Law Librarian Blog

Recent CBO Publications

THe CBO has released the Agency's Testimony on the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation: Financial Condition, Potential Risks, and Policy Options and Prices for Brand-Name Drugs Under Selected Federal Programs

Status of HeinOnline CFR Project

After reviewing the online 1938-1947 CRF content, HeinOnline has decided to temporarily remove our CFR coverage for a short period of time in order to make some additional enhancements and upgrades.  The Company plans to re-releasing the CFR in the very near future. Stay tuned.

ALA Focus Group - University of Chicago Press Journals

Academic law librarians take note:

The University of Chicago Press is undertaking a review of the pricing models that will be used to set journal rates for the 2007 subscription year. With the proliferation of business models and the opportunities offered by technological advances, the Press is eager to explore new opportunities for product offerings and pricing that will meet our mutual goals.

The Press will be hosting two focus groups during the ALA Annual Meeting in Chicago. If you are willing to share your ideas and suggestions, UC hope sthat you will submit your name as a possible participant.  The Press is seeking input from knowledgeable librarians from all types and sizes of academic libraries with a variety of roles (selection, collection development, e-resources management and acquisitions).  UC PRess consultants, October Ivins and Judy Luther, librarians who work with publishers and vendors, will conduct the sessions.  Each session will be held from noon until 2:00 pm, with the discussion occurring from 12:15 to 1:15.

Sunday, 6/26:  Homewood Suites by Hilton, 40 E. Grand (@State St.)

Monday, 6/27:  Hotel Inter-Continental, 505 N. Michigan Ave.

Understanding the needs and preferences of our library customers is critical to our decisions and an important part of this study.  We are interested in understanding your library's policies regarding electronic content and archiving; current and projected budget conditions; and participation in consortia and related environmental factors. We are also interested in your feedback on a number of the pricing models that we will be considering. For a list of titles please visit the Journals home page: http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/

Contacts

Anna Fleming
aaf@press.uchicago.edu
Library Relations Manager
University of Chicago Press
Journal Division

(Ms.) October Ivins, MLS
Digital Content and Access Solutions
telephone 781-793-9283 (EST)
october.ivins@mindspring.com

ABA Communications Lawyer Now on LexisNexis

Serves as a clearinghouse of information on programs related to communications and media law for lawyers and concerned laypersons.  Each issue features three or four detailed scholarly articles about: First Amendment issues; Telecommunications; Print; Broadcasting; Media Insurance Law; Newsgathering; and news about Forum-related activities.  Also included is an analytical report of recent Supreme Court decisions and a bibliography of recent publications of interest to media lawyers.

• Library:  ABA
• File:  COMMLW
• Source Selection Hierarchy:  / Area of Law - By Topic / Construction / Legal News
  OR
  / Secondary Legal / American Bar Association (ABA) / ABA Journals

Opening: Law Firm Librarian, Davenport, Iowa

Lane & Waterman LLP, a 40 attorney law firm established in 1854 and located in Davenport, Iowa, has an immediate position available for a Solo-Librarian. The firm's clients range from multi-national, Fortune 500 corporations to local enterprises of all sizes. Litigation clients retain Lane & Waterman in cases ranging from multi-million dollar lawsuits to small claims actions. The firm represents a major media company, financial institutions, utilities, railroads, municipalities, property and casualty insurers, school districts, colleges and universities, health care providers, tax-exempt organizations, manufacturers, real estate developers and contractors.

Responsibilities include, but are not limited to:

• Perform reference and research using print & electronic sources, both free and pay-for use, on legal and non-legal topics
• Maintain library catalog as well as databases of expert witnesses and brief bank information
• Maintain collections of publications in library, including some loose leaf filing, and expert witness information
• Perform original and copy cataloging on publications as well as for documents on expert witnesses and for the brief bank
• Instruct and assist attorneys and staff in the use of print & electronic resources
• Develop and maintain firm's website including content, creative design and graphic identity and library's portion of intranet
• Receive and route daily mail
• Coordinate payment of attorneys dues and registrations in professional organizations and state disciplinary commissions
• Coordinate notary memberships at firm
• Coordinate attorney listings in professional directories
• Procure and approve library material in consultation with chair of the library committee

Knowledge of basic workings of internet and search engines, e.g., Boolean logic, and MS Office is a must. Knowledge of Westlaw, MS FrontPage (or other web authoring program) and WS_FTP Pro (or other FTP program) is desirable. Knowledge of InMagic's DB/Textworks or relational databases is desirable.

