Vincent G. Rinn Law Library

Harvard Law Makes Scholarly Articles "Open Access"

"The Harvard University Law School  (HLS) faculty last month followed the lead of their colleagues in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) ( See previous blog post " Harvard Faculty To Make Articles Open Access") by voting unanimously to make their scholarly articles available online for free, making HLS the first law school to commit to a “mandatory open access policy” via an institutional repository."

( Source: SPARC Highlights Open Access,By Andrew Albanese, Library Journal, 6/15/2008 )

From the Harvard Law School News of May 7, 2008 :

"Under the new policy, HLS will make articles authored by faculty members available in an online repository, whose contents would be searchable and available to other services such as Google Scholar. Authors can also legally distribute the articles on their own websites, and educators here and elsewhere can freely provide the articles to students, so long as the materials are not used for profit."

"This exciting development is something in which the whole Harvard Law School community can take great pride," said John Palfrey '01, executive director of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society and newly appointed vice dean of library and information resources."

Harry Potter and the Law ??

The AALL ( American Association of Law Libraries) conference to be held next week in Portland,Oregon has many sessions on such issues as information technology, library management, research services and government  documents. But along with these more serious issues there will be some programs on less weighty matters. One such program is entitled "Harry Potter and the Law". The moderator for this program, Joel Fishman, from Duquesne Allegheny County Law Librirary, has co-athored a law review article in the Texas Wesleyan Law Review with the same title.

The introduction states, "This collection of essays about the law and Harry Potter explores the intersections between law, culture and the Harry Potter stories".  While being a creative and speculative collection, it can still serve to show, "...the limitations of law and legal institutions as depicted in the Harry Potter narratives". In some of the essays the author , "...uses the narratives to explore the roles of excuse and justification in their relationship with legal authority and rule of law", and "that in spite of legal and institutional limitations, the wizarding world allows for individual moral choice, which is a recognition of the importance of individual liberty". So weightier matters do get addressed by this seemingly fanciful collection.

However, the  great publicity about  the legal case over the publication of a portion of the online fan site known as the Harry Potter Lexicon , pitting Warner Bros and author J.K. Rowling against RDR Books and  Vander Ark, the originator of the Lexicon  before  Manhattan federal judge Robert Patterson, will probably be the primary basis for disscusion at the conference program. It will probably be a case where real-life copyright issues overtake those related to  Harry and the Ministry of Magic.

You be the judge ! Check out the legal arguments (courtesy of Justia.com) and decide who should be sent to Azkaban !

Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. et al v. RDR Books et al
Plaintiff's Proposed Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law

Defendant's RDR Books' Proposed Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law

What Part Of ‘Restore’ Doesn’t EPA Understand ?”

A previous posting on this blog, EPA Report To Congress On Re-opening EPA Libraries, warned that the EPA administration might not atually be committed to carrying out the restoration of EPA library services that Congress ordered after a multi-year public campaign. A report last month from Public Employees For Environmental Responsibility, confirms these concerns.

CLOSED EPA LIBRARIES TO RETURN IN LAVATORY-SIZED SPACES — Political Appointee Asserts Control over All Libraries, Repeals 30-Year-Old Manual

“Ordered by Congress to re-open its shuttered libraries, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is grudgingly allocating only minimal space and resources, according to agency documents released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). At the same time, EPA is issuing a series of edicts placing virtually every aspect of library operations under centralized control of a political appointee.” …

“Even as many collections remain in crates, EPA has decided to micromanage what is left,” Goldberg added, noting that the agency has still not accounted for many of the library holdings it had removed. “Professional librarians should be making these management decisions, not political appointees.”

The duplicitous  character of the EPA adminsitration’s actions is further shown in their, National Dialogue! Campaign which claims to “to identify and share their best resources, tools, and ideas for  improving access to EPA’s environmental information.” However, while this call for varied input is being made, most of the critical decisions have already been made by a political appointee. Unfortunately, this seemingly hopeful campaign is probably just “window dressing” for Congress’ benefit while the EPA continues to disregard the congressional mandate.

Professor Shaman's New Book on State Constitutional Law

In the May issue of the  DePaul “Public Interest Advocate” newsletter , Susan DeCostanza reviews  law Professor Jeffrey Shaman’s new book, “Equality and Liberty in the Golden Age of State Constitutional Law". She relates that after many years of teaching constitutional law at the federal level, Professor Shaman was struck by how much the "Supreme Court seemed to be continually narrowing the scope of civil rights and liberties”. When he also started teaching state constitutional law, he observed a trend in the opposite direction in the rulings under state constitutions. This intriguing phenomenon inspired him to spend four years writing  this book which examines “… the evolution of the rights of liberty and equality under state constitutions over the past 20 to 25 years from both a historical and jurisprudential perspective.”

Source: “the Public Interest Advocate”, p.2,  May 2008  ( Online link will be provided when available)

Link to publisher’s web page

Access To Legal Documents - A Tale of Two States

A previous posting on this blog, State statutes: copyright vs. public access,reported how the Oregon's Legislative Counsel Committee was demanding that Justia, a provider of publicly accessible legal resources,take down its copies of the Oregon Revised Statutes, claiming copyright in the arrangement, subject matter, notes, etc. of the statutes. Justia and Public.Resource.Org, have filed a federal law suit in the Northern District of California,against the Legislative Council.

But this kind of confrontation over access to and use of publicly created legal information does not need to be the only model. An example from the May 2008 LLMC ( Law Library Micoform Consortium) Newsletter, provides a very different scenario for the public access use of state-produced legal information, from the state of Maine.

