President s Column Professor Robert Truman

Transcription

1 Newsletter of the Western Pacific Chapter of the American Association of Law Libraries President s Column Professor Robert Truman Head of Electronic Information Services Boley Law Library, Lewis & Clark Law School Portland, Oregon Good Fall, WestPac friends! Another season, another newsletter, another opportunity to point out all the nice ways WestPac members treat each other, and to thank you for the opportunity to serve as President of our great group. The highlight since our last newsletter was our annual business luncheon in Philadelphia. It was so good to see over thirty of our members able to attend. No doubt the lucky coincidence that AALL was holding its annual conference in the same city at the same time helped spike attendance a bit, but either way it was a great time. As those attending in Philly heard, or as you can see from the Treasurer s Report, WestPac is in fine financial shape. As of July we had approximately $23,000 in checking and savings. Moreover, the 2012 WestPac Annual Meeting in Portland is on track to pay most or all of its own bills, with more than enough room reservations to meet our hotel minimum, avoiding any unexpected late charges for the meeting space. The Portland meeting is shaping up to be a great one. We have over 55 members registered to date. When considered in light of fiscal realities, I think this a testament to the value of our group, the rich meeting program, and the important learning opportunities we gain from being together in the same physical space over two days. That said, there are a number of members who will not be able to travel to this meeting because of financial limitations. I will certainly continue to work with the Executive Board to find ways to expand access to the meeting, much as we did this year in expanding the size of our grants. We have two departing members of the Executive Board. I d like to thank Swee Berkey for all of her support and guidance as Immediate Past President. And this message has already gone on too long without mentioning how much I have relied on Christine Timko as Treasurer. She has been a rock for us, in the best sense of the word. All groups should have such Treasurers. (continued on next page)

2 Fall, 2011 WESTPAC News Page 2 President s Column by Robert Truman (Continued from page 1) Thanks go as well to all our Committee Chairs and members willing to serve. We are all plenty busy in our jobs and lives; the commitment so many make to WestPac is truly appreciated. At the risk of forgetting someone (apologies in advance), I do wish to highlight the work of a few folks who kept us going this year: David McFadden, for doing such a wonderful job of keeping us informed as Government Relations Chair; Kathy Faust for serving as a particularly active Grants Committee and Local Arrangements Committee; Tami Gierloff who has taken on any number of those small, otherwise unnoticed details that come with hosting a meeting; and Tim Kelly for keeping our house organ this newsletter going strong. And yes Tim, I will keep my promise to continue working as Past President to find a perhaps easier path for our Chapter communications than our current goal of four newsletters a year. It s been a great year partaking in WestPac from this particular presidential perch. It has been my pleasure to try to keep the joint running, and I am glad that the baton is being passed to Stacey and such a great group of librarians on the board. See you all at WestPac Portland. And, yeah, if you ask nice the first beer will be on me. WESTPAC News Editor Timothy P. Kelly Willamette University College of Law Library tkelly@willamette.edu Statements and opinions expressed in WESTPACNews are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official opinions of WESTPAC or AALL. Newsletter 2011, Western Pacific Chapter, American Association of Law Libraries. Individual authors retain the copyright in their original writings. Please contact the author(s) directly for permission to reproduce material from this publication. WESTPAC Discussion List: to subscribe, send a message to listproc@willamette.edu. In the body of the message, type: sub westpac-l firstname lastname. (Photo above: Robert Truman awarding PDX book raffle held in Philadelphia. Photo of Robert on the first page taken in Philadelphia as well.)

3 Fall, 2011 WESTPAC News Page 3 WESTPAC NEW MEMBERS We welcome the following new members to WestPac! Afuso, Pauline Thomson Reuters/West Briscoe, Georgia University of Colorado Law School Cloutier, Philippe Lane Powell, PC Ellison, Beecher Josephine County Law Library Holly, Gerber Washington County Law Library Helm, Dannie University of Oregon Howard, Peter San Jose State University Kenney, Elizabeth Consolidated Edison Co., Inc. Meyer, Kurt Gonzaga University School of Law Tretter, Laura State Law Library of Montana News from Nevada Christine Timko is the new Law Librarian at the Supreme Court of Nevada. Christine had served as Assistant Law Librarian since May She is the current WestPac Treasurer and will pass on the treasurer's duties to Alana H. Carson-Wilson at the annual meeting. Christine received her MLS from BYU and has worked in all types of libraries, from public to private. Christine has also worked in the private information technology center.

