Legal Research

Fictional librarians who saved the world

Posted on November 10, 2010
Law Librarian Blog has a link to a post with a list of librarians who saved the world. My favorite is Rupert Giles, from Buffy: The Vampire Slayer.

Interview with Carl Malamud

Posted on November 05, 2010
Library Journal posted an interview with Carl Malamud of Law.gov. Here's a brief snippet:Public Information for All: An Interview with Carl Malamud LJ talks to the public information advocate and founder of PublicResources.Org about barriers to access, trends in copyright, potential legal fixes, and where libraries fit into the puzzleBy Debbie RabinaLibrary JournalNov 1, 2010Since the early 1990s, Carl Malamud has made it his business to return to the public what is rightfully theirs: free access to public information...

Future for headnotes?

Posted on November 03, 2010
Are Case Headnotes at Risk of Extinction? is the question posed on Law Librarian Blog. Joe Hodnicki quotes a few other blogs, and raises the further question of will we still be buying print reporters in another five years? Now that attorneys are becoming accustomed to reading cases from free or low cost sources that do not provide headnotes, will they see the editorial enhancements as nice to have, but not necessary?

SEC Press Release Feed

Posted on November 02, 2010
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has a news release RSS feed: http://www.sec.gov/rss/news/press.xml

To access this complete feed in the blog feed reader login or register for free.

Legal Print Tools

Posted on November 02, 2010
How Much Longer for 19th Century Legal Print Relics: What legal reference and research tool titles are obsolete and when will they disappear from sales catalogs?from:Law Librarian BlogNovember 2, 2010Joe Hodnicki ponders issues regarding how much longer print tools like digests, advance sheets, and legal encyclopedias will exist.

Interview with Roberta Shaffer

Posted on October 28, 2010
Roberta Shaffer, Law Librarian of Congress, is interviewed in this post from In Custodia Legis, the blog of the Law Library of Congress. This is the first in a series of interviews with people from the LLOC.Don't forget to bookmark or subscribe to this blog - interesting posts about the LLOC, and about legal topic in general...

INCONCEIVABLE!!

Posted on October 28, 2010
This is a fun Elephant Post from 3 Geeks and a Law Blog. You'll find yourself nodding and laughing at some of the responses. Here's the set up for this post:In the movie The Princess Bride, there is an exchange between Vizzini and Inigo Montoya. Vizzini keeps saying "INCONCEIVABLE!!" and Montoya calls him on it:Vizzini: HE DIDN'T FALL? INCONCEIVABLE!!Inigo Montoya: You keep using that word...

Librarian Discount at Half Price Books

Posted on October 27, 2010
Maybe many of you knew this already but I just found out that librarians receive an additional 10% discount at Half Price Books. I always thought it was limited to school and public librarians but a law firm librarian friend of mine said she just signed up for it yesterday...

Will we learn a new citation format?

Posted on October 25, 2010
Greg Lambert from 3 Geeks and a Law Blog reports that a New Jersey court has cited to Bloomberg Law in an opinion. Read Greg's entire post for more details.

What is Moodle? Will there be one in your future?

Posted on October 22, 2010
Moodle is a Course Management System (CMS), also known as a Learning Management System (LMS) or a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE).It is a Free web application that educators can use to create effective online learning sites.The general website is http://www...

Mobile Apps/Gadgets Presentation

Posted on October 19, 2010
Last Friday at the SLA-TX Chapter Annual Meeting I had the pleasure of working with Greg Lambert (King & Spalding) and Scott Riggins (Social Mobility of Houston) in an exciting presentation on Mobile Apps/Gadgets for the Librarian/Information Specialist...

Goodbye GOOG-411

Posted on October 18, 2010
From Pogue's BlogFarewell, GOOG-411Oh, it?s a sad day in techland.On Nov. 12, Google will turn off 800-GOOG-411 forever.It was one of the best, juiciest, most useful services in all phonedom. It didn?t cost anything. It didn?t require a smartphone. Its accuracy was uncanny...

Bloglines Closing Nov. 1st

Posted on October 18, 2010
With Bloglines closing on Nov. 1st, I evaluated a few more RSS readers and decided to try Newsgator's FeedDemon. It is a free service that is an application tool. It quickly downloads to your computer, and exporting your current feeds to the application is easy...

Free Webinar on New Medline Plus Database

Posted on October 18, 2010
Title: The New Medline Plus: An In-Depth LookFormat: WebinarDate: Wednesday, October 27, 2010Start Time: 2:00 pm, Central TimeThis webinar will last approximately one hour. There is no charge for this webinar. Pre-registration is not required.For more information and to participate in the October 27 webinar, go here.

Congratulations to Mary Minow

Posted on October 18, 2010
On 29 September, the U.S. Senate confirmed "Mary Minow, of California, to be a member of the National Museum and Library Services Board for a term expiring December 6, 2014."Mary is the author of LibraryLaw Blog and part of Infopeople. Congratulations!

