Target Audience: Librarians exposed to maritime issues but not working in specialty firms
Learning Outcomes:
1. Participants will gain an understanding of key issues in the practice of modern-day maritime law.
2. Participants will learn where to find answers to key maritime issues.
Pirates, rovers, and assailing thieves. Drunken sailors and leaking rigs. With modern-day piracy and increased ship-based disasters, more and more maritime issues are creeping into our daily lives and legal practices. This program will cover key issues in current maritime practice, what is on the horizon in the field, and where you can find answers once the issues are sorted out. Our speakers represent both academia and the private sector for a well-rounded presentation of the topic. Prepare to set sail for the high seas!
Target Audience: Law librarians interested in collaborating on the creation of institutional repositories and open access digital collections, as well as those interested in the research and teaching opportunities afforded by such collections
Learning Outcomes:
1. Participants will be able to describe collaborative methods for developing digital collections.
2. Participants will be able to discuss how digital collections facilitate research access to rare resources, as well as how such collections can enhance teaching.
Building digital collections and repositories to facilitate research and enhance teaching has been a focus of much recent activity by state and university libraries. However, few law libraries have participated in this trend, largely due to the costs associated with content management systems and the need for specialist metadata librarians. By joining together in consortia, or by participating as junior partners in university digitization projects, law libraries are beginning to engage in the opportunities offered by digital collections. A panel of law librarians and professors will discuss the collaborative development of law library digital collections, as well as examine how these collections have greatly simplified research access to rare materials and enhanced teaching.
Target audience: Librarians who seek access to information held by the federal government
Learning Outcomes:
1) Participants will identify federal statutes, executive orders, and Department of Defense regulations and directives that apply to the classification of information and the disclosure of classified information, as well as the various levels of security clearances possessed by federal employees.
2) Participants will identify historical situations where the unauthorized disclosure of classified information has jeopardized intelligence operations and describe scenarios in which secrecy is an essential factor in protecting national security.
Secrecy often poses difficulties in democracies where transparency of government operations is the norm. Claims to secrecy are viewed with suspicion, and questions arise as to whether the cloak of secrecy hides not secrets essential for national security, but evidence of malfeasance and incompetence. With the detention of Army Private Bradley Manning for the suspected release of classified information to WikiLeaks, many have viewed his role as one of whistleblower, rather than lawbreaker or spy.
Learn how information is classified, who has the authority to classify and declassify it, and who has access to it. Focusing on intelligence operations, also learn the importance of secrecy in protecting the national security of the United States, and the damage resulting from breaches of secrecy.
The views and opinions expressed during this program are those of the speakers and do not represent the views or policies of the United States Government.
Target Audience: Directors, public services librarians, IT professionals, and non-catalogers in technical services in all types of libraries
Learning Outcomes:
1. Participants will be able to understand RDA's new approach to relationships between authors and works, how this new approach needs to be accommodated, and how it can be utilized by public services librarians.
2. Participants will be able to assess RDA's new approach to dealing with publishing patterns and resolving challenges posed by diversification of electronic and online media, and how this approach can be utilized by acquisitions and serial librarians.
Resource Description and Access (RDA), the new cataloging code published in June 2010, is based on a recently formalized philosophy for providing access to materials. It is written with the international world of computers and online access strongly in mind along with the relationships of information elements. Librarians, other than catalogers, may not know much about this new code, nor may they know how these new standards for metadata creation will affect public services and technical services areas other than cataloging. Most may also not be aware of its possible applications outside of integrated library systems. "RDA for Everyone" will bring together a respected law cataloger/RDA tester, a well-known associate director/professor of legal research, and a reference and technology librarian (who is also the Chair of the Education Committee of the CS-SIS), to relate a brief history and description of RDA, explaining how it affects discovery and use of information, and how it has potential use outside the traditional library catalog.
Target Audience: Law librarians interested in legal history, constitutional studies, archives, preservation, and local history
Learning Outcomes:
1. Participants will be able to identify the major contributions of James Wilson to the U.S. Constitution.
2. Participants will be able to examine and compare various projects providing preservation of, and access to, James Wilson's documents.
James Wilson is the author of the phrase "We The People" in the U.S. Constitution. He also signed the Declaration of Independence, served as an original member of the U.S. Supreme Court, and helped found the University of Pennsylvania Law School. His early notes and drafts, archived in Philadelphia, are being preserved and made accessible to researchers and scholars. The Historical Society of Pennsylvania has several versions of the U.S. Constitution, including the earliest surviving draft handwritten by Constitutional Convention delegate James Wilson and the first newspaper printing by The Pennsylvania Packet. This program will feature an archivist and law professor who will discuss the importance of Wilson's writings, his crucial role in creating our constitution, and the archive's current work of preservation and access.
