Law Librarian Blog

Moral Principle vs. Military Necessity

Interesting piece by David Bosco from the American Scholar: "The first code of conduct for warfare, and American creation, reflected ambiguities we struggle with to this day."  [RJ]

Transforming the National Guard and Reserves into a 21st-Century Operational Force

The third and final report to Congress by the Commission on the National Guard and Reserves. The previous reports from June 2006 and March 2007 are also available on the Commission’s website.

See also:  Guard, reserves called inadequate for domestic disasters, L.A. Times & Commission Urges Upgrade of National Guard, CQ Politics

[RJ]

Friday Fun: Spongebob Classics

The cast of "Spongebob Squarepants" lend their voices to Hollywood classics including Casablanca, Singing in the Rain, and The Godfather! Hat tip to Mark Giangrande, DePaul Law Library for sharing. [JH].

A Little More Friday Fun Before Oscar Night

Oscar(R) night, February 24th, is coming fast. For a little workplace Friday Fun today, you can print out and circulate the Oscars ballot (pdf) from the official Oscar site [nominations page for details], play Predict the Winners on the offical site for a chance to "win an absolutely dazzling set of Kwiat diamond jewelry for yourself and a loved one" and take the below polls for your favorite films in the Best Picture and Documentary Feature categories. Sorry no prizes for taking our polls. [JH]

Opinion Polls & Market Research

Opinion Polls & Market Research

Free Legal Classes at People's Law School Set Example for Law Schools, Law Libraries and Local Bar Associations to Follow

The University of Texas School of Law is hosting and co-sponsoring free legal classes at People’s Law School on Saturday, February 23, 2008. Participants can choose to attend up to three classes, each featuring one topic. The classes, taught by local attorney volunteers, last seventy-five minutes and include a question and answer session at the end. UT Law Library tours are included in the program

Read more about this interesting event. Other law schools and law school libraries can easily pattern similar programs after this one. If you know of some, please publish details as comments to this post. [JH]

Legal Research and Legal Education in Africa

Vicki Lawal, University of Cape Town, Dept. of Library and Information Studies, has deposited Legal Research and Legal Education in Africa: the Challenge for Information Literacy in NELLCO. Presented at the Starr Foundation Workshop, which took place at Cornell Law School, October 7-11, 2007, this paper "analyses legal research within the context of legal education in Africa, it examines some of the challenges of electronic legal research in view of the influences of online legal electronic resources and Computer Assisted legal Research (CALR) and the importance of information literacy in addressing some of the issues raised especially with regards to undergraduate legal education." [JH]

CrimeReports Maps Arrests and Other Police Reports

CrimeReports.com overlays police reports on maps so users can view where arrests and other police calls have been made. Users can also configure e-mail alerts to notify them of crimes in their neighborhood. The site relies on law enforcement agencies that pay $100 or $200 a month for the company to extract data, add map links, and display the information online. At the moment about 40 agencies including one university police department, subscribe to the service. This could be a very useful service if more law enforcement agencies contribute their data.

Meanwhile, the tax assessor of Kanawha County in West Virginia has filed a lawsuit seeking an injunction to block Seneca Technologies from publishing tax maps for the entire state of West Virginia on the Internet. The suit cites a state law which prohibits individuals from copying and redistributing tax maps without the county tax assessor's permission. Hat tip to Tech Law Prof Blog. [JH]

Opening: Associate Law Librarian, George Mason University Law Library

The George Mason University Law Library in Arlington, Virginia is seeking an experienced librarian who will report directly to the Associate Dean for Library & Technology, in overseeing administrative functions and coordinating the library's collection development activities. This position will also participate in the faculty liaison program, teach online legal research classes, and provide other bibliographic instruction. 

Primary Duties

• Supervise and evaluate the library administrative assistant who also does all looseleaf filing for the library.
• Coordinate the library's collection development efforts, including identifying titles for selection and cancellation, negotiating contracts with vendors, and working closely with the acquisitions manager in the book order fulfillment process.
• Provide instruction in computer assisted legal research to first year students as part of the Legal Research, Writing and Analysis program. Participate in other bibliographic instruction classes including orientation and library tours.
• Providing liaison services to designated faculty.
• Oversee administrative functions which include serving as the library's HR liaison, monitoring the wages and work study budget, managing the hiring and recruitment process for wages, work study and permanent staff, managing the library's security access control system, and overseeing all facilities and housekeeping issues.

Qualifications: M.L.S. from an ALA accredited library school and J.D. from an ABA accredited law school. Minimum of five years professional law library experience. Solid knowledge of legal resources and teaching experience required. Ability to communicate and work effectively with faculty and students and strong customer service skills are essential. Supervisory or management experience desirable.

Salary: Competitive and commensurate with qualifications and experience.

For a detailed position description, please see http://www.law.gmu.edu/libtech/associatelaw.html  Applications must be made online at http://jobs.gmu.edu for position FA-329Z. Review of applications will begin immediately and close on March 14, 2008.

