continued on page 3

LightsLawLibrary

LAW LIBRARIANS’ SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON, D.C., INC.

A CHAPTER OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF LAW LIBRARIES

volume 47, number 1 Fall 2003

This article was the basis for an AALL presenta-tion for which the author was a co-presenter. Theviews contained herein are those of the author andnot necessarily those of the Congressional ResearchService (CRS) or the Library of Congress.

THE MODERN FEDERAL BUDGET CYCLE consistsof two distinct phases that provide funding forthe next fiscal year of operations of the federalgovernment. These phases include the prepara-tion of agency budgets by the Executive Branch,including their submission by the President toCongress, and the congressional appropriationsprocess whereby Congress enacts appropriationsbills into law. This article will not go into detailto explain each step in the process but will pro-vide a broad overview of the process and identi-fy particularly helpful resources for researchersseeking to track the federal budget and trackappropriations bills developments. A bibliogra-phy appears at the end of this article listingresources cited in this report including publiclyor commercially available web sites, and sec-ondary print sources on the federal budget.Readers should be aware that CongressionalResearch Service publications cited in this arti-cle are not available directly from the Library ofCongress but may be requested by contactingtheir Member of Congress.

The Constitution in Article I grants thepower of the purse to Congress, but the modernbudget process is guided by two statutes enact-ed in the 20th century: the Budget and Account-ing Act of 1921 which requires the annual sub-mission of a proposed budget by the President,and the Congressional Budget and ImpoundmentControl Act of 1974. The 1921 Budget Actrequires the President to submit his proposedbudget to Congress for the coming federal fiscal

Dollars andSense of the

FederalBudget

Process: AnOverview of

the Processand Review

of SourcesTracking

the FederalBudget Year

Justin Murray, Congressional

Research ServiceLibrary of Congress

year by the first Monday in February. The bud-get is actually drafted by the federal agenciesand the Office of Management and Budget(OMB) over several months prior to the Presi-dent’s formal submission. More detail on thestructure and chronology of the process appearsin Stan Collender’s Guide to the Federal Budget,and Allen Schick’s Federal Budget: Politics, Poli-cy, Process. Authoritative CRS Reports includ-ing CRS Report RS20095, The CongressionalBudget Process: A Brief Overview, CRS Report98-472, The Congressional Budget ProcessTimetable and CRS Report 98-721, Introductionto the Federal Budget Process also provide similaroverview information. These publications con-tain useful discussion and definitions of bud-getary vocabulary and terms including federaloutlays, federal budget authority, outlays by func-tion, as well as discussion of notable conceptssuch as federal deficit, federal surplus, federal debtand background on the budget resolution.

THE PRESIDENT’S BUDGET SUBMISSIONThe President’s budget is submitted toCongress by the first Monday in February. TheBudget for Fiscal Year 2004 submitted in Febru-ary 2003 consisted of 5 volumes: The Budgetof the United States containing summary infor-mation and policy objectives of the Budgetsubmission, the Appendix, the Analytical Per-spectives, the Historical Tables, and the Perfor-mance Measures and Management Assessments.A CD-ROM disc the Budget of the United StatesCD-ROM containing all the volumes of thePresident’s budget is also published.

The Appendix volume is most useful for find-ing specific information on proposed funding lev-els for federal agencies and programs at the func-

Conference Round-Up

HELLO LIGHTS READERS, welcome to volume47! I’m pleased to be (okay, a polite exaggera-tion) the new Editor, and I welcome MatthewMantel as the new Assistant Editor.

After a few years of having themed issues,we have decided to go with the non-themetheme this year. That means this is your oppor-tunity to write that article you’ve been thinkingabout, but weren’t sure where it would fit in.Those of you I badgered into saying you wouldwrite for Lights this year at last spring’s ClosingBanquet especially need to be putting on yourthinking caps, because I will be contacting yousoon about a contribution to an upcoming issue.

In addition to our SIS and President’snews items, we have several new and continu-

ing columns. Susan Ryan will continue tobring us Eye on Serials, and Tanya Brown willcontinue our government relations column,GR Insider, that she began last year. TechTalk’s new author is Roger Skalbeck, while Jef-frey Freilich has taken over News of Membersduties. Sarah Nagel has started a new column,Miss Information, where she will offer tricks ofthe trade for reference.

We have also started some new series thisyear. Career Paths will have an interview for-mat with librarians who have taken non-tradi-tional positions. The ProBono Librarian willfeature public service activities with which ourmembers are involved. Contact Scott Larson,

Fall 2003

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table ofcontents

FEATUREs

Dollars and Sense of the Federal Budget Process: An Overview of the Process and Review of SourcesTracking the Federal Budget Year Justin Murray ....1

Law Made Public Beverly Rubenstein..................7

Meeting in Toronto—Attack of the Librarians Iris M. Lee ................................................8

The Convention – First Person Account of a New Local Librarian Rita Kaiser.....................10

The Special Libraries Association Conference in New York City - “Putting Knowledge to Work” Jeffrey R. Stickle...............................12

Offer Up The Swag @ your Library: The AALL Annual Conference Vendor Loot Wrap-up Abigail Ellsworth Ross ................15

Teaching Old and New Dogs Reference InterviewTricks Sarah Nagel ....................................16

The Trials of Trademark Research Abigail Ellsworth Ross ..................................17

Web Search U. Tricia Peavler ........................18

VLA and VALL to Hold Joint Conference Jill Burr ....................................................19

FDA 101: Introduction to Research Relating to theFood and Drug Administration Jennifer Korpacz .20

In Memoriam: Nancy Crossed Mike Petit..........25

The Proposal for a Community Patent Systemin the European Union Sarah E. Jones..............26

Law Library Lights is published quarterly by the Law Librarians’ Society of Washington, DC Inc. 20009, ISSN 0546-2483.Subsciption Rates: Nonmembers (outside Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia): $35/volume, $15 single issue. Send subscription requests and

correspondence to: Law Librarians’ Society of Washington, D.C., Inc. 8727A Cooper Road, Alexandria, VA 22309. Attn. Lights Subscriptions. Subscriptions arealso available through F.W. Faxon Co. and EBSCO.

Membership dues include a subscription to Law Library Lights. For Membership information, contact the Membership Committee Chair, 8727A CooperRoad, Alexandria, VA 22309. The Law Librarians’ Society of Washington, D.C., Inc. does not assume any responsibility for the statements advanced by contrib-utors to, nor the advertisers in, Law Library Lights. The views expressed herein are those of the individual authors and do not constitute an endorsement by theLaw Librarians’ Society of Washington, D.C., Inc.

advertisers

Alert Publications 30

BNA 11

CAL INFO 33

InfoCurrent 9

Hein 23

Printed on recycled paper

Editor’sColumn

Tricia PeavlerJenner & Block

Lexis-Nexis 35

Office Movers 19

Trak Legal 14

Washington Express 29

COLUMNS

Editor’s Column Tricia Peavler....................................2

President’s Column Scott Larson..............................36

Board Meeting Summary Barbara Folensbee-Moore37

Legislative Research SIS News Christine Ciambella 38

Academic Law Libraries SIS News Iris Lee .............38

Federal Law Librarians SIS News Joan Sherer.........39

Miss Information Sarah Nagel ...................................40

Foreign and Int’l Law/SIS News Herb Somers .........41

Private Law Library/SIS News Jennifer Korpacz .......41

News of Members JeffreyFreilich ...........................42

Eye on Serials Susan Ryan.....................................42GR Insider Tanya S. Brown..........................43

continued on page 9

The Pro Bono Librarian: Walking Out of a Cave withArmfuls of Books: Pro-Bono Work, Library StyleDr. James H. Walther and Sarah Nagel..............30

Treasurer’s Report for 2002-2003 Fiscal YearStephen Mellin...........................................31

Tech Talk: Technology Bunny Hop: Two Bits Forward and One Byte Back Roger V. Skalbeck....32

Career Paths: An interview with Rachel Jones ..34

Fall 2003

3

tion level. This volume is designed for use by theHouse and Senate Appropriations committeesfor preparation of the appropriation bills and isan essential reference tool for comparison of bud-get data between the current year, estimated suc-cessive years, and historical data back to 1940 orearlier for federal spending by program and func-tion as well as federal revenues, federal debt, etc.

The printed budget publications are avail-able for purchase from the Government PrintingOffice (GPO) or available for free via two federalInternet sites on the budget offered by the OMBat http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/fy2004/index.html and by the GPO at http://www.access.gpo.gov/usbudget/fy2004/maindown.html. A word search facility where users cansearch across all of the annual budget volumes byword or federal program is available at http://www.access.gpo.gov/usbudget/fy2004/fy2004_srch.html. More information on how to obtainthe President’s Budget volumes and related pub-lications is available in CRS Report RS21456,FY2004 Budget Documents: Internet Access andGPO Availability or from the GPO U.S. Budgetweb site http://www.access.gpo.gov/usbudget.

A WORD ABOUT MANDATORY ANDDISCRETIONARY SPENDINGBefore discussing the actual Congressionalappropriations process it is important to notethe two different kinds of federal spending,mandatory spending and discretionary spending.Mandatory spending consists of required federalspending enacted into law on a continuing basisand includes spending on programs such asSocial Security and Medicare, the payment offederal salaries, other federal entitlement pro-grams, and net interest annually paid on the fed-eral debt. Discretionary spending consists of allother federal spending which is at the discretionof the Congress on an annual basis through thethirteen appropriation bills. A comparison ofthe distribution of total federal outlays (spend-ing) for mandatory programs and total spendingfor discretionary programs in tables 1.1 and 1.2of the Historical Tables Budget volume showsthat from FY1962 to FY2002 mandatory outlayshave increased from approximately 32.5% oftotal federal spending in FY1962 to 63.5% oftotal federal spending in FY2002. The growthin mandatory spending is conversely reflected inthe shrinking of federal discretionary spending,which in FY1962 comprised 67.5% of the feder-al budget, but had shrunk to 36.5% of the feder-

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 al budget by FY2002. Congressional debate onappropriations funding during recent fiscal yearshas therefore focused on a smaller and smallerpiece of the total amount of federal spending.Another interesting point to note is that of the36.5% of the federal budget that constituted dis-cretionary spending by FY2002, approximately17.4%, or almost half of that amount, was pro-vided for spending on defense programs, whichhave become an important policy objective inlight of recent world events.

THE CONGRESSIONAL APPROPRIATIONSPROCESS AND RESOURCES TO TRACK ITThe drafting of thirteen appropriations bills bythe House and Senate Appropriations Commit-tees follows the submission of the President’s pro-posed budget and the framing of recommendedlevels of federal spending in a congressional bud-get resolution agreement drafted by the Houseand Senate Budget Committee. The agreementis not signed by the President but is passed by thefull House and Senate by April each year. Thebudget resolution allocates funding levels to theHouse and Senate Appropriations Committeesand the Appropriations Committees then allo-cate funding levels to thirteen subcommitteescorresponding to each appropriations measure,usually referred to as the 302(b) allocation. Sincethe creation of the Department of HomelandSecurity in 2002, the previously separated Trea-sury and Transportation appropriations bills werecombined into one appropriation and a Home-land Security appropriation was added for Fiscal2004. Both the House and Senate Appropria-tions Committees maintain informative web sitesat http://www.house.gov/ appropriations andhttp://www.senate.gov/ ~budget/republican.These sites contain schedules of hearings at thesubcommittee and committee level includingtestimony, press releases, and majority andminority publications providing backgroundinformation and insight into the direction ofeach appropriations bill.

Once draft appropriations bills have beenmarked up in their respective subcommittees,they proceed to the full Appropriations Commit-tee markup. Unlike other legislative measures,appropriations bills and committee reports arenot made available until the bill is formallyreported out from the full Appropriations Com-mittee. One legislative web site, the THOMASSTATUS OF APPROPRIATIONS site brings togeth-er the full text all Appropriations Committeereports, roll call votes, and versions of the appro-priations bills as they evolve during the process.

“The Appendixvolume is mostuseful for finding specificinformation onproposed fundinglevels for federalagencies and programs at thefunction level.”

Fall 2003

4

It is an essential tool for tracking the evolutionof appropriations through final passage of eachbill and is updated daily as developments unfold.Users can connect to http://thomas.loc.gov andscroll down to the link for the STATUS OF

APPROPRIATIONS BILLS table to track the latestdevelopments and obtain access to these essen-tial documents. Similar commercial versions ofthe Status of Appropriations table are availablefrom subscription web sites such as CongressionalQuarterly’s CQ.com cited at the end of this arti-cle that contain enhancements such as links toanalytical articles on developments.

OMNIBUS APPROPRIATIONS BILLS, CONTINUING RESOLUTIONS, SUPPLEMENTALAPPROPRIATIONS BILLS, AND EARMARKFUNDING PROVISIONSThe appropriations process by design culminatesin the enactment of each appropriations bill bythe start of the fiscal year on October 1. Sincethe measures are must-pass pieces of legislationhowever, riders are frequently added to appro-priations bills during the process to allow thoseindividual non-appropriations provisions a bet-ter chance of being enacted. This practice usu-ally delays final passage of appropriations mea-sures beyond October 1. In order to keep federalagencies operating when the new fiscal yearbegins and new appropriations have not beenenacted, Congress passes CONTINUING RESOLU-TIONS or “CRs” which continue to fund federalagencies and their programs at the previousyears level of spending. Continuing resolutionsare frequently referred to as “stopgap” measuresby the media and can be tracked via Status ofAppropriations tables mentioned above.

If an appropriations cycle yields severalcontentious bills, Congress can negotiate largeappropriations measures, folding more thanone or several appropriations measures intoone bill. Legislators are confronted with theprospect of not enacting a large number of pro-grams if they choose to oppose particular provi-sions of these large bills by voting against thebill’s passage. These large amalgamated bills areknown as OMNIBUS APPROPRIATIONS bills orare sometimes called CONSOLIDATED APPRO-PRIATIONS measures and may be enacted longafter the start of the new fiscal year. Omnibusbills can be tracked on the THOMAS Status ofAppropriations table but the full text of thecommittee conference report, voted on at finalpassage by the House and the Senate, oftenmay not appear in the Congressional Record forseveral days or even weeks. An essential tool in

tracking these complex and large bills is theNote field in the bill summary and status dis-play (legislative tracking) in THOMAS. Thisfield often refers to House Rules Committeerulings http://www.house.gov/rules and deci-sions, which are used to govern the debate ofappropriations bills, and can often be the firstplace to obtain versions of an appropriationsmeasure brought to a vote late in the processsuch as during final floor passage.

SUPPLEMENTAL APPROPRIATIONS mea-sures are enacted during the new fiscal year toprovide emergency funding for particular needsunforeseen during the regular appropriationscycle, such as earthquake or hurricane disasterrelief, firefighting, or military activities duringarmed conflicts. The Emergency SupplementalAppropriations Act of 2001, Public Law 107-38which was passed soon after the terrorist attacksof September 11, 2001, is a good example ofurgently needed appropriations funding passedin supplemental appropriations measures.

An EARMARK is a term sometimes used todescribe funding for a specific provision insert-ed into an appropriations bill. Earmark provi-sions can be added at any point during the con-sideration of a particular appropriation but arecommonly unrelated to the scope of the appro-priation itself. These sometimes controversialinsertions are usually requested by individualmembers of Congress to target specific fundingamounts to specific areas or local programs. Onone hand a supporter of such a provision mayclaim that the provision is required to providevital funding for a district or constituency,while opponents of the provision of earmarkingin general claim that the insertion of earmarkprovisions annually add millions of dollars inunnecessary and wasteful spending to federalappropriations measures.

ANALYTICAL TOOLS ON THE FEDERALBUDGET AND APPROPRIATIONS PROCESSTwo federal departments whose addresses appearin the bibliography below provide analysis of thePresident’s Budget and Congressional Appropri-ations as chartered under federal budget statutes.As noted above the Office of Management andBudget (OMB) not only produces the Presi-dent’s Budget but also creates analytical publica-tions throughout the year such as the Mid-Ses-sion Review issued in July 2003. The Congres-sional Budget Office (CBO) provides cost esti-mates of non-appropriations bills and appropria-tion measures, the Budget and Economic Outlookin January and Budget and Economic Outlook: An

“If an appropria-tions cycle

yields severalcontentious

bills, Congresscan negotiate

large appropria-tions measures,

folding morethan one or

several appropri-ations measures

into one bill.”

Fall 2003

5

Update in late summer as well as many analyticalpublications throughout the year.

In addition to the OMB, CBO and severalnon-governmental Internet sites and organiza-tions noted in the bibliography below, threecommercial subscription web sites provideexcellent day-by-day analytical coverage ofBudget developments: the Bureau of NationalAffairs (BNA) Daily Report for Executives, Con-gressional Quarterly’s CQ.com, and NationalJournal Web site. Information on subscriptionprices and options are available for theseonline publications at the URLs listed in thebibliography below.

BOOKS ON BUDGET AND APPROPRIATIONSCollender, Stan. Guide the Federal Budget, Fis-cal Year 1998. Washington, D.C.: Rowman &Littlefield, 1997.

Munson, Richard. Cardinals of Capitol Hill: TheMen and Women Who Control GovernmentSpending. New York: Grove Press, 1993.

Schick, Allen. Federal Budget: Politics, Policy,Process. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institu-tion Press, 2000.

Wildavsky, Aaron. New Politics of the BudgetaryProcess. New York: Addison Wesley/Longman.2003.

Wetterau, Bruce. Congressional Quarterly’s DeskReference on the Federal Budget: Over 500Uncomplicated Answers to Questions about Taxesand Spending. Washington, D.C.: Congression-al Quarterly, 1998. See also, CongressionalQuarterly’s CQ Daily, CQ Weekly , CQAlmanacs and CQ Congress and the Nation. ■

FEDERAL INTERNET SITES

THOMAS (Library of Congress) http://thomas.loc.gov/

Scroll down page to view Status Table of Appropriation Bills (FY1999 to Present)

Full-Text Appropriation Bills, http://www.access.gpo.gov/congress/Texts, Laws, FY1997-Current legislation/appro.html

House Appropriations Committee http://www.house.gov/appropriations/

House Budget Committee http://www.house.gov/budget/

House Rules Committee http://www.house.gov/rules

Senate Appropriations Committee http://appropriations.senate.gov

Senate Budget Committee http://www.senate.gov/~budget/republican/

Congressional Budget Office (CBO). http://www.cbo.gov

Access to estimates to Congress on the cost of legislation, the state of the economy, and budgetanalysis. Major publications include the Budget and Economic Outlook issued in January and anUpdate issued in July or August. Other publications include an Analysis of the President’s Budget,Budget Options, and the Monthly Budget Review.

President’s Budget Documents, FY1996-Present http://w3.access.gpo.gov/usbudget/index.html

Office of Management & Budget http://www.whitehouse. gov/omb/(OMB).

Access to the President’s Budget documents (issued by the first Monday in February) and OMBanalysis of the budget and the economy such as the OMB Mid-Session Review, (usually issued inAugust). The Mid-Session Review contains updated OMB estimates and projections of federaldeficits.

