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Our Nominations Committee seeks candidates for the upcoming Executive Board elections.  The committee will select a slate of candidates to present to our membership for the 2021 election.  We will choose up to two candidates for the position of vice president/president-elect, Treasurer, Secretary, and for each of the two Member-at-Large seats on the Executive Board.  Interested candidates should review the position duties in the NJLLA Policy & Procedure Manual.

To nominate yourself or an NJLLA colleague, please send a brief description of fewer than three paragraphs to the current chair of the Nominations Committee, Dennis Prieto, at dprieto@law.rutgers.edu by February 1^st.

For the 2021 election, ballots will be distributed and voting will occur at the NJLLA Annual Meeting in May, where the results will be announced.

The New Jersey Law Librarians Association kicked off the 2020-21 year with a program entitled “Teaching and Learning in the Virtual World”, moderated by Johanna Bizub and Gayle Lynn-Nelson. Twenty members were in attendance at various times throughout the virtual program and everyone enjoyed seeing familiar faces and hearing familiar voices.

Johanna had reached out to NJLLA members about how people are coping with the pandemic and what changes they have made. Some members are going into the office once in a while or more frequently (including choosing to go in at night to avoid people in the office during daytime hours). Staying home has its own challenges – sharing space 24/7 with family members who may also be trying to work or attend school. Pets are different – we love being home with our pets! Making a comfortable space – an office, the dining room table – with a proper setup is essential. Some members took home chairs and monitors, others have purchased webcams, monitors, headsets and other equipment. We’re no longer working from home sporadically or one day a week, it’s full-time and your setup needs to change to avoid back pain, etc. Standing up and moving around is key.

Everyone is looking at converting print to digital format or just cancelling print during this time. It’s also been an opportunity to grow and learn new skills and adapt quickly to a changing environment. There are struggles with burnout – these are hard times.

After sharing circumstances and ideas, Gayle provided some great ideas for making meetings and trainings more interesting (the Powerpoint is here). As we stay virtual, it’s important to keep connecting with people on a personal level as well as a professional level. NJLLA’s Program Committee hopes to continue offering opportunities for professional and personal connection for all of our members. Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Let’s show our NJLLA Pride, and nominate one of our own (or yourself – self-nominations are permitted)!   

AALL is now accepting nominations for the Emerging Leader Award. This award recognizes newer members who have made significant contributions to the profession and have demonstrated the potential for leadership and continuing excellence.

Selection criteria include:

• The nominee must be a member in good standing of AALL
• The nominee must be in their first 10 years of law library experience
• The nominee must not have previously received an Emerging Leader Award
• The nominee must have made a significant contribution to the Association and/or the profession.
• The nominee must have shown outstanding promise for continuing service and leadership. Specific examples of their continuing activities must be provided.

The nomination deadline is February 1st, 2021. Letters of recommendation can take some time to gather and holidays are approaching, so we encourage you to begin the process as soon as possible in order to meet the deadline.

More details on the award, including a link to the Nomination Form, can be found here: Emerging Leader Award

Members,

NJLLA is planning a virtual discussion on November 19, 2020, from 1-2 pm entitled “What We’re Doing: Creating New Ways to Teach, Reach and Thrive in the New Hybrid Environment.” We hope it will be a lively and informative session for all. Details about the November program will be forthcoming under a separate announcement.

In preparation for this program, we would love for members to address the questions below and share your experiences ahead of time to give us a jumping off point during the program. Please send your answers or struggles to our meeting coordinator Johanna Bizub at jcbizub@verizon.net or call Johanna at 973-714-3408.

Our work situations have changed dramatically. Some are still all virtual and some are working a few hours or days in the office. We are all being creative and we would like to share what our members have found to be helpful. We know there are still some areas where we have not yet found solutions.

Questions:

Are you still working from home?
Have you returned to the office? If so, how many hours or days?
Have your working hours been affected?
Has your budget been adjusted?
How are you dealing with everything virtual? Meetings, phone calls, trainings?
Home office settings — did you change anything to make it work better? How are dealing with materials that can’t be sent via email?
Vendor interactions, including returning materials, filing, invoices — What are you doing? Does it work?