AA/EOE

Professional Reading: MBCAP's Methodology for Evaulating State Public Access Laws

A must read! -- [JH]

Bill Chamberlin, et al. Searching for Patterns in the Laws Governing Access to Records and Meetings in the Fifty States by Using Multiple Research Tools, 18 U. Fla. J.L. & Pub. Pol'y 415-445 (2007) [Westlaw]

From the Introduction:

Freedom of Information (FOI) advocates, mass communication scholars, journalists, and public policymakers often have asked which public access laws are the “best” in the country. The answer is elusive, even using a variety of research methodologies. Prior research has focused on studying only one aspect of these laws in the fifty states or by ranking every state on a limited number of criteria considered by a scholar to be necessary for an “ideal” law. No study thus far has effectively and systematically attempted to rank all state public records and open meeting laws in their entirety.

Assuming that the “best” public access law means the law that at least facially creates the highest level of government transparency, scholars can use a variety of research approaches to better understand which laws are perceived as “more open” than others. Indeed, by using a combination of social science and legal research approaches, scholars can achieve not only an improved understanding of how state laws compare, but also what the concept of “openness” means in state public record and open meetings laws. To this end, the Marion Brechner Citizen Access Project (MBCAP) has implemented a long-term research project analyzing the access laws of all states by carefully combining social science methodology and traditional legal research techniques.

Although in its early stages, the MBCAP has already produced a unique methodological approach and significant data. In this Essay, the authors explain how the combination of social science and legal methodologies can effectively answer complex questions involving public access laws. Discussing the project's methodology could also be useful to legal and communication scholars wishing to develop and improve state law compilations in order to identify in greater detail public policy established by state legislatures and the courts. Furthermore, although the MBCAP so far has focused on aspects of state public records laws, the methodology presented here may be replicated or modified for other areas of law where ranking and comparison of multiple jurisdictions would be useful.

[T]he Essay provides background by reviewing the relevant literature in Part II. Part III outlines the objectives of the project and the methodology used to meet those objectives. It will also provide solutions to complex problems that arise in a study of the laws of the fifty states and the District of Columbia. Part IV presents project results to demonstrate how state public records laws are being analyzed through use of the project. Part V concludes by discussing the practical and academic applications of the project as well as its limitations.

Are You an IT Omnivore?

What kind of information technology user are you? Take the PEW/INTERNET Internet Typology Test to see where you fit. [JH]

Open Access Publishing in the Legal Academy

Gene Koo, CALI Fellow and co-editor of Law School Innovation blog, writes:

The openness of law schools'journals is largely due to history rather than deliberate planning. It gives law schools a huge potential leg up in entering the digital knowledge network, but because it's arisen by happenstance, it's also vulnerable to being undermined. It would be ironic indeed if, as the rest of academia moves towards openness that law schools could be at risk of being hemmed in.

Gene proceeds to outline some fundamental steps for an action plan for open access publishing in the legal academy. Check out his post, Harvard's open publishing policy and the outlook for law schools. I encourage you to submit your thoughts to Gene in the form of comments to his post. [JH]

Cornell Law Library's InSITE Website Reviews

Reviews published in the February 11, 2008 issue of InSITE:

• Analysis of the Personality of Adolph Hitler
• Compassion Index
• Real Lawyers Have Blogs
• State Cancer Legislative Database Program
• Sugar Law Center for Economic & Social Justice

[RJ]

Analysis of the Personality of Adolph Hitler
http://library.lawschool.cornell.edu/WhatWeHave/SpecialCollections/Donovan/Hitler/index.cfm

"The Analysis of the Personality of Adolph Hitler" is a fascinating report that is part of Cornell Law Library’s Donovan Nuremberg Trials Collection. The collection consists of nearly 150 bound volumes of Nuremberg trial transcripts and documents from the personal archives of General William J. Donovan (1883-1959). General Donovan worked on the staff of Chief Prosecutor Robert H. Jackson (later U.S. Supreme Court Justice Jackson) which gave Donovan a unique perspective on the war crime trials.  "Wild Bill" Donovan is better known for his work as head of the Office of Special Services (OSS) during World War II, which led to his recognition as the father of the CIA, which morphed from the OSS after the war. The report was commissioned by the OSS in preparation for dealing with Hitler and Germany after the war. The analysis of Hitler was compiled by Dr. Henry A. Murray, a pioneering psychologist of the time and Director of the Harvard Psychological Clinic. Only 30 copies of the report were created so the analysis has not been widely available. Cornell Law Library’s copy is the only copy easily accessible to the public online. The site includes a PDF version of the 227 page report.  The entire book or parts thereof can be downloaded from the Table of Contents page.  A “More Info” option gives links to related articles about the Nuremberg collection, Dr. Murray, and the OSS. The site provides an interesting look at Hitler and the emerging field of psychology. [JC]

