MAALL MARKINGSTHE NEWSLETTER OF THE MID-AMERICA ASSOCIATION OF LAW LIBRARIES

VOLUME 13, NUMBER 2 JUNE 2003

PRESIDENTIAL

ADDRESS

Susan Goldner, University of Arkansas atLittle Rock

For MAALL this is a busy time of yearsince our two meetings are only twomonths apart. Although the discussion

list is relatively quiet, the officers andcommittees are busy working on yourbehalf.

By now you should have registered for ourLuncheon and Business Meeting inSeattle. It will be Tuesday, July 15, from12:00-1:15. (See the AALL final programfor room information.) I hope that many ofyou are able to attend AALL this year andcome to the MAALL Lunch. No only willyou learn about MAALL activities, but what is more important, you will be able tocatch up with old and new MAALL friendsand colleagues. If you did not sign up forlunch, you can still come for the meeting --just don’t expect us to feed you. MAALLwill also be visible at the CONELLMarketplace and in the exhibit hall at adisplay presented by Suzanne Morrisonand her PR Committee.

Mark your calendars for our AnnualMeeting in Norman, Oklahoma, Oct. 2-4,2003. The Local Arrangements Committee,under the leadership of Marilyn Nicely and

Nicky Singleton, is hard at work setting upgreat facilities, food, and entertainment. Kay Andrus and his Program Committeeare just as active arranging for programs toeducate and enlighten us. You won’t wantto miss it. You can find out more at theSeattle lunch. Watch your mail boxes in lateJuly for the specifics and for registrationinformation.

Plans are underway for the MAALLAnnual Meeting in 2004. Following on thesuccess of last year’s joint meeting, it will bea joint meeting with MALL (MinnesotaAssociation of Law Libraries) in DesMoines, Iowa. The wonderful folks atDrake have agreed to host the meeting, withSusan Lerdal and Karen Wallace servingas Co-Chairs of Local Arrangements. Karen Westwood will handle arrangementsfor MALL.

The Nominations Committee, with MaryAnn Nelson as Chair, is looking for peopleto fill next year’s positions. We will elect aVice-President/President Elect and aTreasurer. Please consider volunteeringyourself or someone who you think is wellqualified. This may be the year thatMAALL needs YOU.

Sadly, Barb Ginzburg had to resign herpost as Webmaster and Chair of the InternetCommittee. She has done a wonderful job,and we are sad to see her go. But, she isexcited about her new opportunities inTechnical Services at Florida A & M

University. We wish her the best and hopethat maybe, someday, she will have thesense to come back to the middle of thecountry. MAALL is very lucky, because LizGlankler has already capably filled thevacant position. She is an experiencedWebmaster – among other things she did thesite for our 2001 meeting in St. Louis.

MAALL has a new policy to guide ourhandling of records and correspondence. The Archives Committees for 2002 and2003 drafted an Archives Policy which hasbeen adopted by the Board. Thanks toCindy Shearrer and her committee forgetting this done. This year they will expandthe policy to include plans for archiving ourWeb page and our other electronic material.To view this policy seehttp://www.aallnet.org/chapter/maall/Archivepolicies.htm

This was our year to award a full, freeregistration for AALL to a “newer” lawlibrarian. Sharon Kern and the GrantsCommittee received a number of greatapplications and selected Susan vonSchrader of Bryan Cave LLP, St. Louis toreceive the grant. Now, they are offering anopportunity to receive a travel grant for ourOctober meeting. The grant guidelines andform are available athttp://www.aallnet.org/chapter/maall/grant.pdf .

TTFN. See you in Seattle, and Norman, andDes Moines.

MAALLNOMINATIONS

COMMITTEEThe MAALL Nominations Committee is inthe process of identifying possiblecandidates for the offices of Vice-President/President-Elect and Treasurer. Each MAALL member is invited and urgedto submit the names of those he/she feelsshould be considered as potential candidates. To propose members for candidacy contactany member of the Nomination Committeelisted below :

Mary Ann Nelson, ChairUniversity of Iowa Law Library234 Boyd Law BuildingIowa City, Iowa 52242(319) 335-9016

Joe CusterUniversity of Kansas Law LibraryGreen Hall1535 W. 15th StreetLawrence, Kansas 66045(785) 864-9262

Nicki SingletonUniversity of Oklahoma Law Library300 Timberdell RoadNorman, Oklahoma 73019(405) 325-4311

