How to use Polls on Zoom

In March, I wrote a post for this blog on how to use Zoom. Since Covid-19 still has us all stuck at home, why not learn more about Zoom?  In this blog post, I will show you how to use Zoom’s polling feature.

Before the meeting.

First, sign into the Zoom website—not the client.*

Next, you need to check your account settings to make sure polls are enabled. Go to the settings page

Then scroll down to polling and, if it’s not on, turn it on.

With polling enabled, we can then create a meeting, here I have already created a meeting called “Learning about polls.”

Next, click into that meeting’s page—I’ll click on the blue text “Learning about polls.”

Once you are on the new meeting page, scroll to the bottom and you will see a box that informs you “You have not created any poll yet.” Adjacent to this message hit the add button.

This launches the “Add a Poll” dialog box.

Here we can create the poll questions. From this box, you will enter a title for your poll, choose whether participants will answer the poll anonymously (i.e. the system will not collect the participant’s answers), and enter poll questions. This poll contains two questions. One question is set to a single choice and the other to multiple choice. Once you’re done entering questions, hit save. You can create multiple polls for use within a single meeting.

In preparation for my meeting, I created three polls using the various settings available in the Zoom poll creation tool. Next up, we’ll use these polls within a zoom meeting.

During the Meeting

To help with this meeting I enlisted the aid of several law librarians.** The purpose of the meeting was to take some trivial polls and to get some photos to use in this blog post; we accomplished all of our goals.***

As soon as everyone logged in to the zoom, I launched the polls by selecting them from the polling button which appears when you hover over the Zoom window.

Then after everyone responded to each poll, I shared the results.  The second question on the first poll is a multiple-choice so participants were able to select as many answers as they wanted. Also note, as host, I could not respond to the polls.

After the Meeting

Zoom allows you to later download poll results. Here’s how:

Log into your zoom account, then go to Reports and select Meeting.

Next select Poll Report and adjust the date range to show the meeting for which you want the poll reports.

After that, check the box for your meeting and hit Generate. Doing so will bring you to the Report Queue from which you can download your poll results.

Zoom gives poll results in a CSV file format. Here is a peek at my poll results after I adjusted the width of the columns. We can tell the results between the first poll and the second. Although all meeting attendees had identified themselves in some way, my poll results unexpectedly list many attendees as Guest. The second poll remained completely anonymous.

___________________

* Thanks to Nicole Dyszlewski for pointing this out.
** Thanks to Mandy Lee, Mike Muehe, Rachel Weiss, and again Nicole Dyszlewski.
*** Thanks to Mandy Lee for the screenshots.

Controlled Digital Lending Panel Recap

Guest post by Amanda Watson, Director of the O’Quinn Law Library and Assistant Professor of Law.

On June 3 and June 5, CS-SIS organized two talks on Controlled Digital Lending (CDL). The first focused on technology and the second on copyright. I hosted both panels and want to thank the panelists and all the librarians who participated and asked great questions.

The technology panel was: Chris Freeland, Director of Open Libraries, Internet Archive, and Leah Prescott, Associate Director for Digital Initiatives and Special Collections, Georgetown Law Library.

The nuts and bolts of CDL were described as having a way to properly scan and process materials as well as safely store and lend electronic materials. For both processes, it was clear that there are multiple levels of monetary and labor obligations. On the ends of the spectrum, a library could use something like Open Libraries (http://openlibraries.online/) and pay for a solution like the Gold Package which takes much of the labor process off of individual libraries but requires a payment premium. Or, a library could use existing technologies (like Google Drive or OneDrive) to put together a low-cost alternative. However, the panelists noted that the amount of labor and planning for a low-cost alternative is high.

Libraries can join Open Libraries without paying any funds, and use the system without digitizing their shared collections. However, they will have to pledge their physical copies to the system, meaning discontinuing their print use and understanding that their copy will be used as part of the larger system, perhaps meaning it will not be usable by their patrons if patrons from other institutions are already using the copy.

It was widely agreed that the largest problem with CDL is the amount of time for lending. Law books often need very discreet checkout periods, and most systems don’t allow something very brief. Someone noted that Google Drive will limit use to one day while most limit use to two weeks. Many expressed hopes that major library ILS systems will develop these systems within the frameworks we’ve all already invest in.

The copyright panel was: Kyle K. Courtney, Program Manager and Copyright Advisor, Harvard Library Office for Scholarly Communication; David Hansen, Associate University Librarian for Research, Collections & Scholarly Communication, Lead Copyright & Information Policy Officer, Duke University Libraries; and Michelle M. Wu, Associate Dean for Library Services & Professor of Law, Georgetown University Law Library.

