ÌÇÐÄÊÓƵ

Poster Sessions: Showcase Your Great Ideas

Always a popular area at the ÌÇÐÄÊÓƵ Annual Meeting & Conference, posters are on display in the exhibit hall throughout the entirety of the Annual Meeting.

Creators of posters must be available during the poster session presentation period on Tuesday, July 21 from 9:45 a.m.–11:15 a.m. EDT to answer questions and discuss their work. An award will be given to the poster deemed best by the Annual Meeting Poster Session Award Jury. We also encourage you to be available to answer any questions during the exhibit hall breaks.

Exhibit Hall no-conflict break times:

• Saturday, July 18: 5:00 p.m. – 6:30 p.m. EDT
• Sunday, July 19: 10:15 a.m. – 11:15 a.m. EDT
• Monday, July 20: 8:30 a.m. – 9:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. – 3:30 p.m. EDT
• Tuesday, July 21: 9:45 a.m. – 11:15 a.m. EDT

Contact Kat Waks, ÌÇÐÄÊÓƵ manager of conference programs & education with any questions.

DEADLINE

Complete and submit the form below by Friday, May 15 at 3:00 p.m. EDT.

IMPORTANT NOTE

Everyone participating must be Ìýwith either a full conference registration or for the days they will be available to answer questions and discuss the poster (single day registration).

POSTER SESSION SUBMISSION FORM

RESOURCES

• Frequently Asked Questions

  1. What is a poster session? A poster session is a visual forum for presenters to highlight their libraries and to share their successful ideas with colleagues by presenting a research study, a practical problem-solving effort, or an innovative library program. These sessions are suitable for a presentation of topics that may not be meaty enough for an entire paper or formal presentation and allow for works in progress. Posters combine text and graphics to present information in a clear, visual manner, and allow conference participants to become quickly and easily acquainted with the topic on their own.

  2. What topics are appropriate? A poster can cover any topic related to law libraries and legal information. Example topics would be a description of an innovative library program, a discussion of classroom techniques, or findings from a research project. They are not vendor sponsored advertisements, although independent product discussions and analysis are welcome.

  3. What should poster session proposals include? The proposal must include a title, name(s) of the creator(s), and an abstract of 50–200 words describing the information to be presented in the poster. As with the conference educational programming, posters must be categorized into one or two content areas, and support ÌÇÐÄÊÓƵ’s Body of KnowledgeÌýor theÌýStrategic Plan.

  4. If my poster is accepted, what do I have to do? Create an engaging visual display that explains your topic to be affixed to a free-standing board. You will have one side of a 4′ x 8′ poster board for your display. Posters, brochures, and other materials may be affixed to the boards using push pins or hook-side Velcro attached to the back of the poster or item. ‎Limited push pins will be provided; however, you are responsible for all other materials and may also bring acrylic brochure holders, which can be attached with Velcro. Please note the following:

  • Poster creators and co-creators are responsible for printing and shipping costs.
  • Plan to set up your poster on Saturday, July 19 from 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. PDT.
  • Creators and co-creators will need to be present during the poster session presentation period on Tuesday, July 22 from 9:45 a.m.–11:15 a.m. PDT to answer questions and discuss your poster.
  • Poster creators and co-creators must remove their display before the exhibit hall closes on Tuesday.

• Read the 2025 Poster Sessions

  Professionalism + Leadership at Every Level

  Scouting America Law Merit Badge: Community Outreach

  Each autumn UNT Dallas College of Law hosts a Law Merit Badge program with 60 scouts from Dallas-Fort Worth earning the badge. Earning this merit badge facilitates Scouts learning the history of law and how it is practiced, the purpose and methods of law enforcement, consumer protection agencies, emerging law, and careers in the legal profession. The badge’s requirements also requires Scouts to talk with police officers about their roles in the community. It reinforces lessons of the roles of law, lawyers, courts, and law enforcement as positive elements of civics.

