Legal Research

Very Creepy Widget From Huffington Post

Posted on March 28, 2008
The Huffington Post's FundRace2008 widget is creepy. Plug in a person's name, a zip code, a profession, or an employer, and you can retrieve all the individual federal political donations that cross the $200 threshold by each person's name with...

Opening: Librarian (Business/Legal), Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation

Posted on March 28, 2008
This job posting closes April 8, 2008 Position Level: GS 11/12 Position Reports To: Judith M. Weiss, Library Manager Partial listing of job duties: Provides comprehensive reference, research and instructional services to individuals and groups within PBGC...

US News 2009 Law School Rankings Now Online

Posted on March 28, 2008
Background Information by US News How to Use the Rankings Wisely Methodology Used to Rank Law Schools Additional Information The 2009 US News Law School Rankings is now online in a substantially redesigned web format. The rankings cover 195 law...

Thomson West's Law Librarians in the New Millennium Goes Digital

Posted on March 27, 2008
Thomson West's Law Librarians in the New Millennium is now being offered as an electronic newsletter. It will be no longer be published in print. To subscribe to the e-newsletter go here. [JH]

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Gun Ownership and the Protection of Individual Rights Under the Bill of Rights

Posted on March 27, 2008
Hat tip to Douglas Berman (OSU), Sentencing Law & Policy Blog, for calling attention to Charles Lane's To Keep and Bear Arms (Washington Post, March 22, 2008). Lane's article presents an interesting historical perspective on mid-19th century gun control laws...

Research Tips for Monitoring Litigation

Posted on March 27, 2008
Carol Bannen (Director of Information Resources, Reinhart, Boerner, Van Deuren, Milwaukee) identifies some free and fee-based services for monitoring litigation in March 2008 issue of Wisconsin Lawyer. See also Bev Butula's (Rreference Librarian, Davis & Kuelthau, Milwaukee) Online Access to...

Unconscious Bias and the 2008 Presidential Election

Posted on March 27, 2008
Cornell Law School profs Gregory Scott Parks and Jeffrey J. Rachlinski deposited Unconscious Bias and the 2008 Presidential Election in SSRN. Here's the abstract for their very interesting article: The 2008 presidential campaign and election will be historic...

The Professor as Open Book

Posted on March 27, 2008
Stephanie Rosenbloom's The Professor as Open Book (New York TImes, March 20, 2008) observes that professors of all ranks and disciplines are revealing much more personal information than olde tyme profs because they are publishing on blogs, webpages, and social...

Opening: Reference Librarian, Utah State Law Library

Posted on March 27, 2008
POSITION: Reference Librarian HIRING RANGE: 48-57 / $18.50 - $23.61 LOCATION: State Law Library, Matheson Courthouse, SLC TYPE OF POSITION: Full-time with Benefits CLOSING DATE: April 7, 2008 at 5:00 PM APPLICATIONS SHOULD BE DIRECTED TO: Human Resources 450 S...

Photoshop for Free

Posted on March 27, 2008
Photoshop has just launched its free photo editing service, Photoshop Express. A more basic version of the real thing for the web masses. Take a test drive here. [JJ]

Attorneys Tire of Second Life?

Posted on March 27, 2008
So says Carolyn Elefant at Legal Blog Watch (though if you check the comments, not all lawyers agree with the assessment): A little more than a year ago, I blogged about lawyers venturing into the virtual world, Second Life, either...

Beyond MySpace Complaints: An Updated Forecast of Worldwide Information Growth

Posted on March 26, 2008
The Diverse and Exploding Digital Universe, An Updated Forecast of Worldwide Information Growth Through 2011 (pdf) updates IDC?s inaugural forecast published in March 2007. Sponsored by storage giant EMC, key findings of this white paper indicate that it is time...

Moving Toward a More Integrative Approach to Justice Reform

Posted on March 26, 2008
New report from the Open Society Institute: "In order to make real progress in breaking the cycle of incarceration, advocates need to develop collaborative approaches to abate the disproportionate numbers of the poor and people of color entering the criminal...

New GlobaLex Articles (March 2008)

Posted on March 26, 2008
GlobaLex March 2008 http://www.nyulawglobal.org/globalex/index.html International Human Rights Research Guide by Grace M. Mills http://www.nyulawglobal.org/globalex/Human_Rights1.htm Grace M. Mills is the Director of the Law Library at Hamline University...

Global Database on the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement

Posted on March 26, 2008
From the site: "The Global Database on the Guiding Principles provides instant access to official documents about the rights of the internally displaced and the application of the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement. The database includes relevant: National laws and...