Karen WallaceDrake University Law LibraryOpperman HallDes Moines, Iowa 50311(515) 271-2989

MAALL EXECUTIVE BOARD

President Vice-Pres./Pres.Elect Past President Susan Goldner Kay Andrus (501) 324-9980 (402) 280-2251 VACANT sdgoldner@ualr.edu andrus@culaw.creighton.edu

Secretary Treasurer Charlie Condon Janet McKinney (815) 753-9496 (816) 474-6550 ccondon@niu.edu jmckinney@shb.com

MAALL Committees / 2003Listed below are the current assignments for MAALL committees

Archives Bylaws Education Government Relations

Charlie Condon, Chair Gary Vander Meer, Chair Kay Andrus, Chair Susan Tulis, Chair

Ann Fessenden Lorraine Lorne Lisa Bowles David Gay - OK

Frank Houdek Eileen Searles James Dugan Melissa Serfass - AR

Barb Ginzburg S. Flannigan

Cindy Shearrer Mary Kay Jung Newsletter

Joan Stevens Mary Stultz Steve Lambson, editor

Grants Internet Library School Liaison Articles Editor

Sharon Kern, Chair Liz Glankler, Chair Paul Callister, Liaison Adria Olmi

Joe Katrosh Susan Boland

Patty Monk Chris Tighe Member News Editor

Nancy Strohmeyer Resa Kerns

Local Arrangements Membership Nominations News from other

Marilyn Nicely, Nicky Peggy McDermott Mary Ann Nelson, Chair Chapters, Placement

Singleton, Co-Chairs Leann Genovese Joe Custer Mike McReynolds

Carol Arnold Deborah Sulzbach Nicky Singleton

Judith Clarke Karen Wallace State Liaisons

Nancy Cowden Public Relations Kathryn Fitzhugh - AR

Lou Lindsey Suzanne M orrison, Chair Service to the Public Priscilla Stultz - IL

Patti Monk Donna Barratt Judith Clarke, Chair Julie Thomas - IA

Judy Morgan Crata Castleberry Rebecca Alexander Pam Tull - KS

Lee Peoples Brent Johnson Dave Hanson Jan Medved - MO

Sue Lerdal Angela Lange - NE

Placement Suzanne Morrison - ND

Mike McReynolds Joel Wegemer - OK

MAALL M arkings is published quarterly in March, June, September and December

in electronic format by the Mid-America Association of Law Libraries

Editor: Steve Lambson

lambsons@missouri.edu

Those wishing to submit items should contact the editor for policy and format information

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MEMBERSHIP NEWS

Compiled by Resa Kerns, Univ. of Missouri-Columbia School of Law Library

Iowa

Drake University

Karen Wallace, Circulation/ReferenceLibrarian at Drake University Law Library,presented a program with Sharon Bakerentitled "Collection Development in theResponsive Library" on May 16 at theDelaware Library Association AnnualConference. The Delaware State Libraryselected Wallace and Baker's book TheResponsive Public Library for year 2 of itscontinuing education program, "If All theDelaware Library Community Read theSame Book."

University of Iowa

The University of Iowa will be hosting theAnnual North American Aleph Users Group(NAAUG) meeting May 31-June 2 in IowaCity. The SFX-Metalib users group will bemeeting in Iowa City June 3-4. Over 250people from the United States, Canada andthe world will be attending these meetings.

Kansas

University of Kansas Law Library

The University of Kansas School of LawLibrary was named the Wheat Law Libraryon April 25, 2003, in honor of Douglas D.(L'74) and Laura L. Wheat. The Wheats'commitment will allow the school topurchase many types of materials rangingfrom Kansas and U.S. legal history tocurrent emerging areas of the law, includingthe law of cyberspace and technology, andnew developing areas of international law.

Missouri

Jackson County Law Library

Linda Roser, reference librarian at JCLL,presented a MCLE approved program tojudges and clerks at the 16th Circuit Court ofJackson County Missouri on May 16, 2003. Her topic was “Using Premise to the Max”. A judge, a commissioner and 11 clerksattended. Craig Davis, Judge VernonScoville’s clerk, made facility and foodarrangements and secured MCLEcertification. Deana Grant, CourtComputing Services, provided technicalsupport. Roser will present a secondprogram on June 13, 2003 covering searchtechniques and strategies using LexisNexis.

