Law Librarian Blog

New Database from the National Center for State Courts

Check out CourTopics, the NCSC court information database, features in-depth information on court-related topics.  Features include Resource Guides, Overviews, Frequently Asked Questions, State Links, and much more.  [RJ]

Prestatehood Legal Materials to Receive Andrews Award

AALL has announced that Prestatehood Legal Materials: A Fifty-State Research Guide, Including New York City and the District of Columbia has been selected to receive the Joseph L. Andrews Bibliographical Award. The award honors the work of the book’s editors, Michael Chiorazzi and Marguerite Most, and that of 69 individual authors. Prestatehood Legal Materials is a two-volume 1,500-page compilation of bibliographic essays and annotated bibliographies, which identify the sources of law for colonial and territorial jurisdictions prior to statehood. The thorough footnotes and comprehensive index make it an effective research tool.

Great choice! [JH]

Alliance for Justice Mounts Multimedia Campaign to Restore Habeas Corpus

Visit website: Defend Habeas

Read the fact sheet: Habeas Corpus: The Restoration of a Fundamental Right

Read the blog: Insider Scoop

Read Seton Hall Law Prof Mark Denbeaux's statement before the Senate Armed Services Committee: The 14 Myths of Guantanamo

Sign: The Petition to Restore Habeas Corpus

View the video:

Tough Times at Whitter Law School

Whitter Law School reportedly just lost a court decision attempting to revoke its probationary status by the ABA. Once fully accredited, the School was placed on probationary status because of low bar examination pass rates in California. Details on Adjunct Law Prof Blog. [JH]

Legal Wikis Are Bound to Wow You

Interesting article from Law.com:

"The engine driving collaboration on the Web is a site known as a wiki, from the Hawaiian word for fast. Attorney Robert Ambrogi tracks innovative and intriguing ways that wikis are wowing the legal profession -- from collaboratively written Web books to virtual volumes of legal research."

Includes a list of legal wikis. [RJ]

Opening: Foreign, Comparative & International Law Librarian, Stanford Law School

The Foreign, Comparative and International Law (FCIL) Librarian is part of the team to support the Law School’s foreign, comparative, and international law curriculum and programs, and will be the key FCIL resource for students, faculty, staff and other users of the library. This is a senior position within the library, and contains aspects of both technical and information services. This position reports to the Library Director.

The FCIL librarian’s responsibilities will include the following:

•Provide all levels of reference and research services, specializing in reference assistance in the areas of foreign, comparative and international law to all users of the Law Library.

•Collaborate with faculty, staff, students and librarians to build a useful, dynamic collection of FCIL resources, in both print and electronic formats.

•Advise and provide international studies research guidance to Law School and undergraduate international students, and students interested in international law.

•Serve as the library’s FCIL liaison with faculty, students, LLM students, SPILS (Stanford Program in International Legal Studies), foreign visitors and others. Provide individualized research assistance to these groups.

•Staff the library reference desk and provide general assistance, in addition to specialized services. Also may be called upon on occasion to staff the library loan desk and provide basic loan desk services there.

•Work closely with the clinical programs, interdisciplinary program groups and research centers, providing individualized research assistance and developing training programs focusing on foreign and comparative law sources.

•Work on projects as assigned by the Library Director or Deputy Director.

Qualifications

J.D.or its foreign equivalent, and an MLS or its foreign equivalent. Relevant experience and knowledge of FCIL research. Fluent in English and a working knowledge of at least one other foreign language. Demonstrated excellent customer services and interpersonal skills. Must be able to excel in a collegial environment in which service to faculty and students is heavily emphasized. Must be self-motivated and possess a willingness to offer the highest level of reference and research services in support of the school’s research mission.

To learn more or to apply, please visit the Stanford Jobs website at http://jobs.stanford.edu/ and search for job # 25271.

PC World's 100 Best Products for 2007

Heading up the list are:

1. Google Apps Premier Edition
2. Intel Core 2 Duo 
3. Nintendo Wii R
4. Verizon FiOS V
5. RIM Blackberry 8800
6. Parallels Desktop
7. Pioneer Elite 1080p PRO-FHD1
8. Infrant Technologies ReadyNAS NV Check
9. Apple Mac OS X 10.4 "Tiger"
10. Adobe Premiere Elements 3

Parallels Desktop? Infrant Technologies ReadyNAS NV Check? Pretty geeky. A little further down the list, you'll find more items "for the rest of us," including:

22. Kayak, a great travel website my wife using often.

24.  New York Times Times Reader

30. Zoho, a fantastic online Ajax-based spreadsheet, word processing, presentation software and much, much more.

Check out the PC World article for the entire list. [JH]

Wasserstein Family Gives $25 Million to Harvard Law School for Academic Center

From the press release:

The Wasserstein family has made a $25 million gift to Harvard Law School to support construction of Wasserstein Hall, the new academic center of the Harvard Law School campus, Dean Elena Kagan announced today. The gift is the second biggest in the Law School’s history.

