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SPECIAL LIBRARIES
ASSOCIATION LEGAL DIVISION |
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Leadership and Organization |
Legal Division Quarterly Special Libraries Association Winter, 1999/2000 - Vol. 6, No. 2
The Intranet: The Alice of the Wonderland Information, the Gem of the Millennium Legal Division Treasurer's Report international corner - Notes From Australia international corner - Notes From Europe
The Intranet: The Alice of the Wonderland "At least I knew who I was when I got up this morning, but I think I must have been changed several times since then." Lewis Carroll If the White Rabbit represents the Internet, with its turns and twists and never ending hallways, then Alice must be the poster child for the intranet. Although both of the nets can be never ending and seamless, it is the intranet where a little more control can be taken. It is not just a matter of "drink me" and you will become small, or "eat me" and you will become tall, but rather a sense of control. For once Alice does realize what her proper proportion should be, the story untangles rather nicely and there is merit, if not a good tale. The intranet is the tool of the new millennium and should be seen not just for what it can do, but for what it can be. It is only as good as its keeper or, in this instance, its Netitor. A Netitor (obviously a word that I just made up in more the spirit of the Jabberwocky!) is more than a webmaster; rather a Netitor is someone who edits the Net. The intranet is not just another source that the Office for Knowledge Management is in charge of; rather it is a Knowledgement all its own and should be acknowledged as such. Don't lump it with the Brief and Memo Bank, or the Forms, or the Marketing Contact database. Let it shine on its own, for if tended properly (and this will eventually evolve into a full-time job), the intranet will take on a life of its own and be the core for any organization, legal, corporate or otherwise, which relies on scholarship to provide its professional services. A couple of years ago, I wrote an article for West Group's then fairly new publication produced by the Information Innovator's Institute, entitled, The Intranet: A Cyber File Cabinet. At the time, and remember this was two years ago and in Net years that has got to be a decade, the intranet was sort of a spaceless cabinet where librarians could stock informational links and resources. But it has gone past just being a storage receptacle; rather the intranet is now the Intraknow. Information alone is a useless commodity. Knowledge is where companies are finding their greatest strengths. So how do we take the Net to the next step and who is to do it? The Netitors of the world, of course! And how do they accomplish this task and wrestle it away from the Beast Master MIS, ahem, I mean the webmaster? Well, who does the searching? Who knows the content? Who has the scholarship? It is time to leave the Mad Hatter behind and to take action. Use what you experience every day. By example, at Greenberg we use LiveEdgar for SEC documents. Every new young corporate associate who joins the firm comes to me with an argument as to how they can save the firm money by using the free governmental Internet links. The discussions go on forever and take time, energy, and most of my patience. So what to do? Write a very easy comparison in question format, and post it on the corporate intranet home page. Which SEC source prints identical to the original document? Which has real-time filings? Which one has a search engine so you can format a sophisticated query, etc. We have to edify our users as we have through the ages. The only difference these days is that there is more to inform them about than ever before. So use the new tool of the millennium and give the user choices. You could even make the comparison interactive, with the listed sources as live links. By example, to answer the never-ending question, which database do I use and how much will it cost when Corporate/ People information is needed, we again created an interactive link table. This table consisted of four choices: Free, Cheap, Pricey and Expensive But Worthy. Well, we had four categories: Private Companies, Public Companies, International Companies and People. Not only were the links active, but a descriptive narrative was included that explained what level of information the end user was receiving in their search addresses, financials, history, officer biographies, etc. The ways to notch up your intranet are endless and only impeded by a lack of imagination. A rule of thumb when you are stumped is to remember what you do day to day. Again, for example, did you do both a Shepard's and a KeyCite search on the same subject? Perhaps you found that KeyCites to federal statutes not only gave you the status of the statute, but included a mini legislative history as well. Post this bit of knowledge to the Litigation intranet home page under an icon for Legislative Histories. After all, it is our responsibility to not just train, but keep vigilance on the value of the resources our users access. Keeping a well-groomed and managed intranet will take time, but so did the copying of all the ancient classics in the Scriptorium by the monks of the Middle Ages. But time is something that we all have; we just have to put this on our list. Remember we are past the information age. We are not White Rabbits running pell-mell down the technological rabbit hole. We have entered the second age of reason where scholarship and creative thought are back in fashion. So, Alice, get after that Queen of Hearts!
In this issue of LDQ, we extend a hearty welcome to Linda Will, who will be writing on the topic of intranets. Look for her column entitled, The Intranet: The Alice of the Wonderland, in which she offers insight and suggestions on unleashing the potential behind our intranets. Look for great tips you can use. We also welcome Steve Anderson, who begins a column entitled Head OthePAC in which he reviews the methods individual librarians use to stay ahead in this maelstrom we find ourselves in. For this issue, he has started with our own Larry Guthrie, Chair of our Legal Division. We have Ron Weikers, an attorney who specializes in high tech litigation, writing about Y2K litigation and other issues. In our Net Results column, you have a starting point for e-commerce sites. Also in this issue, Carolyn Korkmas describes our Division's roundtables. We currently have four, and from Carolyn's article you will see the purpose behind them and, hopefully, discover how easy it is to start one. Any takers out there? We wish you all a very happy, healthy and prosperous new year.
