Bulletin Committee 2016 Annual Report

The 2015-2016 CALL Bulletin Committee was Lyonette Louis-Jacques, Lindsey Carpino, and Scott Vanderlin (co-editors), EmilyBarney, Debbie Ginsberg, Juanita Harrell, Philip Johnson, Annie Mentkowski (Bulletin Historian), Jill Meyer, Clanitra Stewart Nejdl, Stacia Stein, LeighAnne Thompson, and Donna Tuke.

The Bulletin Committee had a very productive year. We successfully published four great issues, including an AALL ‘live-blog’ edition and a special “Chicago International” theme issue.  And we set things in motion for the CALL Bulletin to be in HeinOnline!

Committee Activities & Achievements

This is second year that the Bulletin Committee has operated with three co-chairs/editors. Lyo and Scott served as content editors and Lindsey served as production/layout editor. Julie Pabarja served as CALL Executive Board liaison to the Bulletin Committee.

At the Leadership Development meeting in the fall, Julie called upon us as committee chairs to engage our committee members and collaborate with each other. We did that and fulfilled the CALL mission for our chapter newsletter.

Lindsey Carpino, our former LEEP/library school student columnist, and originator of the private law firm librarian column, did a great job of recruiting new Bulletin Committee members who also became new authors for both columns as well as contributors to the “Meet New CALL Member…” column. LeighAnne Thompson revived the “Whatever Happened to…?” column so we could catch up with former CALL members. Juanita Harrell started a new court librarian column. CALL Presidentand our Committee’s Board Liaison, Julie Pabarja suggested two new columns and Lindsey “made it so” – a “Round-Up” of CALL Committee activities throughout the year and a “Spotlight” to highlight CALL member activities. Also upon Julie’s suggestion, we published articles on two related associations in which CALL members are involved – ILTA and APRA-IL.

Lindsey has been regularly submitting our issues to the AALL and NIU archives. This year, she took Lyonette Louis-Jacques’ idea of having the CALL Bulletin in HeinOnline and worked with Bulletin Historian, Annie Mentkowski, to make it happen. We have reached an agreement with Hein and the plan is to have the entire run of the CALL Bulletin in HeinOnline before CALL’s 70th anniversary in 2017. Lindsey also produced PDF, paginated versions of the WordPress-formatted CALL Bulletin so that it can be easily archived, checked in, and read by CALL members who prefer that format.

The Bulletin had guest editors/curators for the special Winter 2016 “Chicago International” theme articles – Matthew Timko and Sharon Nelson. They did a wonderful job and the articles were very well received by CALL members. In fact, the Winter 2016 has the second highest number of views (402) in one day ever for the CALL Bulletin since it started publishing in WordPress (the highest now is the Spring 2016 issue at 452 views and counting).

All Bulletin Committee members contributed to our successful year. Everyone helped edit pieces. Thanks especially to LeighAnne Thompson and Philip Johnson for help with content editing (and sometimes photo-wrangling); to Emily Barney for her great photos and WordPress-fu (and for adding individual links to PDF issues from Fall 2000-Fall 2013 (No. 178-No. 229) to the WordPress Bulletin Issues Archives page); to Debbie Ginsberg for her quick and responsive WordPress admin help and social media/PR support; to Clanitra Stewart Nedjl for helping keep the Bulletin site up-to-date; to Stacia Stein for writing several library student columns and featured articles; and to Juanita Harrell, Jill Meyer, and Lindsey Carpino for new CALL member interviews. Special shout-outs to Bulletin Committee members Jill Meyer, Stacia Stein, and Donna Tuke for contributing pieces to the “Chicago International” theme issue and other issues throughout the year.

Lyonette Louis-Jacques completed her three-year term as Bulletin co-chair/co-editor at the conclusion of the May 12, 2016 CALL Business Meeting. Lindsey Carpino concluded her second year as Bulletin co-chair/co-editor at the same time, but, according to CALL Bylaws, she could not continue as a co-chair/co-editor while holding CALL office (congrats to Lindsey for being elected CALL Director for 2016-2017!), so the CALL Executive Board approved two replacements for Lyo and Lindsey to work with Scott Vanderlin during his last Bulletin co-chair/co-editor year: Philip Johnson (content co-editor) and Juanita Harrell (production/layout co-editor). Welcome aboard, Philip and Juanita!

Meetings & Communications

Co-Chairs Lyo, Lindsey, and Scott, attended the CALL Leadership Development meeting on August 13, 2015. During the meeting, CALL President Julie Pabarja stressed the importance of engaging committee members and collaborating with other committees.

Lyo, Lindsey, and Scott attended the CALL Executive Board meeting on January 19, 2016 and discussed their plans for the Bulletin Committee for the year, including adding the full run of the Bulletin to HeinOnline and possible future challenges and developments.

We held a great CALL Bulletin Committee Kick-Off Meeting on September 10, 2015 at Chicago-Kent. Every committee member volunteered to help with tasks.

Upon publication of new Bulletin issues, the co-editors continued to post announcements on the CALL listserv, at the CALL home page, and on the AALL Council of Newsletter Editors (CONE) eCommunity. This year, co-editors Lyo and Lindsey also tweeted about when new issues are published. Lyo also posted links to specific Bulletin articles on relevant listservs and e-fora where appropriate and encouraged individual authors to do likewise and seek re-publication.

Collaboration with the CALL PR Committee

Throughout the year, the CALL Bulletin Committee collaborated with the CALL Public Relations (PR) Committee. PR Committee members publicized the CALL Bulletin and its articles at AALL, at CALL Business Meetings, and in social media (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn).

Debbie Ginsberg and Emily Barney, members of both committees, helped answer Bulletin-related WordPress questions. We continued to make use of Emily’s expertise in WordPress and her editorial manual for the Bulletin. PR Committee Co-Chair Kara Young created a CALL Bulletin button for the CALL homepage to make it easier for members to get to the Bulletin website’s content.

We also collaborated with the Archives, Continuing Education, Government Relations, Mentorship and Leadership Development, and AALL Local Arrangement committees throughout the year.

The PR Committee nominated the CALL Bulletin Summer 2015 AALL Supplement for the AALL Excellence in Marketing Award for Best Newsletter. Unfortunately, we did not win, but co-editor Lyo Louis-Jacques is thrilled that the FCIL Newsletter won!  Foreign, comparative, and international law librarians, FTW!