The Hon. Matthew Dunlap, Secretary of State for Maine, has approved a non-exclusive license to LLMC permitting LLMC to offer state copyrighted volumes of the Maine Supreme Court Reports on LLMC-Digital. Using that license they will offer Maine Reports Vol. 123-161, i.e., from 1924 to 1965. (The reason for stopping at 1965 initially is that the State of Maine only holds the copyright for the hardcopy published opinions up to that year. Sub-sequent reports of the Maine Supreme Court were officially reported only in the Atlantic Reporter, 2nd Series.) LLMC expect that these books will be scanned and mounted online before the end of the summer.

This fortuitous outcome came about  through the enterprise and perseverance of John Barden,the State Law Librarian for Maine. He is working with other Maine state agencies to make additional titles available for scanning by LLMC. Thanks also to the enlightened outlook of the Maine Secretary of State in making  these legal documents more accessible to the public.

Source: LLMC Newsletter, Issue 29, May 15,2008 ( Online link will be provided when available)

Government Web Site For Fuel Economy

While the melting of the artic ice may provide future access to  huge oil reserves for the US and the other countries bordering the region, (The Race To Own The Arctic, Parade Magazine, June 1, 2008 )  most consumers who are drivers will still be facing increasingly high prices to fill up their tanks for the forseeable future.

A consumer website, jointly developed by the U.S. Dept of Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency, called  www.fueleconomy.gov/ provides authoritative information in such areas as :

• Gasoline Prices,Gas Mileage Tips
• Find the Lowest Prices
• Find and Compare Cars
• Hybrid Vehicles
• Diesel Vehicles,
• Alternative Fuel Vehicles
• New Fuel Economy Ratings
• EPA's MPG Ratings

Making use of this information can significantly reduce our fuel costs, reduce our dependence on foreign oil  and help protect the envornment from the effects of burning fossil fuels.

Librarian - one of 2008 Best Careers - US News & World Report

Librarian is recognized this year (as well as last year) as being one of the best careers in 2008 according to the U.S. News & World Report.  According to Marty Nemko, "Librarians these days must be high-tech information sleuths, helping researchers plumb the oceans of information available in books and digital records."  Being recognized in this manner is wonderful for the library profession.   

New Website for US House Library

    

The library serving the U.S. House of Representatives has a new website at http://clerk.house.gov/library/. The House Library provides services to the public as well as to members of Congress, congressional committees, and congressional staff. The library is a division of the Legislative Resource Center (LRC) which combines the responsibilities of several previously separate offices–the House Library, the House Document Room, the Office of Legislative Information, and the Office of Records and Registration.

The web site lists some quick reference categories such as Popular Laws,Committee Hearings, Member's Bookshelf , Résumé of Congressional Activity.

But what might be most useful to legislative researchers are  the pages of descriptions of and URLs for resources to be  found at GPO ACCESS, the Library of Congress and the House of Representatives web sites. Users should select “Library Collection” on the page and click on the middle symbol of the “eye” to see all the descriptions for the listed resources.

In addition, clicking on  the “Resources” heading, will provide a list of web resources directing patrons to various Legislative, Judicial, and Executive government websites as well as news and library websites.

Latest OCLC/Google Agreement Should Improve Visibility of Libraries’ Holdings On Web

As Google has moved from web search into more diverse information services & applications (More Google Products) the library community has been working to become a part of some of these developments rather than standing on the sidelines. As what use to be considered library services, were being implimented by Google & other search engines on the web. Most recently the project receiving the most publicity has been the massive Google book scanning project with a growing number of large libraries.

But OCLC ( Online Computer Library Center, Inc.)  which provides services to locate, acquire, catalog, lend and preserve library materials in 112 countries,has also been active for sometime, in working with Google to  get their millions of records of library holdings, exposed and searchable on the web.

Before 2006, OCLC had implimented a function called “Open WorldCat”, with limited data subsets of its records, made available through Open WorldCat partner sites, such as Google, Yahoo!,  and others. ( See previous post : OCLC to Open WorldCat Searching to the World )  This function inserted “Find in a Library” results within  regular search engine results. But they could easily get lost among all the other search hits.

In July 2006, OCLC decided to make the entire contents of their bibliographic database freely available online with its own unique url (http://www.worldcat.org/ ). OCLC partnered with key search engines such as Google, Google Books, Yahoo! Search and Windows Live Search, that index WorldCat data for popular and unique works. These partners would provide links to WorldCat.org and/or other access to WorldCat-based information.

At present Google  has  a “Library catalogs” search option that searches OCLC’s WorldCat. But it is a bit tricky to get to. A user has to click on the general Google “Advanced Search” link, then on the “Google Book Search” link on the bottom of the page, and on the resulting page, clicking on the “Advanced Book Search” link, which finally brings one to a search page where the “Library catalogs” search can be selected !

This month OCLC took another important step to further make its resources available & searchable on the web with an agreement with Google to exchange data that will facilitate the discovery of library collections through Google search services. Google gets WorldCat-derived MARC records from OCLC member libraries who are  participating in the Google Book Search™ program. OCLC will get data & links for the Google digitized books that it can then add to the WorldCat database to represent the digitized collections of OCLC member libraries in WorldCat. Users should be able to find books in the Google scanned collection or in the holdings of  the WorldCat libraries .

Hopefully, under this new agreement, the access to OCLC WorlCat records will be more seamless and less convoluted than in the past.