Polsinelli Shalton & Welte LLC

Ruth Gervais and Joan Thomas recentlygraduated from the School of InformationScience & Learning at the University ofMissouri-Columbia with a Master of Artsdegree in Library and Information Science. Congratulations to Gervais and Thomasboth of whom are employed at the PolsinelliShalton & Welte law firm. http://www.kcall.org/Kudos.htm

University of Missouri-Columbia School ofLaw Library

Resa Kerns was recently promoted to therank of Librarian II, and is the recipient ofthis year’s Law Library OutstandingPerformance Award. She currently holds theposition of Educational TechnologiesLibrarian, and serves as webmaster for theLaw School and Law Library web sites. Shehas also recently returned from China withher new 14 month old daughter, Riley.

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University of Missouri-Kansas City -- Leon E. Block Law Library

Sandra H. Berman joins the staff at UMKCBloch Law Library and KCALL’smembership. Welcome to our community,Sandra Berman.

U.S. Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals LawLibrary

Ann Fessenden reports that the 18th annualEighth Circuit Libraries meeting was heldApril 28-30 in St. Louis. The annualmeeting is the only time the librarians fromall of the far-flung states of the United StatesEighth Circuit, most of which are includedin the MAALL region, meet together as astaff. This was the largest meeting ever, withall nine branch libraries represented: CedarRapids, Des Moines, Fargo, Kansas City(MO), Lincoln, Little Rock, Minneapolis,Omaha, and St. Paul. The librariansreceived training on displays and desktoppublishing and discussed a variety of topicsregarding service and administrative matters.

Oklahoma

Oklahoma City University Law Library

Victoria Santana was hired in January 2003as Electronic Services and ReferenceLibrarian. Victoria has served as a TribalAttorney for the Blackfeet Tribe and hastaught workshops for Bill HelmichAssociates. Her law degree is from theUniversity of New Mexico. She graduatedrecently from the M.L.I.S. program at theUniversity of Washington. This May shereceived an award from the NativeAmerican Law Student Association for herwork in support of the NALSA 2003 MootCourt Team. The Law Library upgraded its EndeavorLibrary System to 2001.2 in mid-May 2003.While there were many improvements for

the circulation staff, the best new feature isthe bookbag. A user of the OPAC, afterrunning a search, can choose the records shewould like to keep by saving them to herbookbag. She can add records to herbookbag, delete records, and e-mail theresults to herself. Like renewals, thebookbag requires the user to enter his ID andlast name. The House of Representatives of theAssociation of American Law Schools(AALS) approved the application ofOklahoma City University School of Lawfor membership at the association's annualmeeting in Washington, D.C.. The Januarymeeting was attended by more than 3,000law teachers, librarians, and administratorsfrom throughout the United States andseveral other countries.

The University of Oklahoma Donald E.Pray Law Library

Marilyn Nicely, Technical ServicesLibrarian and Director Nickie Singletonwere Co-Moderators for a program at TheSovereignty Symposium with Chief JusticeJoseph Watt of the Oklahoma SupremeCourt who was the Moderator. The programwas entitled "Exploring Internet Resourceson Indian Law". The SovereigntySymposium 2003 was held on May 27 and28 in Oklahoma City. The Fall MAALL Meeting will be held inNorman. Come and see the new law librarythat was opened in January 2002. Startmaking plans to attend!

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NEWS FROM OTHER

CHAPTERScompiled by

Mike McReynolds

Access to Legal Information

The President of the Ohio RegionalAssociation of Law Libraries (ORALL)considers the many ways that librarians addvalue to law libraries in providing access tolegal information in her President’s column.Langton, Beth, “The Value of a LawLibrarian,” ORALL Newsletter, Vol. 2003,no. 1, March 2003, pgs. 1-3.

San Francisco has a new information serviceavailable to self-represented litigants calledACCESS. ACCESS is a center that providesservice and basic legal materials to thesecitizens in cooperation with existing servicesprovided by area law libraries and courts.This article tells how the service is operatedand how services are coordinated among thelarger libraries to assist these patrons.Hutton, Colin, “Self-Represented Litigantsand ACCESS in San Francisco,” NOCALLNews, Vol. 23, no. 4, March/April 2003,pgs. 12-13.

