Law Librarian Blog

Service By Facebook

And now for something completely different...

Carolyn Elefant reports that Australia's supreme court allowed lawyers from the Canberra-based firm Meyer Vandenberg to serve defendants with a default judgement via Facebook, after being satisfied that the profiles the lawyers had found did in fact belong to the defendants in question. The lawyers were unable to find the defendants to allow for personal service, but the defendants' Facebook profiles contained enough information to satisfy the court that it would provide a sufficient method of communicating with the defendants. [JH]

GAO and GPO Reach Agreement on Hosting GAO Reports and GAO Comptroller General Decisions

The GPO and the GAO  have reached an agreement where GAO will now provide public access to the GAO Reports and GAO Comptroller General Decisions databases from its website. The GPO will maintain archives of both databases, but no new content will be added to the GPO Access versions of these databases. This agreement will eliminate duplication of effort on these databases, as well as minimizing version control issues. Under the partnership agreement, if for any reason GAO is not able to provide access to these materials, GPO will resume the responsibility.

Coverage of the databases:

The GAO Reports database contains reports on audits, surveys, investigations, and evaluations of Federal programs conducted by GAO. The content in this database dates back to 1970 and earlier.

The Comptroller General Decisions database contains decisions and opinions issued by the Comptroller General in areas of Federal law such as appropriations, bid protests, and Federal agency rulemaking. It also contains historic material dating back to 1970. GAO is actively working on digitizing its legacy collection so historic material will continue to be added to the two databases.

[JH]

From Content Consumers to Content Creators

In his D-Lib Magazine article (November/December 2008), Social Annotations in Digital Library Collections, Rich Gazan describes a case study in which social annotations were integrated with digital items in a question and answer site because digital libraries must recast users not just as content consumers, but as content creators in order to incorporate Web 2.0 functionality effectively. The results of a study of a Web 2.0 question and answer site that has made the transition from factual to social content are analyzed, and eight decision points for digital libraries to consider when integrating social annotations with digital collection items are proposed. [JH]

Free Access to the English Reports, 1220-1873

The Commonwealth Legal Information Institute is now providing free access to the English Reports (1220-1873).  CommonLII aims to provide one central Internet location from which it is possible to search - for free - core legal information from all Commonwealth countries.  Along with the Reports, Privy Council Decisions (1914-present), Commonwealth Human Rights Law decisions, Commonwealth Declarations and Agreements and Law Reform Commission Reports are all freely available.

Hat tip to WisBlawg. [RJ]

Brackett Library Christmas Promo

IPv6 101

Judi Hasson's provides a brief non-technical overview of Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) which will expand the Internet with new coding, ways to transmit data and provide more web addresses, many, many more web addresses. Using 32-bit addresses, the current protocol, IPv4, can only provide about 4.3 billion addresses. Only? Yes, apparently we're running out.

IPv6 offers 128-bit addresses and will provide 340,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 addresses. That's 3.4 followed by 37 zeroes. Should be enough until every person in China has a desktop, laptop, printer, cell phone and iPod. [JH]

Florida State Senator Disses Dewey, "little old librarians" and LC

The Tampa Tribune reports this wisdom from a local state senator who thinks the Dewey Decimal System is "anachronistic," "costly", "ridiculous" and "just plain frustrating."   She also wants to ban Seinfeld.  H/T to Montana's Fritz Snyder and his library staff.  [RG]

Friday Fun on Tuesday: Up on the Housetop: The Risks for Santa

Check out the 25th Podcast episode of King County Law Library’s SideBar entitled: Up on the Housetop: The Risks for Santa. In it Santa finds out about the potential liabilities and risks he might encounter during his annual trip. [JH]

Pew/Internet Releases The Future of the Internet III Report

The Pew Internet & American Life Project that asked respondents to assess predictions about technology and its roles in the year 2020. Here's the key findings:

• The mobile device will be the primary connection tool to the internet for most people in the world in 2020.
• The transparency of people and organizations will increase, but that will not necessarily yield more personal integrity, social tolerance, or forgiveness.
• Voice recognition and touch user-interfaces with the internet will be more prevalent and accepted by 2020.
• Those working to enforce intellectual property law and copyright protection will remain in a continuing arms race, with the crackers who will find ways to copy and share content without payment.
• The divisions between personal time and work time and between physical and virtual reality will be further erased for everyone who is connected, and the results will be mixed in their impact on basic social relations.
• Next-generation engineering of the network to improve the current internet architecture is more likely than an effort to rebuild the architecture from scratch.

