Law Librarian Blog

Sandra Day O'Connor on Saving Our Courts

Interesting article by Justice Sandra Day O'Connor in Parade.com.  [RJ]

CREW Report Detailing Senators' Use of Positions to Benefit Family Members

The Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) has released its first-ever analysis of the misuse of power by all members of the Senate to financially benefit their family members. The analysis covers the 2002, 2004 and 2006 election cycles. The new report, Family Affair - Senate names 87 senators from all 50 states: 42 Democrats, 43 Republicans and 2 Independents." 

And from the Senate's Virtual Reference Desk: Salaries of Members of Congress: A List of Payable Rates and Effective Dates, 1789-2008:

"From 1789 through 1968, Congress raised its pay 22 times using this procedure. Congressional salaries initially were $1,500. By 1968, they had risen to $30,000. Stand-alone legislation may still be used to raise Member pay, as it was most recently in 1982, 1983, 1989, and 1991, but two other methods — including an automatic annual adjustment procedure and a commission process — are now also available.

Under the annual adjustment procedure, Members are scheduled to receive a 2.8% adjustment in January 2009. Members originally were scheduled to receive a 2.7% increase in January 2008. The increase was revised to 2.5%, resulting in a salary in 2008 of $169,300, to match the percent increase in the base pay of General Schedule (GS) employees. By law, Members may not receive an increase greater than the increase in the base pay of GS employees. Congress voted to deny the scheduled January 2007 adjustment. Members previously received a pay increase (1.9%) in January 2006, increasing their salary to the rate of $165,200." 

[RJ]

"The Science of Search"

That's the title of this Legal Technology News article comparing e-discovery keyword searches against legal research keyword searches. 

The notion that lawyers are unqualified per se to concoct keyword searches is likely to shake some sensibilities. Lawyers believe themselves adept at keyword search in e-discovery because they've mastered keyword search in online legal research. The correlation is superficial at best. Unlike the crazy quilt of ESI, the language of reported cases is precise, consistent and structured. Misspellings are rare. Legal research is Disneyland. E-discovery is Baghdad.

The author, Craig Ball, stresses the complexity of keyword searches, the science behind it, and the need for search science as part of CLE.  I couldn't agree more, even for the "Disneyland" of legal research, although I wonder about his blanket statement that all attorneys have mastered keyword searching.  Lawyers do it alot, but I think their strategies and effectiveness vary quite a bit depending on training and experience.

Law schools teach the science and art of legal research when modern methods have all but eliminated the need to navigate the reporter system. Instead, students and lawyers must be afforded the means to master the art and science of digital information. We must dare to tread in these areas, not as fools but as professionals skilled in eliciting, testing and marshaling evidence wherever it may be found.

I've blogged before on the possible affinity between e-discovery and librarians.  Should law librarians be teaching e-discovery search techniques as well to advanced students?   It's an interesting article.  Check it out!  [JJ]

Friday Fun: A 1L Student's Ode to His Law Library

Well, he'll escape from the library soon enough...in 5 or 6 or 7 years from now.

Hat tip to Legal Writing Prof Blog. [JH]

Help Lawrence Lessig and Joe Trippi Change Congress

Volunteer watchdogs needed for Lessig-Trippi project, Change Congress.

Change Congress is a movement to build support for basic reform in how our government functions. Using our tools, both candidates and citizens can pledge their support for basic changes to reduce the distorting influence of money in Washington. Our community will link candidates committed to a reform with volunteers and contributors who support it.

Sounds like they need some librarians. [JH]

New Free Business Search Engine from Northern Light

Northern Light Search provides access to "business and industry news from thousands of hand-selected business news sites, leading business publications, industry authority blogs, regional newspapers, and national news sources." Formerly fee-based, a retooled free SE will offically launch in mid-April. Check out the beta version. Details at Information Today. Hat tip to LISNews. [JH]

Internet Crime Report: The Top Scams of 2007

New report from the Federal Bureau of Investigation:

"According to the 2007 Internet Crime Report, the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) received 206,884 complaints of crimes perpetrated over the Internet during 2007. Of the complaints received, more than 90,000 were referred to law enforcement around the nation, amounting to nearly $240 million in reported losses. This represents a $40 million increase in reported losses from complaints referred to law enforcement in 2006. All complaints received by IC3 are accessible to federal, state, and local law enforcement to support active investigations, trend analysis, and public outreach and awareness efforts." 

[RJ]

Alan Dershowitz: The Advocate and Scholar as Jew; the Jew as Advocate and Scholar

Martin Belsky (Akron) has posted his interesting think piece on controversal law prof Alan Dershowitz. Check out Alan Dershowitz: The Advocate and Scholar as Jew; the Jew as Advocate and Scholar in SSRN. Here's the abstract:

Professor Dershowitz has melded his Jewish identity with his academic scholarship and public advocacy. First, he has described in great detail the Jewish stereotype and challenged it - not for its content but for its negativity. In Chutzpah, he defines the Jewish stereotype, as boldness, assertiveness, a willingness to demand what it due, to defy tradition, to challenge authority, to raise eyebrows. He also recognizes that detractors define these sets of characteristics as unmitigated gall, nerve, uppityness, arrogance, hypocritical demanding.

