A Recap of the Law Library’s Time at AALL

This month, the Law Library of Congress had the opportunity to exhibit at the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL) conference in Portland, Oregon. This conference is an excellent opportunity for the Law Library staff to connect and network with law librarians from across the country, including those from state law libraries, universities, government agencies, law firms, and many more.

The conference is also a great way to expand access to the Law Library of Congress and inform attendees about the services offered, including research assistance through the Ask a Librarian service, and our free programming, such as the educational U.S. law webinars and foreign and comparative international law webinars that we offer. Throughout the conference, we spoke to over 200 attendees about our services and how the Law Library can better serve them, handing out close to 500 gavel pencils and our newly printed pocket Constitutions, which feature QR codes linking to various amendments or articles from the Constitution Annotated website.

Additionally, we had many staff members in attendance that stopped by our booth to answer attendee questions, attend sessions to better aide them in their roles at the Law Library and additionally, attend tours of local law libraries and court houses to see how the Law Library of Congress can grow in accessibility, conduct tours, and serve the public to the best of our ability. I reached out to staff who attended the conference to ask about what their favorite parts of the conference were, and they responded with the following:

Brian Kuhagen: As a technical services librarian, I was excited to attend a presentation about the cataloging of foreign legal material as well as a presentation focused on the cataloging of serial materials. In addition to these sessions that relate to my duties here at the Law Library, I also like to attend sessions that sound interesting. This year, one of those sessions focused on how law libraries participate in the civic education of the children and adults who live nearby or visit the library. This session was especially entertaining, as we got to hear about the ghost that is said to roam the stacks in the LA County Law Library. This tale is used on the tour to help keep the children interested and engaged during the more educational portions of their visit.

Jason Zarin: A very interesting presentation I attended was by the Law Library’s peer institutions (e.g., State Law Library of Virginia) about how they are developing exhibits, tours, youth camps, and other educational events to improve the civic knowledge of the general public.

Stephen Mayeaux: One of the most memorable events at this year’s AALL conference was my opportunity to tour the Multnomah County Courthouse (Central Courthouse) in downtown Portland. The building opened to the public in October 2020 and was designed to be more earthquake-resistant than the century-old courthouse that it replaced. Our tour was led by the Trial Court Administrator, who showed us many of the modern features of the new courthouse, including a Legal Resource Center that provides help mostly to self-represented litigants in family law, landlord-tenant, and small claims cases, as well as digital displays of the daily courthouse calendar, information kiosks, and public art. The courthouse even has a childcare center for families with business at the court. When you visit, make sure to check out the stunning views overlooking the Willamette River from the building’s 17th story.

Luis Acosta: One session I particularly enjoyed was Sunday’s Teaching True Crime in Public Law Libraries: Murder and Oregon’s Holy Rollers Love Cult. It described a lurid story of local legal history involving a preacher named Edmund “Franz” Creffield, who established a notorious religious cult in Oregon whose female members were encouraged to achieve purification by being intimate with him. A man named George Mitchell, whose sisters were members of the cult, shot Creffield dead on the street in Seattle. At his trial, Mitchell claimed temporary insanity, and the jury acquitted him (despite the obvious premeditation). After the trial, George Mitchell’s sister Esther obtained a gun from Creffield’s widow, Maud, and murdered George in revenge for killing Creffield. Esther and Maud were both found insane and placed in an asylum. Maud killed herself in the asylum by eating rat poison. Esther was eventually released, but also later poisoned herself. George Mitchell’s murder case helped bring attention to the opportunistic use of the insanity defense.

Jennifer Davis: Sunday’s program included two engaging presentations: “Fake News Is Lethal: How Critical Media Literacy Aids to Avert the Violent Consequences of Disinformation” and “Hot Topic: Federal Courts: A Year in Review”. The critical media literacy session discussed evaluating media sources. There was a fun breakout session exercise where attendees talked about the sources they used for news information, and the speaker listed some books to read for further research at the session’s end. The federal courts presentation was packed, and there were many questions and some attempts to forecast the future. There were also great offerings related to AI, and a session with practical tips on succession planning.

We look forward to attending again next year! Did you attend AALL? We would love to hear what you enjoyed about the conference as well!

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