Law Librarian Blog

Oh, Vista

Microsoft continues to have troubles getting Vista to catch on, apparently.  They have extended the life of WindowsXP yet again, this time till June '08.  [JJ]

Papers of Harry Blackmun available online

Lee Epstein at Northwestern University Law School has digitized a collection of former Justice Harry Blackmun's papers located at the Library of Congress.  Currently in the archive are preliminary pool memos and docket sheets from Blackmun's term on the Rehquist court, 1986-1993. Check it out!  [JJ]

Digital Counties Survey

From the Center for Digital Government:

"The Center for Digital Government (Center) has completed this year’s evaluation of America’s most digital county governments.  This year’s Digital Counties Survey found many counties using information technology in increasingly innovative ways and improving service to their citizens."

The first-place winners in each of the four population categories are:

• Montgomery County, Maryland  (500,000 or more population category)
• Richland County, South Carolina (250,000-499,999 population)
• Frederick County, Maryland (150,000-249,999 population)
• Charles County, Maryland & Nevada County, California (tie). (Less than 150,000 population).

View the full list of winners.  [RJ]

2008 Congressional Candidates Raise $239 Million in First Half of 2007

From the press release:

"2008 candidates for the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives reported raising a total of $239 million from January 1 through June 30, 2007, according to data compiled by the Federal Election Commission (FEC).  Candidates seeking election to the 33 U.S. Senate reported raising $80.6 million during the first six months of 2007.  Democratic Senate candidates raised $47.6 million while Republicans raised $33 million.  Candidates for the House of Representatives reported raising $157.8 million in the first six months of this year, with Democrats raising $94.2 million and Republicans raising $63.6 million.

Included in the following tables are fund raising totals for the top 50 House members in the following categories:total receipts, contributions from individuals, PAC contributions, disbursements, and cash on hand.Comparative charts and graphs are also included, along with summary statistical information for each Senate candidate.Financial activity for these Senate candidates in 2003-2004 and 2005-2006 is also included."  [RJ]

New Government Report on the Student-loan Industry

From the Executive Summary:

This report was prepared by the Chairman’s Staff of the Senate Health, Education, Labor
and Pensions Committee (“Committee”) and is the second report setting forth the
findings of an investigation into marketing practices in the Federal Family Education
Loan program (“FFEL”). The report addresses a discrete set of marketing practices,
some of which were addressed in the first report and others which are newly examined
here:

• Some lenders provided donations, services, private loan funds, and other
  benefits to colleges in exchange for preferential treatment with regard to
  student loans, including placement on the college’s preferred lender list;
• Some lenders made improper payments to schools, based on loan volume,
  and gained preferential treatment for FFEL loans in exchange for such
  payments;
• Two lenders entered into an improper agreement with a guaranty agency
  under which (1) the lenders paid the guaranty agency a marketing fee which
  violated the inducements prohibition and (2) the guaranty agency provided
  free personnel to schools in exchange for FFEL market share;
• Some lenders, schools and alumni associations entered into agreements that
  improperly constrained financial aid officers from providing unbiased and
  neutral financial advice to students.

See also, Kennedy outlines more apparent conflicts in new report on student-loan industry, The Chronicle (for subscribers)   [RJ]

Liberties Advocates Fear Abuse of Satellite Images

Interesting article from the N.Y. Times:

"For years, a handful of civilian agencies have used limited images from the nation's constellation of spy satellites to track hurricane damage, monitor climate change and create topographical maps.

But a new plan to allow emergency response, border control and, eventually, law enforcement agencies greater access to sophisticated satellites and other sensors that monitor American territory has drawn sharp criticism from civil liberties advocates who say the government is overstepping the use of military technology for domestic surveillance."  [RJ]

Friday Fun: Batgirl the Public Librarian

Here's the never aired 1966 pilot of Batgirl which takes place in Gotham Public Library. Did you know that Batgirl was a librarian?