Second, Dershowitz's religious heritage has infused his perspective and commentary on a variety of legal topics from criminal justice to professional responsibility, to constitutional law. Because of his Jewish, and particularly religious Jewish upbringing, he uses Biblical and Jewish commentary as sources of analogy and reference.

Third, he has written and spoken about the difference between a faith-based perspective and a faith-biased one. The American tradition is based on many religious traditions and has prided itself on protection of religious and other minorities. It has also rejected the control by any religious group, even if it is the dominant majority.

Fourth, he has indicated his unwavering support for the State of Israel [but not all its politics and leaders] and opposition to those who are not just critical but perhaps have biased and, in some cases, even anti-Semitic attitudes. It is in American and not just American Jewish interest that we support and understand the only real democracy in the region.

And finally, Dershowitz has assumed the role of popular translator. He wants to explain his Jewishness, his religion and other religions in a manner that, though scholarly, can be understood by a broad audience. He can use his visibility and access to convey his perspectives and concerns. He believes, from his meetings, from his research, from the letters he receives - from Jews, non-Jews and even anti-Semites - that he knows what is on the mind and souls of many Jews of all ages and that he has a unique window into the mind of the anti-Semite.

Professor Dershowitz has his critics - both in the academy and in the quasi and not so quasi public sphere. But he brings credibility to his arguments because of his legal skills - careful scholarship, articulate expression and sometimes overwhelming persistency. You may disagree with him, but prepared to refute his logic, facts, and citations.

Susan Westerberg Prager Named Sixth Executive Director of AALS

Former UCLA Law School Dean Susan Westerberg Prager has been named Executive Director and CEO of the Association of American Law Schools (AALS). Prager will become the sixth Executive Director of the AALS since its founding in 1900. Her appointment becomes effective September 1, 2008.

Professor Prager is a graduate of Stanford University and the UCLA School of Law, where she served as editor-in-chief of the UCLA Law Review.  She joined the UCLA faculty in 1972, became Dean a decade later, and served as dean from 1982-1998 - the longest tenure of any dean in UCLA law school history.  At the time Prager became Dean she was one of two female law Deans in the country.  Prager was a trustee of Stanford University for 14 years.  She chaired the board's Academic Policy Committee and was a Vice President of the Board.  She left UCLA in 1999 to become Provost at Dartmouth College, and recently was President of Occidental College in Los Angeles.  Prager is a longtime Director of the Pacific Mutual Holding Company, which owns Pacific Life Insurance Company.   Over the years she has been engaged in the national legal education community in a wide variety of ways, serving as AALS President in 1986.   She is Professor of History at Occidental College and the Arjay and Frances Fearing Miller Professor of Law Emeritus at UCLA.  Her research has focused on marital property law, and on California legal history.

Keys to Personnel Management

Two different takes today on how to encourage positive development in the workplace.  Marie Newman at OOTJ posts on the need to nuture the professional growth of lawyers (and librarians), and provides the text of a recent NY Lawyer article on providing constructive criticism and useful feedback. 

Over at law.com, advice is given to corporate counsel managers on combating negative attitudes and behaviors in the workplace, also applicable to libraries. 

General counsel are tagged as custodians of their companies' most crucial, yet most sensitive and volatile asset: its employees. Henry Ford saw them as one big headache, immune from any analgesic's curative powers: "Why is it that I always end up with a person, when all I really want is a pair of hands?" But it's a person you get, and if you believe people are of value, then the question becomes how to go about managing, motivating and inspiring them -- and, just as important, learning how to unlock their embedded value. Here's a guide on the do's and don'ts to reach that goal.

[JJ]

A Tale of Two Attorneys

Legal Blog Watch is all over this NY Law Journal article with two different takes on a three year study of work-life balance of New York attorneys.  From the article:

The committee's report, adopted unanimously by the Bar's House of Delegates on Saturday, concluded that being an attorney is an ever-more demanding profession in which practitioners are finding less time for families or for the citizenship activities that have been the traditional obligation of lawyers.

The committee worked for nearly three years on the report, which was based in part on nine invitation-only forums around the state.

The attorneys' responses, regardless of the number of years in practice, size of firm or practice setting, were consistent on one central point: "They all were having a very difficult time achieving a balanced life in the law," the study said.

Most attorneys told the committee they did not understand how demanding their jobs would be before entering the profession nor the stresses it would place on other aspects of their lives.

One contributing factor is technology. E-mail, BlackBerrys, cell phones and other devices make it possible for lawyers to be always on call to their firms and clients, Richardson said.

But it's not all bad news.  Despite the hard hours, the work remains rewarding for many:

Richardson, of Bond, Shoeneck & King in Syracuse, said attorneys overwhelmingly told the committee that they like practicing law and would enter the profession if they had it to do over again.