Compassion Index
http://www.compassionindex.org/

The Compassion Index is an offering of the Animal Welfare Institute (AWI).  AWI is devoted to maintaining the well-being of animals by ensuring decent treatment by humans.  AWI has worked for the adoption of many federal animal protection laws, including the Endangered Species Act and the Humane Slaughter Act.  The Compassion Index rates members of Congress on their compassion toward animals by tallying key votes and positions taken on pending legislation.  AWI offers the index as a tool for both promoting legislative accountability and "to facilitate the advancement of federal bills benefiting animals and to defeat measures detrimental to their welfare."  The index may be searched by state, Congressional member's name, or by Zip code.  Each member of Congress is assigned a percentage rating based on his or her degree of agreement with AWI on various pieces of legislation.  There is an entry for each senator and representative detailing his or her votes and positions on legislation.  Currently, the index covers the 109th and 110th congresses.  The site also lists key legislation that AWI is tracking.  There are several bills before Congress of interest to the group, including the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act and the Pet Safety and Protection Act. [MM]

Real Lawyers Have Blogs
http://kevin.lexblog.com/       

Kevin O'Keefe is one of the top industry-acknowledged experts in legal blogdom.  His company, LexBlog, offers lawyers a "turn-key, professional blog service" in the form of blog hosting and promoting.  "Real Lawyers Have Blogs" is Mr. O’Keefe’s own blog, which promotes this service but also acts as one of the best portals and tutorials for the world of legal blogging.  This blog, directed at practicing attorneys, covers law firm marketing, emerging Internet technology, blog basics, search engine optimization, and many other topics.  Substantive legal issues are not covered.  Unlike some blogs which offer a chronologically-arranged archive, this site arranges all content exclusively by topic.  User comments are welcome, and "Real Lawyers Have Blogs" is searchable. [BWK]

State Cancer Legislative Database Program
http://www.scld-nci.net/

The National Cancer Institute's (NCI) State Cancer Legislative Database (SCLD) is a database of state cancer-related legislation covering topics and issues such as tobacco, genetics, access to state-of-the-art treatment, and cancers of the breast, prostate, ovary, and other organs.  This database is a resource for research and analysis of cancer-related health policy, providing summaries of legislation affecting cancer prevention and control since 1989. Designed as a resource for Federal and state agencies, Congress, health departments, universities and research centers, professional organizations, and the general public, SCLD data is not generally available for free on the NCI’s website.  Freely available are fact sheets, the SCLD Update (the organization’s newsletter) going back to 1997, staff presentations, and the SCLD Tobacco Ratings.  The Tobacco Ratings are two indices that measure the extensiveness of state tobacco control laws related to youth access to tobacco and clean indoor air.   Researchers can also find summary information in the SCLD Legislative Snapshots, which contain graphic illustrations summarizing specific issues reported in the SCLD Updates. Custom research queries may be requested, but it is unclear from the website whether this is a fee-based service or not. [BWK]

Sugar Law Center for Economic & Social Justice
http://www.sugarlaw.org/

The Sugar Law Center is a national, non-profit organization providing legal support and advocacy for working people and their communities by "binding corporations and government to their legal and moral responsibilities." The Center pursues aggressive enforcement of Federal, state and local laws governing corporate behavior.  The website is a neatly organized presentation of the Center’s projects and concerns. Highlighted on the home page (as well as listed in the navigation bar) is a link to information about  current efforts to revise the Federal Worker Adjustment Retraining and Notification (WARN) Act, legislation that the Center supports. The WARN blog page provides links to proposed legislation, existing primary law, how to express support, and more resources. Also given prominence on the home page (as well as by a navigation link) is a link to “Workplace Concerns” including discrimination, retaliation, wrongful termination, layoffs, and pay. The site gives workers a place to submit an online form about their problem for evaluation by the Center’s legal staff. The “Projects” page lists the Economic Bill of Rights, Fair Employment Practices, Workers’ Rights as Human Rights, Community Reinvestment (by corporations receiving tax breaks for creating jobs), and Environmental Justice as additional ongoing activities. The Center is a transparent organization that posts information about its staff, interns and Board members. It also posts its recent court filings and offers a free newsletter. Finally, a list of related websites organized by topic such as Living Wage Organizations, and The Effort to Change Wal-Mart are offered as resources for interested readers. Sprinkled throughout the site are links for those interested in working for the Center or funding it through donations or by purchases of its monographs. The vibrant, colorful website shows an organization actively pursuing its mission. [JC]

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

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. This information can be accessed via the channels below, in addition to this mailing list:

1. Searchable database or by browsing current and archived
   issues on the web:

        InSITE home page ( http://library2.lawschool.cornell.edu/insiteasp/)

2. RSS feed ( http://www.lawschool.cornell.edu/lawlibrary/insiteasp/public/rss.asp )

3. Print format for the Cornell Law School community.

Top Ten Myths of Social Security

Check out Richard Kaplan's (Illinois) Top Ten Myths of Social Security. Here's the abstract:

Few federal programs are as well known and as widely misunderstood as Social Security, despite its national prominence in matters both political and economic. As efforts to reform this creation of the Great Depression era are likely in the coming years, this article examines the principal myths surrounding this program to set the stage for evaluating possible revisions. The myths considered in this article include the following: (1) there is a trust fund, (2) Social Security does not increase the federal budget deficit; (3) retirees are only recovering their own money, (4) Social Security will not be there when one retires, (5) retirement benefits are proportional to one's lifetime earnings, (6) Social Security favors two-income married couples, (7) Social Security favors long-lived marriages, (8) one could do better investing directly, (9) working after retirement makes financial sense, and (10) retirement benefits are taxed more heavily than other pension payments.