Barbara W. Silbersack
Mary Lynn Wagner Legal Division Quarterly is published four times a year. We reserve the right to edit for space and clarity. Please send submissions to Barbara Silbersack as an attachment to e-mail in Microsoft Word for Windows, 12 point Times font. The Legal Division Quarterly accepts sponsorship of mailing, printing, and other services. Inquiries regarding Legal Division Quarterly sponsorship or advertising should be sent to the Advertising Manager: Alice F. Fosson, Bracewell & Patterson LLP, South Tower Pennzoil Place, 711 Louisiana St., #2900, Houston, TX 77001-2781, (713) 221-1142. Special Libraries Association assumes no responsibility for the statements and opinions advanced by the contributors to the Association's publications. Editorial views do not necessarily represent the official position of the Special Libraries Association. Acceptance of an advertisement does not imply endorsement of the product by the Special Libraries Association.
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From the Boardroom Thanks to everyone involved in conference program planning! Jenny Kanji, Strategic Planning Chair, and I divided up the programs for gathering the completed forms. We distributed the forms to individual moderators. Charlene Cunniffe, Vendor Relations Chair, and Carol Furnish, Treasurer, are matching sponsors with programs. Also, it is with great pride to see our first formal professional listing for the Legal Division, including the Executive Board in "The AALS Directory of Law Teachers" under "Other Organizations." This is a great reference source, used at almost every legal reference desk. I consider it a milestone for the Division. The conference programs look great! West Group is generously sponsoring the Hospitality Suite under Carolyn Korkmas' supervision along with Anne Ellis and Lori Hedstrom. It will become the "Command Post" for the Division at the conference with a computer for sending daily "press releases" to LLRX and others. The Board Meetings will be held in the Hospitality Suite, as well as evening theme events, and one hors d'oeuvre "dinner." West Group is also sponsoring the Annual Business Luncheon, Emerging Technologies Breakfast, Legal Research for Non-Law Librarians, and other programs. We thank BNA for continuing the Chairman's Tea, where 2001 conference programs are proposed, along with the BNA Breakfast. LEXIS-NEXIS is sponsoring a most generous and special program: a speech by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Environmental Law Professor at Pace; son of Robert F. Kennedy, and cousin of the late John F. Kennedy, Jr.; identified as one of the "Heroes For the Planet" (Time 9/2/99). Bobby Kennedy will speak on "The Role of Information in Environmental Protection: A Legal Perspective." Negotiated by Cindy Spohr, Public Relations Chair, the Legal Division is the main sponsor with a small co-sponsorship by the Environmental Division. Regarding Global 2000, we are starting to plan a program, "Copyright and Other Forms of Intellectual Property as International Human Rights Issues." In addition, the Australian Law Librarian's Group enthusiastically has welcomed the invitation to begin the process for an official liaison, such as the one we have with CALL. We thank all the sponsors of the Legal Division and look forward to growing together!
Larry Guthrie
Information, the Gem of the Millennium Editors' note: This article was written before January 1, 2000; however, the information contained within is valuable nevertheless. Information is more valuable than equipment, property and other tangible items of most corporations. This is particularly true for legal professionals, for without information we have no livelihood. Nobody knows this better than the members of the Special Libraries Association: As information brokers for a variety of industries, you hold the key to good business. As a Philadelphia attorney handling computer software and hardware cases, my duties focus on my clients' legal rights, intellectual property issues and the transfer of technology assets between buyers and sellers. In an abstract sense, my duties involve filtering and organizing information, so it can be readily discerned by fact finders judges and juries. However, my use and organization of information pales by comparison to yours. Proving the value of information can be difficult, until someone doesn't have it. Consider two of the most successful early entrants into the world of e-commerce, Yahoo and Priceline.com. Yahoo is a Web site indexing company and Priceline is a company that takes bids from consumers for airline tickets, mortgages, hotel rooms and other goods and then connects the consumer with the seller of these goods. Neither Yahoo nor Priceline provides a physical, hold-it-in-your-hand product. They provide information. When Priceline went public, it sold 10 million shares for $16 dollars a share, giving it an initial market value of $160 million. Today, Priceline's market capitalization is $10 billion dollars. But Priceline has no assets and makes no hard goods. It is an information company that, in the midst of a classic .com runup, at one point had a market cap twice that of Apple Computer, Inc. Yahoo competes for eyeballs, creating no physical product and selling nothing but advertising space. Yahoo organizes and indexes a huge amount of information so people can find it and use it. So how much does the stock market value the information Yahoo deals in? In October, 1999, Yahoo was selling at a staggering 400 times current earnings. Compare this to traditional smokestack companies like Harley Davidson or General Motors: Harley Davidson currently sells at about 33 times earnings; General Motors common stock sells at only 9 times current earnings. Even IBM sells at only 30 times earnings. Do the math clearly the market places a premium on information as a corporate asset. On a smaller scale than Yahoo, you also provide information in an organized fashion. But as "cybrarians" who now must use the computer and Internet to track down information, your job life has become even more