Hat tip to Julie Jones, Cornell Law Library. [JH]

The Man Who Collects Macs

Jeremy Mehrle collects Apple computers, lots of them, at least 100 at last count. Great little video that's part of CNN's "Little Addictions: Personal Technology" series. [JH]

New Titles from Princeton UP

The academic year is underway and so is the release of new titles by university presses. Here's the latest releases from Princeton University Press, including several titles now in paperback for the first time.

• Constitutional Patriotism
• While Dangers Gather: Congressional Checks on Presidential War Powers
• True Faith and Allegiance: Immigration and American Civic Nationalism
• The Politics of Economic Leadership: The Causes and Consequences of Presidential Rhetoric
• Trust and Mistrust in International Relations
• Filibuster: Obstruction and Lawmaking in the U.S. Senate
• State Death: The Politics and Geography of Conquest, Occupation, and Annexation
• Deterrence by Diplomacy
• Nuclear Logics: Contrasting Paths in East Asia and the Middle East
• Reputation and International Cooperation: Sovereign Debt across Three Centuries

Constitutional Patriotism
Jan-Werner Muller

Cloth  | $19.95 | ISBN: 978-0-691-11859-8

Publisher's Blurb: Constitutional Patriotism offers a new theory of citizenship and civic allegiance for today's culturally diverse liberal democracies. Rejecting conventional accounts of liberal nationalism and cosmopolitanism, Jan-Werner Muller argues for a form of political belonging centered on universalist norms, adapted for specific constitutional cultures. At the same time, he presents a novel approach to thinking about political belonging and the preconditions of democratic legitimacy beyond the nation-state. The book takes the development of the European Union as a case study, but its lessons apply also to the United States and other parts of the world. To read the entire book description and the introduction, please visit: http://press.princeton.edu/titles/8570.html

While Dangers Gather
Congressional Checks on Presidential War Powers
William G. Howell & Jon C. Pevehouse

Paper | $27.95 | ISBN: 978-0-691-13462-8
Cloth  | $65.00 | ISBN: 978-0-691-12515-2

Publisher's Blurb: Nearly five hundred times in the past century, American presidents have deployed the nation's military abroad, on missions ranging from embassy evacuations to full-scale wars. The question of whether Congress has effectively limited the president's power to do so has generally met with a resounding "no." In While Dangers Gather, William Howell and Jon Pevehouse reach a very different conclusion. To read the entire book description or a sample chapter, please visit: http://press.princeton.edu/titles/8556.html

True Faith and Allegiance
Immigration and American Civic Nationalism
Noah Pickus

Paper | $22.95 | ISBN: 978-0-691-13396-6
Cloth  | $35.00 | ISBN: 978-0-691-12172-7

Publisher's Blurb: True Faith and Allegiance is a provocative account of nationalism and the politics of turning immigrants into citizens and Americans. Noah Pickus offers an alternative to the wild swings between emotionally fraught positions on immigration and citizenship of the past two decades. Drawing on political theory, history, and law, he argues for a renewed civic nationalism that melds principles and peoplehood. To read the entire book description or the introduction, please visit: http://press.princeton.edu/titles/8093.html

The Politics of Economic Leadership
The Causes and Consequences of Presidential Rhetoric
B. Dan Wood

Paper | $24.95 | ISBN: 978-0-691-13472-7
Cloth  | $60.00 | ISBN: 978-0-691-12977-8

Publisher's Blurb: The American president is widely viewed by the public and media as the nation's single most influential political and economic figure. But social scientists have often concluded that presidential words fall "on deaf ears" or have little lasting impact on policy or public opinion. Then why did Bill Clinton make 12,798 public references to the economy during his eight years in office compared with Harry Truman's mere 2,124 during his own two terms? Why George W. Bush's 3,351 remarks during his first term? Did all these words matter? The Politics of Economic Leadership is the first comprehensive effort to examine when, why, and how presidents talk about the economy, as well as whether the president's economic rhetoric matters. It demonstrates conclusively that such presidential words do matter. To read the entire book description or a sample chapter, please visit: http://press.princeton.edu/titles/8564.html

