We Want You… !

In May of this year, AALL President Ron Wheeler charged a special committee to review and update two documents, the Guide to Fair Business Practices for Legal Publishers and the Procurement Toolkit and Code of Best Practices for Licensing Electronic Resources. Both documents have been around for at least 15 years, and they were last revised about five years ago. The special committee will present recommendations to the AALL Board at its spring meeting in 2018, and we are spending the fall soliciting input from the membership about necessary changes or updates.

CS-SIS members are among the most qualified people to do this review, given that much of the need for updating arises out of the constant new developments and new uses of computing technology. Are the principles described in these documents broad enough to encompass issues arising from current and future technologies (e.g., social media, e-books, mobile devices, wearables, internet of things, biometric authentication, data mining, cryptocurrencies)? At this point I am just listing trendy technology words in an effort to spark some thinking… I don’t actually know much about many of these topics (and you can probably tell). That’s why we want you! Are there trends that should be addressed specifically? Or can these documents in their present form continue to accommodate the ongoing rapid developments in technology that we will undoubtedly continue to experience?

In an hour you can probably read both documents and make some notes about necessary fixes and possible updates. Keep in mind that the principles in each document are best crafted as broadly as possible, so that they may continue to reflect both innovative new resources and practices as well as those that are tried and true. You can send your suggestions to me: eoutler at barry dot edu.

In addition, in mid-November we will conduct a discussion forum open to all AALL members. If you have particular interest or expertise in these topics (and even if you don’t) please plan to participate. Announcements about the schedule and how to participate will be coming soon.