The panel described the basic elements of CDL for copyright purposes: 1) the item must be owned 2) there must be an equal own to loan ratio and 3) the system must be controlled by some DRM/comply with Fair Use.

One topic of discussion was the physical holding of the book. The panelists reported that you can physically hold, but remove materials from circulation or destroy materials if there is not space to store them. Panelists agreed anyone destroying materials should ideally keep some record of ownership and destruction. There was a brief discussion of keeping physical materials in circulation, but it was noted as difficult to enforce and not an ideal system.

An equal own to loan ratio means you must attempt to use the digital copy the way you would’ve used the physical copy. You can only loan as many copies as you physically own. It was also discussed that you should keep the digital copy in the same state as the physical — meaning you shouldn’t loan chapters or portions of a volume but should divide the contents the way they are physically divided.

Finally, controlling the loan with DRM and honoring Fair Use means you must put a system in place to honor the Fair Use of the material. Some questions were posed about how perfect this system has to be. The panelists agreed that the library burden is to set up a system, but that we all understand some violations may happen and that not all violations can be avoided.

The panelists agreed that working with University Counsel is a good idea to make sure your institution is on board with your system and plans.

Because of the great interest in these conversations, CS-SIS is planning two follow-up discussions in early August, one on the low-cost alternative CDL and one on DRM. These will be announced more fully in AALL’s My Communities in July.

Recordings of both panels are available on our AALL Community page!

Pandemic-Proofing Clinical Pedagogy

CALICon 2020 was full of change to meet the new virtual learning reality. The third day included presentations by clinical professors highlighting the difficulties with clinical education for law students stuck at home. As states combat another spike in infections, it is likely that some aspects of remote lawyering will remain in place for the foreseeable future.

Dionne Gonder-Stanley, Clinical Professor from North Carolina Central University School of Law, addressed virtual presentation lawyering skills, like maintaining proper court attire, camera, and body positioning, observing courtroom decorum, and the tech required for virtual lawyering. Professor Gonder-Stanley also noted that the equipment required to run a virtual clinic was a computer with a webcam, microphone, a stable internet connection, and Zoom. Clients would only require a phone to dial into the Zoom meeting.

One way to improve virtual professionalism is by improving hardware beyond internal webcams and minimum laptop requirements. Nothing says unprofessional as a slow internet connection, grainy picture quality, and audio that sounds like it’s coming from an underwater cave. A faster CPU, more RAM, an HD webcam, and a headset with a directional microphone can all drastically improve the presentation quality. Zoom Virtual Backgrounds also require slightly higher computing requirements and add to the professionalism of remote lawyering by eliminating visual distractions in the background. System requirements differ if you generate a virtual background with or without a green screen available. For more information about the system requirements, check out Zoom Backgrounds.

(External webcams allow for higher quality video, with integrated microphone, and allows for varying viewing angles for a more professional presentation.)

Given the advances in wireless technology, wireless headphones allow free range of movement from longer distances, offer increased battery life, and are less conspicuous, all of which are essential for animated litigators. If combined with an external webcam and podium, presentations can look more like oral arguments in a courtroom, all without leaving the home. Optimized tech would also allow law students to give oral arguments without the appearance of reading from a prepared statement while staring off into their laptop, adding to their professional decorum. While one concern for law schools will be the income inequality of their law students, law schools should make some effort to provide optimized equipment to students in the clinical and pro bono programs, through either a loan or subsidized tech program.

Another great takeaway from the clinical efforts at UNT Dallas College of Law was the virtual justice program, allowing for presentations to a large group of patrons with general legal advice.  Zoom allowed students to set up client meetings and mimic the pre-pandemic clinical setting of allowing clients to move from table to table. Another model program was a daylong virtual expungement clinic, allowing students to prepare beforehand and advise clients in a virtual setting.

One key aspect of managing online clinics are the client management systems that allow for remote work. Client management systems offer cloud computing and storage, with some systems even allowing document sharing with non-attorneys. For example, Clio, a cloud-based client management system, allows document sharing with clients and other third parties. Clinical instruction on client management systems familiarizes law students with the nuances of working in a modern law firm environment. However, given the security and privacy risks involved with cloud data and file-sharing of confidential files, this software should be taught before students step foot into the real world of legal practice.

(Clio’s dashboard allows you to share documents with third parties.)

