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Reports From the Indianapolis Conference

First Impression, Lasting Impact

Genie Tyburski,
Ballard Spahr Andrews & Ingersoll, LLP

"First impressions," asserts the proverb, "are the most lasting." The conference in Indianapolis marks the beginning of a long-standing relationship. Joanne Feirerman presented a lively interactive workshop on breathing life into training sessions and I left with many ideas for improving several of my training programs. On the third day after my return, Sabrina Pacifici, Director of Library & Research Services for Sidley & Austin in Washington, D.C., and I conducted a 45 minute session for the Philadelphia Chapter of SLA on professional development and career satisfaction. We implemented some of Feirerman's suggestions. For example, we opened with a brief impromptu skit. I took the role of the bored librarian while Sabrina played at success. Then we involved the audience in a discussion of career issues. Monday afternoon, Bob Berring conducted two back-to-back sessions. During the first, he and the audience presented questions to several major legal publishers. During the second, Bob summarized several vendor-related issues and discussed the impact of technology on our profession. The key note presenter, Dr. Stan Davis, author of Blur: The Speed of Change in the Connected Economy (1998) and Future Perfect (1987), delivered invaluable insight with respect to technology, economy, and society and the combined effect on the information industry. Dr. Davis argued that, as the new societal age – call it the "connected economy" – matures, it will not require the services of traditional librarians. Perhaps not a new message, airing it stirred the intellectual and entrepreneurial juices of many. Another program, led by Anne Ellis and Linda Will, confirmed the entrepreneurial potential of librarians. Both demonstrated intranets that they had created and now maintain. My primary goal at the conference, as a new member, was to meet others. Perhaps not surprising to seasoned membership, I encountered many opportunities to do just that. Seventeen of us from the Legal Division visited a local restaurant, held lively discussions, laughed, and got to know one another. I met a lot of librarians, stayed up too late and rose too early, learned some new tricks, and picked up several ideas along with a few assignments. And, yes, I want to do it all again next year!

Life in the Fast Lane:
Working at the Speed of Change

Rita C. Reisman,
ITT Aerospace/Communications

This session sponsored by the Legal Division was held on Sunday from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and was excellent. The session was given by ODR. The objectives were to understand the nature of personal change, to explore our responses to change, and develop a personal plan for strengthening our ability to manage change. This is a two day seminar squeezed into 7 hours. It was exhausting, but worth attending.

We discussed how changes in our turbulent work environments affect us, some of the things we can do to deal with it, and why some of us are able to get back to a productive life more quickly than others. The presenter mentioned Future Shock, and one of the attendees asked when the "explosion" would take place. The presenter's personal opinion was that it happened already, sometime back in the 1980s, and that the dysfunctional behavior we are observing – especially children shooting children in school – is the aftermath of all the stress associated with the rapid changes we've seen and will continue to experience.

The single most important factor for dealing with constant change is an individual's resilience. Resilient people regain their equilibrium faster. They maintain a higher level of productivity. They are physically and emotionally healthier. They achieve more of their goals than those with less resilience, and they get through the demands of change even stronger than before.

The five characteristics of resilient people include a positive attitude, a self-assurance that is based on their view of life as complex but filled with opportunity. They are focused on their goals and have a clear vision of what they want to achieve. Resilient people are flexible, and able to change when responding to uncertainty. They have an organized approach to managing ambiguity in their jobs and their lives. They engage change rather than fight it.

Suggested reading:

• Seligman, Martin E.P., Learned Optimism: How to Change Your Mind and Your Life, Alfred A. Knopf, 1990.
  
• Sinetar, Marsha, Do What You Love: the Money Will Follow, Dell Publishing, 1987.
  
• De Bono, Edward, Serious Creativity: Using the Power of Lateral Thinking to Create New Ideas, Harper Business, 1992.
  
• Adams, J.L., Conceptual Blockbusting, San Francisco Book Co., 1976.
  
• Schlenger, Sunny and Roberta Roessch, How to be Organized in Spite of Yourself, New American Library, 1989.
  
• Sheehy, Gail, Pathfinders, William Morrow, 1981.
  
• Bennis, Warren, and Burt Nanus, Leaders: The Strategies of Taking Charge, Harper & Row, 1985.

Carolyn Korkmas,
Shell Oil Co.

Training Solutions for the Information Professional

Marirose Coulson's excellent presentation is summarized below.

