Category: Education

March Event – Member Roundtable: Preparing for Summer Associates 🗓

Friday, March 27, 2026
12:00 pm –1:00 pm on Zoom
Register by emailing Kathy Taggart
at ktaggart@lowenstein.com for the Zoom link by 3/27/26

Summer associate season brings both exciting energy and real preparation challenges for law firm librarians. How do you equip a cohort of law students with the research skills and tools they need to hit the ground running — often in just a matter of weeks? This one-hour member roundtable will explore how law librarians can prepare to support summer associates before the summer and as they arrive at their firms.

Featuring speakers from both a law firm and a law school, this discussion will highlight expectations from each side of the pipeline—what students learn in law school, what firms expect when they arrive, and how librarians can bridge the gap. Panelists will share practical strategies for onboarding, research training and resource orientation.

Participants will have the opportunity to exchange ideas, discuss common challenges, and share approaches that have been effective at their own institutions. This interactive session is designed for anyone working with summer associates in a law school or law firm setting.

NJLLA Founders Grant Now Available for 2026

The New Jersey Law Librarians Association is excited to send one of our chapter members to the American Association of Law Libraries (“AALL”) Meeting & Conference in Cleveland, OH, July 18-21, 2026!

The AALL Meeting & Conference is a unique opportunity that can be explored further by visiting their website at AALL Annual Meeting & Conference. Our goal is to provide an enriching experience as the awarded member learns and networks with colleagues from across the country. The purpose of this grant is specifically designed to assist the grant recipient with the costs of registration, transportation, and hotel accommodations up to $1,500.00.

Please note:

  • All applicants must be a participating member of NJLLA for a minimum of 3 months prior to the date of their application. (New requirement!)
  • Applications are reviewed by a blind committee; therefore, questions should only be directed to the President of NJLLA, Amber Cain, via email at amber.cain@shu.edu.
  • Contacting any Grant Committee members directly regarding your grant application, or anyone else’s grant application, will be grounds for disqualification.
  • Application Deadline: Monday, April 6, 2026, 11:59pm.
  • Please read the full list of qualifications and requirements on the application before you apply.
  • Use the link below to access the application
  • Even if you are not a grant recipient, we encourage you to be an Early Bird attendee. Visit the AALL conference link above for more information. The AALL Early Bird registration rate ends May 20, 2026. The Early Bird Hilton Cleveland Downtown hotel registration rate ends June 24, 2026.

Message from the Chair: Good luck to all applicants! As the 2023 Founders Grant recipient, I thoroughly enjoyed attending and could not be more grateful to the association for providing this grant. I’m excited to give back and encourage you all to attend the conference. RLM

Questions should only be directed to the President of NJLLA, Amber Cain, via email at amber.cain@shu.edu.

2026 NJLLA Founders Grant Application is available via this hyperlink:

GRANT APPLICATION

NJLLA Fall 2025 Program Schedule – Mark Your Calendars!

NJLLA Members,

The Program Committee is excited to announce our Fall 2025 event lineup! We have three engaging opportunities for professional development and networking ahead.

Upcoming Events:

Thursday, October 23, 2025 | 12:00–1:00 PM
NJLLA Book Club (Title TBD)
Virtual meeting

Wednesday, November 12, 2025 | 12:00–1:00 PM
Member Roundtable: Moving a Law Library & Disposing of Print
Virtual meeting

Thursday, December 11, 2025 | 5:00 PM
NJLLA Member Holiday Party
In person at Gateway Center, Newark

Formal email invitations with RSVP details and additional information will be sent closer to each event date. Whether you can join us for one session or all three, we look forward to connecting with you this fall!

Best regards,
The NJLLA Program Committee

NJLLA Founders Grant Now Available for 2025

The New Jersey Law Librarians Association is excited to send one of our chapter members to the American Association of Law Libraries (“AALL”) Meeting & Conference in Portland, OR July 19-22, 2025!

The AALL Meeting & Conference is a unique opportunity that can be explored further by visiting their website at AALL Annual Meeting & Conference (Register – AALL Annual Meeting & Conference). Our goal is to provide an enriching experience as the awarded member learns and networks with colleagues from across the country. The purpose of this grant is specifically designed to assist the grant recipient with the costs of registration, transportation, and hotel accommodations up to $1,500.00.

Please note:

  • Applications are reviewed by a blind committee; therefore, questions should only be directed to the Vice President of NJLLA, Amber Cain, via email at amber.cain@shu.edu
  • Contacting any Grant Committee members directly regarding your grant application, or anyone else’s grant application, will be grounds for disqualification.
  • Application Deadline: 11:59pm, April 7, 2025.
  • Please read the full list of qualifications and requirements on the application before you apply.
  • Use the link below to access the application
  • Even if you are not a grant recipient, we encourage you to be an Early Bird attendee. Visit the AALL conference link above for more information. The AALL Early Bird registration rate ends May 2, 2025. The Early Bird Hyatt Regency hotel registration rate ends June 24, 2025.

