The point was raised in another message about these two organizations
being unrelated to each other and other inconveniences have been noted for
a joint conference. Actually, both groups are special libraries. Even at
colleges the law library is not the general collection but a special
collection. I am neither a law nor a special librarian, but I have a few
observations that I hope will be helpful.
Law library conferences will tend to cover some topics in presentations
that are of interest to special librarians not working in law libraries.
Similarly, presentations or events in a special library conference that
deal with general library operation issues in a special library may be of
extensive interest to law librarians needing general ideas of how to run a
special law library. A presentation at a special library conference
regarding issues in a corporate medical library could be of great interest
to law librarians in firms with very active medical litigation at their
law firm.
Secondly, the need to expand and get beyond ones borders is another strong
excuse for holding a joint conference. Those who focus only on that which
is strictly relevant to their own personal perceived professional needs,
may miss some extremely important knowledge from other people's fields
that is very pertinent and important to their own professional practice.
Moving the two conferences together may open the doors for some major
intellectual cross pollination.
Finally, if two organizations start hobnobbing together to plan a joint
conference, there is the serious danger that they may start the practice
of cooperating together in other matters, such as perhaps perchance
creating a dual membership with perhaps some savings to the member over
both memberships or perhaps some other perks. Perhaps the two
organizations will develop some joint activity in library issues of
importance to both. Who knows what the outcomes of developing a joint
conference might be. Sounds pretty radical to me. <g>
Sincerely,
David Dillard
Temple University
(215) 204 - 4584
jwne@astro.temple.edu
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NetGold/>
<http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/ringleaders/davidd.html>
<http://www.kovacs.com/medref-l/medref-l.html>
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