[JJ]

Access Denied, Definitive Analysis of Global Internet Filtering Policies

Access Denied provides the definitive analysis of government justifications for denying their own people access to some information and also documents global Internet filtering practices on a country-by-country basis. This is timely and important. --Jonathan Aronson, Annenberg School for Communication, University of Southern California

Access Denied: The Practice and Policy of Global Internet Filtering
Edited by by Ronald J. Deibert, John G. Palfrey, Rafal Rohozinski & Jonathan Zittrain.

List Price: $20.00
Paperback: 320 pages
Publisher: The MIT Press (February 29, 2008)
ISBN-10: 0262541963
ISBN-13: 978-0262541961

Product Description: Many countries around the world block or filter Internet content, denying access to information--often about politics, but also relating to sexuality, culture, or religion--that they deem too sensitive for ordinary citizens. Access Denied documents and analyzes Internet filtering practices in over three dozen countries, offering the first rigorously conducted study of this accelerating trend.

Internet filtering takes place in at least forty states worldwide including many countries in Asia and the Middle East and North Africa. Related Internet content control mechanisms are also in place in Canada, the United States and a cluster of countries in Europe. Drawing on a just-completed survey of global Internet filtering undertaken by the OpenNet Initiative (a collaboration of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School, the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto, the Oxford Internet Institute at Oxford University, and the University of Cambridge) and relying on work by regional experts and an extensive network of researchers, Access Denied examines the political, legal, social, and cultural contexts of Internet filtering in these states from a variety of perspectives. Chapters discuss the mechanisms and politics of Internet filtering, the strengths and limitations of the technology that powers it, the relevance of international law, ethical considerations for corporations that supply states with the tools for blocking and filtering, and the implications of Internet filtering for activist communities that increasingly rely on Internet technologies for communicating their missions.

Reports on Internet content regulation in forty different countries follow, with each country profile outlining the types of content blocked by category and documenting key findings.

Contributors: Ross Anderson, Malcolm Birdling, Ronald Deibert, Robert Faris, Vesselina Haralampieva, Steven Murdoch, Helmi Noman, John Palfrey, Rafal Rohozinski, Mary Rundle, Nart Villeneuve, Stephanie Wang, and Jonathan Zittrain

Professional Reading: Use of Legal Scholarship by Judges

Much has been made recently of the charge by federal judges that law reviews have become all-but-irrelevant to contemporary judicial decisionmaking, and that, as Second Circuit Judge Robert Sack put it, even when judges do use law reviews today, they use legal scholarship the same way drunks use lampposts - for support rather than illumination. Stephen Vladeck (American University Washington College of Law) considers the possible role that the ever-shrinking scope of judicial discretion may have on the ability of jurists today to rely upon legal scholarship in Law Reviews vs. the Courts: Two Thoughts from the Ivory Tower (SSRN). From the abstract:

Although the recent trend toward the cabining of judicial discretion cannot fully account for the extent to which judges are finding law reviews increasingly inaccessible, the essay suggests that far more attention should be paid to the effects vis-a-vis legal scholarship of this well-documented trend toward more rigid judicial decisionmaking.

Moreover, to whatever extent that there is a correlation between the decline of judicial discretion and the growing complaints that legal scholarship is irrelevant and inaccessible, the essay suggests that online companions, such as CONNtemplations [the online companion to the Connecticut Law Review] may help make legal scholarship more accessible to those in the best position to use it - to practitioners.

Torres and Guymon's Bar Exam/Bar Admission Annotated Bibliography

Arturo Torres, Associate Dean of Law Library and Computing, at Texas Tech School of Law and Texas Tech 2L Bryan J. Guymon have published an annotated bibliography of leading articles written about the bar examination and/or admission to the bar. The bibliography covers works published from 1998 to 2007 and appeared in the February 2008 issue of The Bar Examiner. The authors have graciously supplied a PDF that you can download here.

Hat tip to Amy Jarmon (Texas Tech), Law School Academic Support Blog. [JH]

New Law Titles from Cambridge UP

War and the Law of Nations by Stephen C. Neff

• A history of war, from an international law perspective, from Roman times to the present.

Fiscal Challenges by Elizabeth Garrett, Elizabeth A. Graddy, and Howell E. Jackson

• Explores the problems of budget policy and reform in Congress, on the state level, and within the European Union.

Constitutionalizing Economic Globalization by David Schneiderman

• Critical examination of the regime governing international economic relations in the realm of foreign investment.

International Law on the Left, edited by Susan Marks

• This volume of essays explores the contemporary relevance of Marxism to international law.

Webcast of Randall Kennedy Discussing His Sellout: The Politics of Racial Betrayal

Harvard law prof Randall Kennedy discussed his new book, Sellout: The Politics of Racial Betrayal, at a recent HLS event. To view the event's archived website, go to the School's press release. [JH]

Sellout: The Politics of Racial Betrayal
by Randall Kennedy

List Price: $22.00
Hardcover: 240 pages
Publisher: Pantheon (January 8, 2008)
ISBN-10: 0375425438
ISBN-13: 978-0375425431

Book Description: In the wake of his controversial national best-seller, Nigger: The Strange Career of a Troublesome Word, Randall Kennedy grapples brilliantly and judiciously with another stigma of our racial discourse: "selling out," or racial betrayal, which is a subject of much anxiety and acrimony in Black America. He atomizes the vicissitudes of the term and shows how its usage bedevils blacks and whites, while elucidating the effects it has on individuals and on our society as a whole.