U.S. Treasury Tax Policy Office http://www.ustreas.gov/offices/tax-policy/index.html

continued on page 6

6

Fall 2003

FEDERAL AGENCY BUDGET WEBSITES

Agriculture http://www.usda.gov/agency/obpa/Home-Page/ obpa.html

Commerce http://www.osec.doc.gov/bmi/budget/

Defense http://www.dod.mil/comptroller/budgetindex.html

Education http://www.ed.gov/offices/OUS/Budget04/index.html

Energy http://www.cfo.doe.gov/budget/04budget/index.htm

HHS http://www.hhs.gov/budget/docbudget.htm

Homeland Security http://www.dhs.gov/dhspublic/display?theme=12

HUD http://www.hud.gov/about/budget/ahmngt.cfm

Interior http://www.doi.gov/budget/2004/04Hilites/toc. html#APPENDICES

Justice http://www.usdoj.gov/jmd/2004summary/

Labor http://www.dol.gov/_sec/budget2004/overview.htm

State http://www.state.gov/m/rm/rls/bib

Transportation http://www.dot.gov/bib2004/bibindex.html

Treasury http://www.treas.gov/offices/management/budget/ budgetinbrief/fy2004/index.html

Veterans Affairs http://www.va.gov/budget/summary/index.htm

INTERNET SITES

American Enterprise Institute http://www.aei.org

Brookings Institution http://www.brook.edu

Center on Budget and Policy Priorities http://www.cbpp.org

Citizen’s Against Government Waste http://www.cagw.org

Citizen’s for Tax Justice http://www.ctj.org

OMB Watch http://www.ombwatch.org

Tax Policy Center http://www.taxpolicycenter.org

Tax Foundation http://www.taxfoundation.org

SUBSCRIPTION BASED WEBSITES

Bureau of National Affairs (BNA) http://www.bna.comDaily Report for Executives.

The BNA publication Daily Report for Executives contains excellent coverage of daily events involving federal budget and appropriations developments.

Congressional Quarterly CQ.com. http://www.cq.com/

Provides access to the CQ Daily, Weekly, Appropriations Budget Tracker, CQ Appropriations Status Table and other online publications, news articles on legislative developments includingappropriations and budget.

National Journal. http://nationaljournal.com/about/

Provides access to Congress Daily, National Journal, Stan Collender’s weekly “Budget Battles” column, Hotline, and other legislative tracking news.

Fall 2003

7

I HAVE ATTENDED EIGHTEEN AALL ANNUALMEETINGS and there are many highlights thatremain in my memory – the closing banquet inNew Orleans with its mini Mardi Gras parade;the indoor carnival, with bumper cars, at theWest party in Minneapolis; the Capitol Stepsperforming in Washington. However, the 2003meeting in Seattle is memorable as one inwhich the educational programs were betterthan the parties. One of the best that I attendedwas entitled “Law Made Public: Teaching BasicLegal Research to Pro Pers, Paralegals, NewAssociates and All Others in Between,” pre-sented by Amy Hale Janeke and Judith Lihositof the San Diego County Public Law Library.

At the Attorney General’s Office, we donot have pro ses although the library doesreceive phone calls from the public asking forinformation/legal advice and, of course, likeevery other law librarian in the country, or per-haps the world, I have my pen pals from thecorrectional institutions. But I do teach classesto the support staff, the summer law clerks andeven to the attorneys on occasion. As the titleof this program suggests, it gives valuable guid-ance to anyone teaching legal research.

Amy started by saying that law librarianscite many different reasons for avoiding teach-ing legal research to the public (lack of time,shortage of staff, the difficulty of knowing whatto teach and how to promote the classes) butthese problems seem minor compared with theproblem of pro se litigants flooding the courtsand law libraries. Surprisingly, many of thesepro ses have some college education and chooseto represent themselves because they are scaredof or frustrated with the legal system. Legalresearch classes show them how the legal sys-tem works and how to do their own research.The classes are valuable for other groups as well— new associates and law students do not knowhow to use books and are unused to research inthe real world; paralegals, clerks and secretariesbecome more marketable if they know how todo real research; court personnel learn whatthey are asking people to do when they sendthem to the law library for help.

They started with a basic introductoryclass which included information on what lawlibrarians can and cannot do, finding state andfederal laws and cases, Shepardizing, localforms and rules and finding free legal sourcesonline. They charge a small fee ($5.00)because people are more likely to attend if theyhave paid for a service, permit a maximum of15 people and schedule classes that last no

longer than two or three hours and take placein the evenings when working people canattend. About one-third of the attendees go nofurther than the basic class, about one-thirdtake an advanced class (pre-trial procedures,appeals) and another one-third decide to hire alawyer (the last helps to deflect attorneys whodo not approve of the concept).

Amy ended her presentation by telling oflessons she learned the hard way, from whatseem the most obvious (remind the attendeesto bring a pen and paper) to the most practical(“patrons can only sign up when they havepaid the fee – no matter how much they beg!”)to the most valuable (do not, under any cir-cumstances, allow students to ask questionsspecific to their case).

The librarians at the San Diego CountyPublic Law Library started small by developingcurriculum while working at the referencedesk. Later they applied for and received LSTAgrants which enabled them to expand theclasses and hire substitute librarians. Judithspoke about the advanced and specialized class-es they are also presenting. A class on pre-trialprocedures teaches attendees how to prepareand serve a complaint and how to prepareforms and motions. There is even a class oncivil appeals – this one lasts five hours – whichleads the student through each step of anappeal in California. Plans for future classesinclude one on finding legal resources in Span-ish and a Train the Trainer class designed forother law librarians in California.

Perhaps it is the right side/left side theorythat makes my eyes glaze over when I hear phras-es like “knowledge management” and “semanticweb.” I like programs that are practical anddown-to-earth and give me ideas that I can usein my own life. I am evidently not the only one.Due to popular demand, Amy has placed thematerials from her presentation on the web athttp://www.sdcll.org/presentations.htm ■

Law MadePublic

Beverly RubensteinMaryland Attorney General’s Office

“...Seattle is memorable as one in which the educationalprograms werebetter than the parties.”

lights deadline

If you would like to write forLights, please contact Tricia Peavler atlights@llsdc.org. For the most up-to-dateinformation regarding the 2003-2004 sub-mission deadlines, check the LLSDC Website at http://www.llsdc.org.

Fall 2003

8

AN ALA ANNUAL CONFERENCE is an order-ly bombardment of equality minded zealotsdescending upon an American city for one glo-rious week in June. The question I seek toanswer for you is, “Does this invading forcecreate heaven on earth for the literati or hellfor those who just want to get to their nextmeeting before the room is filled to capacity.”As I have a love-hate relationship with theALA Conference, I may be objective enoughto answer that question. The conference is justso large that participating in it can be a logisti-cal headache. However, the fact that it is thebehemoth of conferences for the library worldis what makes ALA’s meeting unsurpassed inproviding opportunities for professional educa-tion, training and networking.

It seemed to me that this year’s conferencewas a little smaller than previous ALA confer-ences that I have attended in New York and SanFrancisco. Perhaps the constant coverage of theSARS epidemic, which remained in the head-lines right up to the beginning of the conference,decreased attendance somewhat. None of theprograms I attended were so packed that the sitemanager had to threaten to call the fire marshalto get the 50 or 60 people who could not get intothe meeting room to move away from the door ashappened in San Francisco. Even so, over 17,500people attended the conference.

While such a large conference is great for anassociation that depends upon the gathering fora significant percentage of its income, severallogistical problems are inherent. This year therewere 29 conference hotels; even so, getting aroom in a conference hotel was difficult. Withina couple of weeks of the travel desk opening, aroom for several days in a conference hotel wasimpossibly hard to come by. And if you cared notto be in the most expensive hotels, which ranover $200/night, or in the hotels that were fur-thest away, you had to forget about staying in aconference hotel at all. Six weeks before theconference, when the SARS hysteria was at itszenith, I had a really hard time finding a hotelroom anywhere in Toronto.

As in the past, the conference hotels werenot limited to the area around the conventioncenter. Hotels located in various areas ofToronto were selected as official conferencehotels. For attendees, like me, who stayed inthe hotels that were not within walking dis-tance of the convention center or headquartershotels, each day began with a ride on a shuttlebus or the Toronto subway to the conventioncenter. Over the years, I have found that it is

Meeting inToronto-

Attack of theLibrarians

Iris M. LeeThe George Washington University Law Library

essential to begin each day by checking thecancellation and schedule changes column ofthe conference newspaper to avoid wasting alot of time later in the day.

The size of the conference not only affectsthe dispersal of lodgings, but the conference pro-grams are also spread throughout the city. Nosingle convention site is large enough to hold allof the more than 2000 meetings, programs anddiscussion groups that take place at an ALAAnnual Conference. Consequently, most atten-dees spend a good part of their time on shuttlebuses moving from one convention site toanother, even if their hotel is located near theconvention center. If a meeting in one part oftown is canceled without advance notice, it islikely that you will have to take a bus back tothe convention center, and then another bus toanother section of town to arrive at an alterna-tive program of interest. Hence, the importanceof checking the cancellation and schedulechange column in the conference newspapereach morning before venturing out to programs.

Even though the association decided not tocancel or move the conference out of Toronto,many programs were cancelled. One day all ofmy first choice and a couple of my secondchoice programs were cancelled. I noted that ofthe 14 canceled programs that I had hoped toattend only two were programs to be lead bylibrarians. In general, librarians showed up withtheir typical enthusiasm for service and zealoussupport for equal access to information.

As I said in the opening I have a love-haterelationship with the ALA conference. Thelarge size of the conference is both its biggestdrawback and greatest strength. In numbers,not only is there strength, there is also a greatdiversity of interests. Looking through the con-ference’s massive program, I had no fear of see-ing some of oft-performed AALL offerings like“From Nutshells to Netscape Redux Part 15.”

Of course ALA programming delves intotopics that cannot be expected to be covered byan association limited to the law libraries. How-ever, it is not only the breadth of programming,but also the depth of coverage that makes thisconference a great opportunity for any librarian.The Toronto conference included full day tracksof programs in various areas of librarianship suchas copyright, intellectual freedom, staff develop-ment, administration, digital information, tech-nical services and user services. Keynote and ple-nary session speakers included Gloria Steinem,Eleanor Smeal, Ralph Nader and Naomi Klein.As long as your definition of diversity is limited

Fall 2003

9

to the left side of the socio-political spectrum,the ALA conference always offers plenty of pro-grams and activities to suit your interests. So oneanswer to the heaven or hell question is nowclear: the ALA Conference is a liberal heaven,conservatives need not attend at all.

Unlike AALL, ALA members haveembraced corporate sponsorship without reser-vation. The conference newspaper is dominatedby corporate advertisements with more than50% of the space in each edition devoted to ads.The large number of exhibitors had to be splitbetween two halls on opposite ends of the con-vention center. And the exhibitors were gener-ous with the trinkets, too. The most sought afterfreebie went to children’s and school librarians.Scholastic, the publisher of the Harry Potterseries, gave away copies of the newest book inthe series at a huge party the night of the book’srelease. As law librarians are of little conse-quence at this conference, I did not score ticketsto the Harry Potter party nor could I afford tick-ets to any other fabulous events with best sellingauthors or renowned social commentators.

Hot issues of the conference included criti-cism of the Supreme Court decision upholdingthe constitutionality of the Children’s InternetProtection Act. After seeing other attempts toenforce filtering struck down by the Court inthe past, the director of the association’s Officefor Intellectual Freedom was surprised by thedecision. In her opinion, the justices seemed tonot completely understand the technical issuesinvolved in activating and deactivating filter-ing devices for patrons of various ages. Otherbig issues of the conference were the reportsand meetings of the task force established tostudy ways to increase the pay of library work-ers. The Task Forces held several programs andmeetings throughout the conference. Opposi-tion to the USA PATRIOT Act in general andits requirements upon libraries in particular wasanother important topic discussed at the con-ference. Finally, the ubiquitous budget cuts thatare impacting the ability of libraries of all sizesand types to meet patron needs were addressedin some aspect in most programs.

My primary reason for attending the ALAconference this year was for training. I havebeen selected to serve as a reviewer for ALA’saccreditation review of the library schools. Thestaff of the Office on Accreditation stronglysuggests that reviewers attend training as oftenas possible and at least every two or threeyears. I decided to attend this year’s conferencedespite the threat of SARS. As training for

external reviewers is held only at the ALAAnnual Conference, missing this year’s train-ing would have meant that I would have toattend the conference in Orlando next sum-mer. While I would hesitate to call Orlando, orany other place, hell, having to go there in lateJune for work is clearly a punishment. As thecity has no late night bookstores, it may be jus-tifiably called hell for librarians. ■

LLSDC president, or me if you have an activityyou would like to see covered. We will alsohave a series of articles covering researchingwith various federal agencies. The first entry isthis issue’s article on the FDA written by Jen-nifer Korpacz, who did such a terrific job as lastyear’s Lights Editor. Thanks to Jennifer for allher hard work as editor and her willingness tocontinue contributing to the success of Lights.

This is your publication. Our greateststrength as librarians comes from our willing-ness to share our knowledge with others.Please consider contributing an article, andyou too can see your name in Lights. ■

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 2

infocurrent ad

I HAVE BEEN IN THE SEATTLE AREA NOWFOR THREE YEARS. Prior to my move, I spenttwelve years in Washington, D.C., with ten ofthose years at McKenna & Cuneo – nowMcKenna, Long & Aldrich, LLP. When theAALL convention came to Washington, D.C.in 1999, I was the co-chair of the HospitalityCommittee for our Local Arrangements. It wasan experience I never forgot, so when I heardthat AALL was coming to Seattle I knew whatthe local society, the Law Librarians of PugetSound, was in for. Amy Eaton and KatherineFoster served as the Local Arrangements co-chairs and they started asking for help. JeanHolcomb, the Library Director for the KingCounty Law Library, the institution I now callhome, volunteered to be the chair for Registra-tion and most of us on her staff volunteered forthis committee. Rita Dermody, the CollectionAccess Librarian, and I ended up as part of thiscommittee and together with Betsy Chessler ofPerkins, Coie, we became the Bag StuffingSub-committee.

As the Law Librarians of Puget Sound is asmall organization of around one hundredmembers, we knew it was going to be a chal-lenge to recruit volunteers for this most inter-esting of assignments. Ann Hemmens, theVolunteer Chairman for Local Arrangements,started sending names of those who couldhelp. We knew that we would need at leastthirty volunteers. I created a group emailaddress and started requesting help. I keptasking Ann for more names as we got closer tothe deadline and found out that there mightbe a record number of attendees for the con-ference. Let’s face it, Seattle in July is one ofthe best places on earth! We Seattle residentsalways tell visitors about the January, Febru-ary and March non-stop rain so they won’tconsider moving here. We do not mentionthat the rain is usually of the mist variety andnot all that cold.

When the date for stuffing the bags came,we had 45 volunteers for the stuffing, includinglibrarian friends who came to town early andformer Seattle residents. We started the stuff-ing at 9:00 A.M. While the bags the Bureau ofNational Affairs provided were some of thebest I have seen, they had two problems. First,the bags had a flap that we had to open beforewe could put anything into it and second, thestrap had a piece of paper taped to it that wehad to remove. We set up two long tables withroom for volunteers to walk down each sidepicking up the materials. At the end of each

table other volunteers waited to place thematerial in the bags and hand them to thestackers. Our stackers were the best, two Billsand a Gail (Bill Logan, Bill Kirchoff and GailWarren). Rita Dermody and Betsy Chesslerhad everything ready for the lunchbreak, andspent much of the morning keeping everyoneorganized and supplied. Rita even labeled thelunches and Betsy had readied the directions tolunch as a bookmark. All the volunteersworked as quickly and efficiently as possible.So many helped that I cannot even try to men-tion each by name. We had a marvelous con-tingent of University of Washington LawSchool librarians and most of the firm librari-ans and their staffs.

With all these great people, we did theimpossible. We finished the bag stuffing in alittle over two hours! According to others, thismay be a new record. I know I thought it wasan amazing feat.

Then it was on to training for Registrationand the beginning of the convention. I sawmany old friends at the beginning of the con-vention and enjoyed visiting with them. Asthe King County Law Library had a tour sched-uled for Monday, I spent my Monday back inour library, so I missed all the Monday pro-grams. Tuesday I spent the morning in ourbranch library at the Regional Justice Centerin Kent. That afternoon I joined Jean Hol-comb, our Director, to give a presentation onModel Reference Behaviors, as taught by RalphGers and Nancy Bolin of Transform, Inc. Ourlibrary had sent our staff members to theirtraining and then implemented the system inour library. By the way, it really works.

On Wednesday, I actually got to go theconvention. However, as luck would have it, Imanaged to catch the skirt of my dress in anescalator on my way from the bus tunnel. As ahuge black streak now appeared on the back ofmy dress, I needed to find something else towear. I visited Nordstrom’s and came outwearing a new dress, exactly like my old onebut in another color. Then I ran into anotherold friend and had lunch with him. RickStroup, Kim Ositis and I presented in theafternoon. After we were finished our pro-gram, I attended two other programs. Theywere the first ones I managed to see and theconvention was over.

Therefore, as you can see, it can be interest-ing to be living in the host city. But, if you wantto get the full conference experience, it is muchbetter to be in a city that is not your own. ■

TheConvention –

First PersonAccount of a

New LocalLibrarian

Rita KaiserKing County Law Library

Seattle, WA

Fall 2003

10

“...if you want to get the full

conference experience, it is

much better to bein a city that isnot your own.”

bna ad

The SpecialLibraries

AssociationConference

in New YorkCity —

“PuttingKnowledge

to Work”

Jeffrey R. StickleMCI Law Library

Past Chair, SLA LegalDivision

Fall 2003

12

PLANNING LEGAL DIVISION ACTIVITIESIn June the Special Libraries Association (SLA)held their 94th annual conference in New YorkCity. SLA has over 12,000 members and 23divisions representing members interested inspecific subject areas. The Legal Division is oneof the largest of these divisions. As Chair of theLegal Division I have a unique perspective ofthe conference experience as I was responsiblefor planning all the activities of the Division atthe conference. I was not alone in this task asthere was an array of volunteers who helpedmake the Legal Division activities a success.

A tremendous amount of work goes intostaging any conference. With an organizationthe size of SLA, representing so many diverseinformation professionals, the planningrequires the coordination of many people. Ifyou have an opportunity to become involvedin planning a conference you should take it. Itis quite an educational experience to learn thelevel of detail that is required to launch a suc-cessful conference. It also is an opportunity towork with dedicated professionals who aim toadvance the library/information profession.

Overall organization of the SLA annualconference is the charge of a conference plan-ning committee. They set the general theme ofthe conference and work with the volunteers,Board of Directors, and headquarters staff on thedetails of the conference. While there are manyvolunteers from the divisions to address a divi-sion’s programming, the bulk of the organizationof the physical details of the conference falls toheadquarters staff. They did an outstanding jobin organizing the activities between three hotels.

