Two years ago I noted the entry into librarianship of my daughter Kimberly and her husband Will, who were receiving their degrees at UNC Chapel Hill. I therefore would be remiss if I do not now congratulate my son, Micah, upon the occasion of his high school graduation. Micah’s mother and I are very proud […]

Before voting in the U.S. election in November, members of the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL) will be casting votes whether to approve proposed amendments (AALLNet login required) to the association’s bylaws. Although there are several proposed changes, the only one seriously claiming attention would change the definition of “active member’ by removing the requirement […]

I am not a journalist, and I make no attempt at pretending to be neutral in the matter of politics. Although I majored in political science at the University of Miami many years ago, I have no special knowledge about politics or elections. I do follow these things more closely than many nonprofessionals. In tune […]

Let me begin by saying I never expect everyone to agree with me on any given post, and I certainly expect that this one would invite controversy if enough people read it. I don’t need either validation or trolls, so I’ve disabled comments. With that out of the way, there are many reasons I know […]

Betsy McKenzie‘s post of yesterday on what she (and judging by some commentary, others) see as the lack of respect shown to its membership by AALL’s leadership is worthy of further discussion as it relates to the thread I opened here a couple weeks ago. Betsy describes the two main points of discussion at last […]

I’d like to suggest an alternative means of addressing this issue that I think might meet the concerns identified by Michael Ginsborg, Joe Hodnicki,  and others.  The bylaws committee is constituted to consider bylaws in general, but does not in its nature have background or special interest in any particular subject, including membership.  So its […]

This post is inspired by an ongoing discussion of a draft bylaws revision under consideration within the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL). The draft, which revisits the controversial issue of opening full participatory membership in the association to all interested persons, was prepared by the organization’s bylaws committee and submitted to its executive board. […]

This morning many AALL members are becoming aware of a draft proposal for several bylaws amendments to be considered by the executive board at its meeting this week. The most controversial of these is to expand the definition of active membership to include anyone who is interested in the objectives of the association. If adopted by […]

In his Washington Post article this week, Jason Horowitz writes of the following now well-publicized incident: “A few days later, Friedemann entered Stevens Hall off the school’s collegiate quad to find Romney marching out of his own room ahead of a prep school posse shouting about their plan to cut Lauber’s hair. Friedemann followed them […]

Today I gave my last presentation in our class on Technology in Law Practice.  The remaining classes will be spent with our students giving presentations on a topic of particular interest to them.  I wanted to impart the points that I think are most important, and I think they are worth sharing with any of […]