Legal Research

Tell Google You Want At Least as Much Privacy When Reading Books Online as You Have When Reading Print Books in Your Library

Posted on August 05, 2009
EFF, the ACLU of Northern California and the Samuelson Clinic at UC Berkeley have sent a letter to Google CEO Eric Schmidt demanding that Google take specific steps to protect Book Search users' freedom to read privately. They are demanding...

Free Kindle: Who's Not Laughing About Tethered Electronic Resources

Posted on August 05, 2009
Perhaps you remember when Amazon founder Jeff Bozos appeared on The Daily Show to promote the new Kindle earlier this year. (If you don't, the video of Jeff's laughing jag is available below.) Not everyone is laughing as freakishly loud...

Top 10 Speedy Law Prof Blog Readership Ranking (Why Does It Take Readers of This Blog So Long to Read a Post?)

Posted on August 05, 2009
We all know that number-crunchers like tax professionals are brainiacs because they work with math-'ma-tiks and complicated operations like addition, subtraction, multiplication, division and the like. Mathematical brainiacs can do magically things with numbers...

CRS Report on Spectrum Policy

Posted on August 05, 2009
Spectrum Policy in the Age of Broadband: Issues for Congress (July 13, 2009) considers the possibility of modifying spectrum policy: (1) to support national goals for broadband deployment by placing more emphasis on attracting new providers of wireless broadband services;...

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Did AALL Refuse Thomson-West Sponsorship Cash for the Annual Meeting?

Posted on August 05, 2009
Did you notice that Thomson-West wasn't a Gold Sponsor for this year's AALL annual meeting? It came to my attention by omission when Gold Sponsors, companies that have contributed $75,001 or more, were acknowledged before the keynote presentation: "BNA, LexisNexis,...

Time for an AALL Senior Law Librarians Caucus or Why Our Post-West Party Bar Tab Was $150 Before Tips

Posted on August 04, 2009
The world?s older population (65 and over) is increasing by approximately how many people each month in 2008? a. 75,000 b. 350,000 c. 600,000 d. 870,000 The answer is "d" according to the Census Bureau's An Aging World: 2008. The...

Orphan Works: A Statement of Best Practices

Posted on August 04, 2009
The Society of American Archivists has released its revised version of Orphan Works: A Statement of Best Practices. The statement outlines reasonable efforts archivists should take to identify and locate rights holders. Hat tip to Digital Koans. [JH]

NLJ's 2009 U.S. Supreme Court Review

Posted on August 04, 2009
The National Law Journal's annual review of the Supreme Court examines the numbers and trends that shaped the last term and will affect the term to come. [JH]

A "Librarian" to head LC

Posted on August 04, 2009
Library Journal is reporting that long-time head of the Library of Congress, James Billington, who recently reached 80 years of age, is stepping down. LJ identified Carla Hayden, Director of the Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore, as the front...

FSF Offers Petition to Free the Kindle

Posted on August 04, 2009
The Free Software Foundation is circulating an online petition demanding that Amazon remove DRM and DRM-like features from the Kindle. Ars Technica has an interesting story on the petition, catalogs the considerations with vendor lock-in, and makes the obvious prediction...

CRS Looks at a Cash For Clunkers Program, in 1996

Posted on August 04, 2009
The Cash For Clunkers program is nothing new. The Congressional Research Service analyzed the issues in 1996. They found benefit for the environment and as a method of economic stimulus. The report also notes opposition to these programs from the...

Findings from Law Firm Research Instruction Needs Survey Also Useful for Collection Development Decisions

Posted on August 03, 2009
In Law Firm Legal Research Requirements for New Attorneys, 101 Law Library Journal 297 (2009), Patrick Meyer, Associate Library Director and Adjunct Professor, Thomas Jefferson School of Law, reports on the findings of his 2007 survey of law firm librarians...

Judge Aldisert's Opinion Writing, 2d ed. Now Available

Posted on August 03, 2009
A couple of weeks ago LLB posted an announcement about Judge Ruggero J. Aldisert's article, Opinion Writing and Opinion Readers [SSRN], which was inspired by the work done by the author and his law clerks in editing and preparing the...

Webcast of The Future of Today's Legal Scholarship Symposium

Posted on August 03, 2009
In case you weren't able to attend The Future of Today's Legal Scholarship: A Symposium in Honor of Bob Oakley which took place on Saturday, July 25 at Georgetown Law, the symposium's archived webcast is available. Here's the agenda: Welcome...

