Hello LLAW!
The theme for this year’s AALL annual conference is Be Bold. We as legal information professionals are encouraged to be bold, or risk being dismissed. Roosevelt Weeks, the director of the Fort Bend County Library System (Houston TX) was the keynote speaker. Throughout his presentation Mr. Weeks stressed the importance of upholding the principles of justice and democracy, and of intellectual freedom and confidentiality. We were reminded that we as librarians that we must show stakeholders, our communities, and sometimes even our co-workers that our work is important. Our work does not always speak for itself, we must do the talking and playing things safely is akin to indivisibility. Mr. Weeks believes that “boldness drives change” and that standard practices (aka business as usual) are not effectively advocating for the needs of our users. I encourage everyone to take some time to consider if they are participating in active listening when speaking with their library users and what adjustments can be made to better serve our patrons, whoever they may be. It seems that my entire adult life has consisted of one unprecedented event after another and I don’t think calling the times we live in unique is an overstatement. I do think we can respond to these extraordinary times and remarkable changes within our profession….boldly.
Ok, now for the fun stuff! There has been a rumor circulating around that LLAW made a time capsule in the year 2000. This year in the AALL exhibition hall items from time capsules from various associations were placed on display. You can see our contribution here:
We also held a small LLAW meetup at one of the Thomson Reuters events and took a fun picture.
I look forward to another successful year of collaborating, brainstorming, and conversations. Librarians truly are the best.
Sarah K.