Honoring Kathryn Mattox

Kathryn Mattox served as Librarian for Stites and Harbison in Lexington, KY from 1987 until her death in 2005. She facilitated the library's move into the firm's current space. She loved her job and especially enjoyed attending the AALL Annual Meeting. In addition to naming their library the Kathryn Mattox Law Library, Stites and Harbison contributed (along with the Lexington Association of Law Libraries, LEXIS, and WESTLAW) to fund an all expenses paid scholarship to allow a law firm librarian to attend the 2006 Annual Meeting. The funding groups asked the SEAALL Scholarship Committee to handle the award process.

The Scholarship Committee selected Elizabeth Cavendish of Adams and Reese, LLP in New Orleans, LA as the recipient of the Kathryn Mattox Scholarship. Those who knew Kathryn say that she would be so pleased with this selection as she loved New Orleans and loved a party; she and her husband visited there often.

The SEAALL Scholarship Committee would like to thank Stites and Harbison, the Lexington Association of Law Libraries, LEXIS, and WESTLAW for their generous gifts in honor of Kathryn Mattox.

Another Suggestion for Sharing Photos

Jim Milles had a good suggestion for those of you who already have Flickr accounts and don't want to bother with getting an invitation to join the AALL Gateway group. You can just tag your photos “AALL2006” in your own Flickr account.

Photos tagged AALL2006 but not added to the AALL Gateway pool will not appear in the sidebar of this blog or on the AALL Gateway Pool page. You can find them by going to Flickr and searching for AALL2006. You don't need to sign in to search or browse Flickr.

If you want to add your photos to the group pool, email me at dmurley@siu.edu to request a Flickr invitation, and see these tips to get you started.

Show Me the Books!

The Social Responsibilities Special Interest Section (SR-SIS) is coordinating the 8th annual children's book drive this year in St. Louis. The theme in the Show Me State is “Show Me the Books!” This year's efforts will benefit two of the most needy schools in the St. Louis area, Wellston School District's Central Elementary and St. Louis City School District's Vashon 9th Grade Academy.

The Wellston School District was established in 1894 and currently educates 600 students in four facilities, including an early childhood center and the Central Elementary School. Wellston, like many small inner suburbs, was plunged into economic depression and social chaos after the losses of population and declining home values of the post-World War II era. Test scores had declined to such an extent by the 1990s that the State of Missouri was forced to place the district into a form of receivership.

The City of Wellston has made efforts to stabilize its political, commercial and physical infrastructure and attract new residents. They have also consolidated and reorganized the school system with Central Elementary now serving grade levels 1 through 4. Central has slightly less than 200 students and has begun rebuilding the library collection.

Vashon High School is one of a number of schools in the St. Louis City school district that has suffered a plague of financial, political, and severe discipline issues. In January 2006, as part of an immediate effort to create smaller, more manageable student communities, the new superintendent of the city school system took the bold step of removing the current 9th grade class to an off-site facility. The freshman class was relocated to a vacant middle school facility in the downtown area, now known as the Vashon Williams Ninth Grade Academy.

The academy's library is in the process of building a collection to support the new program. They are in need of all appropriate materials for 14 – 16 year old students. The small amount of funding provided by the school district has allowed the library to purchase only a few reference titles and some fiction items. Currently they have 594 titles (and 653 copies) in their collection. According to the state, the library should have the following in order to meet minimum standards: 350 reference titles, 3080 nonfiction titles, and 1530 fiction titles.

You can help by donating cash, checks, or books that are appropriate for the age groups in the two schools. Please leave donations at the Social Responsibilities SIS table in the exhibit area. Alternatively, it is still not too late to order books from Amazon.com. Just go to: http://tinyurl.com/og5re. Books appropriate for the Wellston students are listed on the “2006 Elementary School List,” and Vashon's preferred titles can be found on the “2006 9th Grade List.” Your donation will be shipped directly to the Book Drive Team.

Gen X / Gen Y Caucus

Are you a Gen X or Gen Y law librarian? Or, are you interested in the future of law librarianship? Come to the first meeting of the Gen X / Gen Y caucus which will be held Sunday July 9th from 5:30 to 6:30pm. At this meeting, we'll be eliciting input from the group about our profession, where we see it heading, and how we want to be involved. Contact Jennifer Marshall at JMarshall@reedsmith.com if you have comments or questions.

Book Club Meets in St. Louis!

Alternative program explores making the impossible possible.

