Legal Research

Wait, don't count on Open Access yet!

Posted on February 20, 2009
Peter Suber, at Earlham College, and Open Access News, raises the alarm that there is a bill reintroduced to Congress to stop federal agencies from maintaining an open access policy, forcing them to push their research out through third party vendors...

Durham Statement on Open Access to Legal Scholarship

Posted on February 20, 2009
Dick Danner posted this to the Law Lib Directors' list following a discussion on law journals -- whether libraries have been canceling them, should they be kept in some "analog" format in addition to the Hein/Westlaw/Lexis digital formats, etc.. This is an interesting development...

Tobacco Company Loses Jury Trial

Posted on February 19, 2009
The Chicago Tribune prints a full Associated Press report here of the jury trial in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. Elaine Hess, the widow of long-time chain smoker Stuart Hess, sued Philip Morris after her husband died of lung cancer. The jury deliberated for two days before awarding $3 million compensatory damages and $5 million punitive damages...

Update on Ave Maria

Posted on February 19, 2009
The ABA has given embattled Ave Maria School of Law permission to relocate to Florida. See the story below.Embattled Law School Wins Approval for Controversial MoveNew York LawyerFebruary 19, 2009By Karen SloanThe National Law JournalEmbattled Ave Maria School of Law has won approval from the American Bar Association to relocate to Florida...

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Students and Grades

Posted on February 19, 2009
This article from today's New York Times deals specifically with the issue of undergraduate students and their expectations about grades, and does not mention law schools. However, the grades students got as undergraduates definitely affect their perceptions of the grades they get in law school...

Book Pirates Strike Again!

Posted on February 18, 2009
While I am a strong advocate of open access to scholarly literature (see post below), I also believe in respecting copyright. This article from Inside Higher Ed describes the problem of "pre-publication digital editions [from university presses] ... ending up on ...

Another Victory for Open Access

Posted on February 18, 2009
Boston University has announced that "research by ... faculty and staff will soon be freely available in an online archive, bypassing the conventional and restrictive route of publishing papers in academic journals ..." What makes this announcement particularly noteworthy is that all of BU's schools and college have endorsed the new policy...

The Death of Penmanship

Posted on February 18, 2009
When I read this Newsweek article, entitled "The Curse of Cursive," it triggered a lot of very strong reactions in me. In the article, the author, Jessica Bennett, complains that there is no purpose served anymore by requiring children to learn how to write in script...

Courts in crisis

Posted on February 17, 2009
Click on the title to this post to read a Boston Globe article detailing a speech by Chief Justice Margaret Marshall of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court to the ABA meeting in Boston. "I shall be blunt: Our state courts are in crisis," Supreme Judicial Court Chief Justice Margaret H...

Khmer Rouge Trial Begins

Posted on February 17, 2009
On Tuesday, the first trial of a high-ranking member of Cambodia's Khmer Rouge began in Phnom Penh. This article from today's New York Times discusses the first defendant, Kaing Guek Eav, who ran the Tuol Sleng prison and torture house. There are four additional Khmer Rouge officials who are set to stand trial, but their trials may not begin until next year...

Rearranging the Deck Chairs

Posted on February 17, 2009
From the always provocative Steven J. Bell comes this article on library portals. Bell is a well-known commentator about libraries and librarianship, and blogs at The Kept-Up Academic Librarian. Bell argues that library portals are moribund because neither faculty nor students use them to access electronic content; rather, they find their own ways to get to the content they use often.

In Praise of School Librarians

Posted on February 16, 2009
All of us who work with law students know how difficult it is to wean them away from quick-and-dirty Google searches and teach them to use more focused research methods and resources. At the beginning of this semester, I did a diagnostic quiz (using clicker technology) in my Advanced Legal Research class to try to get a sense of what level the class was at...

Black History Month in the Court Law Library

Posted on February 15, 2009
The Brooklyn Supreme Court Law Library is participating in the Court's Black History Month celebrations by demonstrating the value of the Library's collection. We assembled a book truck with historical print materials and print outs from HeinOnline's historical slavery treatises...

Valentine's Day in Brooklyn

Posted on February 15, 2009
Court House libraries deal with a lot of paternity cases, especially in counties where the DAs aggressively collect child support. All the sad stories came back to me yesterday when I was walking down Flatbush and saw a van with this advertisement painted on its rear window: "Does he really have his father's eyes? Call 4DNA...

Information Wants to be Free

Posted on February 13, 2009
One of my heroes is Carl Malamud, the founder of Public.Resource.org, whose website makes available government information at no cost. I have to say I find the website somewhat hard to use (it's not particularly user friendly), but I applaud the intent behind it--the dissemination of legal information whose creation was funded by taxpayer dollars...

