I recently finished a piece for the Australian Law Librarian Journal on my experience in Boston earlier in the year at AALL. Without giving too much away I'm giving you the beginning and the end, minus the middle. You will have to rush off and read the journal for that (January).
The call to apply for the Annual Fellowship Program offered by ALLA hit my inbox in February, work was busy (work is always busy), life outside work was just as demanding (ditto life), and the thought of filling out an application, summoning up referees and trying to find a CV which had long been languishing in a folder, somewhere, on my laptop, filled me with enough good reasons to delete the email from ALLA instantly. Curiosity prevailed and I decided not to delete without first having a look at the conferences the Fellowship Program allowed us to choose from, to find out where the conferences were being held, their themes, and to peruse the list of papers and speakers on offer. This was the second year of the Annual Fellowship Program and the conference choices were difficult enough in themselves: AALL (American Association of Law Libraries); BIALL (British & Irish Association of Law Librarians); CALL (Canadian Association of Law Libraries); IALL (International Association of Law Libraries); IFLA(International Federation of Library Associations & Institutions); JSI (Joint Study Institute) and NZLLA (New Zealand Law Librarians’ Association).
From this impressive list I was able to narrow my choice. I wanted to experience a large conference with any advances on two hundred and fifty, which is around the high water mark ALLA clocks up. I had never attended a conference outside of Australia, and as a long time fan of the States albeit as a legal researcher bemused by the US Code Annotated and all those circular, circuit courts, I was naturally inclined to consider AALL. I was pleased to see it was being held in Boston in 2012, a city I had never visited - eastern sea board, Harvard University, the infamous tea party and all that colonial history. 'Learn Connect Grow' was the title of the Conference and the 88 page Program was BIG, in fact it took me a long time to work out where the program began and if indeed it ended at all - how could all this be squeezed into a handful of days? The next consideration was when - July, the dates would work as there was nothing around that time which significantly clashed in my Outlook calendar, and it gave me the chance to escape the Melbourne winter for a week. I had a chat with my boss, retrieved my CV from local drive oblivion, wrote my application, and, joy of joys, was awarded the Scholarship for which I am enormously grateful.
Libraries in Boston
I can't finish up this account of AALL 2012 without mentioning two libraries I visited while in Boston. As a Librarian by training I am inspired by the architecture, the books, the green lamps, the patrons bending over the millions of words caught up in those books and the reverential hush of libraries. I visited the Harvard Law School Library as I had signed up for a Library tour as part of the conference and was hoping that by breathing the rarified air of Harvard I might inhale some deep learning. The Library was an impressive collection of books, archival materials, paintings and sculptures of the many famous legal minds that have studied there over nearly two hundred years. The Law School was founded in 1817 and is described as the largest academic law library in the world . The Boston Calling Blog includes two photos taken on that tour , one of the Library itself, and a portrait which struck me as the most impressive of the many that lined the walls, of George Lewis Ruffin, the first African American Graduate of Harvard Law School. He graduated in 1869, the first born son of free African Americans living in Virginia, and later moved to Boston.
The second library I visited was just a couple of blocks away from the conference venue on Boylston Street, the Boston Public Library. I visited it a couple of times to soak up the art work, the beautiful murals which included work by John Singer Sargent, neo-classical sculptures, and the architecture of the original building which was opened in 1895 and designed by Charles Pollen McKim. I sat in this ‘Alexandrian’ library with local Bostonians and tapped out an update on my blog. Later, on my last day in Boston I popped into the Library again and out in the large open courtyard between the old and new Library buildings a Kenyan singer accompanied by two musicians sang her heart out as the sun shined and people tapped their feet and ate lunch. I jumped into a taxi an hour later for the long, long flight home.
I encourage all of you who read this to apply for the Annual Fellowship Program next year, find your CV, fill out the application, appoint your referees and, you may get the chance to enjoy a very unique experience - good luck!
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