Legal Research

Job Search Tips from a Recruiter - Boston Globe

Posted on July 14, 2009
The Boston Globe today offers a nice set of 8 tips for online job hunting here. It's a helpful little list, with sound advice including being careful with your e-mail address (don't use hotmama@yahoo.com!), scanning your social network sites BEFORE putting your resume out (remove all those wonderful pictures of you partying with friends), but also some that maybe won't have occurred to folks, like naming your online resume folder carefully (don't name it draft or with an older date!)...

Google vs. Microsoft?

Posted on July 13, 2009
I ALWAYS read Hiawatha Bray in the Boston Globe, so today's column about the new tangle between Google and Microsoft, "Heavyweights Trading Punches in Digital Faceoff," caught my eye. The two most powerful companies in digital technology are openly invading each other?s most lucrative markets: the office productivity software and computer operating systems Microsoft makes, and Internet search, which Google dominates...

Academic Women Suffer When They Have More Than 2 Children

Posted on July 10, 2009
The Chronicle of Higher Education, July 10, 2009, has a poignant article in the Workplace section, B16-19 (in print) titled, "Is Having More than 2 Children an Unspoken Taboo?" by Robin Wilson. Interviewing women in many different academic fields (but not librarians), Wilson finds ...

Time to put our money where our mouth is!

Posted on July 09, 2009
Lt. Dan Choi, was dismissed from the Army... "After 10 years of service to our country - including leading combat patrols, rebuilding schools and translating Arabic in Iraq for 15 months - the Federal Recognition Board issued its recommendation on Tuesday that I be discharged from the Army for 'moral and professional dereliction' under the military's Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy," he wrote...

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Preserving Guatanamo's Records

Posted on July 08, 2009
A dedicated law professor, librarian, and attorney are working together to create the Guatanamo Bay Detention Center archive, which will be a "repository of the records and first-person accounts of hundreds of defense lawyers who have worked on detainee cases...

Boston Public Library and Google Books Project

Posted on July 07, 2009
presentsExpanding Access to Books:Implications of the Google Books Settlement AgreementWe'd like to invite you to the Boston Public Library for an informative panel about Google's efforts to make books more accessible, and explore what the Google Books settlement agreement means for the academic, library, and business communities...

A Ghost Story for Librarians

Posted on July 07, 2009
My husband, also a librarian and a voracious reader, recently introduced me to M.R. James, a Victorian writer known for his elegant ghost stories. His work, in my husband's words, is "not big on fright, but remains treasured for its rich evocation of atmosphere...

Book Reviews--We Need More of Them

Posted on July 06, 2009
Sanford Levinson has a wonderful article in the May 2009 Texas Law Review, "The Vanishing Book Review in Student-Edited Law Reviews and Potential Responses." What he does not mention in his excellent article is how much a librarian like myself relies upon book reviews for collection development and reference...

I am still catching up on my reading

Posted on July 03, 2009
I am still catching up on my reading after being on vacation. Last night, I read an article in the May 25 issue of New York magazine by Sam Anderson entitled "In Defense of Distraction." Anderson launches the article with a discussion of multitasking and its effects on attention...

New Delhi High Court Decriminalizes Gay Sexuality

Posted on July 03, 2009
The New York Times reported yesterday that New Delhi's High Court overturned a colonial law from 1861 criminalizing homosexual behavior. Before that time, Indian law did not apparently address same sex behavior. ?The inclusiveness that Indian society traditionally displayed, literally in every aspect of life, is manifest in recognizing a role in society for everyone,? judges of the Delhi High Court wrote in a 105-page decision, India?s first to directly address rights for gay men and lesbians...

Rare New Copy of the Declaration of Independence

Posted on July 03, 2009
Just in time for Independence Day, British researchers say they have found and verified a rare original copy of the American Declaration of Independence. It appears to be from the first printing, the Dunlap printing, which may only have numbered 200 or so, to be distributed to the leaders of the time for reading to the public...

The High Cost of Debt

Posted on July 02, 2009
I found Betsy's blog post earlier today on the new rules for student loans to be particularly timely given an article in the New York Times about one would-be lawyer in New York State who has been barred from practicing law because of an unusually large amount of student debt and penalties--over $400,000...

New Student Loan Rules as of July 1!

Posted on July 02, 2009
As of July 1, students with loans have new and better rates for repayment. And students who need to get loans have better deals and rates. Visit Studentaid.ed.gov to see lots of helpful information. Repayment plans includes several plans:1. A standard plan where you pay back in 10 years, which can reduce the amount of interest you pay;2...

LEND-A-HAND: Lexis-Nexis Provides More Support to Laid Off Attorneys

Posted on June 30, 2009
Lexis-Nexis is supporting the battered legal community through another program, Lend-a-Hand, which is designed to help lawyers laid off from large law firms market themselves. See the Lend-a-Hand page here: http://www.lexisnexis.com/lendahandIn the recent economic crisis, law firm managers nationwide are currently faced with making difficult decisions and downsizing is one of the most popular outcomes we are seeing during this economic downturn...

