these licensing models.

West: The kind of licensing models will depend onthe e-book. Something like a deskbook, which wouldbe consulted frequently, will have a different licensingoption than something like a multivolume referencetreatise, which might be used less frequently. West isalso working on how to maintain an archive of thecontent, so that users know that once they purchasecontent, they’ll always have it. Other models they arelooking at: Netflix, for lending content, and Amazon,for managing user purchases.

YPB: Their challenge is different from Lexis and West,as YPB is a distributor, not a publisher. Their role is tohelp the users understand the different contracts andlicensing agreements from all of the vendors thathave the content that they want.

After these two main questions, the moderator had afew extra questions to ask the panelists. The nextquestion, “

” brought up some interestinganswers.

From the vendors, one point that was brought up isthat a lot of customers assume that it is very easy toconvert a print book to e : just rip the text and put itin a file. From the customer’s point of view, he sawthe challenges in several areas. In addition to factorsalready mentioned, such as platforms, licensing,pricing models, he pointed out that the users come inall different levels of comfort when dealing withcontent in e- format. A challenge for librarians will behow to work with users when some are comfortablewith e-resources, while others still prefer print.Another challenge will be for the libraries to keep upwith the changes in pricing, formats, lending policies,etc., when the content they need comes from differentsources.

West: One of the internal challenges from thepublishing point of view is how to deal withsomething as simple as page numbers in theprint publications. Even though users know howto use paragraph numbers to identify specificareas in a document, using page numbers issuch an intuitive way to navigate through adocument. However, page numbers limit you towhat is available on the printed page, and thatlimits the publisher on how to present updatedcontent—how can they present updated contentwithout changing the page numbers?

YPB: From a distributer’s point of view, there aretwo main challenges with regard to includinge-books in their catalog. They have to make surethat when they get the content, it is accuratelyprofiled for customers, and then convert the filesto make sure that they work with their database.

There were several other questions, mostly forthe vendors, about how long they thought thatthey will still print books (as long as the marketdemands it), or what kind of books they plannedto convert to e-(Lexis—everything; West—startwith the practice materials and then go fromthere).

Then the moderator asked a very interestingquestion: “ ”

At this time, Lexis is “platform agnostic”—theyare trying to make the content usable in bothmobi and ePub, so that the users who arefamiliar with Apple or Amazon’s readers will nothave to learn anything new. Of course, Westtook the opposite stance and had developed itsown app, because the current readers couldn’ttake advantage of the features that they neededto make available with the content. TheirProView app, with the ability to move notes andannotation to new versions of the product andfull-text searching, is currently only available asan app for the iPad but will probably be createdfor other devices as they “get more traction” inthe market.

I went into this session not knowing very muchabout e-books and left knowing a whole lotmore than I expected. I will say that as a geek, Idid download the ProView app, though sadly, Ihave no books to read! Someday . . .

Volume 38, Issue 2 (Fall 2011)

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At last July’s AALL Annual Meeting andConference, two complementaryprograms advanced a common theme:development of productive interpersonalskills and communication frameworksamong library personnel. The firstprogram, “Advanced Meeting FacilitationTechniques,” featured the University ofGeorgia Law Library’s Carol Watson andWendy Moore as speakers and CarolWatson as coordinator. The secondprogram, “Embracing Creative Conflict: AFormula for Better Decision Making,”featured the University of Georgia LawLibrary’s Maureen Cahill as coordinator,moderator, and speaker and theUniversity of Kentucky Law Library’s JamesM. Donovan as speaker.

Both programs gripped members’attention through well-crafted content andengaging presentation techniques.

Watson and Moore built on their successwith a previous program, “Facilitation:The Secret to Successful Meetings!”presented at the 2010 AALL AnnualMeeting and Conference. This year,Watson and Moore continued to poundaway at the “four F’s” of facilitation: 1)foundation for the meeting, 2) focus onthe issues, 3) fighting dysfunction, and 4)forming consensus. The four F’s allow afacilitator, who may or may not be theperson formally in charge of the meeting,to guide the meeting process in productivedirections.

1. Foundation

Facilitators lay a strong meetingfoundation with an agenda distributedin advance of the meeting, groundrules for acceptable behavior duringthe meeting, and an appropriatemeeting space. A good agenda, printor electronic, includes any relateddocuments, an ending time as well asa beginning time, action verbs, anddesired outcomes. Once establishedthrough group input, healthy groundrules encourage respect andparticipation by all. A desirablemeeting space permits a more or lesscircular seating arrangement, affordsprivacy, and minimizes externalinterruptions.

2. Focus

Meeting facilitators find ways to keepparticipants focused on agendamatters rather than extraneous ortangential matters. One tactic to keepor restore focus is to ask participantsquestions to trigger productive thoughtprocesses. For launching a discussion,Watson and Moore gave examplessuch as, “What is the goal of thismeeting?” or “How will we judge thequality of a proposal?” For dealingwith comments from left field, thespeakers suggested questions such as,“I’m not sure how this fits in with thetopic at hand. Can you help me?”

3. Fighting Against Dysfunction

Watson and Moore defineddysfunction as “abnormal or unhealthyinterpersonal behavior or interaction

Effectively Managing Meetingsand Conflict

Regina WatsonReference Librarian

Hamline University Law Library

AALL Reports

Volume 38, Issue 2 (Fall 2011)

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within a group.” Although it is constructive for groupmembers to voice disagreements, a facilitator tries toprevent behaviors that detract from the task at hand.For example, a facilitator may respond to a meetingmonopolizer with a comment such as, “I hear yousaying [summary of position]. Why don’t we goaround the table and hear something from eachperson on this topic?” In another example, thefacilitator may interrupt the habitual naysayer’sdiatribe to ask the naysayer for ideas to improve aproposal or project.

4. Forming Consensus

Meeting participants may disagree at one of threelevels, in the view of Watson and Moore.

The first level is , where peoplehave not clearly heard or understood each other. Atthat level, techniques such as attempted paraphrasingwork. The second level is disagreement,where people understand each other but preferdifferent outcomes due to different values orexperiences. At that level, the group may identifystrengths and weaknesses of different options, with aview to prioritizing items most important to differentparticipants. The third level is disagreement,contention that is based on ill will, personalities, orunrelated history between individuals. This level ofdisagreement is dysfunctional, and speakers Watsonand Moore suggested trying to recognize it and bringthe participants back to the focus of the meeting.

