Gretchen Van Dam

  • Circuit Librarian at Library of the U.S. Courts for the Seventh Circuit

Remembering John Klaus

Our friend and colleague John Klaus died unexpectedly this March. John was a kind, caring, thoroughly professional, and wonderful person who loved his family and his work. He came to the Library of the U.S. Courts of the Seventh Circuit in 1989 after beginning his law librarian career at the Chicago office of Jenner and Block.

He guided the research and reference librarians, judges, law clerks, and staff of the courts through the many evolving changes in legal research over the more than thirty years he served the federal judiciary. Continue reading Remembering John Klaus

Retiring Member Profile: Gretchen Van Dam

In December 2020, Gretchen Van Dam retired from U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit Court Library after 20 years.

The CALL Bulletin interviewed Gretchen upon her retirement to ask her about her experiences and find out what CALL has meant (and continues to mean) to her.

Continue reading Retiring Member Profile: Gretchen Van Dam

Placement and Recruitment Committee Annual Report

Co-Chairs: Gretchen Van Dam and Jessie LeMar

Committee Members: Anita Calderon, Valerie Kropf, Karl Pettitt, and Stacia Stein

The Committee held one in-person meeting and one teleconference meeting during 2016-2017.

This year, the Committee continued work on initiatives started during the previous year. One of the primary responsibilities of the Committee is the posting of new law library positions on both the CALL website and on various local library and law school job boards. To improve the postings, we worked with other committees to update the job posting submission form on the CALL website to include additional school job boards in the posting options.

Continue reading Placement and Recruitment Committee Annual Report

Federal Court Libraries Preserving Internet Citations in Opinions

It’s a rare Internet user that has not experienced the frustration of a bad web link. Nothing is more frustrating than coming across a link that leads nowhere. This “link rot” occurs over time as information is removed from web sites or moved to another online location. Unfortunately, the original URL remains the same in the referencing document – and the user goes without. The inability to obtain online information referenced in a court opinion, however, goes beyond mere inconvenience as the information cited could be critical to the holding and important to judges and attorneys in considering other cases. Continue reading Federal Court Libraries Preserving Internet Citations in Opinions