Legal Research

In the wrong hands, Facebook could become "a giant surveillance system" warns author.

Posted on June 08, 2010
A new book reviewed in today's New York Times about the Facebook phenomenon called "The Facebook Effect: The Inside Story of the Company That Is Connecting the World" by Simon & Schuster is generally laudatory towards the company and Facebook...

Playing No-Limit Texas Hold 'em with TR Legal and Lexis for Licensing Online Legal Resources

Posted on June 07, 2010
The Shed West Era is transformative. It's been a boom for the recycled paper industry. In the course of two days last week, our little county law library sent 20,000 pounds of print to the recycling center, mostly West titles,...

Contributions Made by Law Librarians Featured on The Federal Judiciary YouTube Channel

Posted on June 07, 2010
Following up on LLB's The Evolving Federal Circuit Courts Library System: More About Knowledge Management as Libraries Place Greater Reliance on Electronic Resources, here's a Federal Judiciary YouTube Channel video featuring the contributions made by federal court law librarians...

Maps and Mashups of the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Rig Spill

Posted on June 07, 2010
Links provided at the ResourceShelf. [JH]

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Nothing "Next Generation" About Rumored Kindle Arriving in August

Posted on June 06, 2010
In A slimmer Kindle coming in August?, Anne Dujmovic, an associate editor at CNET News, is reporting by way of a Bloomberg News report that a "next-generation" Kinder will be coming in August. It will be "slimmer," but I for...

EFF's Guide to Facebook's New Privacy Controls

Posted on June 05, 2010
On May 26, 2010, Facebook implemented new privacy controls and settings by way of a privacy dashboard. See Kevin Bankston's commentary on EFF's Deeplinks Blog, Facebook's New Privacy Improvements Are a Positive Step, But There's Still More Work to Be...

On The Internet, Everyone Knows You're a Dog - Get Used to It

Posted on June 05, 2010
Joe notes the EFF guides to privacy controls on Facebook below. I wonder if anyone noticed that the Like Button with which Facebook is seeding the web also acts as a tracker. Some might say, well, duh, especially if someone...

Summer Jobs for Law Students Harder to Get

Posted on June 05, 2010
The well publicized difficulty for law graduates to get a job has extended to the difficulty for law students to get a summer job, or even an interview for one. Law.com features an American Lawyer story centering on the experience...

Friday Fun Part Two: When is a court proceeding like an episode of the Simpsons?

Posted on June 04, 2010
Apparently when a Cook County (IL) assistant public defender ... well, here's the story as reported in Public defender arrested for allegedly attacking prosecutor: A Cook County assistant public defender was arrested after he pushed and choked a prosecutor following...

Friday Fun: The ID Ten T Error

Posted on June 04, 2010
A tribute to IT Help Desk support. [JH]

Consortium-Buying of Very Expensive Legal Search Services by Smaller Law Firms and Solo Practitioners

Posted on June 04, 2010
Thinking out loud in a blog post, Pooling: Should firms join to buy cheaper legal research tools?, Jason Wilson writes: It seems to me that state-wide firms of certain sizes have enough similarity in their online legal research needs that...

There is no reliable method to measure the "scholarly" quality of law faculty: Results of Brian Leiter's Poll.

Posted on June 04, 2010
So what is the best way to evaluate the "scholarly" quality of a law faculty? Chicago law prof Brian Leiter launched a poll to find out by asking participants to rank order, from best to worst, the different ways of...

Opening: Reference Library, Diamond Law Library, Columbia Univ.

Posted on June 04, 2010
The Diamond Law Library at Columbia University has an entry-level opening for a Reference Librarian. Reference Librarians provide general and in-depth reference service in all areas of law (including American, international, and foreign law) to faculty, students and others at...

Salem Press' Library Blog Award Winners

Posted on June 04, 2010
The winners in each of the five categories of "topical" library blogging are: General Library Blogs First place: Libraries and Transliteracy Second place: Centered Librarian Third place: Librarian.net Quirky Library Blogs First place: Awful Library Books Second place: Library History...

Friday Fun Part Three: It's "National Donut Day!"

Posted on June 04, 2010
I'm not sure how this one slipped through the cracks but no matter, there's still time left to get your free - yes, free! - donut from participating shops Dunkin Donuts and Krispy Kreme. Make mine a chocolate coconut, please....