New York City was a very successful SLAconference with almost 7,000 people attend-ing. NYC is a troublesome location because ofthe high costs, but that disadvantage is offsetby a location convenient to a huge populationalong the eastern seaboard and a tremendousconcentration of publishers and informationprofessionals. NYC also offers all the fun andinteresting activities for which it is famous. Ithas great eating, shopping, theater, museums,and sightseeing for those who could drag them-selves away from the conference activities.

While the conference committee and SLAstaff plan the major events at the conference, themajority of the programs and activities are underthe direction of the various division chairs. 2003was the Legal Division’s 10th anniversary and ithas grown in those short 10 years to over 1200members. Several years ago it became apparentthat the division chair could not be expected to

manage all the details of the many activities thedivision sponsored. The Legal Division adopteda structure used by several of the other large divi-sions for conference planning. We added a plan-ner to assist the division chair with the details.We also brought the Chair-elect and the plannerfor the next conference into the process so theycould gain experience in planning and developadditional institutional memory of how thingswere done. The team for the 2003 conferencewas made up of myself; Lori Hedstrom, Managerof Librarian Relations for West as Planner; Char-lene Cunniffe, Chair-elect, and Karen Krupka,Planner for the Nashville conference in 2004.Charlene is on the SLA Planning Committee forNashville in addition for being responsible forthe division activities in Nashville. Karen wasTreasurer of the Division at the time which wasa great help as she was familiar with the financialaspects of how the events were paid for from theprevious year’s conference in Los Angeles.Another important person in the conferenceplanning process was our Vendor RelationsChair, Gitelle Seer whose job it was to coordi-nate the generous support provided by our ven-dors. The planning for NYC started at 2002Winter Meeting in Savannah Georgia a year anda half before the conference. By the end of 2002most of the programs and activities were in placeand the five months leading up to the confer-ence were spent in getting the details filled in.

CONFERENCE TRACKS ANDDIVISION ACTIVITIESThe NYC conference was organized around threethemes or tracks, State of the Art, The Future,and Globalization. Each weekday of the confer-ence was devoted to one of the tracks and divi-sion programs were expected to reflect that day’stheme. Unlike previous conferences where therewas one opening speaker, NYC had a keynotespeaker for each day. David McCullough, histori-an, author and television personality openedMonday’s activities. Stewart Brand, futurist, co-founder of the WELL, and creator of the “WholeEarth Catalog” was the keynote speaker on“Future Directions” Tuesday. MadeleineAlbright, former U.S. Secretary of State, spokeon globalization of politics and information onWednesday. These speeches are events under thecontrol of the planning committee and headquar-ters staff as are other major social events such asthe opening and closing receptions. As you mightexpect, these activities are expensive and vendorconference sponsors underwrite their costs.

It would be difficult to have come to the

2003 was theLegal Division’s

10th anniversaryand it has grownin those short 10

years to over1200 members.

One of the most importantopportunities theSLA conferenceprovides lawlibrarians is the chance toattend non-legalprograms and develop professionalrelationshipswith librarianswith expertise inother fields.

Fall 2003

13

conference and not found many interestingactivities to participate in. The Legal Divisionput on two continuing education courses, LegalIndexing and Taxonomy and another on nego-tiating intranet/extranet licensing. Six otherprograms were hour and a half presentations onvarious subjects. Genie Tyburski and GaryPrice, well known internet experts, spoke aboutweb tools. Genie and Lexis’ Jenny Kanji pre-sented their ever-popular 60 Sites in 60 Min-utes with an international flavor. West’s RobynRebollo moderated a program on offeringworld-wide library services. Charlene Cunniffemoderated a program on best methods for train-ing. Gitelle Seer and Lexis’ Gayle Lynn-Nelsonmoderated a session for those wanting to moveinto law librarianship. I moderated a programon corporate responsibility that discussed Sar-banes-Oxley and web resources for corporateresponsibility. Another program that the LegalDivision has presented for several years is theEmerging Technologies Breakfast, sponsored byWest, where, this year, Nathan Rosen, TomFleming and Linda Will discussed the hot newtechnology products being deployed. The pre-senters at these programs represented years ofpractical experience and cutting edge knowl-edge of the information profession.

Within the Legal Division there are fourRound Tables which are informal groups orga-nized around topics of interest to their mem-bers. These groups can meet to discuss the stateof affairs in specific areas of interest. However,this year all of them had themes associated withtheir meetings. The International RoundTable, chaired by Martha Foote, had a brunchmeeting with a presentation on global terror-ism. The Tax Round Table, chaired by JudyParvez of Tax Analysts met for brunch and awell received presentation by Susan Klopper onU.S. tax research. The County, Court &Province/State Libraries Round Table met todiscuss resource sharing. The Corporate Librari-ans in Legal Settings Roundtable, moderated byJill Gray current Chair-elect-elect of the Divi-sion, discussed the pros and cons of productsbeing offered for library management.

The Bureau of National Affairs (BNA) gavea breakfast for Legal Division members whichhas become a tradition at the SLA conference.Kammie Hedges of BNA worked closely with allof us planning the conference to make this a suc-cess. The breakfast allowed us to meet BNAmanagement and discuss their products. BNAhas the unique honor of being the first vendor tosponsor Legal Division activities. As soon as the

Division was formed 10 years ago BNA askedhow they could help. Over the years the compa-ny has have been a good friend to the Divisionand this year presented the Division with a gen-erous check in honor of our 10th anniversary.

The Division Business Meeting Luncheonwas well attended. It was sponsored by Lexis-Nexis, which also has been generous to theDivision. Cindy Spohr, Director of the LibraryRelations Group made the arrangements forthe lunch. Cindy also served as the DivisionPlanner for last year’s conference in Los Ange-les. That is a big commitment and Cindy tak-ing the time to do it and her employer allowingher to do it is another example of the supportLexisNexis has provided to the Division.

One of the most important opportunitiesthe SLA conference provides law librarians is thechance to attend non-legal programs and devel-op professional relationships with librarians withexpertise in other fields. The activities men-tioned above were put on by the Legal Divisionbut there were dozens of other programs thatcovered important non-legal subjects. Today’slaw librarian is called on to provide quality infor-mation service in many non-familiar areas suchas finance and science. In NYC attendees wereable to go to programs of interest and get toknow experts in those specialties who, like mostlibrarians, are more than willing to share theirknowledge. These networking opportunities canlead to relationships that can last a career.

No conference would be complete withoutlots of social events. It has been a tradition atSLA for many of the divisions to rent suites toprovide a place to come and relax and havesome snacks or drinks in the evening. The vari-ous division suites also provide another place tomingle with peers from other types of libraries orinformation centers. The Legal Division suitewas generously was sponsored by West this year.

The big party for the Legal Division wasour 10th Anniversary party. It was sponsoredby the Practising Law Institute (PLI) at theirtraining center near Times Square. Jill Porter,Director of Library Relations was our hostess.PLI provided great food and drink coupled withspectacular views of Manhattan. The Execu-tive Director, Victor Rubino, greeted us andwished the division continued success. Severalothers spoke and recalled the beginnings of theDivision and commented on the success it hasbecome in 10 short years.

VENDORS AND VOLUNTEERSNone of us should forget the generosity of the

Fall 2003

14

I enjoyed the conference because of theopportunity to meet new people, learn newthings, and because it marked the culmination ofa lot of effort and organization over a couple ofyears. What really stands out in my mind are thepeople that I dealt with in the planning and thatI met at the conference. Librarians tend to begenerous folks and their generosity in helpingthe Division have a successful conferenceamazed me. There are innumerable details thathave to be looked after for programs, events, andgeneral shop keeping and a lot of volunteersstepped up. There were many local volunteersfrom the Law Library Association of GreaterNew York (LLAGNY), coordinated by Joni Cas-sidy and her staff at Cassidy Cataloging, whoprovided invaluable help in with the manydetails of the division’s activities on the groundin NYC. These are the New Yorkers that makethe city great. The program moderators and pre-senters did a lot of work to craft an excellentarray of programs. They received positive reac-tions to the quality of the programs. Our mem-bers who came to the conference provided plen-ty of opportunities to interact and enjoy thegreat location that New York City provides. Peo-ple and location made it a great conference. ■

vendors we all deal with. Conferences help usform and renew professional relationships,improve our skills and have fun. They are notcheap in any location. Without the money pro-vided directly to the Legal Division for our activ-ities and to SLA by the sponsors and exhibitorswe could not afford to have a conference. Notonly do they provide money, but their staffsspend a great deal of time on conference plan-ning. For this year’s conference Lori Hedstrom ofWest spent many long hours as the Legal Divi-sion Planner. Had she not been willing to takethe time from her regular duties and West per-mitted her to do so the Legal Division’s activitieswould not have been as good as they were. JillPorter of the Practising Law Institute, KammieHedges of BNA, and Cindy Spohr of LexisNexisspent a great deal of time planning events for theLegal Division. Others generously sponsored pro-grams and donated money such as Dialog, Mer-gent, William S. Hein & Co., EOS, Cisti, Der-went and GSI. In the past some of our vendorshave allowed their employees to serve in variouscapacities, including as board members, thathave helped the Legal Division immeasurably. I,for one, value their contributions to the LegalDivision, and their support of the profession.

trak legal ad

Fall 2003

15

BEING CHOSEN TO ATTEND AN ANNUALCONFERENCE is both a blessing and a curse.Think of the useful programs to attend! Themass of business cards you will add to your col-lection! The interesting people you’ll meet!The opportunity to see the Floating Houseused in Sleepless in Seattle!

But be very afraid of your co-workers uponyour return, because if you don’t bring back thevendor loot - the stash, the swag, the booty, theprida - collected in the Exhibit Hall, you will be InBig Trouble. Trouble as in your colleagues will startto mutter as they paw through the goodies youleave on the Reference Desk; dark looks will besent your way as they comb through yet more plas-tic pens and vendor publicity sheets (you know youdesperately threw them in there in the hope of pla-cating the wolves). This will escalate to elbows andfeet becoming entangled in yours, research thatmysteriously disappears, nasty messages taped toyour cubicle and eventually lead to someone slash-ing your favourite Sean Connery READ poster!!

Or maybe that’s just my colleagues.Is the loot worth such fear? Do your col-

leagues have the right to demand that the personwho gets to travel to these exotic locales bringback goodies? Has anyone else noticed that weLibrarians are one of the few conference groupswho drink like fish, but don’t trash the hotelrooms? Do the blinking Westlaw pens causeseizures? The answers to those questions are:Yes. Yes. I never touched the mini-bar. Probablynot - I’m sure the foaming at the mouth is causedby something completely unrelated.

Anyway, the item I almost didn’t pack tobring back from Seattle has become our greatesthit. Secretaries and associates threaten to makeoff with it on an almost daily basis. Partners walkby, eye it and try not to look too interested asthey stop to peer more closely. I’m not talkingabout the Westlaw thermos (though it was worthcarrying that around just to have airport securitywhisper something about cylindrical bomb-look-ing items as they upset your neatly folded clothes)nor even the ubiquitous Lexis calculator. Theitem most looked at askance was the Lexis faux-fish tank. Ladies and Gentlemen of the LibraryCommunity – this is just not any fish tank. Thisis a fish tank that runs on two C Batteries withthree plastic fish that scramble around the cata-logue-card-sized tank with reckless abandon. It isa metaphor of sorts for daily life at a law firmlibrary – and I use the term “of sorts” here veryloosely. You scramble around looking for faux-fish food and try not to bump into the other yel-low and blue fish swimming around you.

If anyone can turn that metaphor intosomething relating to Library Research, I’llgive you one of those seizure-inducing light-upWestlaw pens.

This wonderful item can be set on a desk,or hung on a wall (to be differentiated from“hanged from the wall” which is what happensto animate objects, such as yourself, whoreturned from the convention without thisnifty item). It slices, it dices, it magically calmsraging attorneys and panicked associates andprovides an interesting talking point forLibrary Services (if one were inclined to discussservices while being hypnotized by plastic fish).

The Lexis radio was also popular, thoughmost looked a little sick having to take not onlythe radio but also the headphones, which I hadbeen required to stuff into my ears at the Lexisbooth in order to get the radio (the ear-wax prob-lem is nearly fixed, I promise). Very few non-con-ference attendees understand the sacrifices onehas to go through to obtain these fabulous prizesand if I had to sit through all those Lexis presen-tations (props to our Lexis rep – I already knewthe spiels!) then, by golly, my colleague can takethe headphones without whining. We all have tocontribute to the greater good! We all need towork together and sacrifice our boss to the Ven-dor God….wait…I’ve lost my train of thought.

This point in my rant may be a good timeto ask the real tough questions:

Where are the Westlaw roller bags givenout in Minneapolis? I use this bag religiously, Ilove this bag, my cats rub against it like it’s filledwith catnip and even my husband has learned toWorship the Bag. I harass my Westlaw rep formore of them. If anyone from West is readingthis, please be sure to give a raise to the personwho suggested this as the vendor gift a few yearsago. I would send them money myself, but I’veinvested all of it in plastic fish stock.

Where is the Lexis associate gift? Thatvery nifty leather organizer - very useful forwhipping out of one’s rolling Westlaw bag(please forgive me my vendor-mixing!), open-ing up and looking ever so alert in those early-morning or late-afternoon programs. Mine isfilled with cartoons, frantic pleas for chocolateand, rather forebodingly, yellow and blue fish.

Who gave out those great rubber, water-squirting purple fish and why didn’t I grabmore than one? Just as a quick aside - doesanyone else notice a fish theme here? It’srather like decorating with vendor gifts –Martha Stewart Style (drape the plastic sea-

Offer Up TheSwag @ yourLibrary: TheAALL AnnualConferenceVendor LootWrap-up

Abigail Ellsworth RossHowrey Simon Arnold &White, LLP

Has anyone elsenoticed that weLibrarians areone of the fewconferencegroups whodrink like fish,but don’t trashthe hotel rooms?

continued on page 16

CONDUCTING EFFECTIVE REFERENCE INTER-VIEWS CAN BE DIFFICULT when you are deal-ing with a patron who is rushed or agitated.Whether you are dealing with a frantic partner,a desperate student, or a disenchanted memberof the public, communication skills can breakdown when the two involved parties are underpressure. Jean Holcomb and Rita Kaiser pro-posed new solutions to reference interviewtechnique problems at their joint AALL pre-sentation, “Teaching Old and New Dogs Refer-ence Interview Tricks.”

Their first concern was to share with theaudience a checklist of key reference skills:■ to focus on the patron■ to identify the question■ to verify the question■ to select the appropriate resource■ to follow up on the reference interview

They also noted that librarians can devel-op their own personal reference skill checklistusing the language and skills that are more rel-evant in their libraries or research centers.

In order to implement these skills, librari-ans can create group practice exercises that aretailored to their research center in order tofacilitate reference interview training sessions.The first step in that process is to identify someof the most common research topics and infor-mation requests in that particular library. Somebroad examples might be taxation, estates, oremployment. At that point, Holcomb andKaiser advise librarians to “brainstorm a masterlist of common questions asked by patrons.”When compiling this list, one should writepotential interview situations beginning witha patron’s initial broad request for assistanceand moving towards more specific queries, forexample, “I am having a problem finishing aproject on time and I was hoping you couldhelp. I need to know more about temporarylicenses to distribute alcoholic beverages.Specifically, I’d like to know whether it’s nec-essary to apply for one in D.C. if alcoholic bev-erages will be served, but not sold.”

These sample scenarios can be used as“scripts” in role playing exercises for staff mem-bers. During these exercises, library staff shouldfocus on the key reference skills listed above,and in addition, should take care to exhibit thefollowing, positive behaviors:■ greeting the patron■ opening the interview (offering to help)■ providing feedback■ remaining attentive

■ asking open ended questions■ delaying consideration of resources

The emphasis of this segment of Kaiser andHolcomb’s presentation was on developing andmaintaining a connection with the patron fromthe onset of the reference interview and extend-ing it past the conclusion of the referenceencounter itself. Though it is sometimes difficultto delay consideration of the best resources asthey suggest, the point they make is an impor-tant one. If a staff member is already thinkingabout the best way to answer a question beforethe patron has even finished explaining himself,then the librarian has not been listening. Care-ful consideration of what the patron is asking foris essential if a question is to be answered cor-rectly and fully the first time.

Implementation strategies involve thedevelopment of a personal action plan that setsbenchmarks for performance, for example “Iwill greet each patron warmly 90-100% of thetime,” identifying practice opportunities topromote the attainment of these goals, identi-fying personal obstacles, identifying theresources necessary to overcome the obstacles,and identifying rewards for attaining the goals.

In addition, Kaiser and Holcomb provid-ed sample documents from the King CountyLaw Library that help support the implemen-tation of the new interview techniques.Included in the handouts were one referenceintake form for phone or in person interviews,and a script of potential responses for virtualreference services. ■

Fall 2003

16

TeachingOld and

New DogsReferenceInterview

Tricks

Sarah NagelBryan Cave LLP

“If a staff memberis already think-

ing about thebest way to

answer a question beforethe patron has

even finishedexplaining

himself, then the librarian has not been

listening.”

weed you get at sushi restaurants on your fishfor an inexpensive coordinating accent!).

Here, though, one wonders how wise it is togive a Librarian, who works in a room surround-ed by books, an item that is designed to squirtwater at one’s colleagues. That WAS its pur-pose, was it not? Well, then, consider it retribu-tion for the damage done to Sean Connery.

This article is a reflection of my own views,not the firm’s, nor any other Librarian’s, nor eventhose of the head of the Canadian Football League.All people mentioned, named, implied, or paintedare fictitious including, some say, the author her-self. Though she would dispute this most heartilyand bring up the fact that she hasn’t seen you outand about lately. ■

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 15

The Trials ofTrademarkResearch

Abigail Ellsworth Ross, Howrey Simon Arnold & White

Fall 2003

17

OF THE MANY CLASSES WE LAW LIBRARIANSMANAGED TO SQUEEZE IN between sight-see-ing activities in Seattle this year, Re-inventingTrademark Research for the 21st Century was oneof the most useful. Given by Frank Curci, aPartner at Preston, Gates & Ellis, LLP andColette Napoli of Thomson Dialog, this pro-gram presented a brief overview of trademarksin general and some concrete information ontrademark clearance searches.

Mr. Curci gave the definition of a trade-mark as a “word, symbol, device or any combi-nation thereof…used in association with goodsor services.” In fact, in the United States, evensmells and sounds can be trademarked. NBCtrademarked its three-tone ring and HarleyMotorcycles tried to trademark the distinctivesound of its V-Twin engine, though they even-tually withdrew the application due to anongoing court battle.

The United States is one of the few coun-tries left in the world with a “use-based sys-tem,” as opposed to a “First to file” system,used by the EU countries and Japan. Bothhave their pros and cons. First use can be hardto prove but offers initial protection for com-panies that have used a mark for years beforeregistering. The First to file system can fostertrademark brokers and cyber-squatters — peo-ple who register a famous mark without anyprior use then offer to “sell” it to the originaluser. In an effort to correct problems in bothsystems, several countries have recentlyworked on or passed anti-dilution statutes,which function as extra protection for famoustrademarks. These statutes, in effect, help pre-serve a mark’s value by preventing the use of amark by someone else, even when there is nolikelihood of confusion.

