Legal Research

New Life for Good Old LC Subject Headings

Posted on April 08, 2008
Roy Tennant reports that LC's Ed Summers has launched http://lcsh.info/ to demonstrate what can be done with Library of Congress Subject Headings. Summers has taken the LCSH dataset harvested by Simon Spero (instead of official LC data) and parsed it...

Thaler & Sunstein's Manifesto for Something Called Libertarian Paternalism

Posted on April 08, 2008
In this utterly brilliant book, Thaler and Sunstein teach us how to steer people toward better health, sounder investments, and cleaner environments without depriving them of their inalienable right to make a mess of things if they want to. --...

International Law Video Library Relaunched

Posted on April 08, 2008
The International Law Video Library has moved to a permanent location, been revamped and includes some new material. Bookmark the new URL! A Queen's University of Belfast project, ILVL was developed so as to be accessible to all and find...

OMB Progress Report on E-Government Act Implementation

Posted on April 08, 2008
From the White House: "This is OMB?s fifth annual progress report on implementation of the E-Government Act of 2002 (Pub. L. No. 107-347; Dec. 17, 2002) (the ?E-Government Act?) as required by 44 USC 3606. This report describes activities completed...

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The Google Quality Rater's Handbook

Posted on April 07, 2008
The Google Quality Rater's Handbook (version 2.1 dated April 6, 2007)(pdf) was leaked recently. Download it while you can! Essentially, the Rater's Handbook tells you what Google deems important when judging the quality and relevance of a webpage. As Pandia...

CAGW's 2008 Pig Book Digs Up $17.2 Billion in Pork

Posted on April 07, 2008
"Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) has released the 2008 Congressional Pig Book, the latest installment in an 18-year exposé of pork-barrel spending. From the press release: When Congress adopted earmark reforms last year, there was hope that the number and...

EMMA - Electronic Municipal Market Access System

Posted on April 07, 2008
From the site: "EMMA is a centralized on-line site to find key information about municipal securities, free of charge. The information on EMMA is presented in a manner specifically tailored for retail, non-professional investors who may not be experts in...

ARL Study Reveals Many Research Libraries Are Also Publishers

Posted on April 07, 2008
ARL has published the results of a study of publishing services by ARL member libraries. Karla Hahn's report, Research Library Publishing Services: New Options for University Publishing (pdf), is based on a survey of ARL member libraries with follow-up interviews...

Brian Leiter's 2008 Top 40 Law Schools by Student Quality Now Available

Posted on April 07, 2008
Brian Leiter (Texas) has published his Ranking of Top 40 Law Schools by Student (Numerical) Quality 2008 on Brian Leiter's Law School Rankings website. Noting that LSAT scores are "the best, crude proxy available for measuring student quality," he ranks...

Opening: Research Services Librarian, Rutgers University Law Library

Posted on April 07, 2008
The Rutgers University Library for the Center for Law and Justice, in Newark, N.J., is seeking a Research Services Librarian. The Library for the Center for Law and Justice is a research library with a collection of over 500,000 volumes...

The Volunteer Army: Who Fights and Why?

Posted on April 06, 2008
Michael Massing explores what motivates young Americans to join the army in this April 3, 2008 New York Review of Books think piece. He writes: I learned that every year the military conducts an annual survey of new recruits which...

Full Text of Pentagon "Torture" Memo Released

Posted on April 06, 2008
Part 1 and Part 2 from the Georgetown Faculty Blog. [RJ]

Social Media Sites of Presidential Contenders

Posted on April 06, 2008
Barack Obama: Blog Hillary Clinton: Blog John McCain: Blog | McCainSpace [JH]

King Corn, A Documentary on America's Smallest Farm

Posted on April 05, 2008
Two recent college graduates embark on a mission to see where America's food comes from?by growing it. In the rural town of Greene, Iowa, the two friends plant a single acre of the nation's most powerful crop, and then set...

Do Insurgent Attacks Increase After Learning About US Press Coverage of Irag War Critiques?

Posted on April 05, 2008
Is There an "Emboldenment" Effect? Evidence from the Insurgency in Iraq by Radha Iyengar & Jonathan Monten NBER Working Paper No. 13839 March 2008 Abstract: Are insurgents affected by information on US casualty sensitivity? Using data on attacks and variation...