...

The Wasserstein family has been a longtime supporter of the Law School, especially its public interest activities. In 1990, the family established the Wasserstein Fellows Program, which brings public interest lawyers to campus to meet with and mentor current students. In 1996, the family endowed the Morris Wasserstein Professorship of Public Interest Law, now held by Professor Elizabeth Bartholet, in honor of Morris Wasserstein, a businessman, inventor and philanthropist.

As a result of the new Wasserstein gift, the Law School’s current "Setting the Standard" campaign has now raised more than $342 million. The campaign will be completed in June 2008, and is expected to exceed its ambitious $400 million goal.

Editor's Note: Good things happen to good law schools. Great things happen to great ones. [JH]

Professional Reading: Glut: Mastering Information Through the Ages

Glut: Mastering Information Through the Ages
by Alex Wright

List Price: $27.95
Hardcover: 296 pages
Publisher: Joseph Henry Press (June 2007)
ISBN-10: 0-309-10238-3
ISBN-13: 978-0-309-10238-4 
Order: The National Academies Press or Amazon or Wal-Mart(!)

Interview with the Author | Author's Blog

Description: What do primordial bacteria, medieval alchemists, and the World Wide Web have to do with each other? This fascinating exploration of how information systems emerge takes readers on a provocative journey through the history of the information age.

Today's "information explosion" may seem like an acutely modern phenomenon, but we are not the first generation nor even the first species to wrestle with the problem of information overload. Long before the advent of computers, human beings were collecting, storing, and organizing information: from Ice Age taxonomies to Sumerian archives, Greek libraries to Dark Age monasteries.

Today, we stand at a precipice, as our old systems struggle to cope with what designer Richard Saul Wurman called a "tsunami of data." With some historical perspective, however, we can begin to understand our predicament not just as the result of technological change, but as the latest chapter in an ancient story that we are only beginning to understand.

Spanning disciplines from evolutionary theory and cultural anthropology to the history of books, libraries, and computer science, writer and information architect Alex Wright weaves an intriguing narrative that connects such seemingly far-flung topics as insect colonies, Stone Age jewelry, medieval monasteries, Renaissance encyclopedias, early computer networks, and the World Wide Web. Finally, he pulls these threads together to reach a surprising conclusion, suggesting that the future of the information age may lie deep in our cultural past.

About the Author: Alex Wright is a writer and information architect whose articles have appeared in Salon.com, Harvard Magazine, the Christian Science Monitor and other national and regional publications. He has also led information architecture initiatives for IBM, Harvard University, Yahoo!, Sun Microsystems, the Internet Archive, California Digital Library and the Long Now Foundation, among others. Alex holds an M.S. in Library and Information Science from Simmons College, and a B.A. in English and American Literature from Brown University. He lives in San Francisco, California.

Justice O'Connor's Website on Courts is Under Construction

In a Fox News interview conducted by Chris Wallace Sunday, Justice Sandra Day O'Connor revealed that she is developing a website to introduce children to the American court system.

WALLACE: So what do you hope that this Web site, which I know you're still building — what will it accomplish?

O'CONNOR: Well, in many, if not most, high schools today, civics education is no longer required. And I don't know how long we can survive as a nation if we don't teach every generation how our government is structured and works.

I regard that as a very important thing for our public schools to teach. It's critical for every generation to learn it. You don't inherit that knowledge through the gene pool.

Indeed, when we got a Bill of Rights giving every citizen the right to due process of law, to freedom of speech, and freedom of religion and so on, the only way that can be enforced is to give courts the power to overturn actions by the legislative or executive branch that impinge on those freedoms. And that's how it has to be enforced.

So if you start imposing sanctions and punishment on judges for particular decisions within their jurisdiction, we have a problem.

WALLACE: But some of the critics would come back to you and say the reason we're critical, the reason we want to put these restrictions on, is because judges are overstepping their bounds.

O'CONNOR: Well, that's fine. They're free to say that. But to take a particular judge and try to impeach them for some decision, or take other sanctions of that nature, goes clearly against the constitutional structure. We don't do that.