Kennedy begins his exploration of selling out with a cogent, historical definition of the "black" community, accounting precisely for who is considered black and who is not. He looks at the ways in which prominent members of that community--Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice, and Barack Obama, among others--have been stigmatized as sellouts. He outlines the history of the suspicion of racial betrayal among blacks, and he shows how current fears of selling out are expressed in thought and practice. He offers a rigorous and bracing case study of the quintessential "sellout"--Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, perhaps the most vilified black public official in American history. And he gives is a first-person reckoning of how he himself has dealt with accusations of having sold out at Harvard, especially after the publication of Nigger.

Lucidly and powerfully articulated, Sellout is essential to any discussion of the troubled history of race in America.

About the Author: Randall Kennedy is the Michael R. Klein Professor of Law at Harvard University. He is a member of the bars of the District of Columbia and the Supreme Court of the United States, a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a member of the American Philosophical Association. His book Race, Crime, and the Law won the Robert F. Kennedy Book Award.

The Perfect Library Only Needs 110 98 Books

From classics and sci-fi to poetry and biographies, The Telegraph lists 110 titles for the perfect library. If you don't want any children's books in your library, the title counts can be reduced by 10.

Under the heading, "Books That Changed Your World" are two hippie classics, Robert M. Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and Richard Bach's Jonathan Livingston Seagull. The "Books That Changed the World" list is remarkably gloomy. It includes Thomas Hobbes' Leviathan and Niccolo Machiavelli's The Prince.

Neither "world changing" heading includes any religious Scripture. The closest to a religious title is St. Augustine's Confessions, listed under "Lives." Also listed under "Lives" is Alan Clark's Diaries (a notorious Tory MP, "his indiscreet memoirs detailed countless extra-marital affairs and character assassinations of colleagues.")

Let's see, subtract children's books and Clark's Diaries and that leaves 99 titles. I don't think many people will want to slog through Diderot's 35-volume L'Encyclopédie so the number is down to 98. [JH]

Passing of a Giant, Igor I. Kavass

Roy Mersky (Texas) reports that Igor Kavass passed away Sunday. An expert on international and comparative legal research, Igor Kavass served as Director of law libraries at Vanderbilt, Duke, Northwestern and Alabama. He was born in Riga, Latvia in 1932 and educated in Europe and Australia. He received his LL.B. in 1956 from the University of Melbourne, where he served as editor of the Melbourne Law Review. He briefly practiced law as a barrister and solicitor in Melbourne, Australia. Active in many professional organizations, Igor Kavass was President of the International Association of Law Libraries, 1976-1983, and served as chair of the Board of Directors at the International Institute for Legal Information

Igor Kavass spent much of his career identifying and obtaining treaties and agreements entered into by the United States since 1950 that have not yet been published in UST or TIAS, and assigning them a unique "KAV" number to aid in their identification. These KAV Agreements were the first source for locating the text of unpublished U.S. treaties and other international agreements in one location. His Guide to Treaties in Force, designed to be used in conjunction with TIF, greatly expanded upon the rather simplistic approach of the U.S. Department of State's indexing by providing access points well beyond those found in TIF. With the late Adolf Sprudzs (Chicago), he edited U.S. Treaty Indexing Service, Current Treaty Index and UST Cumulative Indexing Service, all Hein titles. Also published by Hein, his United States Legislation on Foreign Relations and International Commerce (edited with Michael Blake) received the American Society of International Law Certificate of Merit and Soviet Law in English Research Guide and Bibliography, 1970-1987, was awarded the Joseph L. Andrews Bibliographical Award.

Our deepest sympathy and thoughts are with the family, friends and colleagues of Igor Kavass today. [JH]

Professional Reading: Turning Static Pathfinders Into Dynamic Online Resources

Demonstrating my utter lack of imagination, I led the charge for converting print-based subject guides and pathfinders into quasi-static web pages at the University of Cincinnati Law Library a couple of years ago. At the time I was thinking that it would be easier to update webpages and distribute download-able PDF files, while saving a few trees in the process. But someone still had to code the updates or create the PDF files, and that work couldn't be distributed to all pathfinder authors because many didn't know how to compose in HTLM, most we didn't want to have web server authorization for uploading purposes because we were fearful of the Oops factor, and, alas, we were too cash-strapped to hand out PDF-creator software to everyone. In other words, delays.

Plus the "ownership" aspect of our publications tended to reduce collaboration. That meant our pathfinders and subject guides revealed relative strength and weakness in covering both online and print resources. While that may be good for management purposes in terms of identifying competencies, it was bad for the users of our publications.