4 Fall, 2011 WESTPAC News Page 4 MICHELE FINERTY FROM PACIFIC MCGEORGE SPEAKS TO CHINESE DELEGATION WestPac member Michele Finerty, Pacific McGeorge School of Law, spoke before a delegation from the People s Republic of China on August 8, The delegation was part of an observation study tour to review current issues in open government/freedom of information at both the Federal and California state levels. Headed by Wang Xixin, Vice Dean of the Peking University Law School, the delegation included officials from the Hunan Provincial Government, the Administrative Law Research Association, Beijing, and the China University of Politics and Law. They met with Federal officials in Washington, D.C., travelled to Mexico City to examine open government practices there, and then to Sacramento. After the presentations at Pacific McGeorge, the delegation moved onto the State Capitol for further meetings with officials. Michele s presentation detailed law librarian advocacy initiatives on both the national and state levels. She described the strategic work of professional law library associations, as well as the part the associations and individual librarians play in building successful coalitions with public interest groups in order to get open government initiatives passed. Other speakers on the panel were Professor John Sims of Pacific McGeorge, who described the operation of the Freedom of Information Act, focusing on his own experiences as a plaintiff in the often-cited Supreme Court case that upheld secrecy about the CIA s MKULTRA mind control research; and Tom Newton and Jim Ewert of the California Newspaper Publishers Association (CNPA), who reviewed open meeting laws that mirror the principles of the California Public Records Act. Buck Sterling, in the photo on the right, having fun in Philadelphia.

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7 Fall, 2011 WESTPAC News Page 7 Minutes, continued from previous page. WestPac luncheon in Philadelphia.

8 Fall, 2011 WESTPAC News Page 8 PAULA S EXCELLENT ADVENTURE AT AALL IN PHILADELPHIA By Paula Doty, Librarian V at Supreme Court of Nevada I d like to thank the Grants Committee (Chair Kathy Faust, and members Rita Kaiser, Suzanne Darais and Matthew Downs) for awarding me a grant to attend the AALL Annual Meeting in Philadelphia. Deb Person asked me to speak on J6: The Struggle for Information Access and Instruction in Less Populous Areas and the WestPac grant allowed me to travel to Philadelphia. I was pretty busy in Philly: SATURDAY As the incoming Vice-Chair of the Indexing of Legal Periodical Literature Committee, I was invited to attend the Leadership Luncheon for Committees, SISs and Chapters. I also attended the Committee Leadership Training meeting and the Indexing of Periodical Literature Committee meeting. The committee leadership training included meeting the committee s liaison to the AALL Board, a review of AALL s strategic directions, a discussion on planning the work of each committee, as well as an overview of the AALL s new My Communities website. Saturday evening was a blur of new and familiar faces at the Exhibit Hall Ribbon Cutting/Opening Ceremony, the Pacific Chapters Joint Reception and the TS/OBS/RIPS/CS SISs Joint Reception. SUNDAY Sunday started bright and early with the 7am SCCLL-SIS Breakfast, Business Meeting and Silent Auction. Outgoing chair Kathy Carlson turned her gavel over to incoming chair Amy Hale-Janeke, who promptly declared this the Year of the Wiki. At the auction I scored the Liberty Bell Coffee Cozy. (pictured on the next page.)

9 Fall, 2011 WESTPAC News Page 9 PAULA S ADVENTURE CONTINUES I also scored the Penzey s Spices Cocoa Lovers Gift Box which I shared with my coworkers back home. ( After breakfast, I spent some time in the Exhibit Hall and stopped by the Craft AALL area to drop off a quilt and admire the handiwork of other crafters. Lesliediana Jones, Debby Norwood and Susan Chinoransky of the Jacob Burns Law Library organized the event for knitters, crocheters and quilters. They collected handmade blankets and quilts for the children at Hahnemann University Hospital NICU. Photos of the crafters and their blankets are on Flickr. Next up was the Opening General Session/Keynote with Dahlia Lithwick. Lithwick s talk The Supreme Court and Free Speech was funny, informative and well-received. If you haven t listened to it on AALL2go yet, go do so now.

