LibWorm.com provides a librarian RSS filtering service. Over 1500 RSS librarian sources are combined and output via different filters. This feed contains the latest headlines from journals and sites in the Law interest group. http://www.libworm.com/rss/librarianqueries.php Fri, 03 Sep 2010 02:51:29 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.2 http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/sep/02/blair-job-done-1997-numb-labour In Downing Street, Blair never fulfilled his early promise and let Brown in. Now he can only emit a long wail of impotenceWho said books are dead? Did he blog or tweet, video or iPad? No, Tony Blair wanted to get a message across, so he wrote a book. He smeared the black stuff on trees, stitched it together and made people go out to buy it. Good for him.Blair's mildly engaging stream of auto-eroticism shows him memoirising much as he ruled. He uses the first person singular a million times. He stages everything. He fixes on a theme and controls the narrative. The intention is to smother an Iraq apologia in endless quotables on Gordon Brown and his emotional idiocy and general hopelessness. It is cruel, but has worked a dream.Blair was a politician of great talent, and a miserable prime minister. The service he did his country was considerable, but it was done by the time he took office in 1997. It was to anaesthetise the Labour party while he turned it into a vehicle to make him electable and his newly espoused Thatcherism irreversible, much as Attlee had made welfarism irreversible in 1945. The British left is still in denial on the subject.When the Social Democratic party was formed in 1981, an ambitious young Blair abused them as "middle-aged, middle-class erstwhile Labour", with only "lingering social consciences [to] prevent them voting Tory". When, a year later, Anthony Blair fought Beaconsfield, he was for CND, against Trident and for withdrawal from Europe. (None of this is in his memoir.)When Blair arrived in parliament in 1983, he was eloquent in defence of clause IV renationalisation: "not a question of reinterpreting it … but a question of giving effect to it". There should be no curb on trade union rights, and privatisation should be abandoned "here, now and for ever". When Nigel Lawson cut income tax to 40%, Blair demanded Labour increase it to 60%. ... Thu, 02 Sep 2010 19:30:13 +0100 868553 http://web.docuticker.com/go/docubase/60228 United States Designates North Korean Entities and Individuals for Activities Related to North Korea's Weapons of Mass Destruction Program Source: U.S. Department of the Treasury In joint actions, the U.S. Departments of Treasury and State today announced the designations of five North Korean entities and three individuals under Executive Order (E.O.) 13382 for supporting North Korea's [...] (Source: Docuticker) Thu, 02 Sep 2010 15:37:52 +0100 868659 http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/sep/02/chinese-author-xie-chaoping-detained Lawyer says writer exposed embezzlement and migrants' suffering during building of Sanmen dam on Yellow riverChinese police have detained an author for almost a fortnight following the publication of his book about forced relocations in the 1950s, his daughter said.Officers said they were holding Xie Chaoping, a former journalist, for "illegal business activities" after detaining him at his home in Beijing on 19 August, said Li Mo.Li said her father had just paid for the publication of his book, The Great Migration, which is about the construction of the Sanmen dam on the Yellow river.The book charts the struggles of hundreds of thousands of people relocated due to the project, and reportedly accuses authorities in Weinan, Shaanxi province, of embezzling money meant to compensate those affected.The 55-year-old writer has been transferred to a detention house in Shaanxi. Li added: "The charge doesn't make sense. My father didn't do illegal business. They arrested him for the book. My father just wrote the truth. He didn't just make up things, everything in this book has evidence. He didn't think there was anything wrong with the book. It is quite a shock for him to get arrested."Xie's lawyer, Zhou Ze, told the South China Morning Post he had been allowed to see his client, who seemed in reasonably good spirits. "Xie thinks he's being persecuted because he's disclosed embezzlement, local government wrongdoing, migrants' suffering and land disputes," said Zhou. "It is another case of abuse of public power to repress public scrutiny and a breach of freedom of publication."He told another newspaper that even if the book had been printed without official approval, it was the responsibility of the publisher, not the author.Li Wanmin, an activist who tipped off Xie about the story, said: "The book is an objective account of what has happened to immigrant peasants, a marginalised group among peasants. ... Thu, 02 Sep 2010 15:34:00 +0100 868555 http://web.docuticker.com/go/docubase/60225 Progress in Implementing New Security Measures Along the Southwest Border Source: U.S. Department of Homeland Security U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Janet Napolitano announced today that Predator Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) flights will begin out of Corpus Christi, Texas, beginning on Wednesday, Sept.1. With the deployment of an UAS in Texas, DHS unmanned aerial [...] (Source: Docuticker) Thu, 02 Sep 2010 14:28:00 +0100 868660 http://collectingmythoughts.blogspot.com/2010/09/and-still-obama-wants-to-raise-taxes.html Higher taxes hurt everyone. It particularly hurts the little guy. But that's what FDR did too during the Great Depression of the 1930s-1940s. His little tax increments, like on entertainment or candy, hurt the poorest the most. Now Obama wants to kill investment. Folks, the richest can always go elsewhere with their money--like India or Europe whose economies are growing much faster than ours as they pull back from socialism.Obama has no intention of turning the economy around. Many panelists on these TV talk shows, cable or broadcast, right and/or left, just don't get it. They keep making hopeful suggestions. But his plan is working--more people than ever are dependent on the federal government.More than 50 million Americans are on Medicaid, the federal-state program aimed principally at the poor, a survey of state data by USA Today shows. That’s up at least 17% since the recession began in December 2007.The program has grown even before the new health care law adds about 16 million people, beginning in 2014. That has strained doctors. Private physicians are already indicating that they’re at their limit, says Dan Hawkins of the National Association of Community Health Centers.In other areas:◦More than 40 million people get food stamps, an increase of nearly 50 percent during the economic downturn, according to government data through May; the program has grown steadily for three years.◦Close to 10 million receive unemployment insurance (nearly four times the number from 2007); benefits have been extended by Congress eight times beyond the basic 26-week program, enabling the long-term unemployed to get up to 99 weeks of benefits; caseloads peaked at nearly 12 million in January.◦More than 4.4 million people are on welfare, an 18 percent increase during the recession.As caseloads for all the programs have soared, so have costs, says USA Today:◦The federal price tag for Medicaid has jumped 36 percent in two years, to $273 billion. ... Thu, 02 Sep 2010 04:00:00 +0100 868619 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/LawLibrarianBlog/~3/CL33I93pTD8/what-happened-in-vegas-should-also-happen-in-aalls-annual-meetings.html 3 Geeks' guest blogger, Ayelette Robinson, reports on her assessment of the International Legal Technology Association recent meeting at What Happened in Vegas Shouldn't Stay in Vegas: "With hundreds of truly high-quality sessions, and networking opportunities live and virtual galore,... (Source: Law Librarian Blog) Thu, 02 Sep 2010 04:00:00 +0100 868561 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/LawLibrarianBlog/~3/0L8WhhEN41Q/law-school-launches-pilot-program-using-ipads.html Monterey College of Law has launched a pilot program with BAR BRI that provides iPads to student who enroll in the BAR BRI supplemental curriculum program. Students use the iPads while attending school and in preparation for the California Bar... (Source: Law Librarian Blog) Thu, 02 Sep 2010 04:00:00 +0100 868560 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/LawLibrarianBlog/~3/fgOBAP2AFlY/when-are-ereaders-a-good-deal.html On the WSJ ROI blog, Brett Arends provides advice on personal finance matters. Recently, he offered several tips on whether eReaders are a good deal. He recommends that casual readers should save their money simply by not joining the eReader... (Source: Law Librarian Blog) Thu, 02 Sep 2010 04:00:00 +0100 868559 http://keptup.typepad.com/academic/2010/09/is-your-ihe-complying-with-the-new-textbook-law.html For the first time, a federal law (Source: The Kept-Up Academic Librarian) Thu, 02 Sep 2010 04:00:00 +0100 868452 http://sanchezkisser.com/blog/2010/09/01/either-or/ Fred over at Slacktivist plays a round of everyone’s favorite game, Evil or Stupid? with the latest hollering out of the GOP noise machine: Today’s contestants are the 52 percent of Republicans who claim to believe that President Obama secretly wants to impose Sharia law. I find it hard to believe that anyone is stupid enough [...] (Source: The Invisible Library) Thu, 02 Sep 2010 02:00:52 +0100 868360 http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2010/sep/02/stephen-hawking-big-bang-creator • Physics, not creator, made Big Bang, new book claims• Professor had previously referred to 'mind of God'Poll: Is Hawking right?God did not create the universe, the man who is arguably Britain's most famous living scientist says in a forthcoming book.In the new work, The Grand Design, Professor Stephen Hawking argues that the Big Bang, rather than occurring following the intervention of a divine being, was inevitable due to the law of gravity.In his 1988 book, A Brief History of Time, Hawking had seemed to accept the role of God in the creation of the universe. But in the new text, co-written with American physicist Leonard Mlodinow, he said new theories showed a creator is "not necessary".The Grand Design, an extract of which appears in the Times today, sets out to contest Sir Isaac Newton's belief that the universe must have been designed by God as it could not have been created out of chaos."Because there is a law such as gravity, the universe can and will create itself from nothing," he writes. "Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why the universe exists, why we exist."It is not necessary to invoke God to light the blue touch paper and set the universe going."In the forthcoming book, published on 9 September, Hawking says that M-theory, a form of string theory, will achieve this goal: "M-theory is the unified theory Einstein was hoping to find," he theorises."The fact that we human beings – who are ourselves mere collections of fundamental particles of nature – have been able to come this close to an understanding of the laws governing us and our universe is a great triumph."Hawking says the first blow to Newton's belief that the universe could not have arisen from chaos was the observation in 1992 of a planet orbiting a star other than our Sun. ... Thu, 02 Sep 2010 00:56:09 +0100 868429 http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/sep/02/editorial-tony-blair-memoirs He may not have all the answers to the big questions posed in his beguiling and maddening book, but he has some of themTony Blair has written an extraordinary political memoir. He could hardly do otherwise. This is not a judgment on the quality of his prose, which is sometimes erratic. It is a statement of the politically obvious. Where some former PMs – John Major or James Callaghan, for example – wrote interesting and useful tomes that were more often put down than picked up again, others – most recently Margaret Thatcher and now Mr Blair – write as polarisers and protagonists. Mr Blair writes as what he himself is, a controversial leader and a continuing player. As he said to the Guardian in his interview this week, he believes he has something to say and something to explain. He wants the chance to be heard. He could not have written a boring book if he had tried. And he hasn't.Reactions to Mr Blair's book inescapably say as much about the person reacting as about the book itself or Mr Blair. Treat the last 48 hours as a media event, and it is something of a triumph for the author and his publishers. The headlines started on Tuesday evening, became a flood on Wednesday morning, dominated the media most of yesterday and get a second wind this morning. There will be a predictable aftershock in the weeklies and Sundays. The many who are resolute about not buying the book are all but certain to be outnumbered by the many more whose interest has been whetted. Good news for Random House and for the Royal British Legion.Treat Mr Blair's book as an account of a big political career and it largely depends on what you thought of that career in the first place. In most cases, if people are honest, that verdict is likely to be mixed (which does not mean evenly balanced) as opposed to monochrome. ... Wed, 01 Sep 2010 23:01:11 +0100 868432 http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/index.cfm?fa=viewfeature&id=2578 Are human rights an intrinsic value, a set of universal freedoms to be protected as ends in themselves? Or are human rights a means to an end -- a fast track to economic development, peace and prosperity? A lawyer might argue the first, an economist the second. And if the argument took place at the World Bank, the economist would probably win. In a recent paper, Wharton professor of legal studies and business ethics Galit A. Sarfaty explains why conflicts in expert interpretations can stymie the progress of any idea within an organization. (Source: Knowledge@Wharton) Wed, 01 Sep 2010 21:07:02 +0100 868712 http://www.madisonpubliclibrary.org/madreads/index.php/2010/09/01/television-to-books/ I seem to be thinking of books every time I watch TV lately - probably not a bad thing.  