Please send resume, cover letter, and salary history by email or fax to:

Stanley J. Kabat
Administrator
Tel: 563.333.6600
Fax: 563.324.1616
Email: skabat@L-WLaw.com

LANE & WATERMAN LLP
Established 1854
220 North Main Street, Suite 600
Davenport, Iowa 52801-1987
Tel: 563.324.3246
www.L-WLaw.com

Teaching Students to Read like a Lawyer

Reading like a Lawyer by Ruth Ann McKinney (Professor of law at University of North Carolina School of Law)

304 pp | 2005 | ISBN 1-59460-032-5 | paper |$28.00
Teacher's manual available

Book Description: The ability to read law well is a critical, indispensable skill that can make or break the academic career of any aspiring lawyer. Fortunately, the ability to read law well (quickly and accurately) is a skill that can be acquired through knowledge and practice. The sooner the student masters these skills, the greater the rewards.

Using seven specific reading strategies, reinforced with hands-on exercises at the end of each chapter, this book shows students how they can read law efficiently, effectively, powerfully, and confidently.

Table of Contents and Introductory Material (pdf)

The sad truth is that if your law school isn't ranked in the top 25-30, many of your students may need this book. Recommended for Legal Research & Writing courses that strive to teach more than how to write a canned memo. Strongly recommended for all academic support programs (wouldn't it be more positive to call these programs "academic success programs"?). Also recommend as optional reading for Advanced Legal Research courses in institutions where law librarians are not teaching the research component of the 1L Legal Research & Writing course.

Thanks to the Law School Academic Blog for the tip.

The Law School Academic Blog is one of the Law Professor Blogs Network's newer members. It started publication in February. The blog's editors are Dennis Tonsing, Dean of Students and Academic Support Program Director at Roger Williams, and Ellen L. Swain, Assistant Professor of Law and Director of the Academic Success Program at Vermont Law School.

Yahoo to Peer into Lexis-Nexis, Among Others

CNET News is reporting that Yahoo started testing searches that would look into subscription based databses.  Among those listed in the story was Lexis-Nexis.  Users would have to have subscriptions to get deeper into the search results.

Mark Giangrande, DePaul Law Library

Oxford Scholarship Online Hosts ALA Discussion Group Meeting,

Source: Oxford Scholarship Online

Oxford University Press invites you to a Discussion Group on the future of Oxford Scholarship Online and the digital scholarly monograph. This meeting will take place in the Sheraton Chicago Hotel on Sunday, June 26, 12pm - 1:30, lunch will be provided, and there will be a $25 BN.com gift certificate for all attendees.

OUP invites acquisitions and collection development librarians to discuss purchasing and selection of e-books and/or scholarly monographs. You will also be among the first to see the unveiling of a new purchase model pricing for Oxford Scholarship Online, previously available only by subscription.  This is your chance to help us shape our future selling models so they meet the needs of libraries. The discussion will also focus on approval programs, and how they fit in for digital monographs, purchasing print and online versions, digital scholarly monograph usage, faculty issues, and more.

Registration by June 21: To register for this session, please e-mail carrie.hess@oup.com with your name, title, institution name, address, and email address by June 21st. Please stop by Oxford Scholarship Online's ALA Booth #3001 for a demo of what's new with Oxford Scholarship Online or to ask any questions about our print or online publications. Space is limited

Tabbed Browsing Comes to IE

Install the MSN Toolbar if you want tabbed browsing in Internet Explorer. I've giving it a test run right now so I don't have much to say it.  I do, however, agree in principle with Pandia Search World's criticism that you may get more than what you bargained for by installing it.

{The MSN Toolbar] works nicely and you have some convenient options: You can click a toolbar button to have all links open in new tabs and you can save a set of tabs.

[BUT] [t]rue to form, Microsoft does not leave it at that. You also get Windows Desktop Search. This is not a bad tool, but we already have a desktop search tool. (me too) Besides, the default toolbar installation makes all kinds of little changes to the Windows user interface. (yup)

Also, Windows Desktop Search puts a search box in the deskbar. When browsing, the actual browser window is getting smaller as both the toolbar and the tabs take up space taking up valuable desktop space. (agreed)

All of this leaves the user in the middle of another battle in the war for the desktop. This is all rather more than we bargained for when we set out to enable our Internet Explorer for tabbed browsing. Perhaps we'll just stick to Firefox. (ditto)

I have a hunch I will be removing this program but perhaps that's just me. Go ahead and give the MSN Toolbar a try. It's listed in the "Add/Remove Programs" function of Windows XP Pro's Control Panel so it shouldn't be difficult to trash.

