News from NELLCO

Last month's trek to Denver for the AALL Annual Meeting was both productive and enjoyable. Despite the locals' perspective on the weather, I found the dry heat a pleasant change from the oppressive humidity we've been experiencing this summer. And the ease of access to program rooms, the exhibits, the registration area and the hotels was just great.

I had the opportunity to moderate a program about NELLCO's Universal Search Solution. On Sun. afternoon, Judy Gire (Pierce Law Library Director), Roberta Woods (Reference and Instructional Services Librarian at the University of Hawaii) and Dan Rosati (Senior Vice-President, William S. Hein) joined me for program C6 - NELLCO's Universal Search Solution: A Twitterpated Conversation About the Future of Finding.

A few other programs really stood out. Program I2 on Tues. morning, AALL, Boycotts and Antitrust: Is There a Nexus? was excellent and thought-provoking and reminded me how stimulating law school was. For this program Darcy Kirk (University of Connecticut Law Library Director and AALL President-elect) invited Professor Hillary Greene to address the issues around group action and when such action might be construed as potential antitrust infractions. Ms. Greene's recent article "Antitrust Censorship of Economic Protest" appeared in the March issue of the Duke Law Journal.

Program J3, The Durham Statement on Open Access One Year Later: Preservation and Authentication of Legal Scholarship, moderated by Margie Maes (Executive Director of the Legal Information Preservation Alliance (LIPA)), brought together some of the authors and supporters of the Durham Statement to report out on the progress of the Statement's call for law schools to cease print publishing and move all journals and law reviews onto stable, open, digital formats. The continuing need for the preservation of print materials during the transition from print to digital (and perhaps beyond) was debated and confirmed in my mind NELLCO's consideration of a shared print collection.

The CS-SIS sponsored a standing room only session on Mon. afternoon entitled "Database Ownership: Myth or Reality." For this session, librarians from the Barco Law Library at the University of Pittsburgh, moderated by Susanna Leers, shared their experience developing an interface for a legal database in an effort to save on annual access fees to digital data owned by their library. Not only was the session excellent and enlightening, the team's ingenious ballad set to the tune of the Beverly Hillbillies was phenomenal! Looks like a fun place to work.Interested?

In addition to programs, NELLCO staffed a table in the exhibit hall again this year. Theresa was a constant presence there throughout, and she enjoyed meeting so many of you with whom she corresponds by e-mail and phone. We also enjoyed our Sun. evening Meet & Greet where welcomed members and vendors alike for a relaxed evening. It's always good to put names with faces!

Congratulations to AALL on another successful Annual Meeting.

Yours in Collaboration,
Tracy L. Thompson-Przylucki, Executive Director