Opening: Fellowship in Law Librarianship, Univ. of Arizona

Law grads (or soon to be ones) who are interested in pursuing law librarianship by earning a LIS degree should look into the law librarianship fellowship offered by the University of Arizona's College of Law Library. The fellowship, which includes free tuition, benefits and a stipend, is contingent upon acceptance to Arizona's School of Information Resources and Library Science (SIRLS). The deadline for fall admission to SIRLS is February 29, 2008; for Spring admission, September 1, 2008. Here's the SIRLS link.

About the Fellowship. The University of Arizona School of Information Resources and Library Science (SIRLS) and the Law Library of the James E. Rogers College of Law offer a two-year fellowship in law librarianship for lawyers seeking to become law librarians. The successful applicant will work 20 hours per week in the law library while pursuing an M.A. in Information Resources and Library Science. The salary is $11,000 per fiscal (twelve-month) year (based on an annual salary of $22,000 prorated at .50 FTE/20 hours per week). Benefits and tuition reduction are included. (In the current fiscal year the fellowship recipient would pay a program fee of $140 per semester and have the remaining tuition and other fees waived.)

Fellowship recipients will assist law librarians in providing reference and research services to library patrons. The first year will focus on technical and access services; the second on public services. Fall applicants must start employment on or before July 1, 2008. Spring applicants must start on or before Dec. 1, 2008.

To apply for the fellowship, follow this link. It's a great opportunity! [JH]

Top 30 Law Prof Blogs: Harmless if not Very Meaningful Competition

Paul Caron (Cincinnati) charts traffic statistics of the "leading blogs" edited by law professors who use SiteMeter to record blog traffic. The selection of blogs is drawn from Dan Solove's "comprehensive" Law Professor Blogger Census, which of course isn't comprehensive (nor claimed by Solove to be) and wouldn't stand up to the population identification rigors needed for a real infometric analysis. But Caron's ranking, harmless if not very meaningful, is good enough for a blog post and a round of back slapping in law school faculty lounges across the country.

Or to put it another way:

Who cares [about law prof blog traffic rankings], you say?  Blog Emperor Caron, of course!  Curious that four of the top five have almost nothing to do with law; four of the top five are right-wing blogs; and three of the top five have almost no intellectual content.  Welcome to the blogosphere! -- Posted by Brian Leiter (Texas)

Indeed, welcome to the academic legal blogosphere law prof style, complete with pathological myopia. Caron's ranking is, shall we say, a tad elitist. It intentionally excludes academic law library/law librarian blogs. He notes, for example, that Law Librarian Blog is not edited by law profs. Apparently my co-editor's credentials as an AAUP-represented tenured faculty member aren't good enough; neither are yours if similarly situated. The academic legal blogosphere must be a very exclusive club; membership, alas, does not require publishing intellectual content.

Of course the information for an inclusive traffic-based "ranking" is readily available thanks to Bonnie Shucha's excellent directory which was updated earlier this month and now lists 140 law library/law librarian blogs, many of which do reside in the academic legal blogosphere.

The giggle factor for info antics about the legal blogosphere is pretty high among law librarians and some, hopefully most, law profs. I wonder if LIS profs use these all too common posts as examples of what infometrics is not. Bottom line: take them for what they are worth -- law blog trivial pursuit.

Kudos to Dennis Kennedy for recognizing the contributions law library/law librarian bloggers make to the legal blogosphere by repeatedly awarding them his annual Blawggie Award for "Best Legal Blog Category".

"I have to be one of the biggest fans of law librarian blogs there is. I learn so much from these blogs and they get named for this award [Best Legal Blog Category] every year. As I said before, 'across the board, these blogs have developed into strong information resources, often with links to primary source information that I'm not sure how I would find otherwise.'" -- Dennis Kennedy

[quoted in our coverage of Kennedy's 2007 Blawggies]

Footnote: Law Librarian Blog would have come in 19th place by visitors and page views for the period covered in Caron's blog ranking. Other academic law library/law librarian blogs may have placed higher if they had been included but I'm sure Caron has other ways to show his appreciation for the contributions academic law librarians make. [JH]

Should Professional Librarian Journals Evolve into Blogs?

Marcus Banks argues that the traditional (hardcopy-based) journal model is too antiquated for sharing research and knowledge among librarians. I disagree. There's still a place in the structure of LIS literature for hardcopy serials but they can and are being supplemented by e-journals, blogs, digital repositories, and online companions to LIS hardcopy journals.

Hat tip to LISNews. [JH]

Professional Reading: The Bar's Good Moral Character Requirement

Keith Swisher's very interesting article about the history and application of the Bar's "good moral character" requirement is available from SSRN. Here's the abstract for The Troubling Rise of the Legal Profession's Good Moral Character:

This Article exposes several rather startling characteristics of the "good moral character" requirement for bar applicants. The requirement arose in part from the bar's desire to exclude competition, particularly competition from certain nationalities and racial groups. It later was expanded to exclude the morally unorthodox (e.g., communists, cohabiters, or felons). Presently, and importantly, despite rhetoric about flexibility and forgiveness, the requirement is applied rigidly and even disingenuously to many applicants with criminal records. I find a marked increase in the exclusion of applicants with criminal records, despite also finding that their criminal conduct occurred (on average) nearly a decade before their bar applications. The Article then illustrates that the bar's application of its "flexible" standard for admittance is both perverse and unrealistic; it is not only unfair to applicants, but it is unprecedented in psychology and moral philosophy. The Article concludes that these exclusionary practices result almost solely from the bar's concerns with its reputation and (misconceived) self-image. Finding that justification shallow, the Article offers some compromise positions for bar committees, courts, and law schools to employ in their screening processes.