  It is a collaborative effort to pull off a successful program. The program includes law students, police officers, law faculty, lawyers, bar leaders, state legislators, and judges. One reoccurring aspect of the program is comparing the Scout Oath with oaths military, lawyers, and public officials swear; how duty to others, ahead of self, is a underlying theme of all of them.

  The idea for the program came from University of South Carolina School Of Law which held a Law Merit Badge program the prior year for nearly 100 Scouts, and the idea is spreading. The Kane County Law Library supported a similar program at its county judicial center with nearly 30 scouts.

  Thanks to these programs the number of Scouts earning the Law Merit Badge is trending upward. The question now is can you and your law library help us continue this trend?

  Edward Hart, UNT Dallas College of Law

  Building academic and economic power in librarian contract bargaining: Lessons learned from the University of California negotiations

  Librarians at the University of California, one of the largest public university systems, recently completed a year-long negotiation process to reach a new labor contract. Members of the librarian table team will share the successes, challenges, and organizing processes of our campaign. We are eager to engage in dialogue with represented academic librarians at other institutions and also with other librarians organizing their colleagues to improve working conditions. We will present central bargaining issues, data, and member stories that:

  1. Highlights our negotiation strategies and tactics on key issues, including salary, professional development funding, academic status, flexible work arrangements, and workload. This includes conducting background research, collecting data through librarian surveys and requests for information, developing our table bargaining approach, and more.
  2. Describes our systemwide and campus organizing actions we used to build power amongst the librarian ranks and our allies. This includes 1:1 conversations, information sharing through email and social media, soliciting member input through online town halls, and more.
  3. Summarizes our key takeaways (both positive and negative) from the now-completed campaign, and what we hope to change for the next negotiation.

  Kate Peck, UC Berkeley Law Library

  Research + Analysis

  Law Libraries Behind Bars: A Qualitative Study of Jailhouse Lawyers’ Experiences Accessing the Courts

  In 1977, the Court ruled that meaningful access to the courts must be provided to prisoners in the form of law libraries or equivalent legal services (Bounds v. Smith, 1977). However, this landmark ruling did not clearly stipulate how a law library or these services should operate to guarantee meaningful access. In their decision, the Justices encouraged facilities to experiment and use their own discretion when designing and operating law libraries. Consequently, research from that time period documented wide discrepancies in how prisons interpreted and implemented this right to access to the courts. This is the first qualitative study in the 21st century to interview jailhouse lawyers across the United States to better understand their experiences utilizing prison law libraries. Preliminary findings from my pilot study indicate that jailhouse lawyers were able to gain an understanding of the law by utilizing the resources available in their facilities’ law libraries. They emphasize the utility of legal resources, legal software, and support from trained staff, but also shed light on how prison culture often dictates the actual usefulness of law libraries.

  Christina Plakas, University of South Carolina

  Respecting the First Ascent: A Survey of Legal Developments in Rock Climbing

  With the inclusion of rock climbing in the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, this once-niche pursuit has entered the mainstream. While this poster will not predict likely medalists for the Los Angeles 2024 Games, nor delve into the perils of free soloing, it will instead use climbing as a lens to examine the intersection of recreation, Indigenous religious freedom, and the legal concept of wilderness. In some regions, conflicts between sport and Indigenous rights have resulted in total climbing bans; in others, they have led to restricted access and ongoing negotiations. Elsewhere, climbers face legal disputes with private landowners and corporate interests such as mining companies. This poster will detail the legal histories of several case studies and identify the stakeholders involved in opening—or closing—climbing areas. This will include a local focus: one of the case studies is Smith Rock State Park in eastern Oregon—the birthplace of sport climbing in the U.S. Finally the poster will highlight recent legislative developments, particularly H.R. 1380, the Protecting America’s Rock Climbing Act, as a reflection of evolving definitions of “wilderness.”

