Law Librarian Blog

Going to AALL - Recommended Reading

Betty Edwards (Manager, Library Services, Seyfarth, Shaw, Boston) recommends "Insider's Guide to the River Walk -- Our Resident Expert Leads You to His Favorite San Antonio Spots." From Southern Living Magazine, the article is posted on CNN's Travel site.

Ten Million Blogs and Counting

Last weekend Technorati tracked its 10 Millionth Blog. It is a chinese blog, on mblogger.cn, and it appears to be a blog talking about glassblowing, with some really cool pictures. More.

Fork in the Browser Road

Thinking of switching from Internet Explorer to Foxfire or Opera? If you haven't decided yet, Kris Shaffer's Opera and Firefox: A side-by-side review may be helpful. Personally, I choose Foxfire.

JurisPro Database Expands LexisNexis Expert Witness Resources

From LexisNexis Press Center:

DAYTON, OH, May 16, 2005 - Continuing efforts to provide customers a wide-ranging selection of investigative sources and products, LexisNexis U.S. has reached an with JurisPro Inc. to make JurisPro’s national directory of expert witnesses in over 4,000 areas of expertise available to LexisNexis subscribers. Read more about it.

Ron Jones, Univ of Cincinati Law Library

Opening: DC Firm Librarian

Washington, D.C. office of a prestigious New York-based law firm needs a librarian to provide research and reference service to the Firm on legal, business, and general topics. Coordinate court and Federal agency filings. Train attorneys and legal assistants in the use of print and on-line resources. Order and process books, developing the collection to adapt to changes in the Firm's practice areas. Monitor legislation, prepare legislative history, track regulations. Prepare bibliographies. Conduct orientation tours of the library for new employees. Work with Library staff in other offices to provide virtual reference.

Must possess a Masters in Library Science from an ALA accredited school and 3-5 years of previous law firm experience. Extensive experience with Lexis, Westlaw, and other on-line resources required. Must be flexible and work well under pressure. Requires excellent oral and written communications skills and strong attention to detail.

Resumes may be sent to:

Personnel,
901 15th St., NW, Suite 1100,
Washington, DC 20005
faxed 202-682-3580
email: DCResumes@kayescholer.com

Kaye Scholer LLP
901 15th Street, NW
Washington, DC 20005

Opening: Electronic Resource Librarian - Washington, DC

An exciting opportunity to join the large staff in the Information Resource Center of a global law firm. The Law Practice Technologist interacts directly with the attorneys within assigned practice groups in efforts to assess their technological and information needs, manage practice specific knowledge and research content and support practice technologies. The Law Practice Technologist serves as a practice group liaison with a primary focus on marketing IRC services, technologies & resources; knowledge & content management; and integration of information resources. This position points toward the future of the law firm information professional’s role in the application of research technologies.

Duties include:

• Maintain practice group knowledge management systems and support efforts to collect internal work-product collections. Assist with firm-wide implementation of West km.
• Support practice specific technologies and provide demonstrations and training sessions as needed.
• Integrate and market firm and IRC resources to each assigned practice group on firm’s intranet and through other current awareness efforts. Provide content management for other administrative and client projects.

Requirements:
This position requires a motivated individual who has an ability to work effectively with attorneys, excellent communication and strong marketing & presentation skills. The ideal candidate has an understanding of knowledge management principles and content integration. Basic understanding of general technology and/or law firm applications recommended. Knowledge of legal research resources preferred. The qualified applicant has a demonstrated knowledge of webpage design with a working knowledge of html, FrontPage or other webpage design tool software. MLS preferred with 3-5 years relevant law firm experience. Convenient Metro Center location and excellent benefits! For consideration send your resume to Daniel Hurd at Daniel.Hurd@TRAKRecordsandLibrary.com.

TRAK Records and Library
Visit our website at http://www.trakcompanies.com
202-659-2990

What Grade Did Your State Receive?

Performance Project (GPP) is "the nation’s only source for comprehensive and independent information about state management performance." Recently it released Grading the States 2005, an assessment of the quality of management performance in the 50 states.