Friday Fun: It's Great, I Heart Law School

Posted on April 04, 2008
Check out this Utah law student's video, The Two Sides of Law:

One Less Worry Video Contest To Award $10K Law School Scholarship

Posted on April 04, 2008
Student lender Access Group has announced a contest entitled ?One Less Worry.? The contest will award $10,000 to the most deserving video posted on YouTube describing ?what law students worry about.? Access Group will select the ten finalists based on...

LLB Poll: Extra Pair of Hands

Posted on April 04, 2008
Opinion Polls & Market Research

Professional Reading: Privacy, Ethics, and the Meaning of News

Posted on April 04, 2008
Amy Gajda (Illinois) has posted Privacy, Ethics, and the Meaning of News in SSRN. Here's the abstract: In November 2006, a Texas prosecutor shot himself as police entered his home to arrest him on child sex solicitation charges. Waiting outside...

Advocacy Groups Dueling over Arbitration

Posted on April 04, 2008
The U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform has released a survey and research paper concerning arbitration. The survey found overwhelming support for arbitration among likely voters and the research paper rebuts Public Citizen's recent report, The Arbitration Trap: How Credit...

Opening: Thomson West Librarian Relations Manager, Washington, DC

Posted on April 04, 2008
Thomson West has an opening for a Librarian Relations Manager based in Washington, DC. To apply, go to the Company's career page, click on "Search Jobs" and scroll down the list or use "librarian" in the keyword search term box...

Professional Reading: Applying Communication Theory to Statutory Interpretation

Posted on April 03, 2008
Cheryl Boudrea (UC-Davis), Arthur Lupia (Michigan), Mathew Cubbins (UC-San Diego), and Daniel Rodriguez (Texas), What Statutes Mean: Interpretive Lessons from Positive Theories of Communication and Legislation, 44 San Diego L. Rev. 957 (2007), [SSRN Download Link] is one of the...

Law and Public Policy for the Stem Cell Century

Posted on April 03, 2008
Korobkin's Stem Cell Century provides an excellent foundation from which the debate on stem cell research can be both understood as well as advanced. -- Christopher A. Riddle, Department of Philosophy, Queen*s University, Canada, Quote from his review in Law...

Mapping Stem Cell Research

Posted on April 03, 2008
Dr. Jack Kessler, a prominent neurologist, shifts his diabetes research to stem cell research when his daughter is paralyzed from the waist down. Mapping Stem Cell Research [documentary's website] brings the stem cell debate to the forefront and examines the...

Performance Right Would Harmonize Copyright Policy

Posted on April 03, 2008
From the press release: "A performance-right for recording artists would correct a needless exception in U.S. copyright law, states Tom Sydnor in, "A Performance Right for Recording Artists: Sound Policy at Home and Abroad," a Progress on Point released today...

CNN's Eyewitness to Murder: The King Assassination Airs Tonight

Posted on April 03, 2008
In this first installment of CNN's Black in America series, Soledad O'Brien investigates how James Earl Ray, an armed robber and escaped convict, had already spent an uncommon year on the run just a month before his path collided with...

Professional Reading: Fair Use v. Fair Access

Posted on April 02, 2008
I highly recommend Randal Picker's (Chicago) Fair Use v. Fair Access (SSRN). In it he makes the following four points. From the abstract: 1. The copyright act defines use rights, not access rights. That overstates slightly - especially with the...

Alan Holoch Memorial Grant Available for AALL Annual Meeting

Posted on April 02, 2008
The Alan Holoch Memorial Grant Committee is now taking applications for the 2008 AALL annual meeting. The Alan Holoch Memorial Grant is available to help SR-SIS members defray the cost of travel or registration for the AALL Annual Meeting in...

Recently Released, Keeping Out the Other: A Critical Introduction to Immigration Enforcement Today

Posted on April 02, 2008
Keeping Out the Other: A Critical Introduction to Immigration Enforcement Today Edited by David C. Brotherton and Philip Kretsedemas List Price: $74.50 Hardcover: 432 pages Publisher: Columbia University Press (March 14, 2008) ISBN-10: 0231141289 ISBN-13: 978-0231141284 Book Description: America's reputation...

IHE Administrators Audio Conference on Regulating Social Networking Sites

Posted on April 02, 2008
Facebook, MySpace & On-Line Communities: What Your College Must Know Tuesday, April 8, 2008, 1:00 - 2:00 PM ET Live, 60-Minute Audio Conference Online Registration | Cost: $199 From the Conference Blurb: The misuse of online social networking sites such...

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