The State, Court, and County Law Libraries Centennial Committee will present an alternative program on Monday, July 10th from 2-3 pm in Renaissance Grand-Landmark 7 room. The Committee has encouraged law librarians to read the book The Impossible Will Take A Little While by Paul Loeb. This collection of inspirational writings by various authors is hopeful, encouraging, and motivating. The Atlanta Journal Constitution described the book as a “stirring collection of essays aimed at people who still want to believe that ordinary people can change the world.”

The book club program will begin with a panel of SCCLL librarians discussing portions of the book that most impressed them. They will each share personal experiences and aspirations that mirror themes from the book. Audience members will be encouraged to join in the discussion with their reactions to the book or the panel’s comments and to pass on their personal viewpoints and stories. This program will provide a thoughtful conversation about our future and how we can lead change in our libraries, our communities, and our profession during the next one hundred years.

Panelists:

• Anita Anderson Law Librarian, Minnesota Attorney General
• Anne Grande, Director of Law Library, Hennepin County Law Library
• Jean Holcomb, Law Librarian, Westfield, NC
• David J. Lockwood, Deputy Circuit Librarian, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
• Judy Meadows, Director, State Law Library of Montana
• Regina Smith, Director of the Law Library, Jenkins Law Library

Sharing your photos of the annual meeting

If you would like to contribute photos to the AALL Gateway group on Flickr, email me at dmurley@siu.edu to request a Flickr invitation. I will send you an invitation email from Flickr. Click on the link in the email and follow the instructions.

Flickr has an extensive FAQ, from which I have extracted some basic tips on getting started with Flickr, uploading photos, and adding those photos to the AALL Gateway group.

2nd Annual Stitches SIS

Take a mini break and unwind with a ball of yarn or threads;
come network with your fellow knit-wit Librarians!

Monday July 10th at 3:00pm and Tuesday July 11th at 1:15pm
during the Exhibit Hall break.

Posted for Carolyn Tanen and Joanne Dugan

Calling all Law Librarian Bloggers, Curious Bloggers and Bloggers To Be!

Did you know St. Louis is considered home to many blawgers?

There will be a wonderful opportunity to meet law librarian bloggers and St. Louis bloggers during the AALL conference.

We will have an informal gathering at 5 p.m. on Monday, July 11th for drinks, etc. at a place near the conference center. Bloggers are invited to meet each other and share their ideas. And, even if you do not blog, you are invited to participate!

St. Louis’ blawgers include Dennis Kennedy of http://www.denniskennedy.com/blog/, Matt Homann of http://thenonbillablehour.typepad.com/ and http://www.lexthink.com/, Evan Schaeffer of http://www.legalunderground.com/, and George Lenard, http://employmentblawg.blogspot.com/.

The location will be announced at a later time. Please plan to attend on Monday, July 11th from 5 p.m.-6:30 p.m.

For more information, please contact Barbara Fullerton at 214-800-4576 or bfullerton@10kwizard.com.

AALLNet Discussion Forum Managers Workshop in St. Louis

If you have just been tapped to be the new discussion forum (listserv) manager for your AALL group (or are a continuing manager but are not on the managers' listserv), then we hope you will come to the Discussion Forum Managers Workshop in St. Louis, which will take place on Tuesday, July 11, from 5:15-6:15 p.m. in the Renaissance - Grand Aubert room. Charles Reese, AALLNet Director of Information Technology, and Chris Siwa, AALLNet Administrator, will be there to give tips and to answer questions so as to help us make our listservs run smoother.

You can register (no charge) at this site: http://www.aallnet.org/committee/aac/workshops/2006forums.htm

Your registration will let us know how many participants to plan for, and the form also provides space for you to submit questions.

We look forward to seeing you there --

Jan Anderson
for the AALLNet Advisory Committee
email: anderjan@law.georgetown.edu

Picturing the Annual Meeting

We have set up a Flickr group photo pool for the annual meeting this year. Flickr is a website where individuals and groups can share photos with each other and the world. A selection of photos in the AALL Gateway pool will display in the sidebar of this blog, or you can see the entire pool at http://www.flickr.com/groups/aall_gateway/.

There are only three photos in the pool at this time, but you can help. If you plan to take a digital camera to the AALL annual meeting and would like to share your photos with the pool, email me at dmurley@siu.edu to request a Flickr invitation. I will post some tips for getting started later this week.