Learning expectations
Adults do want to learn to use a product if it will save time, money, or simplify a job, but structure is of utmost importance. Have an agenda and a time schedule. Present it as how to solve a problem. Tell them why they need to know this – WITFM: what's in it for me: job, promotion, money, efficiency, etc. One caveat, however: do not refer to it as training; some adults rebel at being "trained."

Create a safe environment
Above all, keep in mind what adults fear – being laughed at. They fear rejection, the unknown, and exposure. Make sure you design your training sessions with that in mind.

Training model

1. Tell/explain – explain what you are going to show them.
   
2. Show/demonstrate – show them the features.
   
3. Practice – try to provide hands-on practice.
   
4. Feedback – invite questions and comments.
   
5. Application/transfer of learning – try to motivate them to go back and immediately use the new product.

Three ways people process information

1. Visual
   
2. Auditory
   
3. Kinesthetic (learn by doing; retention is by far the greatest with this one)

Capturing the attention of the audience

• Make your presentation appealing with graphics, color, and shapes judiciously highlighting the points you want to make.
  
• Don't give them too much at one time. Organize information in groups of seven or fewer – bundles of three are ideal.
  
• Take time to relax, reflect, reorganize, and review. Presenting too much information can cause participants to feel anxious and retain less information.
  
• Adults learn best in an informal environment. Changes are needed every 20 minutes: ask them to write down answers, talk, play a game, do an activity, do exercises. A variety of methods should be used – lots of questions and answers – and a debriefing session: What did you learn? What would you do differently?
  
• Encourage networking and collaboration so attendees can learn from each other.
  
• Be sure to relate specific functions and commands to how they will be using the product so they don't think they are wasting time learning something they don't need. Use examples from their perspective (i.e., when teaching a group of state tax professionals, try to use research examples which would be typical of their daily work).

Marirose's top technical training tips

• Never touch their keyboard. Let them make mistakes – it is the only way to learn.
  
• You can't go too slowly when showing someone something completely new. To avoid going too fast from one step to the next while in Windows, use the mouse with a Click-n-Pause approach.
  
• Suggest to your audience that they take notes.
  
• Encourage them. Praise them for doing a task correctly. Emphasize how they will be using it.
  
• Capitalize on their enthusiasm. Always take the time to repeat back any positive comments, such as "yes, that is really great!"
  
• Ask for a referral: "Do you know anyone else who might benefit from learning more about this?"
• Make sure both you and your users have the product's 800 number for help when needed.
  
• First show an easy-to-understand way of doing something that they can remember. The advanced method can come later.
  
• Training is a continuous process. It is not important that you cover all the material. It is far more important that they learn, and learn how to learn.

Carol Furnish,
Northern Kentucky University,
Chase College of Law Library

Oceana sponsored the 2nd Annual International Law Roundtable. The topic was "Fundamentals of Treaty Research" and the guest speakers were Ralph Gaebler, Foreign & International Law Librarian, Indiana University – Bloomington and Lyonette Louis-Jacques, Foreign & International Law Librarian and Lecturer in Law, D'Angelo Law Library, University of Chicago.

Ralph Gaebler's talk focused on the primary "print" sources that can be used to locate U.S. treaties and non-U.S. treaties. Ralph provided a handout that included guides to locating recently ratified treaties, sources for older materials, lists of treaty indexes, methods of verifying the status of a treaty, and sources of locating treaty interpretation, i.e., case law and legislative histories. The bibliography is a "keeper" and an excellent guide when beginning your research. Oceana plans to post Ralph Gaebler's handout in the near future on their web page at: http://www.oceanalaw.com.

Lyonette Louis-Jacques provided a review of electronic resources that can be used to research treaties and other international agreements. "Electronic resources" include Lexis/Nexis and Westlaw databases, governmental web sites, plus publisher's sources available on CD-ROM and via the Internet. Lyonette's talk highlighted the strengths or weaknesses of some databases and web sites. You will find Lyonette Louis- Jacques's presentation "Fundamentals of Treaty Research: U.S. and Non-U.S. (Electronic Resources)" on her web page: http://www.lib.uchicago.edu/~llou/.

The International Law Roundtable is an annual event. Please send Oceana's Marketing Department an e-mail message if you have ideas for future programs. The address is marketing@oceanalaw.com.

Anne K. Abate,
Dinsmore & Shohl

This Roundtable, meeting for the second year, was established to provide members of the Legal Division with an opportunity to network with other members concerned with the impacts of new and emerging technologies. More than forty members attended this breakfast event with the theme of desktop delivery of information.