The U.S. system offers several layers ofmark registration. The registrar can choosewhich layer would offer them the best protec-tion for their mark use: 1. Common law – no registration is necessary

as use of the mark over a period of time canbe proven (indicated by the TM or SMsymbols)

2. State registration – a trademark can be reg-istered in one or more particular states. Thismethod can be less expensive than a federaltrademark but only offers protection in theregistered state.

3. Federal registration – the highest level ofprotection; grants registrant exclusive rightto use mark in connection with specificgoods or services within the U.S.; ability to

bring action in federal court; ability toobtain registration of mark in foreign coun-tries (you can only use the ( designation ifyou have a federal registration).

All of this background information isessential when performing trademark clearancesearches to determine if a desired trademark isalready in use. As Ms. Napoli stressed severaltimes throughout her excellent presentation,“It is the responsibility of the applicant tomake sure that a mark is not already in use,”and a thorough search must be performed by anapplicant as due diligence. This is no easy task,given the sheer number of trademarks in theUnited States. There were 215,417 trademarkapplications in 2002 alone, up from 36,273 in1980. But even that isn’t the real cause of diffi-culty. The trouble comes when actually per-forming these searches, as there is no one com-prehensive source available.

That adage of “you get what you pay for”applies here in spades. The U.S. Patent andTrademark Office (USPTO) offers trademarksearching, but unlike sources such as Dialog,you cannot utilize wildcards or manipulateyour results. The majority of truly usefulsources needed to perform clearance searchesare fee-based. All or some can be used depend-ing on what type of trademark the applicant isregistering. In general, these sources consist ofthe following:1. Federal trademark database - http://www.

uspto.gov/main/trademarks.htm2. State trademark database (Secretary of State)3. Common law databases (news, journals,

publications, advertisements, etc.)4. Corporate name search – (Choicepoint or

similar sources)5. Internet6. Domain names (Dialog #225 – Whois and

Whowas)

In addition to the plethora of sources,there is also the inherent difficulty of cover-ing all possibilities in a trademark search.Searches must take synonyms, translations,misspellings, slang, phonetically similar wordsand plurals into account. The USPTO doesnot differentiate between the use of the word“green” or a translation of that word such as“verde” or “gruen” so a good trademark searchwill take all language variations into account.If this is starting to sound overwhelming, it isnot surprising. It takes years of practice to bean expert trademark clearance searcher and

HarleyMotorcyclestried to trademark the distinctivesound of its V-twin engine.

there are services that exist solely to help withthis type of information.

Ms. Napoli provided a simplified searchformula for those who are just starting to con-duct trademark clearance searches. Start offwith what she called a “knock-out search” or asearch for the exact wording or logo of thedesired trademark, in the exact class (service ofgood description) one wishes to use it in. Ifthere are no results then move on to marksthat may be confusingly similar. This is where

Dialog’s “expand” command can be an invalu-able tool, and highlights the important of usinga fee-based service.

The average attendee walked away fromthis program with a healthy respect for trade-mark search experts, but also some backgroundinformation on trademarks in general and a listof baby steps to be used in developing theirown search skills – a good mix of theoreticaland practical knowledge to be put to good usefor the next trademark reference request. ■

Fall 2003

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I ATTENDED WEB SEARCH UNIVERSITY inSeptember in D.C.. The two-day conference isput on by Information Today several timesthroughout the year in different locations. Sub-titled “Power Searching with the Pros,” theconference gathers many of the gurus of websearching to offer their insights into searchtools, strategies, and new developments in bothfree and pay online sources. Though moreexpensive than association conferences, thefact that it was in D.C. made up for that. Theyheld fifteen sessions over the two days and Iconsider it $495 well spent, if only for the freshenthusiasm I feel for trying to keep up .

On my sleepiness scale of conference qual-ity I am rating this event two eyes wide open,though that may have as much to do with thesub-arctic temperatures of the WashingtonHilton as the quality of the presentations.Despite being forewarned the second day, myjeans and fuzzy shirt were nowhere near beingup to the task. I think only mittens, earmuffsand industrial strength thermal underwearcould have made the room bearable.

The one point we heard repeatedly was tryto multiple search engines, good advice in thesedays of Google mania. Donna Fryer, owner ofGlobal Information Research, give a presenta-tion on Search Engine Overlap and Comparisonsas well as a very useful session on using the Webto gather competitive intelligence. MarydeeOjala, editor of ONLINE magazine, gave aninteresting presentation called Google Intensivewhich gave tips on using Google more effectively.

Greg Notess, founder of Search EngineShowdown, had a session on brower tips wherehe discussed ways to speed up online naviga-tion with keyboard shortcuts and mouse tricks.One topic of interest from that session wasbookmarklets. For those of you like me whodon’t know about these, they are downloadableshortcuts available on the web that allow you

to do things like remove ads, change annoyingbackground colors. etc., with a single click ofthe mouse. I plan to read his article, “Book-marklets, Favelets, and Keymarks: ShortcutsGalore,” ONLINE 27(4): 38-40, July-August2003, to find out more about this.

Other presenters included Gary Price andChris Sherman of Invisible Web fame (amongother numerous claims to fame), Bob Berk-man, editor of Information Advisor, and MaryEllen Bates, owner of Bates Information Ser-vices. Mary Ellen urged us to package ourmaterials to highlight the added value webring to our research services. A vendor pre-sentation caught my attention in regard to thatconcept. Netsnippets.com has software thatallows you to capture information from theWeb as well as documents and combine themfor a neat annotated package presentation. Iam going to try it out. Check with me in a fewmonths to see how it is working out.

I would recommend this conference forthe librarian who wants to stay on top of thelatest search techniques but feels somewhatinundated by the wealth of material avail-able. But, if it is at the Washington Hilton,wear a parka.. ■

Web Search U.

Tricia PeavlerJenner & Block LLC

I think only mittens, earmuffs

and industrialstrength thermalunderwear could

have made theroom bearable.

DATES TO REMEMBER

Dates to Remember (DTR) is a monthly(September – May) newsletter designed tokeep the membership informed of currentSociety events. DTR and the Society’sMaster Calendars are now being handledby the Society’s management office. Toclear your date and publicize the event,please contact Millie Gallahan at703/619-5033 or management@llsdc.org.

Fall 2003

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1990; Teaching Online for $40 a Day: A Lookat Affordable Tools for Delivering Instruction;Researching Legislative History in Virginia:Gleaning the Intent Behind the Action; andLibrary Records and the Law: How the USAP-ATRIOT Act and Other Laws Affect Us.

There are a host of other presentations overthe two days of the conference and you’ll wish youcould be in more than one place at a time. Oth-er topics include library illumination systems,the pros and cons of the licensing process, equi-table access to limited computing resources inlibraries, the characteristics of a great library lead-er, preadoption evaluation of chat reference bya university library, accessing and using the invis-ible Web, building a digital library, and marketresearch just to name a few.

And if the programming is not enough, justimagine yourself enjoying some of the most beau-tiful fall scenery Virginia has to offer and specialfriends both old and new with whom to enjoyevery moment of this conference.

Information about the conference includ-ing programs, registration and housing will beavailable at www.vla.org. Please join us at TheHomestead! ■

VLA and VALLto Hold JointConference

Jill BurrWahab Public Law LibraryVirginia Beach, VA

THE VIRGINIA ASSOCIATION OF LAW LIBRARIESis meeting with the Virginia Library AssociationNovember 5 -7, 2003 at The Homestead(www.thehomestead.com) in Hot Springs, Vir-ginia, for a joint conference. The theme of the con-ference, People Serving People, is one that strikesa chord with everyone who works in libraries.Author Rita May Brown and Thomas Jeffersonportrayer Clay Jenkinson are featured speakers atthe general sessions. Chris Crowe, winner of VLA’sJefferson Cup for Mississippi Trial 1955, will speakat Friday’s author luncheon.

Thursday programs of interest to law librar-ians include Ethics and Professionalism inLibraries; Federal Administrative Decisions; Vir-ginia Regulatory Town Hall (recipient of AALL’s2003 PAGI award): Researching Tax and Envi-ronmental Law: What You Need to Know; andThe TEACH Act.

After a day of meetings, enjoy a scrumptiousHomestead dinner followed by an opportunity towork off all those extra calories dancing to themusic of #9 Dream, a Beatles tribute band.

Friday’s lineup of programs includes Archivesin Cyberspace: Researching Historical Docu-ments and U.S. Supreme Court Decisions Before

office movers ad

Fall 2003

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THE FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION(FDA) REGULATES $1 TRILLION DOLLARSWORTH OF PRODUCTS A YEAR. It is responsi-ble for the safety of prescription and over-the-counter (OTC) drugs, medical devices, all food(except meat, poultry products, and some eggproducts), cosmetics, biologics (including bloodand vaccines), and veterinary drugs and feed.1This article will provide a brief overview of theagency, a guide to general resources includingenforcement resources, and instructions on howto obtain documents from the FDA DocketsManagement Branch and FOIA office.

FDA BRIEF OVERVIEW STRUCTUREFDA’s earliest roots date back to the Division ofChemistry in the Department of Agricultureand a single chemist in 1862. The Divisionbecame the Bureau of Chemistry after 1901.When the Food and Drugs Act of 1906 waspassed by Congress, “enforcement of the lawwas entrusted to the Department of Agricul-ture’s Bureau of Chemistry.”2 In 1927 theBureau of Chemistry was renamed the Food,Drug, and Insecticide Administration “when allnon-regulatory research functions of the bureauwere transferred elsewhere.”3 The name waschanged again to the Food and Drug Adminis-tration in 1930. The FDA was transferred tothe Federal Security Administration in 1940,and later moved again to the Department ofHealth, Education, and Welfare in 1953.4

Finally, when the Department of Health, Edu-cation, and Welfare was restructured in 1980,FDA became part of the Department of Healthand Human Services where it resides today.

FDA is currently organized into six centersand has a nationwide field force which carriesout the mission of the agency.5 The six centersinclude: the Center for Biologics Evaluationand Research (CBER) which regulates biologi-cal and related products including blood, vac-cines, and human tissue; Center for Devicesand Radiological Health (CDRH) which regu-lates medical devices and radiation-emittingelectronic products; Center for Drug Evalua-tion and Research (CDER) which regulatesprescription and over-the-counter (OTC)drugs; Center for Food Safety and Nutrition(CFSAN) which regulates food (except meatand poultry products), food additives, dietarysupplements, and cosmetics; Center for Veteri-nary Medicine (CVM) which regulates foodadditives and drugs that will be given to ani-mals; and the National Center for Toxicologi-cal Research (NCTR) which conducts peer-

reviewed scientific research “specificallydesigned to define biological mechanisms ofaction underlying the toxicity of products reg-ulated by the FDA.”6

There are two additional offices worthnoting, the Office of the Commissioner (OC)and the Office of Regulatory Affairs (ORA).The current commissioner of food and drugs isMark B. McClellan, M.D., Ph.D., and he is thetop official at the FDA.7 The ORA is the leadoffice for field activities of the FDA, and “con-sists of about one-third of the agency’s person-nel…and is stationed in more than 150 offices,resident posts and laboratories from coast tocoast and in Puerto Rico.”8

GUIDE TO GENERAL RESOURCESThere are a large amount of resources used inresearch specific to a type of product or center,but the breath of material is too large for thisarticle. As a result, the following is a guide toresources for general research relating to theFDA, and is divided into broad categories. Thesecategories include: the FDA Web site, relatedlaws and regulations, guidance and manuals,enforcement materials, and specialty trade press.

FDA WEB SITEThe FDA Web site (http://www.fda.gov/) isextremely useful, constantly improving, and inmany instances the place to begin research. Inaddition to the homepage, which contains use-ful links to the centers, latest releases, etc.,FDA offers various portals depending on theaudience including one for “industry.” This isthe most useful one for law librarians who aremost likely doing research for a client fittingthat description. The industry portal is locatedat: http://www.fda.gov/oc/industry/default.htm.From the homepage and/or the industry portal,a number of “most requested” items are a fewclicks away including FDA guidance docu-ments, warning letters, FDA Federal Registerdocuments, and compliance references.

FDA employs the Google search enginehttp://www.fda.gov/search.html, but alsoincludes an advanced search capability whichallows users to search only a portion of theWeb site, e.g., a specific center such as CDER.It also provides the ability to limit the searchto results without certain words and where inthe document the keywords must occur. Theadvanced search feature is located at:http://www.fda.gov/advsearch.html.

The FDA Web site is also a prime exam-ple of the invisible web. There are numerous

FDA 101:Introduction

to ResearchRelating to theFood and Drug

Administration

Jennifer KorpaczCovington & Burling

“The FDA Web site is also a prime

example of theinvisible web.”

Fall 2003

21

databases that are a big part of the FDA Website that are available on specific center Webpages that cannot be reached using the Googlesearch engine. For example, medical devicepre-market notifications (510(k)) are availablewith documentation in a database from theCDRH Web page. If a user isn’t sure where tolook for the database and/or can’t find evi-dence of one from a search of the Web Site,FDA has posted a list of databases on the siteat: http://www.fda.gov/search/databases.html.

LAWS AND REGULATIONSRELATING TO FDA1. COMPILATIONS OF LAWS. FDA provides alist of “Laws FDA Enforces and RelatedStatutes” at: http://www.fda.gov/opacom/laws/.The House Energy and Commerce Committeealso publishes a compilation of food and druglaws at: http://energycommerce.house.gov/108/publications.htm. In addition, the Foodand Drug Law Institute (FDLI) publishes theCompilation of Food & Drug Laws. The last ver-sion was published in 2000.9 The advantage ofthe FDLI version is that it provides citations toboth the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act andcorresponding U.S.C. citations.

2. UNITED STATES CODE (U.S.C.). Below arereferences to related U.S.C. Titles and/or sec-tions:■ Title 7 - Agriculture. Includes Perishable

Agricultural Commodities (Chapter 20A)and Transportation, Sale and Handling ofCertain Animals (Chapter 54)

■ Title 15 - Commerce & Trade. Includes Fed-eral Trade Commission (Chapter 2),Cigarette Labeling & Advertising (Chapter36), Fair Packaging & Labeling (Chapter39), Consumer Product Safety (Chapter 47),and Toxic Substances Control (Chapter 53).

■ Title 21 - Food and Drugs■ Title 42 - The Public Health and Welfare.

3. CODE OF FEDERAL REGULATIONS (C.F.R.).In addition to GPO Access, FDA provides aninterface for two kinds of searches within Title21 – Food and Drugs at: http://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/cdrh/cfdocs/cfcfr/cfrsearch.cfmUsers can search by CFR part and section num-ber or CFR part and full-text search. Below arereferences to related CFR titles and/or parts:■ Title 7 - Agriculture■ Title 9 - Animals and Animal Products■ Title 16 Parts 0 - 999 - Federal Trade Com-

mission

■ Title 16 Parts 1000-End - Consumer ProductSafety Commission

■ Title 21 - Food and Drugs■ Title 40 - Protection of Environment■ Title 42 - Public Health including Part 493 -

Laboratories

4. FEDERAL REGISTER. FDA posts prepublica-tion copies of FDA Federal Register documentswhich are on display in the Office of FederalRegister at: http://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/oc/ohrms/advdisplay.cfm. This site savesa trip to the Office of Federal Register, and gen-erally includes links to guidance documentsthat are the subject of a notice of availability.The FDA Federal Register homepage, located at:http://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/oc/ohrms/index.cfm, contains FDA notices and proposedand/or final regulations from 1998 to present.

Users can browse by month, browse by cen-ter, or search by FDA Docket number. FDAassigns a docket number to many Federal Registerdocuments and this provides an excellent searchstrategy for certain questions. For example, sinceFDA assigns a docket number to proposed rules,guidance documents, etc. a researcher cansearch the Federal Register on a particular FDAdocket number assigned to a proposed rule orguidance to check whether a final rule or guid-ance has been issued because the same docketnumber will appear on the proposed and finalrule or guidance. For pre-1998 searches of theFederal Register, researchers should use the seg-ment for docket number when searching theFederal Register on Lexis or Westlaw.

In addition to the basic search option, anadvanced search form is provided which allowssearches by volume/page number, action, orwithin a date range.

FDA GUIDANCE AND MANUALSFDA issues draft and final guidance on certaintopics relating to any combination of productsor regulatory issues. These guidance documentsare not binding on the agency, but are a goodresource for finding the agency’s current think-ing on a particular topic. Likewise, the ORAprovides compliance references and manualsthat are also useful.

1. FDA GUIDANCE DOCUMENTS. A “Noticeof Availability” of a guidance document is pub-lished in the Federal Register. The notice willinclude the FDA Docket number attached tothe guidance and frequently include the text ofthe guidance. As a result, the guidance will be

“FDA posts prepublicationcopies of FDAFederal Registerdocuments whichare on display in the Office ofFederal Register…”

Fall 2003

22

posted on the FDA Federal Register Web page.In addition, each center posts its related guid-ance or places them in a database. For guidancedocuments see:■ Comprehensive List of Guidance Documents

(includes links to OC guidance) - http://www.fda.gov/opacom/morechoices/industry/guidedc.htm

■ CBER (Biologics) - http://www.fda.gov/cber/guidelines.htm

■ CDER (Drugs) - http://www.fda.gov/cder/guidance/index.htm

■ CDRH (Devices) - http://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/cdrh/cfdocs/cfggp/search.cfm

■ CFSAN (Foods & Cosmetics) - http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/guidance.html

■ CVM (Animal Feeds & Drugs) - http://www.fda.gov/cvm/guidance/published.htm

2. ORA COMPLIANCE REFERENCES ANDMANUALS. (HTTP://WWW.FDA.GOV/ORA/)■ Compliance Policy Guides - FDA compli-

ance policy and regulatory action guidancefor FDA staff. http://www.fda.gov/ora/compliance_ref/cpg/default.htm

■ Compliance Program Guidance - Compli-ance programs and program circulars (pro-gram plans and instructions) directed to fieldpersonnel for project implementation. http://www.fda.gov/ora/cpgm/default.htm

■ Regulatory Procedures Manual - FDA regula-tory procedures for use by FDA personnelincluding enforcement procedures, practicesand policy guidance. http://www.fda.gov/ora/compliance_ref/rpm/default.htm

■ Investigations Operations Manual - Primarysource of guidance regarding FDA policy andprocedures for field investigators and inspec-tors. http://www.fda.gov/ora/inspect_ref/iom/default.htm

FDA ENFORCEMENT MATERIALSRequests for FDA enforcement materials cancome up for a multitude of reasons. From duediligence research where a client is consideringthe purchase of a drug company or wants to putsomething specific on a label, finding outwhether there has been FDA enforcementactivity can be crucial. Resources relating toFDA enforcement include:

1. FDA ENFORCEMENT PORTAL. The FDA Website includes a portal to enforcement activitieswith links to recalls, warning letters, the debar-ment list, and disqualified clinical investigators.See: http://www.fda.gov/oc/enforcement.html.

2. FDA PUBLICATIONS REPORTINGON ENFORCEMENT.■ FDA Consumer. Published bi-monthly, FDA

reports on selected enforcement activitiesincluding seizures and injunctions/consentdecrees. There is usually a time lag in the decreeor other enforcement activity being reported.The FDA Consumer is available back to 1989at: http://www.fda.gov/fdac/default.htm.