As the negative impact of revenue cutting atthe Federal level trickles down to state andlocal governments some public law librariesare being threatened with extinction. TheDane County Law library in Madison,Wisconsin nearly became one of thecasualties. The law librarian from DaneCounty tells the story of how their librarywas nearly eliminated and describes theefforts of the staff and others to save it forthe time being. Seeger, Paula, “LLAWFebruary Meeting: The Dane County LawLibrary,” LLAW Newsletter, Vol. 20, no. 3,Spring 2003, pgs. 1, 7-8.

Communicating with users and with those

responsible for determining funding areimportant functions of any type of library.The Reference Librarian at the San DiegoCounty Law Library wrote an article on howtheir new e-newsletter performs thesefunctions for their library and saved moneyin the process. Hale-Janeke, Amy, “E-newsletters for Public Law Libraries areCost-effective and Easy,” SWALL Bulletin,Vol. 33, no. 3, Spring 2003, pgs. 16-20.

Preservation, Disasters & Moves

A librarian who completed her sabbatical onpreservation prepared an article for theChicago Area Law Libraries (CALL) whichincludes ideas and resources that can beuseful to all libraries. Turpening, Patricia,“Preservation Recommendation for ChicagoArea Law Libraries,” CALL Bulletin, No.187, Spring 2003, pgs. 20,22.

The CALL Bulletin also devoted a majorportion of another issue to the topic ofdisaster planning. The section entitledsimply, “Disaster Planning,” is in the Winter2003 issue of the CALL Bulletin, No. 186,pgs. 18-22, 26. The special section includesthe following articles: Turpening, Patricia, “Preservation Survey ofChicago Area Law Libraries.” Ogden, JoanM., “In Case of Emergency, Break Glass.” Rusin, Deborah, “Working Smarter.” MacMillan, Bridget, “Disaster PlanningSources.”

Due to extensive renovation of itsheadquarters, the library of the NationalCenter of State Courts had to move itscollection twice in two years. One of thesurvivors describes the whys, hows andlessons learned in her article. Zelner, TishaM., “Moving Books: Renovation at theNational Center for State Courts,” VALLNewsletter, Vol. 18, no. 4, Spring 2003, pgs.15-16.

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Issues with Technology: the Good, theBad and the Helpful

Among the sources of legal information onthe Internet is one based in Minnesota calledLawMoose. LawMoose has three sections:Minnesota, Wisconsin, and the World. TheWorld includes the other 48 states, U.S.Territories, the Canadian Provinces and a listof countries too long to include here. Jack,Bill, “The Internet Column: Minnesota’sRoving Alces Americana,” MALLNewsletter, Vol. 29, no. 4, January/February2003, pgs. 4-5.

One of the down sides of the Internet isSPAM. One contributor presents anoverview of what SPAM is, how we come toget it and what we can to do to limit theamount of unwanted e-mail we receive.Robinson, Jim, “SPAM, I Am: How toManage and Control Unsolicited E-mail,”SANDALL News, Vol. 5, no. 5, March2003, pgs. 4-5.

Teachers and presenters at conferences oftenmake use of presentation software like CorelPresentations or PowerPoint to enhancequality and interest. One librarian reviewerdiscusses another software called Catch theWeb, which allows the presenter to captureWeb pages and present them even when liveInternet access is not available. Samson,Michael, “Technology Corner: Catch theWeb,” MichALL Newsletter, Vol. 23, no. 1,May 2003, pgs. 7-8.

Kansas City Association of Law Librarians(KCALL)

KCALL met on Thursday, May 22, 2003 atthe UMKC Law Library at 11:30 a.m. Guestspeakers, Priscilla Stultz and BridgetMacMillan, Lexis Librarian RelationsConsultants, presented ““Getting ThingsDone.”” The program, based upon thepopular book by productivity trainer and

consultant, David Allen, addressed basictime management and personal organizationskills. Lexis provided lunch.

KCALL’’s next meeting is scheduled forThursday, August 21, 2003 from 5:00 to7:00 p.m. Ken Pallante, West-RIArepresentative, is sponsoring thismembership meeting. The after-hours mixeris at McCormick & Schmick’’s SeafoodRestaurant at 448 W. 47th St. on the CountryClub Plaza.

Most of the above articles are available on the websites of thechapters. For copies of any other articles please contact thecompiler at

mmcreynolds@falconflight.com

AALL SYMPOSIUM

Title: Affirmative Action after Grutter &Gratz: Where do we go fromhere?"