Vivian Bliss, Information Management Librarian at the Microsoft Library in Redmond, Washington, provided a demonstration of the desktop information products that are made available to all employees of Microsoft. The desktop is managed by Library staff and is designed to provide the users with a wealth of usable information.

Duncan Scott, Manager of Technical Sales Support for Dow Jones Interactive (DJI), demonstrated the current desktop delivery available through DJI. He also provided a glimpse of where this product will be going in the future.

Finally, Amy Ressing, Online Marketing Program Manager with West Group, demonstrated how the DJI desktop delivery is just one of the products available from West Group so that the "desktop of the future" can be used today.

The Emerging Technologies Roundtable Breakfast is an annual event. Anne Abate has coordinated the Roundtable for the last two years. If you have suggestions for next year's Roundtable Breakfast in Minneapolis, please send them to Nathan Rosen, the new coordinator, who is listed under Roundtable Coordinators on the Legal Division chart at the end of this newsletter.

Karen Krupka,
Wildman Harrold Allen & Dixon,
Chicago

Keynote speaker, Stan Davis

Mr. Davis explained that the most successful businesses today are those which have shifted from "crunching" (i.e. word processing, etc.) to "connecting" (e-mail, intranets, etc.). Business is now software-based and profitability is coming from innovation rather than optimization, which he translated as "effectiveness, not efficiency".

Intranets in the law firm library

Anne Ellis of Holland & Hart described intranets as "cyber watercoolers", instrumental in disseminating information throughout the firm. She believes that the library should be responsible for firm intranets, in cooperation with the Information Systems department. Each department (such as Office Services, Human Resources, Docket, Accounting, etc.) should contribute their widely-used information. Linda Will of Greenberg Traurig focused on her library's intranet, very detailed with links to CD-ROMs, web sites, Library FAQs, and much more.

Workplace law: a primer for librarians

Indianapolis lawyers Pamela Keller (Title 7 of the Civil Rights Act), Michael Rabinowitch (the Americans with Disabilities and Family and Medical Leave Acts), and Kevin Betz (employment law from the plaintiff's perspective) gave overviews of litigation under various workplace laws.

An informal chat with the publishers

Bob Berring moderated a discussion and question/ answer session with representatives from BNA, CCH, Lexis/Nexis, Matthew Bender, and West. Pertinent questions were asked about how the future of legal publishing will be affected by the proliferation of mergers, especially those which have resulted in U.S. legal information being published by foreign-based publishers.

Evaluations: threat or opportunity?

Lois Remeikis of Booz Allen & Hamilton spoke on 360 degree evaluations, which seem to be quite common, especially in consulting firms and some large corporations.

Computers 101

Tom O'Connor gave a nice presentation on basic computer terminology and functions.

Sixty sites or so in sixty minutes or so

Gayle O'Connor and Jenny Kanji brought a wonderful conference to a perfect conclusion with their presentation of web sites, which was a combination of useful, and a few downright outrageously funny web sites.

Conference-ending events

Awards Banquet was held at the Indiana Roof Ballroom.

And finally...

I just want to take the opportunity to thank all the conference planners and especially the Indiana Chapter.

Matt Wagner,
Vorys, Sater, Seymour & Pease

This session, sponsored by the SLA Engineering and Aerospace Divisions, illustrated that the diversity of our organization enables the members of the Legal Division to be exposed to an array of program topics. Although we may not engage in "CI" by the traditional definition, we do in fact conduct research on perspective clients or opposing parties in litigation that implement many of the principles
utilized in CI research. Ellen Naylor (Business Intelligence Source, Inc.), Helene Kassler (Fuld & Co., Inc.) and Dottie Moon (United Technologies) shared several strategies for locating information about companies. In addition to the traditional print and commercial online resources, many Internet tools were also highlighted. These included CEO Express (www.ceoexpress.com), WhoWhere (www.whowhere.com) and CorpTech (www.corptech.com). Additionally, attendees were alerted to the fact that you can often find information about a business that may not be displayed in their web site by searching some of the job posting sites on the Internet. Additional details about a company and its services/products are often included in a job advertisement that is not available elsewhere.