The speakers reminded theaudience that achievingconsensus means reachinga decision that everyonecan tolerate and support,not necessarily finding adecision with whicheveryone agrees.

Watson and Mooreenlivened their session withvideo clips of library staffacting out various issues ina fictional library meeting.The clip of a meetingmonopolizer in action hadhalf the audience laughingand the other halfgroaning in recognition of

an all-too-familiar scenario. This sessionprovided widely if not universally applicableadvice that is potentially useful in dealing withstaff at almost all levels of interpersonal skill andemotional health.

According to speakers Cahill and Donovan,unhealthy conflict inevitably is destructive to thegroup and its objectives. The speakers advocatedreplacing dysfunctional modes of conflict with apositive mode known as “creative conflict.” Thespeakers and their materials described creativeconflict as a group decision-making method thatdoes the following:

Encourages conflicting ideas;Puts all perspectives and interests on the ta-ble;Enables the entire group to defend and cri-tique each idea;Utilizes consensus as the ultimate decisionmechanism;Relies on the process of decision making tostrengthen and improve decisions.

In conforming to this method, creative conflictaccomplishes several things. First, because di-verse ideas are encouraged and then tested, theresult of the process usually is less conventionaland more worthwhile than an individual idea.

Second, all partici-pants gain a voice.Third, participantsbond with each otherin producing a solu-tion that is truly agroup effort. Fourth,because each partici-pant “owns” the out-come, there is greater“buy-in” for the deci-sion.Although creative con-flict is challenging toachieve and maintain,creative conflict beatsthe alternatives. Forexample, the speakersnoted the dangers ofan avoidant approach

AALL Donna Trimble, Kristen Koester, and Susan Catterall at the OpeningReception.

Volume 38, Issue 2 (Fall 2011)

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or anoverlycompetitiveapproach.In avoidantapproach-es, subop-timaldecisionsarise whenpartici-pants re-frain from

real engagement and settle for “acceptance withoutagreement.” In overly competitive dynamics, partici-pants go beyond friendly rivalry to make personal orfactional victory, rather than improved products orservices, the overriding goal.Cahill and Donovan were quick to identify severalingredients necessary for a group to achieve success-ful creative conflict. Necessary elements include areceptive organizational culture; supporting, partici-pating leadership; strong, committed participants; asound workable process (which overlaps but goesbroader and deeper than tactical approaches formeeting facilitation); and a constructive, positive tone.The session offered far more clarification and elabo-ration on each of these critical prerequisites than canbe mentioned here. The session also included videoanimations depicting both counterproductive and cre-ative conflict.In sharing Cahill’s experiences in embarking on cre-ative conflict at the University of Georgia Law Library,her session materials described the participants as“hardworking, stubborn, creative, proud, intelligent,obstinate librarians who all cared very deeply aboutthe institution.” These librarians were the “most im-portant ingredients of our long term success,” be-cause they combined their mixed traits with “sharedbroad objectives, a universal commitment to groupdecision making, and respect for one another.” Be-cause all the librarians at Cahill’s law school weremembers of the management team, the SteeringGroup, each librarian had a genuine voice in majordecisions. Whenever a librarian attempted to hijackmatters in a self-aggrandizing or myopic direction,the environment permitted colleagues to correctcourse tactfully, if possible, and not so tactfully if nec-essary: “Do you think we’re all chumps?”Unlike general meeting facilitation techniques, cre-ative conflict principles can fail miserably outside the

supportive personnel structure and relativelyhealthy interpersonal climate that Cahill andDonovan described.Many managers desire staff to “buy in” to deci-sions and “take ownership” of institutional well-being. Fewer managers wish to give every staffmember, or every librarian, an equal seat on thesteering committee. Some library staff memberscare very deeply about their institutions, whileother staff members’ loyalty evaporated in thelast layoff. Every profession has work groups thathave become bad marriages, where financial orprofessional considerations bind people togethernotwithstanding irreconcilable differences andmutual contempt. Some staff members struggleto overcome personal limitations in adoptingbetter interpersonal behaviors, while a few staffmembers intentionally perpetuate group dysfunc-tion that they exploit for personal gain. Despitethe passion that Cahill and Donovan expressedfor creative conflict, they recognized that not ev-ery library is equipped for such a process.Is your library ready to embrace creative conflictfor better decision making, or would such aneffort itself merely fuel the fires ofcounterproductive contention?For anyone interested in framing conflict moreconstructively or merely making meetings moreproductive, the program materials and audiorecordings for both the creative conflict and themeeting facilitation programs are highlyrecommended.

David Zopfi-Jordan

Hope Porter getting in a few stitches while at the MALL table.

Volume 38, Issue 2 (Fall 2011)

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Thanks to MALL and LexisNexis for agrant that helped me to attend the AALLAnnual Meeting this year. It’s a greatopportunity to connect with other lawlibrarians; I encourage MALLmembers to apply for travel grants.

MALL was able to help severalmembers attend the conference, so welucky grantees tried to avoid reportingon the same sessions. (I can’t helpwondering, though, what a -like, multiple-viewpoint report would belike. I’m sure we would all take differentthings away from the same program.)

As a foreign, comparative, andinternational law (FCIL) librarian, myconference track tends to fill withsmaller, FCIL-SIS meetings, like those ofthe African Law Interest Group, ForeignSelectors Interest Group, and FCIL-SISElectronic Issues Group. I also attendeda useful workshop on European Unionlaw. But I’ll focus my report on items ofbroader interest.

I many MALL members areinterested in dogs and cats. One ofthe best programs I went to was theinitial meeting of the Animal LawCaucus. The librarian who convenedthe meeting joked that a few yearsago, she was assured that “the onlypeople interested in animal law arefrom California,” but the meeting waspacked with about sixty to eightyattendees.

The caucus had a great first speakerin James Serpell, Marie A. MooreProfessor of Humane Ethics & AnimalWelfare and director, Center for theInteraction of Animals and Society, atthe University of Pennsylvania.