Date: Saturday, July 12, 2003

Time: 2: 00pm - 5:00pm

Judy Floyd Evans, Chair, Committee onDiversity Allen Moye, Symposium Coordinator,George Mason University School ofLaw Library Madeline Hebert, Symposium Coordinator,Louisiana State University ,Paul M.Hebert Law Center Library

Our speakers will be Mr. Curt Levey of theCenter for Individual Rights(http://www.cir-usa.org/), a conservativepublic interest group located in Washington,D.C. and Henry McGee, Jr, formerprosecutor and civil rights attorney, nowdistinguished Professor of Law at SeattleUniversity, in Seattle Washington.

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(http://www.law.seattleu.edu/faculty/profiles/mcgee?mode=standard)

As most of us are aware, the U.S. SupremeCourt is set to rule on a couple ofconsolidated cases involving the Universityof Michigan and its use of affirmative actionto achieve a diverse student population. Thisis potentially a major ruling from theSupreme Court and could very well set thetone on the issue of affirmative action, forthe next few decades.

With so many individuals and variousgroups being quite vocal about their positionon this issue and given the field that we allwork in, the Committee believes that a paneldiscussion/debate on the significance of thisruling would be a most interesting andtimely topic for this year's symposium.

Please join us for what will undoubtedly bea lively debate. Representing the argumentagainst the use of affirmative action ( inhigher education)is Mr. Curt Levey of theCenter for Individual Rights. On the sidefavoring the use of affirmative action, wehave Henry McGee, Jr, former prosecutorand civil rights attorney, now distinguishedProfessor of Law at Seattle University, inSeattle Washington.

The Association gratefully acknowledgesLexisNexis(tm) for its support of thisprogram.

JOBOPPORTUNITY

Gallop, Johnson & Neuman, L.C., a Claytonlaw firm with 80+ attorneys, is seekingcandidates for the position of librarydirector. MLS degree preferred, but notrequired if candidate possesses offsettingexperience/skills. The position to be filledrequires self-confidence and good oralcommunication skills, as well as expectedtechnical knowledge.

To apply, submit resume to:

Ronald L. PallmannGallop, Johnson & Neuman, L.C.101 So. Hanley, Ste. 1600St. Louis, MO 63105

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THE “NEW” KM:

KONTENT

MANAGEMENT by Michael Robak of InteCap, Inc.

Much has been written aboutKnowledge Management. At leastI’ve read a lot of stuff, and I use

the word “stuff” because it is often difficultto distinguish between vendor fluff and“serious content.” I don’t know if thatqualifies as anything more than anecdotalevidence, but suffice it to say I have beenfollowing this material for a while, and I’vecome to this conclusion about KM: it’s arecipe called organizing for access, with adollop of context added to provide a clientwith serendipity, or the Aha! Moment.

It is also fundamentally about connectingpeople to resources and to other people. Inthe end, there is actually another rubric thatcovers these concepts – ContentManagement. I mean let’s face it: we can’treally “manage” knowledge. Indeed, halfthe time we can’t get people to even agreeon what it means to “manage,” let alonedescribe or discuss “knowledge.” The realKM is really CM or Content Management. If we begin to refocus our efforts on thisnew “KM” we can see that in the context ofservice organizations, we can help ourcustomers in ways they didn’t know theyneeded.

So how did I get here? First let me say that Idon’t work for a law firm but one thatprovides litigation support services. In mythinking, I no longer distinguish law firmsfrom other types of firms but lump themgenerally into “service organizations.” I’vepracticed law long enough and in enoughsettings to come to the conclusion that weneed only think about the “information

intensiveness” of the firm to develop thecorrect strategy. In this post-Enron, post-Sarbanes-Oxley world, everyone has newlimitations and strictures and issues thatmake service organizations much morecomparable. A caveat – nothing I writefrom here on out is original (actually verylittle of the above is truly original) but, asthe wise Larry Prusak says, “well stolen ishalf done” and I hope I at least steal well.

So what is Knowledge Management? I haveyet to find a really good, reasonably shortanswer to this question. Most of the time, itdepends. It depends on your organization,your business needs, and the spin from uppermanagement. Many dollars have been spentby many organizations on books and peopleand machines to help them “get” knowledgemanagement. For the clearest writings onthe subject, I recommend works by TomDavenport and Larry Prusak. But it shouldbe noted that both of these gentlemen havemoved on to newer, different topics. I thinkthough that any definition of knowledgemanagement links together these concepts: “IT plus content, organizational culture andmotivational approaches.”

