2023-2024 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 2023-24 were Jessica Petitto, President; Chris Lund and Karen Oesterle, Co-Vice Presidents; Angela Patti, Treasurer; Lisa Worhacz, Secretary; Allison Perry, Board Member; Debbie Simonik, Board Member; Nina Scholtz, Board Member and Past President.
ALLUNY was pleased to host its Annual Meeting on September 22, 2023, in Syracuse, NY, with a second in-person, remote meeting at Harter, Secrest & Emery LLP in Rochester, NY. The theme was “ALLUNY Ascends 2023: AI & Tech in Action”, and speakers included Josh Kubicki (curator of The Brainyacts Gen AI newsletter and co-founder of Bold Duck Studio), Kim Nayyer (Associate Dean for Library Services and Professor of the Practice at Cornell Law School), Andrew Perlman (Dean and Professor of Law at Suffolk University Law School), Laura Schwalbe (Senior Associate specializing in Artificial Intelligence and New Technologies at Harter Secrest & Emery LLP), David Walker (Director of Schaffer Law Library at Albany Law School), and Tyler Youngman (PhD Student in the Syracuse University School of Information Studies). The event drew more than 60 attendees, with some traveling to one of two physical locations and others joining remotely via Zoom.
The Association of Law Libraries of Upstate New York (ALLUNY) held its annual Spring Institute on April 19, 2024. The theme was “Eclipsing Inequality: the Librarian’s Role in Advancing Social Justice.” Speakers included Stephanie (Cole) Adams, The Law Office of Stephanie Adams, PLLC; Andrew Kloc, Senior Law Librarian, New York Appellate Division, Fourth Department; Rebecca Katz, Founder, Justice Access; Margaret Hagan (Executive Director, Legal Design Lab; Lecturer, Stanford Law School, Stanford Institute of Design; and David Walker (Director of Schaffer Law Library at Albany Law School). The event drew more than 40 attendees, with some traveling to one of two physical locations (in Syracuse and Albany) and others joining remotely via Zoom.
ALLUNY’s most significant accomplishment this year was the creation of a new model for meetings. After the in-person meeting in Albany in October 2019, we were not able to meet in person again until September 30, 2022, when Jay Deveau hosted the 2022 Annual Meeting. Beginning in May 2023, ALLUNY began hosting hybrid meetings with a primary in-person location, a secondary remote in-person location, and an online component via Zoom. Generous technical assistance and members’ comfort with Zoom technology made these hybrid meetings possible and widely accessible to our members and to guests.