Terry, while it's quite true that AALL is the only library organization
dedicated solely to law libraries, it is, unfortunately for those of us in
less-than-humongous law firms, courts, government agencies of all kinds,
dominated by academic libraries and, to a lesser extent, very large firms
that have library resources not that different from the academic law
libraries.
SLA's Legal Division, on the other hand, is dominated by medium and smaller
law firm librarians, court librarians, librarians from other government
agencies--in other words, by people and institutions who have much the same
resources and needs that I have. Moreover, the rest of SLA is populated by
librarians who, although their subject area concentration is different and
varied, are working in otherwise-similar settings and face many of the same
practical problems and constraints. As an added bonus, they have something
to offer in the form of knowledge and experience in answering questions and
finding resources outside the legal field--which many of us have to deal
with on a regular basis. Business information? News? Medical or biotech?
Patent searching? What's an academic law librarian going to teach me about
these things? And what benefit am I going to get from a demonstration of
West's knowledge management system which would require the purchase of a
new, dedicated server just to get started? I can see the value for firms
large enough that this is a reasonable expense, but I've never worked in
such a firm.
I've been to AALL, and I've been to SLA. SLA is both more useful and more
interesting to me.
Lis Carey
Testa Hurwitz & Thibeault
Boston, MA
-----Original Message-----
From: Terry Long [mailto:tlong@infionline.net]
Sent: Thursday, May 13, 2004 10:08 AM
To: Judith Cole; law-lib@ucdavis.edu
Subject: Re: AALL or ALA
Judy -
AALL is not just for academic librarians. It is the sole library
organization dedicated to law libraries. Granted there are law librarians
who like you and I are in government but, we are, after all, law librarians.
AALL presents programs and publications that are unique to our types of law
libraries. It is not serving the interests of pharmaceutical, museum,
banking, engineering and law; it is serving only the needs of law libraries.
Stick with AALL. Try to attend an annual meeting (There are scholarships
available, if your agency can not afford to send you.), while at the annual
meeting attend the State, Court and County SIS meeting. Get involved with
the section. You will meet others in your situation and will benefit from
sharing ideas and attending programs. And, speaking of programs, you can
propose one for next year's meeting - another way to get involved in an
organization dedicated to your profession. Even if you can't attend a
meeting, the literature and listserv discussions provided by AALL are
beneficial to the profession.
On a local level, try to attend a SEAALL meeting (There are scholarships
availabe to attend - I have received one.). Local involvement is helpful,
too.
Remember AALL is for law libraries.
Terry
***********************************************
Elizabeth Terry Long
Assistant Law Librarian
Virginia State Law Library
Supreme Court Building, 2d floor
100 N. Ninth St.
Richmond, VA 23219
Phone: 804-786-2075
E-mail: tlong@infionline.net
or tlong@courts.state.va.us
----- Original Message -----
From: "Judith Cole" <ColeJ@hillsboroughcounty.org>
To: <law-lib@ucdavis.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, May 11, 2004 2:11 PM
Subject: AALL or ALA
This is a departure from the conference thread. I have been a member of
AALL for 2 years and have never been a member of SLA. I can belong to only
one or the other. I am thinking of moving over to SLA because my
organization's needs are very different from those of academic law
libraries. We are a government entity but aside from having a captive
clientele and not having shareholders, we function very much like a private
practice. I would welcome feedback before I make the move.
Judy Cole, Law Librarian
Hillsborough County Attorney's Office
601 E. Kennedy Blvd., 27th Fl.
Tampa, FL 33602
Tel: 813-272-5673, Ext. 126
Fax: 813-272-5758
colej@hillsboroughcounty.org
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