True Blood made me yearn for more urban fantasy and when I watch The Closer I’m reminded of a couple of mystery series with strong female leads.  One of which could be a template for the character of Deputy Brenda Lee Johnson - so much so that I was convinced at least one of the writers must have read the series by J. D. Robb before coming up with the Brenda character.  Robb introduced her female cop, NYPD Lieutenant Eve Dallas, in her 1995.  At the time I was working at a mystery bookstore and can remember seeing the book announced in the Berkley catalog.** What caught my eye was the setting  of New York in 2058, the idea of a tough but battle-scarred protagonist, and that J. D. Robb was a pseudonym for Nora Roberts.  Though I’m not a fanatic follower of Nora Roberts I usually like her books and in some cases love them (especially her longer, standalone suspense titles).  My curiosity was piqued.  And more then satisfied when I read the book and the rest of the series since then. Eve Dallas is a loner who puts the law above all else.  She is prickly and has stepped on toes within the police ranks.  She lives alone, loves junk food and in the beginning of the series meets the multi-billionaire Roarke (who no surprise, will eventually become much more to her).  He finds her stubborn and single-minded about her job and is unreasonably attracted to her.  Once they do become a pair he accepts her for who she is but stands up to her when necessary.  Oh, and somewhere along the way she gets a cat.  Sound familiar?  In Naked in Death Eve is investigating the death of a licensed prostitute and Roarke is a possible person of interest.  What Robb/Roberts does so nicely is balance the romance with the mystery. ... Wed, 01 Sep 2010 20:20:33 +0100 868307 http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/sep/01/terry-pratchett-alzheimers-assisted-suicide Discworld's creator on his new novel, living with Alzheimer's – and why he should be allowed to decide when to end it allWhen, not very long ago, Terry Pratchett's father was given a year to live, Pratchett père took it, on the whole, philosophically. Father and son had plenty of time to "have those conversations that you have with a dying parent", and to reminisce about his father's time in India during the war. At one point, said Pratchett, in last year's Dimbleby lecture, his father suddenly said, "'I can feel the sun of India on my face,' and his face did light up rather magically, brighter and happier than I had seen it at any time in the previous year. If there had been any justice or even narrative sensibility in the universe, he would have died there and then, shading his eyes from the sun of Karachi."If the universe refused to display narrative sensibility, then Pratchett Jr would: that moment returns early in his new novel, I Shall Wear Midnight, in which a gruff, essentially kindly old man is vouchsafed a vision of youth and sunlight (though, instead of Karachi, the sunbeams glint off a leaping hare) and expires as he describes it. Even Pratchett knows this is a tad too neat, however, so, this being Discworld, his fantasy kingdom on a flat planet sailing through space on the backs of four elephants who in turn stand on a giant turtle, Death makes a lugubrious wisecrack about it: "WASN'T THAT APPROPRIATE?"Pratchett, when he arrives at his idyllic local pub in Wiltshire, turns out to be full of this type of humour – deliberate, slightly coercive, very self-aware. ... Wed, 01 Sep 2010 19:30:09 +0100 868194 http://web.docuticker.com/go/docubase/60216 About Islam: Publications (PDFs) Source: Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) + An Employer’s Guide to Islamic Religious Practices The US Constitution protects and asks for religious accommodation in the workplace. This is a guide for employers that explains some basic Islamic religious practices including dress guidelines, holidays, prayer timing, and fasting. + A Health Care Provider’s Guide to [...] (Source: Docuticker) Wed, 01 Sep 2010 18:58:36 +0100 868265 http://web.docuticker.com/go/docubase/60245 U.S. Unauthorized Immigration Flows Are Down Sharply Since Mid-Decade Source: Pew Hispanic Center The annual inflow of unauthorized immigrants to the United States was nearly two-thirds smaller in the March 2007 to March 2009 period than it had been from March 2000 to March 2005, according to new estimates by the Pew Hispanic Center. This sharp decline [...] (Source: Docuticker) Wed, 01 Sep 2010 17:56:11 +0100 868267 http://www.hsdl.org/hslog/?q=node/5739 Birthright Citizenship in the United States: A Global Comparison "Every year, 300,000 to 400,000 children are born to illegal immigrants in the United States." The Center for Immigration Studies recently issued this report that analyzes issues surrounding American laws that allow children of illegal immigrants to gain automatic citizenship if born within the United States. Findings of the report include: * Only 30 of the world's 194 countries grant automatic citizenship to children born to illegal aliens. * Of advanced economies, Canada and the United States are the only countries that grant automatic citizenship to children born to illegal aliens. * No European country grants automatic citizenship to children of illegal aliens. * The global trend is moving away from automatic birthright citizenship as many countries that once had such policies have ended them in recent decades. * 14th Amendment history seems to indicate that the Citizenship Clause was never intended to benefit illegal aliens nor legal foreign visitors temporarily present in the United States. * The U.S. Supreme Court has held that the U.S.-born children of permanent resident aliens are covered by the Citizenship Clause, but the Court has never decided whether the same rule applies to the children of aliens whose presence in the United States is temporary or illegal. * Eminent scholars and jurists, including Professor Peter Schuck of Yale Law School and U.S. Court of Appeals Judge Richard Posner, have concluded that it is within the power of Congress to define the scope of the Citizenship Clause through legislation, and that birthright citizenship for the children of temporary visitors and illegal aliens could likely be abolished by statute without amending the Constitution. read more (Source: HSDL Weblog - On the HomeFront) Wed, 01 Sep 2010 17:07:56 +0100 868190 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FreakonomicsBlog/~3/TOfdD2uiiFQ/ University students are returning to campuses throughout the country. It is a migration that raises my spirits - seeing the energetic, eager faces tackling another course in contracts or intellectual property. But this year something is different. For the first time, a federal law has taken effect which requires "institution of higher education receiving Federal financial assistance" to provide students with information on textbook pricing. (Source: Freakonomics Blog) Wed, 01 Sep 2010 17:00:51 +0100 868242 http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/node/6331 BERKMAN CENTER FOR INTERNET & SOCIETY AT HARVARD UNIVERSITY Upcoming events and digital media // September 1, 2010 [1] [TUESDAY 9/7] Berkman Center Fall Open House (http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/events/2010/09/openhouse) [2] [CONFERENCE 9/25] "Media Law in the Digital Age: The Rules Have Changed, Have You?" Conference in Atlanta, GA (http://csjconferences.org/medialaw/) [TUESDAY] BERKMAN CENTER OPEN HOUSE ================================================================================== Tuesday, September 7, 6:00 pm Ropes Gray Room, Pound Hall, Harvard Law School Campus (Map: http://bit.ly/poundmap) Free and Open to the Public Tell us if you're coming on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=140755442627336) or Twitter (http://tweetvite.com/event/berkmanopenhouse) Come to the Berkman Center for Internet & Society’s Open House to meet our faculty, fellows, and staff, and to learn about the many ways you can get involved in our dynamic, exciting environment. As a University-wide research center at Harvard University, our interdisciplinary efforts in the exploration of cyberspace address a diverse range of backgrounds and experiences. If you're interested in the Internet’s impact on society and are looking to engage a community of world-class fellows and faculty through events, conversations, research, and more please join us to hear more about our upcoming academic year! Paid part-time research positions will be available in the fall, and you can visit http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/getinvolved/internships to see currently available positions. People from all disciplines, universities, and backgrounds are encouraged to attend the Open House to familiarize yourself with the Berkman Center and explore opportunities to join us in our research. We look forward to seeing you there! Refreshments will be served. For more information visit: http://cyber.law.harvard. ... Wed, 01 Sep 2010 15:31:14 +0100 868263 http://marklindner.info/blog/2010/09/01/information-literacy-as-a-sociotechnical-practice/ Tuominen, Kimmo, Reijo Savolainen, and Sanna Talja. 2005. Information Literacy as a Sociotechnical Practice. The Library Quarterly 75, no. 3 (July 1): 329-345. doi:10.1086/497311. I found this article on the main page of Library Quarterly‘s website as one of the most cited when I went looking for Archie Dick’s 1988 article on epistemologies in LIS [to be discussed soon]. I quite enjoyed this article as for me the upshot, in essence, is that they align information literacy with a domain-centric viewpoint. The authors, whom I have read several papers by, whether together or with other authors, are social constructionists.  I am not quite sure how this theory and its close “rivals” fit in with my work. They all have distinct advantages to their way of looking at the world, but none of them focus on all that is relevant. As of now, I am a pluralist as far as these theories go. I feel that slavish adherence to one and only one would cause one to miss other relevant and important ways of viewing the world, or the slice of the world one is trying to analyze. [See my upcoming comments on A. Dick's holistic perspectivism.] As it stands, social constructionism seems only slightly orthogonal to Hjørland’s domain analytic view. Let me state up front that information literacy (hereafter IL or info lit) is not my arena.  Also, this paper is 5 years old so some of the critiques that it makes of our professional organizations’ formal statements on IL may have been addressed. Then again, as fast as our professional organizations move I would not count on that either. ... Wed, 01 Sep 2010 15:24:11 +0100 868402 http://web.docuticker.com/go/docubase/60242 Where the Jobs Are: A First Look at Private Industry Job Growth and Wages in 2010 (PDF) Source: National Employment Law Project In this data brief, we use a unique synthesis of Bureau of Labor Statistics data to track private industry employment and wages from December 2007 (the start of the recession) through July 2010 (the [...] (Source: Docuticker) Wed, 01 Sep 2010 14:26:51 +0100 868269 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/teleread/ezFR/~3/CQTdZsvuRRQ/ Katie Gatto at our sister blog Appletell has made a post explaining how to determine which e-books in your iTunes listing are DRM-protected and which are DRM-free. It is a useful little tutorial for those who are not sure (or, for that matter, bother to purchase iBooks titles in the first place). However, annoyingly, Gatto repeatedly conflates DRM with copyright. She begins the article with “If you want to know which of your ebooks are DRM free and which have been protected by copyright,” then mentions that this process “will let you know if a book has DRM protections or if you’re free to share it with others,” and says that if a book is listed as protected, “it has a copyright attached.” She then concludes, “Use accordingly to avoid lawsuits.” Of course, if you use according to her advice, you probably won’t be avoiding lawsuits. It should be needless to say that plenty of non-DRM-protected e-books (such as those sold by Baen, or posted online by Cory Doctorow) are fully copyright-protected—meaning that while you might be able to share them with friends, you are not necessarily legally free to unless the holder of the copyright allows it. Might a decreased understanding of copyright be one of the casualties of the media industry’s reliance on DRM? I didn’t think the fact that everything is copyrighted under current copyright law (including books, e-books, Internet posts, and even scribblings on the backs of napkins) was that hard to understand, let alone that foregoing DRM does not mean you are foregoing your right to protection under the law. Or perhaps peer-to-peer is to blame for this “anything not strictly forbidden must be permitted” attitude. ... Wed, 01 Sep 2010 12:15:00 +0100 868289 http://www.teleread.com/2010/09/01/how-to-for-determining-if-ibooks-are-drmed-misses-copyright-point/ Katie Gatto at our sister blog Appletell has made a post explaining how to determine which e-books in your iTunes listing are DRM-protected and which are DRM-free. It is a useful little tutorial for those who are not sure (or, for that matter, bother to purchase iBooks titles in the first place). However, annoyingly, Gatto repeatedly conflates DRM with copyright. She begins the article with “If you want to know which of your ebooks are DRM free and which have been protected by copyright,” then mentions that this process “will let you know if a book has DRM protections or if you’re free to share it with others,” and says that if a book is listed as protected, “it has a copyright attached.” She then concludes, “Use accordingly to avoid lawsuits.” Of course, if you use according to her advice, you probably won’t be avoiding lawsuits. It should be needless to say that plenty of non-DRM-protected e-books (such as those sold by Baen, or posted online by Cory Doctorow) are fully copyright-protected—meaning that while you might be able to share them with friends, you are not necessarily legally free to unless the holder of the copyright allows it. Might a decreased understanding of copyright be one of the casualties of the media industry’s reliance on DRM? I didn’t think the fact that everything is copyrighted under current copyright law (including books, e-books, Internet posts, and even scribblings on the backs of napkins) was that hard to understand, let alone that foregoing DRM does not mean you are foregoing your right to protection under the law. Or perhaps peer-to-peer is to blame for this “anything not strictly forbidden must be permitted” attitude. ... Wed, 01 Sep 2010 12:15:00 +0100 868288 http://www.guardian.co.uk/law/2010/sep/01/dahlia-lithwick-legal-hero-atticus-finch The Alabama single father's principles have inspired thousands – and somehow become a point of national controversy in the USIt's almost a cliche to say that Atticus Finch is one's legal hero, like saying you like good chocolate or high thread count sheets. Still, I am one of many thousands of people who probably would not have gone to law school were it not for the fictional hero of Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, a book that turned 50 in July. I'm not alone on this. Civil rights lawyer Morris Dees of the Southern Poverty Law Center says Atticus Finch is the reason he became a lawyer, and the name Atticus has soared up the rankings for popular baby names in the past few years, no doubt because of the straitlaced attorney's status among law graduates.While a handful of grumpy critics have recently taken against Finch for his failure to be more like Thurgood Marshall in the face of his famous defeat at trial, most of us still believe him to be everything a truly great attorney should be: a defender of the voiceless and downtrodden, a protester against mob rule, and the patron saint of hopeless legal causes. The Alabama single father who famously defended a black man, Tom Robinson, who was falsely accused of raping a white woman in the Jim Crow American south, has stood the test of time despite the fact that Atticus is almost too eloquent, ethical, honest and forbearing.As a high-school student encountering Finch for the first time, I was shattered by his quiet moral certainty, his commitment to non-violence, and his electrifying gift for cross-examination. He represented the rule of sanity over hysteria, principle over passion, and tolerance over fear. Oddly enough, as I've grown older, I've also come to admire his skills as a parent, a professional, a member of his community, and even – anachronistic as it may sound – his dedication to work-life balance as the single parent of two children. ... Wed, 01 Sep 2010 06:59:08 +0100 868028 http://www.docuticker.com/?p=38582 The Public Availability of WARN Notices (PDF) Source: AFL-CIO Mass layoffs and plant closures inflict enormous social and economic costs on working people, their families, and communities throughout the United States. Communities lose vital tax revenues for investment in education and social services at a time when they are most needed. Suppliers and other businesses lose important customers for their products and services. And with each layoff, hundreds of workers lose their livelihoods. Such economic dislocations, often decided upon by employers without any public input, are cause for grave concern today. Mass layoffs and plant closures affected over 2.8 million workers in 2009 alone. The WARN Act, enacted in 1988, was intended to protect workers and communities from the most harmful effects of these layoffs and closures by requiring employers to provide advance notice of their occurrence. The community leaders and workers who are given this advance notice can then work to mitigate the effects of the job losses through retraining programs, the provision of social services, and plans that would avoid layoffs altogether. The Act, however, has proven severely flawed: numerous reports have concluded that most layoffs are not subject to WARN Act requirements; few employers act in compliance with the law; and penalties for noncompliance are so lax that they do not act as deterrents. This report identifies previously undiagnosed flaws in the current legislation by focusing on states’ handling of WARN notices after they are filed. ... Wed, 01 Sep 2010 05:37:15 +0100 868108 http://web.resourceshelf.com/go/resourceblog/60237 From the Primary Research Group Announcement: The report looks closely at law library budgets, staffing, content/materials spending, cost containment efforts, use of new technology, the changing and expanding role of the law librarian and many other issues. The 140-page report presents more than 200 tables of data, broken out by size and type of law [...] (Source: ResourceShelf) Wed, 01 Sep 2010 05:35:24 +0100 868320 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/LawLibrarianBlog/~3/c8qVc10j4As/practicing-law-in-nola-five-years-after-katrina.html A snip from Leigh Jones' NLJ story, Beyond Katrina: Five years later, New Orleans lawyers are finding their way: Four months after the hurricane, 5,352 attorneys had offices in New Orleans, according to Martindale.com. That number has dropped by 19%... (Source: Law Librarian Blog) Wed, 01 Sep 2010 04:00:00 +0100 868564 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/LawLibrarianBlog/~3/DqI9QttsTdA/e-trade-for-legal-resources-and-research-because-good-enough-isnt-yet-good-enough.html David Curle, Director & Lead Analyst at Outsell, an information industry consulting firm, has been thinking out loud on his blog, Lex Disruptus, and that's what blogging is about. If you don't know who he is, here's a link to... (Source: Law Librarian Blog) Wed, 01 Sep 2010 04:00:00 +0100 868563 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/LawLibrarianBlog/~3/pBNHnJwb2iU/contractors-at-westlaw-how-many-doing-what-and-for-how-long.html So for sometime, every time TRI CEO Tom Glocer's name was mentioned in an LLB post, someone would rant and rave under a pseudonym. In general, LLB does publish comments posted this way but these were not published because they... (Source: Law Librarian Blog) Wed, 01 Sep 2010 04:00:00 +0100 868562 http://cincinnatilaw.blogspot.com/2010/09/utah-concealled-carry-permits.html While about 200,000 Ohioans have obtained permits to carry concealed firearms through their own state, nearly 2,000 – 1,885 to be more precise -- have bypassed Ohio's requirements and gotten licenses from Utah -- without even going there, according to an article in The Columbus Dispatch yesterday. "Ohio requires applicants to undergo 12 hours of handgun-proficiency training before they're (Source: Cincinnati Law Library Association) Wed, 01 Sep 2010 04:00:00 +0100 868443 http://micheladrien.blogspot.com/2010/09/law-library-benchmarks-2010-11.html Primary Research Group has just published its Law Library Benchmarks, 2010-11 Edition:"This study (ISBN 1-57440-155-6) presents data from a survey of more than 50 law libraries in the United States and Canada. The study presents overall and per lawyer employed spending on content/materials, books, print reporters, online services and other legal information vehicles. It covers the trends in use of floor space, overall budgets and staffing, including hiring plans and the breakdown in total staff between librarians and other employees.""The study also presents highly specific data on cost recovery by libraries though charge backs to patrons. Librarians sampled also describe the measures that that they have taken to reduce costs, and to better negotiate with suppliers. Other areas covered include: use of internet tools and resources, the library role in records management, market research and case research, among other areas." (Source: Library Boy) Wed, 01 Sep 2010 04:00:00 +0100 868361 http://keptup.typepad.com/academic/2010/09/new-legislation-protects-college-students-from-credit-card-abuse.html The landmark federal legislation that overhauled the credit card industry is now reaching into college campuses to protect students like Shaw as they return to school and attempt to juggle not only their education and social lives but also how to pay for it all. The law, which was passed in 2009 and phased in this year, bans issuers from providing credit cards to people under age 21 unless another adult co-signs for it or the student can show an independent source of income. (Source: The Kept-Up Academic Librarian) Wed, 01 Sep 2010 04:00:00 +0100 868093 http://web.resourceshelf.com/go/resourceblog/60220 Access the Website/Searchable Database (List) The Public Advocate has launched a campaign to identify, track, and hold accountable New York City’s most irresponsible landlords. Too many of our city’s tenants find themselves living in deteriorating and unsafe apartments. Landlords are required by law to fix violations to the housing code, but in some cases, an irresponsible property [...] (Source: ResourceShelf) Tue, 31 Aug 2010 22:27:14 +0100 868329 http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/aug/31/tony-blair-a-journey-northern-ireland-god Preview of the contents of Tony Blair's memoir A Journey, in which he describes meetings with Ian Paisley'I was sure God would want peace'Tony Blair advised Ian Paisley to "let God guide him" in the final stages of the Northern Ireland peace negotiations which led to the historic power-sharing agreement between the Democratic Unionists and Sinn Féin in 2007.As prime minister, Blair was wary of talking about his Christian faith on the advice of Alastair Campbell, who famously said: "We don't do God."But in his chapter on Northern Ireland Blair writes that he held long discussions about faith with Paisley, who co-founded the DUP and led it until 2008.Blair writes that his meetings with Paisley in his Downing Street "den" always and their meetings dealt with Northern Ireland "at a spiritual rather than a temporal level". At one point Paisley gave him a prayer book for his youngest child, Leo.Of one such meeting, he writes: "Once, near the end, he asked me whether I thought God wanted him to make the deal that would seal the peace process. I wanted to say yes, but I hesitated; though I was sure God would want peace, God is not a negotiator. I felt it would be wrong, manipulative, to say yes, and so I couldn't answer that question, that only he could and I hoped he would let God guide him."Blair also writes of strong relationships with Sinn Féin leaders Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness, even admitting he developed a soft spot for them. "They were an extraordinary couple," he said of the two men, who have been at the highest levels of republican movement since the early 1970s. "Over time I came to like both greatly, probably more than I should have, if truth be told … They were supreme masters of the distinction between tactics and strategy. They knew the destination and they were determined to bring their followers with them, or at least the vast bulk of them. ... Tue, 31 Aug 2010 21:46:00 +0100 868032 http://lib.wmrc.uiuc.edu/enb/2010/08/31/judge-rules-that-cuts-to-stony-brook-southampton-violate-state-law/ Read the full story in the Southampton News. Note that Stony Brook Southampton is a four-year college with a curriculum that focuses on environmental sustainability. A State Supreme Court judge ruled Monday that Stony Brook University’s decision to close the dorms and slash academic programs at Stony Brook Southampton was illegal — a zero-hour development in a months-long fight to preserve the satellite campus. (Source: Environmental News Bits) Tue, 31 Aug 2010 21:25:39 +0100 868073 http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2010/aug/31/secret-byrne-positive-thinking Can you really improve your life, and perhaps the world too, by your own inner effort?The Power – Rhonda Byrne's sequel to the self-help megaseller The Secret – has shot straight to the top of the hardback book charts. According to Nielsen BookScan, The Secret sits comfortably alongside too, at number two. Worse still, The Power sold more than the following five bestsellers added together. Whence, you might ask, the power of The Power?It's puzzled me ever since The Secret was released. This small tome of esoteric promise used to be stacked by the philosophy shelves. I saw it every time I stole my way to that part of a bookshop, to check that one of my books was at least in stock. Who is this Rhonda Byrne? I'd missed the reviews of her work in, say, the Saturday