The 2021-2022 CALL Archives Committee was comprised of Committee co-chairs Brittany Adams and Lucy Robbins, as well as Committee members, Claire Toomey Durkin and Joe Mitzenmacher. We tried to find material for the 75th anniversary, but due to a lack of staffing at our libraries and other difficulties, it could not be completed. The COVID pandemic continued to be an issue in our work on this committee, and thus, this committee was mostly inactive.
Grantee Report: Law Books: History &; Connoisseurship Rare Books School
This summer, thanks to a CALL grant, I was able to take Law Books: History & Connoisseurship, a course held through the Rare Book School at the University of Virginia.
The course, which was held remotely, took place from August 1-6 and was team taught by Mike Widener, recently retired from the Lillian Goldman Law Library at Yale Law School, and Ryan Greenwood, of the University of Minnesota Law Library.
The curriculum covered the canon of historical law books, as well as the history of the trade in Europe, America, and Latin America. The course was framed with a view to collection development: assignments required me to think strategically about how I would like to curate a collection, and a rare bookseller was invited as a guest speaker to offer insight into the current market. Continue reading Grantee Report: Law Books: History &; Connoisseurship Rare Books School
CALL Archives Committee 2020-2021 Annual Report
Co-Chairs: Lucy Robbins, Brittany Adams
Members: Patricia Scott, Joe Mitzenmacher, Matt Timko
Due to the pandemic, the archives could not be accessed or updated for most of the year. There is no report this year.
CALL Archives Committee 2019-2020 Annual Report
The 2019-2020 CALL Archives Committee was comprised of Committee co-chairs Brittany Adams and Lucy Robbins, as well as Committee members, Patricia Scott, Jill Meyer and Matt Timko. Joe Mitzenmacher served as board liaison.
The CALL archives were moved back to the city from Northern Illinois University to Loyola University Chicago. The main effort this year was to get the new archives set up at Loyola and to make a plan to digitize the files. The CALL board authorized the committee to purchase file cabinets to house the archives, but with the disruption of the year due to COVID-19, we were not yet able to do so. During the 2020-2021 year, we plan to continue to set up the archives and begin the digitization process using the CALL hard drive and/or CALL Google account.
CALL Archives Committee 2018-2019 Annual Report
The 2018-2019 CALL Archives Committee was comprised of Committee co-chairs Matt Timko and Brittany Adams, as well as Committee members Anne Danberg, Pat Sayre-McCoy, and Clanitra Stewart Nejdl. Board Member Annie Mentkowski served as liaison.
The main effort and accomplishment of the Committee for this year was relocating the Archives from Northern Illinois University, which is more than 60 miles away from CALL/ABA Headquarters, to a more centralized location in the city. Continue reading CALL Archives Committee 2018-2019 Annual Report
Planning an Exhibit: How to Make Exhibits and Displays That Work
When I began my position just over two years ago, I was tasked with implementing an exhibit program at the Pritzker Legal Research Center. Different libraries handle exhibits in different ways. Some have an exhibit committee with an schedule looking years in advance; others simply plan for exhibits as opportunities arise.
I found myself somewhere in the middle, doing exhibits independently, rather than as part of a committee, but I would have a set schedule with ideas planned (at least somewhat) in advance. In this piece, I highlight some of my practices for curating and presenting exhibits at the Pritzker Legal Research Center. Continue reading Planning an Exhibit: How to Make Exhibits and Displays That Work
Archives Come Back to Loyola
After 10 years at the Northern Illinois University (NIU) College of Law, the CALL archives have returned to the Chicago city limits. The archives—which include administrative records, publications, and photographs from CALL events over the years—will now return to the library at the Loyola University Chicago School of Law.
Making the round trip, the archives moved from Loyola in 2007 due to a lack of storage space. The Archives Committee Chair at the time, Therese Clarke Arado, offered to house the archives at NIU, where they remained until September of this year.