CALL for Innovation

Karen Sawatzky - Co-chair CALL 2020, Director of Legal Resources with Manitoba Law LibrariesMichael McAlpine - Co-chair CALL 2020, Manager of Research and Knowledge with Siskinds, LLPCALL 2020 - Hamilton, Ontario - May 24-27, 2020Highlights:Revival | Rebirth | Re-Invention - a theme reflective of the profession and the Hamilton regionChanging nature of information workDeveloping a program that supports collaboration - both at the conference and beyondHearing the feedback of attendees that more networking and interaction time is highly prizedMany different ideas under consideration and more welcome!Video of this interview is available on YouTube.

Ann-Marie Melvie - CALL President and librarian for the Saskatchewan Court of AppealFemi Cadmus - AALL President and Associate Dean and Research Professor at Duke Law, Director of Goodson Law LibraryCo-host: Alan Kilpatrick, Reference Librarian at the Law Society of SaskatchewanHighlights:the role of annual conferences to law library associationsNothing like being face-to-face and AALL surveys have shown that networking is recognized as one of the greatest benefitsa welcoming community for new law librarians and information professionals, with special interest groups and special designed to help bring people into the communityMentorship, collaboration and cross-association engagement"Law librarian" is one of many expanding roles for legal information professionals, so who should belong to CALL / AALL? (hint: any professional in the KM, legal information, legal tech and legal scholarship space will find value)Video of this interview is available at YouTube.

Cyndi Murphy - Past President and Honoured Member of CALL, and Knowledge Manager at Stewart McKelveyHighlights:applying library principles like KM and taxonomies to projects relevant to practice management and firm-wide innovation initiativesthe invaluable role of CALL (conferences, listserv, webinars and more) as source of insights, education and fundamental engine of skill expansion and career progressionthe CALL network and conferences provide inspiration and feedback on new developments and opportunitiesevolution of the CALL conference as a tech conference, but one still that prioritizes the soft skills and the on-the-ground insights needed to manage and influence the changes associated with technologyyour CALL network is global - and your international peers stand ready to assist and informCALL as public policy advocate? There are certainly more opportunities to do thatVideo of this interview is available on YouTube.

Danann Hawes - Publisher, Emond PublishingHighlights:From "backpack to briefcase" - building a practice division in a publisher with strong and deep roots in legal educationFocused on "lost art" of high quality legal treatise publishingEmbedding in community of practitioners, users, experts and authors to determine build highly valued contentSeeing a market opportunity as traditional large publishers focus shiftsVideo of this interview is available on YouTube.

Jennifer Walker - Head Librarian, County of Carleton Law Association (CCLA)Highlights:Role of the CCLA in the Ottawa legal community and courthouse library funding in OntarioLibraries as central to the identity of a local legal communityWhen the library is looking tired, enthusiasm and support can waneBuilding support for renovation in a multi-stakeholder environmentFinding the fundingMaking the case that physical space is essential in an era of increasing digitizationVideo of this interview is available on YouTube.

Kristin Hodgins - Project Director, Ministry of the Attorney General (British Columbia)Daniel Hoadley - Head of Design and Research, Incorporated Council of Law Reporting (UK)Highlights:Considering innovation from the human side and from the machine sideChange management as key in a People->Process->Technology approach to innovation as you encounter problems, behaviours and opinions early and often in addressing challenges that may have a technical component to the solutionMachine-centric or initiated experimentation is essential to innovation as we start with a language and text problem - i.e., large blocks of unstructured text that defines rights and obligations - that require heavy effort on NLP, information architecture and access to data challengesExperimentation as different than innovation, where the former expands the range of technological solutions that exist for the latter to select and incorporate as and when neededWithin legal and justice circles, there are many different communitiesVideo of this interview is available on YouTube.

Jason Morris - Round Table Law, Lemma Legal ConsultingCo-founder of Legal Hackers Edmonton, Lawyer at Round Table Law, LLM student in Computational Law, ABA Innovation Fellow 2018/2019Highlights:how a practicing lawyer finds himself doing a tech LLM under joint supervision of the law school and a global computer science leader in legal artificial intelligenceEncoding legislation into software, and building tools to answer legal questions by analogyOpen source is essential to advancement - DocAssemble as one of the fastest growing tools in the pro-bono and low-bono toolkitAre automated legal services virtually "unregulatable"? Probably.Video of this interview is available on YouTube.

Randy Goebel, PhD - Fellow with the Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute and Professor of Computer Science with the University of Alberta.Highlights:why law? How is AI applied to law and what can AI scientists learn from lawUsing AI to "pass" the Japanese Bar exam and the annual Competition on Legal Information Extraction and Entailment (COLIEE)cross-disciplinary studies, working with industryMachine Learning - a necessary but insufficient means of tackling complex problems in lawImportance of domain expertise and the essential role of the librarian as metadata expert and curatorVideo of this interview is available on YouTube.

Melanie Hodges-Neufeld - Director of Legal Resources, Law Society of SaskatchewanBrea Lowenberger - Director of Create Justice A2J Lab, University of SaskatchewanMegan Smiley - LawMatters Program Coordinator, Courthouse Libraries BCHighlights:Discussion of Saskatchewan Access to Legal Information (SALI) projectServing the public and triage of public legal information needs from within public and courthouse libraries and library networksAddressing critical legal information gaps through trusted intermediariescoordination of A2J efforts across multiple stakeholder groupsDeveloping and learning from best practicesVideo of this interview available on YouTube

Megan Siu - CALL 2019 co-chair and Research Analyst with Learning and Design team of Emergency Management Agency of Alberta Ministry of Municipal Affairs.Highlights:Pulling together a strong team (along with co-chair Josette McEachren) to run a successful conferenceStrategies for designing agendas and finding the right speakersKey conference topics: AI and tech, Indigenous issues, diversity and inclusion, and moreManaging the unexpectedBuilding a welcoming environmentWhat brings young professionals to CALL and what keeps them coming backVideo of this interview available on YouTube

Highlights:Jennifer is KM SIG Chair at CALL and a law firm knowledge services director with 15 years experience in libraries and knowledge solutions. Embedded in KM, IT and now Innovation over her law related career. She discussed key takeaways from the new ISO standard on knowledge management systems (ISO 30401) and corresponding ARK publication "A Guide to Global Best Practice and Standards in KM" on implications for the profession.Her messages include:People with library degrees can do so much for their organizations Don't restrict yourself to just traditional library or legal research work or a lot of opportunities will pass you by or you will find colleagues in other departments suddenly doing the work you know how to do best. Do not be afraid to geek out! Partner with IT, innovation, KM and BD as much as possible as there are so many ways to contribute to your organization's bottom line and customer base.Video of this interview available on YouTube