For our inaugural feature spotlighting an ALLUNY member, we asked new member Chris Lund to tell us about himself.
Chris Lund
Title: Law Librarian
Library: New York State 6th Judicial District Law Libraries
Locations: Broome County (Main Office); Chemung, Chenango, Cortland, Delaware, Madison, Otsego, Schuyler, Tioga and Tompkins Counties.
Twitter Handle: ChrisJLund82
Five Questions:
1. Favorite thing about your job?
I started in this job a little over 2 months ago, after my position had been vacant for over 6 years following the retirement of the previous law librarian. This means there has been quite a lot of neglect here over the past several years, but it also has provided me with the freedom and flexibility to remake much of the library and to customize it and tailor it to fit the needs of a modern public access law library. I’m very excited at having the chance to take on the challenge of rebuilding and reshaping this library to once again provide much needed legal resource services to both the court system and the community.
2. Advice to your 20-year-old self?
“Law Librarianship is a career that actually exists.” Age 20 is probably just about when I first started to really consider the law as a viable career option, but at that point the only logical next step on my radar was law school and a life as a lawyer, so I took the LSAT, enrolled in law school, then went into practice at a small firm after graduation, despite the fact that I never really enjoyed law practice very much. I used the law library regularly in law school, but somehow I never fully realized that “law librarian” was a job that existed until I was in my 30’s. Once I had that revelation I knew immediately that it was the career for me and I quickly began the path that led to my current job, but I often wonder how it took me so long to even think of law librarianship as an option.
3. Favorite travel destination?
Washington, D.C. Whenever I travel I love visiting museums and learning as much local history as I can, and there is no better place to do that than Washington D.C. D.C. has so much to offer that, despite multiple visits in the past, every time I’m in town I always feel like I’m able to find new things to learn and new places to explore that I’ve never seen before. The Smithsonian system alone is absolutely staggering (and you can’t beat the price of admission!). I’m already looking forward to visiting again this summer for AALL ’19 (especially the tour of the Supreme Court library).
4. Favorite item in your library?
My library has a lot of great items, but one thing that always stands out to me is the collection of photographs of our prior law librarians displayed in our entrance lobby, including a photo of one of my earliest predecessors, Mary B. Lee, who was the law librarian in the Binghamton Supreme Court Law Library for 50 years, from 1911 – 1961. I can hardly begin to fathom how different the library must have been when she started her position here over 100 years ago. Sometimes when I’m looking at older items in our collection (like our handwritten law library catalogue from 1896) I can’t help but think about how much change these items have seen, but they also provide a strong sense of consistency and tradition, and the ability to visualize all of my predecessors here helps to strengthen the connection I feel to that long tradition.
5. If you could live in a book, movie or TV show, what would it be?
The West Wing. In addition to being a brilliantly written and acted television show, The West Wing in many ways exemplifies the world I want to live in. Even though the characters face so many of the same conflicts and disagreements that have regularly arisen throughout our political history, there is a strong sense of purity of motivation and intent that perfectly captures the idealized version of what I imagine the founders envisioned as they were first constructing our system of government.
Melissa Sievers