Campus & Community

ALLUNY 2024 Annual Meeting Brings AI to Law Libraries

Thursday, December 12, 2024, By Cristina Hatem

The Association of Law Libraries of Upstate New York (ALLUNY) celebrated its 70th anniversary this year, and Jessica Petitto, technical services librarian at the University’s Law Library, was at the helm. Petitto, a long-time member of ALLUNY, has served in multiple leadership roles for the association over the years,  most recently completing her term as president from May 2023 through October 2024.

Since 1954, ALLUNY has  brought together law library staff and people interested in law libraries from Upstate New York for professional development, networking and social activities. It is comprised of academic, court and law firm librarians. ALLUNY is a chapter of the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL), the national organization for law libraries. While other chapters have struggled to keep members engaged, ALLUNY has seen success in participation from its members, in part, due to its compelling strategy around its meetings.

On Oct. 25, ALLUNY held its annual meeting as a hybrid event, both in person at the College of Law and online. Approximately 70 attendees participated in this year’s annual meeting. “Offering the ALLUNY annual meeting as a hybrid event makes it more accessible for everyone,” says Petitto. “While the dialogue and collegiality in person is important, it’s just not practical for those single practitioners who may be the only law librarian at their organization to leave for the day. This way, everyone who wants to participate is able.”

In addition to making the meeting physically accessible, ALLUNY also works to keep it financially accessible. Registration to attend for members is only $30, $35 for nonmembers and $15 for students. Plus, ALLUNY offers several grants and awards to offset member costs. ALLUNY encourages all librarians and library students to attend its annual meetings. In this way, it hopes to build a pipeline for future law library professionals.

For the second year in a row, the topic of the annual meeting centered around artificial intelligence (AI). This year’s theme was “Pioneering AI from Classrooms to Courtrooms.” Presentations, roundtables and discussions included real-life tools, applications and ethical considerations around the use of AI in law schools, law libraries and in the practice of law. Expert speakers were professors, legal professionals and AI experts from law library resource collections. AALL Executive Board Member Andre Davison from Harris County Robert W. Hainsworth Law Library, Houston, Texas, spent several days visiting law libraries in the Syracuse area and was the keynote speaker.

This year’s annual meeting sessions included:

  • “15 Ways Law Libraries Can Use Generative AI” presented by Ellyssa Valenti Kroski, New York Law Institute
  • “AI in Law School” presented by Nina Scholtz, Cornell Law School
  • “AI in the Practice of Law – a Paralegal’s View” presented by Brigid Purtell, Bousquet Holstein PLLC
  • “The History of AI Ethics” presented by Elisabeth Lasch-Quinn, Campbell Public Affairs Institute in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs and Mary Szto, College of Law
  • Aaron Eberle from LexisNexis and Ryan Groff and Erica Mohai from Thomson Reuters also shared updates around Generative AI developments in legal databases
  • “AI Roundtable” led by Teresa Vadakin, Hurwitz Fine PC

“AI is a tool that librarians are in a good position to help users–students, faculty and legal practitioners– make use of in an ethical way,” says Petitto. “Ensuring that our association stays abreast of trends and makes professional development accessible and affordable is important, and I was pleased that the Law Library could play an important role.”