The Annual Meeting and Conference of the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL) was held July 10 to July 13 in Denver. I was fortunate to receive a grant from the LISP-SIS (Legal Information to the Public Special Interest Section) making the travel cost less burdensome as the court could not pay any travel expenses this year. Attendance at the AALL annual meeting is a valuable experience that I felt worthwhile enough for me to still foot a large part of the bill for attendance.
The obvious benefit of attendance is the many educational programs but the meeting and getting to know other law librarians from across the country is invaluable as well. The contacts made at this and past AALL conferences have come in handy here in Anne Arundel County and Maryland. Most recently contacts made with librarians in other states have helped in the creation of our “Ask a Lawyer in the Law Library” program. The Conference of Maryland Court Law Library Directors was created after following the example of other states with the input of the librarians involved.
Now that I have returned to work after taking some additional personal time I will report on my experience in Denver over the next few days.