Unfortunately, it is not possible at this time to splice photos from a group photo pool into our blog feed. I tried last night, and many feed subscribers receive random photos that weren't from the pool. Sorry about that. You can subscribe to a separate feed for the AALL Gateway photos or visit the AALL Gateway pool to see all photos.

Famous St. Louisan: Josephine Baker

From AP:

St. Louis Childhood Shaped Josephine Baker
By CHERYL WITTENAUER, Associated Press Writer Wed Jun 21, 11:39 PM ET

ST. LOUIS - Freda Josephine McDonald Martin was only 13 when she left St. Louis to begin the journey from poverty to international star.

But just as T.S. Eliot's poetry was influenced in this Mississippi River city by his "childhood beside the big river" and playwright Tennessee Williams met his Stanley Kowalski in a factory here, Josephine Baker's artistry and passion for human rights sprang from her early years growing up black in the St. Louis slums....

Learn about more famous St. Louisans (like Buddy Ebsen, Harold Ramis, John Goodman, Vincent Price, Tina Turner, Betty Grable, William S. Burroughs, Miles Davis, Marlin Perkins, T.S. Eliot, Kevin Kline, Nelly, Tennessee Williams, Shelly Winters, and more) at the St. Louis Walk of Fame on Delmar Boulevard, just outside the city limits in University City.

Wireless Access Points in the America’s Center

Wireless Internet Access Locations in the St. Louis America's Center:

First Floor:
Washington Lobby
Plaza Lobby
First Floor long hallway that connects Washington & Plaza Lobbies

Second Floor:
Lobby outside of 220 Complex and 230 Complex
Second Floor Atrium
Second Floor long hallway that connects Second Floor Atrium with the lobbies by 220 Complex and 230 Complex

Other locations at the America's Center include the Internet Room (sponsored by West) in the Exhibit Hall (available until 3pm, Tuesday, July 11) and the Convention Center Internet Café (across from 9th Street Entrance – between hall 3 and Plaza lobby – next to security).

Note: It does not appear that secure wireless access is available for purchase in the America's Center. Check out the St. Louis Local Arrangements page's Business Services Guide for links to other WiFi and Internet locations in St. Louis.

Disaster Planning is the Hot Topic!

Join your colleagues on Tuesday, July 11, 4:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m. for the hot, Hot Topic in St. Louis: Prepare for the Worst, Hope for the Best: Using a Library Disaster Plan Template to Prepare the Library's Disaster Plan. Disasters can range from plumbing leaks and broken water pipes to major catastrophes, such as hurricanes and fires. Good disaster planning can make it possible to get your library back into operation. Speaker, Jeanne Drewes, Chief, Binding and Collections Care, Library of Congress, and managing editor of Insurance and Risk Management for Libraries, will walk attendees through creating a library disaster plan using a template, which is available on the Educational Program Handout Materials Collection site. Attendees are strongly encouraged to bring the template. Ms. Drewes will review existing disaster plans (limit 5 plans) while she is at AALL. If you would like Ms. Drewes to review your existing plan, bring it to the session.

Be sure to bring with you printed copies of the 3 documents for Program H-1 (available for printing/downloading here).

Nancy Johnson, Coordinator

Button, Button, Who’s Got the Hurricane Button?

Last year the Gulf Coast was devastated by three category 5 hurricanes–Katrina, Rita, and Wilma. Courts, law firms and law schools were in many cases forced to go on the road for significant periods of time, trying to maintain services even when the devastation occurred over a large geographical area. Many law librarians were, and still are, affected by these events. Those librarians who are willing to discuss their experiences will be wearing a button with the hurricane symbol and the words "I was there." The buttons may be picked up at the hospitality area, at the same place where you pick up the sticker to show that you will be attending AALL in New Orleans in 2007. Thanks to Catherine Lemann, Law Library of Louisiana, for coming up with this idea. (Posted for Barbara Fritschel)

The Hollywood Librarian

“Librarians are almost always very helpful and often almost absurdly knowledgeable. Their skills are probably very underestimated and largely underemployed. “— the Social Audit Consumer Handbook, Macmillan, 1978, p. 41
Charles MEDAWAR

As Librarians, we have few heroes to look to on the silver screen. Instead of being depicted as advocates for free speech, expeditors of information, and the guardians of our history and culture, we’re most often shown as ill-tempered, sensible shoe-wearing gatekeepers whose greatest pleasure comes from silencing people with a resounding “shhhhh.” It would be great, wouldn’t it, if the world could see librarians for what we really are and the true importance of our work? Luckily, you now have the opportunity to help make that dream a reality.

