Final Day at AALL Conference

This is your DALL Reporter, Deinna Mims-Johnson, on the ground at AALL Annual Conference. On Day 3 I began my day planning to meet a newly made friend from Toronto, CA at the convention center to take a taxi together to the JFK Presidential Library. Once there our "brief video presentation" was interrupted by an announcement to evacuate the building because there was a threat. Without more being said we piled out of the museum and awaited for all to clear from the Museum Security Administrator.

The threat turned out to be minor and we returned to the library and completed our tour. I thought about the the recent killings in at the movie theater in Colorado. Walking through the museum brought back memories of some troubling times in American History: thoughts of when America was struggling with very complex issues. I am sure many of you recalled that faithful day  in Dallas, when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated.

The library is architecturally designed to reflect the beauty and calm of the Charles River and the Boston skyline. The night before Lexis Nexis had it's reception, I was unable to attend due to two other events. I can only imagine how beautiful it was at night because it was equally a commanding view during the day.

I hurried back to the Hynes Convention Center to catch another tour bus to the famed "Harvard Law School Library". The tour took about 45 minutes and we were shown the main reference area, the Special Collection, the main reading room.The movie, "Paper Chase," came to mind when viewing the beautiful chandeliers in the main reading room.

In closing, I departed Boston on a 7:30 am flight heading backto Dallas, This was your DALL reporter on the ground at AALL 105th Annual Meeting and Conference in Boston, MA.

See you next year.
 

Signing Off.

Day 2 at AALL -Boston MA

Hi this is your DALL  reporter on the ground at AALL 105th Annual Meeting and Conference.  My day was busy starting with a tour, "The Duck Tour " of Boston.  It is a 1 hr and 30 minute tour on land and water. By now you have guessed this is an amphibius vehicle, it was first built during World War II to aid with the invasion of Normandy. The Ducks as they were dubbed were made by female workers who took over the jobs in the factories when the men went off to war.

This vehicle rides fine on land and when we approach the water, the captain engages the rotor to go in the water. It was fantastic and ride in this vehicle was smooth and really incredible.  By the time I made it back from seeing portions of historic Boston, it was time for my session: "Driving Utilization and Firm Profitability Through Resource Customization" that had four dynamic presenters each from different law firms:  Molly Brownfiel of Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner LLP, created a web presence that allowed self registration by user to vendor products, eliminating the third party distribution by the Library passwords.  Also Molly and her staff created a "How to Contact" link that provided the telephone number and name of techinical assistance personnel for each vendor.  This gives the user direct access to this information and a quicker resolution without inserting the Library's involvement  The user goes directly to the vendor to resolve his issue.

Next, Marguarita T. Young-Jones of Reed-Smith LLP, created a Library tab that included all library resources, services and widgets that allows immediate access to users without password input.  This firm had in common the infamous "Look-up Precision Tool"  encountered, compatibility issues with widgets created by vendors but after growing pains were able to overcome them and make available to users get and print, find and print, Matthew Bender Library and e-libraries as part of the library tab.

Emily R. Florio and Gina B. Lynch of Fish & Richardson both used creative ways to push direct access to the user resources in unique ways:  IP authenticating to provide direct access to purchased Surveys by  ALM 100 & 200 Surveys; built webpages that display  e-treatises and e-caselaw  and online training links offered by other vendors. Users can schedule training from the library website to vendors training sessions.

Gina, placed all her Apps on one tab along with instructions. She provided a framework on how to go about restructuring your website to make it more visible to partners and usable to all the staff and attorneys at Bingham McCutchen.  Then created Dashboards for HR Benefits,  Finance and Client development, remarkable .
 

That's all for now from DEINNA, the DALL reporter on the ground at AALL.

Teaching Legal Research Pre-Conference Workshop

This is your DALL reporter, Deinna Mims-Johnson, on the ground reporting from Boston, MA at the 105th AALL Annual Meeting and Conference.  Saturday I attended an all day workshop at Harvard Law School on "Teaching Legal Research".

The four presenters: Catherine M. Dunn, Karen Storin Linitz, Kate Irwin-Smiler, Margaret Butler and Sara Sampson were dynamic and thought provoking.  The 7 hour workshop was intense and had a massive amount of information to digest.  I walked away from this workshop knowing one thing: that law students are being introduced to primary and secondary resources along with being taught how to effectively utilize them in their legal studies while attending law school.

What was an eye opener is the amount of preparation, dedication, and passion these librarians have for their chosen profession. When we have the opportunity to meet the new associates, too much time has passed since initial instructions and actual real life use of the resources are required.

We left the workshop energized and determined to impart knowledge and instruction in many ways as possible:  taking into consideration learning styles, methods, pedagogy and the types of resources available online or print. After learning the correct way to engage in legal research the young attorneys will resort to old ways of conducting Google research. I am certain it is not because they have not been instructed or exposed to those materials.

Deinna Mims-Johnson is the Research Librarian at the Dallas Office of Thompson & Knight. She is the Grants & Scholarship Chair of the Dallas Association of Law Librarians.

Jean O'Grady: Law Firm Libraries Becoming Like Apple Stores

Pondering Changes

Interesting and thought-provoking article by Jenny Wondracek about the changes that are taking place in the legal informatics world and Uniform Electronic Legal Material Act.