Text of Announcement | Text of Report. [JH]

American Tort Reform Foundation Releases Judicial Hellholes 2008/2009 Report

Judicial Hellholes, according to the American Tort Reform Association are "places where judges systematically apply laws and court procedures in an inequitable manner, generally against defendants in civil lawsuits." In its seventh annual report, ATRF shines its brightest spotlight on seven areas of the country that have developed reputations for uneven justice. The worst is West Virginia, followed by South Florida, Cook County, Illinois, Atlantic County, New Jersey, Montgomery & Macon Counties in Alabama, Los Angeles County, California, Clark County, Nevada.

Details: Executive Summary | Full Report

[JH]

Release of CJ Rehnquist Papers Delayed

On the Blog of Legal Times, Tony Mauro reports that the Hoover Institution Archives has announced  that the release of the second installment of papers in the collection of the late chief Justice William Rehnquist has been postponed. The papers were scheduled to be released on Jan. 5. No explanation was given, nor any hint of when the release would be rescheduled.

The first installment of papers, 87 boxes spanning his Stanford Law School days through his early tenure on the Supreme Court, were made available to the public Nov. 17. [JH]

Shorty Awards Nominations Due By December 31

The Shorty Awards honor the world's top Twitterers. You can nominate as many people for as many categories as you'd like until midnight December 31st. You can check out the top nominees in the Law category here. [JH]

CALI's ELangdell: Share Course Materials and Edit Cases

CALI's eLangdell project offers faculty a new way to create and share course materials. Materials can be shared with colleagues worldwide, institution-wide or with students taking a class. According to their site, "With eLangdell, teachers don't have to publish an entire casebook to share coursepacks, syllabi, or a well-edited case. A peer rating system will help ensure quality." There will be announcements and demos at the AALS annual meeting in January.  eLangdell is currently in its pre-beta phase.   

Other features include federal court decisions from the public.resource.org collection, available to be re-edited and incorporated into course materials. eLangdell will also include an outliner that will allow faculty to organize materials they have created, uploaded or tagged in eLangdell.

An eLangdell Group can be used instead of other course page software, such as Lexis Blackboard or TWEN. The set up looks similar to a blog, with documents posted chronologically. Students can comment on items posted by the professor.  In the near future, students will be able to post anonymously. eLangdell can send emails to everyone in the class whenever something is added. Or you can receive updates via RSS feed.

eLangdell also allows you to:

• Create a multiple choice poll and track student answers
  
• Create case briefs using a form
• Tag documents with keywords so others can find them easily
• Bookmark documents for later use
• See when edits were made to a document using the Revision tab
• Add video or audio
• Discuss topics on a bulletin board (SA)

Is Justice Delayed Justice Denied?

On the heels of word of TN closing its Supreme Court Libraries (discussed here) news from the L.A. Times today discusses New Hampshire's decision to hold no civil or criminal jury trials in the month of February in an effort to costs. This is one of the many efforts being made around the country to stay within budgetary boundaries but is this restraint fundamentally changing the practice of the law?

For this attorney's opinion I would expect a possible challenge as this implicitly pushes those seeking constitutionally protected right down the docket. Not that I expect the challenge to be successful, but much like rules pushing litigation towards arbitration this rule will undoubtedly push some cases to bench trials due to enforcement of this decision. {BB}

Cuddihy's Definitive Analysis of the Fourth Amendment

The Fourth Amendment's protection against unreasonable search and seizure provides the bulwark for police regulation and many other government functions in the United States. One of the most controversial rights in the Bill of Rights, this amendment is also among the most frequently adjudicated provisions of constitutional law. Yet its meaning has remained deeply contested, and the story of its origins is largely unknown. William J. Cuddihy now provides the definitive analysis in his just released The Fourth Amendment: Origins and Original Meaning 602 - 1791 (Oxford UP, January 2009). Daniel J. Solove (George Washington University Law School) writes, "it's an absolutely essential volume for any scholar of constitutional history, criminal procedure, or the Fourth Amendment" and adds in an email, "it’s truly an outstanding book, one I believe should be in every law school library. There’s nothing else out there on Fourth Amendment history that comes close to its comprehensiveness.