What we're going to try to do is to create an interactive program that will be found on the Web site, on one's computer, and make it fun so that the student using it can play the role of judge and decide an actual issue, and then compare it with what might actually have happened.

I mean, there are going to be all kinds of ways to use this so that the learning process will be engaging and fun.

I'm pretty certain this is a first for one of the Supremes but you never know about Justice Scalia ... he may be blogging on golf or hunting or hunting golfers.

Hat tip to Mitchell Rubinstein, editor of the Law Professor Blogs Network's latest blog, Adjunct Law Prof Blog. Check out Mitch's blog! [JH]

Three to Receive AALL's Marian Gould Gallagher Distinguished Service Award

AALL has announced that Carol Billings, Roger Jacobs, and Cossette Sun, three longtime and respected law librarians and AALL members, have been selected to receive the Marian Gould Gallagher Distinguished Service Award in 2007 for their dedication to the profession and to AALL.

The Distinguished Service Award was established in 1984 to recognize extended and sustained service to law librarianship, for the exemplary service to the Association, or for contributions to the professional literature. The award was renamed the Marian Gould Gallagher Distinguished Service Award in 1990.

Congratulations to all. [JH]

USTR's Special 301 Report for 2007 Points Finger at Russia and China

The "Special 301" Report is an annual review of the global state of intellectual property rights (IPR) protection and enforcement, conducted by the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) pursuant to Special 301 provisions of the Trade Act of 1974 (Trade Act). The 2007 Special 301 review process examines IPR protection and enforcement in 79 countries. Following extensive research and analysis, USTR designates 43 countries in this year’s Special 301 Report in the categories of Priority Watch List, Watch List, and/or Section 306 Monitoring status. From the report:

With respect to Russia, the Special 301 Report describes the Bilateral Market Access Agreement between the United States and Russia, concluded in November 2006, which includes a letter setting out important commitments that will strengthen IPR protection and enforcement in Russia. Under the terms of the agreement, Russia will take action to address piracy and counterfeiting and further improve its laws on IPR protection and enforcement. The agreement sets the stage for further progress on IPR issues in ongoing multilateral negotiations concerning Russia’s bid to enter the WTO. This year’s Special 301 Report also continues heightened scrutiny of Russia by maintaining Russia on the Priority Watch List and announcing plans for an Out-of-Cycle Review.

With respect to China, this year’s Special 301 Report describes the United States’ plan to maintain China on the Priority Watch List and to continue Section 306 monitoring, as well as to pursue World Trade Organization (WTO) dispute settlement with China on a number of IPR protection and enforcement issues. In addition, the United States is reporting on IPR protection and enforcement in China in the section entitled "Special Provincial Review of China," following an unprecedented special provincial review conducted over the past year. The United States will be monitoring closely China’s and Russia’s IPR activities throughout the coming year.

In addition to China and Russia, the Special 301 Report sets out significant concerns with respect to such trading partners as Argentina, Chile, Egypt, India, Israel, Lebanon, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine, and Venezuela.

[JH]

“Net Neutrality,” Non-Discrimination

Interesting paper from the NET Institute:

"This paper discusses and evaluates the implication of a number of these schemes on prices, profits of the network access providers and those of the complementary applications and content providers, as well as the impact on consumers. We also discuss an assortment of anti-competitive effects of such price discrimination, and evaluate the possibility of imposition of net neutrality by law."  [RJ]

The Myths of Ms. JD

In Career Coach: The Myths Of Ms. JD [free subscription to New York Lawyer required] five myths about being "legally female" are debunked by Gail Cutter. They are

1. Things are getting better.
2. Women don't want to stay at big firms.
3. Women want other women as mentors.
4. "Mommy Track" solves the parenting dilemma.
5. There's nothing one person can do.

File under "depressing." [JH]

Opening: Desktop/Server Specialist, Cleveland-Marshall College of Law

Title:  Desktop/Server Specialist (SEIU Represented)
Department:  Cleveland-Marshall College of Law at Cleveland State University.
Deadline:  June 8, 2007

Grade: 4T
Salary Range: Commensurate with experience.
Starting Date: ASAP

Duties:
Provides software, hardware and technical support and training to faculty, staff, and students of the College of Law. Provides assistance and advice in the use of classroom technology. Assists network administrators in routine server maintenance. Interacts professionally with all internal and external customers using strong interpersonal skills.