Which is to say, you need an infrastructureof machines, something to put on themachines, an organization that has an idea ofwhat to do with the something and evenmore importantly, an organization thatrewards people for doing something with thesomething. (For a better writtenexplanation of these ideas, see TomDavenport’s “Known Evils” athttp://www.cio.com/archive/061597/think_c

ontent.html)

A recent study of KM in law libraries waspresented by Glen Bencivengo at InfoToday2003 and not surprisingly he found that KMisn’t working as promised. Not that therehaven’t been opportunities for KMprinciples to be applied in law libraries, butrather when you charge by the hour for your

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work, the simple question becomes “why doI want to be efficient?” For example, whyshould I take 15 minutes to do somethingwhen I can take 45 minutes and meet mychargeability quota? I know, I know, everysenior partner will deny that is what ishappening. But that is what is happening. Billing practices in law firms problematizeKM because many of the original KMconcepts are about efficiency, speeding upprocesses, and about not re-inventing thewheel. You can have the world’s best“memo bank” but if the organization’sculture doesn’t have explicit incentives touse it, “it don’t matter none.”

And I’m also here to tell you that KM hasn’treally worked well in other serviceorganizations, particularly for any thatcharge by the hour, or rely on “personalrelationships” with customers. Incentive forsharing is near zero, and if we don’t want toshare then it doesn’t matter how muchKnowledge we have to Manage. The“Knowledge” will just sit in a folder on thehard drive, hidden and unused.

So what can we do? It’s KontentManagement to the rescue (sorry, I justcouldn’t resist using KM to get yourattention originally, I know how to spellContent…). What you ask is ContentManagement? First, let me suggest that youget a copy of Bob Boiko’s book, “TheContent Management Bible,” a Wileypublication. This 966 page tome excels atproviding an extensive overview of thesubject and has the added bonus of lots ofpractical information to leaven the theory.

Boiko looks at content management in threedifferent ways:

“A CMS (Content ManagementSystem) is a hardware and software systemthat consists of programs running onparticular computers.

A CMS is a set of content types andthe processes that you use to manage them,from creation to distribution to finaldestruction.

A CMS is a vehicle that enables anorganization to connect its informationsources and computer functionality to itsconstituents.”

Notice that none of the above is aboutmanaging knowledge. For Bob Boiko,knowledge management is simply a “branchof content management” (see his Chapter10). More specifically, Knowledge is a kindof content to be managed. But, I think he isjust being kind. As the book’s indexreveals, only pages 151, 164 and 165 discussKnowledge Management. So with 3 out of966 pages devoted to the subject, you cansee Knowledge’s relative relationship toContent. This makes sense to me as I thinkof knowledge as “actionableinformation”—that is to say we aren’tmanaging anything. We are merely givingpeople the opportunity to find people andresources they need and to take thatinformation and process it in a way thatmakes it useful to them. Returning to myopening thoughts on the matter, informationprofessionals connect people to informationand to other people. The only real way toaccomplish this endeavor is with ContentManagement.

So how does Content Management fit withservice organizations like law firms? Well,again, according to Bob Boiko, “Thepurpose of CMS is to help organizationscreate and offer valuable content andfunctionality.” We librarians, or informationprofessionals, understand valuable contentand its functionality. We are in the bestposition to oversee its collection anddissemination. Many of us are involvedwith our organization’s intranet. And, if wearen’t, we should become so as soon as

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possible. There is no better beginning pointfor CMS than an intranet. But moreimportant, the best CMS going is the cardcatalog, or rather the card catalog aspresented by Amazon.com. I’ve oftenopined that Jeff Bezos has really built thebest OPAC in the land (except for the ads). But like Amazon, we shouldn’t just focus onbooks and magazines. The current kinds oftools available give us tremendous flexibilityin not only organizing everything frompeople’s internal resumes (their experience)to the business intelligence we keep on ourfavorite customers and making thataccessible.

Critical to success is the buy in from the ITdepartment. Just make sure you emphasizeto your IT people that the “I” is forInformation (content) and the “I” comesbefore the “T” for a reason.