Gutenberg-e Offers Open Access

Posted on March 26, 2008
From the site: "Columbia University Press is pleased to announce that Gutenberg-e is now an open access site. These award winning monographs, coordinated with the American Historical Association, afford emerging scholars new possibilities for online publications, weaving traditional narrative with...

Opening: Acquisitions and Serials Librarian, Gould Law Library

Posted on March 26, 2008
Reporting to the Head of Technical Services, the Acquisitions and Serials Librarian is responsible for acquiring all library materials in varying formats and ensuring the upkeep of serials titles. Acquisitions duties include purchasing, negotiating with electronic resource vendors, ensuring timely...

Using a banned book gets teacher suspended

Posted on March 26, 2008
This video article discusses how Connie Heerman was suspended for having students read The Freedom Writers Diary by the Perry Township (Indiana) School Board. The list of 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books for the 90's decade according to the ALA...

US News Law School Rankings: Why March Madness Started Early This Year in the Legal Academy

Posted on March 26, 2008
Corrections & Clarifications for the ABA Journal Article When I worked for the Chicago Tribune, the paper published a follow-up "Corrections & Clarifications" column whenever the paper goofed in one of its articles. Here's a howler for the ABA Journal...

Just Released, Legal Writing Citation in a Nutshell

Posted on March 25, 2008
Legal Writing Citation in a Nutshell by Larry L. Teply List Price: $28.00 West Law School, 2008 ISBN: 0314169385 Book Description: This book is designed to ease the process of learning legal citation, one of the difficult tasks that students...

2008 National Legal Research Teach-In Kit Now Online

Posted on March 25, 2008
AALL's Research Instruction and Patron Services (RIPS) Special Interest Section has published the 2008 National Legal Research Teach-In Kit, the 16th annual edition! [Past Kits] Congratulations to the Teach-In Committee, led by Jennifer S. Murray (Assistant Director, Superior Court Law...

Professional Reading: Information Ethics and the Law of Data Representations

Posted on March 25, 2008
Check out Dan L. Burk's (Minnesota) Information Ethics and the Law of Data Representations [SSRN]. Here's the abstract: The theories of information ethics articulated by Luciano Floridi and his collaborators have clear implications for law. Information law, including the law...

Washington and Lee Reinvents 3L Curriculum

Posted on March 25, 2008
The third year at Washington & Lee will be all of professional development through simulated and actual practice experiences. "The demanding intellectual content of the third year will ... be presented in realistic settings that simulate actual client experiences, requiring...

Estimates of Summary Judgment Activity in Fiscal Year 2006

Posted on March 25, 2008
New report from the Federal Judicial Center: "The Advisory Committee on Civil Rules asked the Federal Judicial Center to examine summary judgment practice across federal district courts as a means of assessing the potential impact of the proposed amendments to...

Opening: Research Librarian, UVA Law Library

Posted on March 25, 2008
The University of Virginia Law Library is seeking two legal researchers to join a dynamic team of librarians who are assisting a prolific law faculty in their diverse research initiatives. The work of this team is central to the mission...

Epstein Revisits Property Rights in New Book

Posted on March 24, 2008
In 1985, Richard Epstein (Chicago) published Takings: Private Property and the Power of Eminent Domain (1985). Regarded by many as the bible of the property rights movement, it was and still is a must-read. Now 23 years later Epstein have...

Controversy Over GAO Legislative Histories on Westlaw Heating Up

Posted on March 24, 2008
BoingBoing reports: "John Wonderlich of the Sunlight Foundation alerted me to a situation about a month ago that we've been pursuing (with EFF's help) at the Government Accountability Office, which is an arm of the U.S. Congress. The law librarians...

Professional Reading: Using Open Source Social Software as Digital Library Interface

Posted on March 24, 2008
Using Open Source Social Software as Digital Library Interface (D-Lib Magazine, March/April 2008) by Erik Mitchell and Kevin Gilbertson Abstract: This article investigates the use of social software applications in digital library environments. It examines the use of blogging software...

Mark Your Calendars for AALL's Third Annual Bloggers Get Together!

Posted on March 24, 2008
Come share your ideas and meet the other law librarian bloggers! Open to all bloggers and potential bloggers. Time: 5-6 p.m. Date: Sunday, July 13th Place: TBA Guest Speaker: TBA (we are inviting bloggers from the Portland area) RSVP: Last...

English Medieval Legal Documents Wiki

Posted on March 24, 2008
Hazel Lord's (Senior Law Librarian, USC) bibliography of published sources of English medieval legal documents (covering the years 600-1535) has been converted into the English Medieval Legal Documents Wiki! The goal of this project is to create a collaborative database...

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