Webcast: Justice Ginsburg and Baroness Hale on the British and US Legal Systems

Associate Justice Ginsburg and Baroness Hale, the first woman to join the British House of Lords as a "Lord of Appeal in Ordinary," discuss the British and U.S. legal systems in this archived webcast of an event sponsored by the Supreme Court Fellows Program Alumni Association and the Georgetown Law Supreme Court Institute. [RJ]

Race and Law Research Wiki Lanuched by Syracuse's Barcley Law Library

Check out Barclay Law Library's new Race & Law Research Wiki. Good luck with the project! [JH]

Assistant Dean for Library and Research Services, University of the Pacific McGeorge School of Law

Position Description:  University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law (“Pacific McGeorge”) is seeking a dynamic and innovative leader for the position of Assistant Dean of its Gordon D. Schaber Law Library.  The Assistant Dean for Library and Research Services is responsible for all aspects of the operation of the law library including budgeting, hiring and supervision of librarians and staff, strategic planning for future growth and development of the library, and initiating and monitoring all library programs and services.  It is the Assistant Dean’s responsibility to ensure that the collection and resources are sufficient to meet the primary goal of supporting the teaching and research needs of the school’s faculty, staff and students and to ensure that the library is in compliance with the accreditation standards and membership requirements of the American bar Association and the Association of American Law Schools.  The Assistant Dean reports directly to the Dean, and is a member of the School’s senior administrative team and a voting member of the law faculty.  Pacific McGeorge has initiated a renovation of the law library, a portion of which has been completed to date.

Minimum Qualifications:  Applicants for the Assistant Dean’s position must have a J.D. degree from an ABA-accredited law school (or foreign equivalent), a master’s degree from an ALA-accredited library school, and significant experience in library administration.  Salary will be commensurate with qualifications and experience.

Campus and Community:  Pacific McGeorge School of Law occupies 13 beautiful acres in Sacramento, California's capital city.  The law school has both day and evening divisions and a number of foreign programs.  A dynamic city, Sacramento offers many cultural offerings and superb recreational activities.  San Francisco, Lake Tahoe, and the Napa Valley wine country are within easy driving distance.  The climate is Mediterranean.  An affordable community with excellent housing values and good schools, Sacramento is California at its best.

The Pacific McGeorge law library is a service-oriented library that offers faculty and students access to over 500,000 volumes and volume-equivalents and many legal and interdisciplinary electronic resources.  The Library serves a law school with 56 faculty and more than 1000 J.D. and LL.M. students.  The library is currently staffed with 9 librarian positions and 12 staff plus work-study students, and has an annual budget of over two million dollars.

Applications:  Review of applications will begin March 3, 2008, and will continue until the position is filled.  Applicants should electronically forward a letter of interest, a resume and contact information on three references to the chair of the search committee, Professor Philip H. Wile at pwile@pacific.edu.

The University of the Pacific McGeorge School of Law is an Equal Opportunity Employer.  We value candidates who can bring our community a variety of backgrounds and experiences.

Permanent Injunction issued against Wikileaks

LLB has previously brought a few documents to your attention, made available via wikileaks here and here.  On Friday, a federal judge ordered the site shut down, issuing a permanent injunction against the wiki at a Cayman Islands bank request.  But then, reconsidered and decided to let the wiki live, but only if it refrained from posting actual documents.  Time will tell how this pans out.

Read more about it here, here, here, and here.  [JJ]

Update: See also Time's A Coming Chill Over Internet Freedom? [JH]

Fidel Castro Steps Down

CNN is reporting that  Fidel Castro, 81, announced his resignation as president of Cuba and commander in chief of Cuba's military yesterday in a letter published by the state-run newspaper Granma. [text of letter | Castro's Wikipedia entry] Cuba's leaders plan to elect a president within days. Castro's brother, Raúl, the country's defense minister, has been named publicly as his successor.

Follow developments using Google's News Search and blogosphere buzz using Google's Blog Search. [JH]

Now Available The Bluebook Online

Recently launched, The Bluebook Online! At first glance it looks like a well-executed service. Please add your thoughts as comments to this post.

• Online Subscription for Individual and Multiple User Accounts
• Additional Subscription Information from the Help Section of the Site
• Video tours of The Bluebook Online

See also the Harvard Law Review's Press Release.

[JH]

Professional Reading: Public Services in Law Libraries: Evolution and Innovation in the 21st Century

The theme for the latest issue of Legal Reference Services Quarterly, 26 Legal Ref. Serv. Q. 1-302 (2007), is "Public Services in Law Libraries: Evolution and Innovation in the 21st Century." The issue includes a number of interesting articles, including the following highly recommended ones:

Kay M. Todd, Compentencies of Law Librarianship: Reference, Research, and Patron Services, 26 Legal Ref. Serv. Q. 7-33 (2007).