LexisNexis Summer Associates Virtual Toolkit

From E-LawLibrary Weblog:

As it has done for the past few years, the LexisNexis Librarian Relations Group has prepared a Toolkit for information professionals to help summer associates.  A few of the short guides to LexisNexis legal research included in the Toolkit are below:

+The LexisNexis Services Quick Reference
+Shepard's Quick Reference
+Guide to Cost-Effective Research
+Table of Contents Resources
+LexisNexis Headnotes

Ron Jones, Univ of Cincinnati Law Library

Freedom to Read Amendment Passes by 238 - 187 Vote

AALL's Mary Alice Baish reports:

Victory!  In a vote that sends a clear message to the Bush administration that Section 215 of the USA Patriot Act needs to be amended to protect Americans' right to privacy, the House passed Rep. Bernie Sanders' (I-VT) Freedom to Read Amendment to the Commerce, Justice, State (CJS) Appropriations Bill by a vote of 238 - 187. The Sanders amendment cuts Justice Department funds for bookstore and library searches under Section 215 of the USA Patriot Act. On Tuesday, the Bush Administration had warned that it would veto the House Appropriations Bill if it included any amendments that would weaken the Patriot Act, as reported by the Washington Post.

The vote represents a significant victory for Sanders and the many free speech groups and civil liberties advocates, including the Campaign for Reader Privacy, who believe that Section 215 is a dangerous erosion of constitutional rights.

"This victory clearly shows that you can fight city hall and win, and demonstrates the enormous power of booksellers to influence public policy," said ABA COO Oren Teicher. "We'd like to congratulate and thank Rep. Sanders, as well as booksellers and all those who participated in the Campaign for Reader Privacy. As was said at ABA's Celebration of Bookselling 10 days ago, America's readers have never had a better friend or stronger supporter than we have in Bernie."

While the victory was significant, Teicher stressed that today's vote does not mean the fight to amend Section 215 is over. "The battle will continue as Congress looks to reauthorize 215 and the other sunsetting provisions of the Patriot Act at the end of this year," he said. "We need to redouble our efforts, and we urge booksellers to continue to collect signatures on reader privacy petitions and to contact their congressional representatives to ask them to support an amendment to Section 215 to protect readers' First Amendment rights."

The debate prior to the vote was an intense one, with those in favor of the amendment emphasizing that civil liberties do not have to be sacrificed for the sake of security and those opposed to the amendment warning that it would give terrorists a safe haven in bookstores and libraries. "This amendment seeks to build a sanctuary for terrorists," declared Tom Feeney (R-FL), "that's all it does."

However, Butch Otter (R-ID) retorted that, like any former prosecutor who worked for the government, "my colleague seems frustrated by the Constitution."

And Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) cautioned, "It's time to remember where we come from as a nation . a nation that stands up for civil liberties!"

In conclusion, Sanders stressed that, not only are the American Library Association and ABA in favor of amending Section 215, but that "seven states in America have gone on record expressing serious concerns" regarding the provision. Furthermore, he continued, hundreds of thousands of citizens have informed their representatives that they are concerned about Section 215, as well.

For more information about the Campaign for Reader Privacy, go to http://www.bookweb.org/read/7679.

A Quick Look at The US Conference of Mayors Website

The US Conference of Mayors website does all the right things for its members and the general public. In the site, you will find issue-oriented legislative and regulatory coverage, archived webcasts, press releases, information about current business initiatives, reports and publications, and directory information.

I personally found the directory information to be very useful:

• There is a database searchable by mayor's last name, city, state, and population with a very helpful sort feature.
• You can locate the websites of most US cites using an interactive map. Just click on a state for a list of hyperlinked cities in that state.

Bookmark it!

A Quick Look at Chinacourt.org

The China Court Network (link to English edition; Chinese edition also online) includes laws, regulations (primarily commerce related), information about the Chinese judicial system and judicial news with links to Chinese media and Hong Kong legal sources. For the non-specialist, this may be the first resource to use for the Chinese judiciary. Perhaps also for the specialist since the Chinese Law Prof Blog posted this source for its readers.

The Chinese Law Prof Blog is one of the newest blogs in the Law Professor Blogs Network. The blog came online on May 31st of this year. Donald C. Clark, Professor of Law at George Washington University, is editor.

Web Source of International Tax Materials

Andrew Mitchel has published a web site with various international tax materials, including:

• Entity Classification Flowchart
• Over a Dozen Reorganization Flowcharts

Thanks to TaxProf Blog for the tip

Opening for Another Reference Librarian at Columbia

The Diamond Law Library at Columbia University has an opening for an entry-level Reference Librarian with a negotiable start date of approximately Spetember 1st, 2005. Reference Librarians provide general and in-depth reference service in Anglo-American, international and foreign law to faculty, students and others at the Law School Library; and share departmental administrative responsibilities with other reference librarians on a rotating basis. Responsibilities also include searching legal, bibliographic and other databases via the Internet and other sources; training law students and others in the use of legal materials and databases through the teaching of classes, the leading of tours, and one-on-one instruction; preparing bibliographies and instructional
materials; assisting with the coordination of interlibrary loan transactions; and other related duties. Reference Librarians share regular evening and weekend hours.

