Legal Research

Opening: Reference Librarian, Univ. of La Verne Law Library

Posted on August 10, 2010
The University of La Verne has an opening for a reference librarian at the College of Law in Ontario, California (about 40 miles east of Los Angeles). Duties include providing reference service to students, faculty, and public patrons, team teaching....

The Google-Verizon Proposal Is Not The End of the Internet as We Know It

Posted on August 10, 2010
Google and Verizon were rumored to have cut a deal last week that would prioritize Google traffic over Verizon's network. Not true, as it turns out. Instead, the two companies announced a proposed "legislative framework" for net neutrality principles...

Casebook Rentals and Thoughts on E-texts

Posted on August 09, 2010
Over the weekend, Joe H. and I exchanged some notes about West offering to "rent" casebooks. But there was no mention of providing the same to the professor who assigned the casebook. Not only can students rent their print casebook,...

Welcome to the New "Customer Experience and Education" from the Folks Who Brought You Unsolicited Shipments of New Titles They Deemed Valuable Additions to Your Collection

Posted on August 09, 2010
I received our first opt-out postcard on August 5th from TR Legal. You receive an opt-out postcard for a new West title yet? I've been wondering when my little county law library's automatic enrollment in the Columbia House Legal Book...

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Last Call for LLB Poll: Tell Us Your Opinion on AALL Special Interest Section Fees

Posted on August 09, 2010
Here's the link to participate in LLB's AALL SIS fees poll. Thanks in advance. Caren Biberman

Research Finds Positive, Not Negative, Economic Impact of Mass Digitization Projects Using GBS as a Case in Point

Posted on August 09, 2010
From the abstract of the article by FIU Law prof Hannibal Travis, Estimating the Economic Impact of Mass Digitization Projects on Copyright Holders: Evidence from the Google Book Search Litigation [SSRN], 57 Journal of the Copyright Society of the USA...

More on That Google Book Count

Posted on August 09, 2010
Ars Technica is reporting that Google's estimate of books in the world is "bunk." Why? Because Google used notoriously bad metadata in distinguishing between titles, editions, and other variations on a work. Google blames the libraries where the metadata is...

WSJ Investigates the Online Tracking Industry: Web Privacy, What's That?

Posted on August 08, 2010
Surfing the Internet starts a process that passes information about you and your interests to tracking companies and advertisers. The Wall Street Journal has been investigating what it describes as "one of the fastest-growing businesses on the Internet ...

Totally, Utterly Off Topic: Men in Black Red

Posted on August 07, 2010
See this "urgent" CCN Living story, Women prefer men in red, study shows. So this is why whenever I wear a pink dress shirt to work, one law library colleague always says "pretty in pink." Just for the record, because...

Nominations Call for the Carnegie Corporation of New York/New York Times I Love My Librarian Award!

Posted on August 07, 2010
Nominations for the third annual Carnegie Corporation of New York/New York Times I Love My Librarian Award! are being accepted through September 20, 2010 here. You can nominate librarians in the following categories: School Library Public Library College, Community College,...

Friday Fun: Welcome to Uncyclopedia

Posted on August 06, 2010
It's the content-free encyclopedia that anyone can edit. Hat tip to Mark Giangrande. [JH]

When Free Services and Technological Advances Challenge the Existing Market Structure for Commercial Legal Publishing: A Perspective from Canada

Posted on August 06, 2010
A very interesting post by Slaw's Gary Rodrigues on major commercial legal publishers facing the realities of the 21st Century legal publishing environment in Canada, Staying Relevant in Legal Publishing opens with the following: The two leading Canadian legal publishers,...

Reminder: Law Librarian Conversations Podcast Today

Posted on August 06, 2010
Greg Lambert and Margi Maes join Law Librarian Conversations' hosts Rich Leiter and Roger Skalbeck to discuss new developments in the law library world and Frank Houdek will discuss the new AALL Hall of Fame today from 2:00 PM to...

Privacy, Ctd.

Posted on August 06, 2010
If we needed any more reasons to be paranoid about web privacy, consider these statements from Eric Schmidt at the Techonomy Conference last Wednesday. CNET reports him noting that artificial intelligence can take 14 pictures of anyone from the Internet...

Enterprise-Level Legal Search: Beyond Vendor-Dictated User Interfaces to the Multi-Vendor-Platforms Integrated UI

Posted on August 05, 2010
Remember those web portal pages we used to create to prove links to licensed resources and reliable websites by title and by topic? Remember thinking there has to be a better way to do this? Anyone who has taken Programming...

