Law Librarian Blog

'Tis the Season for Year in Review Blog Posts

My favorite year in review post has to be Sarah Glassmeyer's 2010 Was an Interesting Year. She writes (and I intentionally omit the context):

I got nailed by a lot of balls in 2010.

I’ll wait for the #Iam12 crowd to stop giggling. Ready? Okay.

See her 2010 Was an Interesting Year for details. About 2010, Sarah writes

I  stretched myself and didn’t take the safe route. Some things I even deliberately did because the thought of it terrified me.  So, even though everything didn’t work out perfectly, I can’t say that I really regret too much. I did the best I could and stayed true to myself.

And adds "There’s supposedly a Chinese curse that goes 'May you live in interesting times'  and 2010 was definitely…interesting. The goal for 2011 is to have a more boring year." I doubt she will achieve that goal. In fact, who would want that for Sarah! Continue to stretch and stay true to yourself is a far better goal for 2011. [JH]

President Obama Announces Recess Appointment for Public Printer: CWA Senior Vice President, William J. Boarman

From yesterday's White House Announcement:

About William J. Boarman:
Boarman recently served as President of the Printing, Publishing & Media Workers Sector of the Communications Workers of America (CWA) and the Senior Vice President of CWA. He has been associated with the printing industry, its labor relations and personnel management for over 40 years starting with his four-year apprenticeship at McArdle Printing in Washington, D.C., succeeding to Journeyman Printer (Practical Printer by Trade) in 1971. In 1974 Boarman accepted an appointment as Printer to GPO. In 1977, Boarman took a leave of absence from GPO to serve in various elected posts within the International Typographical Union, which merged with CWA in 1987. He served as chairman of the CWA/ITU Negotiated Pension Plan, a multi-employer defined benefit pension plan with assets of $1 billion; President of the International Allied Printing Trades Association; and President of the Union Printers Home, a 122-bed skilled nursing facility in Colorado Springs, CO. Boarman served three terms as co-chair of the Council of Institutional Investors (CII) and as the first-ever public member of the Maryland Commission on Judicial Disabilities.

[JH]

eBook Trends That Will Change the Future of Publishing Sooner Rather Than Later (excluding, perhaps, WEXIS eBooks)

Philip Ruppel, president of McGraw-Hill Professional, identifies five eBook trends that will change the future of publishing:

1. Enhanced E-Books Are Coming and Will Only Get Better
2. The Device War Is Nearly Over
3. The $9.99 E-Book Won’t Last Forever
4. The Contextual Upsell Will be a Business Model to Watch
5. Publishers Will Be More Important Than Ever

About the last listed trend Ruppel writes

Despite the hype around self-publishing via the web, publishing houses will play an even greater role in an e-book world. Commodity content is everywhere (and largely free), so high-quality vetted, edited content — which takes a staff of experts — will be worth a premium.

Well, I can think of one major legal publisher who needs to ratchet-up edited content by its "publisher's staff" if it wants to offer something more than very expensive commodity content in its current sales catalog of titles in print and electronic form.

Rupple also writes that "The e-book of the not-too-distant future will be much more than text. Interactivity has arrived and will change the nature of the e-book." Ah, well, not yet in the eBooks offered by traditional legal publishers. By and large TR Legal, LexisNexis and CCH law ebooks today are not much more than digital editions of their print versions. See, e.g., TR Legal eBooks Available in Kindle Editions: Run with the pack strategy trumps claim of being "ahead of the curve" and CCH Launches eBooks for Tax, Estates and Accounting Titles; Law Journal Press Launches Online Editions for Supplemented Treatises. 

In the legal academy market, imagine Rupple's "contextual upsell" for law student eCasebooks and eTreatises where study aids can be sold by way of in-book app purchases. Of course, first sources cited in those eTextbooks have to be embedded with links to each publisher's online search service. 

Publishers may be more important than ever in the law eBook market but "high-quality vetted, edited content" for enhanced eBooks in this market may be products by publishing houses whose names we have never heard of. Check out Rupple's post on Mashable for his commentary on eBook publishing trends. [JH]

Friday Fun on Thursday: Law School Fear Reckoning (Or wake up, it's almost 2011)

Want to be the Next Public Printer of the United States?

Sounds like there is an opening but I didn't see an ad for the gig, at least not yet.

