Legal Research

Cost Saving Estimate by Going With Only One Very Expensive Legal Search Vendor

Posted on May 12, 2010
31% of law firm librarians report law firms have or intended to move to single vendor for online legal research in 2009 compared to 12% in 2008 according to American Lawyer's 2009 law library survey. See Lexis or Westlaw No...

How Do You Intend to Turn Strategy Into Tactics? 2010-2013 AALL Strategic Directions Statement Adopted

Posted on May 12, 2010
In a message dated May 6, 2010, AALL President Catherine Lemann announced that our association's Executive Board adopted AALL's 2010-2013 Strategic Directions statement at its April 9-10 board meeting. Lemann adds that an overview of the Association's new strategy will...

The Power of Open Data to Find Problems in Complicated Environments, and Possibly Even to Prevent Them from Emerging: How Open Data Saved Canada $3.2 Billion

Posted on May 12, 2010
David Eaves reports in Case Study: How Open Data Saved Canada $3.2 Billion that open data helped expose one of the biggest tax frauds in Canada?s history. He observes "[e]ssentially from before 2005-2007 dozens of charities were operating illegally. Had...

Google Redesigns Search Results Page Display

Posted on May 12, 2010
Last week, Google updated its search engine results page display by adding options in a left sidebar designed to help narrow one's search results. See the Official Google Blog post; Google-produced video below. Some don't like it. In Google Gives...

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Internet Filtering: Censorship or Collection Development?

Posted on May 11, 2010
That question, more or less, came before the Washington Supreme Court. Public libraries in that state may filter results without running afoul of the Washington State Constitution?s equivalent of the First Amendment: SECTION 5 FREEDOM OF SPEECH. Every person may...

Will the Goals of the Semantic Web Be Achieved by 2020? Results of Pew Internet Survey

Posted on May 11, 2010
For Pew Internet's The Fate of the Semantic Web, almost 900 experts and stakeholders were asked to predict the likely progress toward achieving the goals of the semantic web by 2020. The findings are displayed below: Asked to think about...

CourtListener for Daily Updates on Opinions Issued by SCOTUS and Federal Circuit Courts

Posted on May 11, 2010
A hat tip to Paul Lomio for calling attention to CourtListener on Legal Research Plus. From the site's About Page: This site was created by Michael Lissner as part of a masters thesis at the University of California, Berkeley School...

Party Hard at an Elite Law School

Posted on May 11, 2010
The top ranked party law school according this very important law school ranking study is the University of Arizona. TaxProf Blog has done a great service to law school applicants by cross referencing the party law school ranking to the...

Kagan SCOTUS Nomination Round-Up

Posted on May 11, 2010
Hat tip to the Resource Shelf for Fast Facts About Supreme Court Nominee, Elena Kagan; Including Appearances on C-SPAN. Reaction to the nomination by politicians and interest groups listed with links on SCOTUSblog here, early press coverage here and commentary...

What We Might Learn From Public Libraries

Posted on May 10, 2010
In the past two years or so, library budget cuts dominate the US News rankings as far as what is of most concern to academic librarians - oh wait, they don't rank that do they? Still, I know it is...

Kagan Expected to be Nominated to Supreme Court This Morning

Posted on May 10, 2010
CNN is reporting that President Obama is expected to name Solicitor General Elena Kagan as his nominee to replace retiring Justice John Paul Stevens on the Supreme Court by mid-morning today. "Her confirmation hearings for the solicitor general job could...

Link Rot for Law- and Policy-Related Web Resources Nearly Doubles Per Year: Results of the Chesapeake Project Legal Information Archive's Third Annual Study

Posted on May 10, 2010
The Chesapeake Project Legal Information Archive has released the results of its third annual analysis of ?link rot? among the original URLs for law- and policy-related materials published to the Web and archived though the Chesapeake Project. "The sample of...

An Experiment in Crowdsourcing Free Online Legal Commentary and Analysis

Posted on May 10, 2010
Staffan Malmgren, the creator of the Swedish free access to law service lagen.nu and a project manager at the Swedish Courts administration reports on a project to produce free legal commentary of Swedish statutes on VoxPopuLII. Malmgren reviews the technical...

Opening: Supervisory Librarian (American Law Research), Congressional Research Service

Posted on May 10, 2010
Supervisory Librarian (American Law Research) (Vacancy #: 100080) GS-1410-15 - Congressional Research Service (Knowledge Services Group) Salary Range: 123,758.00 - 155,500.00 USD /year Opening Date: May 4, 2010 Closing Date: May 25, 2010 The Congressional Research Service (CRS) Knowledge Services...

Leiter on Campos and Tushnet on SCOTUS Nominee Kagan's Scholarly Record

Posted on May 10, 2010
Here. This Chicago law prof notes: Kagan did get tenure at Chicago (well before my time) based on rather limited scholarly productivity, and I have the impression it was a close case. Smarts in conversation goes a long way here,...

