Category Archives: Spring 2018

May 2018 Business Meeting Roundup

The meeting was held at Wildfire (159 W. Erie Street) on Thursday  May 10, 2018.

CALL President Clare Willis opened the meeting by welcoming the membership. There were 76 attendees at the meeting. Clare also summarized everything that CALL accomplished this past year: CALL awarded $5000 in grants, posted 17 positions, advocated for preserving net neutrality, established a professional development task force, hosted several continuing education events, and raised $1100 for local service organizations. She also mentioned that the Strategic Planning Committee was still working on a plan, but that the Board recently approved the committee’s proposed new mission statement: “CALL supports legal information professionals through advocacy, education, and engagement.” Clare also introduced and thanked the meeting sponsor, Wolters Kluwer. Continue reading May 2018 Business Meeting Roundup

February 2018 Business Meeting Roundup

The meeting was held at the Italian Village (71 W. Monroe St.), on Thursday, February 15, 2018.

CALL Vice President Joe Mitzenmacher welcomed the membership. There were 85 attendees at the meeting. Joe also welcomed several new members: Virginia Brown, Quarles & Brady; Sarah Erekson, Chicago Public Library; Mandy Lee, Chicago-Kent Law Library; Matthew Matkowski, student at the University of Illinois iSchool; and Sarah Sherman, Supreme Court of Illinois Library. Continue reading February 2018 Business Meeting Roundup

President’s Letter

Dear CALL members,

Thank you very much for an amazing year as your President. It has been an honor and a joy.  I mean that sincerely. For my final letter, I’d like to share with all of you the remarks that I gave at the last Business Meeting on May 10, 2018:

Not many of you know that we have a strategic planning committee mapping the future of CALL. Jean Wenger, chair of the committee, will tell you later how you can be a part of mapping that future. As part of that process, the committee wrote a new mission statement for CALL. It is: “CALL supports legal information professionals through advocacy, education, and engagement.” As we look back on this year, we can see how we have lived up to this mission statement and done amazing things. Continue reading President’s Letter

From the Editors

Hello, CALL. Rounding out this publication year’s issues, we have the spring Bulletin here for you.

This go-around we feature reviews of the ABA Tech Show by Matt Timko and AALL’s Competitive Intelligence Foundations program by Sally Baker. We also meet new member Sarah Sherman and get a recap of CALL’s work with the Greater Chicago Food Depository (which, to editorialize, looks like was a blast to volunteer for back in February). And of course, the general association news and business that you need is collected here as well.

Happy reading!

ABA Techshow Review

I recently attended the ABA Techshow in Chicago.  Not only was this my first Techshow, it was my first non-library specific conference as a librarian, and it provided me with a view from the other side of the legal profession, i.e. practicing as opposed to academia. Fortunately, this was also the first year the show had an official Academic Track, which consisted of five sessions over two days. During this time, I not only attended all five (and the keynote by Professor Daniel Katz from Chicago-Kent), but also several other sessions on data security, as well as spoke with many of the vendors. Continue reading ABA Techshow Review

AALL Competitive Intelligence Foundations

I attended the augural AALL Competitive Intelligence Foundations program in October 2017 which was made possible by a CALL grant. Zena Applebaum, Director of Professional Firm Customer Segments with Thomson Reuters in Canada, was the instructor for the program. The program was a day-long event held at Sidley Austin in Chicago.

The CI Foundations program was designed to help attendees establish and maintain a competitive intelligence (“CI”) function in a law firm. It was a valuable learning experience for both law firm librarians with established CI groups and for those just beginning to put together formal programs. Continue reading AALL Competitive Intelligence Foundations

New Member Profile: Sarah Sherman

CALL Bulletin: Where did you grow up, and where else have you lived before coming to Chicago? Do you have a favorite among those places?

Sarah Sherman: I grew up in Mechanicsburg, PA, and then moved to Grand Rapids, MI for college. Grand Rapids felt like the big city after growing up in central Pennsylvania! I love West Michigan and go back frequently.

What led you to become a law librarian?

It really wasn’t part of my plan–I focused on public libraries while getting my MLIS. But my first library job was at the Illinois Supreme Court and I had great experiences there and at Northwestern’s Law Library. I guess a lot of it was timing and encouragement from the law librarians I’ve worked with, and I’m enjoying and learning a lot where I am now. Continue reading New Member Profile: Sarah Sherman