Fall 2014 – Letter From the Editors

Lyonette Louis-JacquesDear colleagues,

Yes indeed, there have been some changes around here at the CALL Bulletin! We are delighted to unveil our new online format, which promises to make your contributions easier to find and link to, in a display that we hope you will find attractive, all at a lower cost for our membership.

We’re grateful to Emily Barney and Debbie Ginsberg of Chicago-Kent, Kevin McClurewho brought a lot of brainstorming and hard work to this transition. The design you’re viewing owes much to their skill and vision, which they are now patiently working to pass along to your humble editors. We also appreciate the willingness of the CALL Board to fearlessly travel this road with us, even in those times when we weren’t always able to show them exactly where we thought we were going. Finally, we bid thanks and a fond farewell to Mary Chase, our cheerful collaborator in bringing the CALL Bulletin to press for the past several years in our previous format.

In this issue, we meet Clanitra Stewart, new CALL member and Reference and Instructional Services Librarian and Assistant Professor at Northern Illinois University, who sat down (we presume) for an email interview with Kara Dunn. Kara was in the new member spotlight herself not too long ago, and these opportunities to meet our new colleagues have been a popular recent addition to the Bulletin, so if you are, or know of, a new CALL member who would like to be profiled here, please let us know!

We also have plenty of follow-up from the AALL Annual Conference in San Antonio. Joanne Kiley and Jesse Bowman both attended on CALL grants, and they share tales of their respective whirlwinds, which fortunately did not intersect to create a devastating super-whirlwind. CALL Exhibits Display Table Czar Scott Vanderlin drew a throng of conferees to our table in the exhibit hall; Scott tells us what went into the preparation for the display and how it was received. And Bulletin Committee member Lindsey Carpino tells us how the Conference of Newer Law Librarians (CONELL) added special significance to her first AALL conference.

Each year, the incoming CALL Board and committee chairs convene to set priorities and plot strategies at the chapter’s annual leadership training session. CALL Secretary Clare Gaynor Willis attended this year’s training on August 7, and contributes the summary you’ll find here.

Have you ever wondered why CALL has all these committees? So did we! That’s why we’re asking committee chairs to tell us a little bit about their raison d’être, and how much fun they’re having fulfilling it. First up to the plate, despite rehabbing a painful leg injury, is Susan Siebers, who traces the development of the Corporate Memory Committee and brings us up to date on their charge for the coming year.

It’s also annual committee reports season! In line with our custom for the Fall issue, we’ve reprinted all of the CALL committee reports for 2013-2014. Add to that summaries of the August Executive Board and September business meetings, and this issue will bring you more up to snuff on CALL stuff than you’ve ever been in your life!

What’s brand new in your purlieu? Any new projects, initiatives, or tech toys that might interest your colleagues? Any half-cocked adventures or half-baked ideas? Let us know! The Winter issue will be out in mid-December, and you want to be in that issue!