It's Time to Make Bar Exams "Format Neutral:" NCBE Sued for Violating ADA in Administration of the Multistate Bar Exam

Posted on June 03, 2010
The National Conference of Bar Examiners is notorious for making it difficult for law school grads with disabilities to take the Multistate exam by offering unreasonable accommodations. Case in point, three recent law school grads, Timothy Elder (University of California...

The Evolving Federal Circuit Courts Library System: More About Knowledge Management as Libraries Place Greater Reliance on Electronic Resources

Posted on June 03, 2010
The Evolving Library, published in The Third Branch, reports on a study of federal circuit court libraries, the Judicial Conference Committee on Court Administration and Case Management (CACM) has been conducting "to determine how a significant reduction in law book...

W3C Launches Library Linked Data Group

Posted on June 03, 2010
The World Wide Web Consortium's Incubator Activity division has formed a new group called the Library Linked Data. From the mission statement of the Group's charter: The mission of the Library Linked Data Incubator Group is to help increase global...

Openings: Two Technical Services Team Leaders, Widener Univ. School of Law

Posted on June 03, 2010
The Widener University School of Law Legal Information Center invites applicants for the positions of Technical Services Team Leaders. The Legal Information Center is unique to legal education with its complete integration of the Wilmington and Harrisburg branches...

Google Hosts USPTO Data for Public Access

Posted on June 03, 2010
Google has worked out a deal with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to host 10 terabytes of patent and trademark data for download to individual users. That essentially includes all granted patents and trademarks and published applications with full...

Corporate Gangster at MoFo, Slave at Skadden Arps: Revealing Law Firm Associate Facebook Pages

Posted on June 03, 2010
Follow the link to the ATL story, Law Firm Facebook Pages Reveal How Associates Really Feel, for Facebook pages, including Doggy style at DLA Piper Human paper shredder at Cravath Bimbo at Baker & McKenzie Whipping boy at McDermott, Will...

Do libraries face an inevitable digital future? And just what is the cost per volume of books versus digital?

Posted on June 03, 2010
Here's an important new report from the Council on Library and Information Services that explores the question of whether the library of the future is inevitably digital. The report includes three essays that approach this issue from slightly different perspectives:...

Fantasy Island: There's a Legal "App for That" But Should Users Trust It?

Posted on June 02, 2010
More than once or twice, I've seen a local practitioner proudly display an legal app on his (no hers) iPhone for primary source materials in my little county law library and at the bar nearby (hey, it's called "networking" with...

Preliminary Findings of California Inventory for LAW.GOV Presented to Congress

Posted on June 02, 2010
From the prepared text, AALL Statement on Legal Materials and Our System of Law, for presentation to the Committee on House Administration by Roger Skalbeck, Associate Law Librarian at the Georgetown University Law Library and in-coming chair of the AALL's...

In re Spokane County Law Library: Some Thoughts on Being in Arrears to TR Legal

Posted on June 02, 2010
The Spokane County Law Library owes TR Legal $75K in part due to its Westlaw license which reportedly costs about $12K per month according to this newspaper account, County throws life raft to law library: Jim Emacio, the county?s chief...

Opening: Access Services Librarian, Lillian Goldman Law Library, Yale Law School

Posted on June 02, 2010
Responsibilities of Access Services Librarian (Rank: Librarian I-III): Under the general direction of the Associate Librarian for Collections and Access Services, manages circulation, reserve, collection maintenance, interlibrary loan/document delivery, and access/security operations for the Law Library, as well as participating...

Are Court Filings Copyrightable?

Posted on June 02, 2010
A lawsuit in Canada is asking the novel question of whether legal filings are protected by copyright. The proposed class action is filed on behalf of a Canadian lawyer against Thomson Reuters for violating the Canadian Copyright Act by including...

Survey on Library Publishing Opportinities

Posted on June 02, 2010
Announcement with link to survey on LISNews here. [JH]

Law Prof Peter Erlinder Arrested in Rwanda Allegedly for Denying Genocide by Kagame Government

Posted on June 01, 2010
William Mitchell College of Law Professor C. Peter Erlinder traveled to Rwanda on May 23 to help defend opposition presidential candidate Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza against charges of promoting genocidal ideology. Erlinder, who warned that he might be targeted by the...

Forbe's Worst Master's Degrees: MLIS ranks 25th out of 30

Posted on June 01, 2010
Forbes took a look at master's degree programs offering the best and worst salaries and employment prospects over the next decade. Click on the article's slideshow links for the findings. Forbes' method to determine the worst master's degrees: "we looked...

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