While you’re planning your schedule at the 2024 AALL Conference, consider attending these fascinating sessions featuring CALL members! Our members will be presenting, moderating, or speaking at several sessions on a wide range of topics, from GenAI to mentoring to state court dockets and much more. Some of the sessions run at the same times, but if you plan ahead, you can join at least one session featuring a CALL member every day of the conference.
Saturday, July 20 at 9:00am (Atlanta)
Discover Foreign & International Law in The Second City (Separate Registration Required)
CALL Member(s): Jean M. Wenger, Adam Weber, Diane Wood, Mandy Lee
How do we best prepare students and assist attorneys with research involving foreign and international law and legal questions? AALL must lead in training the next generation of law librarians knowledgeable about foreign and international law research as our legal landscape requires professionals possessing these specialized research skills. Taking advantage of Chicago as a global legal marketplace, this day-long workshop will tap the expertise of lawyers, judges, academics, and law librarians, focusing on international and foreign practice. Law librarians in all institutional settings, academic, firm, public, and government, encounter questions about international and foreign law and practice and will benefit from attending this workshop.
Saturday, July 20 at 9:00am (Grand Ballroom A)
Unleashing Innovation: A Rollercoaster Ride to Implement, Plan, and Fund Your GenAI Toolkit (Separate Registration Required)
CALL Member(s): Diana J. Koppang
This is a high level and strategic workshop designed for professionals seeking to harness the transformative potential of GenAI tools. The workshop will delve into practical implementation strategies, financial planning, and integration considerations. Participants will gain insights into how GenAI can reshape work processes, enhance decision-making, and drive efficiency.
Sunday, July 21 at 2pm (Grand Ballroom A)
Cool Tools Café: Existing and Emerging Technologies
With new technologies releasing faster than ever, the annual Cool Tools Café provides a space for legal information professionals to get hands-on learning experience with a variety of emerging and existing technologies. Attendees will have the opportunity to learn about tools that can improve library services from fellow legal information professionals who have used these technologies in their own libraries. Previous iterations of this program have included tools for legal research, collaboration, marketing services, instruction, productivity, citation, presentations, and website functionality.
Sunday, July 21 at 3:15pm (Grand Ballroom)
Hot Topic: AI: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly–60 AI Websites, Tools, and Apps in 60 Minutes
CALL Member(s): Bridget MacMillan (Speaker)
Artificial Intelligence has impacted every aspect of our culture—or will, shortly. Join us for a fast-paced review of AI websites, tools, and apps—from the sublime to the ridiculous. An AI-powered stuffed cat or a self-driving bicycle? Sure, why not? An app that summarizes case law in seconds and explains it to you “like you were five”? Sounds perfect. Every profession, every hobby, every aspect of our physical, emotional, and even spiritual lives is being transformed. But what makes a “good” application of AI, and what is just silly? By reviewing a wide range of applications (the good, the bad and the ugly), attendees will see just how far AI is infiltrating our collective experience and walk away with some practical applications—and a few laughs as well.
Monday, July 22 at 9:30am (Grand Ballroom A)
Bridging Differences in Mentoring Relationships
CALL Member(s): Mandy Lee (Coordinator/Speaker), Brandy Ellis (Speaker)
This program aims to equip both mentors and mentees with tools to develop more productive mentoring relationships. Modeled after the Mentoring Across Differences (MAD) workshop, created by Nora Yusuf Osman and Barbara Gottlieb (MedEdPORTAL 2018), this workshop is designed to foster confidence and self-awareness in navigating differences across a variety of domains. Interested mentors and mentees are encouraged to attend!
Monday, July 22 at 9:30am (Regency Ballroom D)
Hot Topic: SCOTUS: A Year in Review
CALL Member(s): Tom Gaylord, Barry Sullivan
SCOTUS has tackled a host of hot-button topics over the past calendar year and is poised to deliver even more controversial rulings in the coming months. This interactive panel will highlight key developments from last term and prepare participants for what’s to come on SCOTUS’s current docket. Subjects of key cases include Chevron deference, gun regulation for individuals under domestic violence restraining orders, the Perdue Pharma opioid settlement, FDA regulations regarding mifepristone, and much more.
Monday, July 22 at 10:45am (Regency Ballroom D)
Holding On is Holding Us Back: Positioning Ourselves for the Future Law Library Workplace
CALL Member(s): Diana J. Koppang
In order to retain talent and drive new professionals to our workplaces, there must be a reevaluation of the structural and cultural norms that have endured for too long. In the first part of this program, we will reimagine the law library of the future including work-life balance expectations and organizational structure to meet the demands of our changing field. In the second part, we will discuss how to work toward this future vision in the present. While this transformation may require incremental changes, we must start now to retain and drive talent to ensure our organizations’ future success.
Monday, July 22 at 10:45am (Regency Ballroom C)
Law Library Managerial Lessons Learned from Experience
CALL Member(s): Mandy Lee
When law librarians find themselves in managerial roles, it is often, but not always, by choice. No matter the circumstances, how do these individuals acquire the knowledge to lead teams? That knowledge may be earned through hard-won experience. This program strives to spare attendees some of the growing pains that come from trial by (leadership) fire. Three speakers, each of whom is an early-stage law library manager, will share insights from the vantage point of their institutional positions.
Monday, July 22 at 10:45am (Regency Ballroom B)
State Court Dockets: Demystifying Online Access and Coverage
CALL Member(s): Shari Berkowitz Duff, Claire Gaynor Willis
Access and coverage for state court dockets and filings have always been a guessing game depending on which state you are talking about, let alone what county, parish, or city—not to mention the case or court type. Knowing and remembering at any given point what is available, at what cost, what it is called, and who has access is no easy feat, even for seasoned librarians and researchers. How do you even begin to remember it all, especially when courts expand access (YES, PLEASE!) or seem to have less access (please, NO!) on an almost daily basis?! Are there different levels of access if you are in a law firm, an academic institution, or a member of the general public? If you reach out to your team’s “expert” on state court dockets with all of these burning questions, then it might be time for your team to create an internal guide. But how do you start, how detailed do you get, and is there even time? Let’s have a conversation to discuss these trends, methods to keep on top of all of these changes, and our collective experiences.
Tuesday, July 23 at 11:15am (Grand Ballroom A)
“No.” Is a Complete Sentence: How Librarians Can Budget their Time and Set Realistic Service Expectations
CALL Member(s): Todd Hillmer, Joe Mitzenmacher
“Doing more with less” has been a catchphrase in the law library world for a long time. But that expectation has its limit and we have long since reached it. Now we have to say “no.”
The user who wants access to a resource that is just not available to them? No. That project from some other department that has nothing to do with the library? No. That unrealistic and unnecessary deadline? No. The expectation that the latest hiring freezes will result in maintaining existing service levels? No.
In this program, hear how librarians have said “no” not only successfully but for the greater good of their organizations. Discover how departmental time budgets help determine library priorities. We will showcase tools and best practices for creating time studies and setting time budgets, and we will outline service policies for the best use of both your time and your staff’s time.
Discover the full power of “No.”