Legal Research

The Freedom of Information Act: Ensuring Transparency and Accountability in the Digital Age

Posted on March 17, 2011
On Tuesday, March 15, the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing on The Freedom of Information Act: Ensuring Transparency and Accountability in the Digital Age. Follow the link for the hearing's webcast. Testimony was provided by: Miriam Nisbet Director, Office...

That Poor Dog!

Posted on March 17, 2011
Library Journal is reporting that YLL has come up with a new way to help stressed out law students chill out. For a three day period, beginning on March 28th, students can check out Monty - a certified therapy dog...

This is Sunshine Week: What Does WikiLeaks Mean to the Public Disclosure Process?

Posted on March 16, 2011
In a think piece written by Jennifer Lynch, an EFF staff attorney, the following question is asked is Sunshine Week: Do Open Government Laws Still Matter in the Era of WikiLeaks?: With all of the information WikiLeaks has brought to...

eBook Lending Clubs Growing in Popularity with "Twerps"

Posted on March 16, 2011
In E-Book Lending Takes Off, the Wall Street Journal reports on the raising popularity of eBook lending clubs such as BookLending, Lendle and eBook Fling. BookLending, for example, has some 16,000 registered users, and have made a total of nearly...

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Opening: Assistant Law Library Director, Penn State Law

Posted on March 16, 2011
Penn State Law seeks applications and nominations for a highly-motivated, imaginative and service-oriented leader to serve as its Law Library?s Assistant Director. In this tenure-track position, the successful candidate will assist the Law Library?s senior administration in all aspects of...

Happy Belated Birthday Justice Ginsburg

Posted on March 16, 2011
It was yesterday, her 78th. March seems to be the month of birth for Supreme Court Justices. [MG]

A Bit More on Data Caps

Posted on March 16, 2011
Quite coincidentally (or not), the subject of data caps came up briefly at a House Judiciary Committee hearing on Monday. Daniel Castro, Senior Analyst for the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) spoke in favor of a stronger legislative response...

On Turning 60

Posted on March 16, 2011
Not me but I'm not far behind. Happy birthday to LLB's co-editor, Mark Giangrande. Most law librarians who specialize in legal research are "toast" after about 10 years (ah, like me). But not Mark. Plus he teaches legal research at...

The Ides of March for Law School Pecking Order Has Arrived

Posted on March 15, 2011
From top ranked Yale to 143rd ranked Campbell, Loyola-New Orleans and Univ. of New Hampshire, the "2012 edition" of US News Law School Rankings ("ranked in 2011") report is now available. Might be worth spending a couple of bucks to...

"Powered by Service:" Not TR Legal's Library Relations Model

Posted on March 15, 2011
It didn't take long to see what impact AALL's Vendor Colloquium had on Thomson Reuters. None. Responding to complaints about West shipping unsolicited annotated court rules for state codes in some jurisdictions, Anne Ellis, TR Legal's Senior Director of Librarian...

Calling All East Coast Private Law Librarians (And Others Attending AALL)

Posted on March 15, 2011
Last year's PLL Summit was, for me, the best programming in Denver. And quite a few other private law librarians agreed. So, I was eagerly anticipating this year's Summit and wondering what PLL had planned this year. The Summit is...

Opening: Deputy Director, University of North Carolina Law Library

Posted on March 15, 2011
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Kathrine R. Everett Law Library seeks to fill the position of Deputy Director. The Deputy Director manages the library?s day-to-day operations, including services, collections, facilities, and personnel activities...

John Palfrey - Library Journal Movers and Shaker 2011

Posted on March 15, 2011
Congratulations to Harvard's John Palfrey for being named one of Library Journal's Movers and Shakers for 2011. Palfrey was identified as a "Change Agent" and recognized for achievements such as his academic study of digital natives and creation of the...

Some Thoughts on Data Caps

Posted on March 15, 2011
AT&T announced yesterday that it would impose data caps on its home DSL subscribers. Those who use its U-verse service would have a limit of 250 GB and those subscribers with simple DSL access would have a limit of 150...

LII India

Posted on March 15, 2011
The Legal Information Institute of India was officially launched on March 9th. The web site, which is a variation of LIIs throughout the world, offers free access to primary and secondary law. According to the web site, users will have...

The Symbiotic Relationship of Deceptive Practices

Posted on March 14, 2011
Unless there is another unauthorized sneak preview of the traditional ritual known as US News Law School Rankings, tomorrow will once again be the day when the legal academy's "productivity" grinds to a halt because the latest edition will be...

