Way back in 2001, a group of law librarians using Ex Libris Aleph 500 ILS met for the first time in Minneapolis. We have been meeting ever since in conjunction with the Annual Meeting of our professional organization, the American Association of Law Libraries. Our informal meetings were set against informal meeting spaces in those early years. We still don’t have funds, but now AALL’s Online Bibliographic Services SIS has been providing us with a meeting room since 2006.

Historically as well, the reorganization of NAAUG to ELUNA acknowledged our special interests, and consulted with us, provided us with a discussion forum, offered us meeting facilities during the ELUNA meetings, and included us in the SIGs list. While we started as an Aleph group, other Ex Libris products were getting implemented among our member institutions around 2005, and so we opted to be an all-products group.

The Group provides opportunities for the law librarians (both technical and public services types) who use Aleph, to get to know each other and connect both formally and informally. We share updates on our respective installations, hear reports on the national users group meetings from those who make it to ELUNA. We share relevant strategies and expertise: how we make Aleph work for us, for our respective operations. We spend a good portion of our meeting time on questions and answers, on asking for-and-getting help. When we hear others’ stories, we know we are not alone.

We have planned and worked on projects, such as a comprehensive list of Aleph law library installations; such as making this installations status list and the existence of our group visible by approaching and arranging to get linked to in appropriate Web sites; such as opening links for direct access to our respective OPACS. We have discussed topics as varied as how to proceed during the first days of production, staff training in more than one remote location, binding/routing/labeling procedures, fiscal rollover, “adjacency” in searching, publication patterns, among others.

A big goal for the future would have to be dealing more and more with how other Ex Libris products impact our operations.