Legal Research

Voters' Post-Election Expections in Online Political Communications

Posted on January 11, 2009
Voters expect that the level of public engagement they experienced with Barack Obama during the campaign, much of it occurring online, will continue into the early period of his new administration according to a new Pew/Internet Report. Here's key findings...

Obama's Supreme Court Nominations

Posted on January 10, 2009
President-elect Obama may nominate at least two justices to the Supreme Court during his presidency. NPR asks how might Barack Obama's experience as a constitutional law professor contribute to his choices for judicial nominations? [JH]

When Will You Start Using Windows 7?

Posted on January 09, 2009
Microsoft is releasing a fully featured beta version of Windows 7 to up to 3 million members of the public today. The Company claims the Vista replacement will run faster on everything from high-end PCs to Netbooks. Haven't we heard...

2008 LSSSE Report Finds Student Use of Laptops in the Classroom Productive Except for Those Bored 3Ls

Posted on January 09, 2009
Perhaps the 2008 LSSSE Report should be subtitled "Preparing Law Profs for the 21st Century" instead of "Student Engagement in Law Schools: Preparing 21st Century Lawyers" because one of the survey findings is that use of laptops in and outside...

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Friday Fun: The Red Lending Menace

Posted on January 09, 2009
Stephen Colbert finds a new Commie threat to America, our public libraries because they don't try to make a profit. [JH] The Colbert ReportMon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c The Red Lending Menace Colbert at Christmas Colbert Christmas DVD Green...

A Little Transparency for Obama's Stimulus Legislation

Posted on January 09, 2009
The not yet in office Obama administration plans to create a Google-like search function to show every program funded by the pending, yet-to-be-drafted multibillion dollar stimulus package, "whether it comes in under or over-budget, whether it is meeting its intended...

ARL Statistics 2006-2007 Now Available

Posted on January 09, 2009
From the press release: "The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) has published the ARL Statistics 2006?2007, the latest in a series of annual publications that describe the collections, staffing, expenditures, and service activities of ARL?s 123 member libraries...

City of Boston's Website Updated by City Employees

Posted on January 09, 2009
Instead of relying on IT staff to update the the City of Boston website, public employees can update the site themselves using an SDL Tridion content management system. "This is a great example of why employees should be given more...

Joe Downloader Catches a Break

Posted on January 08, 2009
Since 2003, the Recording Industry Association of America has sued 35,000 people for sharing copyright-protected songs. More often than not the defendants have been the Joe Downloaders of the Internet, nothing more than casual file-sharers. The RIAA has announced that...

Economic Challenges of Digital Preservation

Posted on January 08, 2009
As the amount of digital data continues to grow exponentially, there's a general consensus that we need a plan in place for preservation and dissemination. However, determining "who is responsible" and "who should pay for it" is another story. In...

Cornell Law Library's InSITE Website Reviews

Posted on January 08, 2009
Reviews published in the December 1, 2008 issue of InSITE: Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania Catholic Legal Immigration Network, Inc. Federal Evidence Blog UNPO: Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization

Berring Reflects on the Berring-Wrens Legal Research Teaching Debate

Posted on January 08, 2009
In Twenty Years On: The Debate Over Legal Research Instruction, Perspectives (Fall 2008), Bob Berring reflects on the debate over legal research teaching models that arose with the publication of Christopher G. Wren and Jill Robinson Wren's 1988 LLJ article...

Sunlight Foundation Blog's Top Ten Posts of 2008

Posted on January 08, 2009
Most of the Sunlight Foundation Blog's top ten posts based on page views relate to the financial industry bailout but Bill Allison?s post Holes in Disclosure helped to highlight the failure of Congress to require the disclosure of personal residences...

The Top 10 Events of 2008 in the Legal Academy

Posted on January 07, 2009
Several of the events listed in Brian Leiter's (Chicago) ranking pertain to the reputations of law schools. Here's a sample: The law school at Berkeley won the 2008 "Thank God U.S. News never audits the data schools self-report" award. U.S....

MacHEADS Premieres at MacWorld Today

Posted on January 07, 2009
MacHEADS, a feature length documentary which explores the loyalty of Apple Fanatics and their obsession, has its world-premiere today with a screening at MacWorld 2009. [Film's website] The film examines what makes the Mac, the iPhone, and Apple's other products...