10 Fall, 2011 WESTPAC News Page 10 PAULA S ADVENTURE CONTINUES After a quick lunch I went to A6: Best Practices for Evaluating a New Electronic Resource, but snuck out early to check out the last few minutes of the CS-SIS Program: Cool Tools Café where I saw a demo of a couple of alternatives to Powerpoint: Prezi and Ahead. (The handout for this presentation is posted on the CS -SIS Wiki.) Afterwards I skipped the TS-SIS Professional Development Committee Meeting to attend the SCCLL-SIS Program: The Value of a Public Law Library: How County Law Libraries in Pennsylvania Collaborate with Courts to Provide Service to the Self-Represented Litigant. Librarians from Berks County and Lancaster County talked about the evolution of self-help centers in their courts/libraries. C3: Battledecks AALL was hilarious. Volunteers created ten slides (one slide was labeled Peeps in Kandahar, others include an images of a TV dinner and an alien autopsy) and another volunteer presents a talk based upon slides they have never before seen. Each presenter won an award, but my favorite was Mary Whisner of the Gallagher Law Library. That evening I went to the SCCLL Reception at the Jenkins Law Library. I walked five blocks in the wrong direction before figuring it out and turning around. I caught up with some other AALLers and we got rained on but eventually made it to the Jenkins Library, which was awesome. MONDAY On Monday I intended to go to D3: The New Collaboration Tools: Let s Work Together! Or D5: The Role of the Law Library in Serving the Illiterate in Their Quest for Access to Justice but decided I needed to do some work on my presentation. At which point the sprinkler alarm system in my hotel went off so I had to evacuate the hotel with all the other guests. I grabbed my laptop and materials for the presentation before evacuating. One must have priorities.

11 Fall, 2011 WESTPAC News Page 11 PAULA S ADVENTURE CONTINUES Giving up on presentation prep for a bit I headed over to the Convention Center and sat in on the What s New in HeinOnline program (slides available at HEINONLINE_AALL2011.pdf). The Spinelli Law Librarian s Reference Shelf was demonstrated and new databases and enhancements were discussed. Updates include faceted searching available in every database, links to publishers websites for recent issues of journals, etoc alerts and an ipad app. F3: Friending the Courts: Grappeling with Social Networking in Litigation and the Justice System was inspiring. One of the speakers discussed use of YouTube to share videos for pro se patrons and attorneys. Another reported on the survey of state court judges and magistrates on use of social media conducted by Conference of Court Public Information Officers, the National Center for State Courts and the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University. The full report can be found at Next up was LISP/SR/SCCLL-SIS Joint Roundtable on Library Services to Pro Se Patrons and Prisoners moderated by Amy Hale-Janeke. Amy followed up on her earlier comments in the SCCLL-SIS Business Meeting on 2011 being the Year of the Wiki and gave us a sneak peak at a Google site she s working on, a Best of Show of Services to Pro Se/Pro Per Patrons. Sara Galligan, director of the Ramsey County (MN) Law Library updated us all on the civil Gideon case, Turner v. Rogers and the impact it may have on our libraries and patrons. For more on the case, see Sara also talked about the so-called Turbo Tax-type interactive kiosks used in some courts by self-represented litigants to prepare legal filings. The speakers were Marissa Boyers Bluestine, legal director for the Pennsylvania Innocence Project, and Fernando Bermudez, who was wrongfully convicted of murder in the shooting death of Raymond Blount in 1991 and served more than 18 years in New York State maximum security prisons before proven innocent in late 2009 with assistance from pro bono attorneys from Washington, D.C., New Jersey and New York. Mr. Bermudez, accompanied by his wife and children, gave a very moving talk. At this point presentation panic was starting to set in so I missed G1: Library Operations and the Evolution of the ILS: Backfield in Motion? and the TS-SIS Program: The Elusive Updating Loose-Leaf: Cataloging Standards and Practices for the 21st Century and met with Deb one last time to discuss our presentation.