Trust and Mistrust in International Relations
Andrew H. Kydd

Paper | $22.95 | ISBN: 978-0-691-13388-1
Cloth  | $39.50 | ISBN: 978-0-691-12170-3

Publisher's Blurb: The difference between war and peace can be a matter of trust. States that trust each other can cooperate and remain at peace. States that mistrust each other enough can wage preventive wars, attacking now in fear that the other side will attack in the future. In this groundbreaking book, Andrew Kydd develops a theory of trust in international relations and applies it to the Cold War. Grounded in a realist tradition but arriving at conclusions very different from current realist approaches, this theory is the first systematic game theoretic approach to trust in international relations, and is also the first to explicitly consider how we as external observers should make inferences about the trustworthiness of states. To read the entire book description or the introduction, please visit: http://press.princeton.edu/titles/8091.html

Filibuster
Obstruction and Lawmaking in the U.S. Senate
Gregory J. Wawro & Eric Schickler

Paper | $24.95 | ISBN: 978-0-691-13406-2
Cloth  | $29.95 | ISBN: 978-0-691-12509-1

Publisher's Blurb: Parliamentary obstruction, popularly known as the "filibuster," has been a defining feature of the U.S. Senate throughout its history. In this book, Gregory J. Wawro and Eric Schickler explain how the Senate managed to satisfy its lawmaking role during the nineteenth and early twentieth century, when it lacked seemingly essential formal rules for governing debate. To read the entire book description or the introduction, please visit: http://press.princeton.edu/titles/8202.html

State Death
The Politics and Geography of Conquest, Occupation, and Annexation
Tanisha M. Fazal

Paper | $27.95 | ISBN: 978-0-691-13460-4
Cloth  | $60.00 | ISBN: 978-0-691-12986-0

Publisher's Blurb: If you were to examine an 1816 map of the world, you would discover that half the countries represented there no longer exist. Yet since 1945, the disappearance of individual states from the world stage has become rare. State Death is the first book to systematically examine the reasons why some states die while others survive, and the remarkable decline of state death since the end of World War II. To read the entire book description or the introduction, please visit: http://press.princeton.edu/titles/8552.html

Deterrence by Diplomacy
Anne E. Sartori

Paper | $19.95 | ISBN: 978-0-691-13400-0
Cloth  | $32.50 | ISBN: 978-0-691-11699-0

Publisher's Blurb: Why are countries often able to communicate critical information using diplomacy? Why do countries typically use diplomacy honestly, despite incentives to bluff? Why are they often able to deter attacks using merely verbal threats? International relations theory is largely pessimistic about the prospects for effective diplomacy, yet leaders nevertheless expend much time and energy trying to resolve conflicts through verbal negotiations and public statements. Deterrence by Diplomacy challenges standard understandings of deterrence by analyzing it as a form of talk and reaches conclusions about the effectiveness of diplomacy that are much more optimistic. To read the entire book description or the introduction, please visit: http://press.princeton.edu/titles/8092.html

Nuclear Logics
Contrasting Paths in East Asia and the Middle East
Etel Solingen

Paper | $26.95 | ISBN: 978-0-691-13468-0
Cloth  | $65.00 | ISBN: 978-0-691-13147-4

Publisher's Blurb: Nuclear Logics examines why some states seek nuclear weapons while others renounce them. Looking closely at nine cases in East Asia and the Middle East, Etel Solingen finds two distinct regional patterns. In East Asia, the norm since the late 1960s has been to forswear nuclear weapons, and North Korea, which makes no secret of its nuclear ambitions, is the anomaly. In the Middle East the opposite is the case, with Iran, Iraq, Israel, and Libya suspected of pursuing nuclear-weapons capabilities, with Egypt as the anomaly in recent decades. To read the entire book description and the introduction, please visit: http://press.princeton.edu/titles/8554.html

Reputation and International Cooperation:
Sovereign Debt across Three Centuries
Michael Tomz

Paper | $22.95 | ISBN: 978-0-691-13469-7
Cloth  | $60.00 | ISBN: 978-0-691-12930-3