complex than ever. The bad news: Your job will get worse because the Year 2000 is coming, and you depend on computers. When I refer to computers, I mean the desktop variety with a keyboard, as well as the chips that control everything from thermostats to cars, elevators, mass transit systems and security alarms. I am not an alarmist when it comes to the Y2K bug, but I do believe that computers will cause a few headaches because of the automated tasks we now rely on. While we can't predict exactly what will happen at the stroke of midnight on January 1, I'd like to share a few real-world examples of Year 2000 failures that have already happened to help get you thinking: Michigan: A computerized cash register system crashed whenever credit cards, with expiration dates after 1999, were processed. (VISA receives 100 150 reports per month of other date failures.) Minnesota: Two 105-year-olds were invited to attend elementary school, along with the other 5-year-olds. England: A loading dock crane locked up when its embedded chip thought it was overdue on its maintenance inspection. This is a common computer occurrence in machinery, like elevators. New York: Computers that print automobile emissions inspection stickers malfunctioned with two-digit year fields when 2000 was entered. Stickers were issued for "91" instead of "00" and owners were given citations for not having their cars inspected for 8 years. New Zealand: A production facility at a smelting plant shut down because the system was unable to recognize 1996 as a leap year. The shutdown caused $1 million in damages. Remember that 2000 is a leap year too! Pennsylvania: The Peach Bottom nuclear power plant, when testing for Y2K bugs, experienced a 7-hour lock in the primary and backup plant monitoring systems. Those computers controlled the safety parameter display, emergency response data, and a 3D Monicore thermal limit monitoring system, which monitors the control rods that regulate the nuclear reaction in the core. There are tens of millions of computers and more than 50 billion embedded systems in the world. Some number will fail due to Y2K problems, but the exact number is unknown. The bottom line: As information providers we can't afford to lose our connections to information, our databases of information, or our mode to access the information. Despite approximately $700 billion spent on Y2K compliance in the U.S. alone, an estimated 15 percent of all U.S. companies will still experience a mission-critical information technology failure due to a Y2K problem. This is where the Y2K technology problem also becomes a legal problem for companies many of whom have yet to consider potential legal exposure caused by Y2K. Legal contingency planning starts with education, and the Internet is a good place to start for information on preparation and compliance. For example, Lawoffice.com is a free service that provides comprehensive information for consumers and small businesses, with a complete portfolio of Y2K articles authored by leading practitioners. It contains a wealth of information on the legal impact of Y2K, and a complete dictionary of legal terms, for non-attorneys trying to make sense of the language of the law. It also includes a directory of more than one million legal professionals the largest on the Web to help people find the right counsel for legal issues. There are currently 43 pending cases regarding Y2K litigation. Of these, only 10 have been filed on behalf of individuals; the remaining were filed by corporations. Because there are few laws protecting citizens from Y2K occurrences, the next decade may result in litigating issues resulting from a lack of preparedness and malfunctions related to computers from both the corporate and private sector. Plan ahead. Prepare like a Boy Scout or Girl Scout checking equipment for an overnight hike check it once, twice, and three times. Prepare for the malfunctions, the wrinkles that may make your job, and your life, more challenging in this vast information age. Ron Weikers is the principal of Weikers & Co., a Philadelphia law firm that specializes in Y2K, Internet, software infringement, and other high technology litigation in federal courts nationwide. He is the author of a new treatise, "Litigating Year 2000 Cases," which is available from West Group at http://store.westgroup.com. Ron can be reached for questions and comment at 215-242-5333 and rweikers@home.com.
l'eagleeye The Legal Division has a number of programs planned for the next annual conference. It will be held in Philadelphia, the City of Brotherly Love and a favorite watering hole of W. C. Fields, June 10 through 14, 2000. According to M.E. Williams, David Lynch had a number of interesting things to say about the town. Her article is at: http://www.salonmagazine.com/may97/wanderlust/postmark970520.htm. The most interesting thing about this description of the "home of the hoagie" [a.k.a. submarine or grinder] is that the author has sampled the fare at that fine establishment of eating and music, the Triangle Tavern. The Eyeball has been there and let me assure you, you cannot forget a meal at this restaurant. To say it is a unique venue to have a bite of Italian food and listen to some music is a gross understatement. The Eyeball will personally lead a troupe of librarians there for an unprecedented gastronomic experience and evening's entertainment. Many vendors will be supporting our programs and the conference. We use their products and expertise every work day. While we often have differences with them on individual problems, they are helping SLA to provide a conference that will benefit not only law librarians but the wide diversity of librarians that make up SLA. These vendors spend a lot of money to show us their wares. Don't forget to thank them when you see them. Now is the time to get your travel approved to go to the conference. It can be very beneficial to be exposed to many different kinds of library expertise, especially in today's environment where we must reach beyond traditional legal sources to satisfy the needs of our patrons for competitive information.