Opening: Systems Librarian, University of the District of Columbia David A. Clarke School of Law

Posted on August 05, 2010
The University of the District of Columbia David A. Clarke School of Law is recruiting a librarian who, under the direction of the Associate Director for Public Services, will be responsible for evaluation, coordination, and promotion of the library?s electronic...

Wave Goodbye to Google Wave, and Google Calculates The Number of Books In The World

Posted on August 05, 2010
Google formally announced the demise of Wave yesterday. The reason is that Wave had picked up hardly any traction from users. So what was Wave? It was a product that allowed people to communicate and collaborate in real time, sort...

Kagan Confirmed; Will Become the 112th Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court on Saturday

Posted on August 05, 2010
The Senate confirmed Elena Kagan by a 63-37 vote today. Kagan is scheduled to be sworn in at the Supreme Court on Saturday according to The BLT: The Blog of LegalTimes. [JH]

Are Reporter Advance Sheet Services Obsolete? (After a 34% Price Increase is Stanford Law Going to Cancel West's S. Ct. Advance Sheet Subscription?)

Posted on August 04, 2010
Observing that West's "Supreme Court Reporter advance sheet subscription has jumped up 34% from $547 last year to $730.69, and that?s with a $120.83 'Product Dependency Discount' (whatever that is)," Stanford's Paul Lomio questions whether the service is worth the...

Gearing Up for WestlawNext Instruction in the Legal Academy

Posted on August 04, 2010
I agree with Tom Boone when he writes I don't share the opinion of many that [WestlawNext] "dumbs down" legal research. To the contrary, I've found that it adds considerable power to most of the research I've done using the...

Opening: Technical Services Librarian, Univ. of Akron School of Law

Posted on August 04, 2010
Title: Associate Law Librarian Job Requisition #: 006037 The University of Akron Law Library seeks a highly motivated individual to oversee all aspects of the law library's cataloging and processing functions for all types of library resources. Responsibilities include cataloging...

Is Web Privacy Dead? Probably

Posted on August 04, 2010
Joe's graphic from yesterday on Internet privacy, or lack thereof, is a bit startling. I can agree with his sentiments that worrying about privacy is pointless, given the amount of personally identifiable information that exists about individuals in public and...

On Extending the Outreach for LAW.GOV's Support: The Incubation Process Has Begun

Posted on August 03, 2010
Greg Lambert's title to his recent post says it all, If Law.Gov Remains An Exercise In Academia... It Will Die. I won't nitpick about Tim Stanley, Justia's CEO, Tim O'Reilly, O'Reilly Media's CEO, and Mitchell Kapor, founding investor of UUNET,...

Infographic on Internet Privacy or Lack Thereof

Posted on August 03, 2010
It's not that I don't think privacy for Internet users isn't important -- it is -- but I just gave up worrying about it many, many years ago. Can you say "National Security Surveillance Agency"? Fine, gather up all the...

But Where Was the Library

Posted on August 03, 2010
Last week, a funny comic from xkcd made its way around the social media carousel. It is called "University Web Site." The cartoon is about how things on a university web site are often not what people are looking for...

Lexis Customer Support Really Burns My Britches.

Posted on August 03, 2010
As you probably already know, if you encounter a technical issue with research product, you better hope that it is not with Lexis. I have never had a satisfying encounter with anyone at Lexis save the Librarian Relations Consultant for...

CT AG Investigates e-Book Pricing

Posted on August 03, 2010
Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal has sent letters to Apple and Amazon over their deals with publishers. Blumenthal is concerned with "most favored nation" deals that Apple and Amazon have struck with major publishers for e-books. These deals require the...

Publicizing LAW.GOV's Statement of Principles and Declaration

Posted on August 02, 2010
Hat tip to Paul Lomio for calling attention to the release of the LAW.GOV Principles and Declaration statement on Legal Research Plus at Codifying Commonsense -- the Law.gov Principles. Taking it a step further, I'll be turning the LAW.GOV statement....

Opening: Reference Librarian, Georgetown Univ. Law Library

Posted on August 02, 2010
Georgetown Law Library Reference Department is seeking applications for a Reference Librarian position. The Reference Librarian provides extensive reference service to the Law Center's faculty and students by participating in the reference desk rotation, individual research consultations, writing research guides,...

Duquesne Law School Hit With Discrimination Suits

Posted on August 02, 2010
Ugly things are going on at Duquesne University's Law School. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports that a former female faculty member, Alice Stewart, has filed suit alleging sexual harassment, gender discrimination, retaliation, and breach of contract...

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