Publisher's Blurb: How does cooperation emerge in a condition of international anarchy? Michael Tomz sheds new light on this fundamental question through a study of international debt across three centuries. Tomz develops a reputational theory of cooperation between sovereign governments and foreign investors. He explains how governments acquire reputations in the eyes of investors, and argues that concerns about reputation sustain international lending and repayment. To read the entire book description and a sample chapter, please visit: http://press.princeton.edu/titles/8558.html

Professional Reading: Book Industry and Book Circulation Trends

The September issue of First Monday includes Terje Hillesund's Reading Books in the Digital Age Subsequent to Amazon, Google and the Long Tail. Here's the abstract:

Presenting a wide range of literature, this article explores the state of art in book research, paying particular attention to John B. Thompson’s interpretation of digital transformations within the book industry, as depicted in Books in the Digital Age (2005). Claiming that Thompson’s analyses are one–sided, the article applies alternative perspectives and a model of a text cycle, contending that the diminishing role of paper in text production and text distribution makes the dominant position of printed books particularly vulnerable to advances in digital reading technologies.

See also the FCC's Douglas A. Galbi's study of US public library book circulation trends in SSRN. Here's the abstract:

Library book circulation per user has no strong, long-run trend. From 1856 to 1978, library users borrowed from U.S. public libraries about 15 books per user per year. From 1978 to 2004, book circulation per user declined approximately 50%. The growth of audiovisuals circulation, estimated at 25% of total circulation in 2004, accounts for about half of this decline. These figures depend on estimates and disparate samples of libraries with varying circulation and user accounting methods. Nonetheless, these figures are of sufficient quality to suggest that historically established institutions significantly stabilize borrowing behavior.

Strange but True: Any chance book reading will increase when people hear that scientists at Baltimore’s Center for Occupational and Environmental Neurology claim that the act of reading the written word results in less mental impairment from exposure to potentially toxic lead? [JH]

Cornell Law Library's InSITE Website Reviews

Reviews published in the September 17, 2007 issue of InSITE:

• AILA InfoNet
• American Constitution Society for Law and Policy
• Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law
• Reflink
• SIPRI: Stockholm International Peace Research Institute

[RJ]

AILA InfoNet

The American Immigration Lawyers Association is the professional organization for U.S. immigration lawyers, established to promote justice and to advocate for fair and reasonable immigration law and policy.  This site is intended for the benefit of its members, as well as for journalists, managers, and others who need legal information on immigration.  In addition to federal and state legislation and cases, there is a unique section of Featured Topics, such as "Workplace Enforcement," "Violence Against Women," and "Comprehensive Immigration Reform."  Under each topic, materials such as press kits, proposed legislation, practice pointers, analyses, and conferences are gathered.  For a significant fee, members of the Association can access AILALink, a fully searchable, web-based immigration law library of immigration laws, regulations, court decisions, treatises, forms, and much more.  This website is up-to-date and easy to use, with an advanced internal search engine and a growing portion of the documents available in Spanish. [PC]

American Constitution Society for Law and Policy

Founded in 2001, the American Constitution Society for Law and Policy (ACS) bills itself as “one of the nation’s leading progressive legal organizations.”  ACS is focused on ensuring that individual rights, equality, and access to justice occupy a central place in American law.  The website highlights ACS special projects and issue groups.  The special projects pages provide information on judicial nominations, as well as Supreme Court previews.  The issue groups are part of an ACS initiative, "The Constitution in the 21st Century."  The eight issue groups cover topics ranging from access to justice to separation of powers.  Within each issue group users will find news stories and links to relevant materials from the most recent ACS convention.  Under the "Separation of Powers" issue group, users will want to review the Index of Presidential Signing Statements, 2001-2007.  The index is published in PDF and for each act cites to the signing statement, indicates the provision objected to, and notes the reason for objection.  Also, each objection is assigned one or more categories from a set of twenty-three.  These categories include constitutional, doctrinal, structural, and other justifications for objection. [MM]

Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law

Stanford University’s Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law (CDDRL) strives to “promote innovative and practical research on the design and implementation of policies to foster democracy, to promote balanced and sustainable growth, and to advance the rule of law in countries undergoing dramatic change.”  Founded in 2002, the center supports specialized teaching, training, and outreach activities, as well as interdisciplinary research.  Program research focuses on five primary topics: evaluating international influences on democratic development, comparative democracy, democracy in Taiwan, economic performance, and the rule of law.  CDDRL’s publications include academic publications, working papers, reports and policy briefs, journal articles, books and book chapters, and op-ed pieces.  CDDRL also hosts frequent workshops and research seminars.  Select presentation transcripts are available. The site is keyword searchable. [JJ]

Reflink

Sponsored by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Reflink is a web portal of materials on refugee-related topics.  More than 300 links have been compiled and thematically organized to facilitate research and information searching on topics related to refugees and other persons of concern to UNHCR.  Users may access the portal through three main areas:  “Primary Sources,” “Subject-Based Sources,” and “Other Useful Sources.”  “Primary Sources” is broken down into subcategories such as “Academic Institutions” and “Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs).”  The “Subject-Based Sources” area contains sub-categories such as “Ethnic Groups and Minorities,” “Guerrilla and Terrorist Groups/Terrorism,” and “Children.”  A drawback of the site is that the individual pages are not date-stamped, so users cannot easily determine when the links were last verified.  One nice feature of the site is that a separate page has been created which contains the entire contents for easy downloading and printing. [BWK]

SIPRI: Stockholm International Peace Research Institute

SIPRI, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, was established in 1966 “to conduct research on questions of conflict and cooperation of importance for international peace and security…” The SIPRI home page is uncluttered and easily navigated. The News column on the left side, the Research column on the right, and the navigation bar across the top form a static frame for viewing selected information, so one is never lost. "News" refers to recent SIPRI papers, databases, surveys, and reports, all posted within the last three months.  "Research" focuses on arms control, chemical and biological weapons, and arms production, to name a few areas. Each Research page identifies the researchers, articulates the purpose of the project, provides background information and an overview of the research done, and links to relevant publications and websites. The links across the top lead to Databases, Library, and Publications. A notable database is "Facts on International Relations and Security Trends"(FIRST), a collaborative effort that pulls in data from research institutions around the world. FIRST is an integrated database that allows simultaneous searching of over 50 different sources covering international relations and security, each of which may also be searched individually. Finally, a refreshing feature allows users to search the SIPRI library catalogue, arrange to borrow materials, or buy publications. [JC]

InSITE contributors: J. Callihan, J. Jones, B. Kreisler, M. Morrison, J. Pajerek (editor)

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

Why It Will Be Hard to Close the Broadband Divide

From the Pew Internet & American Life Project: "When you look at the data on Americans without broadband at home, it suggests that it will take time to get these holdouts off the digital sidelines."   [RJ]

Opening: Assistant Director for Public Services, UNC Chapel Hill

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Kathrine R. Everett Law Library seeks to fill the position of Assistant Director for Public Services. The Assistant Director for Public Services is a permanent full time position that reports to the Deputy Director of the Law Library.

The Assistant Director for Public Services is primarily responsible for supervising all reference, interlibrary loan, and circulation operations and staff. These responsibilities require exercising professional judgment and having a clear understanding of the mission of the Law Library, which supports students, faculty, the University and the state.

The Assistant Director for Public Services is a member of the Law Library Management Team, which includes the Director, the Deputy Director, and the Associate Director for Technical Services. The Assistant Director supervises five Reference Librarians, the Access Services Librarian, the Evening Circulation Supervisor/Interlibrary Loan Manager, the Graduate Assistant and student assistants. The Assistant Director oversees the Faculty Liaison Program, Faculty Research Service and Faculty Information Delivery Service. The Assistant Director also oversees advanced legal research instruction, prepares reports, trains new public services personnel, participates in collection development, and coordinates all public services publications, including website content.

The ideal candidate will have experience in a large law library in a university setting. This person will demonstrate exceptional written and oral communication skills, as well as leadership and teaching skills. The position requires an individual with a commitment to service, exceptional organizational and time-management skills, strong supervisory skills, and a strong work ethic.