■ FDA Enforcement Report. This is publishedweekly and contains information on actionstaken in connection with agency regulatoryactivities. It is available on the FDA web siteback to February 1990 at: http://www.fda.gov/opacom/enforce.html. In addition,recalls and safety alerts issued in the last 60days are posted at: http://www.fda.gov/opacom/7alerts.html.

■ FDA Enforcement Story. This title is publishedannually and summarizes select, but not all,enforcement activities by the agency in a fiscalyear. The most current issue is available at:http://www.fda.gov/ora/about/enf_story/default.htm. Print copies of prior years are available viaa FOIA request.

■ FDA Quarterly Activities Report. This titlewas published from 1970-1995 and includedenforcement highlights.

3.WARNING LETTERS/NOTICE OFVIOLATION LETTERS. ■ FDA Warning Letters from District Offices.

FDA posts numerous District Office warningletters, but not all, for problems includingviolations of good manufacturing practices(GMP) and misbranding of products. TheFDA Web site has letters back to November1996 located at: http://www.fda.gov/foi/warning.htm. Resources to find evidence ofolder warning letters include the Index ofFDA Warning Letters published by FOI Ser-vices, Inc. (http://www.foiservices.com/) andthe Warning Letter Bulletin published byWashington Information Source Co.(http://www.fdainfo.com/warningletter/).

■ Center Warning Letters & Cyber Letters.CDER’s Headquarters and Division of DrugMarketing, Advertising, and Communica-tions (DDMAC) posts warning letters andnotice of violation letters back to 1997 at:http://www.fda.gov/cder/warn/index.htm.CDER also posts “cyber” letters which aresent to Web sites whose online sales of pre-scription drugs may be illegal at: http://www.fda.gov/oc/ buyonline/enforce.html. Inaddition, CBER posts warning letters at:

“…[FDA] guidancedocuments are

not binding onthe agency, but

are a goodresource for

finding the agency’s current

thinking on aparticular topic.”

http://www.fda.gov/cber/efoi/warning.htm,and CVM posts them at: http://www.fda.gov/cvm/index/regulatory/promtab.htm

■ Consent Decrees. In selected cases, the textof a consent decree will be posted on theFDA web site, which could save a trip to thecourt, by staff or document delivery service.In general, FDA releases a Talk Paper for sig-nificant consent decrees. FDA News & TalkPapers can be browsed at: http://www.fda.gov/opacom/hpwhats.html.

SPECIALTY TRADE PRESSThere are numerous specialty trade press titlescovering FDA regulatory news. The advantageto using these for food and drug-related researchis that these publications are frequently theonly sources for more detailed regulatory newssuch as the latest decision on a citizen petitionor coverage of an FDA advisory committeemeeting. Below are some of the most usefulresources, but are not intended to be an exhaus-tive list. All of the listed titles are published inprint, and online availability is noted.

1. F-D-C REPORTS. (Available through Lexis,Dialog, and web subscriptions) Provide regulato-ry, legislative, and business coverage. Most com-monly used reports include: The Pink Sheet - Pre-scription Pharmaceuticals and Biotechnology, TheGray Sheet- Medical Devices, Diagnostics & Instru-mentation, The Tan Sheet - Nonprescription Phar-maceuticals & Nutritionals (OTC & dietary sup-plements), The Rose Sheet - Toiletries, Fragrances& Skin Care(Cosmetics), and The Gold Sheet -Pharmaceuticals and Biotechnology Quality Control(useful but no longer carried on Lexis). See:http://www.fdcreports.com/ for web product.

2. INSIDE WASHINGTON’S FDA WEEK.(Available via web subscription). Reports onregulatory and legislative news relating to poli-cymaking that affects entities regulated by theFDA. See: http://www.insidehealthpolicy.comfor the web product or http://www.iwpnews.com/ for print information.

3. WASHINGTON BUSINESS INFORMATIONNEWSLETTERS. (Available via Lexis, Dialogand Web site access for subscriptions and thepurchase of single articles for $8.00 each)Reports on regulatory, legislative, and businessdevelopments, but coverage varies by title.Useful titles include Devices & Diagnostics Let-ter, Drug GMP Letter, Food & Drug Letter,Generic Line, and Washington Drug Letter. See:

Fall 2003

23

hein online ad

Fall 2003

24

http://www.fdanews.com/

4. SCRIP WORLD PHARMACEUTICAL NEWS(SCRIP). (Available via Dialog & Web subscrip-tion) Provides global coverage of pharmaceuti-cal regulatory and business news. It is a goodsource for European/international pharmaceuti-cal news. See: http://www.pjbpubs.com/cms.asp

5. FOOD CHEMICAL NEWS. (Available viaWeb subscription, Westlaw, and selected full-text on Lexis) Covers news relating to U.S.food regulation, global developments in foodregulation, genetically modified foods (biotechfoods), Hazard Analysis and Critical ControlPoint food safety program (HACCP), anddietary supplements. See: http://www.foodchemicalnews.com/home.asp

DOCKETS MANAGEMENT BRANCH ANDFOIA REQUESTSFDA maintains two public reading rooms, theDockets Management Branch (Dockets) andthe Freedom of Information (FOIA) Officelocated in Rockville, Maryland. FDA Docketsallows a requestor to obtain many documentsusing a FOIA request on the same day versusthe sometimes lengthy wait through FOIA.

1. DOCKETS. The Dockets Web site (http://www.fda.gov/ohrms/dockets/default.htm) is very usefuland includes links to FDA Federal Register docu-ments (as discussed above), docket filings, adviso-ry committee transcripts, and other materials.

Dockets makes available documents andcomments submitted relating to proposed regu-lations, guidance, citizen petitions, FDA adviso-ry committee meetings, and public workshops.FDA regulations permit any person to submit acitizen petition to issue, amend, or revoke a reg-ulation or take or refrain from taking any otherform of administrative action.10 Every proposedand final regulation, proposed and final guid-ance document, and citizen petition is assignedan FDA docket number. All correspondence —comments from industry and FDA responses —or references to a particular regulation will befiled into the assigned docket file(s) maintainedat Dockets. Since early 1999, Dockets has post-ed the daily docket list of docket filings and inmany instances provides links to the filings inPDF format. Note, there is a lag time from whena document is received by Dockets to when andif it is made available on the Dockets website.

In order to obtain docket filings that pre-date Web site availability, a trip to Dockets is

needed. Visitors to the Dockets office sign thevisitor’s log and pick up two forms, a “Files YouNeed” form and a FOIA form. If the visitoralready knows the docket and volume number(from a daily dockets entry), the visitor can fillout the “Files You Need” form and give it to anFDA Dockets staff member who will have thefiles pulled. If not, the docket sheets are kept inbinders on the left wall looking at the roomfrom the door. The binders are compiled byyear in docket number order. There is generallya 50-page limit to copies for same-day service.

When filling out the FOIA form, the visi-tor should remember that it is a FOIA requestand will be listed on the FDA FOIA PublicInformation Log. In the event a firm or indi-vidual doesn’t want the name to appear on thePublic Log, consider contacting a vendor whospecializes in placing FOIA requests such asFOI Services, Inc. who will make the requestfor a fee and blind the actual requestor. Fur-thermore, when using the Dockets office,requests must be hand-delivered. Any FOIArequest form that is faxed or mailed to Docketswill be forwarded to the FOIA office. Hence,to take advantage of same-day turn around onnumerous FOIA requests available throughDockets, it must be done in person.

2. FOIA PUBLIC READING ROOM & FOIAWEB PAGES. The FOIA Public Reading Room isalso located in Rockville, one building awayfrom Dockets. Documents that can be picked upat the FDA FOIA Public Reading Room includethe FDA Public FOIA log and/or documentsthat have been certified (red ribbon) documents,which are sometimes used in litigation. All ofthe centers maintain FOIA Web sites. See:■ FOIA (outside of Dockets) - http://www.fda.

gov/foi/foia2.htm■ CBER - http://www.fda.gov/cber/reading.htm■ CDER - http://www.fda.gov/cder/foi/index.htm■ CDRH - http://www.fda.gov/cdrh/foicdrh.html■ CFSAN - http://vm.cfsan.fda.gov/%7Edms/

foia.html■ CVM - http://www.fda.gov/cvm/efoi/efoi.html■ ORA - Frequently requested docs - http://

www.fda.gov/ora/frequent/default.htm

CONCLUSIONFrom the cereal we eat to the over-the-counter(OTC) or prescription drugs we take for aheadache, FDA regulates many of the productswe consume and/or use everyday. The abovegeneral resources are a good place to start whenresearching a topic related to the FDA.

“Every proposedand final

regulation, proposed and

final guidancedocument, and

citizen petition isassigned an FDAdocket number.”

Fall 2003

25

COMMONLY USED FDA ACRONYMS510(k) Medical Device Premarket

Notification ANDA Abbreviated New Drug ApplicationDESI Drug Efficacy Study ImplementationGLP Good Laboratory Practice GMP Good Manufacturing Practice GRAS Generally Recognized as Safe (food

ingredients) HACCP Hazard Analysis Critical Control

Point (inspection technique) IDE Investigational Device ExemptionIND Investigational New Drug

(application) IRB Institutional Review Board MOU Memorandum of UnderstandingNDA New Drug Application OTC Over-the-Counter (drugs) PLA Product License Application (for

biologics) PMA Pre-Market Approval (application)

(for medical devices) SBA Summary Basis of Approval

Excerpted from: http://www.fda.gov/opacom/morechoices/ acronyms.htmlSee also: http://www.fda.gov/cvm/index/other/

acronym.htmhttp://www.fda.gov/cder/handbook/acronym.htm

ENDNOTES1 http://www.fda.gov/opacom/factsheets/justthefacts/

1fda.html.2 http://www.fda.gov/oc/history/historyoffda/ default.htm. 3 Ibid.4 Ibid. For additional resources for researching the history

of the FDA, see A Guide to Resources on the History of theFood and Drug Administration at: http://www.fda.gov/oc/history/resourceguide/default.htm.

5 See the following Web sites for additional informatioregarding each center: CBER at: http://www.fda.gov/cber/index.html; CDRH at: http://www.fda.gov/cdrh/index.html), CDER at: http://www.fda.gov/cder/; CFSAN at: http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/list.html; CVM at: http://www.fda.gov/cvm/default.html; NCTR at: http://www.fda.gov/nctr/index.html.

6 http://www.fda.gov/nctr/overview/mission.htm.7 See: http://www.fda.gov/oc/mcclellan/ for information

relating to Commissioner McClellan. See generally:http://www.fda.gov/oc/ default.htm for the Office of theCommissioner.

8 http://www.fda.gov/opacom/factsheets/justthefacts/7ora.html. See also:(http://www.fda.gov/ora/hier/ora_overview.html)

9 See: http://www.fdli.org/pubs/Comp/compilation.htmlfor more information.

10 21 C.F.R. 10.30 ■

In Memoriam: nancy crossed, 1959-2003

Mike PetitAmerican University Washington College of Law Library

It is with great sadness that we announce the untimely passing of Nancy Crossed, the Cat-

aloging/Reference Librarian at the American University Washington College of Law Library.

Nancy has been a colleague and friend for the past seven years, having started work at WCL in

1996. In addition to her invaluable contributions to the library, she served the University as a

whole as a member of the student hearing panel of the Faculty Senate.

Nancy graduated from the University of Maryland with a B.S. in Paralegal Studies. She received

her Masters in Library Science from Catholic University. She will be greatly missed not only by

the American University community, but by the Law Librarians’ Society of Washington, D.C.,

as well. Nancy was very active in the organization, having served as Corresponding Secretary

from 1999-2001, and as the President of the Academic SIS in 2001-2002.

Nancy is survived by four children. She loved gardening, caving, blues music, and especial-

ly her boat. Those of you who met her knew what a warm person she was.

Fall 2003

26

IN AUGUST OF 2000, the European Com-mission of the European Union submitted aproposal to implement a Community Patentsystem in Europe. To understand the need forand process involved in adopting a CommunityPatent in Europe, I will briefly discuss the mainlegislative bodies of the European Union.

The evolution of a series of predecessorbodies devoted to European security and freetrade led to the formation of the present Euro-pean Union, which was created by the signingof the Maastricht Treaty1 on February 7, 1992.The treaty decreed the European Unionresponsible for creating a common foreign andsecurity policy. In 1997 the Amsterdam Treatywas signed by the member states of the Euro-pean Union. This treaty revised the MaastrichtTreaty by expanding the social and judicialpolicy of the European Union. On February 26,2001 the Member States signed the Treaty ofNice. The treaty is intended to change thestructure of the governing bodies of the EU andis expected to take force in 2005.

The EU is run by five institutions, theEuropean Parliament, the Council of theUnion, the European Commission, the Courtof Justice, and the Court of Auditors.

The European Parliament is elected everyfive years by the people of the member statesand has three functions: ■ To share legislative power with the Council

and to adopt legislation, ■ To share budgetary authority with the Coun-

cil and to adopt the budget in its entirety, and■ To exercise democratic supervision over the

Commission.

The Council of the Union is the decision-making body of the EU and has six functions: ■ To be the legislative body, a function it

shares with the Parliament, ■ To coordinate broad economic policies of

the member states, ■ To conduct inter-nation agreements on

behalf of the EU, ■ To share budgetary authority with the Parlia-

ment, ■ To make decisions on common foreign and

security policy, and■ To adopt measures regarding police and judi-

cial cooperation in criminal matters.

The European Commission upholds the gen-eral interest of the Union. The President andMembers are appointed by the member statesand approved by the Parliament. The Commis-

sion has four functions:■ To initiate draft legislation and to present

legislation proposals to the Council and Par-liament,

■ To implement legislation, the budget, andUnion programs,

■ To enforce treaties in tandem with theCourt of Justice and ensure community lawis followed, and

■ To represent the EU on the internationalstage and negotiate agreements, mainly intrade and cooperation.

The Court of Justice is the court that isresponsible for ensuring member states complywith EU laws. The Court of Auditors is respon-sible for ensuring that the budget of the EU ismanaged in a lawful manner.

With an understanding of the structure ofthe EU and its legislative process, we can nowexamine the issue of the Community patent. Afunction of the EU is to create a common marketand foster the flow of goods and informationamong the member states. One area in which theEU feels it is behind is in the field of research anddevelopment. Europe is rich in scientists, but isproducing relatively few marketable inventions.The EU has identified one reason for this as thecurrent European patent system. With the pro-posal of a Community patent, they hope to fosteran environment in Europe that will lead togreater development of innovations.

The current patent protection in Europe isa combination of two systems, the Nationalpatent system and the European patent system.Neither of these two systems is based on aCommunity legal instrument.2 The Europeanpatent system was established by the Conven-tion on the Grant of European Patents (knownas the Munich Convention of 1973). TheMunich Convention created a single proce-dure for granting European patents by creatingthe European Patent Organization and theEuropean Patent Office. The European PatentOffice grants patents for the member states ofthe European Patent Organization. After thepatent has been granted, it is administered bythe National patent system of the designatedcountry and subject to that country’s laws.

In 1975 the European Economic Communi-ty (an EU predecessor body) member states dis-cussed the creation of a Community patent withthe signing of the Luxembourg Convention.

On December 15, 1989 the LuxembourgConvention was amended by an Agreement onthe Community patent. If the agreement were to

The Proposalfor a

CommunityPatent

System in theEuropean

Union

Sarah E. JonesUniversity of MarylandCollege of Information

Studies Student

Fall 2003

27

be ratified it would mean that a patent grantedunder its terms would be good throughout theEuropean Union member states; thereforenational patents would no longer be necessary.At the present only seven3of the member stateshave signed the agreement and it has yet to beratified. One of the main reasons quoted for thefailure of the convention was the cost of transla-tion. The Convention stipulated that eachpatent be translated into every language of theCommunity members. Another factor was thejudicial system the Convention proposed. Underthe convention national judges could declareCommunity patents invalid for the whole Com-munity. This fostered distrust among memberstates and was considered a legal uncertainty.

The Agreement to the Luxembourg Con-vention of 1989 concerns only the Communityof Twelve,4 and therefore leaves out the enlarge-ment of the Community in 1995.5 In order forthe three new states to be bound by the agree-ment, a special agreement would have to benegotiated, signed and ratified by all signatoriesof the 1989 agreement. This is seen as too cum-bersome and poses problems for future memberswho wish to join the European Union.

With the problems encountered with theLuxembourg Convention, the European Com-mission published the Green Paper on the Com-munity patent and the patent system in Europe. AGreen paper is a communication the EuropeanCommission publishes on a specific policy issue.The Green Paper on the Community patent and thepatent system in Europe has three main objectives: ■ To gain as full a picture as possible of the sit-

uation in regard to the protection of innova-tion by the patent system in the EuropeanCommunity,

■ To examine whether new Community mea-sures are necessary and/or whether existingarrangements need to be adjusted, and

■ To consider what new measures couldinvolve and what form they could take.

In the Green paper the Commission raisesthe issue of innovation in Europe. They statethat Europe has an excellent scientific base, butit is less successful than its main competitors,the United States and Japan, at converting itsinnovations into products and market share.They note this is especially evident in high-technology sectors. The commission states thatimproving the patent system will not reversethis trend, but that the patent system cannotact as a further brake on the competitiveness ofEuropean companies. The Green paper identi-

fies the problems with the current Europeanpatent system as the cost of translation for eachcountry the patent is filed in and for renewalfees in each of those countries; the complica-tions in the prosecution of infringement orrevocation because the case must be brought infront of the national court of each country thepatent is granted in; the difference of interpre-tation by various national courts underminingthe value of European patents; and the costs offiling and protection, causing businesses to beselective in their choice of countries which runscounter to the aim of a single market. Giventhe problems with the current patent system,the Green paper asks the members of the Euro-pean Union to consider what patent systemwould best serve the needs of Europe: thepatent system devised under the LuxembourgConvention, the current patent system, or anew patent system established by a Regulationunder article 308 of the Amsterdam Treaty.6

In 1999 the Commission published Com-munication from the Commission to the Council,the European Parliament and the Economic andSocial Committee: Promoting innovation throughpatents: The follow-up to the Green Paper on theCommunity Patent and the Patent System inEurope. This paper reported the response to theGreen Paper on the Community Patent andoutlined the nature of the Community Patent.The number of opinions sent to the Commis-sion on the Green paper was very high, 150opinions totaling more than 1,200 pages. Thenthe Commission and the Luxembourg Presiden-cy of the Council jointly organized a hearingopen to any party the new patent system wouldaffect. The hearing was held on November 25-26, 1997. On February 25, 1998, the Economicand Social committee submitted its opinion onthe Green paper. The Committee agreed withthe opinion stated in the Green paper and invit-ed the Commission to submit a draft of a Regu-lation on the Community patent. In January of1998, the Commission held a meeting withexperts from the member states. The memberstates agreed with most of the opinions put for-ward in the Green paper and urged the commis-sion to proceed. Finally, on November 19, 1998the European Parliament adopted its opinion.The Parliament determined that a change in thepatent system was necessary to promote “com-petitiveness of enterprise” and that it was notbeneficial to harmonize current national patentlegislation, but to draw up a Community Regu-lation with its legal basis in Article 2357 of TheTreaty Establishing the European Community.