Facing the Future:
The Senior Years

Cory A. Borthwick,
West Group

This program examined the legal environment and issues that surround aging. While the program was presented by the Retired Members Caucus and the Legal Division, it was a program that was full of information for individuals of all ages. The session gave a broad overview and provided interesting examples of planning for the future, including preservation of assets, investing for retirement and financial planning, nursing home care, long-term care, and Medicare/Medicaid issues. The program featured three speakers: J. Peter Minnaugh, George Slater, and Lori Eckstein.

J. Peter Minnaugh, Minnaugh Associates, with a background in the insurance industry, spoke about long-term care insurance, Medicare and Medicaid. The costs of long-term care are steadily rising, and most people do not realize how high the costs can actually become. On average, because of the high costs of long- term care, after six months most families are reduced to poverty level living because of the huge drain on financial resources. Medicare and Medicaid have an original list of 492 illnesses and diagnoses that determines how much the hospital/doctor is allowed to be paid for your illness. They do not give the patient any choices; they tell you what to do by determining what is covered. What is not widely known is that most people who require long-term care continue to live at home, and want to be able to receive enough help to continue the activities of daily living. Thus, there is a growing need for long-term care insurance so individuals can ensure their own dignity and preservation of life-style, especially at home. The two biggest items to look for in a long-term health care insurance policy are that first, the policy is guaranteed for life, and second, it includes assisted living.

George Slater, of Slater & Associates, is an elder law attorney. His overview focused on four crucial "advance directives" that all individuals should have in order to be prepared for the future. The first directive is a power of attorney for financial decisions. It is important to note that there are two forms of a power of attorney. The first is one which is effective immediately; the other option is a "springing" power of attorney, which springs into action only when a certain set of circumstances occur. The second directive is a power of attorney for health care decisions. The third directive is a living will, which is a medically limiting document based upon a statement of certain facts that you establish. An example of this would be the facts you set forth such as what treatment you would like to receive if you have an incurable disease. The fourth directive is the "DNR" or do not resuscitate order. Your doctor can put this on your chart. These are directives that all individuals should be aware of, so that they can take the steps they feel are necessary to have their wishes executed properly.

Lori Eckstein is a vice-president at Merrill Lynch, with a background in financial and retirement planning, and a certified financial planner. While everyone knows the importance of financial planning, the majority of Americans have spent less than 20 hours total on their financial plans.

Eckstein outlined four key areas in planning:

Retirement Planning
Tax Planning
Estate Planning
Education Planning

Most people who have done retirement planning are fine for the first 5-10 years of their retirement. Beyond that, some are running into trouble because they didn't plan far enough into the future and/or didn't take inflation into account. People are living much longer, thus the need to plan for more years than anticipated becomes necessary. Tax and Estate Planning are very important because there are many things people can take advantage of while they are living that can help to better preserve estates for family protection.

Technology with a Human Face

Anne K. Abate,
Dinsmore & Shohl

Members were provided with a "reality check" in the presentation by Michael Gorman, Dean of Library Services at California State University, Fresno, titled "Technology with a Human Face". Gorman voiced his commitment to libraries as a place as well as to the profession of librarianship. He highlighted the values that he sees as the basis of professional work in libraries, declaring them to be stewardship, service, intellectual freedom, rationalism, commitment to literacy and learning, unfettered access to recorded knowledge and information, and democracy. He warned of the attack on these values from those desiring to move us forward into virtual information environments and called on librarians to continue to integrate them into their mission.

Those intrigued by Michael Gorman's thoughts regarding core values are encouraged to check out his new book: Our Singular Strength: Meditations for Librarians, published by the American Library Association.

Workplace Law:
A Primer for Law Librarians

Richard Steco,
West Group

This session addressed how a librarian can navigate through the dangerous waters of managing employees without violating federal employment law. The three laws examined were Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, and the Family and Medical Leave Act.

Pamela Keller, an attorney with the Indianapolis law firm of Ice, Miller, Donadio & Ryan, covered Title VII, which prohibits discrimination or harassment based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. One interesting point was that you could not ask someone if they were pregnant or refuse to hire them on that basis. She also pointed out that even if a person is a filer in a library employed by a temporary agency, they could still have an action against the firm or company that owns the library.

The A.D.A. was discussed by Michael Rabinowitch, an attorney with the Indianapolis law firm of Wooden & McLaughlin. Mr. Rabinowitch stated that a person is covered under the A.D.A. if they have a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities and there is a record of such an impairment or they are regarded as having such an impairment. One of the impairments discussed was being overweight and the fact that this falls under the A.D.A. even if not diagnosed as a medical condition.