H. Kumar Percy Jayasuriya and Frances M. Brillantine, Student Services in the 21st Century: Evolution and Innovation in Discovering student Needs, Teaching Information Literacy, and Designing Library 2.0-based Student Services, 26 Legal Ref. Serv. Q. 135-170 (2007).

Jan Ryan Novak and Leslie A. Pardo, The Evolving Nature of Faculty Publications, 26 Legal Ref. Serv. Q. 209-232 (2007).

[JH]

Gary Price on the Ask SE

Interesting article from Pandia Search Engine News: "The search engine Ask doesn’t get the attention it deserves. Pandia talks to Gary Price, Director of Online Info Resources at Ask about the soul of Ask and how this search engine works to improve your access to online information of all kinds."  [RJ]

Sidebar, the Blog for Court TV Junkies

When Court TV was replaced with truTV ("not reality. actuality" programming) this year [our post], fans were left with only six hours of trial coverage, In Session, which is aired from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. (ET). But Sidebar, In Session's blog, has been added to the mix. "Sidebar takes you behind the scenes of the day's legal headlines with breaking news and in-depth analysis from In Session's anchors and correspondents."

From the blog's About Page:

At Sidebar, our distinguished anchors and correspondents will bring you the latest breaking trial news, along with expert legal analysis. We’ll tell you what’s coming up on the docket. Our correspondents and anchors take you behind the scenes. We’ll give you our observations, insights, comments and opinions on what is happening in and around America’s courtrooms. We are excited about our new home at CNN.com and look forward to your suggestions and ideas as we continue to develop this new venture.

[JH]

IP Bibliography Published by Copyright Society

Bibliography of recent articles from law reviews and copyright periodicals at 55 J. Copyright Soc'y U.S.A. 111-123 (2007) [Westlaw] [JH]

Opening: Associate Dean for Information Resoures and Law Library Director, Cecil C Humphreys School of Law, The University of Memphis

The Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law at The University of Memphis invites applications for the position of Associate Dean for Information Resources and Law Library Director ("Director"). The Director is the chief administrative officer in the law library, reporting directly to the Dean of the Law School.

Required: Candidates must have a JD degree from an ABA approved law school, an MLS or equivalent degree from an ALA-accredited institution, and a distinguished academic record. Candidates also should demonstrate excellence in their professional work after their academic credentials were earned. Experience in law library administration is required as well as a record or the promise of achievement as a teacher and scholar. The successful candidate must show the interpersonal and professional skills necessary to meet the responsibilities of the position and must be committed to excellence in meeting the informational needs of the faculty, students and other library patrons.

Responsibilities: The Director of the Law Library is responsible for all operations of the library including budgeting, planning, and administration. The Director plays an important role in shaping the future of the collection, supporting and promoting the scholarship of the faculty and students, and serving the community. The Director will also have oversight responsibilities over the Law School’s information technology operations.

Although the Director’s primary responsibility is leadership of the Law Library, the Director may from time to time also have some teaching responsibilities. In addition, the Director is expected to engage in production of legal scholarship, which may be in the realm of law library or information services matters.

As a new facility for the Law School, including the Law Library, is under construction, the Director will have decision-making responsibility for any design changes and other decisions with respect to the new library, and will be responsible for the move expected during the summer of 2009.

Salary and Benefits: The Director of the Law Library is a full time member of the law faculty. Depending on experience and qualifications, the Director may be hired as a tenured or tenure-track Professor, Associate Professor, or Assistant Professor. Salary will be commensurate with previous experience and rank.

To Apply: Candidates should submit a letter of interest, résumé and names of at least three references to Professor June Entman, Chair, Law Library Director Search Committee, Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law, 207 Humphreys Law School, Memphis, TN 38152-3140; jfentman@memphis.edu. Applications will be reviewed until the position is filled but those received by February 15, 2008, will receive first consideration. The position is expected to have a start date of July 1, 2008.

While the School of Law does not treat race, color, religion, national origin, gender, age, disability, or sexual orientation as dispositive in hiring decisions, the School has a strong institutional commitment to the diversity of its faculty and is particularly interested in receiving expressions of interest from persons who will add to its diversity.

Presidents' Day Reading: Our Lawyer-Presidents: From Law Office to Oval Office

Twenty five of our presidents have been lawyers. This ABA Museum of Law book takes a look at how their legal careers shaped their presidencies. [JH]

America's Lawyer-Presidents: From Law Office to Oval Office
Edited by Norman Gross

List Price: $39.95
Hardcover: 384 pages
Publisher: Northwestern University Press (2004)
ISBN-10: 0810112183
ISBN-13: 978-0810112186

Book Description: America's Lawyer-Presidents sheds light on the legal backgrounds of each of these chief executives and how their experiences as lawyers impacted and shaped their presidencies. Written by historians and presidential scholars and featuring an engaging and image-rich presentation, America's Lawyer-Presidents provides new insights into our national leaders and their lives and times, from colonial days to the present.