CILP Rolls back prices to 2005

Posted on February 13, 2009
This just in: Penny Hazelton, for the Current Index to Legal Periodicals says, I know we are all worried about how to maintain the quality of our collections and services in light of our uncertain economy.We have decided to roll back our price for electronic CILP to 2005 levels or $696 for the coming year...

Microsoft sets a bounty on the guys that created the Conficker Worm

Posted on February 13, 2009
The Conficker worm, also known at the Downadup, Downup, or Kido virus which targets Windows computers, has become such a significant threat that Microsoft has set a bounty on whomever created the virus. Click on the title to this post to read a full report at Network World (you may have to click past an ad to get to the article)...

Geez. Boycott Nordstroms

Posted on February 10, 2009
If this story from Cato Institute, related at Information Week's Global CIO's Weblog is true, people should simply make a point of boycotting Nordstrom and tell them why:Witness the story of Beckons, an organic yoga and lifestyle clothing business founded in 2006 by two women in Colorado...

Invisible

Posted on February 09, 2009
A few days ago, I had an interesting experience. I carried a cane to work with me. There has been a good deal of ice and snow and slush. I carried the cane more as a preventive measure ? to prevent a fall, than because I actually have a bad leg right now...

Follow animal rights law suit on Twitter

Posted on February 05, 2009
You can follow news of an animal rights law suit, on behalf of elephants in Ringling Brothers, Barnum & Bailey circuses, on Twitter, by following BornFreeUSA. You can link by clicking on the title to this post. If you are already registered in Twitter, log in, and then click on the link or search for BornFreeUSA and choose to follow...

State Tax vs. Commerce Clause in Massachusetts

Posted on February 03, 2009
The Boston Globe reports this morning that a case before the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court will test whether the state can pursue sales tax on large appliance and tires sold to Massachusetts residence who cross the border into nearby states like New Hampshire to avoid state sales tax...

Deconstructing the Rankings

Posted on February 03, 2009
"Using Foucault to Deconstruct Rankings," an article published today in Inside Higher Ed, highlights a new study published in the American Sociological Review. The article, entitled "The Discipline of Rankings: Tight Couplings and Organizational Change," "demonstrates the value of [philosopher Michel] Foucault's conception of discipline for understanding organizational responses to rankings...

Print Law Reviews

Posted on February 02, 2009
Many law libraries are having to confront serious budget issues as a result of the economic recession. I don't know any library that is totally immune from financial pressures. Some libraries have dropped subscriptions to print law reviews, knowing that they are made available fairly quickly through LexisNexis and Westlaw, and are eventually available through HeinOnline as well...

Sign of the Times?

Posted on January 30, 2009
Evan R. Chesler, presiding partner at Cravath, Swaine & Moore, believes that "This is the time to get rid of the billable hour," according to an article in today's New York Times. Because of the economic downturn, some budget-conscious clients have persuaded firms to move away from the iconic billable hour in favor of "flat fees for handling transactions and success fees for positive outcomes,

Verification of Digital Records

Posted on January 28, 2009
One of the most vexing problems with digital information is how to verify its authenticity. As John Markoff points out in his article in yesterday's New York Times, it is "possible to alter digital text, video and audio in ways that are virtually undetectable to the unaided human eye and ear...

Google as Monopoly

Posted on January 25, 2009
Robert Darnton, who has been director of libraries at Harvard since July 2007, has written a provocative article in the February 12 issue of The New York Review of Books. Darnton has a compelling insight about the recent settlement of the Google Book Search lawsuit...

Interesting post on legal billing in Germany

Posted on January 21, 2009
Houston law librarian Saskia has a blog, Saskia's Spin. On January 18, she begins a two-part series (not yet completed) in which she explains how German lawyers bill clients. Saskia is a German lawyer, as well as an American law librarian, and brings her fascinating experience to bear as she compares the billing practices of the two countries legal professions...

Vice-President Records may go missing

Posted on January 20, 2009
Apparently Vice-President Cheney is moving boxes of records into his house, and hurt his back. Look for him today in a wheel chair at the inauguration. The Boston Globe reports A federal judge ruled yesterday that Vice President Dick Cheney has broad discretion in determining what records created during his eight-year tenure must be preserved...

Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, 2009

Posted on January 19, 2009
What an interesting year to reflect on the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.! In this year, the people of the United Stated elected the first black President. Many people are considering that Barack Obama is the fulfillment of the dream that King announced in his landmark speech...

Twitter & Legal Writing

Posted on January 19, 2009
Interesting blog by pseudonymous law student Rex Gradeless, Social Media Law Student, offers an interesting post on Usint Twitter to become a better legal writer. You can reach that post by clicking on the title to this post. Basically, Rex points out that the 140-character limit of Twitter forces the writer to be succinct and clear, which are strong benefits in legal writing...

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