Law Professor Roy M. Mersky, Dead at 82

Many folks who attended law school may recall the name Mersky from the classic book “Fundamentals of Legal Research” first published in 1975 (with J. Myron Jacobstein) that may have been used as part of  their legal writing and research classes. The law professor and  librarian behind that moniker, Roy M. Mersky, died on May 6, 2008 after a brief illness. Here are some remembrances from collegues:

Roy M. Mersky, Dead at 82 -  Law Librarian Blog

In Memoriam: Professor Roy M. Mersky, 1925–2008 – University of Texas at Austin

In Memoriam: Roy Mersky (1925-2008) -  Brian Leiter's Law School Reports

“Long May It Live:” New CEO Sounds Off on (What Used to Be Known As) West Publishing

“Long May It Live:” New CEO Sounds Off on (What Used to Be Known As) West Publishing
By Dan Ursini

On April 17th,  Thomson completed its acquisition of Reuters. The new name of the resulting corporate entity is Thomson Reuters. How will this affect   Thomson’s various law-oriented imprints,  which last year pulled in  $3.3 billion dollars?  In particular,  how will it impact ThomsonWest Publishing? This buyout has loomed as a possibility for a year now (see this NYT article from May 7, 2007, But reporting about it has stressed how Thomson-Reuters could seriously challenge the dominance of Bloomberg in the financial community.  Other issues have been largely ignored.

Fortunately articles with fresh angles from Twin Cities newspapers are surfacing online, especially the Pioneer Press TwinCities.Com.  They deal with the effects of the buyout on the American legal market-- dominated for most of the 20th century by  St. Paul-based West Publishing.  Gleaning through them, it is important to keep in mind that the new CEO of Thomson Reuters, the 48-year-old Thomas Glocer, is an attorney, a product of the Yale Law School, where he was introduced to Westlaw.  Please see in particular this article:

St. Paul Pioneer Press (MN) - April 19, 2008 - C1 Business
CEO HAS EYE ON EAGAN THE HEAD OF NEWLY MERGED THOMSON REUTERS SEES FUTURE PROFITS AND NEW JOBS AT THE COMPANY'S EAGAN FACILITY. THE FIRST STEP: MOVING AHEAD WITH A $150 MILLION EXPANSION.

It is apparent from it that Glocer favors all the legal products and services under Thomson Reuters’ new umbrella. The story says that Glocer enthuses,”“The North American Legal division "couldn't be more core, it couldn't be more strategic, and long may it live.”

The article continues:
“So if the boss is happy, the division's 7,000 employees can relax and focus on a planned $150 million expansion. Those plans stalled last year after Gov. Tim Pawlenty vetoed $15 million in state and local tax breaks and subsidies for the project.”

What was that expansion all about? According to This Week Online 6/8/07
“The expansion, planned as 425,000 square feet of additional office space and 80,000 square feet of additional data center space, was expected to bring about 2,000 new jobs to Eagan by 2012. The jobs were expected to pay an average salary of $70,000.”

It appears now these plans can become a reality. To return to the article in  St. Paul Pioneer Press TwinCities.Com:

“Technology and the Internet are vital to the company's well-being. Pawlenty visited Thomson Reuters on Friday to meet Glocer and sign a bill that creates a task force that will study how to bring the ultrafast broadband available in Japan and Sweden to Minnesota. Thomson officials lobbied for the bill.”

A related development  is detailed in an article in the April 10, 2008 Wall Street Journal details how Comcast has begun a superbroadband service in Minnesota, offering download speeds of 50 megabits per second:

Needless to say, these are all developments with a happy effect on West – or Thomson West – or Thomson Reuters North American Legal Division Formerly Known As West. Whatever name you choose to give to the core of American legal publishing, it is clear that it is going to remain solid.

Dan Ursini

Hidden Treasures at the DePaul Richardson Library ?

A current posting on the DePaul University Libraries blog entitled “I ♥ the Special Collections and Archives” entices DePaul users to  check out the special collections that we may have heard about but have never explored. Here is an excerpt to whet your interest:

“Special Collections refers to the books with rare or unique content, format, or subject focus. Our Special Collections contains over 21,000 volumes, including unique collections like the Lemke Napoleon Collection, the Bradford Dickens Collections, the Vincentiana Collection, or Faculty Publications. The Archives contain documents and materials from different organizations or institutions- including those of DePaul University- arranged in an orderly manner to aid patrons in their research.”

Collection Guides

Copyright Law Exhibit at Ryerson Library of The Art Institute

 

Why Are These Pictures in the Public Domain?

The short answer is that it’s complicated. Several layers of copyright law, some going back to the 1909 Act, may need to be addressed to determine the copyright status of many works. To make things even trickier, some works may be in the public domain in the U.S. but not in other countries. Also, due to changes in the copyright law in the 1990s, “many artworks that had previously fallen into the public domain in the United States for failure to renew the copyright were “restored” to full copyright protection …” !

To help provide some clarity to this somewhat tangled legal web, one of the legal adviser at the Art Institute of Chicago has mounted a small exhibit in the Ryerson Library of the Art Institute. It includes examples of artworks from the collections of the Art Institute to accompany the concise explanations of the varying rules that may apply to particular works.

So if you are planning to see the current Edward Hopper and Winslow Homer exhibits or dropping by on free Thursdays (after 5PM) , and find these copyright issues of interest. Ask where the entrance to the Ryerson library is and tell the person at the desk that you’re there to see the small exhibit on “Copyright Law: Publishing Artwork and the Public Domain”. It will be there through June 9, 2008.

Announcement from MEMBERS’LOUNGE CASE

EPA Report To Congress On Re-opening EPA Libraries

 
In  a previous blog posting earlier this year, it was reported that after considerable lobbying by EPA library employees, library associations, practicing scientists and public users, Congress provided for the re-opening of EPA libraies that were closed by EPA management in 2006.