From the GPO press release:

Public Printer of the United States Bob Tapella announces his resignation as head of the U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO). Tapella has led the men and women of the 150-year-old agency the last three years.  He was nominated by President George W. Bush and confirmed by the U.S. Senate in 2007 to become the 25th Public Printer of the United States.  Deputy Public Printer Paul Erickson becomes the Acting Public Printer effective immediately

Prior to becoming Public Printer, Tapella served as a senior executive at GPO for five years. He was part of the team that took GPO from a survival mode to the thriving operation it is today. Tapella helped turn GPO’s financial situation from years of significant losses into the positive net operating income the agency enjoys today.  Fiscal year 2010 marked the seventh consecutive year of positive results. The agency also launched GPO’s Federal Digital System (FDsys) during Tapella’s tenure, giving the American people a one-stop site to authentic, published government information.

[JH]

Using eBooks and eReaders in Your Library

The Creekview High School Library (a/k/a The Unquiet Library) staff in Georgia have been documenting the library's process of acquiring and lending Kindles and Kindle book editions on The Unquiet Librarian blog and in a series of YouTube videos, which are listed below.

• Arrival and Setup of The Unquiet Library's New Kindles
• Preparing Kindles for Circulation
• Cataloging the Actual Kindle eReader Device
• Interview with the First Student Who Checked Out One of the Library's Kindle

ALA TechSource Workshop: Using E-Books and E-Readers in Your Library. From the blog post announcement:

With the recent explosion in the popularity of eReading devices, many librarians are grappling with how to effectively integrate these devices into their services and collection. In  two 90-minute sessions on January 25th and February 1st, 2011 at 4:00pm Eastern, Sue Polanka [Head of Reference and Instruction, Wright State University Libraries] will provide practical guidance on how to begin purchasing eBooks for your library to lend electronically and how to purchase eReader devices for patron use.

Details here.

End Note: Jennifer Wondracek, Instructional Services Reference Librarian, Univ. of Florida's Lawton Chiles Legal Information Center, provides an overview of law eBooks and apps on RIPS Law Librarian Blog. See her Ebooks and Apps in the Legal Realm (Nov. 30, 2010) and this follow-up to her initial post, Ebook Apps update (Dec. 8, 2010). [JH]

Opening: Reference Librarian, Drake University Law Library

Drake University Law Library is seeking a Reference Librarian with a strong service orientation to help provide patron services to members of the Law School, Drake University, the local bench and bar, and the public. Located in Iowa’s capital city, the library enjoys a relationship with other local special libraries, including the State Law Library, and other local academic libraries, including the main library of Drake University. This is a full-time tenure-track position with faculty rank. The Reference Librarian reports to the Associate Dean for Information Resources and Technology. 
 
Responsibilities: The Reference Librarian provides reference services (including one evening per week during the regular academic year), coordinates reference operations, provides instructional sessions to groups and classes, team-teaches a one-credit advanced legal research course , prepares and updates research guides and other library publications, supervises the Public Services Administrative Assistant, oversees interlibrary loan and document delivery services, schedules Information Desk staffing, and is responsible for other administrative duties as assigned.
 
Required: MLS degree from an ALA-accredited institution; library and reference experience; knowledge of print and electronic information resources; demonstrated administrative and organizational ability; excellent oral, written, and interpersonal communication skills.
 
Preferred: J.D. degree from an ABA-accredited institution; relevant experience in an academic law library.
 
Salary and Benefits: Salary commensurate with qualifications and experience. Excellent fringe benefits, including TIAA/CREF and tuition waivers for employee and dependents.

Applications: The position is available on March 1, 2011. Applications will be accepted immediately and until the position is filled; however, applications submitted by February 1, 2011 will receive priority consideration.

A full job description and further information about Drake University Law School is available at http://www.law.drake.edu/library/referencePosition.html

For consideration please email a cover letter, a resume, and names of three references to david.hanson(at)drake.edu: Associate Professor David Hanson, Search Committee Chair.

Voting for the 2010 ABA Journal Blawg 100 Will End COB Tomorrow

"The Blawg 100 is compiled by ABA Journal staff and is largely a favorites’ list. Most are blawgs that are regularly updated, contain original content, opinion and/or analysis. Many are also on our radar because the Journal staff finds the posts useful in terms of tipping us off to news or generating posts we consider worthy of coverage." Quoting from the Blawg 100 FAQ.