There's a number of better ways to create and update web-based pathfinders and subject guides. Edward M. Corrado and Kathryn A. Frederick review cost-effective options in their Free and Open Source Options for Creating Database-Driven Subject Guides (Code4Lib Issue 2, 2008-03-24). The article discusses both the functionality and the relative strengths and weaknesses of open source database-driven solutions (such as SubjectsPlus, LibData, Research Guide, and Library Course Builder), social bookmarking sites, blogs, wikis, and eCourse management systems. [JH]

Cybercrime Legislation: 27 Country Profiles

The cybercrime national legislation profiles have been prepared within the framework of the Council of Europe’s Project on Cybercrime for sharing information on cybercrime legislation and assessing the current state of implementation of the Convention on Cybercrime under national legislation. Hat tip to beSpacific. [JH]

Just Released, New Book on Alternative Careers for Information Professionals

What's the Alternative? Career Options for Librarians and Info Pros
by Rachel Singer Gordon

List Price: $35.00 
Paperback: 288 pages
Publisher: Information Today, Inc. (April 8, 2008)
ISBN-10: 1573873330
ISBN-13: 978-1573873338

Book Description: As the global information economy grows, librarians who are able to retool and transfer their skills are finding themselves increasingly in demand. Here, Rachel Singer Gordon explains the dynamics of the shifting market for information-based work, reveals a range of nontraditional employment opportunities for librarians, and encourages info pros to utilize their skills in new and exciting ways. Mixing practical advice with real-life stories of librarians working in various fields, Gordon provides a wealth of useful ideas and resources for info pros rethinking their career paths. Whether you re a recent library school grad facing a tight job market, a working librarian seeking improved work/life balance, or an info pro with an entrepreneurial streak, What s the Alternative? will help you explore your options and maximize your career potential.

Bryan Garner's Video Interviews of SCOTUS Justices on Brief Writing, Oral Advocacy and More

Interesting videos highlighted in recent article from Legal Times:

"They are raw and unvarnished, like what might happen if you turned a videocam on yourself in your garage and started talking.

But the collection of videos on LawProse.org were shot at the Supreme Court and they star eight of the nine justices speaking passionately, sarcastically, angrily, into the camera as they answer questions about brief writing, oral advocacy and their own love-hate relationships with the written word.

Their interviewer, legal writing guru Bryan Garner, quietly posted the eight videos on the Web site in January. Garner has interviewed dozens of judges, lawyers and writers over the years, seeking video clips for use in his profitable legal writing seminars. But he realized the interviews with the justices, conducted a year ago or more, were a unique treasure that he should not profit from, so he put them up without restriction, editing, fee or fanfare."  [RJ]

Ohio Law School Rankings, 2000-2009

Law school competition in the Buckeye State is pretty fierce. Nine schools in Ohio are competing for law students, law faculty, and law librarians: Akron, Capital, Case Western, Cincinnati, Cleveland-Marshall, Dayton, Ohio Northern, OSU-Moritz and Toledo. Competition is regional and national although some public law schools cannot afford to pay law faculty and law librarians salaries that are nationally competitive.

US News Rankings. Reputation rules the day. The quality of law faculties, student bodies and, as we law librarians like to think, law libraries matters. OK, two out of the three really matter; online access to information resources is becoming the great law library leveler for all but major research law libraries (read OSU in Ohio).

Of the nine Ohio law schools, only Case Western, Cincinnati and OSU are ranked in the US News Top 100. OSU is king of the Buckeye State hill. Case Western and Cincinnati have been competing for "second best" Ohio law school for years. Case Western's 10 place decline in 2009 (from 53 to 63) is more a quirk of the US News ranking system than a reflection of the school. US News doesn't use tie-breakers in its rankings which is based on an overall score. The problem, the lower a school's overall score, the more likely it will be tied with other schools. The difference in overall scores for 52nd place and 63 place is three points this year; three schools are tied in 52nd place, 4 in 55th, 4 in 59th and 3 in 63rd place.

Nothing has "happened" at Case Western to merit such a dramatic decline. Case Western and Cincinnati will continue to compete for second place honors for years to come. But watch out Case Western! If Cincinnati can overcome alumni alienation to fund the construction of a much needed new $100 million facility from its mainstream Republican base, the "buzz" will substantially increase Cincinnati's profile. Target date, 10 years from now.

Cincinnati's student quality scores give the school its competitive edge in the rankings game and that's because US News doesn't weigh student metrics by the size of entering classes. Cincinnati's entering class is 100 less students than either OSU or Case Western. Still Cincinnati, indeed all Ohio public law schools have been operating under financial duress for years. The former (Taft) state administration's reallocation of limited financial resources to elementary and secondary education has crippled state universities. Change is in the wind but kudos to all public law schools in Ohio for surviving. Cincinnati for example, suffered through something like 14 annual permanent and/or one-time budget cuts in the last 15 years.

Here's how Case Western, Cincinnati and OSU were ranked by US News from 2000 to 2009, overall and by reputation. For student quality, ranking is based on the average of the 75th and 25th percentile LSAT scores for entering classes. Alternative metrics are provided.

Color-coding. For all ranking tables, relative places are color-coded: maroon for first, teal for second and gray for third place.