In the March 26, 2008, EPA National Library Network Report to Congress the EPA descibes its overall plan to carry out the congressional mandate. This will include re-opening four of the closed regional libraries including the one in Chicago, Illinois, on or before September 30, 2008. This is what the report says specifically about the Chicago site :

“EPA will re-establish an on-site library in Chicago’s Region 5 facility. Appropriate space is currently being identified and will be designed to provide facilities for library operations, including library staff functions, patron-staff interactions, and an onsite collection. Region 5 will retain a professional library staff to provide on-site support to EPA staff and the public. The Region 5 Library will institute and maintain an on-site collection of core reference materials and additional library resources to meet specific local needs. Region 5 will provide core library services to EPA staff, including Reference/Research Assistance and Interlibrary Loan/Document Delivery, and will provide public access to the library and its collection.”

This is great news and the EPA management should be commended for follwing through on the legislative provision. However, the report also contains language that seems to minimize the damage done by the closings and to re-assert a rationale that was exposed to be disingenuous by the stakeholders mentioned above.  By claiming that the closings were mainly just “changes in physical structure” that did not  seriously affect their users. EPA management is trying to dodge the critiques that finally lead Congress to act to re-establish the libraries. Also by stating that “EPA remains fully committed to meet customer needs by harnessing technology”, as if that objective was somehow resisted by EPA employees  and library users. Also  keeps alive the non-issue that was used as a cover for dismantaling the physical library locations.

While the movement is in the right direction, it appears that the mis-guided management assumptions and the un-acknowledged political pressures from the Adminstration,  are still alive and well among EPA management. While EPA employees and other stakeholder should definitely engage with the EPA to move in a positive direction. They need to remain vigilant so that what some have  characterized as actions of “Orwellian” dimensions, do not get imposed again.

"Your Witness" Book Gives Expert Insight Into Art of Cross-examination

"In YOUR WITNESS, fifty of the nation’s top trial lawyers share the secrets of the most engaging, difficult, and dramatic aspect of their work – cross-examination. These secrets are revealed through richly told courtroom “war stories” with a point. While the stories contain some interesting bits of Chicago “color” – mobsters, corrupt politicians and businessmen, street gangs, mass murderers, sports figures, Nobel Laureates, and Colonel McCormick of the Tribune – many of the stories occur across the nation, and the book has broad appeal to lawyers and non-lawyers alike."

Some advance praise for the book:

“Molo and Figliulo have done a tremendous service to the legal community and beyond in compiling the “Lessons” learned through cross-examination. Lawyers of every vintage can learn from it – and it preserves a wonderful bit of Chicago legal lore.”
Todd Smith, Power, Rogers & Smith,Past President of the Association of Trial Lawyers of America

“This book is a box full of special treats— colorful alarm bells for potential witnesses, chewy morsels of rich material for psychologists interested in persuasion and influence, and a feast of fascinating stories for the general reader.”
Robert Clark, Professor and former Dean of the Harvard Law School

“Your Witness shows how expert cross- examination is a result of both intense preparation and the mastery of improvisational skills. This insightful and often humorous glimpse into the trial lawyer’s art should be of interest to both lawyers and non lawyer alike. … I loved it…”
Andrew Alexander, Owner and,Executive Producer of The Second City

( Source: http://www.lawbulletin.com/legal/professional-development/your-witness-book )

Excerpt from the book by recently deceased, R. Eugene Pincham,"Secrets from the 13th juror"
( Mentioned in the Chicago IP Litigation Blog by R. David Donoghue)

The Papers of Abraham Lincoln: Legal Documents and Cases Now Available

“The culmination of eight years of editorial work, the four volumes of The Papers of Abraham Lincoln: Legal Documents and Cases present a representative assortment of Lincoln's most important and most interesting cases in a form that both scholars and general readers can most readily and profitably use. Through authoritative transcriptions and contextual annotations, the editors make it possible for serious readers to examine both the documents and the cases in their historical and legal contexts. This edition serves as both an introduction to the Complete Documentary Edition and a substantial documentary text in its own  right.”

(Source: http://www.papersofabrahamlincoln.org/selective_edition.htm )

“Arranged chronologically, the four volumes present documents from more than fifty of Lincoln's most interesting, important, or representative cases, all of which are transcribed and annotated. The edition features illuminating essays on Lincoln's career as a lawyer and as a court official, as well as a biographical directory, an extensive legal glossary, and a cumulative index covering all four volumes.”

(Source: http://www.upress.virginia.edu/books/lincoln.HTM )

Harvard Faculty To Make Articles Open Access

A long article by Peter Suberin in the March 2, 2008 issue of the “SPARC Open Access Newsletter” discusses the recent Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences  vote (Tuesday Feb. 12) to give the University a worldwide license to make each faculty member’s scholarly articles available and to exercise the copyright in the articles, provided that the articles are not sold for a profit.

The fact that the mandate comes from the faculty and that it was unnanimous, is seen by the author as a strong rebuttal to the claims by the publishing lobby  “that the call for OA mandates is a sign that researchers oppose OA and must be coerced.” Rather he says “the Harvard vote decisively confirms Alma Swan's finding that the overwhelming majority of researchers do not resent OA mandates and would *willingly* comply with one from their funder or university.”

“Professor Stuart M. Shieber who proposed the legislation states, “This is a large and very important step for scholars throughout the country. It should be a very powerful message to the academic community that we want and should have more control over how our work is used and disseminated.” 
(Source : Legislation designed to allow greater worldwide access, Harvard Gazette Online )

In an opinion piece about the faculty vote (The Case for Open Access) , Robert Darnton, the Director of the Harvard University Library, spoke about the negative effects of the present commercial publishing system on libraries & scholars.