Target Audience: Law library managers and public services librarians interested in disseminating information about the library and library services to technology-savvy patrons
Learning Outcomes:
1. Participants will be able to describe what smartphone tags are, what types of information they encode, and how they can be used to extend library services.
2. Participants will be able to analyze the pros and cons of implementing a smartphone tag reader project in their own libraries.
In the fall of 2010, the University of Colorado's William A. Wise Law Library implemented a project to post smartphone readable tags in strategic places throughout the library using Microsoft Tag Reader software. These tags lead users to web pages, pdf files, PowerPoint presentations, text messages, and contact information relevant to the tag's location. The law library used these tags to extend library services by providing instruction on how to use collections and equipment; awareness of electronic resources and current acquisitions in specific subject collections; and marketing of library services. During this practical program, project manager Robert Linz will explain all aspects of this inexpensive patron outreach project, including planning; implementation; advertising; and analyzing the successes, surprises, and lessons learned.
Target Audience: Librarians and researchers interested in learning the uses of modern forensic science techniques and exhumation to prove historical legal facts; librarians and researchers who wish to learn about new developments in the Meriwether Lewis case; librarians and researchers interested in how Philadelphia played a key role in the genesis of the Lewis and Clark expedition
Learning Outcomes:
1. Participants will be able to assess the role of modern forensic science techniques and exhumation in re-examinations of historical legal events.
2. Participants will be able to explain why the accepted version of Meriwether Lewis's death could be controverted by forensic examination of his remains, and will be able to discuss recent developments in the Meriwether Lewis case.
James E. Starrs, Professor Emeritus of Law and Forensic Sciences at The George Washington University Law School, will discuss his Meriwether Lewis Project, now in progress at the request of the Lewis family, to secure the approval of the U.S. Park Service under the Archaeological Resources Protection Act (ARPA) for the exhumation of the remains of explorer Meriwether Lewis. The primary goal of the project is to determine whether Lewis's controversial 1809 death at a frontier inn along Tennessee's Natchez Trace was a suicide or a murder. The contemporary evidence was inconclusive, there being no eyewitnesses. Via forensic analytical techniques nonexistent in the early 1800s, scientists now may be able to provide answers to key questions, such as whether the body exhumed is in fact that of Lewis, and if so, whether gunpowder residue reveals a close-range shot, as well as the location of the bullet wounds, if any. Other facts about Lewis that could bear upon the issue of murder or suicide perhaps could be determined, such as whether he suffered from disease and whether his remains show evidence of the therapeutic use of mercury or other toxic substances. Professor Starrs will explore these issues as well as new developments in the Meriwether Lewis affair. In 1803, President Thomas Jefferson commissioned the Corps of Discovery to explore the American West with the hope of discovering a transcontinental water route. Though the Lewis and Clark undertaking was aimed at gathering information about the Louisiana Purchase and uncharted western territories, it was not strictly a western venture. It is fitting for this program to be offered in Philadelphia, which later twentieth century research has shown to have furnished not only the venue, but the expertise, to assist and guide Meriwether Lewis in the year of preparation necessary for the launch of the expedition. Today, Philadelphia is home to the archive of the journals of Lewis and Clark (American Philosophical Society), as well as to the Charles Willson Peale portraits of both Lewis and Clark (Second Bank of the United States), both part of Independence National Historical Park in Center City, Philadelphia.
Target Audience: All law librarians
Learning Outcomes:
1. Participants will analyze e-book licensing models, focusing on implications for alternative pricing, digital rights management, license negotiation, and usability.
2. Participants will be able to discuss how e-books will impact the future of law libraries.
The future of e-books in law libraries is still unclear, despite the surging popularity of dedicated e-book readers such as the Kindle. Legal publishers have taken a cautious approach in developing e-books to date. In addition, e-book licensing, particularly in economically difficult times, will provide new challenges to law librarians. Representatives from leading legal publishers and e-book vendors will discuss what they see as the future of e-books and how it will change law libraries.
Target Audience: Librarians who want to focus their library services to best meet the needs of their patrons
Learning Outcomes:
1. Participants will be able to identify and assess the issues to be addressed in a patron satisfaction survey.
2. Participants will be able to create and distribute a satisfaction survey and analyze the results to identify the best services and delivery methods for their patrons.
Librarians provide a multitude of services for patrons, but it’s not always easy to know how—or if—these services are being used, or whether they’re even of value to patrons. Do patrons consult the web pages you create? Do the handouts and pathfinders help patrons, or do they even know these are available? What resources—including those beyond your library’s—are patrons consulting? Is most of their current awareness via social media? What do you do with this information? These issues directly affect what to deliver and how to deliver it using methods most beneficial to patrons. But how do you determine the “what” and the “how”? To learn how to better survey library patrons, the Student Services Committee of ALL-SIS is undertaking a project to collect and compile student satisfaction surveys from member libraries. The result will be a compilation of the contributed surveys and a sample “best” survey culled from the responses, which can be used as a blueprint for your library surveys. This program will examine the benefits of a satisfaction survey, how to determine what information you want to ascertain, the best way to ask the questions to get those answers, the sample “best” survey, and what to do with the results. Although based on information from ALL-SIS members, the results will be of value to those in all library settings.