Chapel Hill, North Carolina is a university town in close proximity to Durham and Raleigh, the state capital, with nearby access to other major universities and a variety of social and cultural opportunities (http://www.unc.edu/campus/ch.html).

The University of North Carolina is a major research university enrolling 27,000 students supported by 22 libraries providing a rich environment for research and learning.  Patrons of the Kathrine R.
Everett Law Library, including 700 law students and a full-time law faculty of 47, are served by a professional staff of 12 librarians, one graduate assistant, a staff of 9, and a collection of over 520,000 volumes and volume equivalents. The Law Library benefits from close connections with the UNC School of Law, other campus libraries, the Triangle Research Library Network, and the UNC School of Information and Library Science. The Law Library has an experienced and team-oriented staff and a tradition of contributions to the profession and is poised to build on strong services to faculty, students and the public.

Qualifications:

Master’s degree in Library Science from an ALA accredited library school Juris Doctorate degree from an ABA accredited law school Five years Law Library reference experience Experience supervising librarians and staff strongly preferred Knowledge of legal research and legal publication trends Organizational ability and management skills and ability to work as part of a team Ability to interact positively with students, staff, faculty and the public

Compensation:

Competitive salary commensurate with education, skills, and experience

Applications will be accepted until position is filled. Review of applications will begin September 15, 2007.

To apply, submit a cover letter, a resume and a list of three references to:

Scott Childs, Deputy Director
Kathrine R. Everett Law Library
UNC School of Law
160 Ridge Road, CB 3385
Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3385

Email: schilds@email.unc.edu

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

Two Patriot Act Provisions Found Unconstitutional

Judge Ann Aiken of the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon yesterday found two Patriot Act provisions dealing with searches and intelligence gathering unconstitutional because they violate the Fourth Amendment protection against unreasonable searches and seizures. Text of opinion and order (pdf) [JH]

UConn Law Library Repairs to Cost $19 Million

The Hartford Courant is reporting that the University of Connecticut's law school library is so damaged by leaks and flaws in its granite facade that fixing it will cost $19 million. Repairs include stabilizing the the facade, reinstalling waterproofing and windows and replacing moldy walls and carpets. The 11-year-old library, on the UConn School of Law campus in Hartford, originally cost $24 million. [JH]

Professional Reading: Tamanaha on Legal Pluralism

St John's law prof Brian Z. Tamanaha has deposited Understanding Legal Pluralism: Past to Present, Local to Global in SSRN. Here's the abstract of this very interesting work:

Although it has not yet penetrated mainstream legal academia, the notion of legal pluralism is gaining momentum across a range of law-related fields. It has been a major topic in legal anthropology and legal sociology for about two decades, and is now getting attention in comparative law and international law. This recent convergence on the notion of legal pluralism is fueled by the apparent multiplicity of legal orders, from the local level to global level. There are village, town, or municipal laws of various types; there are state, district or regional laws of various types; there are national, transnational, and international laws of various types. In addition to these familiar bodies of law, in many societies there are more exotic forms of law, like customary law, indigenous law, religious law, or law connected to distinct ethnic or cultural groups. There is also an evident increase in quasi-legal forms, from private policing and private judging, to privately run prisons, to the ongoing creation of the new lex mercatoria, a body of transnational commercial law that is almost entirely the product of private law making activities.

These multiple, often uncoordinated, coexisting or overlapping bodies of law may make competing claims of authority; they may impose conflicting demands or norms; and they may have different styles and orientations. This potential conflict generates uncertainty or jeopardy for individuals and groups in society, who cannot be certain in advance which legal regime will be applied to their situation. It also creates opportunities for individuals and groups to strategically invoke or pit one legal order against another.

This article will lay out a framework to help examine and understand the pluralistic form that law increasingly takes today. Legal pluralism, it turns out, is a common historical condition. Part I of this article will portray the rich legal pluralism that characterized the medieval period, and it will describe how this pluralism was reduced in the course of the consolidation of state power. The article will then elaborate on new forms of legal pluralism that were produced in the course of colonization. These historical contexts will set the stage for contemporary legal pluralism, which combines the legacy of this past with more recent developments connected to the processes of globalization.