Grading the States 2005 provides insights into the way the states have weathered the recent fiscal crisis and the promising innovations they have crafted to cope with an uncertain future by examining how states manage their fiscal resources, workforce, physical infrastructure, and information technology with the goal of providing non-partisan, objective information to help state officials improve management and achieve their policy goals.

CRIV Subcommittee to Visit WS Hein - Reminder: Questions to the Subcommittee Due by May 24

CRIV's Site Visits Subcommittee, chaired by Larry Meyer, Director of the Law Library for San Bernardino County, CA, will be on site at Hein on June 14 - 15 to meet with high-ranking company officials and others about a number of topics including:  1)  Hein's process of producing Hein-OnLine and next steps for this product; 2) Hein's continuations department; and, 3) Hein's process to select Government Document items for printing or reprinting, etc. Please let us know your thoughts on these and/or other topics. - - Forward questions, comments and/or concerns to Larry at larrym@sblawlibrary.org by no later than Tuesday, May 24.  A summary report on the meeting will be made available following the visit.

Ellen Strbak, Chair
AALL Committee on Relations with Information Vendors

Learn the Ways of the Farm

May the farm be with you. See Store Wars, a flash movie produced by the Organic Trade Organizaton. Beware of Darth Tator!

File under Friday fun.

First Unpublished Opinions, Now Unpublished ALRs

Kim L. Schwant, Reference Librarian at the Indiana Supreme Court Library, discovered an oddity with the ALRs.  A patron retrieved the cite 2003 ALR 5th 3 from the print index to the ALRs.  Kim ended up going to Westlaw since the citation didn't make sense.  The corresponding ALR entry has the following note: "This annotation has not been released for publication in ALR and is subject to revision or withdrawal."

There would be no way for the patron to retrieve this article without access to Westlaw.  Why is it in the print index if it's not in the print set? There are already unpublished court decisions, but now there are apparently unpublished ALR essays.

Westlaw's Explanation: The section of the ALR we were looking at is an Electronic Annotation, or E-Annos. It is an advanced publication loaded to Westlaw prior to the annotation being officially published. The disclaimer we discussed is carried on all E-Annos and puts the reader on notice that the content may not be in its final form, may not yet be published, or may never be published. The purpose of the E-Annos is to allow the editors to load yet-to-be published ALR annotations on Westlaw. In rare cases, the advanced or unpublished ALR annotation may never be published, which appears to be the case in this instance. Other reasons for not publishing an E-Annos could be contractual, author's decision or otherwise. Unfortunately, we do not know the exact reason for not publishing an annotation.

File Under: Information Wants to be Free

Scientists from all major Dutch universities have launched the Digital Academic Repositories (DAREnet), a website where all their research material can be accessed for free. DAREnet current contains 47,000 digital documents from 16 institutions.

Penn St-Dickinson Law Pact Subject of Lawsuit

The Patriot News is reporting that a lawyer is suing Penn State because the  university agreement to keep The Dickinson School of Law in Carlisle for at least 20 years has too many loopholes. Read the entire article.

The announcement that Dickinson would stay in Carlisle was reported by this blog at this post.

Computers Seized in Data-Theft Probe

The Washington Post is reporting that the federal investigation into the theft of sensitive financial records and information from LexisNexis Inc. intensified this week with the execution of search warrants and seizure of evidence from several individuals across the country. Read all about it.

File under strange but apparently true: the LexisNexis break-in is linked to Paris Hilton's phone hacking.

International Journal of Law in Context

Source: Cambridge University Press

Building on the successful book series Law in Context, Cambridge University Press announces the publication of a new journal, International Journal of Law in Context (print ISSN 1744-5523, E-ISSN 1744-5531).

International Journal of Law in Context is a forum for interdisciplinary legal studies and offers intellectual space for ground-breaking research. It publishes contextual work about law and its relationship with other disciplines, including but not limited to science, literature, humanities, philosophy, sociology, psychology, ethics, history, and geography. The aim of the journal is to explore and expand the boundaries of law and legal studies.  To that end, it includes original research articles, review articles, and book reviews.