About the Author: A lawyer and educator, Norman Gross is currently director of the ABA Museum of Law in Chicago. He formerly served as director of Entrepreneurial Projects for the ABA and headed its Division for Public Education. America's Lawyer-Presidents is a co-publication with the American Bar Association Museum of Law.

Table of Contents

Individual chapters on the lawyer-Presidents have been written by professors, lawyers, and historians of the Presidency.

  Foreword by Sandra Day O'Connor   
  Preface by James R. Silkenat, Robert A. Stein   
  Introduction by Norman Gross   
  Law in colonial America by Lawrence M. Friedman
  John Adams : patriot lawyer by L. Kinvin Wroth
  Thomas Jefferson : legal wordsmith by David T. Konig
  James Monroe : occasional lawyer by Daniel Preston
  John Quincy Adams : eloquent advocate by Howard Jones
  Law in antebellum America by Lawrence M. Friedman
  Andrew Jackson : frontier justice by David S. Heidler, Jeanne T. Heidler
  Martin van Buren : boy lawyer by James A. Henretta
  John Tyler : Virginia counsel by E. Lee Shepard
  James K. Polk : sometime lawyer by Robert W. Johannsen
  Millard Fillmore : lawyer mentor by Elbert B. Smith
  Franklin Pierce : courtroom orator by Christopher M. Johnson
  James Buchanan : strict constructionist by Jean H. Baker
  Abraham Lincoln : prairie lawyer by Paul Finkelman
  Selected cases of A. Lincoln, Esq., attorney and counsellor-at-law by John A. Lupton
  Lincoln's notes for a law lecture
  Law in the gilded age by Lawrence M. Friedman
  Rutherford B. Hayes : volunteer counsel by Ari Hoogenboom 
  James A. Garfield : Supreme Court counsel by Allan Peskin 
  Chester A. Arthur : war claims lawyer by Thomas C. Reeves
  Grover Cleveland : an honest lawyer by Eugene C. Gerhart
  Benjamin Harrison : high-priced counsel by Allen Sharp
  William McKinley : a good lawyer by Lewis L. Gould
  Law in the new century by Lawrence M. Friedman
  William Howard Taft : Mr. Chief Justice by Melvyn Dubofsky 
  Woodrow Wilson : reluctant lawyer by Melvin I. Urofsky
  Calvin Coolidge : country lawyer by Russell Fowler
  Franklin Delano Roosevelt : contrarian counselor by Jerome J. Shestack 
  Law in modern America by Lawrence M. Friedman 
  Richard M. Nixon : bicoastal practitioner by Irwin F. Gellman 
  Gerald R. Ford : all-American counsel by David Horrocks
  William Jefferson Clinton : political lawyer by David H. Bennett
  Lawyer-presidents and their Supreme Court appointments by Barbara A. Perry
  Lawyer-presidents and their attorneys (general) by Cornell W. Clayton

Professional Reading: The Logic of Legal Reasoning

Check out Vern R. Walker's Discovering the Logic of Legal Reasoning. 35 Hofstra L. Rev. 1687-1707 (2007) [Westlaw]. From the introduction:

Despite our need for transparent and sound reasoning, we in the legal profession devote surprisingly little research to developing our own general methodology. This is in dramatic contrast to other fields and professions. We are not like mathematicians, whose reflection on their own method has given the world axiomatic proof and modern deductive logic. We are also unlike statisticians, who have developed the analytic methods in use in all areas of empirical research. Nor do we act like natural and social scientists, who carefully combine statistical methods with techniques for measurement and modeling that are tailored to their particular subject matters. Nor do we take the approach of the medical profession, which has refined various methodologies for diagnostic reasoning. We in the legal profession largely content ourselves with “knowing good legal reasoning when we see it.” We spend relatively little time refining general methods for discriminating between good patterns of reasoning and bad, or developing theories for explaining precisely why good patterns are good and bad patterns are bad. In sum, we do not pay particular attention to the logic of legal reasoning. For a profession so dependent upon constructing good arguments, we are oddly uninterested in good methodology for argument construction.

...

This Idea begins a discussion about why legal reasoning may exhibit distinctive features that merit logical analysis. It suggests that the demands of the rule of law combine with the pragmatic nature of legal reasoning to evolve distinctive patterns of reasoning. The Idea briefly discusses three types of legal reasoning. Rule-based reasoning and evidence evaluation, as they are found in law, exhibit distinctive logical features. So does second-order process reasoning, which can modify both rule-based reasoning and evidence evaluation. Taken together, these three types give legal reasoning a complex “default” character that is distinctive to it. In addition, the structure of the legal community promotes the evolution of reasoning patterns that are well-adapted to the task of solving legal problems. Empirical research is needed to discover the actual patterns that have evolved. This Idea cannot of course lay out designs for such empirical research. It must be enough for now to suggest why such research is needed, and why it promises to be a successful means of discovering the logic of legal reasoning.