“The spiraling cost of journals has inflicted severe damage on research libraries, creating a ripple effect: in order to purchase the journals, libraries have had to reduce their acquisitions of monographs; the reduced demand among libraries for monographs has forced university presses to cut back on the publication of them;and the near impossibility of publishing their dissertations has jeopardized the careers of a whole generation of scholars in many fields…” “The Harvard University Library will set up an Office for Scholarly Communication to make the open-access repository an instrument for access to research across all disciplines…”

While the Harvard decision has gotten the most press. Mr. Suberin points out that before Harvard there were at least 12 other institutional mandates and three departmental mandates in nine countries...

Dyson's Book Explores Dr. King's Legacy & Fate of Black America

Michael Eric Dyson reflects on the impact the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had on American society in "April 4, 1968: Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Death and How It Changed America."

" Every January, the nation celebrates the life and legacy of the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. Friday marks the 40th anniversary of King's assassination in Memphis, Tenn. — and author Michael Eric Dyson argues that America needs to find the meaning in the civil rights leader's death as well.

Dyson's latest book, April 4, 1968, examines how King's death changed America and affected shifts in black leadership during the following four decades.

Excerpt from book available on NPR web page.

Link to publisher

Response by Thomas Mann to LC Working Group Report

A previous posting on this blog in January 2008, entitled “Final LC Working Group Report Released”, told about the final report of a special Library of Congress task force that was charged with addressing the  “future of bibliographic control in the 21st century”.

The report came after three regional meetings to gather input & responses from librarians, scholars & other interested stakeholders. It was en titled, “,"On the Record - Report ofThe Library of Congress Working Group on the Future of Bibliographic Control"

LC’s approach to this strategic question has engendered much questioning & disagreement within the library community. One of the most high-profile critics of LC’s positions has been Thomas Mann, who has  been a general reference librarian in the Main Reading Room of the Library of Congress since 1981 & author of "The Oxford Guide to Library Research". In his March 14, 2008 response to the LC report, “On the Record” but Off the Track” , Mr. Mann states :

“In responding to "On the Record", I can only repeat what Francis Jeffrey famously said in opening his review of Wordsworth’s The Prelude: “This will never do.” The recommendations of this Report, while well-intentioned, are unfortunately so naïve about the requirements of scholarly research that, if implemented in the particular way proposed by the Group, will seriously undercut the capacity of scholarly researchers everywhere to pursue their topics systematically and at in-depth levels, rather than haphazardly and superficially….”

One can tell that there will be a lot more spirited debate on these issues,  which is probably a positive development given the importance of the outcome, for not only the Library of Congress but countless libraries around the world who have looked to it for leadership & guidance.

FastCase Inc. Enters Rich Public Legal Portal Arena

FastCase, the commercial company from whom the Public.Resource.Org     developers acquired the huge volume of court cases mentioned in the previous post, [ PreCYdent  got their Federal Reporter materials by scanning. See Comment below ] , has also created its own public access collection called, "The Public Library of Law". It is a free law library that assembles law available for free scattered across many different sites -- all in one place. It contains cases from the U.S. Supreme Court and Courts of Appeal,Cases from all 50 states back to 1997,Federal statutory law and codes from all 50 states,Regulations, court rules, constitutions, and more.

           ***********************************************************************
With this new entry, it can be useful to remind our users of the many other major online legal research portals that are currently available on the web.It is truly a wealth of publicly available information :

Findlaw is sponsored by Thomson West (the owner of the Westlaw database).

Lexisone is sponsored by the owner of the LexisNexis service.

The Legal Information Institute (LII) is a research and electronic publishing activity of the Cornell Law School.

Also from LII above is Wex, a collaboratively built, freely available legal dictionary and encyclopedia.

Villanova Legal Express is a site provided by the Villanova Law Library.

WashLaw prepared by the Washburn University School of Law Library,has extensive Links to Legal Research on the web.

Justia is a legal media and technology company focused on making legal information, resources and services easy to find on the Internet.

AltLaw provides the first free, full-text searchable database of Supreme Court and Federal Appellate case reports.Full text search of the last few decades of appellate and Supreme Court opinions.

The Library of Congress Guide to Law Online prepared by the Law Library of Congress Public Services Division, is an annotated guide to sources of information on government and law available online. It includes selected links to useful and reliable sites for legal information.

A great overview of the federal jurisdiction and its related legal documents can be found in LLRX  Guide to the U.S. Federal Legal System, Web-Based Publicly Accessible Sources.

GPO Access. The U.S. Government Printing Office disseminates official information from all three branches of the Federal Government.

NOLOpedia is a free legal information resource provided by the NOLO Press publisher.

Chicago Women's History Event at Chicago History Museum

Kathryn DeGraff, department head of special collections and archives at DePaul University,  was quoted in the front page story of the 3/5-11/2008 issue of  the Streetwise newspaper entitled “Seeking feminist history – before it’s too late”, which announces the March 16 event, “Documenting the Women’s Movement in Chicago, 1960s – 1980s”, at the Chicago History Museum.

"Chicago is bursting at the seams with women's records and activities,' said Kathryn DeGraff, department head of special collections and archives at DePaul University. “A lot is being held but a lot is in danger of being lost if not collected soon. Women are retired or moving, and their children or whoever is cleaning out their closet is not going to know or care. People who are commited to the movement did it, but they move on. There's a fire or flood and the records are lost.”

The March 16 event at The Chicago History Museum, Documenting the Women's Movement in Chicago, 1960s -1980s, is a "chance to try to catch the materials." added Elizabeth Myers, director of the Women and leadership Archive at Loyola Universit,Chicago. "An individual woman might think it's not worth anything. But we're trying to say,'no, quite the opposite. History, at least women's history, won't be written without these documents.'"