Guardian. What is "the secret"? And would it include the secret to publishing success?In case you've not read it, I can answer at least one of those questions. The secret of The Secret, which it turns out is also the power of The Power, is called the law of attraction. "Like with like together strike", ancient wisdom tells us. Hence, if your thoughts are of health or insight or wealth then before you know it, you will receive health or insight or wealth. Conversely, to think you are ill or ill-fated is simply not to be thinking right: you are well, and will know it.The Secret is, therefore, a form of mental hygiene. It matters what you're thinking because thoughts are things. So to change your thoughts is to change things as they are in the world. The book is selling an empowering optimism: if you align yourself to the benign flux of life, then your life can only go well. Byrne lists testimonies, historic and contemporary, alongside quotes, ancient and modern, by way of inspiration and evidence. ... Tue, 31 Aug 2010 15:00:08 +0100 867834 http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/newsroom/cmlp_csj_media_law_conference Citizen Media Law Project and Center for Sustainable Journalism Announce Conference Focused on Media Law in the Digital Age Cambridge, MA – August 31, 2010 – The Citizen Media Law Project at Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet & Society and the Center for Sustainable Journalism at Kennesaw State University are co‐hosting a conference on September 25, 2010 entitled Media Law in the Digital Age: The Rules Have Changed, Have You? in Atlanta, Georgia. Designed for journalists, bloggers, and lawyers who work with media clients, the conference will be an opportunity to learn first‐hand the latest legal developments and to get your questions answered by experts in the field. The program will bring together legal practitioners, journalists, and academics to discuss the latest legal issues facing online media ventures. Topics will include: libel law, copyright law, newsgathering law, and advertising law, as well as the legal issues arising from news aggregation, managing online communities, and business law considerations for start‐up online media organizations. Small‐group workshops will focus on strategies for accessing government information and understanding legal terms in content licenses, freelancer contracts, and website terms of service and privacy policies. If you need personalized legal assistance before or after the conference, contact the Online Media Legal Network, a legal referral network for independent online media administered by the Citizen Media Law Project at the Berkman Center. For more information about the network, please visit its website: http://www.omln.org. Funding for the conference is being provided by the Harnisch Foundation, which has been a long‐time sponsor of the Center for Sustainable Journalism and recently provided a grant to the Berkman Center to support media law education. Visit the conference website for more information on the conference agenda, registration and logistics: http://csjconferences. ... Tue, 31 Aug 2010 14:30:00 +0100 867958 http://careercenter.sla.org/jobs/3532747/practice-support-specialist US - DC - Washington, REQUIRED SKILLS: Excellent communication skills (oral and written) with both technical staff and attorneys. Basic understanding of general technology and/or law firm applications. Basic HTML ski (Source: SLA Career Center Search Results []) Tue, 31 Aug 2010 14:19:00 +0100 867851 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/teleread/ezFR/~3/TyikTs5LqPo/ We’ve previously mentioned the Kaplan free ebook offer, now that offer has been extended until September 6, according to a press release. The titles for the extended promotion are: 1. Kaplan ACT Strategies for Super Busy Students 2. Kaplan SAT Score-Raising Dictionary 3. Sharp Vocab 4. Sharp Writing 5. Kaplan Portable GMAT 6. Kaplan Portable GRE Exam 7. Kaplan PMBR: Multistate Professional Responsibility Exam (MPRE) 8. Kaplan PMBR Finals: Constitutional Law 9. Kaplan MCAT Organic Chemistry Review 10. Kaplan MCAT Biology Review 11. Kaplan NCLEX-RN 2010 -2011 Edition 12. Kaplan CCRN 13. Kaplan101 Algebra Practice Questions 14. Kaplan 101 ASVAB Practice Questions 15. Kaplan101 GRE Quantitative Practice Questions 16. Kaplan 101 GRE Verbal Practice Questions 17. Kaplan 101 MAT Practice Questions 18. Kaplan 101 PSAT/SAT Critical Reading Practice Questions 19. Kaplan101 Biology Practice Questions 20. Kaplan 101 SAT/PSAT Writing Practice Questions 21. Kaplan 101 GMAT Verbal Practice Question Digg us. Slashdot us. Facebook us. Twitter us. Share the news. (Source: TeleRead: Bring the E-Books Home) Tue, 31 Aug 2010 13:12:20 +0100 867900 http://www.docuticker.com/?p=38545 US: Immigration Detainees at Risk of Sexual Abuse Source: Human Rights Watch The US government needs to strengthen its protection of people in immigration detention to prevent sexual abuse and to ensure justice for victims, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. The 24-page report, “Detained and at Risk: Sexual Abuse and Harassment in United States Immigration Detention,” describes documented incidents and allegations of abuse. It also discusses recent proposals by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to address the issue. Human Rights Watch emphasized that the agency should make improvements swiftly to improve oversight of the entire detention system and ensure accountability. + Full Report (Source: Docuticker) Tue, 31 Aug 2010 13:06:20 +0100 867885 http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/aug/31/terms-conditions-not-booker These are the rules. Don't argue1. To nominate a book for the "Not the Booker prize" competition (the "Competition") please submit your nomination in the comments section on the associated blogpost with the word "nomination" included in the comment. Please.2. By nominating a book in the Competition you are accepting this excuse for a set of terms and conditions.3. You are responsible for the cost (if any) of sending your nomination to us – though hopefully that shouldn't break the bank.4. Only one nomination is permitted per person – and if you change your mind about what that nomination should be, we reserve the right to a) miss the post where you change your mind and b) laugh up our sleeves at your indecision.5. All nominations must be received by midnight on 5 September 2010. Nominations received after that date and time will not be considered for the competition, though there will always be a nagging doubt at the back of our minds about what might have been.6. Only publications eligible for the 2010 Man Booker prize are eligible for the Competition. Which is to say, broadly speaking, novels published for the first time in English between 1 October 2009 and 30 September 2010, written by Commonwealth citizens. See a full list of eligibility criteria on the Man Booker prize website.7. The running of the Competition implies in no way any endorsement of or agreement with the eligibility requirements of the Man Booker prize.8. A shortlist of five books will be assembled via a readers' vote. Readers will be invited to cast their vote in the comments field of a blog published on 6 September 2010. All votes must be received by midnight on 6 September 2010. We take no responsibility for the make-up of the Competition shortlist, though we reserve the right to vote ourselves, and to canvas support for nominations the cut of whose jib we happen to like.9. ... Tue, 31 Aug 2010 11:46:21 +0100 867838 http://liszen.com/trends/story.php?title=Barco_2-0__Law_Library_Reference_THOMAS_Updated_now_mobile-friendly Building upon the enhancements made in January and June , the latest enhancements add a mobile friendly homepage, integrate features from the Library (Source: pligg - all) Tue, 31 Aug 2010 07:00:29 +0100 867728 http://www.lisnews.org/bookstore_even_nonbuyers_regret_its_end On Monday afternoon, Jai Cha walked out of the Barnes & Noble at 66th Street and Broadway in Manhattan as he does nearly every week — without a book. “I’m just killing time,” said Mr. Cha, a 30-year-old lawyer, his hands stuffed deep in his pockets. “I’ve been coming here to read Bill Simmons’s ‘Book of Basketball,’ about a chapter at a time.” He might have to hurry. Barnes & Noble announced on Monday that at the end of January it would close the store, a four-story space across the street from Lincoln Center that has been a neighborhood landmark since it opened nearly 15 years ago. Full story in the NYT (Source: LISNews - Librarian And Information Science News) Tue, 31 Aug 2010 05:57:55 +0100 868605 http://lisnews.org/bookstore_even_nonbuyers_regret_its_end On Monday afternoon, Jai Cha walked out of the Barnes & Noble at 66th Street and Broadway in Manhattan as he does nearly every week — without a book. “I’m just killing time,” said Mr. Cha, a 30-year-old lawyer, his hands stuffed deep in his pockets. “I’ve been coming here to read Bill Simmons’s ‘Book of Basketball,’ about a chapter at a time.” He might have to hurry. Barnes & Noble announced on Monday that at the end of January it would close the store, a four-story space across the street from Lincoln Center that has been a neighborhood landmark since it opened nearly 15 years ago. Full story in the NYT (Source: LISNews.org) Tue, 31 Aug 2010 05:57:55 +0100 867669 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/LawLibrarianBlog/~3/asPof8eEOLw/legal-ebooks-and-the-institutional-buyer-an-llb-poll-on-use-acquisition-interest-and-market-penetrat.html Since the advent of full-text search in the late 1970s-early 1980s, law libraries have tended to be at the forefront of technological innovation in the provision of resources to its users. When one reads what general public libraries are doing... (Source: Law Librarian Blog) Tue, 31 Aug 2010 04:00:00 +0100 868567 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/LawLibrarianBlog/~3/WJIjMj34XgQ/lexisnexis-launches-another-integration-with-microsoft-applications-.html Following up on the Spring launch of Lexis for Microsoft Office, comes LN's InterAction 6.0 for Microsoft Outlook. The service will launch in December 2010 and provides users with access to their firm’s InterAction CRM data directly within the e-mail,... (Source: Law Librarian Blog) Tue, 31 Aug 2010 04:00:00 +0100 868566 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/LawLibrarianBlog/~3/2m0uQ8d9M0A/the-debate-again-on-teaching-lawyering-skills-in-law-school.html The National Law Journal site published an article yesterday on one of my favorite topics: practical legal education. The article focuses on the article Preaching What They Don't Practice: Why Law Faculties' Preoccupation with Impractical Scholarship and Devaluation of Practical... (Source: Law Librarian Blog) Tue, 31 Aug 2010 04:00:00 +0100 868565 http://outofthejungle.blogspot.com/2010/08/virginia-attorney-general-rebuffed-in.html The Chronicle of Higher Education dated August 30, 2010 has an article by Paul Basken reporting that Judge Paul M. Peatross, Jr. ruled against Virginia Attorney General Kenneth T. Cuccinelli's two Civil Investigative Demands against the University of Virginia. Cuccinelli wanted reams of documents in connection with about six years of work by former Assistant Professor Michael E. Mann (at Virginia 1999 - 2005, now a full professor of meteorology at Penn State), who is known for developing a graph, the "hockey stick graph" which has been validated over and over to show a marked rise in global temperatures in the last few decades, after a rising trend over the last thousand years. Cuccinelli, a climate skeptic, claims that Mann committed fraud after receiving grants for research at the University of Virginia. He appears to be using his position as Attorney General to press conservative interests, such as pressuring climate researchers. Judge Peatross expressed skepticism about the basic claim that Mann committed fraud: What the Attorney General suspects that Dr. Mann did that was false or fraudulent in obtaining funds from the Commonwealth is simply not stated. When the Court asked Mr. Russell (deputy to Mr. Cuccinelli) where it was stated in his brief the "nature of the conduct" of Dr. Mann that was a violation of the statute, Mr. Russell referred the Court to the first 15 pages of his Brief in Opposition to Petition. The Court has read with care those pages and understands the controversy regarding Dr Mann's work on the issue of global warming. However, it is not clear what he did that was misleading, false or fraudulent in obtaining funds from the Commonwealth of Virginia. Then, Judge Peatross limits Cuccinelli's scope of inquiry to state grants. The original demands included five grants, including four federal grants. As state attorney general, moving under a state law, Cuccinelli may only inquire about fraud committed under state grants. ... Tue, 31 Aug 2010 04:00:00 +0100 868114 http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/025098.html Where the Jobs Are: A First Look at Private Industry Job Growth and Wages in 2010 - National Employment Law... (Source: beSpacific) Tue, 31 Aug 2010 04:00:00 +0100 868106 http://micheladrien.blogspot.com/2010/08/ontario-chief-justice-calls-for-more.html The most recent edition of The Lawyers Weekly reports that Chief Justice Warren Winkler of Ontario wants judges of the province to conduct more mediations in civil cases as a routine matter:"Chief Justice Warren Winkler argues the time is ripe to 'plan seriously' to make judicial mediation more routinely available to civil litigants (not just on an ad hoc basis) by