Requirements: JD and MLS from accredited institutions; reading knowledge of at least one foreign language or willingness to learn; experience with use of legal and non-legal electronic information resources, including Westlaw and LexisNexis; good communications skills; strong service orientation and organizational skills; high level understanding of digital information systems; and familiarity with developing and providing library services via the Web.

The salary of this  PC-I position  will be commensurate with experience and qualifications. Excellent benefits include assistance with University housing and tuition exemption for self and family.

For immediate consideration, please e-mail your resume to libjobs2@columbia.edu list the names, addresses and phone numbers of three references. You may also mail your resume to Human Resources, Box 18 Butler Library, Columbia University, 535 West 114th Street, New York, NY 10027.  Your subject line and/or cover letter must specify Job Search #70105012. Screening of applications will begin immediately.  Search will remain open no less than 30 days from the date of posting and until position is filled.

The Library will be conducting initial interviews at the AALL Annual Meeting in San Antonio, TX, from July 16 to July 19. 

Legal Recruiters for Law Librarians

The AALL Placement Committee has published a list of Legal Recruiters for Law Librarians. View the list.

Thanks to beSpacific for the tip.

Ron Jones, Unv Cin Law Lib

Opening: Executive Director, Mid-America Association of Law Libraries

The Mid-America Law School Library Consortium (MALSLC) seeks an Executive Director to manage the operations of the consortium and other related duties. MALSLC is a nonprofit organization incorporated in the state of Missouri which is open to academic law libraries of ABA-accredited law schools located in arkansas, Illinois (excluding the Chicago area), Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, and South Dakota. MALSLC is a member-driven organization that exists to meet the resource sharing needs of its members in accordance with its vision and mission statements, and to promote cooperation among member institutions. Further information about the consortium is available at http://www.aallnet.org/chapter/maall/malslc.htm.
 
 
POSITION. Executive Director, Mid-America Association of Law Libraries.
 
RESPONSIBILITIES. Responsible for providing vision and leadership in developing and furthering MALSLC's mission and strategic plan. Performs administrative activities including those relating to personnel, financial, and legal requirements. Develops budget and monitors expenditures. Works closely with and facilitates the functioning of MALSLC individuals, committees and other entities, and oversees to completion tasks and responsibilities which they are assigned. Represents MALSLC to and maintains effective relations with other entities. Investigates and brings external grant opportunities to the attention of the Board of Directors and develops grant proposals. Coordinates trials and licensing of electronic resources. Develops and maintains the MALSLC Web site. Plans and attends all regularly scheduled meetings of the Board of Directors. Complete job description available at http://www.aallnet.org/chapter/maall/malslc.htm.
 
QUALIFICATIONS. Required: ALA-accredited MLS degree. Excellent communication skills, both written and oral, with strong background in managing relationships. Ability to work independently and with multiple individuals
and organizations. Knowledge of business pricing models and negotiation. Appropriate technical skills. Preferred: Three to five years of library experience, preferably in an academic law library. Three years of management
or administrative experience, preferably in a library setting. Demonstrated familiarity with law, experience in a law-related setting, or both. Residence in the geographic region encompassed by MALSLC, although it is anticipated that most work will be conducted through e-mail, telephone, fax, and other technologically-based means.
 
SALARY. $20,000/year for half-time position
 
AVAILABLE. August 1, 2005. Priority will be given to applications received by July 10, 2005, but applications will continue to be considered until the position is filled.
 
TO APPLY. Applications will be accepted by mail or e-mail. A letter of application and résumé should be sent to:

Gary Gott
Chair, Mid-America Association of Law Libraries
Director of the Law Library and Associate Professor of Law
University of North Dakota School of Law
Thormodsgard Law Library
School of Law, Centennial Drive, Rm. 161B
Grand Forks, ND 58202-9004
(701) 777-2535
Fax: (701) 777-2217
gdg@law.und.edu

EFF Legal Guide for Bloggers

Read it!

UT Hacker Faces Six-year Prison Term

The Austin Business Journal is reporting that a former University of Texas student Christopher Andrew Phillips of Houston faces up to six years in prison after a federal jury convicted him in connection with a computer-hacking case that rocked UT.

A Guide to the U. S. Federal Legal System

From the Hauser Global Law School Program at the New York University School of Law Library:

"This guide was originally prepared to be added with similar guides for legal research of many foreign jurisdictions. The intended audience was global in scope and one without access to the printed sources and fee-based databases in American federal law. Since its first publication I have come to realize that the audience includes many internet users who require reliable legal sources through publicly accessible web-based databases. Many of the materials here are recent and not comprehensive in scope and date coverage. The guide is not intended to supplant traditional sources of legal research.  It is my hope that it serves as an introduction to the field and leads the user to a more comprehensive exploration of American federal law."

Check out the guide.

Ron Jones, Univ of Cincinnati Law Library