2024-2025 Annual Report of the Association of Law Libraries of Upstate New York
The officers of the Association of Law Libraries of Upstate New York (ALLUNY) during 2024-2025 were Chris Lund and Karen Oesterle, Co-Presidents; Kristin Neri, Vice-President; Angela Patti, Treasurer; Lisa Worhacz, Secretary; Allison Perry, Board Member; Debbie Simonik, Board Member; Jessica Petitto, Board Member and Past President. When we lost Debbie Simonik in December 2024 due to sudden illness, Olli Baker generously stepped forward to serve out the remainder of her term. ALLUNY made a memorial donation to the AALL Scholarship Fund in Debbie’s name in her memory.
ALLUNY was pleased to host its Annual Meeting on October 25, 2024, in Syracuse, NY, with a virtual Zoom option. The theme was “Pioneering AI from Classrooms to Courtrooms” and speakers included AALL Executive Board Member Andre Davison (Director, Harris County Robert W. Hainsworth Law Library), Ellyssa Valenti Kroski (Director of Innovation & Engagement, New York Law Institute), Nina Scholtz (Director for Research & Instruction, Cornell Law School), Teresa Vadakin (Librarian, Hurwitz Fine PC), Brigid Purtell (Litigation Paralegal, Bousquet Holstein PLLC), Chris Lund (Principal Law Librarian, New York State Unified Court System), Elisabeth Lasch-Quinn (Professor, History Department, Campbell Public Affairs Institute), and Mary Szto (Teaching Professor, College of Law, Syracuse University). The event drew more than 55 attendees, with some traveling to Syracuse College of Law and others joining remotely via Zoom.
We selected Library School Liaisons to strengthen our ties with this community and its students. Christine Demetros serves as our Syracuse Liaison, Elaine Knecht our Buffalo Liaison, and we seek an Albany Library School Liaison. We are thrilled that we gained 13 new members this year.
ALLUNY archives were relocated from Rochester to Albany Law thanks to Rob Cunningham and Clarice Affronti, an Albany Law student. Albany Law has agreed to house our records and Lisa Suto will manage this repository, which includes two boxes of historical material returned to us from LLMC. Meanwhile, Chris Lund and Karen Oesterle updated the Meeting Manual to reflect all the changes we have seen during the last five years.
ALLUNY’S most significant accomplishment this year was the rejuvenation of our Newsletter as a quarterly publication. Webmaster Melissa Sievers graciously agreed to serve as Newsletter Editor, assisted ably and enthusiastically by Chris Lund, Newsletter Committee Member. Volume 50, Issue 1 was published in March 2025; Volume 50, Issue 2 in June 2025: and Volume 50, Issue 3 in September 2025. We gratefully thank Melissa and Chris for their work on this endeavor.
In early 2025, Ella Pieterse volunteered to chair the long-dormant ALLUNY Government Relations & Advocacy Committee. Under Ella’s leadership, the committee held its first meeting in years and has been meeting regularly ever since. The committee is actively working on several projects, including developing bill-tracking spreadsheets to monitor relevant legislation, creating partnerships, tabling at events, publishing updates to our newsletter, and finding and sharing opportunities for advocacy. The committee hit the ground running by sending out a survey to members to gauge interests and concerns, and it continues to take proactive steps to ensure that ALLUNY is staying on top of these critical issues.
ALLUNY held its Spring Institute on April 25, 2025, with its theme “Finding Future Law Librarians: Promoting the Profession, Mentoring, Networking, Hiring.” Speakers included B. Austin Waters (Law Librarian, University at Buffalo State University of New York), Dafni Kiritsis (Director of Externships and Career Services, Syracuse Law School), Yarden Wallace (Student, Syracuse University iSchool), Patti Bevans (Director of Career Services, SYR iSchool), Ella Pieterse (Law Library Assistant, NYSUCS), Kristina Alayan (Associate Dean for Library and Technology, U.MD, Francis King Carey School of Law), Diana Koppang (Director of Research & Competitive Intelligence, Neal, Gerber & Eisenberg LLP) and Teresa Miguel-Stearns (Associate Dean & Director, University of Arizona College of Law Library.)
Speakers on a panel moderated by Christine Demetros (Associate Director for Research & Collections, SYR Law) were Nikki DiNatale (Knowledge & Research Consultant, LexisNexis), Erin Kovalsky (Principal Law Librarian, NYSUCS), Chris Lund (Principal Law Librarian, NYSUCS), Allison Perry (Manager, Research & Information Services, Bond, Schoeneck & King PLLC), and Jessica Petitto (Technical Services Librarian, SYR Law). More than 60 attended, with some traveling to Syracuse Law and others joining via Zoom.
In June 2025, ALLUNY partnered with a number of organizations, including the Pride Alliance of the NY State Courts, to host a table at Manlius PRIDE and march in the 2025 CNY Pride Parade, themed Revolutionary Love. An Educational Grant was awarded to Angela Ackerman, an MLIS student at Simmons University, to attend the Law Librarians of New England (LLNE)’s Legal Research Instruction Program during 2025.
Another of ALLUNY’s accomplishments this year was re-establishing the tri-chapter reception at AALL in Portland, Oregon. A long-standing tradition among the ALLUNY, NJLLA, and LLAGNY chapters, the last in-person reception was held in 2019. AALL Conferences in 2020 and 2021 took place online, and the next in-person AALL Conference was held in Denver in 2022. At the 2023 Conference in Boston and the 2024 Conference in Chicago, ALLUNY held unofficial and successful gatherings for ALLUNY members under the leadership of Chris Lund. In 2025, the Board authorized hosting a reception at AALL and we invited ALLUNY, NJLLA, and LLAGNY members. Bloomberg Industry Group generously sponsored the event, thanks to Library Relations Director Madeline Cohen, and an exciting time was enjoyed by all attendees.
ALLUNY hosted several 2024-2025 librarian gatherings, including the Thursday evenings prior to the Spring Institute and our Annual Meeting. Our December 5th Holiday Lunch & Learn Send-off for Elaine Knecht’s retirement was festive, celebratory, and a touch bittersweet. The March 12th Zoom was primarily a social event, and seventeen librarians from upstate New York attended our June 3rd Lunch-n-Learn, along with several from New York City and one from Washington State. A lively discussion ensued with topics ranging from vacation plans to recent AALL activity to multiple aspects of AI. The Fall Lunch-n-Learn took place on September 24th and topics discussed included AI sources, how librarians are responding to ALM removing its materials from Bloomberg and LexisNexis, how attendees chose their library school and librarian career, CCH branding, AI policies for law students, and more.
Respectfully submitted,
Chris Lund, Karen Oesterle
ALLUNY Co-Presidents, 2024-2025