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A Commission Regulation on fees adoptedaccording to comitology procedure will deter-mine the annual renewal fees.

Legal certainty and a reduction in litiga-tion fees are also covered by the Regulation.The Regulation proposes a centralized Commu-nity court that can guarantee unity of law andcase law. It is defined as a “Community Intel-lectual Property Court.” A centralized courthaving jurisdiction would solve the currentproblem of varying decisions made in differentcountries, as well as reducing expense. The cur-rent system allows litigation to be tried in all ofthe national courts in which the patent isgranted. The Regulation would give the Euro-pean patent more legal certainty by providingconsistent case law and would save on litigationfees because the patent holder only has to filesuit in one court rather than many.

Finally, the Community patent will coex-ist with the current patent system in Europe.The Community patent is meant to be anotheroption not a replacement to the current sys-tem. The person who files the patent will havethe choice of using the Community patent orthe current European patent system. Thepatent filer will be free to choose the systemthey believe best suits their needs.

The proposal was put forth in August2000. Since then the proposal has been debat-ed by the Council of the European Union. OnApril 10, 2002, the European Parliament votedin favor of the Commission’s proposal on aRegulation for a Community patent. OnMarch 3, 2003, at the Council meeting inBrussels, the Council discussed and agreed onthe juridical system of the Community patentand the language/translation costs. The Coun-cil decided that the centralized court should bein session by 2010. At the most recent meetingof the Council of the European Union onMarch 22-23, 2003, in Brussels, the Councilstated that it is pleased with the progress madeon the draft of the Community patent regula-tion so far and calls on the Council to finalizethe regulation as soon as possible.

BIBLIOGRAPHYActivities of the European Union, Summariesof Legislation, Community patent available athttp://europa.eu.int/scadplus/leg/en/lvb/l26056.htm

Activities of the European Union, Summariesof Legislation, Green paper on the Communi-ty patent and the patent system in Europe,

On August 1, 2000, the Commission ofthe European Union presented a proposal tounify the patent system in Europe. The Propos-al for a Council Regulation on the CommunityPatent is a regulation that proposes a communi-ty patent system for the European Union. Themain features of the Community patent systemare that it must be unitary and autonomous, itmust stem from a body of Community patentlaw, it must be affordable and have appropriatelanguage arrangements, and it must meet infor-mation requirements, guarantee legal certaintyand coexist with the existing patent system.

In regard to the unitary and autonomousnature of the Community patent, the Commu-nity patent must have the same force in everymember state of the community. It must alsobe granted, transferred, and declared invalid orallowed to lapse in respect to the whole Com-munity. The Community patent must also beautonomous. It is subject to the provisions ofthe proposed Regulation and to the generalrules of Community law.

The proposal addresses the specific provi-sions applicable to the Community patent.The Regulation introduces certain provisionsapplicable to Community patents once theyhave been granted. Certain provisions fromthe Munich Convention will stand such asconditions of patentability and exceptions topatentability.

The cost of the Community patent is alsoaddressed. The proposal’s goal is to make Com-munity patents more affordable by dealingwith the issues of translation cost, proceduralcosts, and litigation costs. To deal with transla-tion cost, the proposal says that to be granted,the patent documents must be translated intoone of the three official languages8 of theEuropean Patent Office. The patent will thenbe published in that language and a translationof the claims should be published into the twoother official languages, thereby reducingtranslation fees. The proposal also states thatthis system is appropriate because the primarylanguage of patents is English. Therefore,translations are rarely consulted. Alsoaddressed in the proposal are fees and otherprocedural costs. A European patent is three tofive times more expensive than a patent in theU.S. or Japan. The EU wants to change that sothat inventors have greater incentive to applyfor patents in Europe. The proposed Regula-tion states that the European Patent Officewill examine and grant patents and determinethe fees specified in the Munich Convention.

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available at http://europa.eu.int/scadplus/leg/en/lvb/l26051.htm

Commission Proposal for a Council Regulationon the Community patent, 2000 O.J (C337)COM(2000)412 final, 1 August 2000, availableat http://europa.eu.int/eur-lex/en/com/pdf/2000/en_500PC0412.pdf

Communication from the Commission to theCouncil, the European Parliament and theEconomic and Social Committee. Promotinginnovation through patents: The follow-up tothe Green Paper on the Community Patentand the Patent System in Europe, available ath t t p : / / e u r o p a . e u . i n t / c o m m / i n t e r n a l _market/en/indprop/patent/ 8682.en.pdf

Competitiveness (Internal Industry, Market,and Research), Council of the Union., 2490th Council Meeting., 2003, available at http://ue.eu.int/pressData/en/intm/74752.pdf

Europarl, The Legislative Observatory, Com-munity Patent, available at http://wwwdb.europarl.eu.int/oeil/oeil_ViewDNL.ProcViewCTX?lang=2&procid=4446&HighlighType=1&Highlight_Text=patent

European Union in the US, Patents, availableat http://www.eurunion.org/legislat/iiprop/patents.htm

Glossary: Definitions of 200 EU Concepts-SCADPlus available at http://europa.eu.int/scadplus/leg/en/cig/g4000.htm

Presidency Conclusions, Brussels EuropeanCouncil, March 20-21, 2003 available athttp://ue.eu.int/pressData/en/ec/75136.pdf

Promoting innovation though patents: GreenPaper on the Community patent and the patentsystem in Europe, COM(97)314 final, 24 June1997, available at http://europa.eu.int/comm/internalmarket/en/indprop/patent/paten.pdf

The European Union-Online, available athttp://europa.eu.int

Treaty of Amsterdam Amending the Treaty ofthe European Union, the Treaties Establ i sh-ing the European Communities and RelatedActs, Oct. 2, 1997, O.J. (C 340)1 ( 1 9 9 7 )[hereinafter Treaty of Amsterdam]. available athttp://europa.eu.int.eur-lex/en/treaties/dat/

amsterdam/html#0001010001

Treaty Establishing the European Community,Nov. 10, 1997, O.J. (C 340) 3 (1997) availableat http://europa.eu.int/eur-lex/en/treaties/dat/amsterdam.html#0173010078

ENDNOTES1 The Maastricht Treaty was formerly known as the

Treaty on European Union2 Community Legal Instrument is defined as an instru-

ment available to the community institutions to carryout their tasks under the Treaty that established theEuropean Community.. These may be regulations, direc-tives, decisions, recommendations, or opinions.

3 France, Germany, Greece, Denmark, Luxembourg, theUnited Kingdom and the Netherlands.

4 Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Ire-land, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Portugal, Spain,and the United Kingdom

5 Austria, Finland, and Sweden.6 Article 308 reads, If action by the Community should

prove necessary to attain, in the course of the operationof the common market, one of the objectives of theCommunity and this Treaty has not provided the neces-sary powers, the Council shall, acting unanimously on aproposal from the Commission and after consulting theEuropean Parliament take the appropriate measures.

7 Article 235 reads, The Court of Justice shall have juris-diction in disputes relating to compensation for damageprovided for in the second paragraph of Article 288.

8 French, German, and English ■

washingtonExpress ad

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THE PRO BONOLIBRARIAN

Walking Outof a Cave with

Armfuls ofBooks: Pro-

Bono Work,Library Style

Dr. James H. WaltherFormerly of Bryan Cave, LLP

Sarah NagelBryan Cave, LLP

This article is the first in a series on the public ser-vice activit ies with which our members areinvolved. Please contact Scott Larson if you havean activity you would like to see featured inLights.

THE BASICS OF LIBRARY PRO-BONO WORKFirst, think books! Think literacy, think libraryusers, think knowledge. Think whatever youcan to draw library users and knowledgetogether. When one thinks of pro-bono activi-ties, we often think of a billable attorney work-ing on a taxation issue, but for several years,librarians at Bryan Cave LLP have spearheadedpro-bono activities in conjunction withNational Library Week and gained nationalparticipation throughout the firm.

With an organization called First Book,the leading children’s literacy organization,Bryan Cave LLP collects money to providelow-income children with new books of theirown. School psychologists and those involvedwith early childhood development often citethat children must be routinely exposed to thesame reading materials. Ownership buys intothat theory.

BUYING INTO SUCCESS

The basics of the program can be found atwww.firstbook.org Essentially, this program sup-ports children that others are not. By supportingthose that live below the nation’s poverty line,readers are found through First Book programsbased in libraries, homeless shelters, housing pro-jects, clinics, day care programs, Head Start cen-ters, after school initiatives, and other communi-ty-based programs. In 1999, First Book distribut-ed more than three million books to children inmore than 250 communities nationwide.

Due to the deep discounts First Book hasnegotiated at the national level, the books dis-tributed by First Book cost less than $3.00each. So, we try to encourage firm members tothink of what donations really accomplish interms of real dollars.

For example, a donation of just $3 buys abook, but $15 will help First Book provide fivebooks to low-income children. In e-mails tomembers of the firm during National LibraryWeek, we point out that giving up a week ofStarbucks lattes or bringing your lunch to workcould give you the mad money to donate moreto these needy new readers.

OUR NATIONAL LIBRARY WEEKINITIATIVESInitially developed in Bryan Cave Santa Moni-ca, we now have activities happening in Ari-zona, California, New York, Washington andour headquarters office of St. Louis. For each$3.00 firm members donate, they are given abookplate on which they can write their ownname or donate the book in honor of someone.We have had great success with people donat-ing books in honor of the library staff, a newbaby or the first year or summer associates. Eachbookplate is then placed by First Book into apurchased book for a child to know who caredenough about them to donate this new book fortheir own. Since First Book is a 501(c)(3) orga-nization, the contributions are tax deductible.

OUR NATIONAL SUCCESSWe have been overwhelmed each year by thesupport from attorneys and support staff for thecause of First Book during National LibraryWeek. In 2002, First Book was able to take our$1,000+ donation and receive a matching giftfrom another national organization. It is initia-tives such as these that need exposure and theopportunity to flourish in our libraries andhearts. Think about how you can get moreinvolved today! Visit www.firstbook.org ■

alert publicationsad

COMMENTS: During the first half of the fiscalyear revenues exceed expenditures so the Soci-ety’s Total Balance rises. During the secondhalf of the fiscal year the expenditures outstriprevenues, so the Society’s Total Balancedecreases and is usually at its lowest amount atthe end of a fiscal year.

The First Union checking and FBRmoney market accounts are used to cover theSociety’s normal expenses, the Vanguardmutual funds are the Society’s reserves. Moneyin the Vanguard Star Portfolio Mutual Fundhas been designated by the Executive Board tofund Sandra Peterson Memorial Fund lecturesand special events.

The Society’s Total Revenues for the 2002-2003balances were as follows on May 30th, 2003:

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31

At the conclusion of the 2002-2003 Fiscal Yearthe Society’s account balances were as followson May 30th, 2003:

Treasurer’sReport for2002- 2003Fiscal Year

Stephen MellinJenner & Block(LLSDC Treasurer2002-2003)

ACCOUNT AMOUNT

First Union Checking Account $21,767.95 FBR Money Market Account $35,167.00 Vanguard Fixed Income Mutual Fund $22,369.79 Vanguard Index Trust 500 Mutual Fund $23,946.53 Vanguard Star Portfolio Mutual Fund $25,659.43 TOTAL BALANCE $128,910.70

REVENUE FY 2002 - 2003 TOTALS

Regular Membership Dues $19,720.00 Associate Membership Dues $2,720.00 Institutional Membership Dues $6,280.00 Student Membership Dues $280.00 Sustaining Membership Dues $360.00 Academic SIS Dues $690.00 Federal SIS Dues $330.00 Foreign SIS Dues $280.00 ILL SIS Dues $525.00 Legislative SIS Dues $505.00 Private SIS Dues $3,070.00 Lights Advertising $5,950.00 Mailing Lists $150.00 Directory Advertising $800.00

EXPENSES FY 2002-2003 TOTALS

Accounting Services $6,270.00 Contributions & Gifts $2,852.53 Insurance $1,004.25 Legal Counsel Services $157.50 Mgmt Co. Fees $34,000.00 Meetings – General $12,870.20 Messenger $1,158.25 Miscellaneous - Refunds $75.00 Office Supplies $3,321.22 Postage $5,770.97 Printing $19,788.89 Publications $14,863.21 Public Relations $1,575.16 Taxes $1,517.68 Telephone $320.79 Scholarships & Grants $15,053.00 TOTAL $120,598.65

COMMENTS: All but $110.00 of the revenuesunder the Miscellaneous category consists of adonation from the Law Library Congress thatwas intended for the 2001 Legal ResearchInstitute but not received until the 2002-2003fiscal year.

The Society’s Total Expenditures for the2002-2003 balances were as follows on May30th, 2003:

General Meeting Registation $3,568.00 Academic SIS Meeting Regis. $1,170.00 Federal SIS Meeting Regis. $0.00 Foreign SIS Meeting Regis. $0.00 ILL SIS Meeting Regis. $0.00 Legislative SIS Meeting Regis. $0.00 Private SIS Meeting Regis. $925.00 GLP Union List $27,165.20 Lights Subscription (Non-member) $3,325.00 Membership Directory $12.00 Union List of Legis Histories $1,739.32 Miscellaneous $3,390.00 Legal Research Institute $4,610.00 Vendor Donations $10,452.14 TOTAL $98,016.66

WHEN ANY NEW ELECTRONIC SERVICE,SOFTWARE OR GADGET COMES AROUND, myfirst impulse is to check to see what it has thatdid not exist before. I look to see what is newto KeyCite, CheckCite, Acrobat 6.0,Lexis.com, Microsoft Office 2003, Mozilla 1.5,West Integration Solutions, and on and, on.With each new version, enhancement or prod-uct, I want to find the exciting features thatwill make my work more productive, stream-line mundane procedures or give me tools thatI couldn’t use before. Of course, the problem isthat I have to learn about these new tools, fig-ure out how they will really improve my lifeand hope that they didn’t displace something Ihad grown to love and rely on.

This is my first installment of “Tech Talk”,and my theme is to take a broad view of somewidely-used legal technologies to present evi-dence of steps forward and backward. As thetitle suggests, this technology bunny hop mightnot always seem like we are moving forward.Probably we are progressing, but sometimes itjust does not seem like it.

■ Almost every imaginable service isavailable over the Internet througha standard web browser. Desktopsoftware is mostly a thing of thepast for accessing database content.

Forward Gone are the days of having toinstall localized programs such as WestMate,Folio, SearchMaster, DialogLink and relateddatabase connectivity software. Now almostevery service, even the decidedly unsexyPACER, can be accessed through an Internetbrowser, theoretically making access platform-independent and accessible anywhere you canget to the Internet.

Back To use enhanced navigational fea-tures of Lexis, you can only use Internet Explor-er (IE). Many sites require IE, and features fre-quently depend on the version you’re using,while providers often fail to produce contentthat works in “alternative” browsers likeNetscape or Mozilla. Former database powerusers have long decried the disappearance (or atleast obscuring) of dot commands, commandstacking and innumerable efficiencies that dis-appeared when the software went away. In look-ing beyond the traditional database providers forInternet content, there is something of a “pluginapplication” can of worms, often requiring usersto know about Flash, Shockwave, QuickTime,competing media players, and Acrobat just to beable to view content.

■ Judicial decisions are on the Inter-

Fall 2003

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net for free from all manner of fed-eral, state and local providers.

Forward The day that a Supreme Courtdecision is handed down, you can download itfor free in a format that looks identical to theprinted version published by the Court. AllU.S. Circuit Courts of Appeal have long pub-lished their opinions on the Internet, and byusing a site such as Cornell’s Legal InformationInstitute, you can even search decisions fromall Circuits spanning several years withoutbeing charged a nickel.

Back Supreme Court decisions areoften issued as separate documents, requiringyou to separately download and print the dis-sent, concurrence and so forth. Beyond this,the Supreme Court is probably the only U.S.court where you can find a case for free with anofficial citation. Even if you know that 101F.3d 832 came out in the last two years, you’reout of luck if you want to get this on the Inter-net for free. Moreover, if you have to bill foryour time, it’s really unlikely that much “free”content will be any cheaper for the client, evenif issues of reporter citations, internal pagina-tion and authenticity are ignored.

■ Lexis and Westlaw are extremelysophisticated services, providing animpressive array of searching,ranking and delivery options.Moreover, their content coverage isunparalleled in the legal industry.

Forward Lexis and Westlaw consistent-ly enhance their services to provide new waysto rank information and assess quality and cur-rency. The Eclipse and Alert services allow youto track developments without having to re-run searches, and KeyCite and Shepard’s helpanswer the critical question of “is it good law?”Flat-rate database options provide predictablemonthly fees. Also, the Lexis “Focus” andWestlaw’s “Locate” functions allow you to savemoney by refining searches without incurringadditional charges. System enhancements likeSearch Advisor and KeySearch provide effi-cient and targeted search options for noviceand expert users alike.

Back Every hyperlink in every documenton Lexis or Westlaw could cost you money toclick. Services like KeySearch, Search Advisor,“most cited cases,” and headnote searchingmake questions of cost more opaque than ever.Also, passing through costs to clients under flat-rate billing can be an administrative nightmare.Moreover, expert searchers often wonder whatexactly lies behind these pre-defined queries.

TECH TALK

TechnologyBunny Hop:

Two BitsForward and One

Byte Back

Roger V. SkalbeckGeorge Mason School of Law

System enhancements, re-branding and redesigncan cause the occasional user to lose track ofwhere to find the simple tools, thus impedingproductivity and efficiency.

■ Email is a fast, reliable means ofcommunication that allows you tocontact and communicate withmultiple people in an asynchronousmanner.

Forward You can send email messagesimmediately, and it is just as easy to reach oneor a dozen recipients at the same time. You cansend sophisticated messages with numerousattachments so that lawyers and researcherscan get documents on the road and in all man-ner of remote locations. Email messages can besent at any hour of the day, and recipientsrespond when they have the time, not whenthey happen to pick up the phone or read regu-lar mail. Wireless devices like the Blackberryallow users to send and receive messages fromalmost anywhere.

Back Spam and viruses are almostalways distributed faster than the email wewant to receive. Listservs like Lawlib generatedozens and dozens of messages each day, andusers who don’t take advantage of email filter-ing can end up missing critical requestsdrowned out by even desirable messages. If youuse a Blackberry for email, you can’t read mes-sages if you are sent a carbon copy (CC), andlong messages and attachments are generallyunviewable. Viruses and worms like kourniko-va, nimda, sobig, and msblast can cripple emailsystems, making it impossible to rely on this asa quick and stable communication method.

■ Microsoft Word and WordPerfectallow you to produce web contentwithout having to know a singleHTML tag. Now everybody canpublish content ready for the Inter-net without having to learn aboutnew software.