integrating it into Ontario’s regular court services and renovating court facilities to provide the necessary meeting rooms and access to technology." "If civil courts don’t offer more judicial mediation — a quicker and cheaper way of resolving disputes than trials — the justice system will become less accessible and less relevant to most Canadians, he predicts." "However the chief justice stresses also that court-based mediation should 'supplement, not diminish,' judges’ core purpose of deciding cases." (Source: Library Boy) Tue, 31 Aug 2010 04:00:00 +0100 868039 http://dallnet.blogspot.com/2010/08/follow-up-on-new-thomas-share-tools.html In my previous post, I linked to an announcement of the new sharing tools from the THOMAS legislative web site. Here's an example of using one of the features.Suppose you need to send a link to a house or senate bill status page to one of your patrons. The new Share/Save toolbar makes this easy. Find the house or senate billClick on the Share/Save linkClick on the Save tabCopy the URL and paste it to your email, web site, blog, etc.Example: H.R.3590, Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Public Law No: 111-148). Click on the Share/Save link, Save tab, and copy the resulting URL: http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.uscongress/legislation.111hr3590 You may also share via your favorite social networking tools, or even use their email tool to send to a patron. (Source: Lex Scripta) Tue, 31 Aug 2010 04:00:00 +0100 867853 http://www.resourceshelf.com/2010/08/30/its-all-in-the-name-wiki-giants-on-a-collision-course-over-shared-name-wikipedia-wikileaks/ Confusion between one source and another is rather sad but not that infrequent. Also, in the web age the people say the source of an article they’ve read is Google News or Yahoo News not understanding that they aggregate but (in a majority of cases) don’t supply that much original content. Yes, both news engines clearly list the source but apparently some users do not pay attention. Go back ten years and it was the same thing with web browsers and search engines. In other words, “What Search Engine Did You Use?” The answer would be something like, “Netscape.” From an article in The Independent: …a “wiki” [Hawaiian for "fast"] is defined, at least in computing terms, as a website that allows the easy creation and editing of web pages, and the term has entered the vernacular as a result of two web behemoths – Wikipedia and Wikileaks. Now the two men most responsible for boosting your Hawaiian vocabulary, Wikipedia’s co-founder, Jimmy Wales, and the Wikileaks editor-in-chief, Julian Assange, seem to be having a gentle falling out. In an interview with The Independent, Mr Wales said he was getting a bit fed up of being blamed or praised for the other “Wiki” website. “I get a lot of emails from people who think I run Wikileaks,” he said. “There are people who say: ‘you are responsible for putting the lives of thousands of US troops at risk’, others seem to think I am some sort of freedom fighter, holding governments to account. “I just roll my eyes, chuckle to myself and tell them they’ve got the wrong man. Practically speaking, there isn’t anything I can do about the confusion between the two companies, I wish they had chosen a different name but I can’t go about trying to copyright the word ‘wiki’,” he said. ... Mon, 30 Aug 2010 22:35:03 +0100 867704 http://www.hsdl.org/hslog/?q=node/5738 The Council on American-Islamic Relations has just released a toolkit designed to assist Muslim communities in organizing proactive local educational and outreach initiatives relating to events such as the “National Day of Unity and Healing” on the 9/11 terror attacks anniversary. The toolkit, Teachable Moment Community Response Guide: Guidance for Local Communities to Respond to Challenges & Opposition, provides tools and resources to respond to specific current events. (Source: HSDL Weblog - On the HomeFront) Mon, 30 Aug 2010 22:16:34 +0100 867634 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/iRcS/~3/4qBaQcpJNIE/insite-august-23-2010.html InSITE: A Current Awareness Service of Cornell Law Library - Vol. 15, No. 24, August 23, 2010 is now available. Contents: # Federal Register: the Daily Journal of the United States Government # National Center for Education Statistics # OpenNet Initiative (Source: Peter Scott's Library Blog) Mon, 30 Aug 2010 18:53:24 +0100 867668 http://mblc.state.ma.us/jobs/find_jobs/rss.php?job_id=6362 Immediate Supervisors: Assistant Patron Services Librarians A Patron Services Assistant performs a variety of tasks associated with stack maintenance, document delivery, circulation and event management. Job Duties and Responsibilities (Includes approximate percentage of time spent on each): 1. Perform Collection Maintenance tasks (30%) including, but not limited to: a. Shelving Library materials. i. Scanning collection barcodes to document usage. ii. Sorting materials on book trucks by location and call number. iii. Shelving materials in assigned locations. iv. Identifying and communicating book repair and collection shift needs to the Collection Maintenance Supervisor. b. Shelf reading: Maintain assigned location(s) in call number order. c. Assisting with collection shifts as needed. d. Assisting with collection and stack labeling and installation of book supports. 2. Fill copy orders. (30%) a. Receiving copy orders by telephone, in person, by fax and e-mail; recording and tracking orders online. b. Retrieving materials to be copied; using photocopier and/or microfiche reader/printer. c. Preparing orders for pick-up or delivery; communicating with customer. d. Counting materials used for photocopying by scanning barcodes. 3. Staff circulation desk. (30%) a. Retrieve materials to fill patron requests received via phone and email. b. Check in, check out, renew and place holds for patrons. c. Utilize the Librarys online catalog, circulation module and membership database in the performance of circulation-related tasks. d. Answer general questions about the collection and Library services and membership guidelines. e. Direct inquiries to reference staff or others as appropriate. f. Assist Library patrons with use of photocopiers. g. Help patrons locate, view and print from microforms. h. Perform tasks related to opening and closing the Library. Patron Services Assistant Job Description (continued) 4. ... Mon, 30 Aug 2010 17:25:02 +0100 867440 http://www.resourceshelf.com/2010/08/30/u-s-congress-information-another-new-set-of-enhancementsresources-now-available-on-thomas-third-revamp-in-2010/ From a Blog Post by Andrew Weber via In Custodia Legis (Law Librarians of Congress) Blog: Here are Some of the New Features Available on THOMAS that Mr. Weber Mentions: + Directory of State Legislature Websites For U.S. States and Territories Kudos to Christine Sellers from LLOC + Versions of the Site Optimized for Various Mobile Devices + At the bottom of the left hand column, links to social media from Law Library of Congress (Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and iTunesU.) + Speech Enabled Links at Very Bottom (the Footer) of Most Pages: Info Here + Also at Very Bottom of Most Pages: All Ways to Connect Link (Listing of all LC’s Social Media Resources, Mobile App, etc.) + Note: Legal Research Issues? Assistance Harnessing the Power of THOMAS? Legal/Legislative Research Problems? Don’t Forget the “Ask A Librarian Service” from the Law Library of Congress. Complete Details Here. Direct to THOMAS Sources: Law Library of Congress, Library of Congress See Also: Many New Enhancements are Now Live on THOMAS (June 2, 2010) See Also: Happy 15th Anniversary to THOMAS (January 8, 2010) See Also: Several New Features from THOMAS Available for the Second Session of Congress of the 111th Congress (January 6, 2010) See Also: A Holiday Letter from the Law Librarian of Congress, Roberta Shaffer (January 6, 2010) In Addition to the Blog Post, Here’s the Full Text of the News Release More After a Click THOMAS Releases Third Major Update in 2010 Just in time for the return of Congress from August recess, THOMAS has undergone its third major enhancement of 2010. Building upon the enhancements made in January (http://thomas.loc.gov/home/whatsnew.html) and June (http://thomas.loc.gov/home/whatsnew062010.html) the latest enhancements add a mobile friendly homepage, integrate features from the Library of Congress and Law Library of Congress websites into THOMAS, and add a new portal to state legislature websites. ... Mon, 30 Aug 2010 17:12:55 +0100 867561 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FreakonomicsBlog/~3/HgTMGg5fAmo/ Kal Raustiala, a professor at UCLA Law School and the UCLA International Institute, and Chris Sprigman, a professor at the University of Virginia Law School, are experts in counterfeiting and intellectual property. They have been guest-blogging for us about copyright issues. Today, they write about new efforts to extend copyright law to the fashion industry. (Source: Freakonomics Blog) Mon, 30 Aug 2010 16:34:25 +0100 867461 http://www.lisnews.org/words_and_drink_help_repair_children039s_section Stonington CT - Shortly after this spring's flooding caused about $50,000 of damage to the Stonington Free Library's children's section, Peter Brown and his wife, Alexandra Stoddard, were talking to Dog Watch Cafe owner David Eck about how they could help. Brown, a trial lawyer, decided that he would donate 1,000 copies of his new book, "Figure it Out," to the effort. On Sunday anyone who donated $25 to the library received a signed copy and a free drink at the Dog Watch. The event was a hit as hundreds made donations to the library during a daylong event at the restaurant, which overlooks Stonington Harbor. "This has just been a phenomenal success," said Stoddard, an author of books including "Living a Beautiful Life: 500 Ways to Add Elegance, Order, Beauty and Joy to Every Day of Your Life." (Source: LISNews - Librarian And Information Science News) Mon, 30 Aug 2010 13:27:47 +0100 868611 http://lisnews.org/words_and_drink_help_repair_children039s_section Stonington CT - Shortly after this spring's flooding caused about $50,000 of damage to the Stonington Free Library's children's section, Peter Brown and his wife, Alexandra Stoddard, were talking to Dog Watch Cafe owner David Eck about how they could help. Brown, a trial lawyer, decided that he would donate 1,000 copies of his new book, "Figure it Out," to the effort. On Sunday anyone who donated $25 to the library received a signed copy and a free drink at the Dog Watch. The event was a hit as hundreds made donations to the library during a daylong event at the restaurant, which overlooks Stonington Harbor. "This has just been a phenomenal success," said Stoddard, an author of books including "Living a Beautiful Life: 500 Ways to Add Elegance, Order, Beauty and Joy to Every Day of Your Life." (Source: LISNews.org) Mon, 30 Aug 2010 13:27:47 +0100 867502 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/LawLibrarianBlog/~3/y7CWuPy70Dw/a-tr-legal-format-switcheroo-more-to-come.html From last Friday's mail: Dear Valued Subscriber As a current subscriber you will notice a change in format with the update of this product. This shipment contains a brand new pamphlet that replaces your current looseleaf binder and contents. [Yada... (Source: Law Librarian Blog) Mon, 30 Aug 2010 04:00:00 +0100 868571 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/LawLibrarianBlog/~3/_30i6z2S2E4/us-news-world-reports-measures-compared.html The Chronicle of Higher Education kicked off a series that will explore quality in higher education over the next few months. One of the accompanying pieces includes a fascinating interactive map demonstrating that each ranking entity has its own emphases... (Source: Law Librarian Blog) Mon, 30 Aug 2010 04:00:00 +0100 868570 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/LawLibrarianBlog/~3/LeL96fWmvtI/oed-may-be-going-all-digital.html Reports are that the next editions of the venerable Oxford English Dictionary will skip the print stage and go directly to subscription based online access only. As this article in PC World notes, the second edition weighs in at 137.72... (Source: Law Librarian Blog) Mon, 30 Aug 2010 04:00:00 +0100 868569 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/LawLibrarianBlog/~3/5HdpTnZ4PvI/there-is-still-time-to-propose-an-aall-program.html I have bemoaned the lack of suitable AALL programming for private law librarians. So this year instead of just submitting my one program and leaving it at that, I have become a member of both the PLL Program Committee and... (Source: Law Librarian Blog) Mon, 30 Aug 2010 04:00:00 +0100 868568 http://digital-scholarship.com/digitalkoans/2010/08/29/neh-awards-new-digital-humanities-start-up-grants/ The NEH Digital Humanities Start-Up Grants program has made 28 new awards. Here's an excerpt from the press release: American University — Washington, DC The Map of Jazz Musicians: an online interactive tool for navigating jazz history's interpersonal network Fernando Benadon, Project Director Outright: $49,777 To support: The development of an online tool to map connections and collaborations among American jazz musicians. Bank Street College of Education — New York, NY Civil Rights Movement Remix (CRM-Remix) Bernadette Anand, Project Director Outright: $25,000 To support: A series of workshops to plan the development of location-based smartphone applications about the African-American Civil Rights Movement based around sites in Harlem, NY. Boston University — Boston, MA Evolutionary Subject Tagging in the Humanities Jack Ammerman, Project Director Outright: $13,767 To support: A two-day meeting of humanities scholars, librarians, and computational analysis experts to consider how to improve existing cataloging software that attempts to better classify interdisciplinary humanities research. Brown University — Providence, RI A Journal-Driven Bibliography of Digital Humanities Julia Flanders, Project Director Outright: $49,659 To support: Development of a project led by the staff of Digital Humanities Quarterly (DHQ) to create, manage, export, and publish high quality bibliographical data across the digital humanities research domain. ... Mon, 30 Aug 2010 04:00:00 +0100 867658 http://dallnet.blogspot.com/2010/08/law-student-guide-to-free-legal.html New web site with guides for students on legal research, as well as librarian resources.http://freelaw.classcaster.net/Hat tip to the Law Librarian Blog. (Source: Lex Scripta) Mon, 30 Aug 2010 04:00:00 +0100 867609 http://cincinnatilaw.blogspot.com/2010/08/2009-ohio-mayors-courts-summary.html While traffic cases in Ohio municipal and county courts -- constituting 42 percent of new filings -- was at its lowest mark since 2000 with 1,259,095 filings, a 7 percent decrease from 2008, more than 300,000 new cases were filed in Ohio's 330 mayors courts in 2009 following a four-year decline in that venue. Just the opposite. The Supreme Court's 2009 Mayors Courts Summary, released last (Source: Cincinnati Law Library Association) Mon, 30 Aug 2010 04:00:00 +0100 867608 http://cincinnatilaw.blogspot.com/2010/08/court-indictment-not-defective-when-it.html In answering a certified question presented it last Friday, the Supreme Court of Ohio overruled its 2008 decision in State v. Colon holding:1) An indictment that charges an offense by tracking the language of the criminal statute is not defective for failure to identify a culpable mental state when the statute itself fails to specify a mental state. 