Minimum Qualifications:
Associate's degree in Engineering, Computer Science or equivalent vocational/technical training or A+ certification OR two years of progress toward a bachelor's degree in Engineering, Computer Science or related field OR two years equivalent work experience in the provision of PC and technology support, including experience troubleshooting computer hardware and software. Work exposure to a computer network environment. Experience working with Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP and MSOffice Suite. Excellent interpersonal, written and oral communication skills and the ability to work effectively with a wide range of constituencies in a diverse community.

Preferred Qualifications:
Familiarity with streaming media and DVD authoring. Working knowledge of Linux platform. Experience scripting in HTML and PHP.

Application Requirements:
Submit a letter of application, resume, names and telephone numbers of three professional references, to: David Genzen, Director, Technology Operations, Cleveland State University, Cleveland-Marshall College of Law, 2121 Euclid Avenue, LL 110, Cleveland, OH 44115-2214.

Associate Justice Stevens, 31 Years on the Job and Still Going Strong

Check out the Washington Post article about Associate Justice Stevens. The article observes that "in a matter of months, the 87-year-old from Chicago could become the second-oldest justice ever to serve on the court, and earlier this year he moved into 10th place on the list of longest-serving justices." [JH]

Professional Reading: Wireless Net Neutrality

Columbia Law Prof Tim Wu has deposited Wireless Net Neutrality: Cellular Carterfone on Mobile Networks in SSRN. Here's the abstract:

Over the next decade, regulators will spend increasing time on the conflicts between the private interests of the wireless industry and the public's interest in the best uses of its spectrum. This report examines the practices of the wireless industry with an eye toward understanding their influence on innovation and consumer welfare.

This report finds a mixed picture. The wireless industry, over the last decade, has succeeded in bringing wireless telephony at competitive prices to the American public. Yet at the same time we also find the wireless carriers aggressively controlling product design and innovation in the equipment and application markets, to the detriment of consumers. Their policies, in the wired world, would be considered outrageous, in some cases illegal, and in some cases simply misguided.

CIA Relaunches Website

The redesigen CIA site is divided into seven categories:

• About CIA – Provides information on today’s CIA, the history of the CIA, the leadership of the CIA, virtual tours of CIA Headquarters and the CIA Museum, our “Strategic Intent” plan, site policies, and the Agency’s Vision, Mission and Values
• Careers – Provides information on careers, life at the CIA, diversity, student opportunities and military transition
• Offices of CIA – Highlights each of the directorates and many of the Agency’s independent offices, including the offices of the General Council, Public Affairs and Equal Employment Opportunity
• News & Information – Provides press releases and statements, speeches and testimony, CIA & The War on Terrorism, What’s New on CIA.gov and the Featured Story archive
• Library – Provides our key publications, including The World Factbook and World Leaders (Chiefs of State), as well as the Freedom of Information Act Electronic Reading Room, Center for the Study of Intelligence (which includes the popular Studies in Intelligence, Books and Monographs, and the Index of Declassified Articles), Kent Center Occasional Papers, and Reports
• Kids’ Page – An educational resource for parents, teachers and children; provides a simple overview on intelligence and the CIA, lesson plans for teachers, resources for parents, and games.
• Contact CIA – Provides details on how to contact the Central Intelligence Agency

The FOIA Electronic Reading Room section includes the following:

• Top Searches: The Frequently Requested Records section now lists the Top 25 Most Requested Documents and Top 25 Search Phrases.
• New Documents: Lists new documents added to the site by the end of the last available month.

Civil Rights Resource Guide

New resource from the Library of Congress:

"The digital collections of the Library of Congress contain a wide variety of material related to civil rights, including photographs, documents, and sound recordings. "  [RJ]

Cornell Law Library's InSITE Website Reviews

Reviews published in the April 30, 2007 issue of InSITE:

• LibraryLaw Blog
• National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges
• Scholars at Risk Network
• Sweatshop Watch
• Voices of Civil Rights

LibraryLaw Blog
LibraryLaw Blog is the blog companion to the website LibraryLaw.com  Created in 1997 by consultant Mary Minow, LibraryLaw.com focuses on legal issues of interest to libraries, such as copyright, privacy and the First Amendment.  LibraryLaw Blog discusses these and other issues, with contributions by fellow bloggers Peter Hirtle, Raizel Liebler, and Susan Nevelow Mart.  Powered by Bloglet, LibraryLaw.com is archived back to July 2006 and is syndicatable to your favorite news reader.  Blog entries are categorized by topic, and the site is searchable via Google.  The entries are nicely fleshed out and developed; posts consist of full paragraphs of original content, and aren’t just lists of links to other blogs.  LibraryLaw Blog’s contributors post daily, sometimes more often.  User comments are welcome. [BWK]