Part II of this Article discusses the literature about law review article selection, focusing on the prior empirical research on this topic. Part III describes the present study, including the participants, the survey, and the methodology for the collection, analysis, and interpretation of the data. Part IV sets out the results of the study and explains the various conclusions that might be drawn from the data. Part V presents the written commentary of the law review editors in response to the survey questions based upon three recurring themes: (1) the poor quality of submitted articles; (2) the large volume of submissions; and (3) the frequency of "trading up." Part VI offers some advice for new law professors negotiating through the article selection process.

New Institute of Medicine Study, Knowing What Works in Health Care

Knowing What Works in Health Care: A Roadmap for the Nation
Jill Eden, Ben Wheatley, Barbara McNeil, and Harold Sox, Editors, Committee on Reviewing Evidence to Identify Highly Effective Clinical Services, Institute of Medicine

National Academies Press, 2008
ISBN-10: 0-309-11352-0
ISBN-13: 978-0-309-11352-6

Book Description: There is currently heightened interest in optimizing health care through the generation of new knowledge on the effectiveness of health care services. The United States must sustantially strengthen its capacity for assessing evidence on what is known and not known about "what works" in health care. Even the most sophisticated clinicians and consumers struggle to learn which care is appropriate and under what circumstances. Knowing What Works in Health Care looks at the three fundamental health care issues in the United States--setting priorities for evidence assessment, assessing evidence (systematic review), and developing evidence-based clinical practice guidelines--and how each of these contributes to the end goal of effective, practical health care systems. This book provides an overall vision and roadmap for improving how the nation uses scientific evidence to identify the most effective clinical services. Knowing What Works in Health Care gives private and public sector firms, consumers, health care professionals, benefit administrators, and others the authoritative, independent information required for making essential informed health care decisions.

Health Care Opinion Leaders’ Views on the Presidential Candidates’ Health Reform Plans

From the Commonwealth Fund:

"The 13th Commonwealth Fund/Modern Healthcare Health Care Opinion Leaders Survey asked a diverse group of experts for their perspective on the health care reform proposals of the 2008 presidential candidates. Survey participants strongly support reform proposals that applied a mixed private–public market approach. Additional favored policy strategies for reform include a requirement for individuals to obtain health insurance, new private market regulations, and a requirement for employers to provide coverage or contribute to a coverage fund. Alternatively, respondents think proposals that focus on tax incentives to purchase individual private health insurance are not an effective method for controlling the rising costs of health care or achieving universal coverage. Health care opinion leaders call for the next president to simultaneously address universal coverage and quality, efficiency, and cost containment policies to move our health care system toward high performance.

Also available are two related commentaries, Reform Is No 'Either-Or': We Must Fix the Payment System Along with Access and Tough Choices Ahead: Candidates Ignore Pain of Needed Cuts to Health Costs

What about our vets? The CBO has released The Health Care System for Veterans: An Interim Report:

"In recent years, the number of patients served by the medical system of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has increased substantially. At the same time, VA’s ratings for the quality of care and customer satisfaction have apparently improved. Many people both within and outside the department have pointed to several factors as being key to achieving those results:

• Organizational restructuring designed to share decisionmaking authority between officials in the central office, regional managers, and key personnel at dispersed medical facilities;
• Performance measurement targeted toward improving the quality of care; and
• Extensive use of health information technology (health IT).

This interim report provides a brief overview of VA’s medical system, summarizes some of the recent evidence on the quality of VA’s medical care and describes the incentives for quality that VA has included in its performance management system. The report also examines ways in which the department’s health IT may affect the quality of care. CBO’s final report, anticipated in early 2008, will address the potential for other government and private health care providers to make use of VA’s experience, along with other issues." 

[RJ]

Codes, Rules, and Regulations of the State of New York Now Online

From the press release:

"The New York State Department of State today announced that an unofficial compilation of all State codes, rules, and regulations, which runs more than 58,000 pages, is now available on the Department of State website in searchable format.

"We at the Department of State have been known as the 'Keeper of Records' for more than two centuries," Secretary of State Lorraine Cortés-Vázquez said.  "Today we build on that tradition by putting online all of the State's codes, rules and regulations in an easy to search format.  This will make it significantly easier to do business in New York, which should reduce costs, and we expect, raise compliance levels as well."

The codes, rules, and regulations, commonly known as the NYCRR, can now be accessed at the Department of State website at www.dos.state.ny.us/info/nycrr.htm.   The material can be searched with words and phrases.   A drill down table of contents will be added in several weeks.  The text is compliant with the American with Disabilities Act."  [RJ]

Louis Mirando Appointed Chief Law Librarian at Osgoode Hall Law School

From the annoucement:

Patrick Monahan, Dean of Osgoode Hall Law School of York University, today announced the appointment of Louis Mirando as Osgoode’s Chief Law Librarian, effective March 1.

Mirando, who has a Master of Library Science degree from the University of Toronto and has also done post-graduate studies at the University of Cologne in Germany and at U of T, was Director, Library Services at Torys LLP in Toronto for the past 15 years.

Prior to that, he held a variety of library-related positions including Acting Library Manager at Aird & Berlis LLP, Reference Librarian at U of T’s Bora Laskin Law Library, and Special Collections Librarian and Instructor at the University of Western Ontario. He also worked as a Senior Account Executive at LexisNexis Canada and S