Native Programs Highlight AALL Meeting in Seattle 2003
by Faye Hadley, Native American Resources/Reference Law Librarian, MLIC, University of Tulsa College of Law
The AALL (American Association of Law Libraries) Annual Meeting was held in Seattle, Washington this year. Besides being a wonderful location for a conference that is held in July every year, the meeting provided an opportunity for a breakthrough of sorts for law librarians with an interest in Native American/Indian law. There were four programs on the schedule this year that dealt with Native themes. There was also a very well-attended round table on collecting Native/tribal codes (organized by David Selden), as well as an excellent turn-out for the annual meeting of the Native Peoples Law Caucus. Thirty-four people attended the Native Peoples Law Caucus meeting this year. The discussion ranged from basic collection development in the area of Native law to possibly funding a scholarship for a Native student who expresses a desire to enter the field of law librarianship. There was, of course, interest in continuing the momentum that came out of this year's meeting on to next year's meeting in Boston. To that end, Janet Katz, Harvard Law Library, has agreed to serve as the coordinator for program ideas for Boston.
The location was only partly responsible for the increased emphasis on Native law. The other factors include the increased interest in Native law in not only academic law libraries (due to an expansion of Native Studies Programs) but also in court and firm libraries; the increase in primary resources that deal with Native law such as tribal codes and constitutions and tribal case law; as well as an interest by law librarians who have been following the Cobell v. Norton case that seeks to address the years of mismanagement on the part of the federal government in regard to the treaty-established trust obligations to Natives. All in all, it was a great meeting with plenty of opportunities to network with other law librarians and meet new colleagues - all located in a lovely city in which to explore. Also, the Law Library of Congress contacted the MLIC about obtaining a copy of the Native Peoples Law Caucus Newsletter for its collection, so the current issue and a few back issues are on their way to LC.