EVENT DETAILS :

Women's Movement in Chicago 1960s-1980s
Chicago History Museum's Chicago Room
1601 N. Clark St., Chicago, IL   Sunday, March 16, 1:30 p.m.
Advance Registration Required - online at: www.cawhc.org or call: 773-227-0093
Admission to the event is free, but Museum admission is required $14.00
Museum members (C.H.M., DuSable, Nat. Museum of Mexican Art) admitted free.

Tips For Using Library Audiobooks

A very helpful digital consumer article appeared today in the Chicago Tribune Tempo page.“How To Enjoy Library Audiobooks On The Go” by Eric Gwinn. The guide is broken down into three main sections:

Before you download, Getting the download, Fixing the download. It has detailed guidance to be used with your own library’s specific procedures for using downloadable audiobooks.

"Howling In Mesopotamia" - An Iraqi-American Memoir

Mr.Haider Ala Hamoudi, now an Associate Professor of Law at The University of Pittsburgh School of Law, after working as a corporate attorney in a law firm in New York City, moved to Iraq on July 14, 2003 and left two years later, in June 2005. During his time in Iraq he worked with the “Raising the Bar: Legal Education Reform in Iraq” program of the International Human Rights Law Institute of DePaul University School of Law, to improve legal education in Iraq. He describes the aims of the project in a law review article :

“I learned much of this firsthand when I moved to Iraq in December 2003.   DePaul University's International Human Rights Law Institute ("IHRLI") sent   me and several other educators to Iraq to reform and improve legal education.   More broadly, we hoped that by raising the standard of Iraqi legal education we   could help improve the entire legal profession, both in terms of its respectability   and its dedication to the honest, efficient, and transparent administration of justice. This would, we hoped, help to create of a rule of law society in Iraq. The   effect of our efforts would be gradual, we expected, but nonetheless real if all went well.”

In his book Mr. Hamoudi  has written a gripping  memoir that is an  insider's story about America's war in Iraq. As the publisher’s description states, “Hamoudi saw firsthand the frustrations and fears that plagued Iraqi civilians during a crucial period of the war. As an American in Iraq working on a USAID-funded contract, he also interacted with American administrators regularly, and was able to see the developing situation from their point of view as well. Howling in Mesopotamia is a critical look at what went wrong in Iraq from a person who was there. Hamoudi's gripping memoir will shed light on the events, mistakes, and misunderstandings.”

Sources:

“The Catch 22 of Iraq: Pitt law professor's book recalls trying experiences in 'Mesopotamia' ”
By Cristina Rouvalis, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, February 27, 2008

For a detailed account of Mr. Hamoudi’s work with the IHRLI program  see the article in the Berleley Journal of International Law ( 23 Berleley Journal of International Law 112 ), “Toward a Rule Of Law Society In Iraq: Introducing Clinical Legal Education into Iraqi Law Schools”,

Foreclosure Resources for Consumers

Foreclosure Resources for Consumers

If you are having difficulty making your mortgage payment, one of the most important things you can do is seek assistance. The following resources provide information and links to agencies and organizations that may be able to help you. Click on URL below :

http://www.federalreserve.gov/pubs/foreclosure/default.htm

Law Library Journal Turns 100

The Winter 2008 issue of Law Library Journal, the "official" publication of the American Association of Law Libraries, published since 1908, marks a major milestone, with volume 100, number 1. Scholarly articles on law, legal materials, and librarianship have been the mainstay of the Journal.Throughout 2008, LLJ will celebrate its 100th birthday with special features about its history.

This issue  features two winning articles from the 2007 AALL Lexis Nexis Call for Papers competition by Margaret A. Leary and by Connie Lenz and Helen Wohl. Other article topics include how to protect the law library’s core missions through updated quality assessment standards, best practices in academic law library hiring, and whether office e-mail is a burden or blessing.There is also an article by former long time LLJ editor, Frank Houdek, entitled, "The Essential Law Library Journal". Professor Houdek presents a selective, annotated list of “essential” readings culled from the preceding ninety-nine volumes of the Journal. The list represents pieces that anyone involved in law librarianship, whether a novice or someone experienced in the field, should read and absorb.

[ The Law Library Journal is also available on Lexis-Nexis®, WESTLAW, H.W. Wilson and HeinOnline. ]

Source: AALL E-Newsletter - February 2008

“The Public” - A New Film by Emilio Estevez Tackles Issues of Libraries & Homelessness

An April 2007 posting on this blog, “Public Libraries As Social Service Agencies” looked at the views of Chip Ward who retired as the assistant director of the Salt Lake City Public Library System. He had written written a  disturbing & eye-opening article on” alternet”,“America Gone Wrong: A Slashed Safety Net Turns Libraries into Homeless Shelters”  which describes up close some of the homeless people that find their way to the public   library and also analyzes the dysfunctional and  wasteful nature of the ways our society has come to deal with them and their needs. He also did an  op-ed piece entitled, “Bearing the  brunt of social policies”, in the Los Angeles Times of L.A. Times, of April 7, 2007.

Apparently, the compelling stories depicted by Mr. Ward engaged the interest of actor, director, and writer, Emilio Estevez, who is working on developing a social drama set in a public library as his next film. Mr. Estevez “… did most of his research for that ensemble drama at Los Angeles' historic downtown public library and as such was familiar with it. After reading the article, he went back and saw what he had missed.” …"It was every bit as bad as the op-ed piece described it," he said.

Mr.Estevez is the The son of Martin Sheen and brother to Charlie Sheen but he uses his father's original last name. His last movie was Bobby (2006)  that depicted the events in Los Angeles' Algonquin Hotel on June 6, 1968, the night Robert F. Kennedy was shot.

The release is probably months away. It should serve to “flesh out” the  people that Mr. Ward wrote  about, who all too frequently, are just statistics to most of us. And also, to alert citizens to the un-recognized “social work” that many of our public libraries are having to perform.