12 Fall, 2011 WESTPAC News Page 12 PAULA S ADVENTURE CONTINUES TUESDAY Tuesday started early with another multi-block detour in the wrong direction and the 7am SCCLL-SIS State Law Librarians Roundtable. By 9am I was back at the Convention Center for H2: Providing Excellent Customer Service in the Law Library: Hold the Pickles. Vanessa Uribe from the El Dorado County (CA) Law Library and Kelley Browne of the Sacramento County (CA) Public Law Library made an excellent presentation with lots of practical and useful tips. I especially liked this presentation because Vanessa referenced Zingermans training and it reminded me of library school in Ann Arbor. My SchedAALL said I was supposed to go to I3: E-books and the Future of Legal Publishing, but honestly I can t remember if I made it or not as my pre-presentation nerves were kicking in. I do remember going to the WestPac Luncheon at Maggiano s Little Italy Restaurant, sitting between David McFadden and Galen Fletcher and having a lovely conversation. And I know I was presented with a grant check (and Kathy or I made a joke about carrying it from Nevada for my colleague and WestPac treasurer Christine Timko only to have it presented to me twenty minutes later by Kathy). Many thanks to Rob Truman, who graciously moved up the grant award in the agenda so that Deb and I could leave the luncheon early to prepare for our talk. Deb and I ducked out of the luncheon early and went over to the Convention Center to check out our room for J6: The Struggle for Information Access and Instruction in Less Populous Areas. The room seemed scarily large. Though originally proposed as a one hour program, we had only 30 minutes to discuss information needs of rural populations. Debbie identified several ways in which law schools in rural areas might differ from those in urban areas and discussed the positives and negatives that come with working in a rural setting. I provided a general demographic overview (only two county law libraries of significant size and staffing) and then discussed some of the ways Nevada courts are serving rural users. For more information on this program, see Deb s article I closed out the Exhibit Hall (they turned off the lights on us!) and then went to K5: Innovations in Services to Self- Represented Litigants. Glenn Rawdon of the Legal Services Corporation gave an interesting talk about the Technology Initiative Grants (TIG) program which promotes full access and high-quality legal representation through the use of technology. I left the conference room energized and ready to find a community partner with which to apply for a grant. I had a wonderful time at the Annual meeting and learned so much. I couldn t wait to get back to share what I learned with my colleagues at the Nevada Supreme Court.

13 Fall, 2011 WESTPAC News Page 13 Rural States, Legal Services, and Legal Education By Deb Person, Associate Law Librarian, University of Wyoming College of Law Every state has isolated rural communities that are more difficult to reach for delivery of legal services. For those states with a substantial percentage of their population in rural areas it is a constant struggle. And the struggle is not only to serve the population but the legal community as well, a community that begins with law students. At a recent AALL session, The Struggle for Information Access and Instruction in Less Populous Areas, Paula Doty from the Nevada Supreme Court Library and I sought to address some of the ways that states with large percentages of rural populations differ in the services they provide and the training of their attorneys. I looked at the differences in educating attorneys who would likely practice in more rural environments, and Paula addressed the issues of services and how states are seeking to meet the needs of their population. The goal of this recap is to identify other librarians like us with an interest in this issue. Situated in Wyoming, I come from the state with the second lowest population per square mile (after Alaska). Laramie, where the University of Wyoming is located, is the third largest city in the state, a state of around 560,000 people. The College of Law at the University of Wyoming, similar to other law schools in the region with high rural populations, admits 50%-60% residents, and, though it s difficult to collect exact figures from peer institutions, it appears that a similar percentage stay in state to practice law. We believe the educational experience in law schools with a large rural community varies from schools that serve a more urban population in small but important ways. Some of the characteristics of these schools are a holistic approach to admittance, including high resident requirements imposed by the state legislature, which, in low-population states tends to lower the pool of LSAT-acceptable candidates, slightly older student, and in some rural states throughout the West, a lack of diversity. Law schools that fell into this loosely-defined category of rural schools tended to rank among U.S. News and World Report s former third and fourth tiers, and that may be attributed in some degree to those factors listed above. Using Wyoming as a model, we sought to identify some of the differences. Smaller schools have fewer curricular choices; it s more difficult to attract faculty; and graduates will not be walking away with the power of a big-named university behind them. On the other hand, we offer a very respectable faculty-student ratio; competitions and law review are open to all students; on-sight oral arguments of the Wyoming Supreme Court usually involving our own clinic students; and a faculty that has taught a significant portion of the current state bar association, making them somewhat influential within the state and providing students with solid references to prospective employers. 1 I selected schools from states with only one law school, and though I found trends across the board, the greatest similarities seemed to be regional.

