Post-AALL 2008 Discussion

[Sarah Glassmeyer]

What's the coolest thing you learned about at AALL 2008? I think for me it was either the YouTube downloader, as discovered in E4 OR the UM Map Mashup with links to electronic resources, as seen in H1.

[Lyonette Louis-Jacques]

I may have more (I haven't filled out the evaluation forms yet), but off the top of my head, I learned about Harvard's InfoAdvantage Research Pages. I learned that educational programs from years ago can still have impact. And I learned that Twitter is pretty cool for following friends even when you're at the annual meeting and not at home reading...:-)

[Rita Kaiser]

I liked the 30 Cool Technology Tools and the links from http://del.icio.us/techtelmechtel/aall2008-techtools for them.

[Katie Brown]

Sorry for the cheese...
I learned how great the Gen X Gen Y Caucus members are. Whenever I asked for assistance during the conference they stepped up.
Thank you !!!!
Katie

[Beth Given]

Have you ever had one of those "gosh I wish I had some software/program/etc. that could do X" moments and then found out a short time later that of course someone had already recognized this need and developed something? Well, I was excited to learn in Kincaid Brown's presentation during the H1 program (Cool Web 2.0 tools) about MIT's Simile project, specifically Exhibit, which I'd never heard of before but am very excited to use in my own library... (Yay for open source!) Thanks, by the way, to all the presenters at the H1 session, the whole session was one of my favourites and I learned some great new tips, tricks, and tools to use.

[Scott Frey]

I was intrigued by the prospective "Rise of American Law" product from Westlaw / Thomson West / Thomson Reuters / whatever-the-heck-they're-called. It sounds like a smaller (though still large), cheaper (though not cheap), and more useful (for non-legal-historians) alternative to "Making of Modern Law."

Also, Westlaw is testing a feature that allows you to customize a research page by drag-and-drop and other methods. Your research page, your way. Sweet!

But not to leave out Westlaw's main rival ... LexisNexis has Lexis Web, a legal-focused search engine that's free for the public. This is a smarter move than Westlaw WebPlus, which is available only to Westlaw subscribers.

(And for learning all of this and more, I got a cool/dangerous flashlight and yet another tote bag!)

[Jean Davis]

Like Scott, I can't wait for [Aug. 4] when I can customize Westlaw pages. My first effort will be a customized "international/foreign law" page that I want Stefanie Efrati to push to the Brooklyn Journal of International Law staff. (I post to their TWEN page.) On the customized BJIL page, I plan to include all of the WL indexes to legal periodicals that new members might want to use for topic development, such as CILP, LRI, LJI & ICLL. (Also, I will delete those links to sources that are not available through our law school license.)

[Scott Frey]

Has West published an announcement about the customization features? I'd be interested in a link that I could forward to my colleagues at work.

Jean Davis said:

Like Scott, I can't wait for [Aug. 4] when I can customize Westlaw pages. My first effort will be a customized "international/foreign law" page that I want Stefanie Efrati to push to the Brooklyn Journal of International Law staff. (I post to their TWEN page.) On the customized BJIL page, I plan to include all of the WL indexes to legal periodicals that new members might want to use for topic development, such as CILP, LRI, LJI & ICLL. (Also, I will delete those links to sources that are not available through our law school license.)

[Sue Mecklem]

I really liked the History of Beer program, and learned a lot for my personal life. I learned how to search for Twitter messages using Summize, and learned a lot more about competive intelligence tools.

As a new law librarian, I really learned a lot, met some great people, and reconnected with librarians who encouraged me while I was in library school.

[Jennifer Stephens]

I agree with Terri, networking with all sorts of librarians was wonderful. Where else could I talk with law firm, law school, court, corporate, independent, etc. librarians from around the country? The 30 Cool Tools and the Life on a Stick programs were my favorites as far as programs. I also learned quite a bit from Mike Lindsey's CSS presentation at the AALLNET Webmasters' Workshop. (See description and files at http://www.aallnet.org/committee/aac/workshops/speakers2008.htm.)

Terri Wilson said:

I was thrilled to see a real wifi detector tshirt at the Gen X/Gen Y meeting. LOLOL! I'm such a geek. :-P

But the coolest thing for me was the peeps! I know I meet great new people every year, but I really felt like I met lots of new folks (new to me) that I had a lot in common with. And I got to see almost everybody from my "old" friends groups.

Believe me, being a solo in the middle of nowhere really puts networking at the top of my list when it comes to conferences.

[Scott Frey]

Yippee! ... Westlaw has implemented customized tabbed pages! This feature is not available on every tab; for example, on my Westlaw set-up, it's only on "Librarians" and "California." But you can add customizable tabs -- even one called My Tab -- and tinker with them as you please.
Scott Frey said:

Has West published an announcement about the customization features? I'd be interested in a link that I could forward to my colleagues at work.
Jean Davis said:

Like Scott, I can't wait for [Aug. 4] when I can customize Westlaw pages. My first effort will be a customized "international/foreign law" page that I want Stefanie Efrati to push to the Brooklyn Journal of International Law staff. (I post to their TWEN page.) On the customized BJIL page, I plan to include all of the WL indexes to legal periodicals that new members might want to use for topic development, such as CILP, LRI, LJI & ICLL. (Also, I will delete those links to sources that are not available through our law school license.)

[Robb Farmer]

This probably sounds silly, but two of the coolest things I learned about were the souped up mouse thingy and combo keyboard/trakball/wrist rest thing in the exhibitor hall. Of course I can't remember what they were called or who made them, since they didn't have any swag to take home. They were the booth where you could play Solitaire

[Scott Frey]

I think it was Contour Design:

http://www.contourdesign.com/pmo/

http://www.contourdesign.com/rollermouse/

Robb Farmer said:

This probably sounds silly, but two of the coolest things I learned about were the souped up mouse thingy and combo keyboard/trakball/wrist rest thing in the exhibitor hall. Of course I can't remember what they were called or who made them, since they didn't have any swag to take home. They were the booth where you could play Solitaire