Vaccine case

Posted on October 13, 2010
High Court Superstars Take Shots in Vaccine CaseTony MauroThe National Law JournalOctober 13, 2010Report on arguments in Bruesewitz v. Wyeth (SCOTUS docket # 09-152), case involving issues concerning the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986, and whether or not this protects vaccine manufactures from liability concerning injuries caused by vaccines...

IRS attorneys

Posted on October 11, 2010
This question comes up from time to time - where do you go look up IRS attorneys by tax code section? Andy Zimmerman answers this question in one of his ZRG blog posts. Tax Analysts keeps an updated list on their web site here.

A different kind of library conference

Posted on October 08, 2010
I'm sitting outside the exhibit hall for the Texas Library Association Region 1 Fall Media conference, after having listened to the keynote speaker and a panel of authors. Why, you ask? Because I am on vacation, and my friend Clare B. Dunkle was the keynote speaker...

TX-SLA Annual Meeting: Houston

Posted on October 07, 2010
SLA Texas Chapter 2010 Annual Fall Meeting Topic: Future Ready Friday, October 15, 2010 8:15 am - 6:00 pm University of Houston - MD Anderson Library - Rockwell Pavilion, HoustonOnline RegistrationSLA Members $45Non-Members $65Students, Retirees, and SLA Members between jobs $20Registration includes continental breakfast, lunch, and happy hour.

DALL Member Published in AALL Spectrum

Posted on October 01, 2010
Our own Jennifer Stephens answered the call from Mark Estes, AALL Spectrum Editorial Director, to Contribute a summary of the AALL 2010 program, "Extreme Makeover: PowerPoint Edition". It has been published in the September/October AALL Spectrum, which is available from AALLNET at http://www...

Tech Fun

Posted on October 01, 2010
I have been traveling quite a bit lately and found that I was in need of a small inexpensive laptop that would run PowerPoint presentations. After looking at my options I finally settled on a netbook. When I started looking at them, I thought that they were too small and probably could not do what I needed...

Impact of Bilski on software patents

Posted on September 29, 2010
Ars Technica has an article with statements from Red Hat's Rob Tiller (vice president and assistant general counsel) on how the Bilski vs. Kappos decision could affect business method patents.As USPTO evaluates Bilski, Red Hat says end software patentsBy Ryan PaulWhen the Supreme Court heard the Bilski case earlier this year, it ruled that the specific business method patent at issue in the case case was invalid and contended that the patentability of intangible methods should be reduced but not eliminated...

Private company taking over public library management

Posted on September 27, 2010
I saw this while browsing the New York Times app on the bus this morning. Be sure to read some of the associated reader comments as well - people are not happy with public libraries being take over by private companies.Anger as a Private Company Takes Over LibrariesBy DAVID STREITFELDNew York TimesPublished: September 26, 2010SANTA CLARITA, Calif...

New York - be careful with social networks!

Posted on September 27, 2010
Greg Lambert reports on a couple of recent New York opinions that seem to allow discovery of information posted on Facebook, MySpace, and the like, even deleted photos and posts. Read more on the 3 Geeks and a Law Blog for details.Intro paragraph:There have been a couple of very interesting opinions coming out of New York recently...

Can you do that with a Kindle 3?

Posted on September 23, 2010
Wired's Tim Carmody does a Q&A on how to do almost everything on a Kindle 3, including reading PDF and epub documents.How to Do (Almost) Everything With a Kindle 3By Tim Carmody September 22, 2010Amazon?s Kindle can do a lot more than just buy and read Amazon-sold e-books...

Blog on diversity and law firms

Posted on September 21, 2010
I saw this mentioned in Robert Ambrogi's recent article in Law Technology News - Lebal Divas Blog (http://www.legaldivasblog.com/legaldivas/). Written by four partners from Bowmand and Brooke LLP, it concentrates on issues of diversity.

Sept is National Library Card Sign-Up Month

Posted on September 20, 2010
"Celebrated throughout the month of September, National Library Card Sign-up Month encourages people to check out what is new at their library by signing up for a library card. Libraries today offer more than just books-- they have videos, CDs, computers, Internet access and more...

Friday frivolity

Posted on September 17, 2010
Greg Lambert over at 3 Geeks and a Law Blog posts about superheros who have a day job as attorney. Check it out for a little Friday frivolity.

DALL Vendor Forum

Posted on September 17, 2010
Reminder : The first DALL vendor forum is Thursday September 23. Our host is Bloomberg Law. Please respond to the e-vite if you can attend. B-law will provide lunch for us.

More uses for iPads

Posted on September 15, 2010
Will we see more uses for iPads in the legal environment?iPad lures business users in law, medicine and other fieldsIt's still not seen as a laptop replacement, howeverBy Matt HamblenAugust 30, 2010Computerworld - Apple's iPad tablet is being used by doctors, lawyers and businesspeople to ease their workloads, but many believe the popular touchscreen device can't yet replace a laptop for functions such as writing long documents...

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