The Continuing Education Committee had another successful year, sponsoring three presentations during the 2023-24 CALL year. The committee tried to identify topics that would interest all of our members, whether they work for private law firms, academic institutions, or courts or government agencies. Following a practice that began during the pandemic, all three presentations were webinars held over Zoom:
- Leveraging Data Science to Improve the Practice of Law presented by Pablo Arredondo, Co-Founder and Chief Innovation Officer at Casetext, December 12, 2023
- Banning Book Banning: Illinois Public Act 103-0100 and How This Groundbreaking Amendment to the Illinois Library System Act Came to Be presented by Senator Laura Murphy (D-Des Plaines), Co-Sponsor of HB2789 ; Representative Anne Stava-Murray (D-Downers Grove), Co-Sponsor of HB2789 ; Cyndi Robinson, Executive Director of the Illinois Library Association ; and Carolyn Kinsella, Executive Secretary for the Association of Illinois School Library Educators and a retired high school Librarian, January 24, 2024
- AI Awareness for Law Librarians: Navigating the Impact and Key Platforms, presented by Emily Florio, Director of Knowledge Research & Resources at DLA Piper LLP (US) and June Hsiao Liebert, Director of Information Services at O’Melveny & Myers LLP and current President of the American Association of Law Libraries, April 12, 2023
All of our presentations this year garnered immense interest and were well-attended by our CALL Members.
This year’s programs were all recorded and made available on the CALL website. The committee used Zoom to create webinar invites, host the programs, and record the programs. The cloud storage in Zoom became a concern as we were at about 98% usage. Shari brought this to the attention of the Board, and they began looking at a number of solutions for increasing capacity for future recordings.
The committee stayed within budget and did not need to pay any speaking or other fees this year.
All of this year’s programs were driven by our volunteer committee members. Special thanks go to this year’s committee members Caitlin Archer-Helke, Joe Mitzenmacher, and Amy Tomaszewski for their work in putting together our programs. I would also like to thank our Board liaison Todd Hillmer for his input.