Source: “Estevez plans "Public" display”,  By Borys Kit, Reuters.com , Feb 5, 2008

CONGRESS DIRECTS EPA TO RE-OPEN ITS LIBRARIES

Buried within the omnibus appropriations bill Congress sent at the end of last year to President Bush , there is significant relief for the beleaguered library network of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Congress ordered EPA to restore library services across the country and earmarked $3 million for that purpose, according to PEER (Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility)

Locally, this could mean the eventual re-opening of the Chicago regional library closed in the Summer of 2006. See previous blog post, “Chicago EPA Library to Close”

Amazing Database Of Federal Data - For Lawyers Too

Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse and the TRACFED Data Warehouse
by LINDA ROBERGE,SUSAN LONG,DAVID BURNHAM & PATRICIA HASSETT,

Trends in Law Library Management and Technology, v.17, p.61-73

"Lawyers are “word” people. They read and author complaints motions, opinions, etc.—text documents all. But they, along with other “word” professionals, are recognizing the value of numerical information, especially once- dreaded statistics.

In this paper we discuss an information delivery system that goes beyond searchable Full-text databases and look at a data warehouse and data mining application,TRACFED. This state-of-the-art technology, and the information lawyers are able to generate using it, promises to redefine some of the best-practice standards of the legal profession.

Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, better known as TRAC and described at the end of this paper, is a not-for-profit, non-partisan research center at Syracuse University. The center has developed TRACFED which makes it possible to produce useful information about federal government activities from previously inaccessible data. For years, investigative reporters public intetest groups, Congressional committees and others have used TRAC’s data warehouse. And now lawyers are discovering the power of TRACFED as well."
TRAC’s Websites (URL, internet address):

TRAC (trac.syr.edu) is a free public web site that provides easy access to TRAC's published reports, spotlights, and other information, mostly about federal enforcement issues.

TRACFED (tracfed.syr.edu) is a subscription site offering direct dynamic access to a wide range of federal data concerning enforcement, staffing, spending, and other matters.

Significance Of Recent NIH Research Deposit Law

In late December, a small part of the huge “Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2008”,   required authors of NIH-funded  (National Institutes of Health) research,  to deposit a digital copy of their results within 12 months for inclusion in  PubMed Central, a public database managed by NIH and NLM ( National Library of Medicine).

The briefness of the requirement belies the three years of very contested lobbying that took place between the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC) & its allies and the The Association of American Publishers (AAP) around this provision. Even after its passage, the publishers continue to fight the application of the law.

While the publishers claim that such a requirement undemines scientific publishing, it is more accurate to view the commercial publishers as desparately clinging to an economic model that has actually  become a restraint on scholarly communication and the advancement of science. This situation was clearly evident as far back as 1999 in a paper by the California Institute of Technology which stated that,

“Despite widespread acceptance of the web by the academic and research community, the incorporation of advanced network technology into a new paradigm for scholarly communication by the publishers of print journals has not materialized. Nor have journal publishers used the lower cost of distribution on the web to make online versions of journals available at lower prices than print versions. It is becoming increasingly clear to the scholarly community that we must envision and develop for ourselves a new, affordable model for disseminating and preserving results, that synthesizes digital technology and the ongoing needs of scholars.”

In a January 2008 interview in Library Journal, Ms. Heather Joseph, the executive director of SPARC,speaks to the NIH initiative being part of this process, “…This policy represents a sea change in the parameters of the scholarly communications marketplace….”, and  “…the NIH was clear that one of its ultimate goals for the policy is to ensure that its research results are readily available not only to this generation of researchers, but to future generations as well….” In the interview she also rebuts many of the claims being made by the publisher’s groups against the new NIH deposit requirement.

The developments around the NIH requirement should probably be follwed by all members of the scholarly community to see whether a new model in scholarly communication is allowed to develop or whether traditional publishers will continue to resist based on their narrow, restrictive and self-aggrandizing economic model.

Final LC Working Group Report Released

In November 2006, Deanna Marcum, Associate Librarian for Library Services at the Library of Congress, convened a Working Group to examine the future of bibliographic control in the 21st century. After holding three regional public hearings in the past year,to elicit ideas and comments from the library and publishing communities, the Working Group has now released their final report.

From the executive summary:

The Report is based on the key premise that the community is at a critical juncture in the evolution of bibliographic control and information access/provision  It is time to take stock of past practices, to look at today’s trends, and to project a future path consistent with the goals of bibliographic control: to facilitate discovery, management, identification, and access of and to library materials and other information products...

The Working Group hopes that this Report is viewed as a “call to action” that informs and broadens participation in discussion and debate, conveys a sense of urgency, stimulates collaboration, and catalyzes thoughtful and deliberate action. We anticipate broad discussion of the Report’s recommendations and their implications, and look forward to the development of specific implementation plans,research agendas,and educational programs.

Link to the final report,"On the Record - Report ofThe Library of Congress Working Group on the Future of Bibliographic Control"

Librarian Captures Coveted Couch Potato Title

A late-breaking story from the Atlanta Journal Constitution about the indurance of the long distance viewer :

"NEW YORK (AP) — A Manhattan librarian emerged as a champion couch potato after three rivals gave in to sleep deprivation or nature's call.

Stan Friedman won the ESPN Zone Ultimate Couch Potato Competition, which began Tuesday morning at the ESPN Zone restaurant in Times Square. The event ended Wednesday afternoon after more than 29 grueling hours of continuous sports viewing — mainly college football bowl games and endless highlights loops.