Faculty Quality. Faculty quality assessment contributes 40 percent to the US News ranking. US News survey respondents are asked to rate law schools on a scale from "marginal" (1) to "outstanding" (5). For peer assessment, surveys are sent to aw school deans, deans of academic affairs, the chair of faculty appointments, and the most recently tenured faculty members. For bench and bar assessment, legal professionals, including the hiring partners of law firms, state attorneys general, and selected federal and state judges, are surveyed. See US News Law School Ranking Methodology for more.

For the below table, I added the two scores to produce annual overall law faculty reputation scores for 2000-2009. The scale would be from 2 ("marginal") to 10 for "outstanding." Immediately following are tables for peer, and bench and bar assessments. Since the the US News survey response rate by lawyers and judges is substantially lower than the peer response rate (e.g., 26% compared to 70% this year), I believe the peer scores are more significant.

There are substantially better metrics for law faculty quality. Brian Leiter (Texas) has been providing them for about ten years now at Brian Leiter's Law School Rankings [Links to Faculty Quality Studies]. OSU appears in some of his faculty quality ranking studies. Case Western or Cincinnati do not because they fall below Leiter's Top 30-40-50 cutoffs. The above information (plus whatever puffery law school PR machines churn out) is the best that's available.

Alternative Metrics. Some argue that schools with smaller law faculties are at a disadvantage in the faculty reputation game. See the quick facts displayed in the last table for faculty size. Perhaps you agree. Not me. Leiter adjusts for faculty size by using per capita metrics. More generally, some schools are stepping-stones used by some law profs to advance their academic careers after establishing their professional reputations "in the trenches." (More likely at Case Western and Cincinnati than OSU.) Others leave for better compensation. (More likely at Cincinnati than Case Western and OSU.)

Student Quality. For Case Western, Cincinnati and OSU, the below table provides historical student quality data as measured by the average of the 75th and 25th percentile LSAT scores for entering classes reported by US News. The metric is Leiter's. See Ranking of Top 40 Law Schools by Student (Numerical) Quality 2008 (April 6, 2008)("No feasible measure of student quality is particularly ideal, but LSAT scores are the best, crude proxy we have available.") In the event of ties, the school with the larger estimated entering class, if larger by 50 or more students, is ranked higher.

Alternative Metrics. Placement of law graduates in Supreme Court and appellate clerkships, and law teaching jobs is a good proxy for how strong the high end of a law school's class is. Leiter has been measuring this for years at Top Producers of New Law Teachers, 2003-2007 (Case Western, Cincinnati and OSU do not appear) and Supreme Court Clerkship Placement, 2000 Through 2007 Terms. (Only OSU listed).

Some Quick Stats. For context, the below table displays current data reported in the 2009 US News Law School Rankings for faculty and students at Case Western, Cincinnati and OSU. Law library data is also displayed because LLB is a blog by law librarians for law librarians.

Click on any of the tables for a larger display. Please report any data errors by commenting to this post.

Endnote. I think I've beaten the 2009 US News Law School Rankings to death. No more LLB posts by me, I promise (I think). Wait, what about ranking by NCAA conferences? (Have you noticed the declining fortunes of Big Ten schools in the rankings?) [JH]

Earlier LLB posts:

• Where Are the US News Top 30 Law Schools of 1996 Now?
• US News 2009 Law School Rankings Now Online
• US News Law School Rankings: Why March Madness Started Early This Year in the Legal Academy
• Law Schools Flipping Out Over Falling US News Rankings

DOJ's Immigration Court Practice Manual

The DOJ Office of the Chief Immigration Judge has released of the Immigration Court Practice Manual (pdf), which sets forth uniform procedures, recommendations, and requirements for practice before the Immigration Courts. The Practice Manual's requirements are binding on the parties who appear before the Immigration Courts, unless the Immigration Judge directs otherwise in a particular case. The Practice Manual does not limit the discretion of Immigration Judges to act in accordance with law and regulation.

Effective Date. In order to provide the public an opportunity to become familiar with the Immigration Court Practice Manual, it will not go into effect until July 1, 2008. Beginning on that date, Local Operating Procedures will no longer be used, and parties will be expected to follow the Practice Manual. [RJ]

New Life for Good Old LC Subject Headings

Roy Tennant reports that LC's Ed Summers has launched http://lcsh.info/ to demonstrate what can be done with Library of Congress Subject Headings. Summers has taken the LCSH dataset harvested by Simon Spero (instead of official LC data) and parsed it into SKOS, an effort led by the W3C as part of its Semantic Web effort. More information on the project can be found on Summer's website, including some web slides of the project.

Tennant believes this is a lead-up to doing something on the web that will use official LC data, live and updated. Now, if you think I understand all this next generation catalog stuff, you are dead wrong --  things have come a long way since my LIS days where we were programming truncated keyword searching of LC subject headings in MARC records back in the late 1970s -- so read more about it at Tennant's Digital Libraries blog post.

