Hello, CALL, and happy spring!
I recently met with a UIC faculty member from outside of the law school to discuss his research and how he might find law review articles related to a couple of early 20th century cases. It was a nice opportunity to connect with someone outside of the law school, hear about some fascinating research, and share some resources that we law librarians might take for granted but would be rather helpful and otherwise unfamiliar to someone who’s new to legal research.
We were chatting about various other things going on in the university and academia more generally, then he asked how people in the law school were acclimating to being part of UIC—even though UIC acquired the John Marshall Law School coming up on six years ago. So my initial thought was, “it’s been half a decade, people are as acclimated as they’re going to be.” But, of course, five or six years isn’t especially long compared with the entire existence of our school, nor is it for many of the faculty and staff that have worked there for decades. Plus, transitioning from an independent, private school to part of a large, public university is about as big a change as a school can undertake.
So how have people been acclimating? Everyone’s adjusted at their own pace, and some people have taken full advantage of new opportunities while others prefer to keep on as if we’re still an independent law school. Nothing surprising there, really. The major operational changes have gone through, it seems like everyone has found or maintained their niche, and we continue on with our mission of educating thoughtful, responsible, and adaptable lawyers. Not everything’s gone smoothly, and I would be remiss not to note that other people at the law school were and have been impacted far more than I have, but at least everything’s happened within an expected range of possibilities and the major shocks have been dampened and kept to a minimum.
Is this all a long-winded way of saying that I find myself appreciative of relative institutional stability, even in the face of large changes? Yes.
But enough of that. What has CALL been up to? We just elected three new board members—congratulations to our incoming Vice President/President-Elect Todd Hillmer, Secretary Joanne Kiley, and Director Kristen Naik!
On March 27, we held a webinar organized by the Government Relations and Continuing Education Committees dedicated to library advocacy efforts in response to ongoing book-banning efforts and federal cuts to the Institute of Museum and Library Services (about two hours ago as of the time of writing, the entire IMLS staff was put on leave).
The Grants & Chapter Awards Committee recently created an award to recognize newer CALL members who have made outstanding contributions to the organization; we got together for a few hours to help out at Cradles to Crayons; and the Mentorship & Career Development Committee organized a happy hour where our contingent had a pretty good showing at trivia, and it was nice to see so many CALL folks besides. Plus, we’re wrapping up the development of our new website. Be on the lookout for that.
All right, that’s all from me. Take care, and I’ll see you out there.