The four participants, sitting in recliners in front of a dozen 42-inch high-definition plasma televisions and a couple of 14-foot HD projection TVs, could order unlimited food and drinks, but they weren't allowed to go to sleep or leave their recliners except for restroom breaks once every eight hours.

Friedman, a research librarian whose favorite sport is baseball, was declared the victor when runner-up Nate Lopez ran to the bathroom before the allotted break time.

He won a $5,000 prize package including a huge TV, a cozy recliner and a trophy with a potato on it.

"I have a 350-square-foot apartment, so I don't know what I'll do with the TV," he said Thursday. "But I'll make room for the recliner."

Law Library of Congress Faces Funding Crunch

An article in the Nov. 15 issue of Library Journal reported on the testimony by AALL (American Association of Law Libraries) representative, Ann T. Fessenden, to the Committee on House Administration, regarding the precarious financial status of the Law Library of Congress.

Here are some excerpts from her testimony about specific issue that should be addressed by Congress:

As you have seen, the Law Library serves a unique and crucial national role. It also faces significant financial, technological and operational challenges to fulfill its mission. As our Nation’s de facto national law library, it is committed to providing the broadest possible access and services to the legal community, both in the United States and abroad, and the American public. Unfortunately, we do not believe this vital mission can be achieved under the current funding arrangement.

First, the Law Library must have necessary funds to maintain its journal subscriptions and purchase new treatises.
Specialized legal serials are expensive and their rising costs far exceed the rate of inflation. The Law Library must have adequate funds to address the inflationary increases for law journal subscriptions and the purchase of new treatises.

Second, the Law Library must have necessary funds to complete the K reclassification project.
The Law Library must now be funded to reclassify approximately 680,000 more volumes into the K classification structure. Without such reclassification, these important resources, many of which are foreign legal documents, cannot be located within the Library’s collections and therefore are not accessible to researchers and the public.

Third, the Law Library must have necessary funds to continue to microfilm the backlog of national official gazettes.
In the 21st Century global economy, it is in the economic interests of the U.S. government to provide access to the laws and regulations of other countries for the American business and legal communities. Microfilm, rather than microfiche, is the needed format to preserve these materials because foreign official gazettes are oversized and are not suitable for microfiche.

We recommend that your Committee explore a statutory change that would give the Law Library a line item in the Federal budget. This would place the Law Library on the same level as the Congressional Research Service and the U.S. Copyright Office, both of which are part of the Library of Congress. This would allow the Law Librarian of Congress to control the Law Library’s own budget, decide how the annual appropriations are best spent and, very importantly, be directly accountable to the Congress. We believe an additional benefit would be a higher level of visibility for the Law Library, including with members of Congress and their staff.

LC Working Group On Bibliographic Control Draft Report

LC Working Group On Bibliographic Control Draft Report

Background:

The Working Group on the Future of Bibliographic Control was appointed by Dr. Deanna Marcum, LC’s Associate Librarian for Library Services, to address changes in how libraries must do their work in the digital information era. Specific charges to the committee were:

• Present findings on how bibliographic control and other descriptive practices can effectively support management of and access to library materials in the evolving information and technology environment;

• Recommend ways in which the library community can collectively move toward achieving this vision;

• Advise the Library of Congress on its role and priorities.

The committee has held five meetings thoughout the country to gather feedback and input for the final report. See http://www.loc.gov/bibliographic-future/  for links to details of each meeting.

About the Report on the Future of Bibliographic Control:

The Working Group envisions the future of bibliographic control as collaborative, decentralized, international in scope, and Web-based. The realization of this future will occur in cooperation with the private sector, and with the active collaboration of library users. Data will be gathered from multiple sources; change will happen quickly; and bibliographic control will be dynamic, not static. The underlying technology that makes this future possible and necessary – the World Wide Web – is now almost two decades old. Libraries must continue the transition to this future without delay in order to retain their relevance as information providers.

Read Draft Final Report of the Working Group [PDF, 315 KB

The period for public comment on the report is open until December 15, 2007.  Comments can be submitted via the Web site at http://www.loc.gov/bibliographic-future/contact/.  Electronic submission of comments is encouraged.

UIC–State Dept. Archives Partnership Renewed

On Nov. 8,the Government Printing Office (GPO),announced the renewal of its partnership with the Richard J. Daley Library of the University of Illinois at Chicago through 2012. Originally signed in 1997, the partnership provides permanent public access to content in the Department of State Foreign Affairs (DOSFAN) Electronic Research Collection, a digital library of electronically archived information products produced by the U.S. Department of State from 1990 through 1997, which includes the archived Web sites of the U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency (ACDA) and the U.S. Information Agency (USIA).  The website also has a link to U.S. Department of State Web Page Archives 1998-mid-January 2001.

( Source:DOSFAN Partnership Renewed )

New Metasearch Engine for Worldwide News

A new meta search engine for worldwide news has been devised by Clement Yu, a computer science professor at University of Illinois Chicago. The new entrant to  the crowded search engine arena claims to find news stories that other search engines may miss or not provide in a timely fashion.  Allinonenews.com directs users queries to some 1,800 news search engines based in 200 countries and territories. ( Source: Illiniois Alumni Magazine, Nov/Dec  2007 )

“AllInOneNews is implemented based on metasearch technology. Unlike other news search systems on the web that crawl the sites of news sources to collect news items in advance and then search these items on a local server, AllInOneNews passes each user query to the search engines of other news sources, collects their search results and merges them into a single ranked list for presentation to the user.

Metasearch technology for news search generally has the following advantages over the crawling based search technology:

a. It can retrieve the latest news and breaking news in a timelier manner because it does not have the delay caused by crawling schedules.
b. It can retrieve more relevant information as it has the ability to merge the best results from multiple news sources.”

( Source: About Allinonenews )