About the Vancouver Association of Law Libraries (VALL)

MANDATE

The Vancouver Association of Law Libraries (VALL) is a forum for information exchange and continuing education. Membership is open to those working in or associated with law libraries.

HISTORY

The proposal for a city or provincial law librarians group was formulated by Fiona Anderson (Owen, Bird) and Diana Inselberg (Russell & DuMoulin) in February 1988. The proposal for a formal, informative, regular meetings, at least six times per year, at a central permanent location for a lunch at which some topic or topics would be discussed was met with enough enthusiasm that an organizational meeting was scheduled.

The organizational meeting was hosted by Joan Mulholland (Davis & Company). The expected turnout was 10 -15 people but instead, almost 40 people attended. The agenda from this meeting show discussions on executive positions, organization names, and meeting dates and locations.

Two names were proposed for the group: Vancouver Association of Law Librarians and Pacific Association of Law Librarians. The name Vancouver Association of Law Libraries was chosen to encompass anybody involved with law libraries, rather than restricting membership to the librarians managing law libraries.

The organization took shape over a few months. A different volunteer chaired each meeting while other volunteers created a membership form, opened a bank account, printed a membership directory, arranged for an election and took minutes. By September 1988, the association was much as it is today.

The list of past executives is available here.

MAILING ADDRESS:

Vancouver Association of Law Libraries

P.O. BOX 48663 STN BENTALL CENTRE
VANCOUVER BC   V7X 1A3