Global 2000 One of the goals of the conference is to establish working relationships with other librarians. In order to be sure there is adequate representation from all countries, SLA has established a fellowship program to provide financial aid to librarians from developing countries who, because of financial constraints, might not be able to attend. The deadline for fellowship applications is January 1, 2000, and the requirements are designed to select highly qualified candidates who are practicing librarians. Members of the District of Columbia Chapter leadership have taken the lead in soliciting and collecting pledges. The Legal Division has pledged $1,000 to the fellowship fund as did the Military Division. The New York, New Jersey and San Andreas Chapters have pledged a combined $7,000. Hopefully your chapter or another division to which you belong to will chip in. Certainly the Danish Department of Foreign Affairs (DANIDA) thought this program was worthwhile. They have pledged $20,000 to support the effort. It costs $4,000 to $5,000, depending on the country the librarian is travelling from, to sponsor a librarian for a fellowship. Won't you ask your firm or chapter to donate some money for this worthwhile cause? For more details you can read about it on the SLA Web site at http://www.sla.org/chapter/cdc under the Global 2000 Section.
A Book to Read This is written by two of the principals of e-Advantage, a lobbying firm that specializes in grass roots activist campaigns. The book tells stories of how the communications revolution we are experiencing with the Internet will change political discourse. Don't get the impression the letter to your elected official is not the most effective form of lobby activity; it still is. Getting people like yourself to participate in our democracy using electronic means, is what these authors write about.
Knowledge Management Another facet of the same problem is that capturing tacit knowledge is not its most important feature. Informal interaction between people with various tacit knowledge is the best way to create new knowledge that can be leveraged into useful ideas for an organization. However, the informal interaction that best creates this new knowledge probably won't work at a structured meeting. So what you need to do is get a group of attorneys together in an informal meeting to discuss their ideas and capture what information results and share it with the other folks at the firm. Do you detect any problems with this picture? Do you really think lawyers sharing their "tacit knowledge" with each other while unable to bill the time is realistic? Some firms think so. You can read about some of them in Nina Platt's two-part article, "Knowledge Management: Can it Exist in a Law Office?" You can find Part I of the article at Law Library Resource Exchange (http://www.llrx.com/features/km.htm). Part II is at http://www.lrx.com/km2.htm. Ms. Platt offers several examples of legal entities working on knowledge management along with some healthy skepticism. The Eyeball is certainly a skeptic. It is easy to see why one might be skeptical of a new form of management that requires radical changes from the billable hour model of law firms. To be truly successful it requires top management support and probably change from that model to one that rewards, through compensation, those who share their knowledge. It is also expensive. Nevertheless, some law firms are moving toward changing their environments to remain competitive and gain the benefits of knowledge management. There is, of course, a role for librarians in knowledge management. To a large extent we have been doing just that, managing knowledge for thousands of years already. Whether we remain in our current positions or become "knowledge workers," we do much of what is needed in knowledge management: Acquire, organize, and facilitate access to information. It is a wise move for all of us to become familiar with the concepts of knowledge management both in the uses of tacit knowledge and the distribution of explicit knowledge. When one of the partners mentions knowledge management, we need to be able to intelligently comment on it. The Eyeball has requested examples of knowledge management and writings about the subject as it relates to law firms. Some say there is little available. If you know of some good information on the subject of KM and law firms, please send it along to the Eyeball at jstickle@wahlone.com or call 202-457-7370. Another fine place to start has been provided by some of our colleagues at the Toronto Chapter of SLA, who have put together an excellent source page on KM at http://www.sla.org/chapter/ctor/toolbox/km/kmres.htm. The Eyeball says, "Check it out!"
watercooler I sent an e-mail to the SLA Legal Division Listserv asking for input on: "Reference Interviews and Attorneys." I received several helpful responses. I would like to thank those who offered their advice and tips, which are summarised below with a few of my own. A librarian who preferred to remain anonymous offered advice on the topic of specificity. Some attorneys, no offense intended, ask for things and don't really know what they need or want or how they want the results. Some tips that help in this situation include asking specific questions about the nature of information desired and what expectations the requester has regarding the presentation of results. The bottom line is to "focus the requester for a short period of time on the practicalities of what is needed and how the results will fit into case strategy." Another librarian offers a rule of thumb: "If I don't understand what they are requesting, they probably don't understand it either." Restatement of the question, repeating the request to the person, and writing it down are good tips to follow. This often results in better explanation by the attorney with more detail, and the attorney will sometimes even offer why information is wanted. It leaves open the option of getting the needed information without necessarily getting the item that was originally requested. Some hints to personality of attorneys as reference customers were offered up by Ellen Fuller of the Supreme Court Library in Syracuse, New York. All judges were once attorneys; treat them accordingly. Clerks are trying desperately to be attorneys and depending upon who their mentor is, may have unconsciously picked up bad habits. New attorneys are uncertain of their skills; they will try to cover up that uncertainty in a variety of ways. The bottom line is: Realize the motivation behind some of the attitudes you encounter. As the librarian, you have the information that they all want, from judge to clerk. Make it clear as politely as possible, that you will share, if they provide you details. Ms. Fuller offers tips she uses to pry details out of these uncertain and uncooperative customers. She relates to the attorneys the necessity for the librarian to know details in order to search effectively. She suggests using leading questions such as: civil case, what kind, medical malpractice? This often starts a communication from the attorney that allows for better searching and better results. These are fabulous tips and I would add something that always makes it easier to deal with all bad situations in life keep a sense of humor! Sometimes those attorneys who worry about how items are stapled and call in an obsessive-compulsive way to "check" on you need to be reminded that life exists outside the requests and the work will always be there. That doesn't mean we can be lax in our duties. We just need to remember that time can as easily be our friend as our enemy, depending on how we handle the stress of working in a results-oriented profession.