Part II of the article will focus on the academic discussion of legal pluralism. Although the notion of legal pluralism is gaining popularity, from its very inception it has been plagued by a fundamental conceptual problem: the difficulty of defining “law.” Debates over this conceptual problem have continued unabated for three decades. Moreover, just as the notion of legal pluralism has begun to take off, the theorist who contributed the most to its development announced that, owing to its insoluble conceptual problems, legal pluralism should be discarded. This turnabout is a fascinating intellectual story in itself. Part II will lay out a brief account of the conceptual problem that plagues legal pluralism and will indicate why it cannot be resolved. Scholars who invoke legal pluralism without an awareness of this conceptual problem and its implications risk building upon an incoherent and unstable foundation.

Finally, Part III will articulate an approach to contemporary legal pluralism that avoids the conceptual problems suffered by most current approaches, while framing the important features of legal pluralism. It is drawn from and combines the insights produced in legal anthropology, comparative law, international law, and globalization studies, in the hope that the framework can provide common ground for a cross-disciplinary focus on legal pluralism.

See also Paul Schiff Berman, Global Legal Pluralism, 80 Southern California Law Review 1155 (2007) [Available on NELLCO] [JH]

New Current Awareness Tool from the FEC

From the site: "FECMail offers subscribers personalized e-mail updates on the latest FEC news and information. Subscribers can choose to receive messages regarding a specific topic, entire categories of information, multiple categories or all subscription items. Topics include regulations, advisory opinions, news releases, campaign finance data, FEC conferences and more."  [RJ]

Library 2.0 Theory: Web 2.0 and Its Implications for Libraries

From the abstract of Jack Maness, Library 2.0 Theory: Web 2.0 and Its Implications for Libraries, Webology (June 2006):

This article posits a definition and theory for "Library 2.0". It suggests that recent thinking describing the changing Web as "Web 2.0" will have substantial implications for libraries, and recognizes that while these implications keep very close to the history and mission of libraries, they still necessitate a new paradigm for librarianship. The paper applies the theory and definition to the practice of librarianship, specifically addressing how Web 2.0 technologies such as synchronous messaging and streaming media, blogs, wikis, social networks, tagging, RSS feeds, and mashups might intimate changes in how libraries provide access to their collections and user support for that access.

[RJ]

ALA 2007 Conference Videos: Freedom to Read Litigation and Whistleblowing in the Post-9/11 Age

I hope law librarians find the following videos of ALA sessions of the Association's 2007 annual meeting of interest:

Freedom to Read Foundation: Status of Recent Litigation Affecting Libraries. Theresa Chmara, Freedom to Read Foundation (FTRF) Counsel, Jenner & Block, Washington, D.C., updated librarians on the status of litigation and non-litigation projects recently undertaken or monitored by the FTRF. She also provided practical information on how these court cases affect the daily operations of libraries. Cosponsored by ALA's Intellectual Freedom Committee and FTRF.

Paul Reveres or Benedict Arnolds: Whistleblowing in the Post-9/11 Age. Sibel Edmonds, President, National Security Whistleblowers Coalition, discussed being fired by the FBI in March 2002 for reporting shoddy work and security breaches that may have prevented the 9/11 attacks. She explained firsthand how government secrecy can be abusive and why defending whistleblowing is a free speech issue. Cosponsored by ALA's Intellectual Freedom Committee and the Committee on Legislation.

CLIR Seeks Public Comment Preservation in the Age of Large-Scale Digitization

The Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) seeks public comment on a white paper examining preservation issues relevant to large-scale digitization projects such as those being done by Google, Microsoft, and the Open Content Alliance. The paper, Preservation in the Age of Large-Scale Digitization, was written by Oya Rieger, Interim Assistant University Librarian for Digital Library and Information Technologies at Cornell University Library.

Hat tip to Free Government Information. [JH]