AALL 2026: Focusing On The Aloha
annual American Association of Law Librarians CONFERENCES (AALL) begins this week in Cleveland. I am a regular attendee and fan of this conference. It is low and frequented mainly by law librarians. Law librarians from large firms, small firms, in-between firms and from various law schools.
What do law librarians really do?
The term “law librarian” is a bit of a misnomer. These people don’t shelve books or add pocket parts to ancient tomes to keep them current (if you don’t know what a pocket part is, you’re really missing out). Today’s law librarians are truly tasked with knowledge management: providing attorneys and legal professionals with the knowledge and information they need to do their jobs.
They are also the first line of defense against ineffective, wasteful and downright dangerous use of AI. They are the people that lawyers and legal professionals rely on to make it right. It is a very important function.
Furthermore, the main people who attend AALL are actual librarians on the front lines. They deal with lawyers and legal professionals who run the gamut in experience, sophistication and knowledge. And because they come from a variety of institutions and backgrounds, law librarians have a broad exposure to issues and thinking. So what they say and what they are experiencing and seeing is very important.
I found the attendees to be knowledgeable and advanced in the problems and issues facing the legal community. Last year, for example, I participated in a discussion on the lack of critical thinking skills among young lawyers and how we should train them in the age of AI. At the time, it was a problem just coming to the surface.
For all these reasons, it’s good to pay attention to where AALL is focused. That’s why this year’s theme caught my eye.
Leading with Aloha
This year’s theme, interesting enough for a conference in Cleveland, is “Driving with Aloha.” It is chosen by the President Jenny Silbigerwho is with the Hawaii State Judiciary. ALL describes the theme as invites “members to embrace Aloha as a guiding principle, calling to lead with empathy, cooperation and integrity in a rapidly changing world.” The idea is to emphasize the need to lead through relationship building and empathy rather than authority.
Given the state of our political system and the increasingly adversarial nature of our profession and, for that matter, the entire country, this seems particularly appropriate. And considering how HE can even further distance all of us from each other, especially in the workplace, and how we increasingly lean on him and let him lead us, the topic could make a very engaging conference.
Aloha content
I see the aloha theme throughout the program’s content.
The keynote presentation, for example, according to AALL, “will explore the power of empathy, connection, and service—what Hawaii calls ‘aloha’—as a model for leadership, highlighting how law librarians are uniquely positioned to exert responsible influence, advance access to justice, and lead the legal profession through new challenges like AI.”
It will be given by Micah SmithUS District Court Judge from, of all places, Hawaii. The description certainly fits the theme.
Other sessions at the conference focus on things like: aloha management and the unwritten rules, relationships and realities that affect it, principles of mindfulness, cultivating positivity in the workplace and in teams, learning leadership, lifting up through storytelling, and empowering teams that feel neglected and overwhelmed. All of this seems designed to get at the notion of how humans can lead rather than follow not just authority but, increasingly, AI and AI agents themselves.
Of course, AALL does not ignore the practice. Some of the more practical offerings include things like how to use real-world courtroom video to teach litigation skills, putting AI to work for legal research, litigation in the age of artificial intelligence, teaching legal research to LLM students, monetizing law librarian skills, how to effectively train attorneys and legal professionals, and how law librarians can use animation.
There’s even a session on renaming Cleveland’s baseball team to the Guardians, apparently designed to help attendees navigate complex renaming issues.
Aloha Humans in Loop
The conference seems to be very much about the proverbial man in the noose. While this phrase has all too often become a cliché, AALL seems to be focusing on what a man in the loop actually means, in a general general sense. Not just in the sense of checking citations or verifying results, but in a philosophical way. AALL wants to examine the place of human values in an AI world and how we ensure that humans lead, rather than AI by default. These are critical issues today and will be even more so tomorrow. It will be interesting to see if the AALL conference can address these very questions.
I will be at the On the Law conference throughout it and will let you know what I learn. Hopefully, I can say aloha when all is said and done. Meanwhile: Aloha.
Stephen Embry is an attorney, speaker, blogger and writer. He publishes TechLaw Crossroadsa blog dedicated to examining the tension between technology, law and the practice of law.
