The CS-SIS Awards Committee invites nominations for the Kenneth J. Hirsh Distinguished Service Award.

This award honors a CS-SIS member who has made outstanding contributions to the SIS, to AALL, and who is well regarded for his or her service to the
profession. The inaugural award recipient was Ken Hirsh, in whose honor the award is named.

Criteria:

* Outstanding leadership through committee work, service on the executive board, involvement in special projects or other activities

* Participation in professional development activities in furtherance of the section and its interests, including educational program planning and presentations

* Involvement with mentoring activities to foster interest and participation in the section and its activities

* Evidenced commitment to the section, its purpose, and its role within the association in furtherance of the law library profession

To be eligible for the award, a nominee must be an active or retired member of the section.

Section officers are not eligible for this award during their term of office.

Submission Procedure:

Nominations must include:

* A letter of nomination, including the candidate’s full name, title, and institution name and address. If the candidate is retired, include name, home address, and most recent former employer;

* A narrative supporting the nomination, to include a discussion of the candidate’s contributions to the section and to law librarianship; and

* The name, e-mail address, and phone number of the nominating party.

Nominations must be received electronically or in paper by April 16, 2010. Nominations should be submitted to:

Monica Sharum
CS-SIS Awards Committee Chair
University of the Pacific
McGeorge School of Law
3282 Fifth Ave.
Sacramento, CA 95817
msharum@pacific.edu

Nominations are now being accepted for the following 2010 AALL Awards.  Note that there are several new awards this year, including the Innovations in Technology Award.  I can think of a few excellent CS-SIS candidates!   Please take the time to recognize a deserving colleague, library, or organization.  Or considering nominating your own work!

Nominations are due by February 1st.

• AALL/LexisNexis Call for Papers Award
• AALL Excellence in Marketing Award
• Chapter Professional Development Award
• CRIV New Product Award
• Emerging Leader Award
• Innovations in Technology Award
• Joseph L. Andrews Bibliographical Award
• Law Library Journal and AALL Spectrum Article of the Year Awards
• Law Library Publications Award
• Marian Gould Gallagher Distinguished Service Award
• Public Access to Government Information (PAGI) Award
• Robert L. Oakley Advocacy Award
• Volunteer Service Award

Have you been thinking of writing an article of interest to law librarians?  Need a push to get started?  Well, here it is.

The AALL/LexisNexis Call for Papers Committee is soliciting articles in three categories:

Open Division:  for active and retired AALL members and law librarians with five or more years of professional experience;

New Members Division:  for recent graduates and AALL members who have become law librarians since July 1, 2005.

Student Division:  Participants in this division need not be members of AALL. To be eligible in this category, you must have been enrolled in law school, or in a library school, information management, or an equivalent program, either in the Fall 2009 or Spring 2010 semester.

The winner in each division receives $750 generously donated by LexisNexis plus the opportunity to present the winning paper at a program during the AALL Annual Meeting in Denver!  Winning papers are also considered for publication in the Association’s prestigious Law Library Journal.

Application form and details, including a list of past winners, can be found at the Call for Papers web site http://www.aallnet.org/about/award_call_for_papers.asp.

Selected winning papers from earlier competitions can also be found at http://works.bepress.com/aallcallforpapers. This list can give you an idea of the range of topics that law librarians have chosen.

Articles in the Open and New Members Division must be submitted by March 2, 2010.

Articles in the Student Division must be submitted by April 15, 2010.