Forward In the early days of the Inter-net, it more or less took a computer program-mer to be able to produce web content. If youmissed one closing tag or typed one wrongcharacter, your page could mysteriously break.Then the Office Suite products from Microsoftand Corel provided you with the capability ofpublishing content in HTML format directlyfrom Word or WordPerfect. In the case ofWord, you don’t even have to know the lettersH-T-M-L, as you simply save your file as a“web page”. WordPerfect even provides popupballoons for footnotes, and both companies

allow you to save spreadsheets and databaseoutput in web-ready format.

Back Anybody who knows web contentand looks at Microsoft’s code can immediatelysee that there is a lot of proprietary and extrainformation included. And if you don’t knowHTML code, you might have no way of figuringout or correcting mysterious paragraph spacingor inconsistent on-screen formatting. Inresponse to these problems, software like Macro-media Dreamweaver provides options to “Cleanup Word HTML”, and Office XP offers anexport option for a “Web Page, filtered”. WithWordPerfect, a document with footnotes mightwork with wonderful onscreen references whenyour mouse hovered over a link, but it generallyrequires the IE browser, and you need to copy animage icon into an appropriate subdirectory.

In closing, my personal belief is that tech-nology has us all dancing a constant bunnyhop, and worse, the song keeps changing. Inspite of this, it is still fun to work with technol-ogy in the legal environment, and there is nodanger that our roles as librarians, searchers,teachers, and trainers will prevent us frombeing dance instructors and students for a longtime to come. ■

Fall 2003

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cal info ad

Fall 2003

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This is the first in a series of interviews with lawlibrarians whose careers have taken non-traditionalturns. Rachel Jones is Manager of ProfessionalEducation and Training at Dickstein ShapiroMorin & Oshinsky.

Q. TELL US ABOUT YOUR EDUCATIONALAND PROFESSIONAL BACKGROUND.It’s safe to say that I have done just about everylaw library job function in the last 22 years! Istarted working in law libraries in college as aloose leaf filer and messenger, and upon graduat-ing from college, got my first full time job as atechnical services assistant. That was in 1981,long before online catalogs and automated serialscheck-in! I went to library school part time andmoved into reference services early on, knowingthat I ultimately wanted to teach library patronshow to use library services and librarians to theiradvantage and their client’s advantage. I spentalmost two years in an academic law library set-ting where I learned how to teach Westlaw andLexis, specialized research courses and ultimatelysearching the Internet. When I returned to lawfirm life, I began the process of certifyingresearch instruction courses for mandatory con-tinuing legal education credit, which was part ofmy role as an administrator for the firm’s profes-sional development programming for attorneysand staff. It is in this role that I have been serv-ing my firm for the last seven years.

Q. WHAT ARE YOUR RESPONSIBILITIES ASMANAGER OF PROFESSIONAL EDUCATIONAND TRAINING?I am responsible for the administration of thefirm’s corporate university, Dickstein ShapiroUniversity. The university offers professionaland personal skills programs to attorneys andstaff through traditional classroom training andvarious multimedia methods. In combinationwith our professional development program, Ialso assist attorneys with their mandatory con-tinuing legal education responsibilities, includ-ing maintaining a tracking database.

Q. WHAT WERE YOU SEEKING IN YOURCAREER PATH IN TAKING THIS POSITION? I guess there was a part of me that wanted to bean educator and a librarian at the same time,and in my present position, I assist attorneyswith their professional development needs. Insome ways it’s like being a counselor, and newerattorneys can feel very comfortable seeking meout, because of my objectivity. I no longer workin the library, so the pressures for billing time

are gone, which is something that I don’t miss!

Q. HOW DID YOU GET THIS JOB? There are many firms who hire a former practic-ing attorneys to manage their professional devel-opment programming. I think law librarians canmore than adequately assume these positions,particularly reference librarians, because theyhave had opportunities to work along side attor-neys in their servicing of clients needs. I havebeen part of the associate maturation process formany years and I think that experience in com-bination with my teaching experience, made meuniquely qualified for my present position.

Q. WHICH OF YOUR SKILLS AS A LIBRARIANHAVE BEEN THE MOST USEFUL IN YOURCURRENT POSITION?My research skills are called upon regularly inthe development of course curriculums, findingCLE courses, and teaching courses.

Q. WHAT DO YOU MISS MOST ABOUTWORKING IN A LIBRARY? I suppose I miss the camaraderie that research pro-fessionals share…I am the librarian geek in theHR department now, but everyone knows who tocome to when they’re looking for something!

Q. WHAT DO YOU MISS LEAST? I haven’t missed having to bill my time for oneminute!

Q. WHAT’S THE BEST THING ABOUT YOUR JOB? Professional and personal skills developmentare the most positive services that a firm cansupport and I am happy to be part of it!

Q. WHAT DO YOU CONSIDER YOURBIGGEST ACHIEVEMENT? I think I am positive spokesperson for librari-

ans who want to take on new and non-tradi-tional roles.

Q. CAN YOU SEE YOURSELF EVERRETURNING TO A MORE TRADITIONALLIBRARIAN POSITION? Sure, you never know what life will throw yourway…I’ll always be a law librarian!

Q. DO YOU HAVE ANY ADVICE FORLIBRARIANS WHO ARE INTERESTED INNON-TRADITIONAL JOBS? Start networking with marketing and recruit-ment departments to see what services you canoffer them. ■

Career Paths

An interview withRachel Jones

lexis nexis ad

CLOSING BANQUET WRAP-UP

Although fall is just around the corner, it doesnot seem as if spring’s LLSDC Closing Banquetwas very long ago. It was wonderful to see a largeturnout of LLSDC members at the Closing Ban-quet, which was held on May 19 at the FairmontWashington which gave me the opportunity totalk to many people in the hotel’s garden beforethe dinner. Dean Olsher, host of “The Next BigThing,” a weekly radio program distributed byPublic Radio International, was our featuredspeaker at the Banquet. Dean’s speech was arevealing look at the process of assembling eachedition of his show and even included audioexcerpts from interviews he recorded while pur-suing story ideas in New Orleans’ French Quar-ter. However, as much as I enjoyed Dean’sspeech, I felt that the true highlight of theevening was the distribution of awards toLLSDC officers and committee chairs for theirservice throughout the year. I would like tothank Washington Document Service and WestGroup for their generous sponsorship of the Ban-quet and for sending representatives to enjoy thedinner with us. I would also like to thank Bar-bara Gabor and Amy Ratchford for all of theplanning and preparations they accomplished asco-chairs of the Arrangements Committee, JimWalther, who provided valuable assistance withdetails concerning Dean Olsher’s appearance atthe Banquet; Susan Ryan, for printing the Ban-quet program and certificates awarded, and LisaHarrington and Ann Green for their support andadvice in the months before and after the ban-quet. I also want to thank Ann Green for stand-ing-in for Lisa Harrington (who was still onmaternity leave) and passing me the LLSDCPresident’s gavel at the banquet.

The Closing Banquet was followed by aLLSDC Leadership Luncheon at Williams &Connolly LLP in June where incoming andoutgoing officers and committees chairs met tomake plans for the 2003-2004 year andexchange information. Special thanks go toExecutive Board Member Ellen Feldman, whohosted this luncheon, and to all who attended.

LLSDC’S OPENING RECEPTION TO BE HELDON SEPTEMBER 30My attention is now focused on the year’s manyupcoming events, including the Opening Recep-tion, which will be held on Tuesday, September30 from 8:30-10:30am at the Marriott MetroCenter (775 12th Street, NW, Washington).Sabrina Pacifici, Director of Library & ResearchServices for Sidley Austin Brown & Wood, LLP

and Founder/Editor of the Law Librarians’Resource Exchange (www.llrx.com) and BeSpa-cific.com (www. bespacific.com), will be ourspeaker at this event and will speak on latestdevelopments in online research tools. Wethank Lexis-Nexis and Leanne Battle and LindaHutchinson of Lexis’s Librarian Relations Groupfor sponsoring the reception. This event wouldalso not be possible without the dedicated assis-tance of Lisa Benjamin and Jeff Bowen, co-chairsof the Arrangements Committee.

VISITOR FROM INDIAShortly before the Fourth of July it was my plea-sure to meet Ms. Uma Narayan, Chief Librarianof the Judges’ Library at the Mumbai High Courtof Judicature, a guest of the U.S. State Depart-ment and who was visiting Washington as part ofa three-week trip to the United States. She wasaccompanied by LLSDC member Jackie O’Neill,her English-language Officer. As a participant inthe State Department’s International Visitor Pro-gram, Ms. Narayan traveled to Boston, Chicago,New York, Seattle, and Washington to familiar-ize herself with services and technology providedto court officials and private citizens by lawlibraries in the United States. The list of librariesand organizations she visited while in Washing-ton was diverse and impressive. I was pleased tohave the opportunity to meet with Ms. Narayanand describe to her the organization and activitiesof the Law Librarians’ Society of Washington,D.C. She was greatly impressed with the scope ofour organization and the many educational andsocial events it sponsors. Among her goals is toassist with the formation of a library organizationsimilar to LLSDC that can provide training andvaluable networking opportunities to court, aca-demic, and other librarians in Mumbai. Aftermeeting with Ms. Narayan, I accompanied herand Ms. O’Neill on a tour of the InformationResource Center located in Hogan & HartsonLLP’s Washington office. I am grateful to AustinDoherty and Tina Kelley for arranging this tourand to David Smith for conducting it.

GET INVOLVED!I encourage all LLSDC members to explorethis issue of Law Library Lights, the monthlyissues of our e-mail newsletter, Dates to Remem-ber, and the Society’s web site (www.llsdc.org)and find committees you want to participate inor activities you want to attend. If there arequestions or suggestions you have that I or theExecutive Board can address, please contact meat 202/789-6166 or president@llsdc.org. ■

President’sColumn

Scott LarsonBeveridge &

Diamond, P.C.

Fall 2003

36

PRESENT: Scott Larson, Susan Ryan, StephenMellin, Ellen Feldman, Judith Leon, AnnGreen, and Debbie Trocchi.ABSENT: Scott Pagel, Lisa Harrington andFrances Brillantine.CALL TO ORDER: Vice President Scott Larsoncalled the April 10, 2003 meeting to order at9:10A.M.MINUTES: Minutes for the meeting on March13 were approved as amended. Motion toapprove made by Ann Green, seconded bySusan Ryan.

REPORTSPRESIDENT/VICE PRESIDENT: Mention of thechange in date for the closing banquet wasmade. Date is moved to May 19, 2003. Speakerwill be Dean Olsher. Membership issues alsodiscussed – ways to increase the membershiptotals. Letter to all library managers was dis-cussed encouraging the managers to sign up allmembers of their library staff. Report also onPresident Lisa Harrington – had her baby.TREASURER: Stephen Mellin reviewed budgetreport. March was a good month with depositscoming in. The Legal Research Institute will begetting funding from both Lexis and Westlaw tohelp with costs. The Chapter’s First Unionmoney market account has been closed recently,with the remaining balance transferred to theFirst Union checking account. In the future,funds will be transferred to the checking accountfrom the FBR money market account when nec-essary. A discussion of the Joint Spring Work-shop was held. Mention was made that in pastyears expenses were generally covered and theonly large expense expected in the near futurewould be associated with the Closing Banquet.CORRESPONDING SECRETARY: Card and flow-ers to be sent to Lisa Harrington.RECORDING SECRETARY: Elections are inprogress with counting of ballots to occur onMay 8.Report from committee/group liaisons: LIAI-SON/PLL – Barnes & Noble social hour onApril 9; PLL elections are upcoming. LIAI-SON/LEGISLATIVE –Brown bag lunch sched-uled on CRS reports. LIAISON/PUBLICA-TIONS – Keith Gabel is finishing up the Unionlist orders; next project will be Counsel. LIAI-SON/LIGHTS –next issue of Lights has deadlineof May 2. Spring issue was still at the printer.Brief discussion about putting up the candi-dates’ bios on the website so folks could see theinformation in a timely fashion. Discussionabout getting an assistant editor and how to

handle the editorship in the future. Suggestionmade to hold a focus group to get ideas frompast editors – Ann Green will organize.MANAGEMENT COMPANY REPORT: One newmember to vote on. Motion to accept made bySteve Mellin; seconded by Judy Leon. Dates toRemember reviewed and program by RobinRebollo noted as needing sponsorship by aninterest group.

OLD BUSINESS:Review of the Town Meeting: Tours weregiven to the AALL visitors by Kate Martin andJoe Meringolo. Discussion of the AALL StraitMinority Scholarship Fund – what was appro-priate amount to pledge. Motion made bySteve Mellin to pledge $2000; seconded byEllen Feldman.

NEW BUSINESS:Discussion of issues presented from the PlacementCommittee regarding the Jobline and the jobpostings on the LLSDC website. Motion is madeby Ann Green to allow recruitment companies topurchase a link to their job listings for the annualamount of $200 starting with the 2003-2004 fis-cal year; seconded by Steve Mellin. A draft letterwould be drawn up by the Placement Committee.

Discussion regarding the Procedures Manualfor LLSDC. Requests have been received to havethe manual available on the website for new offi-cers and committee chairs. Various versions ofthe manual are available and the most current inelectronic form will be put on the website andcurrent officers and committee chairs will beasked to update or correct the information.

For the Closing Banquet, issue of plaquesand certificates is brought up. Susan Ryan willhandle both but needs input on who will needto receive them.

Reminder that the next meeting will beheld at Morgan, Lewis on May 8, 2003.ADJOURN: Meeting adjourned at 10:30am. ■

BoardMeetingSummary

Barbara Folensbee-Moore Morgan Lewis &Bockius

Fall 2003

37

lights deadline

If you would like to write forLights, please contact Tricia Peavler atlights@llsdc.org. For the most up-to-dateinformation regarding the 2003-2004 sub-mission deadlines and issue themes, checkthe LLSDC Web site at http://www.llsdc.org.

GREETINGS! BY THE TIME YOU READ THIS, THEAUGUST BREAK WILL BE OVER and Congress willbe back at work, scrambling to finish their work bythe tentative October 3rd adjournment date. Alas,a legislative librarian’s work is never done, and the2003-2004 membership year is just getting started.Earlier this summer, several of your colleagues metto discuss plans for the upcoming year. The first orderof business, however, was voting in Rick Ramponias vice-president/president-elect of the LegislativeResearch SIS. Congratulations, and thanks to Rick!

Some of the programs mentioned for theupcoming year have been done before, but bearrepeating due to their popularity and usefulness,and due to the ever-changing ways in which weperform our jobs. For example, many more librariesare looking at compiling legislative histories inelectronic formats and want more informationabout using available technology.

Participants expressed interest in programsthat would give us an “insider’s view” of organi-zations such as the Office of the Law RevisionCounsel, the Congressional Research Service, theParliamentarians’ offices, and the Senate Library.

There was also interest in touring CQ’s newfacilities and reexamining the resources provid-

ed by other vendors, such as GalleryWatch.We also discussed putting on educational

programs for people interested in doing legislativeresearch. This program would target experiencedlaw librarians who do not do legislative researchvery frequently. Such a program would increaseboth their familiarity with materials and theircomfort level in performing these types of projects.

Perhaps one of the most useful aspects oflibrary organizations is the opportunity to com-pare notes with your colleagues. To that end, wediscussed holding informal roundtable meetingsto address the following topics: How have youintegrated online resources into your legislativecollection? How has your job changed? Whattasks and responsibilities have been added to andsubtracted from your daily routine?

It is quite an extensive list, but one thing ismissing — YOU! Your comments and input arecritical. This is your SIS; what do you want to do?Please take time out of your busy day to share withyour colleagues, either by participating in or attend-ing a program. Or by just voicing an opinion onwhich programs you would like to see. Please con-tact me (cciambella@milchev.com) or Rick(richard.ramponi@lw.com) with your ideas. ■

LegislativeResearch

SIS News

Christine CiambellaMiller & Chevalier

Fall 2003

38

IT IS WITH SOME REGRET THAT I REPORT that pre-vious columns identifying Leslie Lee as the presi-dent of the Academic SIS for 2003 -2004 wereincorrect. It is regrettable because Leslie Lee woulddo an excellent job as chair of the SIS and becauseresponsibility for the SIS falls to me, the otherLee at the Burns Law Library. Other officers serv-ing this year are Matthew Mantel, also of the BurnsLaw Library, who will serve as vice president/ pres-ident elect, and Roger Skalbeck of George MasonUniversity Law Library who will be the treasurer.

As President of the SIS I have some inter-ests, but this SIS is not about me, it is about usand what we as a community of academic librar-ians see as issues of importance. For this reason,I really need to know what topics you the mem-bers are interesting in seeing the SIS address.Please send an e-mail to ilee@law.gwu.edu withissues related to your work that you would like theSIS to address in the coming year.

One issue of particular importance to me isthe preservation of library materials. We were verylucky to be able to arrange a guided tour of theLibrary of Congress exhibit of Ancient Manuscriptsof Timbuktu for the first week of September.Unfortunately, notice of the event was very short,and we had to visit at a time when many peoplewere enjoying the last days of their summer vaca-

tion. During the year, you will see that I am a bigbeliever in field trips and hands on learning.

I am also planning a one or two day bookrepair workshop with a book repair expert. Also,proving my faith in the value of field trips, Iwould like to arrange a tour of Wert Bindery inHershey, PA as another field trip for the SIS. Now,if you have not been to this bindery, believe mewhen I say that the trip is not only an opportu-nity to see books being bound, to have lunch, andmost importantly dessert, I mean desserts, at theHershey Hotel. It is an opportunity to learn aboutpreservation, the various services that Wert offersand to see your materials go through the binderyprocess. I was amazed at how much I learned. Also,it is a pleasant two and a half hour trip throughthe rolling hills of Maryland and Pennsylvania.

I also hope to see the SIS work together todevelop a legal research training program that canbe used by all of the member schools. I hope allof my colleagues in reference services will con-tribute to this effort. I will be calling upon sev-eral of you in the upcoming year to personallyinvite you to attend a program, to speak at a pro-gram or perhaps to host an event at your insti-tution. Just remember when I call, the Society,the SIS, and I, all need your help, and as a librar-ian, you are supposed to love to help! ■

AcademicLaw Libraries

SIS News

Iris LeeThe George WashingtonUniversity Law Library

THE ANNUAL AGENCY DAY EVENT was heldat the Department of State on May 23rd.There were approximately 45 people in atten-dance. The program spotlighted libraries fromour defense and security agencies.

Kim Ferrari, Chief of the Research ServicesBranch, represented the Central IntelligenceAgency Library. She delighted the crowd withher video clip from the popular soap opera“Guiding Light”. The actor portraying a lawyerwas lamenting the need for law books, while hisadministrators tried to convince him a computerwas all he needed. (I am sure this scenario soundsfamiliar to many of you). In addition, Kimexplained the CIA’s Open Sources approach todisseminating information, she talked abouttheir monthly Internet briefing, gave anoverview of their Intranet site, and sheexchanged some of her successful marketingideas with the group. The CIA Library sponsorsa program called Forward Deployed ReferenceLibrarians. Reference librarians are placed withinspecialized units to support their research needs.