Target Audience: Anyone who publishes or plans to publish articles
Learning Outcomes:
1. Participants will be able to identify their rights as authors under current copyright law and determine which rights they want to retain.
2. Participants will be able to implement techniques to retain certain rights.
Now that institutional repositories, digital libraries, and scholarly communities such as SSRN are commonplace, it's difficult to anticipate future uses of a published work. Before submitting an article for review or upon acceptance of an article, it is important to read and comprehend the fine print in the publisher's author agreement. Author agreements may strip authors of basic rights afforded under copyright law. This session will educate participants about basic author rights and engage authors in the process of identifying rights that are a personal priority. In addition, participants will learn how to revise author agreements, select an appropriate alternate model agreement, and negotiate with publishers to maintain priority rights.
Target Audience: Law librarians who want a step-by-step plan for conducting medical legal research in medical databases
Learning Outcomes:
1. Participants will learn the strategies and skills necessary to perform comprehensive medical searches in specialized medical databases, including MEDLINE.
2. Participants will become familiar with the different levels of medical proof found in the medical literature.
Most law librarians will have to locate and find appropriate medical or health-related research during the course of their careers. However, many are intimidated by medical or scientific information and do not know how to start. This program will provide an introduction for law librarians to locating and evaluating medical information. Topics include: defining evidence-based medicine, applying the methods of evidence-based medicine to the process of medical research, and evaluating retrieved information. Effective searching of MEDLINE, using the controlled vocabulary MeSH (the National Library of Medicine's Medical Subject Headings), will also be covered.
Target Audience: Librarians serving rural areas
Learning Outcomes:
1. Participants will be able to identify at least five specific instances wherein services to the legal community of a predominantly rural audience are significantly different from those provided to more populous regions.
2. Participants will be able to analyze data documenting these differences and use them to improve library services for their own communities.
Law schools and legal institutions in rural settings have a unique perspective on access to legal resources and instruction of legal professionals. Some vendors no longer support institution-specific representatives for smaller schools. Primary legal resources in low-population states are limited, and secondary sources may be nonexistent. New attorneys going into rural law offices will have neither the resources of large firms nor the benefits of additional training by firm librarians. Given these realities, three central questions need to be addressed: 1) What differences are legal institutions with significant rural populations noticing, and can these differences be documented? 2) What is being done to accommodate for them? 3) Where is it possible to affect change? Many law librarians in rural states are finding ways to benefit from this environment and making resources available to a grateful audience of legal professionals. This program will illuminate the weaknesses of supply and raise awareness among librarians and vendors who service rural areas with a goal toward improvement.
Target Audience: Public and instructional services librarians; audiovisual and computer services librarians
Learning Outcomes:
1. Participants will be able to explain current guidelines for using DVD clips for teaching purposes.
2. Participants will be able to evaluate options for the legal circumvention of copyright protection systems on DVDs.
Faculty and presenters routinely use film content in instructional sessions and academic meetings. Previous rules prohibiting the "ripping" of DVD content hampered the ability to create smooth showings of multiple clips from a variety of DVDs. On July 26, 2010, the Librarian of Congress announced six classes of works exempt for three years from the statutory prohibition (i.e., 17 USC 1201(a)(1)) regarding circumvention of copyright protection systems. One of these classes is "motion pictures on DVDs" when "short portions" are used for educational use by college professors and film/media studies students. This program will review how to apply the new guideline, including procedures for circumventing DVD copyright protection systems. It will also examine socio-political and technological contexts for the DVD guideline change and their relevance for future media formats.
Target Audience: Librarians or information specialists interested in learning about mobile applications and how they work
Learning Outcomes:
1. Participants will identify specific tasks suitable to achieve on a mobile device and assess applications to achieve those tasks.
2. Participants will analyze sources available to identify and evaluate applications on multiple mobile platforms.
Between the Apple iPhone and various Android devices, more than 300,000 applications are available to society for use in the workplace and home environments. Finding good apps is hard. Understanding which activities can be accomplished using mobile devices can be equally difficult. This program will highlight best-of-breed mobile applications by focusing on tools that solve problems for law librarians. Presenters will demonstrate various features of mobile applications for the iPhone, Android, and Blackberry devices, including some tools for iPad and other tablets. In addition, available resources to discover and evaluate new applications will be shared.
