Seattle University Law Library Info Blog  

  

This blog is a mixed bag of content. April saw snippets of poetry in jurisprudence, a history of the April Fool's tradition, and news about a new automatic door to the library. March included postings on foreign law research, maritime piracy, and proximity searching on Google. The archives go back to 2008.

 

 

 

To Receive Slice In Your Inbox Each Month 

 

LIPA Legal Information Preservation Alliance

MALLCO Mid-America Law Library Conosortium

ACL Association for Consortium Leadership

Karen Quinn - Chief Law Librarian, Rhode Island State Law Library 

 

The winter that has tried the patience and endurance of even seasoned New Englanders is finally giving way to spring.   Like the coming spring, NELLC

Crocus in Rhode Island

O looks forward to a time of renewal and growth as a dynamic organization. As NELLCO continues to educate, entertain and push the technological envelope, Tracy and Theresa somehow manage to keep the mission and the needs of the members in the headlights at all times.

 

NELLCO has not been immune to the wintry economic conditions that have rocked all segments of society.  These assumptions were confirmed in the financial review, conducted by ODDA last summer.  ODDA pronounced NELLCO fiscally healthy and well run, but warned of the need for alternative funding sources to remain sustainable in the years ahead. 

 

What would the future hold?  Would the organization maintain the status quo and rely on a business model in which revenues were totally based on dues?  Would the organization grow and if so, what direction should that growth take?   Were there alternative sources of revenue that NELLCO could tap?    Should we rely on the present membership model, expand our membership base or consider alternative levels of membership?   How could NELLCO afford to acquire the technical expertise needed to optimize its mission?  As these questions swirled, the firm commitment remained that NELLCO would strive to provide greater VALUE to its members. 

 

After much deliberation, a three pronged approach appears to be emerging -- an approach that maintains creative ways of viewing lib

Spring teaser

raries and their place in the changing landscape. NELLCO will re-evaluate funding sources, work to expand membership and widen the programs and services that add VALUE for its members.    We are excited about the first NELLCO Member/Vendor fair that will be offered next year in Albany.  Have you checked out the Job Bank now available on the NELLCO website?    Speaking of websites, a new interactive website that will allow members greater customization and connectivity is being rolled out this summer.
 

As Laura from ODDA said in the Financial Report, "Law Libraries provide better service to library patrons because of NELLCO."  That is the bottom line and that is the way we want to keep it!!

 

Karen Quinn

President

Director's Corner

Member/Vendor Fair

NELLCO Career Center

Other Changes 

 

There's change afoot for 2012! As Karen explains above, we are re-examining NELLCO from every angle. We want to be sure we're providing the benefits members want in a manner that enables us to be sustainable for the long haul. The information we've gathered has led to some exciting new initiatives.

 

MEMBER/VENDOR FAIR

The Member/Vendor Fair (mark your calendars now for March 12-13, 2012!) will be open to all of our members. We're modeling our event after the Vendor Days and Colloquium event held annually by the Statewide California Electronic Library Consortium (SCELC). We hope this will become an annual event for NELLCO and provide one time each year when all members can come together for one day of robust vendor programs and one day of professional programming. We've begun planning and would welcome any ideas you may have to help us make this a successful event for all.

 

CAREER CENTER

We're also very excited about the launch of NELLCO's new Career Center! We hope this will become another go-to resource for job seekers and employers in law libraries and elsewhere. The Career Center will include job opportunities outside of law libraries that may require the skill sets librarians possess. The Career Center is open to members and non-members alike. Members of NELLCO can browse the job listings and post their resumes in the job bank at no cost. Members can also post jobs at discounted rates. Take a look and think about posting here the next time you have an opening in your library! 

 

OTHER CHANGES 

These are only a few of the changes coming. Here is brief list of other things to watch for:

• Our new website, powered by YourMembership, is slated to roll out on July 1, 2011. The new site offers much more functionality for community building and participation, including integration with Facebook and Twitter. The new site employs e-commerce features which will require changes to our processes, including the way we manage trials and renewals. It will provide a familiar consumer experience as it uses a shopping cart model. The new platform will also offer a mobile application for iPhone users which will be available to members at no cost through Apple's AppStore.
• We're adding individual membership for librarians working in state, court and county or firm law libraries, or in academic libraries that are not NELLCO members. A package of benefits is being tailored to this group. Librarians employed by institutional members (full, affiliate and international affiliate) need not join as individuals, as they already enjoy all of the benefits that will be included in the individual membership package.
• We're developing a program of online continuing education/professional development opportunities. At the Spring Board of Directors meeting an education committee was approved and Betsy McKenzie, Director of the Suffolk University Law School Library, volunteered to chair the committee. We're looking forward to providing a regular schedule of programming to meet your needs. Please let us know what kind of content you'd like us to offer.

As you can see, we're busy. We hope you'll be patient as we work through all of these exciting changes over the coming year. We know all of this will take time but we think the end result will be worth it!  

 

Yours In Collaboration,

Tracy L. Thompson-Przylucki

Executive Director
 

ILL Interest Group News

The Interlibrary Loan Interest Group has a long tradition of collaboration within NELLCO. ILL was essentially the raison d'etre of the organization back in the early 80s. But over the last few years the group was dormant, the last Annual Meeting having been held in 2008. Last Fri. the group reconvened at the Social Law Library in Boston, MA. We're always grateful to our member hosts and SLL has served as a NELLCO meeting site many times. It's always a pleasure to visit their beautiful space! Thanks to Robert Brink and his awesome staff for providing such a wonderful facility!

  

I was pleased to welcome three affiliate members to the meeting for the first time. Laura Justiss (SMU), Susanna Leers (Pitt) and John Smith (American) were all active participants and brought new perspectives to the table.

  

The ILL group wasted no time getting back to work!  The first order of business was the selection of leaders to begin the process of providing stronger infrastructure for the group. We began this evolution in the last few years with the other Interest Groups, which each have internal leadership now. For the ILL IG Andrea Joseph (UConn) agreed to serve as chair, and Sabrina Holley-Williams (Suffolk) as vice-chair. They will work on the group's charter and mission, and plan the next ILL Meeting.

  

The main topic of discussion during the meeting was the extension of NELLCO's reciprocal ILL agreement to our U.S. Affiliate Members. This has historically been restricted to Full Members. The group was very interested in expanding the collaboration, under which participating members agree not to charge for ILL to other participating libraries (lending library pays to ship out; borrowing library pays to ship back). Overall the group did not expect such an expansion to have a significant impact on their lending and borrowing activities, as most libraries have established practices for the most common materials. However, expanding the agreement provides access to more unique collections which may be held by participating libraries.

  

The group proposed a one-year pilot project during which time Affiliate Members will be able to opt-in to participate. Participants will carefully monitor the impact of the expanded agreement on their ILL activities. We will evaluate the project after a year and determine whether to make it a permanent agreement, modify it in some way, or discontinue it. The NELLCO Executive Committee approved the pilot and the goal is to launch on Sept. 1.

  

The NELLCO Reciprocal ILL policy is being revised based on the work of the ILL IG at Friday's meeting to facilitate this pilot. Once it has been revised it will be distributed, and Affiliates who wish to participate will be asked to complete a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). The ILL IG will prepare a guide for participants to walk them through the steps of setting up the NELLCO group for their ILL systems.

  

This is an exciting step for the ILL Interest Group and serves to further NELLCO's mission. Stay tuned for more information as we move forward please contact me if you are interested in participating or if you have any questions or concerns.