Over the past three years, librarian and information consultant, Ann Seidl, has been working on The Hollywood Librarian, a thoughtful, entertaining, and enlightening documentary that focuses on the lives and work of librarians in the context of the highly influential medium of American feature films. Ann has been gathering dozens of interviews with real library professionals and library supporters and movie clips of cinematic librarians, from Katharine Hepburn in Desk Set to Goldie Hawn in Foul Play. Interwoven within the scenes of reality vs. perception are the issues that matter both to librarians and the public: censorship, intellectual freedom, pay equity, funding issues, and the value of reading. The work is nearly done, but we need your help.

To finish the film, we need $150,000 to purchase the rights to film clips and music, and edit the more than 50 hours of footage into the final product. How can you help? You can easily make a donation by sending a check to: The Hollywood Librarian, c/o Bi-Folkal Productions, Inc., 809 Williamson St., Madison, WI 53703, or by going to The Hollywood Librarian website, http://www.hollywoodlibrarian.com/, click on Sponsor the Film, and click on Support the Documentary. Any amount is appreciated and if you need more convincing just check out some of the preliminary footage on The Hollywood Librarian website.

A film like this, if you’ll pardon the pun, is long overdue. Support your fellow librarians, the profession and of course, the librarians that will come after us.
Many thanks. (Posted for Priscilla Stultz)

Bring your pioneering spirit to the dance floor….

Join the unofficial Dance-SIS group which will meet in the entryway/lobby area of the Grand Renaissance Hotel for the first time on Saturday evening at 9:30. Tentatively we are planning on going to Club Buca (walking distance - less than a mile away) the first night. See information about that area of downtown (Laclede's Landing) and other entertainment venues in that area. If we find a better venue, or hear a better plan, we will try to get the word out. Contact Ed Beltz, at 919-619 6517 during the conference, or Donna Nixon, at 919-593-4288, to coordinate plans. Prior to the conference, email at ubeltz@gmail.com or nixon@law.duke.edu . (Posted for Ed Beltz)

OBS-SIS Special Committee on Record Sharing Meeting

• Are you concerned about “record nabbing vs. record sharing” using the Z39.50 protocol?
  
• Worried, but not sure what to do, about the fact your ILS is a Z39.50 server that other libraries (or even vendors) might use obtain MARC records for free, sometimes without your permission?
  
• Apprehensive about the future of the CIP program in light of the survey recently conducted by the Library of Congress and whether possible changes in that program might affect where libraries get their MARC records for acquisitions and cataloging?
  
• Rethinking your cataloging workflow, including how you will obtain MARC records, now that the RLG/OCLC merger has been approved?
  
  If any of those issues are of interest to you, please join the Online Bibliographic Services SIS Special Committee on Record Sharing for an informal discussion/focus group during the AALL conference in St. Louis. Our meeting will take place on Sunday, July 9 from 4:15 – 5:15 p.m in the America’s Center Room 125.
  
  You don’t have to be a member of either OBS or the Committee to be part of our discussion. We’re looking for opinions from folks in all different types of libraries and from vendors as well on the issues involved. Are you using Z39.50 now? Are you interested in it, in discussing the possible abuses of record “nabbing” or in helping to develop a set of guidelines for the future? Please come and share your views on July 9! (Posted for Pat Callahan)

New Exhibit Hall Event: Meet St. Louis regional lawyer/authors at the Left Bank Books booth!

Special exhibit hall event just added! Meet regional authors who are lawyers at the Left Bank Books booth. Left Bank Books, St. Louis’ premier independent book store, will present a book signing and meet and greet session.

Confirmed so far is Michael Kahn, author of the Rachel Gold series of legal thrillers. Kahn, a St. Louis trial attorney, has been selected for inclusion in the current edition of The Best Lawyers in America. (See link for additional biographical information.) Other participants are still being confirmed, but possible authors could range from writers of mysteries to sports to federal procedure.

Left Banks’ participation in the exhibit hall is made possible by a generous donation from Greensfelder, Hemker and Gale, PC, with assistance from the Rocky Mountain Division of West Librarian Relations, and through the efforts of Sally Crowley, Local Advisory Committee Exhibits Chair.

Watch for announcement on the day, time, and authors and be sure to visit Left Bank Books and all our exhibitors! (Posted for Sally Crowley.)