Table of Contents

Have concepts, will travel: analytical jurisprudence in a global context, by William Twining

Friends in high places: Amity and agreement in Alsatia, by Peter Goodrich

What Makes Modernity Late?, by Steven L. Winter

Fathering practices in twenty-six intact families and the implications for child contact, by Jane Lewis and Elaine Welsh

More information and to view a free sample issue

Job Opening: Reference Librarian, IIT/Chicago Kent

Reference Librarian, Job Posting 192-05
Illinois Institute of Technology,
Downtown Campus Library,
Chicago-Kent College of Law & Stuart Graduate School of Business

The IIT Downtown Campus Library is seeking an energetic and creative individual who has the capacity to thrive in an environment of change and is committed to public services to become the newest member of its reference team. This position will start on July 25, 2005. To apply, submit cover letter & resume to: jobs@iit.edu. Be sure to include the Job Posting number as the Subject line.

We will interview candidates at the AALL annual meeting in San Antonio.

Environment
Located in a state-of-the-art building in the heart of downtown Chicago, the Downtown Campus Library primarily serves the Chicago-Kent College of Law as well as the Stuart Graduate School of Business. The Library's primary patrons are the faculty of both the law and business schools and the 1,500 students who attend the downtown campus. Other users include subscribers who pay for specialized services and other members of the general public. Containing approximately 500,000 volumes, the Library has an outstanding collection of materials relating to law, business, international relations and the social sciences. Additional information about the Library and IIT can be found at: http://library.kentlaw.edu/ and http://www.iit.edu/

There are presently 4 reference librarians and an electronic resources librarian (who shares reference duties) in addition to the Director of Public Services.

Responsibilities
Under the general direction of the Director of Public Services, the Reference Librarian is responsible for providing reference, research and instructional assistance to the IIT community in both formal and informal settings. Reference librarians, who work as a team to deliver services, are responsible for individually supervising Circulation Desk staff when they are staffing the Reference Desk. Each member of the reference team is expected to participate in the school's liaison program that provides an exceptionally high level of service to faculty members. In addition, each member of the reference staff is actively involved with teaching activities for both the law and business school programs. All professional staff are encouraged to participate in professional activities and organizations.

Typical duties will include providing assistance at the Reference Desk (including some weekend and evening hours); assisting users to identify and locate Library materials (print and electronic); performing other duties to enhance the collection and services of the Library such as (but not limited to): assisting in the development, implementation and evaluation of reference and public service policies, procedures and publications; developing instructional materials, bibliographies, research guides and other items to aid in the utilization of Library materials and facilities; responding to telephone, mail and e-mail inquiries from patrons seeking information; creating and delivering specialized topical research seminars; individual and group training; and other duties as required.

Requirements
The position requires a M.L.S. from an A.L.A.-accredited graduate program. The ability to work effectively with faculty and all levels of staff is essential. Excellent interpersonal, oral and written communication skills are critical. The successful candidate will be one who is very customer service oriented, has a friendly and helpful manner and can manage diverse assignments in a rapidly-changing and demanding environment.

Preferred
Additional graduate degrees in business and/or law; previous Library experience using specialized business and/or legal materials; foreign language proficiency; experience with Voyager, the Library's integrated Library system.

Reporting
Reference librarians report to the Director of Public Services, who is responsible for evaluating their performance with input from the Director of Bibliographic Services, the Library Director, faculty and other clientele.

Schedule
Reference Librarians work a varied schedule that includes evening and weekend hours. A rotational schedule is used to provide for reference service from 8am until 9pm Mondays-Thursdays; 8am until 5pm Fridays; 9am until 5pm on Saturdays; and 10am until 6pm on Sundays when school is in session.

Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity in Employment Statement:
It is the policy of the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) to provide equal employment opportunities to all qualified applicants and employees regardless of race, religion, color, age, national origin, sex, marital status, disability, special disabled veteran or Vietnam-era veteran status.