Despite all this, the main hurdle of the pivot to virtual legal clinics was maintaining community engagement. Law schools have traditionally held offices either in the community or on campus to physically connect students to their clients. Since the pandemic hit, this connection has been relegated to online Zoom meetings, telephone conferences, emails, and the good old United States Postal Service for document delivery. While CALICon presented the lack of community engagement as an obstacle, the presenters viewed the lack of physical interaction as a boon for access to justice. For example, UNT Dallas held general legal advice Zoom sessions, which could reach more members of the community than hosting the same meeting in a physical space.

If you would like to check out any of the CALICon sessions on clinics and engagement, you can view this session as well as other sessions on their YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXhGTA7aA9s.

ABA TECHSHOW 2021 Call For Proposals

As a member of the ABA TECHSHOW 2021 Planning Board, I have previously communicated to several AALL Communities regarding  the TECHSHOW 2021 Call for Proposals.

TECHSHOW 2021 is scheduled for March 10-13, 2021 in Chicago. However, as with most conferences scheduled within the next year, the ABA is working to make plans that will also allow for a virtual conference, if necessary. If you have a suggestion for a topic you (and others) would like to hear, or if you are interested in being a presenter, please fill out the form here. If you have more than one topic idea, please submit as many times as you  desire! While the deadline for proposals was originally set for midnight (Central Time) Friday, June 12, 2020, in recognition of the priority of other concerns at this time, the TECHSHOW Board will continue to accept proposals past the original deadline.

In addition to submitting a proposal, feel free to contact me regarding your submission so that I might be better able to represent your ideas to other members of the TECHSHOW Board. I will be serving as the Track Leader for the Next 20 Track, but also be advocating for ideas for sessions for other tracks. Also, please remember submitting a proposal does not guarantee a speaking slot.

Regards,

Darla Jackson, CS-SIS Chair

Oral Arguments at SCOTUS During Quarantine

Guest post by Amanda Watson, Director of the O’Quinn Law Library and Assistant Professor of Law.

“It’s the way we’ve always done it.” Law librarians, like most people, are generally creatures of habit. It isn’t surprising, since so much of our work is understanding, and even translating how things work.

The United States Supreme Court hears around 80 oral arguments a year. For about half the year, lawyers travel to the prestigious columned building to answer questions from the Justices. It is a career highlight for those lawyers, who sometimes commission artists to create images of them in front of the iconic bench.

Spring of 2020 has been a time of many challenges to “the way we’ve always done it” because of the response to COVID-19. The oral arguments are no different. In an April press release, the Court announced they would hear oral arguments by telephone conference.

The Supreme Court bench is known for being very active. It was difficult to imagine how that would translate to a telephone conference because the lawyers nor the Justices would see the nonverbal cues so important to the back and forth of the usual argument.

Why did the Court decide not to use video conferencing? As SCOTUSblog put it, it would be hard to “put the genie back in the bottle” after the COVID-19 restrictions are lifted. Whatever method was used would certainly set an unofficial precedent for future arguments.  Some Justices have said that a video conference would turn into an event, with lawyers trying to create news-worthy quips instead of focusing on advocating for their clients. Audio recordings have been provided (with a delay) since 1955, so providing them as a live stream was a more modest innovation.

The telephone conference arguments started in early May and provided both live and archived versions to the public. The arguments have been very orderly. The most surprising feature turned out not to be the live stream or mechanics of telephonic communication, but that the usually quiet Justice Thomas asked questions, and that a toilet flush was heard during one argument when someone forgot to mute their telephone. All in all, telephone conferences have been a success while not changing that much about the future of arguments. They are not the way we’ve always done it, but they likely will allow for an easy transition back to the way we’ve always done it when COVID-19 restrictions are relaxed.

CS-SIS Member Spotlight: Amanda Watson

The Computing Services Special Interest Section is made up of awesome law librarians doing interesting things.   The CS-SIS Member Spotlight is designed to shine a light on our members so that we can learn more about each other and stay connected.

CS-SIS Member Spotlight:  Amanda Watson

Allow me to introduce Amanda Watson, incoming chair of CS-SIS.  Amanda’s path to law librarianship began at Mississippi University for Women where she earned her B.A. She then attended the University of Mississippi School of Law and accepted a clerkship at the Mississippi Court of Appeals.  Following her clerkship, she joined a small firm specializing in family law but wanted to shift her focus to helping people without being limited by their ability to pay.  She recalled her student work at her law school library, and teaching legal research to 1Ls and pondered “isn’t that a career?”  That was that, as law librarianship allowed her to dig into her commitment to serving the public interest.

