On October 22, 2015, Lindsey Carpino and Annie Mentkowski presented “Everything’s Up to Date: Preparing Practice-Ready Law Students.” (The inaugural CALL “What’s Buzzin’?” brown bag event functioned as the dress rehearsal for their MAALL 2015 presentation – if interested, the summary of the notes are here). The MAALL presentation can be viewed in its entirety here.
The structure of the MAALL program allowed for the presenters and attendees to foster a dialogue about the research skills and abilities librarians observe on a day-to-day basis when interacting with newly licensed attorneys. The session included a great mix of firm, government, and academic librarians, and at least one research vendor representative.
I have worked in libraries for the last 14 years in a variety of roles, but it was only last year that I decided to attend a graduate program in Library and Information Sciences. Since I am a full time staff member at Loyola University Chicago’s Law Library and commute almost 3 hours a day to my home in the Western Suburbs, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign’s online program was the most obvious choice for me. The convenience of online classes for scheduling, comfort, and flexibility are obvious, but, in the last year, I have discovered so many additional, “invisible” benefits for students and full time librarians. Continue reading The Invisible Benefits of Library School→
On October 20, 2015, Neal, Gerber and Eisenberg hosted a CALL Continuing Education Event, “Forecasting Opportunities for Rainmakers: Librarians as Strategic Partners to Lawyers.” Below is a description of the program followed by a recap by one of the law firm librarian panelists, Skadden’s Vanessa Meihaus.
Program Description: “Law librarians have the opportunity to innovate their roles from traditional legal researchers to strategic business development partners. Join three of your peers to hear how they have evolved their roles to help lawyers develop new business opportunities and identify new markets.”
I was thrilled to share insights from the marketing and business development perspective at the October 20, 2015 CALL program “Forecasting Opportunities for Rainmakers.” Here are a few take-aways that emerged from our conversation:
Collaboration NOT Competition. Our professional lives are already hectic enough with responding to or preparing for the various requests we receive from our attorneys—the last thing we should devote our attention and energy to is competing with each other.
Let’s face it, we’re not mind readers (although our attorneys often think that we are!). Any time you have the opportunity to share information across administrative departments—do it. Open communication and sharing of information ultimately creates greater efficiency for all of us and reduces time spent tracking down information that only resides in certain departments. Continue reading Forecasting Opportunities for Rainmakers: Librarians as Strategic Partners to Lawyers→
Once upon a time I was a librarian in a public library. I was a teen services librarian to be exact. Prior to that, I was a paralegal. My two worlds have magically come together and now, for going on three years, I have been a law librarian at the DuPage County Courthouse. Although there are differences from working in a public library to working in a courthouse library, there are also a lot of similarities. Continue reading From the Courthouse→
In an organization as large as CALL, members come and go and many of us sometimes wonder where our former colleagues have gone and what they are doing personally and professionally. This article is the revival of a past series featuring individuals who were Chicago law librarians at one time and who have moved on to other locations, jobs, or even careers. Suggestions for future profiles are welcome.
Laura Weidig, Priory Solutions
Laura Weidig, an active CALL member during the 1990s, recently attended the September 2015 CALL Business Meeting as a representative of Priory Solutions, the meeting sponsor. Many members enjoyed talking with Laura and wanted to know more about her professional journey. I had the pleasure of interviewing Laura and learning more about her experience as a law librarian and information professional and the factors that have influenced her career path. Continue reading Whatever Happened To . . . Laura Weidig?→
The International Legal Technology Association (ILTA) formed over 30 years ago due to the shared needs and concerns of law firm accounting professionals using Wang Computers. As technology seeped and then poured into legal entities, ILTA grew in areas of expertise and support. ILTA’s membership includes law firms, corporate and non-profit legal departments, courts, law schools and more from across the globe with backgrounds in applications, desktop support, litigation support, systems, marketing, knowledge management, communications technology and yes, libraries. Continue reading All About ILTA→
The CALL Committee Round-Up is a CALL Bulletin featured column where all of our committees provide an update for us each issue to let us know what they are working on.
Do you like to greet visitors and make them feel welcome? Do you like to guide others to local restaurants? Do you like to staff the hospitality booth? Or do you prefer to help out behind the scenes with fellow librarians?
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