From the Editors - CALL Bulletin

Spring time in Chicago. Hooray! We’ve had snow and rain, and it’s been very cold, but I have seen shoots of leaves and flowers blooming, so we’re leaving behind the old and bringing in the new. Like the weather, the CALL Bulletin is changing. This is my last column as co-editor and the end of my three-year term as co-chair of the Bulletin Committee.

Lyo Louis-Jacques photo — Lyonette Louis-Jacques, CALL Bulletin Co-Editor, 2013-2016

I have enjoyed shepherding our AALL award-winning newsletter to its hybrid WordPress blog and PDF formats. Since the format change with the Fall 2014 CALL Bulletin issue, we’ve had over 15,000 views, with a peak of 2,149 views in January 2016. The art in CALL libraries and Chicago International theme issues were very popular as well as our AALL in Philly supplemental summer issue. And a project that I started with co-editor Lindsey Carpino and Bulletin Historian, Annie Mentkowski, is coming to fruition. We are going to get the CALL Bulletin content archived in and accessible via HeinOnline. Stay tuned!

A very special thanks to Bulletin Committee member, Emily Barney, who played a key role in making our new Bulletin format a spectacular success. Emily trained our Committee in using WordPress and created manuals for us to use to produce and edit the Bulletin. And she’s been our unofficial photographer. A lot of the great colorful pics you’ve seen in our Bulletin issues are Emily’s.

¡Muchísimas gracias, Emily!

The CALL Bulletin has been a joy to read and edit, not only the regular columns and special feature articles, but also the new private law firm librarian, Meet New CALL Member (we welcome Mandy Lee in this issue), Whatever Happened to…?, library school student, and court librarian columns. Thanks to our Board Liaison, CALL President Julie Pabarja for suggesting the CALL Committee Round-Up column and the CALL Member Spotlight column which debuts in this Bulletin issue. Thanks also to Julie for conducting a survey of CALL members which generated great ideas for Bulletin article topics for us. We now know y’all want more tech-related articles. It has been a pleasure to collaborate with Julie and work with all the CALL Bulletin Committee members, CALL committee chairs, and other contributors.

The Bulletin Committee members (Emily Barney, Debbie Ginsberg, Juanita Harrell, Philip Johnson, Annie Mentkowski, Jill Meyer, Stacia Stein, Clanitra Stewart Nejdl, LeighAnne Thompson, Donna Tuke) have been wonderful, helpful colleagues. Thank you for volunteering your time, creative energy, and skills to the CALL Bulletin! And thank you generally for your service to CALL!

Thanks to co-editor Lindsey Carpino for not only doing a great job of producing each Bulletin issue, but also recruiting new volunteer contributors. CALL members, in recognition of Lindsey’s service, have elected her as Director of the CALL Executive Board. She will therefore not be finishing her term as CALL Bulletin co-editor/co-chair. Next year, the CALL Bulletin will be edited by Scott Vanderlin and new co-editors, Juanita Harrell and Philip Johnson.

Photo of Juanita Harrell — Juanita Harrell

Thanks for volunteering, Juanita and Philip! And, congratulations!

Congratulations are also in order for newly-elected 2016-2017 CALL officers, Clare Gaynor Willis, Tom Gaylord, and Lindsey Carpino. Glad to have y’all aboard! Thank you for stepping up to the plate to serve CALL.

We have a great Spring 2016 issue, chock full of wonderful articles. We have feature articles on how federal court libraries are fighting link rot, tips for researching foreign, comparative and international law in Chicago, FCIL databases, government documents librarianship, and Chicago-Kent’s Library of International Relations (LIR). We have an article on AALL GRO’s legislative advocacy efforts. We have articles by Donna Tuke and Stacia Stein on the recent ABA TECHSHOW in Chicago. And we launch two new columns – the CALL Member Spotlight mentioned above and the Leadership Library.

Finally, we gear up for the AALL annual meeting in Chicago this July with information about AALL chapter and SIS newsletters and blogs, CALL member Judith Wright receiving one of AALL’s highest honors, the Gallagher Award, a list of CALL members speaking at AALL, and a sure-to-be-fun CALL Trivia Night at AALL!