National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges
Based at the University of Nevada at Reno, the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges (NCJFCJ) is dedicated to improving courts and justice systems practices, as well as raising awareness of the core issues that impact many children and families in the United States.  The NCJFCJ focuses on issues such as "child abuse and neglect," "family violence," "juvenile delinquency," "domestic relations," and "substance abuse."  These issue sections contain links to the Council's current and past projects, topical news, and the NCJFCJ's related publications.  Legal researchers will appreciate the Council's publications, especially the Model Code on Domestic and Family Violence, and the Model Courts documentation.  Some of these documents are available for free, but most are not available online.  The NCJFCJ website is searchable. [BWK]

Scholars at Risk Network
The Scholars at Risk Network (SAR), housed at New York University, is a global network of colleges and universities that responds to attacks on scholars.  SAR gets involved because of “those seeking power” who want “to limit access to information and new ideas” and restrict academic freedom while “repressing research, publication, teaching and learning.”  SAR provides sanctuary to threatened scholars, advocates on their behalf, and seeks to educate the public.  The website is part of the education mission, providing information about SAR and its activities, which are detailed on the site.  These include working to match threatened scholars with safe host institutions, providing resources for displaced scholars, promoting speaking events, and conducting research.  Of note is a table of displaced and at risk scholars indicating their degree, field, and risk status.  For detailed scholar profiles, users must become members of the SAR network. [MM]

Sweatshop Watch
Founded in 1995, Sweatshop Watch is a coalition of over 30 labor, community, civil rights, immigrant rights, women's, religious, and student organizations, and many individuals, committed to eliminating the exploitation that occurs in sweatshops. An affiliate of the AFL-CIO, Sweatshop Watch serves low-wage workers nationally and globally, with a focus on garment workers in California.  Visitors to Sweatshop Watch can access the organization’s FAQ, read recent news concerning sweatshops, and access Sweatshop Watch’s newsletters back to 2000. They can also learn about the history of the garment industry and sweatshops, order Information and Action kits, and consult the site’s glossary of commonly used terms.  The site is searchable. [BWK]

Voices of Civil Rights
Sponsored by the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP), the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights (LCCR) and the Library of Congress, the Voices of Civil Rights (VCR) project is dedicated to collecting and preserving thousands of personal stories, oral histories, and personal artifacts of the civil rights movement through a searchable online archive.  Visitors may search and browse the archive for submitted stories from those who witnessed, or were a part of, America's civil rights experience, or may submit their own, unpublished recollection.  The VCR staff also select certain accounts to highlight as a “Featured Story.”  Educators will appreciate the “History” section of the site, which features a civil rights timeline, a music video, a photo gallery, and an interactive quiz.  The “Civil Rights Today” section features advances in the contemporary civil rights movement.  While already a robust and fascinating web site, the Voices of Civil Rights project is due to be expanded extensively in the future. [BWK]

InSITE contributors: Julie Jones, Research Attorney, Brandy Kreisler, J.D., M.L.S., Matt Morrison, Research Attorney, Jean Pajerek (editor), Head of Technical Services & Information Management, all current or former members of the professional staff at Cornell Law Library.

About InSITE: InSITE highlights selected law-related Web sites in two ways: as an annotated publication issued electronically and in print; and, as a keyword-searchable database. The law librarians at Cornell evaluate potentially useful Web sites, select the most valuable ones, and provide commentary and subject access to them.

Digital versions of this information can be accessed via:

1. Searchable database or by browsing current and archived issues on the web: Click InSITE at www.lawschool.cornell.edu/library

2. E-mail subscription. Send the following request: SUBSCRIBE InSITE-L <YourFirstName> <YourLastName> to: listproc@cornell.edu

3. Readers can subscribe to the new InSITE RSS feed at http://www.lawschool.cornell.edu/library/RESOURCES/insite.htm

The contents of InSITE and any recommendations therein are the opinions of the authors and do not reflect the views of Cornell University. InSITE is copyright protected by Cornell Law Library, © 2007 Cornell Law Library. Permission to republish InSITE issues on Law Librarian Blog has been granted. For permissions, contact Jean M. Pajerek [jmp8@cornell.edu].

Cornell Law Library URL: http://www.lawschool.cornell.edu/library