Legal Information Specialists Twitter Chat Feb 19

February 13, 2020

By Shaunna Mireau

“Ask the question.” That was a phrase often heard at morning leadership meetings (AKA coffee with my admin colleagues) at my former law firm. Asking the question was intended to mean that we shouldn’t assume that others in the firm noticed the same problems that we did. It is a call to collaborate, ideate, and create solutions as a team. On February 19 at 1 PM EST the @CALLACBD Executive Board will be asking the question, quite a few questions actually, using a Twitter Chat with the hashtag #CALLACBDCHAT.

The Canadian Association of Law Libraries is using a Twitter Chat format to allow for broad participation. All you need to participate is a Twitter account. If you choose to observe rather than having your say (I hope you will chime in), you do not need an account, just follow the conversation.

For those who haven’t participated in a Twitter Chat, the process is straightforward. The @CALLACBD account will pose some questions that will have the #CALLACBDCHAT hashtag and a question number, i.e. Q1. Anyone can chime in with answers using a corresponding answer number; A1 and include #CALLACBDCHAT and any other hashtags you wish. We expect that the questions will be asked over one hour but the conversation may continue past that time. I will be chiming in from my account @smireau.

The goal of this Twitter Chat is to engage this community in thinking about legal information specialists and how to increase awareness and relevance of CALL/ACBD. We want more people in our conversation about legal information so that we have engaging discussions, valuable knowledge sharing and fresh and interesting ideas to bring to our organizations. The CALL/ACBD Executive Board is exploring the big existential questions – who are we and why are we here? Think of this as a dinner party where you can participate in every conversation in the room.

To give you an idea of the input we are interested in, here is one of the questions that we will ask:

The objects of CALL/ACBD are currently:

1. To promote law librarianship, to develop and increase the usefulness of Canadian law libraries, and to foster a spirit of co-operation among them.

2. To provide a forum for meetings of persons engaged or interested in law library work and to encourage professional self-development.

3. To co-operate with other organizations which tend to promote the objects of the Association or the interests of its members.

Should these be altered?

As I said, big existential questions. I hope that you will join in!