Serpell briefly traced the developmentof human attitudes to animals andanimal welfare in Western thought,starting with the early “instrumentalist”view illustrated by Genesis and byearly philosophers such as Aristotle.Instrumentalist views of animals focuson what the animal can do forhumans. Concern for animal welfarewas slow to develop. Thomas Aquinasranks among the first philosopherswho opposed cruelty to animals, buthis rationale was that those peoplewho observed or practiced cruelty toanimals would be more likely to treathuman beings cruelly.

During the Enlightenment,philosophers argued that animalsshould be protected against crueltybecause they are capable of suffering.

Report from Philadelphia Mary RumseyForeign, Comparative &

International Law LibrarianUniversity of Minnesota Law Library

AALL Reports

Guess who was also visiting the Liberty Bell?

Volume 38, Issue 2 (Fall 2011)

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The Enlightenment also saw an increasing urbanmiddle class, who were much more likely than ruraldwellers to keep animals as pets. (In the MiddleAges, by contrast, people disapproved of petowners, often suspecting the owners of witchcraft.)

The eighteenth century saw the first use of animals

in therapy, at a Quaker asylum in York, England.Unfortunately (in Serpell’s view), the rise of morescientific approaches to medicine pushed animalsout of health care until the 1960s, when BorisLevinson, a child psychologist, began using his dogas a way to encourage patients to communicate.Levinson observed that children who would not talkto him were willing to talk to his dog. Recently, thepractice of “animal-assisted therapy” has extendedto treatment of disabilities such as autism,obsessive-compulsive disorders, eating disorders,Alzheimer’s, and various affective disorders.

Serpell also discussed the rise of the animalprotection movement, noting that in 1993, nine USstates had laws making animal cruelty a felony; by2009, that number had risen to forty-six.

The Animal Law Caucus’s second speaker wasSuzanne Mawhinney, a reference librarian at theUniversity of San Francisco’s Zief Law Library.Mawhinney helped bring therapy dogs to the lawlibrary during the law school’s study and examweeks. She worked with local Society for theProtection of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA), which has atherapy dog program. Mawhinney explained howthe law library’s program worked—she has aforthcoming article in about it, so Iwon’t go into detail. She mentioned that the SPCAsent several therapy dog résumés, all of whichincluded the notation “deemed solicitous withstrangers.” The law students really appreciated thechance to spend time with various dogs in theprogram, and some of the library staff also madeappointments for “dog time.”

I will restrain myself from saying more about theAnimal Law Caucus, except to mention that all AALLmembers are encouraged to join, and it’s free.

On a grimmer note, I heard a discouragingsummary of the Law Library of Congress’s (LLC)financial outlook. Mark Strattner, chief of CollectionServices Division at the LLC, reported that thelibrary’s 2011 acquisitions budget is flat. As welibrarians know, flat budgets mean cuts. The LLChas canceled numerous serials, including several

foreign serials held by only a few law libraries in theUnited States. Worse, the 2012 budget, while notyet final, will probably include a cut of about 8.5percent. Starting in September, the library may beunable to buy monographs. The only brightside is that the LLC expected to be out of shelf spacein a year; maybe if they can’t buy anything, theirspace will last longer.

The Library of Congress, undeterred by budget cuts,has created most of a new classification schedulefor what is variously termed “American Indian law,”“indigenous peoples’ law,” and “Indian law.” Theschedule doesn’t cover US federal law relating toIndians; instead, it’s for the laws of sovereign tribes.The schedule has categories for topics like“Environmental law. Traditional knowledge-basedecology.” Once implemented, the schedule willenable comparative research across the law ofvarious tribes. Jolande Goldberg at LCmasterminded this new schedule, and welcomescomments .

Okay, I’m going to sneak one FCIL program inhere, because it was the best program I attended.The speaker was Dante Figueroa, a legal specialistat the Law Library of Congress who also teaches asan adjunct at Georgetown Law School. Figueroaspoke for an hour on the complications of lawsuitsby Latin American plaintiffs against US defendantsand managed to be both clear and amusing.

He started by rejecting the title of his presentation,stating that these lawsuits aren’t really“transnational litigation”—they’re national litigationwith a foreign component. Many people in LatinAmerica, if they’re harmed by the actions of a US

Volume 38, Issue 2 (Fall 2011)

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company, would like to sue in US courts. (Reasons forthis preference include the availability of punitivedamages and contingent fee agreements in the UnitedStates.) US courts, on the other hand, fear a flood oflitigation from Latin America and aren’t convinced thatUS taxpayers should have to shoulder the costs of thatlitigation. So plaintiffs, lawyers, judges, and LatinAmerican legislators engage in complex battles overjurisdiction and the appropriate forum.

The battle usually starts with the Latin Americanplaintiff suing in US federal court. The judge oftendismisses the suit on the grounds that the forum isn’tconvenient (i.e., “forum non conveniens”), and that theplaintiff has an adequate alternate forum (in this case,

the plaintiff’s own nationalcourt system). The US judgewill tell the plaintiff to go filein his or her home country.

This US response conflictswith Latin American, civil-system rules on jurisdiction.In a civil law system, theplaintiff has the power toselect the court, as long asthe defendant is domiciled inthe jurisdiction. Moreover, ifthere is any alternate basisfor jurisdiction, the plaintiffalone can choose how toproceed; no one else canalter that decision.

Some Latin Americanlegislatures, wishing for theirown reasons to support theircitizens’ access to US courts,have enacted laws called

“blocking statutes.” These statutes vary, but mostcontain provisions that tell their national courts not tohear any case that has been dismissed from US courtson forum non conveniens grounds. The purpose ofsuch provisions is to signal to the US court “if you kickthis plaintiff’s case out, she will have no remedy at all.”The US court, then, can’t say that the plaintiff has anadequate forum in her home country.

The US-Latin American standoff reminds me of theclassic Dr. Suess book, , in which the North-

Going Zax and the South-Going Zax face off,neither willing to take a step to the west or theeast. Figueroa outlined some ideas for resolvingthe underlying conflicts, but conveyed nooptimism about the likelihood of those ideasbecoming law soon.

As always, one of the best parts of the AALLmeeting was the chance to pick up ideas (andgossip) from other librarians. On the technologyfront, no one seems excited about QR codes,which allow smartphone users to scan a code ona library sign (or anywhere else) and get moreinformation. A few people I talked to said theirlibraries have experimented with them but haven’tseen much use by patrons. Many libraries aredeveloping mobile catalog apps. Everyone seemsto love LibGuides software, which automaticallycreates mobile-device-friendly versions ofresearch guides and other content.