Before and After the Earthquake and Tsunami in Japan: Satellite Photos of Metropolitan Areas

Posted on March 14, 2011
Published by the New York Times, Washington Post and Google. [JH]

Opening: Access Services Librarian, Penn State Law

Posted on March 14, 2011
Penn State Law seeks applications and nominations for a dynamic individual to serve as its Access Services Librarian. In this tenure-track position, the successful candidate will provide primary administration and oversight of all Access Services operations including Circulation, Interlibrary Loan/Document...

Is it time to stop talking yet?

Posted on March 14, 2011
I feel like the Vendor Colloquium event has been beaten to death. I?m still going to blog about it. I don?t have any problem with talking. Talk is good. The U.N. accomplishes a lot just by talking. But they accomplish...

Imagining the Future of Libraries

Posted on March 13, 2011
Check out the video, Future Ready, by R. David Lankes. Lankes is associate professor at the iSchool as well as director of the Information Institute of Syracuse (IIS). [JH]

The "Legal-education Industrial Complex"

Posted on March 12, 2011
"Critics of the legal-education industrial complex would probably like to see some radical changes in the U.S. law school system. They?d probably want a few dozen law schools to shut down entirely, to reduce the glut of lawyers in this...

Friday Fun: So you want to be a law librarian

Posted on March 11, 2011
Hat tip to LLB contributing editor David Walker for this gem. [JH]

Nature Abhors a Vacuum: Sarah Glassmeyer Launches Wiki for Library/Vendor Relationship

Posted on March 11, 2011
Recently I had the opportunity to interview Sarah Glassmeyer about the launching of her wiki for librarians and other interested parties who want to share information about all aspects of the library/vendor relationship, LISVendor.info. JH: Sarah, would you stop tweeting...

GAO's Review of NARA's FY 2011 Expenditure Plan for the Electronic Records Archive

Posted on March 11, 2011
From the GAO Report, Electronic Government: National Archives and Records Administration's Fiscal Year 2011 Expenditure Plan (GAO-11-299, March 4, 2011). GAO Findings: NARA?s fiscal year 2010 expenditure plan satisfies four of the six legislative conditions...

How Not to Learn Legal Writing

Posted on March 11, 2011
Two examples: Omitting the Ellipsis. A lawyer who submitted a brief in his first-ever appeal got publicly reprimanded for failing to use an ellipsis in his brief's presentation of the trial judge's statement of facts. For details, see Mike Frisch's...

Happy Birthday Birthday Justice Scalia

Posted on March 11, 2011
Well, let me be among the many few to offer a hearty happy birthday to Justice Scalia. He was Trenton, New Jersey's greatest gift to us (or only gift, I'm not sure about that) exactly 75 years ago today. The...

Will Someone Give This Book to Justice Scalia?

Posted on March 10, 2011
What the heck, it only took me the better part of four months to read Madison and Jefferson (Random House, 2010) by Andrew Burstein and Nancy Isenberg, who are the Charles P. Manship Professor of History and professor of history,...

Judgement Day? Back to the Past Because It's 1999 Again: Topic for Today's Episode of Law Librarian Conversations is the AALL Vendor Colloquium 2011 (or we've always got Philly 2011: Cream Cheese, Cheesesteak or Karaoke)

Posted on March 10, 2011
The topic of today's Law Librarian Conversations will be AALL's Vendor Colloquium. According to the announcement, Colloquium participants AALL President Joyce Janto, AALL Vendor Liaison Margie Maes, King & Spaulding's Greg Lambert and Hamilton County Law Library's Mary Jenkins have...

Most Cited Authors in HeinOnline's Law Journal Library: Rankings and Browse Function

Posted on March 10, 2011
The citation analysis was run over the 1,450+ legal periodicals, 35,000+ volumes, and 1,000,000+ articles in the HeinOnline's Law Journal Library to produce the top 50 most cited authors. Here's the top five: Sunstein, Cass R. cited 14,694 times in...

Michigan Consumer Protection Law Invoked in Textbook Pricing Case

Posted on March 10, 2011
There's an interesting case that's developing in the Eastern District of Michigan. Textbook seller MBS Direct LLC and MBS Textbook Exchange, Inc. are under fire for allegedly violating the Michigan Consumer Protection Act. MBS is the largest mail-order textbook business...

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