With law librarianship experience in Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas, Amanda jokes she is well-versed in 5^th circuit jurisdictions.  As Manager of Information Services at the Jackson office of Phelps Dunbar, LLP, she had the support of her firm while she earned her Master of Library Science degree from Florida State University.  She was then appointed the State Librarian of Mississippi. With a solid understanding of law firm and government law libraries, she entered academic law librarianship.  She worked for seven years at the Tulane University School of Law Library, ultimately as Associate Director, and then transitioned into Director of the O’Quinn Law Library at the University of Houston.  Amanda has positive takeaways from all of these library positions and notes her appreciation of her staff, bosses, and mentors along the way.

Amanda is excited to be the incoming chair of CS-SIS as our membership considers its future and a potential rebrand.  She learned early on in her career that an important aspect of librarianship was the ability to bridge the gap between lawyers and technology and explaining technology to lawyers.  Her membership in the International Legal Technology Association (ILTA) helps keep her up-to-date on industry trends.  She understands information architecture and the systems that need to be built and is interested in creating and improving technology.  Currently, she is excited by the concept of a tool that will search across secondary sources.  While a treatise discovery layer may be years in the making, Amanda knows that such a product will have a positive impact on her students, and legal research beyond the academy.  She has seen librarians work with vendors to improve products and make them the best version of what they can be.  She brings to the CS-SIS executive board a talent for speaking the language of tech and her innovative ideas.

Having immediately understood the valuable role technology would play in this Covid-19 pandemic, Amanda proved again that librarians and libraries are habitually useful.  In the early weeks of implementing online teaching, she and her library team created reference materials and guides, provided hundreds of individual trainings, and are making a huge difference in the lives of students and faculty as they adapt to a remote learning environment.   Amanda had previously navigated the waters of hurricanes Katrina and Harvey and knows that being a good listener, having patience, and embracing creativity are qualities that will help her library get through this pandemic.  In the meantime, she’s embracing working from home and is preparing to teach Texas legal research online this summer and is looking into teaching her advanced legal research course online in the fall.

Amanda loves her family and values the time she gets to spend with her wife and two sons.  She enjoys watching RuPaul’s Drag Race on VH1 and in non-pandemic times visits art museums and attends theater, ballet, and opera performances.  She sings recreationally and her eldest son, also a singer, is a member of the Houston Boy Choir.

Thanks to Amanda for her willingness to be interviewed for this CS-SIS member spotlight.

Librarians (and their Pets) Send a Video Message to Students

Thank you to Nancy Bellafante, Serials & Electronic Resources Librarian at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School, for this guest post.

The Biddle Law Library at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School responded to the COVID-19 crisis by increasing online reference services and expanding our collection of electronic resources. Before the shutdown, Biddle’s staff worked quickly to digitize course reserve materials. The library also partnered with publishers to provide free online access to casebooks and textbooks and invested in new ebook collections and study aid packages.

Yet, the library offers more to students than research support and course materials. We provide opportunities for personal connection. How can the library offer emotional support to students from a distance? In this remote environment, how can we communicate a smile or words of encouragement that we normally share in our face-to-face interactions?

During Final Exams period, the library puts up a digital display of the staff’s beloved dogs and cats (even a few turtles) to bring a little joy to our students during a stressful time. This spring, we adapted this idea to create the video, Finals Survival Tips: Pets Edition.

Library staff submitted clips of their pets demonstrating important tips for making it through finals, such as “eat snacks” and “take naps.” The video also included a message from librarians to let students know we miss them and are still here to help.

Creating the video did not require much time nor technical expertise. Below is an overview of the process.

Tools Used

• Microsoft Photos – Pre-installed Windows 10 application, includes a built-in video editor
• Zoom – Videoconferencing program with an option to record, offers free and paid accounts
• Canva – Online graphic design program, offers free and paid accounts

Collect Video Content

Send an email to staff, explaining the purpose of the video, along with the deadline and guidelines for submissions. Explain how the video will be shared. Ask staff to keep clips under 15 seconds. Give ideas for the clips and encourage multiple submissions. Since some video files are too large to email, set up an online folder for staff to save submissions.

Create the Video

Microsoft Photos is similar to other video editors, but with fewer bells and whistles. If you are unfamiliar with video-editing software, watch Microsoft’s short tutorial series on how to make a video. Below are the basic steps to creating a video:

Start a new video project and import collected clips into the program. Decide on the video’s orientation. Note, most people record with their phones in portrait mode. Drag clips to the timeline to create the video sequence. Select individual clips to remove any black borders and to trim the clip, capturing the most interesting footage. You can also adjust or mute a clip’s volume if needed.