taxfile A past Tax File column looked at the efforts of one publishing firm to have IRS Field Service Advice Memorandums released to the public. This column takes a look at some tax documents that have been made available to the public as a result of recent FOIA efforts and one document type that is still under litigation to be released. Hopefully, the description of these documents will make some busy tax librarian's day less hectic because he or she will know exactly what an attorney is referring to when that attorney frantically requests "a memorandum for regional chief compliance officers on installment agreements ASAP!"
IRS Litigation Guidance The newly released documents include four IRS internal bulletins that review the following areas of IRS litigation practice:
The release also includes five types of IRS litigation guideline memorandums (LGMs): International (3 documents), Disclosure (4 documents), Criminal Tax (15 documents), General (68 documents), and Tax (128 documents). (See "12 Years' Worth of IRS Litigation Guidance Released," July 27, 1999 available at 1999 TNT 144-6 in Lexis, Westlaw, Dialog, and RIA's Checkpoint, for more information on these documents.)
Memorandums for Regional Chief Compliance Officers To date, five MRCCOs have been released. Four of the memos concern the IRS installment agreement program, while the fifth covers the IRS Offers in Compromise program. Three of the five memos predate the enactment of the Internal Revenue Service Restructuring and Reform Act of 1998, which modified the Offers in Compromise and installment agreement rules. The two MRCCOs that were issued after the restructuring act address developments within the IRS installment agreement program. The items covered in the memos include increases in the dollar authority for streamlined agreements from $15,000 to $25,000; extension of the maximum period for computing the minimum monthly amount from 36 to 60 months; increases in the full payment period from three years to five; appeal rights; and procedures for inputting transaction code 971 to identify taxpayers who have requested installment agreements. The items covered in the two other MRCCOs on installment agreements include an increase in the dollar authority from $10,000 to $15,000 for all functions when securing streamlined installment agreements, and instructions for handling installment agreement cases in which the statute of limitations on collection may expire during the agreement. The one MRCCO concerning the Offers in Compromise program examines the procedures for handling offers in compromise submitted by federal employees. (See "IRS Release Internal Memos for Regional Chief Compliance Officers," June 9, 1999 at 1999 TNT 111-1 available in Lexis, Westlaw, Dialog, and RIA's Checkpoint, for a list of these documents.)
Advance Pricing Agreements The documents described above are available in print from Tax Analysts' Access Service and electronically on Tax Analysts' TaxBase and the Tax Notes Today (TNT) files available on Lexis, Westlaw, Dialog, and RIA's Checkpoint. Contact Tax Analysts at 800-955-344 for additional details on these documents or for information on searching the Tax Analysts files on any of the services described above.
netresults Here is a compilation of Web sites dealing with various aspects of e-commerce.