In the corporate or private library world alinkage to the business objectives andprocesses is also a fundamental prerequisite. In other words, there is an opportunity for“collection development” to provide someinsight into the system. We can unravel thenature of our organization by focusing onthe content development and the“collection” policies. And we can’t forgetthe catalog (or is it the home page?) or anyand all materials associated with thebusiness process: books, magazines, loosematerials, excel spreadsheets, accessdatabases, URLs, etc. So KM becomes CMwhen we stop worrying about the“knowledge” part and focus on linkingcontent to business objectives and then focuson organizing what we can access.

Being a “stickler” for worthwhile contentisn’t completely necessary. Sinceknowledge is “actionable information”, thismeans information in the right context forthe right person will become knowledge.

But because information is content (or, asBill Gates says, “everything will be adocument”) and because we can’t“predetermine” what content at what timewill mean something to someone, there is nopoint in being too picky. So the key tomaking CM work is in understanding yourorganization, understanding the businessobjectives, and organizing the content foraccess.

And, oh yeah, and lest I forget, don’t forgetthat these ideas don’t make any differenceunless you have upper management supportand champions embedded throughout theorganization. But we all knew that already.

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MAALL TRAVEL GRANTS

Each year, MAALL awards Travel Grants for members to attend the MAALL Annual Meeting. The number of Grants and the amount varies, depending on the number of applicants and thecondition of the chapter treasury. The Board decides these numbers each summer and for the pastfew years the Travel Grant award has been$300.00. The following are the criteria used to awardthe grants:

Criteria for awarding the grants are: MAALL membership, financial need, usefulness of themeeting to the applicant, contribution of the applicant to MAALL and/or AALL, andpotential or proven ability of the applicant. Newer law librarians may receive specialconsideration as encouragement to them to establish relationships and get involved inMAALL. Previous grant recipients are considered, particularly those who are office holdersor speakers. With the exception of the MAALL Newsletter editor, an individual mayreceive no more than one grant every five years.

The Grants Committee consists of Sharon Kern, Chair, Patti Monk and Joe Katrosh. You maycontact any member of the committee if you have questions. Phone numbers and e-mail addressesfor the committee members are on the MAALL web site in the Membership Directory.

Grant Application Form on next two pages

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MAALL TRAVEL GRANT APPLICATION

for the

2003 MAALL ANNUAL MEETINGNORMAN, OKLAHOMA

OCTOBER 2-4, 2003

Complete this form and fax, e-mail or mail to:

Sharon KernChair, MAALL Grants CommitteeDavis Brown Law Firm666 Walnut, Suite 2500Des Moines, IA 50309Fax: 515-243-0654Sharon.Kern@lawiowa.com

Deadline for Submission: All applications must be received by August 15, 2003. The winner willbe notified prior to September 10, 2003.

Name _______________________________________________________________________

Position _____________________________________________________________________

Employer ____________________________________________________________________

Address _____________________________________________________________________

Telephone Number ______________________

Fax Number __________________________

E-mail Address _______________________________________________________________

Are you a MAALL member? ____ Yes _____________ Year Joined _______ No

Have you ever attended a MAALL annual meeting? _____ Yes _____ No

Have you ever received a MAALL Travel Grant? _____ Yes in ________ (year) _____ No

List your educational background (schools, degrees, dates): _________________________________________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________

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List previous law library positions:

Employer/Position/Length of Service

1. __________________________________________________________________________

2. __________________________________________________________________________

3. __________________________________________________________________________

List MAALL positions, activities and contributions (offices held, committee work, newsletterarticles, presentations at MAALL meetings, attendance at MAALL meetings, etc.):_____________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________

What part of your expenses will your employer pay for you to attend the meeting?_____________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________

Describe your employer’s policy of reimbursement for conference-related travel expenses:_____________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________

If you do not receive a MAALL travel grant, will you:

____ not be able to attend the meeting, or

____ attend and personally pay for expenses not picked up by your employer?

What experiences and benefits do you hope to gain by attending the MAALL Annual Meeting?_____________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________

Please read this statement and sign below:

I am currently a member of MAALL. If I cannot attend the entire 2003 MAALL Annual Meeting,October 2-4, 2003 in Norman, Oklahoma, I will notify the chair of the MAALL Grants Committeeimmediately.

_____________________________________________________________________________(Applicant’s signature) (Date)