Browsing LCSH. Check out Bernhard Eversberg's LCSH Browser. You can browse an alphabetical list of the headings and cross-references, a list of all words occurring in the headings, personal and corporate names, and LC classification numbers. When you pull up the full record for a term there are links that will send you off to WorldCat, Google, LibrayThing and OpenLibrary with that term. Any "see also" references are also clickable. Hat tip to Roy Tennant. [JH]

Thaler & Sunstein's Manifesto for Something Called Libertarian Paternalism

In this utterly brilliant book, Thaler and Sunstein teach us how to steer people toward better health, sounder investments, and cleaner environments without depriving them of their inalienable right to make a mess of things if they want to. -- Daniel Gilbert, professor of psychology, Harvard University

Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness
by Richard H. Thaler & Cass R. Sunstein

List Price: $26.00
Hardcover: 304 pages
Publisher: Yale University Press (April 8, 2008)
ISBN-10: 0300122233
ISBN-13: 978-0300122237

Book Description: Every day, we make decisions on topics ranging from personal investments to schools for our children to the meals we eat to the causes we champion. Unfortunately, we often choose poorly. The reason, the authors explain, is that, being human, we all are susceptible to various biases that can lead us to blunder. Our mistakes make us poorer and less healthy; we often make bad decisions involving education, personal finance, health care, mortgages and credit cards, the family, and even the planet itself.

Thaler and Sunstein invite us to enter an alternative world, one that takes our humanness as a given. They show that by knowing how people think, we can design choice environments that make it easier for people to choose what is best for themselves, their families, and their society. Using colorful examples from the most important aspects of life, Thaler and Sunstein demonstrate how thoughtful “choice architecture” can be established to nudge us in beneficial directions without restricting freedom of choice. Nudge offers a unique new take—from neither the left nor the right—on many hot-button issues, for individuals and governments alike. This is one of the most engaging and provocative books to come along in many years.

International Law Video Library Relaunched

The International Law Video Library has moved to a permanent location, been revamped and includes some new material. Bookmark the new URL! A Queen's University of Belfast project, ILVL was developed so as to be accessible to all and find its way into lecture halls throughout the world, especially in those places where resources may be limited. The resources are free, internet-based teaching tool, allowing viewers to see interviews with leading international law scholars and practitioners as well as "visit" locations relevant to international law.

The website includes a stand-alone video library focusing on issues of human rights law -- The International Human Rights Law Video Library. [JH]

OMB Progress Report on E-Government Act Implementation

From the White House: "This is OMB’s fifth annual progress report on implementation of the E-Government Act of 2002 (Pub. L. No. 107-347; Dec. 17, 2002) (the “E-Government Act”) as required by 44 USC 3606. This report describes activities completed in fiscal year (FY) 2007, and is among a series of reports produced by OMB to describe the Administration’s use of E-Government principles to improve government performance and the delivery of information and services to the public."  [RJ]

The Google Quality Rater's Handbook

The Google Quality Rater's Handbook (version 2.1 dated April 6, 2007)(pdf) was leaked recently. Download it while you can! Essentially, the Rater's Handbook tells you what Google deems important when judging the quality and relevance of a webpage.

As Pandia Search Engine News reports "in spite of what many say, Google does not entirely rely on automatic computer-based algorithms in its search engine rankings. They do employ human editors that control the quality of selected sites and they may give a boost to sites these reviewers deem especially useful." See also Spying on Google: What is Spam? What is Relevant? Read This to Find Out and SearchEngineLand's synopsis of the handbook.

Hat tip to Ron Jones. [JH]

CAGW's 2008 Pig Book Digs Up $17.2 Billion in Pork

"Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) has released the 2008 Congressional Pig Book, the latest installment in an 18-year exposé of pork-barrel spending. From the press release:

When Congress adopted earmark reforms last year, there was hope that the number and cost of earmarks would be cut in half.  By any measure, that has not occurred,” said CAGW President Tom Schatz.

In fiscal year 2008, Congress stuffed 11,610 projects (the second highest total ever) worth $17.2 billion into the 12 appropriations bills.  That is a 337 percent increase over the 2,658 projects in fiscal year 2007, and a 30 percent increase over the $13.2 billion total in fiscal year 2007.  Alaska led the nation with $556 in pork per capita ($380 million total), followed by Hawaii with $221 ($283 million) and North Dakota with $208 ($133 million).  CAGW has identified $271 billion in total pork since 1991.

[RJ]

EMMA - Electronic Municipal Market Access System

From the site:

"EMMA is a centralized on-line site to find key information about municipal securities, free of charge. The information on EMMA is presented in a manner specifically tailored for retail, non-professional investors who may not be experts in financial or investing matters. EMMA makes available official statements for most new offerings of municipal bonds, notes, 529 college savings plans and other municipal securities since 1990. EMMA also provides real-time access to prices at which bonds and notes are sold to or bought from customers, as well as prices paid in inter-dealer transactions, for most trades occurring on or after January 31, 2005. In addition, issuers sometimes issue new bonds to establish escrows to pay-off existing bonds (usually to refinance their debt at a lower interest rate), and EMMA provides access to advance refunding documents that set out the details of these escrow arrangements."  [RJ]

ARL Study Reveals Many Research Libraries Are Also Publishers

ARL has published the results of a study of publishing services by ARL member libraries. Karla Hahn's report, Research Library Publishing Services: New Options for University Publishing (pdf), is based on a survey of ARL member libraries with follow-up interviews. It finds that research libraries are rapidly developing publishing services. By late 2007, 44% of the 80 responding ARL member libraries reported they were delivering publishing services and another 21% were in the process of planning publishing service development. Only 36% of responding institutions were not active in this arena.