I heard about several new digitization initiatives,for everything from old English dictionaries tohuman rights reports to the Kenyan governmentgazette, but apart from using Google, no oneknows how to search across all these silos ofinformation.

Librarians from several large law school librariestalked about how they have cut serials, enteredinto cooperative collection agreements with otherschools, and have begun shifting their collectionsfrom print to electronic resources. No one seemsto have a handle on how to deal with electronicbook readers; a few law school librarians told methat faculty members have asked the library tobuy downloadable, single-user books—yetanother budget and logistical headache.

While some of the news I picked up from otherlibrarians sounds discouraging, my overallimpression from the meeting is that we have a lotof hard-working, enthusiastic law librariansstriving to connect people with legal information. Iwas lucky to be able to attend this year’sconference.

Vic Garces

Volume 38, Issue 2 (Fall 2011)

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MALL’s Legal Research Institute is heldbiennially and offers a series of two-hour seminars in legal researchmethodology. Sessions are heldevenings and, for a number of years,have been graciously hosted by HamlineUniversity School of Law. Severalcourses are considered basic and arealways offered: American Legal System,Secondary Legal Materials, ResearchingCase Law, Federal Statutes andLegislative Histories, Administrative Law,and Minnesota Law.

The remaining sessions are morespecialized and vary. This year theyinclude Intellectual Property LawSources, Disaster Law, and Debtor-Creditor Law. In addition to Debtor-Creditor Law, the last session will featurea session on ethical questions that arisefor legal researchers. A new feature,added by popular demand to theMinnesota Law session, is a section onresearching Minnesota legislativehistories.

The speakers will cover free and feeelectronic sources as well as printsources.

The LRI is designed to appeal to severalgroups: current law librarians, MLISstudents interested in law librarianship,public librarians, paralegals, andattorneys. CLE credits and careerrenewal CE credits are typically granted.

The committee is excited about thisyear’s offerings and faculty. We lookforward to seeing you there!

This year’s committee members are:

Brian Huffman, chair, WashingtonCounty Law Library

Valerie Aggerbeck, St. ThomasSchool of Law

Patricia Dolan, Washington CountyLaw Library

Vicente Garces, University ofMinnesota Law School

Megan Jens, Hamline UniversitySchool of Law

Grace Mills, Hamline UniversitySchool of Law

Sarah Mulligan, Faegre & Benson,LLP

Jennifer Munnings, Dakota CountyLaw Library (former)

Suzanne Thorpe, University ofMinnesota Law School

Mary Wells, St. Thomas School ofLaw

Doris Dingley, board liaison

Committee Profile:

Legal Research Institute (LRI)Sarah Mulligan,

Research LibrarianFaegre & Benson L.L.P.

Volume 38, Issue 2 (Fall 2011)

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If the idea of RDA makes you scratchyour head and wonder, or if you arealone with materials to catalog and youhave questions but do not know where toturn for help, then you may want toconsider attending MALL’s TechnicalServices Special Interest Groupgatherings. TS-SIG gatherings provide anexcellent opportunity for technicalservices staff of all experience levels toget together to discuss issues that impacttheir work days, including cataloging,serials, acquisitions, and libraryautomation. All interested MALLmembers are encouraged to attendgatherings and bring ideas, problems,tips, etc. to share with others.

Gatherings typically happen at least twiceper year. Meeting time is generally 9:30a.m., and the location and topic ofdiscussion are announced in the fall. Ifyou are interested in learning more, havepossible ideas for future gatherings, orwant to be informed about upcominggatherings, please monitor the MALLlistserv or contact Susan Vossberg.

The group had our first meeting of theseason on September 14 at MaslonEdelman law firm in downtownMinneapolis. Our speaker was SarahYates, catalog librarian at the Universityof Minnesota Law Library, who talkedabout her recently published article in

about the history of. The group then

decided that each meeting will have anopen agenda where all current issuescan be brought to the table fordiscussion. Some of the ideas for future

discussions include how each sitestaffs their library, open source ILSoptions, digitization, Kindles and iPadsin libraries, sharing specific job duties,how to deal with e-books that are nolonger free, and how to deal withitems that are going from print to e-resource only. Our next meeting willbe held in January (day and locationto be determined). Please plan toattend and bring thoughts and ideasto share.

Also, mark your calendars for thefollowing TS-SIG event:

What: ALA-sponsored webinar“

Who: The presenter is, catalog librarian at

Harvard Law School. John isAALL’s representative to to CC:DA,ALA's Committee on Cataloging:Description and Access.

When:,

Where:

How much: Thanks to thegenerosity of MALL, attendance is

.

Susan VossbergCatalog Librarian

Hamline University School of Law

Committee Profile:Tech Services SIG

Volume 38, Issue 2 (Fall 2011)

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At 5:45 a.m. on Saturday, July 16, I re-ceived a call from the director of facilitiesand security at William Mitchell. He toldme that the basement of the library wasflooding and the situation looked grim. Iarrived half an hour later to find eightfire trucks, lights blazing, including onewith its ladder raised to the roof. When Igot downstairs, I saw water gushing froma pipe in the electrical room. Only thedim emergency lights were functioning.At least twenty firefighters rushed aroundcursing, shouting to each other. Watercovered the entire floor, one to twoinches high in some spots, and rising.

This was our second flood; the same pipehad broken five days earlier.Understanding “what happened andwhy” demands a brief primer onrainwater drainage. All water on the roofof our building flows straight downthrough an interior, cast iron pipe, andthen curves at a ninety-degree anglebefore continuing out of the library to themunicipal sewer line under SummitAvenue. (Note that rainwater fromMitchell’s main parking lot feeds into thesection of pipe that runs from thebuilding to Summit Avenue—thisbecomes important later.) The curvedsection, located in the electrical room justoff the east end of the basement stacks,includes several pieces of pipe that arecinched together. (See photo aboveright). In the first flood (1:00 a.m. onMonday, July 10), the joint between twosections of pipe came loose, and stormwater from the roof flooded the library.

The first flood covered roughly half ofthe basement, and members ofMitchell’s facilities and security teams,along with various contractors,worked hard to extract water anddehumidify the area. Though somestudy carrels began to warp, we wereheartened to find no evidence ofdamage to books.