This is the fourth annual ABA Journal Blawg 100 and the second year one of my favorite blogs, 3 Geeks and a Law Blog, has been nominated. As of this morning, 3 Geeks is leading in the Law Biz category but let's make sure this must-read blog by members of our profession gets the recognition it deserves. Head over to the 2010 ABA Journal Blawg 100 site, register to vote, hit the Law Biz category and click on your mouse for 3 Geeks! Winners of the popular vote will be announced in January.

Vote leaders in each category as of this morning:

• Law Biz: 3 Geeks and a Law Blog
• Court Watch: SCOTUSblog
• News: Above the Law
• Law Prof Plus: Wills, Trusts & Estates Prof Blog
• Torts: Abnormal Use
• In Labor: Work Matters
• IP: IPWatchdog
• Criminal Justice: What the Judge Ate for Breakfast
• IMHO: The Legal Satyricon
• Niche: TheCorporateCounsel.net Blog
• For Fun: Law Law Land
• Legal Tech: iPhone J.D.

As in past years, members of our Law Professor Blogs Network were nominated for this year's ABAJ Blawg 100. Sentencing Law and Policy was nominated in the Criminal Justice category, and, in the Law Prof Plus category, Legal Profession Blog, TaxProf Blog and current category vote leader, Wills, Trusts & Estates Prof Blog. Congratulations to all. [JH]

US News Rankings Czar Urges Prospective Law Students to Use Rankings "Wisely"

According to a recent Kaplan Test Prep survey 30 percent of test takers say that a law school's ranking was the most critical factor in selecting a law school to apply to. US News rankings czar Bob Morse says this is "the absolutely incorrect usage of the rankings" if "prospective students or their advisers are using the U.S. News law school rankings as the only basis to choose one law school over another. ... rankings should only supplement—and not replace—careful thought and emphasis on all the factors that really matter. The rankings can inform a person's thinking, but they shouldn't be used as the easy answer. We urge everyone to use them wisely."

Morse observes that "many other factors that cannot be measured need to go into such an important decision, including the overall cost, location, course offerings, school culture, job prospects, advising or mentoring opportunities, and campus life." Wait a minute, aren't "job prospects" measured by way of law schools unaudited placement data a factor used to produce the US News law school rankings? Isn't "overall cost" (when defined as law school expenditure per student) the most important underlying factor in Morse's ranking methodology? [JH]

Putting the iPad to Work

Tablet Legal's Josh Barrett is posting a series of iPad apps reviews for lawyers which also may be of interest to law librarians who want to put their iPad to work for them. Here's Barrett's introduction to the series. So far four of the planned posts have been published:

• File Storage and Access
• Writing
• Calculator
• PDF Annotation

More to come covering:

• File Management and Use
• Microsoft Word and Excel Compatibility
• RSS / News
• Presentations
• Remote Desktop Connection

Check out the Tablet Legal's Apps category link for future posts.

See also Business Insider's 10 Ways People Are Using The iPad To Create Content, Not Just Consume It and The 10 Best iPad Apps for Business. [JH]

Opening: Assistant Director for Faculty Services, Univ of South Carolina School of Law

The Coleman Karesh Law Library, University of South Carolina School of Law, seeks motivated, experienced candidates for the position of Assistant Director for Faculty Services.  The Law Library is an academic research library with the primary goal of supporting the work of the 45 faculty and over 700 students of the School of Law, but which also actively serves the University community, state government, the Bench and Bar, and citizens of South Carolina. The Law Library is independently administered with a collection of more than 500,000 volumes, ever-increasing technological sophistication, and a staff of 19.  
 
This position coordinates library services for all full-time and visiting faculty of the School of Law.  The incumbent is responsible for planning, implementing, and coordinating the delivery of research and document delivery services to Law School faculty and supervises a team of law-student research assistants.  The Assistant Director for Faculty Services also participates in teaching legal research to law students.  For complete information on duties and qualifications for this position, and to apply, please see the University website at http://hr.sc.edu/employ.html (search for Requisition # 003136).
 
Find out more about the library at http://www.law.sc.edu/library/ and more about Columbia, South Carolina, at http://www.columbiasc.net/.