Mother?s Day by the Numbers

Posted on May 09, 2010
Check out the stats here. [JH]

Recognizing Disruptive Change in the Business of Law ? Before It is Obvious to Everyone

Posted on May 08, 2010
Well, it may already be obvious but see Steven Levy's thoughts in Disruptive Change and the Legal World. [JH]

And Now for Something Completely Different: On Complicated Relationships or the Working Conditions of Legal Secretaries

Posted on May 08, 2010
Chicago-Kent law prof Felice Batlan's ?If You Become His Second Wife, You are a Fool?: Shifting Paradigms of the Roles, Perceptions, and Working Conditions of Legal Secretaries in Large Law Firms[SSRN] is based on her 2009 nation-wide survey. From the...

Friday fun: The video version of why you should quit Facebook

Posted on May 07, 2010
Apropos to our post on Wednesday about why you should quite Facebook is this video delivering the same message in a very humorous manner. A big hat tip to my student Corey Friedman. (jbl)

The Global Development of Free Access to Legal Information

Posted on May 07, 2010
The Global Development of Free Access to Legal Information by Graham Greenleaf, Professor of Law at the University of New South Wales and Co-Director of the Australasian Legal Information Institute, was recently published in the first issue of volume 1...

White House Releases Drupal Custom Code Modules Developed for WhiteHouse.gov

Posted on May 07, 2010
I guess one may say that the Obama Adminstration has joined the open source development movement by releasing some of the custom Drupal-based code developed and used for WhiteHouse.gov. From the official announcement: The code we're releasing today adds to...

Reminder: Law Librarian Conversations Today: Twitter/Facebook/Google Land Grab, Librarians and KM, and Summer Conferences

Posted on May 07, 2010
Law Librarian Conversations will discuss the Twitter/Facebook/Google land grab, librarians and knowledge management, and summer plans, including a review of this summer's conferences today from 2:00 PM to 3:00 PM CDT. Reserve your seat at https://www2...

Opening: Reference Librarian/Empirical Research Specialist, Fordham Law School Library

Posted on May 07, 2010
The Fordham Law School Library is seeking a Reference Librarian/Empirical Research Specialist to provide reference and empirical research support for the Law School faculty. Legal scholarship increasingly involves interdisciplinary research and qualitative and quantitative analysis...

Bar Exam? There?s a $1,000 App for That

Posted on May 07, 2010
Priced at $1,000, the California, New York and Multistate bar exams produced by BarMax for the iPhone and iTouch include an entire bar review course, with audio lectures, outlines and checklists for what is said to be the most expensive...

Proposed Internet Privacy Bill Draws Criticism From All Sides

Posted on May 07, 2010
Congressmen Rick Boucher (D-VA) and Cliff Stearns (D-FL) earlier this week released the draft text of a bill that would protect Internet privacy for individuals. Boucher is the chair of the House Energy and Commerce Communications Subcommittee. Stearns is the...

DOJ Ranked Last in OpenTheGovernment.org's Audit of Federal Agencies? Open Government Plans

Posted on May 06, 2010
OpenTheGovernment.org has released its final rankings of federal agencies' progress under the Obama Administration's Open Government Directive. The rankings were based on an audit of each agency's Open Government Plans. Partners in the project included AALL, ALA, CDT, OMB Watch,...

An Affirmative Right to Free Speech: Content Discrimination by the Internet's Gatekeepers

Posted on May 06, 2010
Dawn C. Nunziato's Virtual Freedom: Net Neutrality and Free Speech in the Internet Age (Stanford Law Books, 2009) "explains that, contrary to the prevailing understanding of the Internet as a haven for free speech, our communications on the Internet today...

Opening: Reference Librarian, Univ. of Kentucky Law Library

Posted on May 06, 2010
Available: Immediately, Review of applications will begin June 1, 2010. Responsibilities: As a member of the reference staff, this position will provide proactive reference and research support to the college of law faculty, students, members of the practicing bar and...

Up to the "Bullocks" Challenge? Ten Reasons Why ?Professional Librarian? is an Oxymoron

Posted on May 06, 2010
And they are: Librarians Have No Monopoly on the Activities They Claim There are No Consequences For Failing to Adhere to Ethical Practices Librarianship is Too Generalized to Claim Any Expertise ?Librarian? Assumes a Place of Work, Rather than the...

AALL Announces Slate of Candidates for Officers and Executive Board Election

Posted on May 05, 2010
The election will be held November 1 - December 1, 2010, and successful candidates will begin their terms of office in July 2011. Vice President/President-Elect Jean M. Wenger, Government Documents/Foreign & International Law Librarian, Cook County Law Library, Chicago, IL...

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