Floods!Simon CanickAssociate Dean, Information ResourcesWarren E. Burger Law Library

Volume 38, Issue 2 (Fall 2011)

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Meanwhile, environmental testing revealed elevatedmoisture levels in the walls adjacent to water-loggedcarpet, so contractors removed roughly two feet ofsheetrock from those areas. Despite industrial-strength fans and dehumidifiers, the carpet continuedto smell, and we concluded that it couldn’t besalvaged.

A plumber repaired the pipe by replacing thecinching and adding an external frame. I was assuredthat “it would take a blowtorch to get that pipe apartagain.” As it turned out, it took only five days and areally big storm.

When I got the second call and arrived to see watercascading from the same pipe, I was exasperated.(And tired… in my stupor I wore sandals, so my feetwere soaking wet and I felt like an idiot while talkingto the firefighters.) Quickly I learned that the situationwas far worse than before. The whole basement wasflooded (including archives and special collections),and water had filled the elevator shaft.

To make matters worse, drainage from the mainparking lot had backed up, and the area resembled asmall pond. Later we learned that after the pipebroke, all of the water from that pond drained backinto the library. With the municipal water line at fullcapacity, it was the path of least resistance.

The water did not reach books on the lowest shelves,though superficial splashing occurred during thesqueegeeing process. A handful of boxes we’d moveddownstairs from the second floor (as part of a

separate recarpeting and repainting project) gotwet. Some artwork was soaked, though not ourmost valuable possessions. (Unless you considerthe 1984 portrait of a law student, “Mustacheand Tight Blue Jeans Guy,” to be a valuablepossession. That was destroyed, althoughshockingly we had a spare copy, which nowhangs in the break room).

Firefighters, who deserve tremendous credit fortheir professionalism and effort, were still busywith water extraction several hours later. Thisvideo should give you a sense of the process.You may wonder why the Fire Departmentresponded to a flood. It turns out that our firealarm system, illogically installed next to thedrainpipe in the electrical room, shorted outwhen doused with water. Apparently its last actwas to send an emergency signal to the St. PaulFire Department. (Note that the system has beenreplaced and relocated to the other end of thebuilding).

Since the second flood, we learned that the pipefrom the parking lot/library to the municipal linewas partially blocked with limestone, which mayhave been flushed down during roof work in2004. A contractor has cleared the blockage,which we expect (hope) will relieve pressureduring future storms.

Volume 38, Issue 2 (Fall 2011)

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Over the past two months we’ve had a steadystream of contractors in the basement. Carpetingwas torn out, air dehumidified, sheetrock installed,the elevator repaired, new study rooms added, andelectrical systems replaced. Many books remain inboxes; most others sit on their shelves behind plasticsheeting that protects against dust. Renovations andrepairs should be finished in mid- to late October.

By and large, our students and faculty have beenpatient with the disruptions and delays associated

with construction. Significant parts of the library’scollection have been inaccessible since theschool year began, study rooms remain offline,and the noise and smells of remediationcontinue to invade remaining library spaces. Thegood news is that our staff has been fantastic:working long hours to save wet books, postingfrequent updates on the library blog, pagingbooks whenever possible, accelerating ILLprocessing, and responding to grumpy patronswith empathy and good cheer.

And though the floods have been destructive anddisruptive, we’re mindful that it could have beenmuch worse. What if all this happened justbefore final exams? And imagine if the repairedpipe had held for six months instead of six days.We’d have completed a long and costlyremediation process before going through it allagain.

Volume 38, Issue 2 (Fall 2011)

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Anna Cherry and Polly Snider

Zachary Taylor

Karen Westwood

MALL SUMMER PHOTO GALLERY

Volume 38, Issue 2 (Fall 2011)

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Bill Jack and family with Polly Snider

Mary Stainbrook-Tri and daughter Olivia

Chilling and grilling

Lisa

Harr

ington

Volume 38, Issue 2 (Fall 2011)

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DWI from the Defense Perspective: Presented by Peter J. Timmons, Esq.

: FreeDecember 14, 2011, 12:00PM-

1:00PM, Washington County Government Center.: Application has been made for 1 standard CLE

credit: Washington County Law Library

Early Neutral Evaluations: Presented by Dana McKenzie & Merlin Meinerts

: FreeNovember 8, 2011, 8:00AM-9:00AM,

Dakota County Western Service Center.: Application has been made for 1 standard CLE

credit: Dakota County Law Library

Effects of the New Federal Health Care Law OnFamily Law and Medicare Provisions

: Presented by Ronald B. Sieloff, Esq.: Free

September 28, 2011, 12:00PM-1:00PM, Washington County Government Center.

: Application has been made for 1 standard CLEcredit

: Washington County Law Library

Income Tax Returns of the Self-Employed: Presented by Amy Anderson, Assistant Ramsey

County Attorney: Free

November 17, 2011, 12:00PM-1:00PM, Jury Assembly Room, Judicial Center, HastingsMN

: Application has been made for 1 standard CLEcredit

: Dakota County Law Library

Journal of Law and Religion Symposium: When Faithand Law Collide: Revisiting Martin Luther King's "Letter fromBirmingham Jail"

: Presented by Judge Pamela Alexander, HarryBoyte, Marie Failinger, et. al

: $55.00; (10% Hamline Alumni discount)September 23, 2011, 1:30PM-

5:00PM, Kay Fredericks Room, Klas Center, HamlineUniversity School of Law.

: Application has been made for 1.25 CLE credits: Hamline University School of Law

Limited Scope Representation: Presented by John Del Vecchio

: FreeOctober 20, 2011, 12:00PM-

1:00PM, Jury Assembly Room, Judicial Center,Hastings MN

: Application has been made for 1 standardCLE credit

: Dakota County Law Library

Minnesota Supreme Court Update on Case Law: Presented by The Honorable Paul H.

Anderson, Associate Justice of the Minnesota SupremeCourt

: FreeJanuary 25, 2012, 12:00PM-

1:00PM, Washington County Government Center.: Application has been made for 1 standard

CLE credit: Washington County Law Library

The New Ignition Interlock Program: Presented by Jean Ryan, Office of Traffic

Safety: Free

September 22, 2011, 12:00PM-1:00PM, Jury Assembly Room, Judicial Center,Hastings MN

: 1 standard CLE credit: Dakota County Law Library

Sharing the Experience: Assisting the SelfRepresented Party

: Presented by John Del Vecchio, Esq.: Free

October 26, 2011, 12:00PM-1:00PM, Washington County Government Center.

