During my employment at Chapman University's School of Law, our Library Director, Sheryl Kramer, always made room in her budget to send three librarians to the annual AALL Conference. Chapman paid for the conference attendance, round trip air travel, car storage at the airport, hotel, meals, and transportation around town. There were six librarians, including Sheryl, so I got to attend conferences every other year.
I'd been to the 103rd AALL conference in 2010, so didn't expect to be going again in 2011, but one of my colleagues requested a rotation switch so that she could go to the one in Boston in 2012. I wasn't too sad about missing out on Boston, as I'd never been to either city and Philadelphia sounded adequately exciting.
I was adamant about the university getting it's money's worth out of my attendance, so was sure to fill my entire days with seminars. Early in the morning, at lunch, and at the end of the day, I would do my exploring.
The photos of this post are primarily dedicated to the conference. I will reserve most of the Downtown Philadelphia images for subsequent posts.
DSC_0028: (Above) The lobby of the Philadelphia Marriott Downtown. Philadelphia, PA. 7/23/2011
An easy jaunt to the 2011 104th AALL Conference at the Pennsylvania Convention Center was achieved by virtue of a lovely skywalk from the Philadelphia Marriott Downtown.
DSC_0033: (Above) Skywalk between the Marriott Philadelphia Downtown and the Pennsylvania Convention Center. Philadelphia, PA 7/24/2011
DSC_0033-1: (Above) Skywalk between the Marriott Philadelphia Downtown and the Pennsylvania Convention Center. Philadelphia, PA 7/23/2011
DSC_0039: (Above) Skywalk between the Marriott Philadelphia Downtown and the Pennsylvania Convention Center. Philadelphia, PA 7/23/2011
I guess it is obvious I liked the skywalk.
DSC_0012: (Above) Pennsylvania Convention Center, 104th AALL July 2011 Conference. Philadelphia, PA 7/24/2011
The banner in the image above reads something to the affect of, " AALL 2011 104th Conference, Philadelphia. Welcome."
Here's something I bet you didn't know (unless you were an AALL member, and even then, maybe not.) There was a charity held this year that involved members donating baby blankets they had made. One of our own librarians, Isa (she shipped it in as this wasn't her year to attend), donated one of her masterpieces.
DSC_0027: (Above) Baby blanket donations at the 2011 104th AALL Conference.
Philadelphia, PA 7/24/2011
SC_0045: (Above) Bob Clarke, Wolters Kluwer Law and Business - Aspen Sales Rep. 2011 104th AALL Conference. Philadelphia, PA 7/24/2011
This was the first time I met Bob who was headquartered in New York. We spoke so regularly over the phone, that in conversations with our Collection Developer, Isa, I came to distinguish him from other reps as Aspen-Bob.
As the Acquisitions Librarian, placing and overseeing orders, I enjoyed this aspect of my job; getting to know the sales reps of various publishers and vendors from around the country.
DSC_0044: (Above) Mark Surkis. From "Digital Library Systems Group" at the Philadelphia Convention Center's 2011 AALL conference.
Philadelphia, PA 7/24/2011
Mark, I had met before, hence the welcoming posture. He, like most sales reps (but not all) had visited Chapman on a round of visiting Southern California law schools that his publishing group served.
DSC_0124: (Above) Teri and Lorin at the 2011 104th AALL Philadelphia Conference. (Center frame coming toward us, her-long black dress & boots, him-blue dress shirt & dark pants)
Philadelphia, PA 7/24/2011
Lorin, with his wife, Teri, at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in the photo above, was my colleague at the Chapman University Law Library. I believe he and I were the only two from our library to attend the 2011 AALL conference.
DSC_0118: (Above) Suzanne Mawhinney, of the University of San Fancisco’s Zeif Law Library, speaking at the Animal Law Caucus about the Animal Assisted Therapy (AAT) program her library conducted for students in the Spring Semester of 2011 during the two week exam period.
104th AALL Conference in Philadelphia, PA.
Philadelphia, PA 7/24/2011
A friend of mine, Leslie, from the Orange County Public Law Library in Downtown Santa Ana (California), seeing some of the pet photos that I'd put in the signature area of my emails, invited me to join this Animal Rights Caucus, so I did. :-) Sadly, animals are considered property in the eyes of the law, and therefore crimes against them are generally handled lightly, generally with fines for the cost of replacement.
DSC_0110: (Above) Dhalia Lithwick giving the keynote speech on "The Supreme Court and Free Speech". American Association of Law Libraries (AALL) annual conference at the Philadelphia Convention Center
Philadelphia, PA 7/24/2011
Keynote addresses at these conferences were always quite interesting. Dhalia spoke of her reporting of Supreme Court sessions.
According to Wikipedia (accessed today, 2/16/2023):
"Dahlia Lithwick is a Canadian-American lawyer, writer, and journalist. Lithwick is currently a contributing editor at Newsweek and senior editor at Slate. She primarily writes about law and politics in the United States. She writes "Supreme Court Dispatches" and "Jurisprudence" and has covered the Microsoft trial and other legal issues for Slate. In 2018, the Sidney Hillman Foundation awarded Lithwick with the Hillman Prize for Opinion & Analysis Journalism noting that she "has been the nation's best legal commentator for two decades".[2]"
That's it for the 104th 2011 American Association of Law Libraries Conference. I will create one or two separate posts for the photos I took in downtown Philadelphia.
Thanks for visiting!