Amazon Sued Over Kindle Deletions

Posted on August 03, 2009
The first lawsuitsover Amazon's mass deletions of Orwell's 1984 and Animal Farm from the Kindle are now filed. That didn't take very long. The two plaintiffs in the class action lawsuit are Justin Gawronski of Michigan and Antoine Bruguier of...

Thumbs Up or Down for 2009 AALL Annual Meeting

Posted on August 03, 2009
http://llb.questionform.com/public/2009-AALL-Annual-Meeting

5-Stars, 4-Stars, 3-Stars ... What did you think about the festivities at the 2009 AALL Annual Meeting?

Posted on August 03, 2009
http://llb.questionform.com/public/2009-AALL-Festivities

Preparing for 1Ls

Posted on August 03, 2009
I have to give a shout out to my colleague Mary Rumsey for creating this short movie on rules for using the reference desk service and posting it on Facebook. I know you will all appreciate it: http://www.xtranormal.com/watch?e=20090803112456176 I must...

West Releases Publisher 5.0 for Court Reporting Agencies

Posted on August 02, 2009
From the press release, Publisher 5.0 features include: Faster and easier. Publisher?s simpler interface and new features make transcript post-production faster than ever, while making it easy to specify metadata and Bundle and cover page properties.Publisher 5...

Practitioner Law Blogs Roundup

Posted on August 01, 2009
South Carolina Injury Lawyer Blog http://www.southcarolinainjurylawyerblog.com http://www.southcarolinainjurylawyerblog.com/index.xml Provides opinion on injury law news, cases and reports in South Carolina. Published by Howell and Christmas, LLC. Fort Lauderdale Criminal Attorney Blog http://www...

Friday Fun: William Shatner Does Sarah Palin Twice

Posted on July 31, 2009
William Shatner recited Alaska Governor Sarah Palin's farewell speech and some Palin tweets in the form of poetry on Conan O'Brien's Tonight Show. Hat tip to Mashable. [JH] Palin Tweets Palin's Farewell Speech

Did Blogs Save the Web?

Posted on July 31, 2009
Cofounder of Salon.com, Scott Rosenberg chronicles blogging?s unplanned rise and improbable triumph, tracing its impact on politics, business, the media, and our lives in Say Everything: How Blogging Began, What It's Becoming, and Why It Matters (Crown, July 7, 2009)...

Advice for Drafting Multiple-Choice Questions in Law School Exams

Posted on July 31, 2009
ALR instructors who use multiple-choice testing may find Janet Fisher's (Suffolk) article Multiple-Choice: Choosing the Best Options for More Effective and Less Frustrating Law School Testing, 37 Capital University Law Review 119 (2008) [SSRN] helpful...

A Quick Look at Freelance Law

Posted on July 31, 2009
Freelance Law is a national database of freelance attorneys, paralegals, and other legal professionals, offering their services to law firms on an independent contractor basis. The site, still in beta, is offering a free webinar about its services on July...

Windows 7 Family Pack Pricing Announced

Posted on July 31, 2009
Those apparently looking for a bargain in a family pack to upgrade multiple PCs to Windows 7 may be disappointed with today's announcement. The cost for three licenses as a package will be $150, "while supplies last." In other words,...

USPS May Close 677 Post Office Locations

Posted on July 31, 2009
The House is holding hearings on mail delivery, taking into account the significant drop in volume the U.S. Postal Service carries due to Internet communications. The Postal Service has identified 677 post office locations for closure or consolidation and presented...

iPhone Virus Alert: Beware the Square Character Text Message

Posted on July 31, 2009
Security experts Charlie Miller and Collin Mulliner have exposed an iPhone virus that could allow others to control your phone just by sending a a single square character in a text message. If you get the square character, turn off...

What did you think about AALL 2009?

Posted on July 31, 2009
I am always supportive of our national organization. In the last 14 years, I have been a speaker on at least one program for 10 of those years. I am telling you this to demonstrate that I have been an...

Critical Issues

Posted on July 31, 2009
The Educause 2009 survey of critical IT issues in higher education was released on the Educause Review web site. Topping the list among the top ten issues was IT Funding. Let's face it, funding is the number one issue on...

Twitter Launches New Homepage

Posted on July 30, 2009
Twitter comes of age -- gone are explanations of what Twitter is and how to use it. The new Twitter homepage centers around search. A big search box is the first thing that grabs one's attention. [JH]

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