: Application has been made for 1 standardCLE credit

: Washington County Law Library

Social Security Disability Law: Presented by Fay Fishman, Peterson &

Fishman PLLP: Free

December 15, 2011, 12:00PM-1:00PM, Jury Assembly Room, Judicial Center,Hastings MN

: Application has been made for 1 standardCLE credit

: Dakota County Law Library

CLE CORNER Andrea A. FraserLibrary Assistant

Faegre & Benson L.L.P.

Volume 38, Issue 2 (Fall 2011)

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In this webcast, the three principalsin the XC project will talk abouttheir participatory approach to thedesign and development of the

software and the XC metadata standard. They willreview the architecture of XC and demonstrate some ofits key features. The webcast will be designed forlibrary professionals who have familiarity with basic ILSsystems and common metadata formats

ACRL member: $50; ALA member: $75;Nonmember: $90; Student: $40; Group: $295

September 20, 2011, 1:00 –2:30 p.m. CST

Join Minitex Reference Outreach & Instruction staff inthis one-hour informational overview session as wediscuss how AskMN works, what it means to be aparticipating library, and what patrons see when theyuse the service and the type of service they receive.

Free September 23, 2011, 12:30-

1:30 p.m. CST; October 11, 2011 10:00-11:00 a.m.CST; November 1, 2011, 12:30-1:30 pm CST

Directed toward experienced copy catalogers, this four-part webinar series concentrates on the descriptiveportions of RDA-MARC bibliographic records forprinted textual monographs. We will look at RDA'sapproaches to various cataloging scenarios andcompare these to AACR2's methods.

$100 (residents of MN, ND, SD, WI); $120(nonresidents of MN, ND, SD, WI)

September 27, 30, 2011 &October 4, 10, 2011, 9:30 a.m.-12:00 p.m. CST

This webinar describes two less than full-levelcataloging options— minimal-level records andcore records—that can help you provide accessto those items in a timely manner. It definesminimal-level and core records, explores howthey can help you, clarifies when to create them,and details what to include in such records.

$25 (residents of MN, ND, SD, WI); $45(nonresidents of MN, ND, SD, WI)

September 28, 2011 10:30– 11:30 a.m. CST

Join Minitex Reference Outreach & Instruction forthis 30 minute webinar as we detail the newly

redesigned ELM Portal. Theredesign includesimprovements to increaseaccess points, alignMnKnows resourcefunctionality with ELM, anddeliver all-new functionality.

Free

September 29, 2011, 9:00 – 9:30 a.m. CST

This online seminar will explore new ways thatlibrarians can retool their instructionalapproaches to actively engage students in theprocess of information retrieval and knowledgecreation

ACRL member: $135; ALA member: $175;CACUL member: Can$195 (charges will bemade in U.S. dollars); Nonmember: $195;Student: $60

October 31 – November18, 2011

Upcoming Conferences Andrea A. FraserLibrary Assistant

Faegre & Benson L.L.P.

Volume 38, Issue 2 (Fall 2011)

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This webcast will define and promote SLcollaborations between librarians, faculty, studentsand community partners. Presenters will draw on theirown experiences to explore the connections betweeninformation literacy (IL) and SL.

ACRL member: $50; ALA member: $75;Nonmember: $90; Student: $40; Group: $295

October 4, 2011, 1:00 – 2:30p.m. CST

In this webcast, embedded librarians will describeexamples of successful embedded projects across therange of academic levels and departments, includingboth online and on-campus instruction. They willshare strategies for implementing, sustaining andassessing embedded librarianship.

ACRL member: $50; ALA member: $75;CACUL member: Can$90 (charges will be made inU.S. dollars); Nonmember: $90; Student: $40;Group: $295

October 25, 2011, 1:00 – 2:30p.m. CST

This class will show you how to use CatExpress tosearch for, edit, and export records and how to set ordelete holdings in WorldCat. It will also touch onsome options for customizing, CatExpress pricing,and sources for documentation and statistics

Free October 4, 2011, 1:30 – 2:30

p.m. CST; November 29, 2011, 1:00 – 2:00 p.m.CST; January 9, 2012, 11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. CST

This webinar will focus on searching the new platformincluding information on basic and advanced search,results list, faceted search options, document preview,several results management features, and MyResearch.

Free October 25, 2011, 12:00 –

1:00 p.m. CST; November 4, 2011, 9:00 –10:00 a.m. CST; December 13, 2011, 10:00 –11:00 a.m. CST

Directed toward experiencedcopy catalogers, this four-partwebinar series concentrateson the descriptive portions ofRDA-MARC bibliographicrecords for serials and othercontinuing resources. We willlook at RDA's approaches tovarious cataloging scenariosand compare these to

AACR2's methods $100.00 (residents of MN, ND, SD, WI;

$120.00 (nonresidents of MN, ND, SD, WI) October 19, 24, 27, 2011,

9:30 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. CST & November 2,2011, 9:30 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. CST

In this online session you will learn about someof the new and emerging technologies that arehaving an impact on learning and informationmanagement

ACRL member: $50; ALA member: $75;Nonmember: $90; Student: $40; Group:$295

November 1, 2011, 1:00 –2:30 p.m. CST

This webinar will discuss criteria for creating newrecords and demonstrate Connexion Client toolsthat can help you work faster and moreefficiently

Free November 3, 2011, 1:00 –

2:30 p.m. CST; February 2, 2012 10:30 a.m. –12:00 p.m. CST

Volume 38, Issue 2 (Fall 2011)

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Directed toward experienced copy catalogers, thisfour-part webinar series concentrates on thedescriptive portions of RDA-MARC bibliographicrecords for various audiovisual materials, such asvideorecordings, non-musical sound recordings, kits,and realia. We will look at RDA's approaches tovarious cataloging scenarios and compare these toAACR2's methods

$100.00 (residents of MN, ND, SD, WI;$120.00 (nonresidents of MN, ND, SD, WI)

November 9, 14, 17, & 222011, 9:30 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. CST

This webinar will discuss criteria for copy catalogingand demonstrate Connexion Client features that canhelp you edit faster and more efficiently

