One of my favorite legal tech Conferences is put on by the American Association of Law Librarians, better known as AALL. I attend every year and write about what I observe. My articles on previous shows can be found here, here, here and here.
This year’s Show was July 15 through 18. Unfortunately, it was sandwiched in the middle of my lengthy travel schedule. I have had numerous ABA leadership responsibilities and spoke at an industry conference, all of which kept me on the road more than usual. I had to miss the opening Sunday night session and reception. Because of all this, I haven’t gotten around to providing my thoughts on this show. Under the maxim, better late than never, here goes.
The Law Librarians conference was held in Boston. As always, AALL focuses on the future of law librarianship and how the profession can adapt to the changing landscape of legal information. Fittingly, the theme of the show was “Map Our Future.”
This year’s Show focused in large part on the transformative role of technology and generative AI in legal. There were lots of discussions and presentations around topics like technology, data analytics, and the evolving role of law librarians. In addition, there were networking opportunities and, as always, a chance for attendees to explore products and services from vendors. But to be expected, generative AI dominated the discussions.
The Evolving Role of the Law Librarian
Historically, law librarians were charged with maintaining large paper repositories of legal knowledge. But in one of the early sessions I attended, one of the panelists, Jean O’Grady, an AALL member and writer of the well-known Dewey B Strategic blog, offered an interesting and perhaps telling comment for a conference looking to map the future.