A required addition to every constitutional law collection. [JH]

Legislative Resources Online: How Does GPO Access Measure Up to Other Government Websites and Fee-Based Websites?

The GPO has conducted a comparison of legislative information available on GPO Access to that available on selected, relevant Government Web sites and non-Government sites. This analysis compares two separate source bases of Government information to what currently resides on GPO Access. The first includes legislative resources available on external, free Government sites that provide resources to the public at no cost. The second includes legislative resources available on non-Government, commercial, fee-based Web sites.

Analyses and comparisons were executed on four Government Web sites including GPO Access, the House of Representatives Web site, the Senate Web site, and THOMAS. The commercial, fee-based Internet services evaluated were CQ.com, HeinOnline, Lexis-Nexis Congressional, and Westlaw.

Key findings include:

• GPO Access has the largest total number of legislative resources among those evaluated.
• All Government Web sites, with the exception of GPO Access, utilize at least some external content by linking to other Web sites.
• On House.gov and Senate.gov, most of the legislative resources link to other Web sites to supplement their information.
• House.gov and Senate.gov mostly link to GPO Access rather than THOMAS to supplement their information, and in some cases link to both external services.
• THOMAS links to House.gov for a very small amount of resources.
• The scope (number of years covered) of most resources on GPO Access is exceeded by the following: House.gov, THOMAS, Lexis-Nexis, HeinOnline and CQ.com
• Non-Government Web sites possess their own content, but in a very small number of cases will supplement that information with a link to GPO Access, and in one case, a link to a Library of Congress site.
• Lexis-Nexis, CQ.com, Senate.gov, and THOMAS offer a significant amount of additional legislative resources and features not offered on GPO Access.

Cleck out the Report's Executive Summary and these two tables: (1) Comparison of Legislative Resources: Scope of GPO Access and Government Web Sites and (2) Comparison of Legislative Resources: Scope of GPO Access and Non-Government Web Site. [JH]

Opening: Resident Librarian, Georgetown Law Library

Georgetown Law Library seeks a Resident Librarian.  The Residency is a two-year program designed to attract candidates from under represented backgrounds to the challenging and rewarding profession of law librarianship.  The Library Resident will have ample opportunity to work in all departments of the library to learn firsthand about the wide variety of functions in a large academic law library.  Department rotation schedule and projects will be tailored to the Library Resident’s areas of interest, with a required 10 hours per week at the reference desk.  We are seeking applicants who have demonstrated an interest in and potential for success in law librarianship and who are members of historically underrepresented groups (e.g. Asian American/Pacific Islander, Native American, Hispanic American, African American.) Applicants must hold an M.L.S. or equivalent from an American Library Association accredited school by August, 2009, and have no prior experience as a professional librarian.  For complete information about this position, visit the Library’s web site.

The Library Resident will start between July 1, 2009, and September 1, 2009.  The two-year appointment will end on June 30, 2011.  Salary is equivalent to an entry-level librarian; full benefits.

To apply for this position, send the following application materials before Friday, February 13, 2009: (i) resume; (ii) names of three references; (iii) library school or law school transcript if you are still in school; and (iv) personal statement discussing your reasons for applying for the Residency, career goals, and any other relevant information.  Send your application to: Margaret A. Fry, Interim Director, Edward Bennett Williams Law Library, Georgetown University Law Center, 111 G Street, NW, Washington, DC  20001.  Phone: (202) 662-9162.  Fax: (202) 662-9168.  E-mail: libraryjobs@law.georgetown.edu.

Georgetown University is an EOE/AA Employer.

The Twelve Days of EFF

Electronic Frontier Foundation staffers have produced the Twelve Days of EFF, a music video that  highlights some of EFF's accomplishments in 2008. Hat tip to Robert J. Ambrogi on Legal Blog Watch. [JH]