Among the 44 percent of respondents that reported publishing activities:

• 88 percent report publishing e-journals.
• 79 percent publish conference papers and proceedings.
• 71 percent publish monographs.

Although the aggregate number of journal titles reported to be published by research represents "a very thin slice of the scholarly publishing pie," Hahn wrote, publishing activities, enabled by "emerging capabilities of digital information and networks," is clearly increasing. Respondents reported working on 265 titles, 131 of which were "established"; 81 were new titles; and 53 were "under development."

Key findings include:

• Service development is being driven by campus demand, largely from authors and editors.
• Substantial investment in open source applications such as Open Journal Systems, Open Conference Systems, D-Pubs, and DSpace is facilitating service development.
• Library publishing services are part of a range of new kinds of services libraries have developed or are developing, such as repository and digitization services.
• The use of various forms of revenue generation is common for publishing services, but core support comes from library resources and in some cases new campus funding.

Academic Law Libraries as ePublishers. Cincinnati's Marx Law Library publishes the Securities Lawyer's Deskbook, a project I inherited in 2001. At the time, I didn't think our little library should be in the publishing business. There was (and still is) no funding or staff support from the College of Law. Twice the project was almost axed because of library budget cuts but we were lucky to negotiate a licensing agreement with a SOX compliance vendor to offset some costs while keeping access to the Deskbook available free of charge.

Initially, I was amazed by the number of large SEC law firms that could bill out Lexis-Westlaw search charges easily but used the Deskbook instead. Now, I take that for granted. The Deskbook is the highest visited destination in the College of Law domain -- no other College of Law subdomain covers close -- and it generates tons of Law Library goodwill from our alumni.

I wonder what other academic law libraries are doing these days. Elmer, time for a new CALI-sponsored survey? [JH]

Brian Leiter's 2008 Top 40 Law Schools by Student Quality Now Available

Brian Leiter (Texas) has published his Ranking of Top 40 Law Schools by Student (Numerical) Quality 2008 on Brian Leiter's Law School Rankings website. Noting that LSAT scores are "the best, crude proxy available for measuring student quality," he ranks the top 40 schools as measured by the average of the 75th and 25th percentile LSAT scores for the class that entered in fall 2007. Class size is the first tie breaker: the larger school with the same LSAT credentials was ranked higher. The second tie breaker is the average of the 75th and 25th percentile GPA scores.

Leiter's previous annual rankings of law schools by student quality can be accessed from this link. Note the change in method. How schools fare in placing their graduates in Supreme Court and appellate clerkships and law teaching jobs is also a good proxy for how strong the high end of the class is. See Leiter's Top Producers of New Law Teachers, 2003-2007 and Supreme Court Clerkship Placement, 2000 Through 2007 Terms. [JH]

Opening: Research Services Librarian, Rutgers University Law Library

The Rutgers University Library for the Center for Law and Justice, in  Newark, N.J.,  is seeking a Research Services Librarian.   The Library for the Center for Law and Justice is a research library with a collection of over 500,000 volumes and volume-equivalents, and a staff of nineteen, including eight librarians with faculty status.

Responsibilities:

The Research Services Librarian has primary responsibility for development and implementation of services that support teaching and research. Specific duties include: training faculty members and  research assistants in database use and research methods; providing guest lectures on research methods for law school classes;  managing faculty document delivery; developing services to student publications; developing marketing and outreach initiatives to educate faculty and students about library services; teaching advanced legal research course sessions; writing research guides; participating in reference duty and the faculty liaison program; and maintaining an archive and bibliography of faculty publications.  Reference duty includes evening and weekend work by rotation.  The Research Services Librarian coordinates activities with other reference librarians and the Digital Services Librarian.  The Research Services Librarian reports to the Director of the Law Library.

Conditions of employment: 

This is a full-time, calendar-year, tenure-track position available July 1, 2008.  Initial appointment is
for one year at the rank of Librarian III (equivalent to Assistant Professor); reappointment and tenure decisions are based on librarianship,  scholarship, and service.   Rutgers is an EO/Affirmative Action employer.

Salary & benefits:   

Salary will be commensurate with qualifications and  experience.  Benefits include retirement plan, life/health insurance, prescription drug, dental and eyeglass plans, tuition remission, one month vacation.

Qualifications:   

Must have: M.L.S. or equivalent from an ALA accredited program; working knowledge of  U.S. legal publications; excellent written and oral communication skills.  The successful candidate must
be eligible to work in the U.S.   Preferred will be candidates with J.D., experience in law libraries, demonstrated teaching ability, and a record of scholarly achievement and involvement in professional associations.

To apply: Please send resume, cover letter and contact information (including e-mail) for three professional references to: Carol A. Roehrenbeck, Director, Rutgers Univ. Library for Center for Law & Justice,  123 Washington St, Newark, NJ   07102, fax (973) 353-1356, croehrenbeck@kinoy.rutgers.edu