Search Engine Competition, Chinese Style

Posted on January 07, 2009
China's no. 1 search engine provider, Baidu, has been accused of rigging search rankings. Apparently, a site's ranking will fall if it doesn't buy Baidu's sponsored links. Even uber-capitalist Google doesn't do that. Business Week has the story. [JH]

Who Performs Legal Research These Days?

Posted on January 07, 2009
It's not my question, it's Kim Nayyer's. She wants to know "in what settings and by whom is legal research done today, and whether the answers to these questions call for any action by legal research professionals." Check out her...

A Fantasy Law Profs League?

Posted on January 07, 2009
Jay Wexler (BU) is reviving a project he started several years ago, a fantasy law profs league, by soliciting input on what the key stats should be and what would constitute a team of law profs. Check out his PrawfsBlawg...

On Being On, Always On

Posted on January 07, 2009
Statistics show that we are interrupted every three minutes during the course of the work day. Multitasking between email, cell-phone, text messages, and review Internet search results forces the brain to process more and more information at greater and greater...

Chinese Government to Stamp Out Internet Smut

Posted on January 06, 2009
While politically-themed Internet censorship in China has received most of the attention, news sites and human rights sites are frequently restricted too. Now China's State Council Information Office has intensified its campaign against sexually-explicit Internet material by instructing companies including...

Westlaw's New FormFinder Intented to Eliminate Scouring the Service for Forms

Posted on January 06, 2009
You no longer have to remember the identifier of a forms database or select a tabbed page containing a link to forms in Westlaw. Instead, click FormFinder, a bright yellow link visible at the top of any Westlaw page for...

HLS Dean Kagan To Be Obama's Solicitor General

Posted on January 06, 2009
After making significant improvements at Harvard Law School, Dean Kagan is heading to DC to serve as Obama's Solicitor General. Hat tip to Brian Leiter's Law School Reports. [JH]

Extending the Scope of Copyright Exemptions for AV Files for Educational Purposes

Posted on January 06, 2009
The Copyright Office of the Library of Congress is conducting its triennial rulemaking proceeding in accordance with a provision of the Copyright Act which provides that the Librarian of Congress may exempt certain classes of works from the prohibition against...

Mills on Privacy

Posted on January 06, 2009
Privacy: The Lost Right (Oxford UP, October, 2008) evaluates the status of citizens' right to privacy in today's intrusive world. The author, Jon L. Mills, reviews the history of privacy protections, the general loss of privacy, and the inadequacy of...

History of Government Bailouts, 1970-2008

Posted on January 06, 2009
Remember the Penn Railroad bailout in 1970? Or Lockhead, Franklin National Bank, Chrysler and New York City? ProPublic has published a chronology of federal government bailouts since 1970. [JH]

Bush Administration's Midnight Regulations Agenda

Posted on January 06, 2009
The Hill's Congress Blog is reporting that the Bush administration is rushing to finalize dozens of new regulations, many without normal hearings or comment periods, that will degrade the environment, fail to protect endangered species and expose people to dangerous...

WSJ's Readers' Choice for Law Blog Newsmaker of 2008

Posted on January 05, 2009
Eliot Spitzer is leading in the WSJ Law Blog reader poll but Patrick Fitzgerald isn't far behind. Check it out. [JH]

John Doyle's Law Journal Rankings

Posted on January 05, 2009
John Doyle (Washington and Lee Law School Library) has updated his law journal rankings database through 2008. Here three of the rankings for US law journals. Methodology and complete listing here. [JH] Combined Factors 1 Harvard Law Review 100 2...

What Does a "Comprehensive" Legal Database Really Mean?

Posted on January 05, 2009
Slaw's Gary Rodrigues calls for an end of vagueness in case law databases described by suppliers as being "comprehensive." "Auditing databases is not a difficult time, he writes, "it is merely time consuming." I agree. I think we assume that...

ABA Publishes Biography of Richard Sprague as Part of Settlement Agreement

Posted on January 05, 2009
Fearless: The Richard A. Sprague Story is a new ABA title. It was published by the ABA as part of a settlement agreement with Sprague after an ABA publication described him as a "lawyer-cum-fixer." No such slams in the product...

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