14 Fall, 2011 WESTPAC News Page 14 Rural States by Deb Person (continued from previous page) How, then, do we move from the instructional aspect of our states attorneys to practicing within the state? Paula addressed some of the issue in her state that we believe are common to rural areas. States like Nevada and Wyoming, with low populations, do not have intermediate appellate courts, meaning every appeal goes directly to the state s highest court, congesting their court system. In Nevada, a recent survey indicated that some rural county law libraries are unstaffed, housed in other county offices such as that of the district attorney, or supervised by judges clerks. Some counties do not have law libraries at all. With the availability of low-end primary law contracts for Westlaw and Lexis, some counties are providing online resources, but no training is provided to staff or patrons. Much of the population that lives within an acceptable distance of the state capitol still has to travel fifty or sixty miles to use the resources of the state law library, and many are traveling much farther. Some of the smaller towns do not have any attorneys and citizens may have to drive over an hour to find one. And, while constitutionally, those convicted of crimes have access to public defenders, any treatment programs that are ordered by the courts may not be available in their county. These are big problems. Some of the steps towards improving the access problems in Nevada are integrated technology to provide the use of video and telecommunication tools for court hearings and electronic filing of court documents, the standardization of regularly used forms, districts and counties allowing the use of court forms that are easily accessible from other districts, and self help web sites collecting links to state social and legal services, In California, Vanessa Uribe, Library Director at El Dorado County Law Library, has set up a Facebook page for staff in small counties as an open forum, and the State, Court, and County Law Libraries Special Interest Section is addressing some of these issues, too. Academic and state court libraries may seem like an unlikely pairing, and admittedly, larger law schools may feel that they are pretty distant from these problems. But smaller schools, where the alumni are the leadership of the state bar association, the state legislature, and the state government, may find real opportunities here. We d like to begin the conversation. If you find your state is experiencing similar problems, if you have happened upon some really good solutions, if you would like to see your law school working to prepare students for this environment, please contact one of us. We could begin with a Community on AALL, a Facebook page, or, more formally, a possible AALL caucus. There is a lot more to talk about, and we d like you to be part of it.

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16 Fall, 2011 WESTPAC News Page 16 Inside the Courtroom An Artist s Perspective: Trials from Lane County, These drawings are a small selection from a gift of 236 courtroom drawings presented to the John E. Jaqua Law Library. The drawings were commissioned by local television station KEZI during the 1980s and 1990s and used during its news broadcasts. KEZI employed several artists, working in a variety of media and formats, to cover local trials. The collection includes images from several well-known Lane County cases, including the Diane Downs murder trial, the Barbara Harris murder trial, and the official misconduct trial of former Lane County Commissioner Robert Bob Wood.