Kevin Betz, a sole practitioner from Indianapolis, spoke on the F.M.L.A. Under this act Mr. Betz stated the employer has the burden of keeping all records of the leave. Also, the employee's medical and other benefits must remain intact during the leave, which could be as long as 12 weeks. A key element of the act is that the employee must be given the same or an equivalent position when they return to work.

Midwestern Odyssey
(or Life at SLA in Indianapolis)

Robin Holab-Abelman,
U.S. Courts

Sunday the exhibit halls opened with a flourish of drums and bagpipes by the Indianapolis 500 Gordon Pipers.

Intranet content in the law firm library

Linda Will advocated a really pro-active approach to setting up an intranet. She went out, bought the necessary software, set up a home page and showed it to various people at her firm. It replaced paper publications; it has pages for each practice group; it's an access point to Westlaw and it contains special areas with data for only the library staff.

Getting things done when you're not in charge

Geoffry Bellman used some old fashioned exercises to force a roomful of strangers to understand that our wants are tied to what we have and it's all related to motivation. He offered some suggestions to help accomplish this: pay attention to other peoples' feelings; take responsibility to initiate action; stop griping and blaming others; find positive models in life; and appreciate others.

Tuesday morning's keynote speaker was Doris Kearns Goodwin. She has written biographies of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt and LBJ. She began her political career as a White House "intern" for LBJ. She offered insight into the various presidencies (including Clinton's). She mentioned that the attitude of the press has changed greatly. Never would they mention or show FDR in his braces or wheelchair.

Midnight in the garden of good and evil search engines

Richard Wiggins covered quite a bit of material, provided good tips for using various search engines all while dealing with "technical problems". He mentioned several engines (Northern Lights, Inktomi, Alta Vista) pointing out some pluses and minuses. Briefly he spoke about meta search engines.

Collaborations, confrontations and conspiracies: librarians and vendor in the last chance saloon

This session followed a heated discussion among legal publishers and law librarians. I cannot report on the earlier session but my understanding is some of the librarians were not shy about letting their feelings be known to BNA, Lexis-Nexis, West, CCH and Bender.

Marketing your space: how to conduct a library tour

C.B. Hayden (ABC News) spoke about using a physical tour as a great opportunity. Consider your audience, their needs and the number of people. Make your important points first; emphasize your service aspects, have some examples of what you do and have a good handout. Amy Cohen showed a virtual tour of her library. It included brief videos (seen via the PC) on various aspects of the library (reference, online catalog, archives).

Choosing and using Internet search engines

Mary Ellen Bates provided information on Internet search engines. Doing a truly comprehensive Internet search may not be possible. Users need to be made aware that the Internet sources are limited and can be out of date. Be careful what you promise. Jian Liu addressed the issue of meta search engines. He and Mary Ellen pointed out that as sophisticated Internet searchers one major disadvantage to using meta search engines is you cannot use the advanced search features of each individual engine. He also said the meta search engines tend to be slow and lack server power.

The last session, 60 Sites (or so) in 60 Minutes (or so) was great. Sponsored by the Legal Division, Gayle O'Connor and Jenni Kanji took us on a whirlwind tour. Each showed a web page, gave a brief description and moved on. The sites included legal, government, statistics, travel, speed traps, the totally obscure, the completely irrelevant, the ridiculous and the just plain funny.

Larry Guthrie,
Covington & Burling

Professor Mickie Voges, Chicago-Kent College of Law, addressed about 200 on the issue "Copyright and the Distributed Networking of Images and Other Electronic Information." The program was jointly sponsored by the Business & Finance and Legal Divisions, the appeal extending to the News Division and others. Professor Voges discussed the fundamentals of copyright law as they apply to print and electronic media. Among her points, she noted that procedures cannot be copyrighted and discussed the Bern Convention in effect in the U.S. and respect for "moral rights." It is a concept unfamiliar to the U.S. because of frequent use of parody in comedy and music. Through VARA (The Visual Artists Rights Act) there is more pressure in the U.S. to respect "moral rights", the right of the individual to give consent to how his or her own image or creative works are used, even for comedy. She discussed issues of trademark and trade dress which could transfer into electronic media. With mergers and acquisitions, more intellectual property is in the hands of a few. There is also an attempt to have contract law totally preempt copyright, and the UCC2B legislation (shrinkwrap licenses) will attempt to enact this. When work is done by someone under the employ of another as part of their job, the employer owns the copyright of the created works. This is in dispute regarding faculty works at universities. However, she noted that the University of Wisconsin owns the copyright of faculty works for 75 years.