2) When the General Assembly includes a (Source: Cincinnati Law Library Association) Mon, 30 Aug 2010 04:00:00 +0100 867607 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/DigitalKoans/~3/BDfVISosX2s/ The NEH Digital Humanities Start-Up Grants program has made 28 new awards. Here's an excerpt from the press release: American University — Washington, DC The Map of Jazz Musicians: an online interactive tool for navigating jazz history's interpersonal network Fernando Benadon, Project Director Outright: $49,777 To support: The development of an online tool to map connections and collaborations among American jazz musicians. Bank Street College of Education — New York, NY Civil Rights Movement Remix (CRM-Remix) Bernadette Anand, Project Director Outright: $25,000 To support: A series of workshops to plan the development of location-based smartphone applications about the African-American Civil Rights Movement based around sites in Harlem, NY. Boston University — Boston, MA Evolutionary Subject Tagging in the Humanities Jack Ammerman, Project Director Outright: $13,767 To support: A two-day meeting of humanities scholars, librarians, and computational analysis experts to consider how to improve existing cataloging software that attempts to better classify interdisciplinary humanities research. Brown University — Providence, RI A Journal-Driven Bibliography of Digital Humanities Julia Flanders, Project Director Outright: $49,659 To support: Development of a project led by the staff of Digital Humanities Quarterly (DHQ) to create, manage, export, and publish high quality bibliographical data across the digital humanities research domain. ... Mon, 30 Aug 2010 03:01:59 +0100 867320 http://freegovinfo.info/node/3083 Here's a way to spend an enjoyable lunchtime: watch Carl Malamud give his Keynote address "10 Rules for Radicals" to the WWW2010 Conference in Raleigh, NC on April 30, 2010 -- and if you've got more time, you can also watch all of the law.gov workshops over on Carl's Internet governance space at the Internet Archive! Certainly some great rules to live by!! Call everything "an experiment." When the authorities finally fire the starting gun, run as fast as you can. Eyeballs rule. When you achieve your objective, don't be afraid to turn on a dime and be nice. Keep asking, keep rephrasing the question until they *can* say yes. When you get the microphone, make sure you make your point clearly and succinctly. Get standing. one can criticize all one wants, but if you can document malfeasance and wrongdoing, they have to talk to you. Try to get the bureaucrats to threaten you (related to rule 7). Look for over-reaching. Don't be afraid to fail [Thanks BoingBoing!] (Source: Free Government Information (FGI) blogs) Mon, 30 Aug 2010 02:53:41 +0100 867282 http://www.docuticker.com/?p=38492 Documents Indicate Sharp Increase in the Number of Chinese Immigrants Smuggled Across the Border and Apprehended by Border Patrol Source: Judicial Watch Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, announced today that it has obtained documents from U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) detailing statistics related to human smuggling in Arizona’s “Tucson Sector.” The Tucson Sector is the Border Patrol’s busiest sector on the Southwest Border and covers 262 miles of linear border. … The documents also include data related to the number of “Other than Mexicans” smuggled and apprehended by Border Patrol. According to the documents uncovered by Judicial Watch, the number of individuals from the People’s Republic of China smuggled across the border and apprehended increased from 15 in FY2008 to 79 in FY2009, nearly a five-fold increase. The New York Times reported on January 22, 2010, “In fiscal 2009, 332 Chinese immigrants were caught in the Border Patrol’s Tucson sector, up from 30 the previous year, Border Patrol figures showed. And in what could be a sign of a record-breaking pace for this year, agents in the Border Patrol’s Tucson sector arrested 281 Chinese immigrants from Oct. 1 to Dec. 31, the first quarter of the current fiscal year.” The CBP documents also show significant increases were seen from Romania and Dominican Republic. The largest overall volume increase was Honduras, which went from 353 in FY2008 to 516 in FY2009. + Documents (PDFs) (Source: Docuticker) Sun, 29 Aug 2010 18:37:31 +0100 867295 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/iRcS/~3/UDtzW28jd1Y/texas-tech-university-school-of-laws.html Texas Tech University School of Law's institutional repository is designed to save, store, archive and share Tech Law's digital materials, including research and scholarship of TTU School of Law faculty and students, institutional history, and more (Source: Peter Scott's Library Blog) Sun, 29 Aug 2010 13:44:42 +0100 867174 http://www.ohionet.org/jobs2.php?jid=1705 Hamilton County Law Library (Source: OHIONET - Job Announcements) Sun, 29 Aug 2010 05:00:02 +0100 866936 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/LawLibrarianBlog/~3/xECZ3SmwekY/round-up-of-practitoner-blogs.html Tax Controversy Lawyer Blog http://www.taxcontroversylawyerblog.com http://www.taxcontroversylawyerblog.com/index.xml Examines tax law cases, news and opinions in South Carolina. Published by the Turner-Vaught Law Firm, LLC. Jacksonville Immigration Attorney Blog http://www.jacksonvilleimmigrationattorneyblog.com http://www.jacksonvilleimmigrationattorneyblog.com/index.xml Covers immigration law news, legislation and reports in Florida. Published by... (Source: Law Librarian Blog) Sun, 29 Aug 2010 04:00:00 +0100 868572 http://ramblinglibrarian.blogspot.com/2010/08/ascap-copyleft-fund-raiser-campaign-of.html If you've not been following the Creative Commons scene, you might not have heard of the fund-raising campaign by the American Society for Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP), started in June 2010.The ASCAP fund-raiser for a legislative campaignFirst, you ought to read their letter for yourself.Their fund-raiser is for a "legislative campaign" to "urge the members of (the U.S.) Congress to support [their] rights". I've read the letter several times. I'm still not sure what rights ASCAP is campaigning for. Or is it for a law against the lawful sharing of works -- even if initiated by the creator?What's really controversial was ASCAP's claims that 'Creative Commons promote "Copyleft" in order to undermine "Copyright"'. Wired.com was probably the first to break the news (25 Jun), and the article sums up the fallacies in ASCAP's position:The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers is urging the membership to donate money to battle the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Public Knowledge and even Creative Commons.ASCAP’s attack on EFF and Public Knowledge are farfetched. Those groups do not suggest music should be free, although they push for the liberalization of copyright law.But the attack on Creative Commons is more laughable than ASCAP’s stance against EFF and Public Knowledge.While lobby groups EFF and Public Knowledge advocate for liberal copyright laws, Creative Commons actually creates licenses to protect content creators.LINKDid ASCAP bother to find out what Creative Commons (CC) really is about?CC is built upon the foundation of Copyright. CC is NOT an alternative to Copyright; CC works along side it. The idea of Creative Commons (CC) is not hard to understand. So I was puzzled as to why an organisation like ASCAP would choose to espouse wrong ideas. ... Sun, 29 Aug 2010 04:00:00 +0100 867617 http://micheladrien.blogspot.com/2010/08/beta-version-of-world-treaty-index.html The University of Michigan is hosting the beta (test) version of the World Treaty Index.The original print index was published by ABC-Clio in 1974. There is a second edition by William S. Hein & Co.From the Help file:"Once fully complete, the World Treaty Index will feature every known international agreement in the 20th Century. This includes tens of thousands agreements entered into by hundreds of countries and international organizations. We offer a variety of methods to access the underlying data. Currently, this website only contains treaties signed between 1945 and 1999. Remaining treaties are being added according to the following timeline: Agreements signed before 1945 - OctoberTreaties signed in 1998 and 1999 - NovemberMultilateral party identifiers - December"[Source: Yale Law Library - Foreign and International Blog] (Source: Library Boy) Sun, 29 Aug 2010 04:00:00 +0100 867204 http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2010/aug/29/the-girl-who-played-with-fire-film-review As gritty as its predecessor, this second Stieg Larsson adaptation takes us deeper into the dark heart of SwedenThe mammoth popularity of Stieg Larsson's Millennium trilogy, an epic exposé of Scandinavian corruption, is not the sudden, unexpected event it appears to be. The fuse was lit long ago. In 1961, Kathleen Nott, the British novelist, public intellectual and frequent contributor to the Observer, wrote an influential book on Sweden called A Clean, Well-Lighted Place, representing the country as a colourless, complacent, over-organised state run on rational lines that had robbed people of personal identity. Her view was as widely shared as it was wide of the mark. Because beneath the orderly surface that had been created since the Social Democrats came to power in the early 30s, there had always been a seething sense of injustice, of discontent and paranoia, ready to erupt at some time in the future.One sees it in the controversy over the life and death of the millionaire Swedish industrialist Ivar Kreuger, financial genius and fraudster, and the model for Graham Greene's sinister business tycoon Krogh in his 1935 novel England Made Me. Kreuger committed suicide in 1932 in mysterious circumstances; many suspect he was murdered by powerful conspirators. Similar controversy surrounds the disappearance and death of Raoul Wallenberg, scion of a leading Swedish family, abducted by the Russians in 1945 while helping Jewish refugees in Budapest and never seen again. It is widely believed that for political reasons the Social Democrats failed to put pressure on the Soviet authorities to discover his whereabouts.Things came to a head publicly and an age of innocence was seen to have ended when the prime minister, Olof Palme, was murdered in 1986 and the investigation bungled by the Stockholm police. ... Sat, 28 Aug 2010 23:05:59 +0100 866787 http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/aug/29/julie-flavell-when-london-was-capital-of-america-review An engaging social history that charts the fortunes of Americans living in London on the eve of the Declaration of IndependenceThe decade before America's declaration of independence in 1776 saw more Americans visiting England than ever before. This engaging social history, written with a novelist's eye for character and plot, tells their tale – one the author calls "a missing chapter in the social and cultural history of Americans abroad". It focuses on half a dozen Americans living in London on the eve of revolution, who left behind copious evidence of their existences. The book's final chapters chronicle the London days of no less a personage than Benjamin Franklin, whose two decades in London were years of frustration, when his finesse seemed to fail him: "Was [he] suffering from what a later generation would call status anxiety?" Flavell asks.Franklin may have been the most famous colonial American in London, but he was not the most successful nor the most typical. It was the wealthy southern planter, rather than the self-made Yankee of humble