Earl Borgeson: Passing of a Respected Best Friend to Many in the Law Library Community

In We Love to Help Each Other, 91 L. Libr. J. 195 (1999) Earl Borgeson wrote "everything you might want in a 'best friend' you will want to find in a mentor." Many who knew Earl Borgeson fondly remember him as a caring and giving mentor, in Borgeson's words as a "wise and loyal advisor, a teacher, a coach, a trusted counselor, a guide ... a warm and sharing personality who had a developed a body of expertise, who had unique skills for which [he or she did] learn[ed]." Earl Borgeson passed away on December 25, 2010 at the age of 88.

A past president of AALL (1968-69), Borgeson's career including serving as Professor of Law and Director, Southern Methodist University (1978-88), Associate Librarian, Los Angeles County Law Library (1975-78), Associate Director, Stanford University Library (1970-75), and Law Librarian, Harvard Law Library (1954-70). In 1988, he received AALL's Marian Gould Gallagher Distinguished Service Award. The Earl C. Borgeson Research in Law Librarianship Award at the University of Washington Information School's law Librarianship program was named in his honor in 2001.

I never met Earl Borgeson but his living legacy certainly includes all who benefited from his mentoring. No doubt he helped many law librarians by being "continuing accessib[le] for discussions of new and vexing problems and, when needed, comfort and reassurance when one has to pay the price for error." As law librarians who enter our profession seek out a professional advisor and confidant, Borgeson's advice is timeless.

Just keep in mind that while there are structures for establishing such relations, the best way is to pick out a law librarian you respect. From reputation, position, writings, or whatever, take the initiative to make contact and ask your question.

91 L. Libr. J. at 197. (Emphasis added.) [JH]

Dennis Kennedy's 2010 Blawggies

Few have been as close a watcher of law blogging developments for so long as Dennis Kennedy has. His first Blawggie awards was published in December 2004. Over the years, awards categories have changed to reflect the changing landscape of the law blogosphere but law librarian blogs have been recognized, oftentimes, as in this year, in the Best Legal Blog Category. In 2004, law librarian blogs were runner-up to group blogs in the Best Legal Blog Trends.

The most important trend in law-related blogging category has always been a very interesting feature of Kennedy's annual Blawggies posts. This year the winner is Social Media, the Mobile Platform and Personal Portals. About this trend Kennedy writes

Social media has had a huge impact on the frequency and types of posting blawggers do. If you take my blog as an example, my frequency of blogging might be the lowest ever (about once a week or so) and many of the things I probably would have blogged about in the past now appear as links on DennisKennedy.Microblog, my blog’s Twitter account.

...

It used to be that websites and blogs made a great effort to drive people back to the website or blog and capture the reader there. The website or blog was the one central “home base” (as Chris Brogan and others call it). Now, I see our web presence as much more distributed and our audience finding us in a variety of unrelated ways. The key thing is not to “drive and capture,” but to recognize the different routes people take and the different audiences, and make each location a “personal portal” that lets your audience easily find and get to your other presences, if they choose to do so. This means more repurposing, more linking and a more open and fluid web presence than in the past. It’s challenging, but it’s exciting. It will be interesting to see how much longer blogging awards like the Blawggies still make sense in the dynamic world of social media, apps and new developments.

About the impact of other social media web communication avenues on law blogging, Kennedy writes:

As I predicted in my 2009 Blawggies post, the biggest trend in blawgging in 2010 is the continuing movement of blawggers into social media. It’s definitely decreased the frequency of blog posting by many blawggers and changed what gets written about on a blog as opposed to distributed via social media. As I considered the 2010 Blawggie awards, I was surprised by how many well-known blawgs were not very active this past year because the authors were using social media as their primary daily outlet.

Check out Kennedy's 2010 Blawggie Award Categories and Winners ("[T]his seventh edition of the awards makes them the longest running annual awards list for law-related blogs selected by a lawyer named Dennis Kennedy living in St. Louis, Missouri. It’s difficult to keep a blog going for that length of time, let alone maintain an ongoing feature on blog for so long. I’ve enjoyed seeing how what once was just a crazy idea has turned into a bit of an institution in the world of law-related blogging.") [JH]

Command and Control at DePaul University: Is DePaul Law's New Dean a Glutton for Punishment?