Questions?
Please contact Holly Lakatos, Director of Public Services, at (312) 906-5690 or hlakatos@kentlaw.edu.

On Firing Your Staff Geek

If you are going to fire one of your systems staffers, what do you do? You make sure your cut off his e-mail and network access, and change all crucial passwords at the same time you are ambusing him with an exit interview and immediately followed by someone escorting him out of the building. No brainer.

The US Secret Service and Carnegie Mellon University released a new "insider threat" survey.

Among the key findings of the ITS study of insider sabotage across critical infrastructure sectors are the following:

A negative work-related event triggered most insiders’ actions.
• Most of the insiders had acted out in a concerning manner in the workplace.
• The majority of insiders planned their activities in advance.
• When hired, the majority of insiders were granted system administrator or privileged access, but less than half of all of the insiders had authorized access at the time of the incident.
• Insiders used unsophisticated methods for exploiting systemic vulnerabilities in applications, processes, and/or procedures, but relatively sophisticated attack tools were also employed.
• The majority of insiders compromised computer accounts, created unauthorized backdoor accounts, or used shared accounts in their attacks.
• Remote access was used to carry out the majority of the attacks.
• The majority of the insider attacks were only detected once there was a noticeable irregularity in the information system or a system became unavailable.
• Insider activities caused organizations financial losses, negative impacts to their business operations and damage to their reputations.

To repeat, if you are going to fire one of your systems staffers, you make sure your cut off his e-mail and network access, and change all ...

Tort Reform

From the Economic Policy Institute:

The Frivolous Case for Tort Law Change
Opponents of the legal system exaggerate its costs, ignore its benefits

by Lawrence Chimerine and Ross Eisenbrey

"Tort litigation has been blamed for driving liability insurance premiums to excessive levels, reducing real wages and overall employment, undermining corporate profits, dampening productivity growth, discouraging research and development, and generally reducing the willingness of corporations and individuals to take reasonable risks (such as introducing new products) that may benefit themselves and society. There is scant evidence for any of these claims. To the contrary, macroeconomic trends since the early 1990s are especially inconsistent with the argument that supposedly high and rapidly rising tort costs have inflicted serious harm on the economy. Yet the legal system's critics continue to argue that there is a tort liability "crisis" that warrants changing the tort system, and that change is a key element in bolstering economic growth in the future. Yet these critics provide no credible evidence to support their assertions. In fact, what little effect changing the tort system will have on the economy might hurt job creation rather than help it."

Read more about it.

Ron Jones, Unv Cin Law Lib

Ohio to Adopt ABA Rules of Professional Conduct

In Chief Justice Moyer's annual state of the judiciary speech, he announced that the Ohio Supreme Court plans to adopt the American Bar Association's Rules of Professional Conduct.    The ABA rules would make it easier for out-of-state attorneys to temporarily practice in Ohio.  See  Supreme Court Task Force on Rules of Professional Conduct, Proposed Rule 5.5.  The Chief Justice also proposed eliminating mayor's courts.   See Moyer Hints at Changes for Ohio Legal Rules, Courts by Kevin Kemper, Columbus Business First, May 12, 2005.

Ron Jones, Univ of Cincinnati Law Library

Oxford Journals Adds the Chinese Journal of International Law

The Chinese Journal of International Law
Edited by Sienho Yee

The Chinese Journal of International Law is the leading forum for articles on international law by Chinese scholars and on international law issues relating to China. An independent, peer-reviewed research journal edited primarily by scholars from mainland China, and published in association with the Chinese Society of International Law, Beijing, the Journal is a general international law journal with a focus on materials and viewpoints from and/or about China, other parts of Asia, and the broader developing world.

The Chinese Journal of International Law is fully available online. Visit our website to read a sample issue now:
www.chinesejil.oupjournals.org

What is the "Nuclear Option"?

In a Washington Post front page story Mike Allen and Jeffrey H. Birnbaum explain. See A Likely Script for The 'Nuclear Option'