Message from the Chair: Good luck to all applicants! As the 2023 Founders Grant recipient, I thoroughly enjoyed attending and could not be more grateful to the association for providing this grant. I’m excited to give back and encourage you all to attend the conference. RLM

Questions should only be directed to the Vice President of NJLLA, Amber Cain, via email at Amber.Cain@shu.edu.

2025 NJLLA Founders Grant Application is available via this hyperlink:

GRANT APPLICATION

Newark Public Library Visit

NJLLA members gathered for an enjoyable in-person event at the Newark Public Library on September 24th. Kudos to Aimee Sachs for organizing such a successful event and providing more details below.

Dale Colston, Assistant Director for Special Collections, gave seven NJLLA members and one non-library guest a tour of the Newark Public Library. We all enjoyed learning about the building’s history, touring the Philip Roth Room, and looking at the hallway exhibits. We stopped at the Charles F. Cummings New Jersey Information Center where librarian Tom Ankner talked a bit about the focus of the collections and highlighted the legal resources. But what impressed us most was seeing how the NPL is an active and integral part of the community – those front doors kept swinging open! Afterwards, we grabbed a bite to eat at McGovern’s and talked shop.

October Program: Brownbag Lunch-and Learn 🗓

October Program
Brownbag Lunch-and Learn
October 15, 2024
from 12pm-12:45pm (via Zoom)

The NJLLA Program Committee will be hosting our brownbag lunch-and-learn topic series again this year! This year’s first brownbag will focus on the topic of: How do you use GenAI in your everyday life?

Over the past two years, we have been inundated with information about generative AI’s magical capabilities, but how are we incorporating this groundbreaking tool into our daily routines? Join us for an informal conversation about how NJLLA members are using these exciting software applications in both personal and professional contexts. (Spoiler alert: this invitation was co-written with a little help from ChatGPT!). Please submit your ideas, questions, and comments to the moderator, Amber Cain at amber.cain@shu.edu, by October 14th.

If you would like to RSVP to join the conversation, please email Kathy Taggart at ktaggart@lowenstein.com by Friday, October 11th for a Zoom invitation.

We look forward to seeing you!

NJLLA Brownbag Series: Pressing Issues Your Library Is Facing (Other Than AI) 🗓

SAVE THE DATE: September 28th from 12pm-12:45pm (via Zoom)

The NJLLA Program Committee is hosting a brownbag lunch-and-learn topic series this year! The inaugural meeting will focus on the topic of: Pressing Issues Your Library Is Facing (Other Than AI).

We are experimenting with a new structure. We would like for a few members (up to 5) to share their thoughts on the topic in 5-minute time slots, to be followed by 20 minutes of Q&A. We think this will provide a forum for members to share and for all of us to hear from several voices.

If you would like to RSVP to listen in, please email Kathy Taggart at ktaggart@lowenstein.com by Monday, September 25th for a Zoom invitation.

If you have ideas to share as a speaker and would like to sign up for one of the five 5-minute slots to discuss this topic, please email Kathy Taggart at ktaggart@lowenstein.com AND Amber Cain at amber.cain@shu.edu by Wednesday, September 20th to secure your speaking spot.

We look forward to connecting with members in new ways this year!

NJLLA Grant Winner Recap of AALL

NJLLA’s Founders Grant Award winner for 2023 was Roberta L. Matalon, the law librarian at Connell Foley LLP. Roberta attended AALL in Boston and has provided a recap of her time there. Read her essay about the terrific experience she had, the panels she attended, and the people she met. Roberta took some great photos of the event, which you can see in her essay. Of course AI was a major topic at the conference, so read to the end to find ChatGPT’s summary of the AALL Conference as well!

AALL / Bloomberg Law Continuing Education Grant

Are you thinking about putting together a meeting or a local or regional conference? Do you need additional funding to bring in speakers or record the event? Then, on behalf of the AALL/Bloomberg Law Continuing Education Grant Jury, we encourage you to apply for an AALL/Bloomberg Law Continuing Education Grant to receive funding to support educational programming that could benefit the entire AALL community.

Funding is available to cover expenses directly affecting the program, such as room rental, speaker fees, travel fees, and recording/broadcasting of the program. Funding cannot be used for food, advertising, or vendor-specific programming. This grant is a reimbursement grant meaning that expenses are reimbursed after the program, and you have submitted paid receipts. For detailed information, see the grant program FAQs.

Recently awarded grants include:

·         Pay Equity for Law Librarians: “In Their Own Words” (BLL SIS)
·         Critical Law Librarianship (LLNE-SNELLA Spring Meeting) 
·         Get Refusal & Domestic Violence in the Jewish Community (on behalf of CARLIG)
·         2022 Diversity Summit (on behalf of PLLIP & BLL-SIS)
·         NOCALL Spring Institute

The next deadline for grant applications is Oct. 31, 2022.

Apply for NJLLA’s Founders Grant

AALL’s Annual Meeting & Conference is happening IN PERSON in 2022! NJLLA offers a grant to assist one of our members to attend the conference being held in Denver, CO, this summer. The grant covers the cost of registration, transportation, and hotel accommodations up to $1,500.

Click here for the instructions and application, available as a fillable PDF. Please be sure to adhere to all rules and deadlines. This is a wonderful opportunity for one of our members so we encourage all to apply.