Canadian Association of Law Libraries 2018 Conference Annual Reports

The Canadian Association of Law Libraries (CALL) is beginning its 2018 annual conference this upcoming weekend in Halifax.

Annual reports of committees and special interest groups have been submitted in anticipation of the general meeting.

Here are summaries of some of them:

• Professional Development Committee (PDC): The Professional Development Committee (PDC) ascertains the needs and wishes of the membership in regard to continuing professional education. In the past year, it has worked on issues such as the pricing and housing on CALL website of Advanced Legal Research videos and having CALL conference sessions approved for continuing professional development (“CPD”) credits for members of the legal profession
• Webinar Sub-Committee: this is a very active sub-committee of the PDC. It held many successful webinars in 2017-18. Topics covered included Libraries and Access to Justice;  US Legislation for Canadian Legal Researchers (Parts One) & Two; Uncovering UN Treaties; Copyright in Context for CALL Members; Platforms, Apps and Omnibots - Alternate Views on the Future of Legal Research; Intersections with Aboriginal and Indigenous Law; US Executive Branch Research for the Canadian Legal Researcher; and Digital Repository Success Stories. Net revenue for the committee reached $2,500 for the year
• Committee to Promote Research: one of its primary responsibilities is awarding a research grant to a CALL member. This year's grant is being awarded to Megan Siu for her research project entitled Accessing Legal Information as a Self-Represented Litigant in Rural Alberta. Her study “will offer insight into how the nuances of living in rural areas can impact the way that people access legal information...[and will] find trends that are helpful for regional library systems and their member libraries to consider for their own programming purposes”. For the 2018 conference in Nova Scotia, the committee proposed a pre-conference workshop entitled “Writing Persuasively to Build a Better Business Case for your Library”.
• New Law Librarians’ Institute (NLLI): NLLI is an intensive, week-long program aimed at developing librarians' skills in the key competencies of law librarianship. The 2018 New Law Librarians’ Institute (NLLI) will be held at UCalgary on June 19-22, 2018.  
• Canadian Law Library Review: Susan Barker (University of Toronto) is stepping down as editor. Nikki Tanner (University of New Brunswick) will take over at the helm.
  
  • Among the major initiatives this year for the Review are the transition to open access and the completion of  the cumulative index for volumes 26-42 (2001-2017) 
  • CALL is also in discussion with CanLII, the Canadian Legal Infomation Institute, to have the Review made available on CanLII's Journals page
• Membership Development Committee (MDC):
  
  • The MDC runs a very active educational visit program to sell CALL and law librarianship to students enrolled in university library and information studies programs
  • It is also in charge of CALL's mentorship program. For the 2017-18 year, there were 20 mentoring partnerships established through the Mentorship Program (compared to 16 pairs in 2016-2017)
  •  The MDC also produced 6 member profiles on the CALL website.  These profiles spotlight members’ careers and initiatives they have undertaken.  Members were chosen with an aim for mix of new and seasoned professionals and covering various geographic areas in Canada.  This year, the MDC also added profiles of important work projects undertaken by CALL members 
  • Finally, the MDC is working on an initiative for recruiting Government Documents librarians into CALL, as well as scoping out a more general membership recruitment campaign for the association