ABA Committee on Law of Cyberspace
ABA Digital Signature Guidelines
ABA Subcommittee on Electronic Financial Services
ABA/ACCA Survey of Electronic Commerce Practices
Advisory Commission on Electronic Commerce
BrintElectronic Commerce
CERT Coordination Center (Carnegie Mellon University)
CIO-Electronic Commerce Research Center
Commerce/Net
Comprehensive Resource for Commerce on the Internet
Cybercrimes
Cybertimes
David Loundy's E-Law Web Page
EC Today
ECOM: Electronic Commerce Promotion Council of Japan
Electronic Commerce and Internet Law Resource Center
Electronic Commerce and the European Union
Electronic Commerce Resource Center (Department of Defense)
Electronic Commerce Page: The World Wide Web Virtual Library
Electronic Payments Forum
Emerging Digital Economy
The Emerging Digital Economy II
Federal Electronic Commerce Program Office
Framework for Global Electronic Commerce (White House)
FTC Materials on E-commerce and the Internet
Georgetown Internet Privacy Policy Study
Government E-commerce Sites by Bradley J. Hillis
Government Information Technology Services
Internet Alliance
McBride Baker & Coles Summary of Electronic Commerce and Digital Signature Legislation
Northern Light Special Edition
OECD E-commerce Materials
Privacy Online: A Report to Congress
Roger Clarke's Electronic Commerce
Self-Regulation and Privacy Online: A Report to Congress (FTC)
Standard for Internet Commerce (GII)
Techlaw Center (American Lawyer)
UCLA Online Institute for Cyberspace Law & Policy
U.S. Government Electronic Commerce Policy
Virginia Journal of Law and Technology
Washburn Computer/Cyberspace Law
Web Commerce Today Wilson Internet Services
West Virginia Journal of Law and Technology
backroom The job market for support staff in libraries is getting tighter. Ways to keep good staff are always of interest. Expanding the availability of professional memberships to staff members in libraries is one way to give staff a perk that doesn't cost a lot but can go a long way. At the recent AALL annual meeting, there was direct recognition of the growing number of paraprofessionals in the organization. The first ever Paraprofessional Forum was part of the program and seems to have been a big success. The availability of less expensive local memberships in either AALL or perhaps an ALA chapter provides opportunities for interested staff to attend meetings and network on behalf of the library. While the cost is usually low, the intrinsic value of such memberships is high. Just as most of us find, the participation in professional organizations broadens horizons, creates opportunities to volunteer our current skills and learn some new ones. Meeting people in other firms face to face instead of just over the phone is extremely valuable. I find myself even more willing to do favors for someone I have met in person. Programs I have attended often make me appreciate the library I am in as well as give me ideas on how to improve it. Convincing the management at your firm to fund the memberships of both professionals and paraprofessionals is always easier if the cost is low. Memberships in local chapters for AALL and ALA are usually very inexpensive. Unlike SLA, the ability to join at the local level makes these organizations much more attractive for multiple memberships. Keeping management informed of the meetings attended and what benefit you and other staff have received from the programs also lets them see the value of the expense. Part of making a library run smoothly is keeping up with what is currently going on in developments in reference resources, new library management systems, whatever. Learning from your peers is always a great way to avoid making mistakes and a way to take advantage of their experiences. Backroom operations run much more smoothly if staff turnover can be avoided. Keeping library staff involved and interested in their jobs can often help create job satisfaction and eliminate the problems that come with change in personnel. While not all staff are interested in participating in such organizations, providing the opportunity to those that are can make life in the library much more interesting. If you have other suggestions on ways to keep staff or know of job perks that add value to staff positions, I would be interested in hearing about them. Please send them to me at folensbb@pepperlaw.com.
What Is a Roundtable? I first joined the SLA in 1973 after graduating from the library school at University of Denver. I joined the Business & Finance Division, and received a welcome letter from the division suggesting that I might want to join one of their roundtables. At the time, there did not seem to be a roundtable which fit my circumstances, but I found the concept interesting. Later on, the idea occurred to me that starting a new roundtable within the Business & Finance Division that would fit my needs might be possible. To make a long story short, I worked for an international association in Denver, and felt the need to have better communication with other association librarians, so I contacted several of them from different industries across the country. We agreed to meet at the SLA annual conference in New York, and we organized our own Trade and Professional Association Roundtable in 1976 under the Business & Finance Division. I left Colorado in 1981, but the group kept growing (without me!), and went on to become an independent "caucus" a few years ago. In 1996, three years after the establishment of the Legal Division, I decided to try it again. By now I was a law librarian in a tax library, and I wanted to be able to get together with other tax librarians. There did not seem to be an organized group of tax librarians, so I decided to try to form one. There is no magic to starting a group. We simply put it on the schedule for the June 1996 SLA conference and announced that a new "Tax Librarians Roundtable" would be starting. Sixteen people came to that first meeting, and they were enthusiastic about forming the group. For a couple of hours we discussed our mutual problems and what we would like this group to do. One of the first suggestions was an online discussion group. Marion Marshall and Melinda Beard from Tax Analysts were in the group, and they mentioned that because Tax Analysts already sponsors a number of online discussion lists for tax attorneys, they believed it would be possible to start one for our group as well. Eventually that became a reality, and we have a growing list of participants on our discussion list. We do not require that participants be SLA Legal Division members. We believe when "non members" see how much we gain by our roundtable, they will want to join us. Tax Analysts provided refreshments for our next roundtable meeting which met in the afternoon in Seattle. Our roundtable has become a breakfast during the last two of its four years of existence. Our sponsors have been BNA Tax Management for one and CCH for the last one. The Tax Roundtable breakfasts have been meeting on Sunday morning of the annual conference because of everyone's crowded schedule during the conference week. We have an excellent speaker on a tax topic, and then share information informally after the breakfast. Our tax vendors are fighting over the opportunity to be our sponsors. (We love the attention!) If you work in a tax library, your library has a strong tax collection, or if you do a great deal of tax research, why don't you join us next June? You are welcome. To become a member of the Tax Librarians Discussion List, send an e-mail to: majordomo@lists.tax.org. In the message body type: subscribe tax-librarians. To post to the list, address your message to: tax-librarians@lists.tax.org.