If you have any questions, please contact a member of the AALL/LexisNexis Call for Papers Committee:

Chair, James M. Donovan, jdonovan@uga.edu
David Hollander, dholland@princeton.edu
Connie Lenz, lenzx009@umn.edu

I want to thank the Computer Services Special Interest Section for awarding me the 2009 CS-SIS Grant for Students and New Librarians with less than Three Years of Service.   This grant enabled me to attend the most important conference in the law library field: The American Association of Law Libraries Annual Conference.  I found the wide variety of educational programs fantastic.  I connected with many new friends and colleagues.  Additionally, the extensive exhibits were great for learning about cutting-edge products and trends in the use of technology in law libraries.
The Computer Services Special Interest Section is so important to me because I am personally very interested in the use of technology to support all of the functions in the library.  I have started the second year of my first job as a law librarian as the Reference and Technology Librarian at Rutgers Law School in Newark, N.J.  I see my position as the link between technical services and public services within our library.
I found the many CS-SIS activities to be excellent.  My favorite program was “Making Your ILS Web 2.0 Happy”.   This was so helpful for me because I oversee and optimize the use of all modules of our integrated library system (Millennium) and provide training.  The program gave me so many ideas for ways to improve our integrated library system and our OPAC.   Hearing the experiences of others and knowing that I could follow-up with the speakers if I had more specific questions has motivated me to use additional technologies to improve our systems and make the OPAC more user friendly.  As a result, I think I will have a very productive second year at my job!
I also truly enjoyed the opportunity to be a guest at the CS Breakfast Business Meeting and Awards (despite the early hour!).  This gave me great insight into all of the individuals and all of the hard work that has been put into creating all of the activities, programs, and workshops that the CS-SIS implements.  I was really impressed!  I very much hope to have the opportunity to become more active with the CS-SIS in the future.  Thank you again for awarding me the 2009 CS-SIS Grant for Students and New Librarians with less than Three Years of Service.

See you in Denver!
Caroline Young, JD, MLIS
Reference and Technology Librarian
Rutgers Law Library – Newark

Sheri Lewis, Assistant Director at the D’Angelo Law Library, University of Chicago was unanimously endorsed to receive our highest award.

Sheri is distinguished by her service to our Section and AALL in many official and unofficial capacities, including the Chair of Computing Services from 2000-2001. We hope you will join us at our business meeting when we honor Sheri by officially bestowing this award on her.

The AALL Research Committee is accepting applications for research grants from the AALL Research Fund: An Endowment Established by LexisNexis.  A single grant of up to $1,425, or multiple grants totaling $1,425 may be awarded.  The Committee will award one or more grants to library professionals who wish to conduct research that supports the research and scholarly ageda of the profession of law librarianship.  The deadline for applications is Friday, March 27, 2009.

For more information, consult the Research and Publications Committee website at http://www.aallnet.org/committee/respub/

Award applications for attendence or participation at the 2009 AALL Annual Meeting are now available.

Experienced Librarians (three or more years experience): grant-application-for-experienced-librarians

Library Students and Newer Librarians (less than three years experience): grant-application-for-students

Applications should be sent to the Awards and Grants Committee Chair Monica Sharum at msharum@pacific.edu by May 1, 2009.

The 2008 recipient of the CS-SIS Kenneth J. Hirsh Award is Mark Folmsbee, Associate Dean of Computer Services and Associate Director of the Law Library at the Washburn University School of Law. Mark has been a guiding force in law school and law library technology for nearly 20 years and has been a leader in the CS-SIS and AALL.

An early innovator, Mark established the AALLnet site online in the 1990’s. He hosted the site at Washburn University School of Law using Telnet and a Lynx Web client. He also hosted the first AALL email lists, including the listserv for the Automation and Scientific Development SIS – the predecessor to the Computing Services SIS. (more…)

Call for Nominations: Kenneth J. Hirsh Distinguished Service Award

The CS-SIS Awards Committee (Prano Amjadi, Therese Clarke Arado, Sheri Lewis) invites nominations for the Kenneth J. Hirsh Distinguished Service Award. This award honors a CS-SIS member who has made outstanding contributions to the SIS, to AALL, and who is well regarded for their service to the profession.  The inaugural award recipient was Ken Hirsh, in whose honor the award is named.  For more information on the nomination process, please go here or contact Sheri Lewis.