Free November 10 2011, 10:00 –

11:30 a.m. CST

This workshop provides instruction on how to useConnexion Client to perform searches and recordactions (i.e. setting & deleting holdings, exporting,creating labels) using batch processing

Free November 16, 2011, 2:00 –

3:00 p.m. CST

This session will take you through the EBSCOhostinterface, which is used with many other EBSCOresources, and searching in MasterFILE Premier

Free November 16, 2011, 10:00 –

11:00 a.m. CST

This two-part webinar gives participants an overviewof FRBR/FRAD, their concepts and terminology, and

how these in turn manifest themselves incataloging under RDA

$50.00 (residents of MN, ND, SD, WI ;$70.00 (nonresidents of MN, ND, SD, WI)

November 16 & 18, 2011,9:30 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. CST; December 19 &21, 2011, 9:30 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. CST

Directed towardexperienced copycatalogers, this four-part webinar seriesconcentrates on thedescriptive portions of

RDA-MARC bibliographic records for musicmaterials, such as musical sound recordings andprint music works. We will look at RDA'sapproaches to various cataloging scenarios andcompare these to AACR2's methods

$100.00 (residents of MN, ND, SD, WI;$120.00 (nonresidents of MN, ND, SD, WI)

December 1, 6, 9 & 142011, 9:30 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. CST

This webinar is intended as an introduction toCollection Analysis. It is not a training session,but it does provide participants with a quickoverview of how Collection Analysis can analyzea library's holdings, compare them with thecollections of other OCLC member libraries, andgenerate useful graphs and reports

$25.00 (residents of MN, ND, SD, WI);$45.00 (nonresidents of MN, ND, SD, WI)

December 5, 2011, 2:00 –3:15 p.m. CST

This session will cover ProQuest NewsstandComplete and searching the *new* ProQuestplatform. This database offers full-textnewspapers and allows for specific searchingthat includes locating favorable or unfavorable

Volume 38, Issue 2 (Fall 2011)

28

reviews of movies, books, restaurants, and more. Free

December 21, 2011, 10:00 –11:00 a.m. CST

In this online session, attendees will learn how to usedifferent communication styles to interact effectivelywith people across several library settings. A variety ofinterpersonal communication topics will be covered,including: basic communication skills, direct vs.indirect communication, conflict management, andprofessional relationship maintenance.

ACRL member: $50; ALA member: $75;Nonmember: $90; Student: $40; Group: $295

January 31, 2012, 1:00 – 2:30p.m. CST

In this four-week asynchronous online course, learnabout the lifecycle of library data from setting up itscollection to making decisions using this information.Topics covered include plotting commonly-gatheredstatistics over time and on the same chart in order tovisualize trends; an introduction to e-resources usestatistics; in introduction to using Google Analytics inlibraries; and an introduction to the analysis of librarycollections using ILS data.

ACRL member: $135; ALA member: $175;CACUL member: Can$195 (charges will be made inU.S. dollars); Nonmember: $195; Student: $60

February 13 – March 9, 2012

In this online session, discover how changes innational and international policy, the growth ofthe free culture movement, and the rapidevolution of technology are having big impactson libraries, and what you can do to help turnthe tide.

ACRL member: $50; ALA member: $75;Nonmember: $90; Student: $40; Group: $295

March 27, 2012, 1:00 –2:30 p.m. CST

Volume 38, Issue 2 (Fall 2011)

29

At its recently concluded 120th annualmeeting, the Uniform Law Commission(ULC) approved four new acts,including a new law that willauthenticate official state online legalmaterial.

The (UELMA) establishes an outcomes-

based, technology-neutral frameworkfor providing online legal material withthe same level of trustworthinesstraditionally provided by publication ina law book. Increasingly, stategovernments are publishing laws,statutes, agency rules, and court rulesand decisions online. Some states havealready eliminated publication of state-level legal material in books, offeringonly the online version.

The act requires that official electroniclegal material be:

, by providing amethod to determine that it isunaltered;

either in electronic orprint form; and

for use by the public ona permanent basis.

If a state preserves legal materialelectronically, it must provide for back-up and recovery, and ensure theintegrity and continuing usability of thematerial. After receiving the ULC’s seal

of approval, a uniform act isofficially promulgated forconsideration by the states, andlegislatures are urged to adopt it.

UELMA Follow-UpKarla Gedell,

Research LibrarianMinnesota Attorney General Library

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30

The member-to-member question for this issue was: What preparations did yourlibrary make for the recent Minnesota state government shutdown, and how did theshutdown affect you?

At the State Law Library we assumed, right up until the decision was made that theentire judicial branch was essential, that we might be shut down. Contingencyplans were discussed for everything from where all the mail we get every day wouldgo (there are still a lot of paper pocket parts and supplements in a library our size)to when to stop interlibrary loan and how to handle items that were circulating. Weused the news box on our webpage and our Twitter account to inform our usersabout the shutdown. One thing that we didn’t anticipate when the actual shutdownbegan was that capitol security would treat all the buildings on the capitol complexas closed. This meant that all security doors remained locked, including the doorsto the library. We had to get the doors separately programmed to allow the publicin.

writes:Ramsey County Law Library was approached by the Ramsey County Civil Courtsupervisor about backup for court services. We agreed to let the court specificallyrefer people to the law library in the event of a shutdown. The request came acouple of weeks before the deadline date, but the courts were then ruled anessential service, and their services continued. I know the court staff were very busymaking backup plans, and I was pleased that they considered the law library agood place to send people with legal information questions.

The other potential impact was on our revenues. If the court had shut down, therewould have been reduced collection of court fees and fines. The ongoing operationof the courts eliminated the need to address budget shortfalls. However, there werea few anxious moments when we had to imagine the overall impact on revenuesthat are already decreasing each year.

Member-to-Member QuestionAnna Cherry

Public Services Librarian &Publications Coordinator

Minnesota State Law Library

Volume 38, Issue 2 (Fall 2011)

31

, Washington County law librarian,has finished his coursework and received an MLISfrom St. Catherine University.