Another New Roundtable for the Legal Division Beginning in 2000
Member News Welcome to the Member News column. Roger Skalbeck, the Electronic Initiatives Librarian at Howrey & Simon in Washington, D.C., is the new monthly column editor for "Notes from the Technology Trenches," which appears on the 15th of each month in LLRX (Law Library Resource Xchange, http://www.llrx.com). Each month, he hopes to cover a variety of technology-related topics that impact and interest users of legal information, from a librarian's point of view. David Bryant's name has been submitted for consideration for appointment to the Advisory Committee of the Illinois State Library. This is a three-year position (uncompensated except for the feeling of accomplishment derived from helping your state's libraries), involving three or four meetings a year, usually in Springfield. David, whose business, Legibus, deals in antiquarian law books, also recently completed an inventory and appraisal of the Rare Book Collection of the Chicago Bar Association. Steven Anderson of Gordon Feinblatt Rothman Hoffberger & Hollander, LLC spoke at a Maryland Library Association, Academic and Research Libraries Division meeting, on September 24. He was a panelist on a discussion called, "What do you mean? I found it on the Web!: A discussion of copyright issues in a digital environment." On October 25, he presented the "Legal Content Review" at Online '99 in Chicago, where he also moderated a roundtable discussion on law library issues. Margo Chisholm, formerly of Spiegel & McDiarmid in Washington, D.C., left that position on September 3 to accept a position as School Librarian at Dumfries Elementary School in Dumfries, VA. Margo felt that she needed to make a change so she could be home earlier in the afternoon for her children; the hours required by the firm position did not allow enough time for her to attend to their needs and well-being. Margo is maintaining her membership in SLA and the D.C. Legal Issues Group and hopes to keep her foot in the door of law librarianship. (Editor's note: As the sister of a teacher, I think this is a wonderful decision on Margo's part ... all parents should be involved in their children's education!) Mary Williamson, Librarian at Holleb and Coff in Chicago, will become Head Librarian at Hopkins and Sutter (also in Chicago), effective November 1. Last but certainly not least, my supervisor, Mary Ann Lenzen, of Wildman Harrold, is leaving the firm to become Reference Librarian at Bell Boyd & Lloyd, effective October 25. We have worked together for 15 years (!!) and she will be missed. q Don't forget, you can send Karen your news anytime (krupka@whad.com).
Legal Division Treasurer's Report
international corner
Conferences One of the plenary sessions was entitled "If it isn't broken, break it!" and was presented by Professor Mickie A. Voges, of Chicago Kent Law Library. There were several very interesting papers dealing with law, knowledge management, and one-person libraries. The social functions were well attended, and Hobart provided an ideal venue, with splendid mild weather as well. In September, Melbourne played host to the International Association of Law Libraries annual meeting, which saw fifty law librarians attend four information-packed days of papers and activities. The programme is at http://www.lib.monash.edu.au/law/iall99/iall.htm and the topics ranged from Indigenous Law through to Asian Law & Materials, Conservation of Australian Wildlife, and Australian Law & Law Librarianship. It was wonderful to be able to host many overseas colleagues in our city, and many went on to have a week or so touring the country. Some of the luminaries attending included AALL President Margaret Axtmann, Lyonette Louis-Jaques, Larry Wenger and Professor Kathie Price.
Copyright Law Changes The Digital Agenda Bill amends the definition to prevent a library in a for-profit organisation from relying on the library exceptions in the Copyright Act. This proposed amendment will have important consequences for all libraries and will disrupt the resource-sharing relationships between nonprofit and corporate libraries. The changes to the definition will effectively lock up important collections in corporate libraries and will prevent any library from gaining access without a licence. The new definition will not only affect the budgets of libraries in corporations but it will also affect the quality of library services. The definition will impose serious administrative burdens on library staff in for-profit organisations and will cause delays to the way in which information is delivered to the research and scientific community. Jamie Wodetzki, Senior Associate at Minter Ellison, has analysed the Bill for the Australian Libraries Copyright Committee (ALCC) and the Australian Digital Alliance (ADA) and has highlighted several areas of concern for libraries. This excellent commentary is available at http://www.alia.org.au/copyright/news/. Our colleagues overseas may find it of interest, and a forewarning of potential dangers ahead. Until next time, regards from Ruth Bird, University of Melbourne, Australia.
