MichALL’s board voted this year to establish the MichALL Service Award, designed to recognize outstanding service to our organization. The first award will be given to Kathryn Polgar for her continued service and effort in ensuring the publication of our newsletters. Thank you, Kathryn!

MichALL would like to extend congratulations to Maria Keuchler, who submitted the winning entry in our 2023 logo redesign contest. A sincere thank you to all of our entrants!

Are you aware of an AALL member, library, SIS, or chapter that has undertaken some extraordinary or inspiring community engagement in the past year? Do you feel that these efforts deserve to be recognized by our peers?

The Excellence in Community Engagement Award honors outstanding achievement in public relations activities by an AALL member, library, SIS, chapter, or any other group affiliated with the Association. It is designed to recognize and honor activities or projects that exemplify outstanding outreach efforts through community engagement and that raise the visibility of the profession and the Association. This includes persons or groups who have demonstrated excellence in community engagement, collaboration, visibility, networking, and/or member-to-member relationships. More details about the award criteria and the list of previous years’ winners can be found here.

Eligible projects for this award cycle must have taken place between January 1, 2021 and December 31, 2021.

Keep an eye out for an email from AALL, as nominations will be accepted starting on December 1.

Joann Rutkowski is retiring from the Miller Canfield law library on Sept. 30, 2021. After a career spanning 24 years at the Law Library of GM, she joined Miller Canfield (Detroit) as a Library Clerk in August 2014 and the following year was promoted to Technical Services Librarian. Congratulations to you Joann!

The Michigan Association of Law Libraries is hosting its Fall/Winter meeting on January 22, 2021 via Zoom.  The overall theme of our meeting is on the future of law libraries and our changing services and delivery methods. 

There is no pre-registration required and there is no fee for attending.  Just email for a Zoom link and passcode that will be open for the duration of the meeting, so you can drop in at any time all day.  Please feel free to share the link with your colleagues as well – the more the merrier!

Here is our schedule:

9:30am – Welcome and Community Chat

9:50am – Opening Remarks – Robin Linkowski, Miller Canfield, MichALL President

10:00am – Library Response to Disinformation – Daryl Thompson, Michigan State University

11:00am – The Michigan State Capitol Collection – Nothing is Normal Here – Valerie Marvin, Michigan State Capitol Commission

12:00pm – Break for Lunch

1:00pm – Panel Discussion: Remote Services and Employment in Changing Times

Panelists: Kim Koscielniak – University of Detroit Mercy; Caitlin Hoag – Kalamazoo Public Library; Bartlett, Bernadette – Library of Michigan (Department of Education); Robin Linkowski – Miller Canfield

2:00pm – Instruction Design with Learning in Mind – Veronica Bielat, Wayne State University

3:00pm – Closing Remarks – Robin Linkowski, Miller Canfield, MichALL President

3:15pm – MichALL Business Meeting (Open to Attendees) – Last year’s minutes are available here.

6:00pm – Virtual Happy Hour

Colleagues,

The American Legal System is not the same for every citizen. We already knew that. That is why, as law librarians, we have done our part to fight for equal access to justice. Three years ago we submitted a resolution to support the Uniform Electronic Legal Material Act to make official government information more readily available to every Michigan resident.

Now it’s time for us to rally again. The Michigan Association of Law Libraries states firmly that we stand behind the fight for racial equality. I echo AALL’s statement that change will not happen overnight, but as long as we strive toward a common goal of listening, understanding, and self-reflection, change will happen.

To be active in moving the conversation forward, our friends at the Ohio Regional Association of Law Libraries (ORALL) are in the process of forming a Diversity & Inclusion Committee and are welcoming MichALL Members to join. You do not have to be a member of ORALL. Let me know if you’re interested in joining this committee and I will make sure you are updated as more information becomes available.

Robin Linkowski, MichALL President

Submitted on behalf of the MichALL Executive Board

Join us for ORALL 2019 on Oct. 23-25 at the Kalahari Resorts and Convention Center in Sandusky, Ohio! For more information, click here.

If you would still like to attend, you can register and pay at the door. Registration will be $20 for members and $25 for non-members.

About MichALL

The Michigan Association of Law Libraries (MichALL) was formed on September 16, 1976 at a gathering held in conjunction with the Michigan State Bar Association in Southfield, Michigan.

At that time a steering committee chaired by Georgia A. Clark, Wayne State University, was formed. Georgia became the first President. The first meeting of the new organization was held on 3/9/1977 at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. The chapter was incorporated in the State of Michigan on 10/1/1981. MichALL became a chapter of the American Association of Law Libraries in the early 1980’s.

The membership represent academic, law firm, court, bar, public, government and corporate libraries. Detroit, Lansing and Grand Rapids are well represented with the remainder of the membership distributed throughout the state of Michigan.

MichALL holds an annual meeting in the Spring. The Board meets bimonthly. Both educational programs and a business meeting are conducted at the annual meeting. Education programs have covered a broad variety of areas of law librarianship. MichALL has held several joint meetings with Ohio Regional Association of Law Libraries, and has participated in the regional meeting in Albany (1987), Chicago (1989) Columbus (1992) Toronto (1996) and Milwaukee (1998). Members may participate in shaping association activities by way of several committees.

Bylaws

UELMA Resolution