origins, who constituted the (largely accurate)stereotype. Americans and slavery were indivisible in the English brain, as Flavell demonstrates with anecdotes about Englishmen who were shocked to discover that their colonial cousins were white, thinking them instead "a compound mongrel of English, Indian and Negro".One of Flavell's central figures is Henry Laurens, a rice planter from South Carolina who set out for London with his slave Robert, his son and his wayward niece. She follows them as they manoeuvre through a city that, at the time, was the world's largest, 20 times bigger than Boston or New York. Of the Laurens party, the two most riveting are the two most elusive: Henry's slave Robert and his orphaned niece Molsy, who conceives a baby out of wedlock. (Rumour had it that the father was her brother-in-law, South Carolina's attorney general. ... Sat, 28 Aug 2010 23:05:52 +0100 866790 http://www.resourceshelf.com/2010/08/28/recently-launched-local-databases-colorado-cold-case-database/ From the Web Site: The Colorado Cold Case Database features unsolved homicides, missing person, and unidentified person cases to assist law enforcement agencies in the development of information which can lead to the identification and arrest of any person(s) who may have committed any crime described on this page. If you have information on any of the persons, or cases found on this page, you are encouraged to submit a tip, which will be delivered to the lead investigating agency. All tips may be submitted anonymously. Access the Database Source: Colorado Bureau of Investigation Hat Tip and Thanks: PIBuzz (Source: ResourceShelf) Sat, 28 Aug 2010 18:48:27 +0100 866952 http://www.resourceshelf.com/2010/08/28/new-dspace-based-digital-repository-officially-launches-at-texas-tech-u-law-digital-repository/ Via the DuraSpace Blog: by Fang Wang, Digital Information Management Librarian, Texas Tech University School of Law Library After several months developing the collections, the Texas Tech University School of Law Library has announced the official launching of the TTU School of Law Digital Repository designed to save, store, archive, and share Tech Law’s digital materials, including research and scholarship of TTU Law faculty and students, institutional history, and more. The repository was initially launched at the beginning of 2010. It is built on DSpace, an open source digital assets management platform, enhanced with several value-added features unique to the law school. [Clip] Our nascent repository currently has over 900 records including the faculty scholarship collection. This is a comprehensive compilation of our faculty scholarship record. It includes a complete collection of our publications faculty produced while at Texas Tech. The collection contains almost 600 full text articles and links to individual articles on widely used legal databases such as Westlaw, LexisNexis, and HeinOnline. Social Science Research Network (SSRN) links also have been added. [Clip] The repository is a service of the Texas Tech School of Law Library. Access the Repository More in the Complete Blog Post Source: DuraSpace Blog (Source: ResourceShelf) Sat, 28 Aug 2010 18:29:28 +0100 866953 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/LawLibrarianBlog/~3/Om3SUHZhXh0/good-earner-joins-the-tr-legal-family-launch-of-findlaw-uk.html Findlaw UK was launched earlier this month. On Binary Law, Nick Holmes writes: [I]t’s uninspiring and unoriginal and will add little to human web-happiness. Let’s be honest this site exists to churn out “good” content which will be well regarded... (Source: Law Librarian Blog) Sat, 28 Aug 2010 04:00:00 +0100 868573 http://www.resourceshelf.com/2010/08/27/legal-research-using-brand-new-ipad-specific-app-for-westlawnext-from-thomson-reuters/ From the Announcement: Thomson Reuters has optimized its new legal research system, WestlawNext, specifically for iPad users. The iPad offers exciting capabilities for the lawyer on the go – greater portability than a laptop and a large, high-resolution Multi-Touch display that makes it far more functional for legal research than a smartphone. The new iPad app is available at the App Store free of charge to all current subscribers of WestlawNext. [Clip] Just like WestlawNext and WestlawNext Mobile, the intuitive design of the WestlawNext iPad app makes it easy to navigate the comprehensive content and use the most advanced legal research features, including WestSearch – the proprietary search engine that leverages over 100 years of editorial assets to provide more inclusive, better-ranked results. “When we talk with lawyers, most say they wouldn’t do more than five minutes of research on their smartphone,” said Andy Martens, senior vice president of New Product Development for Thomson Reuters, Legal. “The iPad is a device where we can see attorneys comfortably doing an hour or more of comprehensive research.” According to Jarvis, research shows that attorneys are using the BlackBerry, the iPhone, Android devices, the Kindle, and now the iPad in growing numbers. “Our approach is to make sure customers can access what they need on any Web-enabled device,” he said. [Clip] Learn More Download the App (Free) Access the Complete Announcement See Also: WestLaw Next Mobile for BlackBerry, iPhone, Palm, and Android See Also: Free App: LexisNexis Get Cases and Shepardize (For iPhone) (Source: ResourceShelf) Fri, 27 Aug 2010 22:44:28 +0100 866413 http://feeds.lexblog.com/~r/ediscoverylaw/klgates/~3/7v2AcIMg0gk/ Harkabi v. Sandisk Corp., 08 Civ. 8203 (WHP) (S.D.N.Y. Aug, 23, 2010) For failing to preserve the laptops issued to plaintiffs while working for defendant, the court found defendant was “at a minimum” negligent and indicated that an adverse inference would be crafted after all the evidence had been received.  For “prolonged delay” in producing relevant emails the court denied terminating sanctions but ordered monetary sanctions in the amount of $150,000.This opinion begins:  “Electronic discovery requires litigants to scour disparate data storage mediums and formats for potentially relevant documents.  That undertaking involves dueling considerations:  thoroughness and cost.  This motion illustrated the perils of failing to strike the proper balance.” Plaintiffs were fired by defendant and thereafter brought suit for breach of contract, among other things.  With the dispute “brewing”, plaintiffs’ counsel sent defendant a preservation letter.  Accordingly, a “Do-Not-Destroy” memorandum was distributed by defendant and the laptops issued to plaintiffs while employed with defendant were secured in storage.  Later, however, following installation of a new email archive service, the laptops were imaged and the data was saved on a file server. Upon plaintiffs’ request for electronic discovery, defendant discovered it could not locate the laptops’ data.  Rather than revealing the loss, however, defense counsel informed plaintiffs that laptops were typically recycled after employees left the company.  A statement from defendant’s in-house counsel indicated “no reason to believe” that the “Do-Not-Destroy” instructions were not “fully complied with”. ... Fri, 27 Aug 2010 22:03:49 +0100 866996 http://lib.wmrc.uiuc.edu/enb/2010/08/27/epa-denies-petition-calling-for-lead-ammunition-ban/ The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today denied a petition calling for a ban on the production and distribution of lead hunting ammunition. EPA sent a letter to the petitioners explaining the rejection – that letter can be found here: http://www.epa.gov/oppt/chemtest/pubs/sect21.html Steve Owens, EPA assistant administrator for the Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention, issued the following statement on the agency’s decision: “EPA today denied a petition submitted by several outside groups for the agency to implement a ban on the production and distribution of lead hunting ammunition. EPA reached this decision because the agency does not have the legal authority to regulate this type of product under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) – nor is the agency seeking such authority. This petition, which was submitted to EPA at the beginning of this month, is one of hundreds of petitions submitted to EPA by outside groups each year. This petition was filed under TSCA, which requires the agency to review and respond within 90 days. EPA is taking action on many fronts to address major sources of lead in our society, such as eliminating childhood exposures to lead; however, EPA was not and is not considering taking action on whether the lead content in hunting ammunition poses an undue threat to wildlife.  As there are no similar jurisdictional issues relating to the agency’s authority over fishing sinkers, EPA – as required by law – will continue formally reviewing a second part the petition related to lead fishing sinkers. Those wishing to comment specifically on the fishing tackle issue can do so by visiting http://www.regulations.gov. EPA will consider comments that are submitted by September 15.” (Source: Environmental News Bits) Fri, 27 Aug 2010 21:42:04 +0100 866468 http://www.slaw.ca/2010/08/27/madam-justice-fran-kiteley-to-keynote/ The organizing committee of the 2010 ODR and Consumers Conference to be held in Vancouver, British Columbia Nov. 2-3, 2010 is pleased to announce that Madam Justice Frances Kiteley will be a keynote speaker at the Conference. Madam Justice Kiteley: Co-Chair since 2006 of the Canadian Centre for Court Technology (which she joined in 2005) and member of  the Ontario Superior Court of Justice. Prior to her elevation to the bench, Madam Justice Kiteley was called to the Bar in Ontario in 1976;  she was in private practice in Toronto for 19 years and was elected as a Bencher of the Law Society in 1987 and 1991. In 1995 she was appointed to what is now the Superior Court of Justice in Ontario. Justice Kiteley had been involved in the Toronto Electronic Filing Pilot Project which planned, developed, implemented and maintained the first electronic filing end-to-end system in a court in Canada; she was also a member of the Ontario E-filing Implementation Committee which was involved in planning, developing and implementing pilot projects intended to lead to province-wide electronic filing. ... Fri, 27 Aug 2010 21:04:40 +0100 867042 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FreakonomicsBlog/~3/S4KnpT0tL3g/ I received the following email from Kyle Tower, one of the lead members of the Ticketfree team, responding to my earlier post on speeding insurance. (Source: Freakonomics Blog) Fri, 27 Aug 2010 17:03:18 +0100 866374 http://www.docuticker.com/?p=38447 Estimated Impact of the Stimulus Package on Employment and Economic Output Source: Congressional Budget Office Under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA), also known as the economic stimulus package, certain recipients of funds appropriated in ARRA (most grant and loan recipients, contractors, and subcontractors) are required to report the number of jobs funded through ARRA after the end of each calendar quarter. The law also requires CBO to comment on those reported numbers. A CBO report released this afternoon satisfies that requirement and under the law is required to be submitted no later than today. The report provides CBO’s estimates of ARRA’s overall impact on employment and economic output in the second quarter of calendar year 2010. The most recent estimates for the second quarter and beyond vary only slightly from those in our quarterly ARRA report released in May. When ARRA was being considered, CBO and the staff of the Joint Committee on Taxation estimated that it would increase budget deficits by $787 billion between fiscal years 2009 and 2019. CBO now estimates that the total impact over the 2009–2019 period will amount to $814 billion. Close to half of that impact is estimated to occur in fiscal year 2010, and about 70 percent of ARRA’s budgetary impact will have been realized by the close of that fiscal year. + Full Report (PDF) (Source: Docuticker) Fri, 27 Aug 2010 16:53:02 +0100 866389 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Wisblawg-FromTheUwLawLibrary/~3/Gat764a0AmU/archive_of_milwaukee_journalse.html Thanks to Bev Butula on her Wisconsin Law Journal blog for sharing that the Milwaukee Journal/Sentinel now offers an archive of articles from 1884 - 2007. The search box is located on the JSOnline homepage on lower right. Coverage includes the following, although there do appear to be some gaps: Milwaukee Journal - 1884 to 1995 Milwaukee Sentinel - 1909 to 1995 Milwaukee Journal/Sentinel - 1995 to 2007 The user can search by specific date or keyword. This is nice if you want to see the headlines from a specific day or have a very specific keyword in mind. But, there was no way to combine the two search type to search for a keyword in a date range. It also doesn't seem to allow phrase searching in quotes. These would certainly be an improvement. Archived news articles are also available in Google News from the 1890s to the present. To access the archives, go to the advanced search page and enter "Milwaukee" in the Source box. Note that there are several advanced search features available here, including keyword by date range. See Bev's post for a comparison of the search features of both databases. Both databases are "powered by Google" so the content view is identical - a full view of the paper, complete with adds. The user can reduce or enlarge the view and move around the sections of the page. Unfortunately, there is no way to download print the articles, other than doing