"Announcing the new Dean three days before Xmas when no one is around actually is *Not* normal......but that's what DePaul University has done," wrote Chicago Law prof Brian Leiter about the timing of the announcement that Gregory Mark, Vice Dean, Professor of Law and Justice Nathan L. Jacobs Scholar, Rutgers-Newark, was appointed the new dean of DePaul Law. Well, it certainly was politically expedient, if DePaul University Provost Helmut Epp wanted to leave the building quietly and quickly to avoid expected criticism from the DePaul Law community over this appointment. You see faculty and staff at DePaul University are on Christmas break. Essentially, DePaul is not "open for business" right now.

Why expect criticism? In DePaul Names New Law School Dean, Rejecting Choice of 90% of the Faculty, Cincinnati Law prof Paul Caron reports:

DePaul Provost Helmut Epp repeatedly assured the faculty over the past two years that he would honor its wishes in the selection of a permanent Dean. The dean search committee presented four finalists to the faculty, and the faculty voted two of the candidates as acceptable:  Dean Mark and current DePaul Associate Dean Brian F. Havel. The faculty then voted 35-4 in favor of the universally respected and admired Associate Dean Havel, who is ideally situated to heal the rift between the administration and law school.

The timing of the announcement of Dean Mark's appointment three days before Christmas, when most faculty and students are away from the law school, appears designed to quell protest of the decision and to make the appointment a fait accompli when classes resume Jan. 10.  The DePaul administration's actions are especially disheartening for a Catholic university, dedicated to the Vincentian ideal of loving God through serving others: "the DePaul community is above all characterized by ennobling the God-given dignity of each person."

For one illustration of the fallout over DePaul University's heavy-handed actions during this still on-going fiasco, see the DePaul Law faculty resolution upon the announcement of the interim dean appointment after DePaul fired its by all accounts very popular and productive Law Dean here.

No one is saying or implying that incoming Dean Gregory Mark is not qualified for the appointment or that the appointment violated ABA requirements but as Dan Fuller, Senior Associate Dean for Academic and Faculty Affairs and Professor of Law, Drexel Law, wrote in DePaul Law Hires New Dean, Reignites Agita:

[W]hile some universities can get away with ignoring a mere preference, DePaul...having been through the ringer in the past couple of years might have benefited from being a little more deferential towards its faculty.

Chicago Law prof Brian Leiter adds:

It would have been prudent, of course, for the DePaul Provost to have deferred to the faculty preference in this instance, given the sordid history, but Provost Epp is not notable for his prudence or his judgment.  As Caron notes (and as we expected), several DePaul faculty are weighing outside offers.  Incoming Dean Mark will have his work cut out for him, to put it mildly.

Caron writes "[Mark] presumably did not know the full facts about the situation at DePaul before accepting the deanship. Now that several faculty have provided him with more information, he hopefully will work with the administration and faculty to find a solution." I have to think Mark knew enough about the situation to conclude that his acceptance of this appointment is indicative of being a glutton for punishment. Perhaps that's what it is going to take. Good luck.

Anyone have any idea when Provost Epp will retire? Since the position of university provost is oftentimes filled by someone tasked to do a university's dirty work, would a change in DePaul University's command and control structure at the provost level even matter? As an alumnus of DePaul (not Law) and former full-time library employee (also not Law) at DePaul, I hope but am not holding my breath that the relationship between the University and its Law School will improve any time soon. We will just have to wait and see what the University promised its new Law dean to accept this appointment and whether it fulfills its promise to the new dean.  [JH]

For some background on the DePaul Law fiasco, see these earlier LLB posts:

• Honesty Not the Best Policy at DePaul: Law Dean Fired for Disclosing Required Information to ABA Accreditation Committee; Associate Dean Resigns in Protest (June 22, 2009)
• Interim Dean of DePaul Law Appointed (June 22, 2009)
• Another Shoe Drops at DePaul: How Many More to Come? (July 30, 2009)
• Another Chapter in the "Papist" Administration of DePaul Law (Sept. 10, 2010)