, Washington County law librarian,will be co-presenting at the MLA 2011 AnnualConference in Duluth on October 12, 2011. He and

, University of Minnesota Science andEngineering Library, will be discussing the topic,“Professional Social Media: Beyond the Buzz.” Learnhow libraries can support digital literacy instructionand inclusion efforts during economicallychallenging times.

started an internship at theWashington County Law Library on August 22. Sheis a practicing attorney who is transitioning careersand is attending St. Catherine University, working onher MLIS degree. –Brian R. Huffman

Jonathan BurnsRachel HawkinsCarolyn HubbellJanet KowitzKatie LeonardGerald McCabeMissy NoyesRuth PalomaMary Stainbrook-TriKimberly Wolenberg

The Warren E. Burger Library at William Mitchellhad a rough summer this year. Twice in July, thebuilding experienced damaging flooding. Check outtheir blog and these links to learn more and to seethe damage and clean up efforts.Blog posts:• Water Water Everywhere• When it Rains, it PoursPhotos:• Flood• Post-flood clean-up

(Katie) wasborn onMay 22,2011, toSusan andTomTrombley.Sheweighed 9pounds,15.5ouncesand was21 incheslong. Katie is enjoying lots of love and attentionfrom her parents and her siblings: Maggie, age nine;Eddie, age seven; Charlie, age six; and Frankie, agetwo and a half.

Congratulations to the following law librarians, whohave won this year's Unsung Heroes award from the

“This award is reserved for thestate’s most talented and dedicated legal supportprofessionals.” A luncheon in their honor was held atthe Hyatt Regency Hotel in downtown Minneapolison September 21. A special section of

highlighting this year’s honorees will bepublished September 26.

, William Mitchell College ofLaw (ret.)

, Leonard, Street, and DeinardSt. Louis County Law

Library in Duluth (ret.), Winthrop & Weinstine

, Faegre & Benson, Minnesota State Law

Library, Law Library Service to Prisoners

Member News

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The American Legal System

Secondary Legal Materials

Researching Case Law

Federal Statutory Law & Legislative Histories

Administrative Law

Minnesota Law & Legislative History

Intellectual Property Law

Disaster Law

Debtor-Creditor Law; Legal Researcher Ethics

Click here for full descriptions of sessions

Volume 38, Issue 2 (Fall 2011)

33

AALL AnnouncementsMary Ellen Bates Live: What Will theInformation Profession Look Like in TenYears? (87 minutes)

Free to AALL members.

Mary Ellen Bates is principal andfounder of Bates Information Services,a research and consulting company.

She is a frequent author and speaker on libraryand information topics. Bates raises manythought-provoking insights for our profession—some positive and others more sobering. Find outher perspectives on what will help our professionto endure.

Professional Legal Management Week (PLMW)provides a forum for recognizing those in legalmanagement for what they do and the roles theyplay in the success of their organizations. Seemore information at http://www.plmw.org/.

If you haven’t reached out to other law firmprofessionals, PLMW is the perfect time toask them to lunch or coffee. Get the conver-sation going and learn what’s on their mindsand how the library might help. As Octobergets closer, watch AALLNET for additionalsuggestions on how to celebrate the week.

The AALL 2011 will be

available to AALL members in mid-October.The survey will be available here.

This new edition is the only source for up-to-date information about salaries for lawlibrarians and other law library employees.Printed copies of the survey will be availablefor purchase and shipment in mid-October;$110 for AALL members and $175 fornonmembers (contact orders@aall.org). Anonline version of the survey results will befreely available to AALL on the MembersOnly Section of AALLNET.

The Fall MALL Business Meeting will take place Monday, October 17th, at the University of St. ThomasSchool of Law, located in downtown Minneapolis. Tentative schedule:

4:45-5:45 Registration, Tours of the Schoenecker Law Library, Mingling5:45-6:30 Dinner6:30-7:30 Program7:30-8:00 Business Meeting

More details to come later!Doris A. DingleyMALL Vice President/President-Elect

MALL Announcements

Volume 38, Issue 2 (Fall 2011)

34

The MALL Newsletter is the official publication of the Minnesota Association of Law Libraries, a chapter of the American Associationof Law Libraries. It is published four times per year and is a benefit of membership in MALL. Annual membership dues are $20US.Membership renewals are due by July 1 of each year. For membership information or change of address, contact: Liz Scheibel -escheibel@lindquist.com, 612.371.5762. To access MALL’s website click here. To subscribe to MALL’s members-only listserv, clickhere. To email the listserv, click here.

PresidentElizabeth Reppeliz.reppe@co.dakota.mn.us651.438.8244

Past PresidentPauline Afusopauline.afuso@thomsonreuters.com651.848.5941

ArchivesDennis Skradedennis.skrade@courts.state.mn.us651.297.2090

Awards, Grants, and ScholarshipsBarb Kalluskybkallusky01@hamline.edu651.523.2063

Consulting, Community OutreachTodd Fentontmfenton@umn.edu612.626.4236

DowntownersKathy Kellykjkelly@locklaw.com612.596.4035

EducationDoris Dingleydingleyda@gmail.com612.802.6401

ExchangeSusan Trombleysusan.trombley@courts.state.mn.us651.297.7659

Vice President/ President-ElectDoris Dingleydingleyda@gmail.com612.802.6401

Goverment RelationsMary Ann Van Curamaryann.vancura@state.mn.us651.582.8632

Legal Research InstituteBrian Huffmanbrian.huffman@co.washington.mn.us651.430.6954

MembershipLiz Scheibelescheibel@lindquist.com612.371.5762

NewsletterAnita Andersonanita.anderson@ag.state.mn.us651.757.1050

Karla Gedellkarla.gedell@ag.state.mn.us651.757.1055

NominationsPauline Afusopauline.afuso@thomsonreuters.com651.848.5941

Placement and RecruitmentKaren Westwoodkaren.westwood@wmitchell.edu651.695.7618

Public RelationsHope Porterhporter@merchantgould.com612.336.4666

PublicationsValerie Aggerbeckvraggerbeck@stthomas.edu651.983.2678

Tech Services SIGSusan Vossbergsvossberg01@hamline.edu651.523.2353

Web CommitteeJanelle Beitzjanelle.beitz@wmitchell.edu621.290.6455

Barb Minor, Webmasterbgminor@rkmc.com612.349.8758

Secretary-TreasurerAbby Waltersabby.walters@maslon.com612.672.8236

Member at LargeNeal Axtonnaxton@wmitchell.edu651.290.6374

2011-2012 MALL Officers

COMMITTEE CHAIRS