Joint Study Institutes are hosted by the

• American Association of Law Libraries (AALL)
• Australian Law Librarians Association (ALLA)
• British & Irish Association of Law Libraries (BIALL)
• Canadian Association of Law Libraries/Association Canadienne des Bibliotheques de Droit (CALL/ACBD)
• New Zealand Law Librarians’ Association (NZLLA).

JSI programs provide unique opportunities to network and learn about the law, legal research and topical issues of the host jurisdiction that are of interest to law librarians and the legal profession. The last JSI held in Australia was held in Sydney in 2004. For information about past Joint Study Institute programs, see this page.

Watch for announcements in 2012 about the next JSI program. We look forward to welcoming you to enjoy a stimulating educational program and Melbourne’s diverse cultural, culinary, historical and bibliographic attractions.

Regards,

2013 JSI Co-convenors,

Carole Hinchcliff, Melbourne Law School Library
Robin Gardner, Melbourne Law School Library
Vanessa Blackmore, NSW Attorney General’s Department
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The committee will award one or more grants to library professionals who wish to conduct research that supports the research/scholarly agenda of the profession of librarianship. The grants program funds small or large research projects that create, disseminate, or otherwise use legal and law-related information as its focus. Projects may range from the historical (indexes, legislative histories, bibliographies, biographies, or directories) to the theoretical (trends in cataloging, publishing, or new service models in libraries) to the practical (implementation models for collection, personnel, or infrastructure management).The AALL Research Agenda offers suggestions for possible research projects that cover a wide segment of professional interest, including the profession of law librarianship, law library patrons, law library services, legal research and bibliography, legal information resources, and law library facilities. However, projects are not limited to those described in the agenda, and the committee will consider all applications and research projects.

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The Cummins Grant provides a stipend of $10,000 to support short-term historical research using the Special Collections Department at GW’s Jacob Burns Law Library, which is noted for its continental historical legal collections, especially its French collection, with strengths in Roman and canon law, church-state relations, international law, and many incunabula holdings.The grant is awarded to one doctoral, LL.M., or S.J.D. candidate, postdoctoral researcher, faculty member, or independent scholar. The successful candidate may come from a variety of disciplines including, but not limited to, law, history, religion, philosophy, or bibliography.

The application deadline is Nov. 1, 2011. mw

The deadline for the next round in the call for papers (a title and short abstract) is Sep. 6, 2011. Future deadlines will be announced on the conference website after this date.

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Libraries and Copyright: Friends, Enemies, or Strangers on a Common Path?

Library activities surrounding the management, dissemination, and creation of information require close attention to copyright law, its underlying intentions, and its restrictions. As libraries develop scholarship repositories, digitize collections, and preserve born-digital information, for instance, they may challenge the limits of copyright and find themselves confronting new issues, such as access to born-digital information when the author requests removal of material already publicly posted, liability for copyright infringement in other countries when lending resources to foreign libraries, and restrictions on use of library-licensed materials in online classrooms. These and many other copyright-related issues challenge library administrators in the effective, legal presentation of library services.

Presenters, chosen from a Call for Papers, will explore how copyright currently impacts libraries; how it might affect future library endeavors; how it has been, or may be, (mis)interpreted in library practices; and how it might be changed to better reflect the reality in which libraries exist today. Papers may cover topics examining any aspect of copyright, including but not limited to those relating to licensing, collection sharing arrangements, digitization, scholarly repositories, and challenges to common assumptions about copyright in library activities.

Eligibility:
Faculty members and professional staff of AALS member and fee-paid law schools are eligible to submit papers. Foreign, visiting and adjunct law faculty members, non-law faculty members, graduate students, and fellows are not eligible to submit.

Newer members are especially encouraged to submit papers. Non-published works will be given a higher priority, but papers that already have been, or are scheduled to be, published (including in SSRN and pre-publication resources) are eligible for consideration.

Form and Submissions:
Papers submitted for consideration should be in a close-to-final form but need not be publication-ready.

The manuscript should be double-spaced, on 8 1/2″ by 11″ paper in 12-point (preferably Times New Roman font) with 1″ margins on all sides. Pages should be numbered sequentially. Footnotes should be 10-point or larger, single-spaced, and preferably on the same page as the referenced text. All citations should conform to THE BLUEBOOK: A UNIFORM SYSTEM OF CITATION.

Submissions should be prepared using Microsoft Word (or otherwise submitted in rich text format) and must be sent electronically to the address below. Submissions are limited to articles and essays.

Registration Fee and Expenses:
Call for Paper panel participants will be responsible for paying their own annual meeting registration fee and travel expenses.

How will papers be reviewed?
Papers will be selected after a review by members of the Executive Committee of the Section.
Up to five to papers will be chosen by the Committee, and from these finalists, three or four authors will be asked to present their scholarship at the AALS Annual Meeting program. Submissions not yet publicly available (e.g., SSRN) will be given preference in selection for presentation.

Will the program be published in a journal?
The selected finalists are expected to publish their articles in a special issue of the Review of Intellectual Property Law (RIPL) and should be prepared to submit their unpublished, draft articles to RIPL editors for review by January 15, 2012.

Deadline date for submission:
September 16, 2011.

Contact for inquiries:
Michelle M. Wu
Georgetown Law Center
111 G Street NW
Washington, DC 20001
202-662-9161
Mmw84@law.georgetown.edu

Contact for submissions:
Barbara Bintliff
The University of Texas School of Law
727 East Dean Keeton Street
Austin, TX 78705
512-471-7735
bbintliff@law.utexas.edu

Authors of accepted papers will be notified by October 7, 2011.

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