Add background music to the project. Select a track that fits the emotional tone of the piece. Add title slides to help communicate and organize the video’s narrative. Again, choose visual elements that match the video’s tone and message.  Keep it short. Our video was just under 3 minutes, which is a bit long, and it makes posting on some social media platforms difficult. If you have a lot of good material, consider breaking it up into a series. Once your video project is complete, save it as a movie file (MP4).

Create Text Slides Using Canva

Microsoft’s video editor is simple to use, but it has some limitations. It does not allow you to adjust the music volume for individual clips or add multiple tracks. Also, the program does offer clip transitions, and there are few text and title slide options.

For our video, I created the text slides using Canva, a free online graphic design program. Canva is easy to use and provides many templates and images. It is free to sign up for an account; however, some of the design elements are only available for paid accounts. I highly recommend Canva for creating marketing materials and social media posts.

Share the Video

Publish the video to your library’s YouTube or Vimeo channel to easily share the link on your website and social media. Our video was also shared with students in an e-newsletter sent by our school’s Student Affairs Office. I find this direct form of communication with students has the most reach.

The Most Important Element

Don’t forget the human element! We recorded a message to our students in Zoom for the video.  As heart-warming as our furry friends can be, seeing the faces of the librarians and hearing their voices were key to making a personal connection and communicating our support.

So You Don’t Have a Printer… Now What?

If you switched to working from home (WFH) quickly, you likely had little time to prepare and may still be making minor adjustments to get your ‘home office’ just right.  One adjustment that can be the hardest to tackle for some is switching to a work-life without a printer.

Though I’m a save-the-trees, don’t print unless you absolutely have to kind of person, I understand that there are some things that are just better done on paper. Additionally, with all the extra screen time we’re getting coupled with fewer breaks in between virtual meetings, moving as much of our reading off-screen as we can is better for our health. With that said, the often quick functions of scanning and printing that most of us took for granted in a typical day at the office have now joined the growing list of basic functions we’ve lost to this pandemic.

Thankfully, technology can help us work around this too.

Scanning

If you have an iPhone or iPad, Apple’s Notes app makes it possible to scan, markup, and share or save documents through any number of methods (email, Google Drive, etc.)

• Step by step instructions for iPhone/iPad users: https://www.imore.com/how-use-document-scanner-iphone-and-ipad

Apple’s markup feature is especially useful if you need to ‘sign’ something electronically and don’t have access to an Adobe product that lets you do so, like Acrobat Pro or DC.

Similarly, Android users only need to have the Google Drive app to scan and save documents as searchable PDFs to their Drive.

• Step by step instructions for Android users: https://www.howtogeek.com/166610/who-needs-a-scanner-scan-a-document-to-pdf-with-your-android-phone/

Faxing

If your job requires you to fax documents, check with your campus or firm IT staff to see if they subscribe to an IP Fax service (I just learned my University does).  If that’s not an option and you really need to send a fax, try an online fax provider–some of which offer between 7 and 14 free trials.  (Just make sure the one you choose offers security!)

Printing

If you can’t get back into your office to take your work printer home (or your workplace won’t let you remove office equipment), you may feel like your last resort is to buy your own printer. (I found a Canon ink-jet printer on Best Buy’s website for as little as $35, but they are currently sold out and will likely be for a while).  My advice before buying a printer is to first think of possible alternatives to printing.

If you have things that will eventually need to be in print but aren’t necessary right now, save them in a Google or Box drive folder with a name like “To Print” and set yourself a reminder to do so when you’re back in the office.  You may even find that some things you thought you would need to print can continue to live online.

If you work with a lot of text-heavy documents and would normally print them out to read, or if you’re just tired of reading so much on a screen, consider using a screen reader to listen to them instead.

• Instructions for using the built-in Windows 10 Narrator: https://www.pcmag.com/how-to/how-to-use-windows-10s-narrator-to-read-your-screen-aloud
• Free screen reader software / apps: https://usabilitygeek.com/10-free-screen-reader-blind-visually-impaired-users/
• iPhone’s Speak Screen feature: https://www.apple.com/accessibility/iphone/learning/
• Android’s screen reader TalkBack: https://support.google.com/accessibility/android/answer/6007100

If you really need something to be on paper, try writing it out by hand. While yes, this can be a lot slower than typing–who else has used the virtual equivalent of a post-it on your desktop just so you didn’t have to write one out by hand?—it may lead to better retention.

In the end, each of us will have to find the way we work best without being able to quickly scan or print. While this can be annoying, it does present opportunities to rethink how we work with print materials and come up with new solutions. And who knows, some of those solutions may persist even after we finally get back to our offices…