  Sophia Kingsley, Sidley Austin LLP

  Watching from the Bench: Exploring the Impact of Shared Experience in the Legal Research Classroom

  Instructors of legal research (LR) are constantly grappling with the best way to squeeze a large amount of foundational content into their classes. At the University of Wyoming College of Law (UWCOL), we have eleven 50-minute class sessions to provide these foundations. While hosting Wyoming Supreme Court oral arguments in the fall of 2024, LR students were able to witness legal research, firsthand and applied. Students were also participating in a “shared experience,” where co-attendees are aware and concurrently drawn to the same object of attention—the oral argument. In an exploratory case study, I draw on Garriy Shtyenberg’s work to identify if this “shared experience” of highly relevant content helped students better understand legal research. Shared experiences create imprinted memories with heightened motivation, stronger peer bonding, identify formation, intensified affect, and more extreme judgments. The next class after oral arguments, we dug into the legal research, beginning with one remembered statute and two remembered cases from the hearings. I saw light bulbs and connections during that class I had not seen all semester. Synapses of all kinds and locations were firing in students’ heads. I could almost see it. I knew it was more than just the real-life, relevant content.

  In my research, I sought to identify if students thought they were engaging in a “shared experience,” and which aspects of shared experience—more deeply encoded in memory, higher goal-setting/motivation, more extreme judgments, bonding peer relationships, and higher emotional intensity—students exhibited from the event. Anonymous qualitative and quantitative data were collected via a Qualtrics survey. Qualitative data was then analyzed using descriptive statistics while qualitative data underwent pattern matching of the theoretical underpinnings of shared experience to student responses. Additional open-ended responses went through an inductive coding process to identify themes.

  Students overwhelmingly responded “yes,” they shared an experience and the event helped their understanding of legal research. They also noted connections to other classes and the real world, how bonds with peers were affected, emotional components, and the impact on their identity as law students. Some responded with superlatives.

  A comparison of experiential learning with shared experience is included. Results of the study are displayed, with implications for future research and LR course re-design.

  Tracey McCormick, University of Wyoming College of Law Library

  INFORMATION MANAGEMENT

  Decolonizing your Legal Bookshelf

  Decolonization theory in legal education and the law seeks to create a more inclusive, equitable, and just legal system that recognizes and values diverse histories, perspectives, and experiences. Decolonizing your legal bookshelf involves critically examining and expanding your legal resources to include diverse perspectives, particularly those of Indigenous communities, marginalized communities, and voices from the Global South.

  The poster centers the concept of “decolonizing your legal bookshelf”—a call to action that involves auditing legal resources and consciously integrating works by Indigenous scholars, Black legal theorists, and voices from the Global South. By expanding the canon to include these perspectives, legal education can better reflect the complexities of law, power, and identity in a multicultural and postcolonial world. Ultimately, this poster underscores the transformative potential of diversifying legal scholarship to foster a more just and representative legal system.

  Malikah Hall-Retteen,Ìý CUNY School of Law

  Losing access: results the NELLCO survey on the transition from print to electronic

  In April, 2025, the NELLCO Print-to-Electronic Standing Committee released a report of the results of a survey of librarians from academic, public, and firm law libraries. This poster highlights some of the results, which confirm longstanding concerns about loss of access to older materials as legal information moves online. Over 250 law librarians answered questions about the factors influencing their transition from print to electronic collection spending and the impact of that transition. Come check out some of the data from the report and chat on Tuesday with a couple of the report authors about your own experiences—good and bad—with the accelerating transition to electronic formats.

  Ellen Augustiniak, University of California Irvine Law Library

  Marketing + Outreach

  Raising the Profile of Your Department Within Firm Culture

  This poster presents practical, low-barrier strategies for enhancing the visibility of your department within firm culture. Whether it is called the law library, Knowledge, Research and Information Services Department, Research Services, etc. This poster emphasizes approaches that align with environments where formal marketing is uncommon and a culture of quiet professionalism prevails. Rather than self-promotion, the focus is on building relationships, sharing knowledge proactively, and demonstrating value through consistent service excellence. These methods aim to position the department as an indispensable partner in the firm’s success.

  Victoria Swindle, Steptoe & Johnson PLLC