17 Fall, 2011 WESTPAC News Page 17 WESTPAC ANNUAL MEETING FINAL PROGRAM

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19 Fall, 2011 WESTPAC News Page 19 PROGRAM DESCRIPTIONS FOR PORTLAND 2011 WESTPAC ANNUAL CONVENTION Bicycle Law Ray will be presenting on bicycle and pedestrian law in Oregon, including the rights and responsibilities of motorists, cyclists and pedestrians. Collaborations: Idaho s Law Learning Center and the Colorado Law Project This program will present two interesting law library collaborations: Idaho s Law Learning Center, a collaboration between the University of Idaho College of Law and the Idaho Supreme Court to provide an innovative law library that is shared by students, the Idaho Supreme Court, members of the Idaho bar, and the public; and the other among several Colorado libraries, including the University of Denver Sturm College of Law Westminster Law Library, to provide access to reliable legal information across Colorado. Both speakers have been part of their respective projects since initiation and will discuss the development of the projects, how their institutions built successful collaborative relationships, and how their projects are doing now. Hiring the Law Librarian of the Future This program will focus on identifying law librarian skills, knowledge, talents, and other attributes that will be essential for the law library of the future. Panelists will describe the types of people whom they feel will be essential for sustaining the profession of law librarianship as the future brings changes to the legal environment and to legal academe. Panelists representing various generations, types of libraries, skill sets and points of view will share their thoughts. Attendees will be encouraged to join in a dialogue about the future of library human resources after the panelists remarks. New Information Delivery Technologies Librarians are using technology in new ways to enhance learning, connect with students, and advance the future of libraries. This program is a presentation of some of those applications. Screencasting will be discussed as an important tool for enhancing learning with a demonstration of an instructional application using Jing. Social media will be discussed in the context of promoting library outreach and content development online. The panel will explore uses of social technologies such as blogs, wikis and Facebook to provide point of need instruction onsite or remotely, and provide practical tips for successful implementation. Discovery Layers in the Law Library Catalog In the past few years, law libraries have made significant strides in the implementation of discovery layer technology. In a recent survey of technical services law librarians, fifty two percent of respondents said their libraries were either using discovery layer interfaces in their libraries, or in the process of implementing them. Law libraries in particular are faced with unique issues in the selection, implementation, and deployment of these new tools. This program will provide an update on the status of discovery layer implementation in Law

20 Fall, 2011 WESTPAC News Page 20 Libraries, and address some of the issues specific to law libraries during the process of implementation. Foundations and Developments in Animal Law Law librarians are increasingly in partnership with animal welfare law activists, practitioners, and scholars. In the role of activist, they craft, monitor, and lobby for legislation that promotes animal welfare. They handle questions relating to the topic in law libraries of all types, including public, firm, and academic institutions. Patrons in public law libraries seek help in locating laws for dog bites, animal hoarding, the death or injury to pets, and veterinary medical malpractice. The number of classes taught in academic institutions continues to increase, along with the need for law librarians to teach or provide research assistance. At the core of these developments are programs such as the Lewis and Clark School of Law s Center for Animal Law Studies, which operates in conjunction with the Animal Legal Defense Fund. Pamela D. Frasch, Executive Director of the Center for Animal Law Studies, and Kathy Hessler, Clinical Professor and Animal Law Clinic Director, will speak to the Center s role in furthering the rapidly developing field of animal law. SPEAKER BIOGRAPHIES Stacey Bowers is the Outreach & Instructional Services Coordinator for the Westminster Law Library at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law. She practiced law for 14 years prior to joining the Westminster Law Library in She received hery JD in 1992, MLIS in 2006, and PhD in Curriculum & Instruction in 2010 from the University of Denver. She is an adjunct professor in the Sturm College of Law where she teaches legal research courses and also an adjunct professor in the Morgridge College of Education where she teaches library science courses. She is a member of CoALL, AALL, and ACRL. She is also the Co-Principal Investigator on a three-year IMLS grant that has funded the Law Librarianship Fellowship program at the University of Denver to educate ten new law librarians through the Library and Information Science program. Kathy Carlson has been at the Wyoming State Law Library for 24 years [23 years as Director]. Prior to her tenure there she worked as an Editor for Lawyers Cooperative Publishing Company [two annotations she wrote can still be seen in volumes 70 and 71 of Supreme Court Reports Lawyers Edition 2d] and as a short term law clerk for a Federal District Judge in the Eastern District of Kentucky. Kathy earned her B.S. in Political Science at The Ohio State University, her J.D. at Capital University Law Center [Columbus, Ohio] and her M.A. in Library and Information Science at The University of Iowa. Kathy is active in AALL, SCCLL, CoALL, and WestPac as well as in numerous community activities. Kathy and her husband, Jerry, live in Cheyenne, Wyoming with their four spoiled rescued dachshunds.