Our second speaker was Hoyt Gallowayfrom The Bureau of Customs and Border Pro-tection (BCBP). Hoyt is the Director of theInformation Resources Center. He explainedthe recent name change for his agency was theresult of their incorporation into the newlyformed Department of Homeland Security(DHS). Since the 9/11 tragedy the BCBPLibrary has experience a significant increase inusage. As the only library in DHS they havemade a concentrated effort to improve andincrease their terrorism collection and to sup-port the Department of Homeland Security.

Marcy Hampton, Chief of the ResearchInformation Branch, and Lynda Kennedy, SeniorLaw Reference and Collection DevelopmentLibrarian, represented the Pentagon Library.Because of the tremendous amount of damagesuffered during the 9/11 attack the PentagonLibrary was forced to move to the Taylor Buildingin Crystal City. The situation was not ideal withbooks on one floor, the staff several floors awayand their clientele still in the Pentagon. It wasdetermined a storefront library on the Pentagon’smain concourse would be a perfect solution. Onereference librarian staffed it during peak hours.Earlier this year the Library moved from CrystalCity to the Butler Building just outside of thePentagon. A decision whether this will be a tem-porary or permanent location has yet to be made.

In an effort to support military personalaround the globe, the Library has created an“Ask a Librarian” feature on their website.

They have an extensive collection of onlineresources available to Pentagon employees.The Army Knowledge On-Line portal (AKO)allows Pentagon employees to access Armyelectronic publications and form files. MERLN(Military Education Research Library Net-work) combines the resources of U.S. militarylibraries across the globe. Visit the PentagonLibrary website at www.hqda.mil/library to getmore information on other library resources.

The final speaker was Eugenia Ryner,Library Director and Unit Chief, at the FederalBureau of Investigation (FBI) Library. The FBILibrary is located in Quantico, Virginia on thegrounds of the FBI Academy. It services notonly the Academy and FBI employees, but alsolaw enforcement agencies from all over theUnited States.

Their collection contains a wide-range oflaw enforcement materials including books writ-ten by and about former FBI employees. Bibli-ographies of law enforcement topics are conve-niently located on their website (http://fbilibrary.fbiacademy.edu). The FBI Library alsomaintains a video collection of movies and tele-vision programs that depict the FBI.

At the conclusion of the program a briefbusiness meeting was held for all FLL members.Jeanne Faubell with the Federal RetirementThrift Investment Board Library, was electedSecretary/Treasurer/President-Elect. IncomingPresident, Joan Sherer announced the formationof two committees. The Program Committeewill be responsible for planning the educationand social programs. The Revision Committeewill be tasked with revising the Directory of Fed-eral Law Libraries in the D.C. Metropolitan Area.”If you would like to serve on one (or both) ofthese committees please contact Joan at (202)647-1146 or e-mail shererjm@state.gov. ■

Federal LawLibrariansSIS News

Joan ShererU.S. Department of StateOffice of the LegalAdviser Law Library

Fall 2003

39

DATES TO REMEMBER

Dates to Remember (DTR) is a monthly(September – May) newsletter designed tokeep the membership informed of currentSociety events. DTR and the Society’sMaster Calendars are now being handledby the Society’s management office. Toclear your date and publicize the event,please contact Millie Gallahan at703/619-5033 or management@llsdc.org.

LET’S FACE IT. LIBRARIANS ARE NOT MIL-LIONAIRES. We fly coach. We buy bulk. Wehave bus transfers and many of us know how touse them. How then, do we, the financial hob-bits of the legal world, best serve the researchneeds of the jet-setting international financiersthat compromise some of our biggest clients?

Just because the closest you came to inter-national trade was selling your old copy ofAARC2 to a library exchange student onwww.craigslist.org does not mean that you cannever become an expert in global markets. Aquick review of web resources at your fingertipswill quickly bring you up to the cruising alti-tude of the sleekest chartered jet.

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCEhttp://www.export.govThe first destination on any librarian’s globalitinerary is the U.S. Government Export Portal,maintained by the Department of Commerce.What this site lacks in glamour it easily com-pensates for in depth of information and ease ofuse. Research subtopics include Country andIndustry Market Reports, Industry SectorOffices, Agricultural Market Research, CountryInformation (Quick Reference), Video MarketReports Library, Broad Country Information,Project Feasibility Studies, Trade Agreementsand Statistics, Region Specific Programs, andCustomize Market Research Services.

COUNTRY AND INDUSTRYMARKET REPORTShttp://www.buyusainfo.net/adsearch.cfm?search_type=int&loadnav=noThe Country and Industry Market Reports areprovided by the U.S. Commercial Service can besearched using several criteria simultaneously,including; industry, country, region, report type,date range, and keyword. Assume that yourclient is a fur manufacturer and between herencounters with PETA and global warming,business in the United States is not as strong as itonce was, and she is now interested in tappingemerging nations for alternative markets. Per-forming a search for “Region: Newly Indepen-dent Countries,” “Industry: Textiles and Appar-el” and “Keyword: Fur” results in the display ofseveral reports on commercial markets in EasternEurope. Using your browser’s “Find” mechanismwill bring you directly to information that per-tains to fur. As it turns out, our manufacturer isin luck. Fur-trimmed accessories are still all therage in the former U.S.S.R., but according toreports, many of the state run factories are in dire

financial trouble or have already closed. Our fur-rier friend is laughing all the way to the bank.

EXPORT STATISTICShttp://www.export.gov/tradestatistics.htmlExport Statistics is maintained by the Office ofTrade and Economic Analysis and provides aquick and simple means of identifying what com-modities are being exported from the UnitedStates as well as their destinations. Three optionsare available for arranging data: 1) global distribu-tion of U.S. or state exports, 2) state-by-stateexports to selected markets, or 3) export productprofiles to selected markets. Values for commodi-ties can usually be indicated either in dollaramounts, change of dollar, or change of percent-age from previous years. Data is displayed in bothmap and chart format, and can also be download-ed as a spreadsheet. The colors can even bemanipulated to some extent for easy viewing, andfor those lacking a color printer; the maps can beprinted in black and white patterns for legibility.Our theoretical client is now concerned thatMaryland (where her farm, “Think Mink” islocated) would not be a major player in the Rus-sian fur market. We do a state-by-state exports toRussia search for “leather and related goods,” andas it would appear, Maryland does not export anyfur to Russia. However, further exploration showsthat Maryland does fall into the middle range ofstates exporting fur to China. With almost noeffort our client has the potential to be Maryland’stop (if only) fur exporter to Russia. In this econo-my, if the only silver lining we’ve got is trimmingthe boot of our former global nemesis, so be it.

TECHNICAL REGULATION UPDATEShttp://ts.nist.gov/ts/htdocs/210/ncsci/export-alert.htmTechnical regulation updates can be accessedthrough the National Institute for Standardsand Technology’s Export Alert Service. Accord-ing to the website, “members of the WorldTrade Organization (WTO) are required “...toreport proposed technical regulations that mayaffect trade to the WTO Secretariat, who inturn distributes them to all WTO Members.” Insigning up for this email service members of thegeneral public can receive these alerts as well.The updates include a summary of the regula-tion, the country of origin and the final date forpublic comment. The site listed above providescontact information for those who would like torequest the full text of the regulation, as well ascontact information for those who need toobtain the guidelines for submitting comments.

MISS INFORMATION

Sarah NagelBryan Cave LLP

Fall 2003

40

Fall 2003

41

2002/2003 WAS AN ACTIVE YEAR for theForeign and International Law SIS. In coopera-tion with the Law Library of Congress, the SISsponsored several programs, including anotherinstallment of the popular Fundamentals of For-eign Legal Research series which coveredJapanese law. The SIS also co-sponsored a well-attended program held at the Library ofCongress entitled Free Trade and Economic Inte-gration in Asia: The Changing Legal Landscape.

Society members will again have theopportunity to tap into the expertise of areaforeign and international legal experts with anew series of programs that are being planned

for the coming year. Details will be announcedin future issues of Dates to Remember, on theLLSDC listserv, and at the Foreign/Interna-tional SIS(s page on the Society(s website at:http://www.llsdc.org/sis/forint/.

The Foreign and International Law Spe-cial Interest Section will soon be recruitingcandidates to fill the positions of President andSecretary/Treasurer in the coming year. Asalways, volunteers are also needed to planfuture events for the Foreign and InternationalLaw SIS. If you are interested in either, pleasecontact Herb Somers at hsomers@law.gwu.eduor 202-994-5177. ■

Foreign andInternationalLaw SIS News

Herb SomersThe George Washington University Law Library

WELCOME BACK TO ANOTHER YEAR OF PLLACTIVITIES AND PROGRAMS. Just as we begin gearing up for another year, ourPresident Jim Walther is leaving us for New Yorkto pursue a new opportunity. Jim did a great jobfor LLSDC PLL last year and we will miss himgreatly. In light of Jim’s departure, I will serve outthe remainder of Jim’s term as President. In addi-tion, the Board has appointed Sarah Nagel ofBryan Cave as Vice President for a one-year term.I am looking forward to working with Sarah,Treasurer Carolyn McKelvey, and Secretary KristyYarnell in the year to come.

WE NEED YOUR INPUT: By the time thisissue hits the press, the PLL education and social

committees will already be planning education-al seminars, brown bag luncheons and socialevents. We need your input to help us ensure weare putting together programs and events that fityour interests. If you would like to get involvedor have an idea for a program/event you wouldlike to see planned, please contact me at jkorpacz@cov.com or at 202/662-6153.

KUDOS: Finally, many thanks to last year’sboard President Pete Vay, Vice President/Presi-dent-Elect Jim Walther, Treasurer Tracy Fritz, andSecretary Lisa Benjamin for a great year of edu-cational programs and fun social activities. Wehope to keep up the good work and look forwardto seeing you at PLL events! ■

PRIVATE LAWLIBRARIES SISNEWS

Jennifer KorpaczCovington & Burling

TRADE AGREEMENTS

http://www.tcc.mac.doc.gov/cgi-bin/doit.cgi?226:54:851100175:15A series of search boxes allows users flexibilitywhen identifying international trade agree-ments. Available search criteria are generalkeyword, keyword within title, type of good orservice, issue (eg. anti-dumping, labor, intellec-tual property, market access, WTO, etc.), andcountry or signatory. Multiple countries/signa-tories can be designated by using your comput-ers control or command key while selecting.Some of the agreements have accompanyingguides providing information such as frequentlyasked questions, summaries and contact infor-mation for more detailed inquiries. For exam-ple, perhaps our client the furrier would likesome examples of current trade agreementsthat would pertain to her burgeoning accessorybusiness. Although the term “fur” doesn’tretrieve any hits, the search term “hides” and“animals” return results such as “The EuropeanUnion Humane Trapping Standards Agree-

ment” and “WTO: Multilateral Agreements onTrade in Goods: Agriculture” which coversanimal hides and skins. Of course, if you knowthe title of the agreement your patron is inter-ested in, you might be able to avoid a time con-suming interlibrary loan request by beginningyour research here.

IN CONCLUSIONMiss Information would like to close by offer-ing this; just because we are not wearing JimmyChoo shoes or Saville Row suits and vacation-ing in Mustique does not mean we are notallowed to provide fabulous information serviceto the movers and shakers that comprise muchof our clientele. There is a wealth of interna-tional trade information available on the web,and trust me, you do not need to be GeorgeSoros to afford it. And, of course dear readers,Miss Information does not wear fur, preferringthe comfort and flexibility of her swimsuit, sashand tiara. No animals were hurt in the produc-tion of the search examples for this column. ■

Fall 2003

42

PRINT PUBLICATIONS

Journal of International Criminal Justice, 2003-Published three times per year by Oxford Uni-versity Press, Journals Customer Service Depart-ment, Oxford University Press, 2001 EvansRoad, Cary, NC 27513; 800/852-7323; Fax:919/677-1714; E-mail: jnlorders@oup-usa.org;Website: http://www.law.oupjournals.orgPrice: $240.00 per year.This journal will address the major problems ofjustice from the angle of law, jurisprudence,criminology, penal philosophy and the historyof international judicial institutions. Its mainfocus will be the problems facing internationallaw in the light of the establishment of theinternational criminal courts.

Washington University Global Studies LawReview, 2001/2002-Published semi-annually by the Washington Uni-versity School of Law, Campus Box 1120, OneBrookings Drive, St. Louis, MO 63130-4899;314/935-6498; E-mail: dent@wulaw.wustl.eduPrice: $25.00 per year.This publication offers writings on internation-al, foreign and comparative law topics. Eachissue features articles, comments, notes and

book reviews written by legal scholars, studentsand practitioners in the field.

ON-LINE SUBSCRIPTIONSEnergy Legislation Wire, 2003-Published and updated daily by Bureau ofNational Affairs, 1231 25th St. NW Washing-ton, DC 20037; 800/372-1033; Fax: 800/253-0332; E-mail customercare@bna.com, Website:http://www.bna.com/Price: contact BNA for pricingDesigned as a professional tool for attorneys,energy executives, energy trade associationexecutives, and government officials, this dailyWeb update thoroughly covers the multi-faceted federal energy legislation under consid-eration by the 108th Congress.

TITLE CHANGEJournal of Law and Social Change, 2002-Published annually by the University of Penn-sylvania Law School, 2400 Chestnut Street,Philadelphia, PA 19104Price: $25.00 per year.Formerly Hybrid, this new title began with vol-ume 6 dated 2002. The last issue of Hybrid wasvolume 5 dated 2000. ■

Eye on Serials

Susan RyanGeorgetown University

Law Library

A BUFFET BREAKFAST FOR NEW MEMBERS willbe held at Old Ebbitt Grill on Thursday, Octo-ber 9th from 9:00 am until 11:00 am. New mem-bers have been sent invitations. A similar eventwas held last year at Old Ebbitt and was wellattended and enjoyed. RSVP to Laura Reilly atMorgan, Lewis, lreilly@morganlewis.com as soonas you get your invitation.

NEW MEMBERSNina Balter – Former D.C. LibrarianM Jessie Barczak – Womble, CarlyleAndrea L. Blison – George Mason University Dawn Bohls— Collier ShannonMyesha Tyler Boodram – The George Wash-ington University Jacob Burns Law LibraryJody T. Coyle – Dialog CorporationAlanna M. Dalton – Arnold & PorterJennifer Dismukes – Kirkland & EllisChristopher J. Ferenschak – McDermott, Willand EmeryBeverly Forrest – Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer& FeldTammy Gallo – Burt, Maner, Miles and StaplesKenneth Goldberg – Research AssociatesElanor Gonzalez – Shearman & Sterling

Rebecca Green – Ivins, Phillips & BarkerAnna C. Hall – Catholic University of AmericaDorothy Hamid – U.S Dept. of EnergyElena Howell – Covington & Burling Billie Jo Kaufman – American UniversityRoss Kiser – American Staffing AssociationStephen Lafalce – Clifford Chance US LLPLaureen Lentz – Catholic University of AmericaCraig Levin – Clifford Chance US LLPSarah Lyon – Drinker Biddle & Reath, LLPMary C. Lyons — Student, UMDLonnie R. Merriett – CQ PressJennifer E. Miller – Winston & StrawnFrancesca O’Connor – Wilkinson Barker Knauer,LLPAbigail Rudman – Covington & BurlingTerry Seale – Greenberg TraurigKeith A. Searls – Social Security AdministrationSteven Shearer – Steptoe & JohnsonJulie Silverman – University of MarylandMonica Sutton – Kirkland & EllisLouise Tsang – Georgetown University LawCenterMichael Vanderheijden – C.A.C.I Inc.John Winner – Sheppard, Mullin, Richter &Hampton LLP ■

News ofMembers

Jeffrey FreilichIvans, Phillips &

Barker

NCCUSL DISCHARGES UCITA STANDBY COMMITTEE

The National Conference of Commissionerson Uniform State Laws (NCCUSL) dischargedthe standby committee of the Uniform Com-puter Information Transactions Act (UCITA)on August 1, 2003 at NCCUSL’s 112th Annu-al Meeting held in Washington, D.C. This“unprecedented,” though not wholly unexpect-ed, action stems from intense, wide-rangingopposition to UCITA. Although the commit-tee has been discharged, thereby withdrawingofficial NCCUSL support of the controversialsoftware licensing law and efforts to seek itsadoption by state legislatures, the NCCUSLPresident K. King Burnett did make clear inher statement that “UCITA will remain inplace as a resource for the American legal andpolitical community, and for reference by thecourts. This major advocacy victory should notprompt librarians to fully lower their guardbecause UCITA can still be introduced by anylegislator in any state, so it is important thatwe continue to monitor state legislative activi-ty on UCITA.

RECENT GAO STUDY NOTES PROBLEMSWITH NARA E-ARCHIVES SYSTEMA recent GAO report, requested by Rep.Ernest Istook (R.-Okla.), chairman of theHouse Appropriations Committee’s Trans-portation, Treasury and Independent Agencies’subcommittee, found that the NationalArchives and Records Administration’s(NARA) proposed Electronic Records Archive(ERA) project has many problems: an incom-plete target enterprise architecture, a lack ofdescription of the characteristics from the enduser’s perspective and an inability to adequate-ly track the cost and schedule of the program.These are key elements of the standards setforth by the Institute of Electrical and Elec-tronics Engineers (IEEE), the industry standardthat NARA elected to follow.

The text of the report is available at thefollowing website: http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d03880.pdf

GRC COMPLETES PERMANENT PUBLICACCESS TO GOVERNMENT ELECTRONICINFORMATION REPORTThe Permanent Public Access of State Govern-ment Information: A State-by-State Compilationand Resource Guide assesses the level of perma-nent public access to electronic governmentinformation across all state governments. It was

generously funded by a grant from Aspen LegalPublishers.

Members of the American Association ofLaw Libraries in each state, the District ofColumbia and Puerto Rico completed a com-prehensive survey. The survey results revealthat no state is comprehensively addressingthese challenges. The Government RelationsCommittee hopes that the findings of thisreport will encourage state governments towork with law librarians and the broader libraryand public access communities to enact legisla-tion in order to ensure that permanent publicaccess to electronic government informationwill become a reality all across our Nation.

The text of the report may be viewed at thefollowing website: http://www.ll.georgetown.edu/aallwash/State_report.pdf

GPO AND NATIONAL ARCHIVESUNITE IN SUPPORT OF PERMANENTONLINE PUBLIC ACCESSArchivist of the United States, John W. Car-lin, and United States Public Printer, Bruce R.James, announced an agreement whereby theGovernment Printing Office (GPO) and theNational Archives and Records Administra-tion (NARA) will ensure that documents cur-rently on GPO Access, including the onlineversions of the Congressional Record, the Fed-eral Register, the Code of Federal Regulations,and other electronic publications distributed bythe Superintendent of Documents, will remainavailable permanently.

Librarians, including members of the Asso-ciation of Research Libraries and the AmericanAssociation of Law Libraries, have longbelieved that this was a necessary step in ensur-ing permanent public access to and preserva-tion of electronic government information.

According to the agreement that wassigned on August 12, NARA will assume legalcustody of the records as part of the officialArchives of the United States and GPO willretain physical custody and be responsible forpermanent public access and preservation ofthe records. ■

Fall 2003

43

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Tanya S. BrownLibrarianSpiegel & McDiarmid

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