a screen capture. (Source: WisBlawg - From the UW Law Library) Fri, 27 Aug 2010 16:48:04 +0100 866983 http://www.slaw.ca/2010/08/27/the-friday-fillip-212/ In a stunningly inaccurate prediction, I announced to a friend a few years back that parasols would move into the mainstream here in Canada as we worried more and more about sun damage to our skin. As you may have noticed, it didn’t happen. Perhaps it may still, awaiting only some prominent person to champion the thing, in the way that Englishman Jonas Hanway in the mid 1800s popularized the use by men of umbrellas against the rain despite the taunts and ridicule he got for using a woman’s device. Everyone’s doing it now, of course. And umbrella makers rejoice in that fact, I’m sure. (I suspect them, too, of somehow encouraging that particular form of forgetfulness that makes you leave your umbrella on the streetcar or in the taxi. I have no proof, though.) Which means that everyone is bound to like this article in The Paris Review about a remarkable colony of umbrella makers in northern Italy, who’ve been at it for centuries. But most fascinating of all, to me at least, is the strange fact that these ombrellai have developed their own language. I don’t mean their own jargon. Jargons are a dime a dozen. Why, even law has one. No, this is a language called Tarùsc, that, so far as I can tell, bears some similarity to those “made up” languages like Esperanto, in that some words seem borrowed from this linguistic line and other from that. In Tarùsc, for example, potatoes are cartòful, no distance at all from the German kartoffel. Rundél is the world; and hands are grapèll. There’s a long list of words at the end of the piece; take a look and see if you can plumb their origins. Sadly, the language is doomed, as is the practice of umbrella fabrication in Piedmont. Not so the brolly itself, though. So long as there’s rain, or, on the chance that there’s rain, we’ll carry an “en-tout-cas,” I predict. ... Fri, 27 Aug 2010 14:00:13 +0100 867043 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TravelinLibrarian/~3/oYyHbr-j1ZY/ On one of the flights I took last weekend GoGo in-flight WiFi was available. I didn’t pay for it as I’d already promised myself that I wouldn’t check my e-mail on vacation, but I did want to see if it worked on my Droid. I was able to connect but since I wasn’t a paying customer all I could do was read about the service. Here’s a few of the items from the Terms of Service that I found interesting: (emphasis added) 6.1 Acceptable Use Policy. You hereby agree to comply with Aircell’s acceptable use policy (“Acceptable Use Policy”), as described below. You will not use the Service to (or assist another person to): Harm or threaten harm to persons or property; Harass other persons; Violate any applicable law, including those related to export control, spam, gambling, obscenity, or computer access; Engage in any fraud or misrepresentation; Provide instructional information about illegal activities; Interfere with, disrupt, or create undue burden on the Service (or the networks or computers that provide same); Infringe or violate another person’s rights, including privacy and intellectual property rights; Allow another person who has not paid for the Service to access or use the Service on his computer or device through your computer or device; Access or display offensive content on your computer or device, in view of another person; Knowingly distribute any virus or other malware; Access any network or computer (including those providing the Service) in excess of the permission expressly granted to you; Monitor (through, for example, sniffers) any network traffic without express authorization of the owner of the network and the parties’ to the communications; Attempt to decrypt any encrypted or scrambled communications; Introduce software or automated agents into the Service; or Attempt to impersonate any other person, including any Aircell employees. (Source: Travelin' Librarian) Fri, 27 Aug 2010 13:54:06 +0100 867764 http://library.blog.wku.edu/2010/08/27/unequal-justice/ Johnson & Hardin, Attorneys A memorandum prepared in 1866 by the law firm of Johnson & Hardin, recently acquired by the Kentucky Library & Museum, provides a glimpse into the post-Civil War legal status of African Americans in Kentucky.  Unlike other border states, Kentucky had not recognized the right of former slaves or free blacks to testify in court against whites.  Such resistance had attracted the attention of the Freedmen’s Bureau, which possessed the authority to operate a court system in which blacks qualified as witnesses.  The passage of a federal Civil Rights Act in April, 1866 only intensified the constitutional tug-of-war over how much justice should be afforded African Americans in Kentucky.  Not until 1872 was the issue resolved with a state law equalizing testimony rights. That left the Johnson & Hardin firm in June, 1866 to ponder the procedural question of bringing an indictment against three men “for outrages committed on persons of color” in Nelson County.  In the absence of a grand jury, the memo explained, a county judge had no authority to indict the men.  Once in session, the grand jury could consider the matter and, “if they think it their duty to find a true bill on the testimony of colored persons,” hand down an indictment.  Rather than rely upon the Freedmen’s Bureau, however, witnesses had to present themselves in person to the grand jury.  “The papers before the Bureau,” the memo concluded, could not be used as evidence in state court. A finding aid for the Johnson & Hardin memo can be downloaded here. (Source: Western Kentucky University Libraries Blog) Fri, 27 Aug 2010 13:15:52 +0100 866264 http://www.docuticker.com/?p=38437 Better Financial Management for Travel and Conferences Needed at DHS Source: U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Office of Inspector General (via U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Homeland Security (GOP) oday, Rep. Bennie G. Thompson (D-MS), Chairman of the Committee on Homeland Security, released the following statement on the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG) report entitled “Audit of the Department of Homeland Security’s Handling of Conference Fees for the Process Control Systems Forum.” The Office of Inspector General report reveals that during FY2005 through 2007 the Department of Homeland Security inappropriately collected conference fees to defray the official costs of conferences it sponsored, which violated the law in effect at the time. In addition to illegally collecting fees, the Department failed to turn over those fees to the U.S. Treasury. The Department must now turn over that money to the Treasury and explain to Congress how its financial management system allowed these practices. The Committee on Homeland Security has held several hearings on the lack of controls in the Department’s financial management system including its travel practices. In December 19, 2009, a hearing held by the Subcommittee on Management, Investigations and Oversight revealed that during FY2005-2007, the Department spent over $100 million on conference-related activities without the necessary internal controls, policies, or systems in place to assure adequate transparency and accountability. + Full Report (PDF) (Source: Docuticker) Fri, 27 Aug 2010 13:03:10 +0100 866098 http://www.slaw.ca/2010/08/27/who-are-you-no-really/ A monk asked Joshu in all seriousness: “Does a dog have Buddha-Nature or not?” Joshu retorted: “Mu!” The problem of “identity,” as we would style it today, is the sort of thing that zen masters make their students struggle with, as in the famous dog koan set out above, which tackles the matter elliptically. “Who am I?” — “Who are you?” — are questions that human beings have been worrying since the dawn of consciousness, presumably. Now, I’m not going to get all gnomic on you here: it’s not the place for it. But the deep question is not so far removed from the shallower question of identity in society, for both have a tendency to elude easy answer, and it’s our continuing difficulty with the latter that I want to work with a bit in this post. Think of this, by the way, as a teaser for a column coming up on Monday by John Gregory on authentication; I’ll roil the waters and he’ll calm them and provide legal clarity. To start with, it might be good to remind ourselves that “identity” has as a core sense the notion of being the “same as” something else — that is, it’s a comparative notion. Think “idem”: it always follows the cite of the original. So, for various official purposes, your identity papers — passport, driver’s license — are the same as you. Are you. All of which simply means to remind us that there is no essence at the centre, simply a set of deemed equivalences (one of which happens to be “your” body — or, maybe, behind that, one of “your” mental states, as some neurolegal researchers might argue). It’s all about equivalences, then. And the body’s enough for most legal purposes. Habeas corpus and all that. ... Fri, 27 Aug 2010 12:00:46 +0100 867044 http://www.slaw.ca/2010/08/27/nostalgia-and-the-internet/ The current spate of stories concerning nations trying to limit the use of Blackberries,  when combined with the recently floated ‘net neutrality’ agreement between Verizon and Google, is emblematic of the continuing  invasion of the world of telecommunication by the world of governmental and corporate power. Almost two decades ago, I was on a panel with Professor Marge Shultz of the Berkeley Law School faculty, who made a remark that I have never forgotten. Professor Shultz opined that, Our ability to make advances in technology is outpacing our ability to understand how such progress fits in with law and politics at an increasing rate. Some serious political decisions about basic values will be forced upon us. The technology will be ready, human beings will not. The Internet is a great, sprawling wonder. No one really planned it — a series of actions, some logical, some the expression of brilliant individual creativity both by institutions and humans — brought it into being. There was no instruction manual, no carefully considered plan for implementation and growth. David Post wrote a lovely book this year, In Search of Jefferson’s Moose, which explains, in readable prose, one version of how it came to be. Post uses the device of comparing Thomas Jefferson’s views on democracy with the ideal of a democratic cyberspace. One lesson I take from Professor Posts’s book, is that the Internet was developed and controlled by people who were technologists. The goal was to design a system that worked, one that delivered information as cleanly as possible. There was to be no responsibility for the content. The Internet was a highway, what traveled along its pathway was not its business. Given the restraint and purity of the vision, it is stunning how much revolved around individuals, information zealots who chose to rein in their own power.  Another dusty memory pops up. ... Fri, 27 Aug 2010 11:00:09 +0100 867045 http://liszen.com/trends/story.php?title=Law_Librarian_Blog_Time_for_Librarians_to_Make_Noise_Public_--- August 26, 2010. Time for Librarians to Make Noise: Public Library System Closures Due to Budget Cuts. Seattle PI is reporting that the Seattle Publi (Source: pligg - all) Fri, 27 Aug 2010 07:00:29 +0100 866164 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/LawLibrarianBlog/~3/EWf_k8374ps/top-10-law-faculty-based-on-american-academy-of-arts-sciences-membership.html Chicago Law School's Brian Leiter reports on the ten law schools with the highest percentage of faculty elected to one of the scholarly sections of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences here. The list ranges from #1 Yale with... (Source: Law Librarian Blog) Fri, 27 Aug 2010 04:00:00 +0100 868578 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/LawLibrarianBlog/~3/ujEQZCtna2I/beyond-the-walled-garden-of-legal-research-glassmeyers-law-student-guide-to-free-legal-research-on-t.html If you missed Sarah Glassmeyer's recent law-lib post, do check out her Law Student Guide to Free Legal Research on the Internet. It is sponsored by Cornell's Legal Information Institute and Justia and is hosted by CALI. It is meant... (Source: Law Librarian Blog) Fri, 27 Aug 2010 04:00:00 +0100 868577 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/LawLibrarianBlog/~3/BTpyORUNtSs/friday-fun-welcome-the-new-1ls-and-first-year-associates-with-this-i-can-read-you-mind-test.html And an explanation of how the test works here. [JH] (Source: Law Librarian Blog) Fri, 27 Aug 2010 04:00:00 +0100 868576 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/LawLibrarianBlog/~3/tK02IGPVEEk/firday-fun-just-dont-ever-make-a-mistake-control-self-delete.html Advice from Stephen Colbert ... get rid of your friends, family, and everything you have ever searched on the Internet using Google after you have surgically disfigured your appearance. Sound like good and pretty comprehensive advice circa August 24, 2010.... (Source: Law Librarian Blog) Fri, 27 Aug 2010 04:00:00 +0100 868575 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/LawLibrarianBlog/~3/Xa74w6pzBRA/northwestern-laws-dean-van-zandt-appointed-president-of-the-new-school.html Yesterday, The New School announced that David Van Zandt, dean at Northwestern's School of Law since 1995, has been appointed its eighth president, effective Jan. 1, 2011. Hat tip to Chicago Law's Brian Leiter who writes Van Zandt was going... (Source: Law Librarian Blog) Fri, 27 Aug 2010 04:00:00 +0100 868574