international corner Summer is always a quiet time in the UK on the parliamentary side, but at least there is a last burst of activity to push through legislation before the summer recess. So it is that as autumn approaches, I can tell you what was finished off in that parliamentary year. The Government announced on 12 July that the UK Data Protection Act 1998 (which repeals the 1989 Data Protection Act) would come into force on 1 March 2000. This legislation implements the 1995 EU Data Protection Directive in the UK.Still, better late than never! The Department of Trade and Industry in the UK has published the first draft of the Electronic Communications Bill as part of a consultation paper called Promoting Electronic Commerce (Cm 4477): www.dti.gov.uk/public/html. The UK Government is trying to encourage the use of e-commerce in business. Very importantly, it is seeking legal recognition of electronic signatures. Deadline for consultation is 8 October and substantial revisions are expected, as there are concerns over what are seen as draconian powers given to the Government and other enforcement authorities like the police. A White Paper designed to improve consumer awareness in the UK was published in July. Called Modern Markets: Confident Consumers (1998-99 Cm 4410), it will have major implications for business and for consumer rights. It can be viewed at: www.dti.gov.uk/consumer/whitepaper/wpmenu.htm. The Incorporated Council of Law Reporting for England and Wales (the 'official' body of law reporting), has launched a free (yes, FREE) service called Daily Law Notes on the Internet. It can be found at: www.lawreports.co.uk. It contains summarised reports of cases handed down in the previous 24 hours. As with the printed reports covered by this body, the principle on which a case is included will be that it introduces a new or substantively modifies an old principle or rule in law, or that it clarifies a doubtful point of law. Context UK, which produces the Justis CD-ROM and Online products, launches the Internet version of its service, Justis.com, this October. A trial site is available at: www.justis.com for users who wish to preview before subscribing. The complete range of the CD-ROM products including the Law Reports, the Weekly Law Reports, the Times Law Reports, and Lloyds Law Reports are available on the site. The Stationery Office (the UK's equivalent of your GPO) has been sold (again) to a new company called Meadowpoint. It remains to be seen what new "streamlining" procedures this company will be introducing in the drive towards greater "efficiency". Last, but not least, your distant UK relations, the British and Irish Association of Law Librarians (BIALL), celebrate 30 years of existence this year. So, out with the bells and whistles and let's wish BIALL a very happy 30th birthday!
Head OthePAC An interview with Larry Guthrie, Legal Division Chair and Interlibrary Loan Librarian at Covington & Burling in Washington, D.C. Q What is your particular area of librarianship, e.g., electronic resources, administration, reference, acquisitions, cataloging? A My area is Interlibrary Loan which falls under Reference here, but, interestingly, in a few institutions falls under Acquisitions. Basically, we obtain documents on mostly a rush basis for 325 attorneys here in D.C., and to some extent in the London, Brussels, San Francisco and now New York offices. In addition, I am in charge of copyright compliance permissions. Q What print publications keep you informed about both your specialty area and general library science issues? Why? A I receive journals such as Library Journal, Legal Information Alert, Library of Congress Information Bulletin and I really like Corporate Library Update. I rely on Information Outlook from SLA, local DCSLA Chapter Notes and LLSDC Law Library Lights announcing seminars on Document Delivery and other networking opportunities. I especially like the bullet format of Corporate Library Update. For Copyright issues, the BNA's Patent, Trademark and Copyright Journal. The Journal of Interlibrary Loan can be helpful. Q What Web sites help you stay current in your specialty area and in general library issues? Why? A The SLA Legal Division Web site and listserv for professional contacts and discussions. As with most reference librarians, a network of professional contacts is most important. For copyright issues, http://fairuse.stanford.edu; the Copyright Office e-mail update (www.loc.gov/copyright) listserv; www.loc.gov; "Thomas" for an overview of pending federal legislation; Lesley Harris' Copyright e-mail (lehletter@copyrightlaws.com) for Canadian copyright issues; and cni-copyright@cni.org listserv for a theoretical discussion of copyright issues. Q Do you use fee-based online services, i.e., Lexis or Westlaw, to keep you professionally informed? If so, what are your favorite libraries, files, and searches? A Westlaw and LEXIS-NEXIS, on an issue-specific basis. OCLC provides current notices upon signing on. Q If you use the Internet in your work, how do you keep track of your favorite Internet reference sites? A Save them to "Favorites" and check periodically; i.e., http://fairuse.stanford.edu. Q Are there any information gaps you would like to see filled? If so, discuss what type of information resource you would like to see created to fill the gap. A Resource-sharing issues in the electronic era; i.e., interlibrary loan, document delivery, copyright, distance education, current legislation and group negotiations on licenses. Q Do you follow any law practice area for your work or personal interest? If so, discuss the print and online sources you use to keep you up-to-date in this field. A Copyright law, as noted before. The Legal Times is a great newspaper to keep up on general legal issues. It is a D.C. publication, but many D.C. issues become national issues. Executive Board
Chair
Chair-Elect
Chair Elect-Elect
Director 19982000
Secretary 19982000
Treasurer 19982000
Past Chair Advisory Board
Advisory from Tribal Courts
Archivist
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Division Directory Editor
Division Photographer
Employment
European Liaison
Government Relations
International Listserv Coordinator (Global 2000)
Legal Division Quarterly
Co-Editors
Mary Lynn Wagner
Design and Layout
Liaison to AALL and other SLA Divisions
Liasion to the ABA
Listserv Administrator
Membership
Nominating
Professional Development Chair
Public Relations
Committee Member
Sargeant-at-Arms
Strategic Planning
Committee Member
Student Chair
Vendor Relations
Committee Member
Web Site Advisor
Yearbook Editor
County, Courts and Provinces/State Librarians (CCAPS)
Emerging Technologies in the Law
International
Tax
Carol Mohammed
The SLA Legal Division newsletter |
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