A New Role for the Bookstore

Posted on June 29, 2009
Today's Boston Globe has an article about the Northshire Bookstore in Manchester Center, Vermont, which looks like a classic bookstore, but has taken a big step into the future. Northshire has installed an Espresso Book Machine, dubbed "Lurch" by the staff, which prints books on demand for customers while they wait...

Back from France

Posted on June 26, 2009
While Betsy was in China and Jim was holding down the fort at OOTJ, I was attending my daughter's college graduation and vacationing in France (two and a half weeks) as well as several days in Germany. The weather was mostly clear, but surprisingly cold for this time of year...

Online Law School Grad Passes the Bar

Posted on June 26, 2009
The National Law Journal is reporting that Ross E. Mitchell, a graduate of the Concord Law School has passed the Massachusetts bar. I was interested to see that he has also passed the notoriously difficult California bar exam. As is reported below, Mitchell sued successfully to be allowed to sit for the Massachusetts bar exam...

Update on Westlaw Standalone Printer Removals

Posted on June 18, 2009
After I posted yesterday about Westlaw removing standalone printers from the Puerto Rico law schools, I received an e-mail from Southern New England School of Law. This is a standalone law school which is not yet fully accredited by the A.B.A. They were told in March that Westlaw would be removing their standalone printers...

E-textbooks Experiences

Posted on June 18, 2009
The Chronicle of Higher Education for June 12, 2009 carries this interesting story in the Information Technology Section (http://chronicle.com/free/v55/i39/39a01801.htm Link), in print at p. A18. ?6 Lessons One Campus Learned About E-Textbooks? discusses the experiences of Northwest Missouri State University in offering electronic textbooks widely on campus last year...

Why is Westlaw treating the Puerto Rican Law Schools differently?

Posted on June 17, 2009
The only law schools that have received letters from Westlaw cancelling entirely the Westlaw standalone printer program are the schools in Puerto Rico. As far as OOTJ can tell, no other United States law school has received any letter cancelling their standalone printer program...

Sign the petition to improve Pacer!

Posted on June 17, 2009
Sign the petition to improve Pacer and make it available free! Link here.

Back from Beijing, Blithered

Posted on June 16, 2009
Well, I have finally stumbled back from the post-conference tour around China, and am in the office at last. Thank you, Jim, both for minding the blog, and for posting for me while I was in China. The great firewall of China would have stymied my attempts to blog and Twitter about the China-U...

Has the time for listservs passed?

Posted on June 01, 2009
Greg Lambert asks (as reported by Joe Hodnick) on the Law Librarian Blog: "Is it time to retire listservs"?Not yet, according to Greg Lambert, library and records manager for King & Spalding LLP in Houston and blogger at one of my newest favorite blogs, 3 Geeks and a Law Blog...

China-US Conference wrap-up

Posted on June 01, 2009
[Posted for Betsy McKenzie by Jim Milles.]Last night, the first China-US Conference on Legal Information and Law Libraries came to a close. An agreement was signed to continue holding these conferences every two years, alternately in China and the United States...

More News from the US China Conference

Posted on May 30, 2009
[Posted for Betsy McKenzie by Jim Milles.]On the first day of the conference, a half-day, the visiting Americans sat with some of the Chinese librarians. The bulk of the Chinese librarians did not arrive until the next day, Friday. But on that first day, we had a welcoming address from Dr...

Blogging from the Miracle Conference

Posted on May 28, 2009
[posted by Jim Milles for Betsy McKenzie]The China-US Conference on Legal Information and Law Libraries here in Beijing, opening today, is a miracle conference. First, the mere fact of it is a miracle. That librarians from the U.S. and China, (in fact, there are librarians here from other countries, too!), should put together a jointly planned conference, and gain support from China?s central education ministry for it is quite amazing...

AALL2Go

Posted on May 22, 2009
I am waiting to see exactly how AALL2Go will work. It sounds like it might be a very nice thing for those whose travel budgets have been slashed. I had hoped it might include simultaneous access to AALL programming, but it actually sounds like it's more of a way to get the recordings quickly, maybe as MP3 files (for a fee, which is only fair)...

New Hampshire Gay Marriage Stumble & Regroup

Posted on May 22, 2009
The Boston Globe reports today that the New Hampshire House rejected the bill Wednesday that would have legalized same-sex marriage, and met the condition set by Governor Lynch, that religious groups may opt out of performing services if they object. Both supporters and critics of gay marriage were stunned by the outcome...

Downturn in the legal market: temporary blip or end of an era?

Posted on May 21, 2009
An article in last week's Wall Street Journal Blog featured an interview with legal consultant Peter Zeughauser, who predicted a grim outlook for law firm hiring for the next few years:It?s not going to be over before the end of the year. I think you?re going to see dramatically reduced offers to summer associates at the end of this summer, and dramatically reduced offers for people to come in as summers in 2010...

So, have I missed anything?

Posted on May 21, 2009
Jim Milles here--founder and absentee landlord of this blog. Marie and Betsy are travelling over the next week, so this is as good a time as any for me to suit up and start blogging here again.When I started this blog, I was Director of the Law Library and Professor of Law at University at Buffalo Law School...

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