Professor Voges recommended a couple of books for further reading: The Copyright Primer for Librarians and Educators, 2nd ed. by Janis Bruwelheide, published by ALA; and Intellectual Property: Patents, Trademarks, and Copyright in a Nutshell by Arthur Miller, published by West Group.

Tammy Bottomley,
Cincinnati Law Library Association

The SLA Legal Division session Gumshoe Librarians, presented by Anne Ellis and Connie Kaplan, began with Anne Ellis of Holland and Hart speaking about some of the tricks she uses in the law firm environment to find information quickly. To find people she recommended credit bureau headers to find current addresses. Webgator (http://www.inil.com/users/dguss/wgator. htm) is a good Internet people finder and Netpartners (http://www.netpartners.com) is an Internet company finder and provides company information.

Anne uses a couple of different sources to find experts. Lexis' Verdict library has expert information. You can also find medical experts by subject area in Lexis and on the Internet. Hotbot (http://www.hotbot.com) is a good Internet search engine to find experts. Lexis' license database and news articles are also good places to look.

To find estate information, Anne talked about finding heirs using the Social Security Death Index on Lexis and mentioned an Internet SS Death Index at http:// www.ancestry.com. She did say that it is incomplete, but it is a free alternative to Lexis or Westlaw.

Anne turns to the EPA's home page to locate natural resources information. It is a great place to look to find contaminated lands.

Connie Kaplan of Kroll Associates, Inc. emphasized the importance of reliable and cost-effective sources. She typically uses 26 different online services, including Lexis, Westlaw, PACER, D&B, Bloomberg, DBT and Superior Information Services (http://www.cji.com/ sistop.html). Superior is a subscription based web site containing twenty years' worth of property information with the mortgage loan amount. Connie is a believer in broad searches and one of her basic searches is through Dialog's 411 file.

Both of these Powerpoint presentations can be found on the Law Librarian Research Xchange web site (http:// www.llrx.com). Click on Library and it is found under Extras in the archives. It is part of the What's Happening at SLA.

Cynthia A. Kelly,
West Group

It has been said that most people want technology to fall somewhere between the microwave oven and the VCR. Not everything needs to be as simple to operate as the microwave oven, but technology needs to be easier than programming the VCR. Tom O'Connor made understanding the PC as easy as understanding the microwave oven. Tom is president of Automated Legal Solutions and specializes in automation development for the legal community. With much humor and insight, Tom was able to teach his audience how to speak basic MIS. Breaking down the world of techno-acronyms (i.e., BIOS, GUI, OS, NT), Tom presented the straight facts: what are the basic components of a computer, just how does a computer work, what about speed and memory. Tom was also able to answer the burning question, "If any child can do this, why can't I?" His answer: Everyone can learn enough about computers to be comfortable conversing with the MIS staff, the help desk at IBM, or with other professionals.

In a profession where humans and machines are expected to multi-task and process information at a faster and faster speed, it is important to stay abreast of burgeoning technology. Sessions like Tom's which help to demystify and calm the fear of the unknown are of great value.

Carolyn Korkmas,
Shell Oil

Betsy Klampert, Association of the Bar of the City of New York, and Tom Fleming, Piper & Marbury, took opposing sides. Betsy maintains print will never go away, no matter how much we all like to use electronic information. In a question/answer session, the moderator asked some specific questions on what they saw as the future in law libraries. They discussed future trends – practical issues of the law library today. Betsy held up a "crystal ball" that she had brought with her, but admitted it provided no answers. A longtime enthusiast of electronic legal research, Tom admitted Betsy's technology limitations, including power failure, software and hardware problems will keep print in business for a while. Betsy also mentioned the disappearance of the collegiality among attorneys once found in the library. They discussed issues of actual cost; how to rein in the goals of administrators whose plans for virtual libraries can hurt the researcher; how to maintain good relationships with IT/IS. They both stressed the importance of having sufficient backup and having an acquisitions policy. Tom mentioned that ILL should not be considered a redundancy. For Betsy, electronic formats tend to be the backup for paper; for Tom, paper tends to be the backup to the electronic. We learned that when Tom met with Betsy in person to plan this program, his laptop did not work. His solution: he always carries a pen and paper, just in case.

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Special Libraries Association, Legal Division