Addressing U.S. National Interests in Cyberspace Security

"The United States’ overriding national interest in cyberspace is to preserve and extend the Internet as a tool for economic efficiency at home and as a facilitator for economic exchange internationally. The current level of criminal activity, espionage, and preparation of the battlefield in cyberspace threatens to stall if not wipe out the economic gains produced by the networking of systems over the past two decades. Moreover, an overreaction to these threats could be equally devastating. In seeking to improve security in cyberspace, the United States must work to preserve the core attributes of the network that make it so valuable for economic exchange: innovation, openness, and limited governance. These attributes make the network flexible, so that new uses can be developed rapidly, and scalable, so that millions of new users and devices can be connected each year, expanding the free flow of ideas and the reach of international commerce. Addressing problems of security in cyberspace at the expense of these attributes would not serve U.S. national interests," writes Robert K. Knake in a Council on Foreign Relations special report entitled "Internet Governance in an Age of Cyber Insecurity."

To actively combat cyber crime, industrial espionage, and cyber warfare threats "while it works to protect U.S. national interests in the preservation and extension of the Internet as a platform for increased efficiency and economic exchange," Knake suggests the federal government should be guided by the following three principles:

1. The United States should take a networked and distributed approach to a networked and distributed problem.
2. The United States should move toward holding states accountable
3. "The United States should lead by example."

About leading by example, Knake writes:

[The federal government] should take steps to clean up its national network, work to stop its systems from being used in international cyberattacks, prioritize criminal investigation of cyberattacks with foreign victims, and make clear that the primary goal of its military efforts in cyberspace is to defend the United States and preserve international connectivity.

For a brief review of the CFR special report which includes a link to download a free copy, see Internet Governance in an Age of Cyber Insecurity. [JH]

Ralph Nader, Really? Congressional Hearing on the Espionage Act and the Legal and Constitutional Issues Raised by WikiLeaks

On December 16, 2010, the House Committee on the Judiciary conducted a hearing on the Espionage Act and the legal and constitutional issues raised by WikiLeaks. The link to the video webcast is available of this page. The witness list identifies the following participants:

• Abbe D. Lowell, Partner, McDermott Will & Emery LLP, Washington, DC
• Kenneth L. Wainstein, Partner, O'Melveny & Myers LLP, Washington, DC
• Geoffrey R. Stone, Edward H. Levi Distinguished Service Professor and Former Dean, University of Chicago Law School, Chicago, IL
• Gabriel Schoenfeld, Ph.D., Senior Fellow, Hudson Institute, New York, NY
• Thomas S. Blanton, Director, National Security Archive at George Washington University, Washington, DC
• Stephen I. Vladeck, Professor of Law, American University Washington College of Law, Washington, DC
• Ralph Nader, Legal Advocate and Author, Washington, DC

Ralph Nader, really? That's the best independent legal advocate the Committee's staff could think of? [JH]

Opening: Law Librarian, Supreme Court of Nevada

Under the general direction of the justices of the Supreme Court, the Law Librarian administers and manages the law library. The Law Librarian performs highly responsible administrative and legal research functions in directing professional level law library service to the Nevada Supreme Court, to all branches of state and local government, the state bar, other libraries and the general public. The Law Librarian also performs non-administrative duties as needed for the operation of the law library. Specific duties will include but are not limited to the following: Establish objectives, policies, goals and programs for the law library in order to provide professional level law library service to all branches of state and local government, the state bar, other libraries, and the general public; Plan, prepare, present and control budgets and manage all financial resources of the law library; Seek appropriate funding to support library programs; Administer the operational activities of the law library, including legal reference, technical services, accounting and fiscal management, collection development, public relations, education programs in legal research and bibliography, public programs, and property controls and inventory; Perform legal research for the Supreme Court and other clientele of the law library; Apply the latest computer and other technological developments to law library organization and legal research. Provide and oversee electronic research for court legal staff; Coordinate growth and development of legal research collections and databases for the law library; Ensure the optimal use of the library facility to accommodate the evolving needs of customers and staff; Strategically plan for future growth and development of the law library; Serve on commissions and committees as required by the chief justice. This position is located in Carson City, Nevada.
 
Entry Level Knowledge, Skills and Abilities:  (Applicants will be screened for possession of these through written, oral, performance or other evaluation procedures.) Have detailed knowledge of modern principles and practices of professional law library administration, the bibliography of basic and specialized legal literature and the research methodology to use those materials; methods of supervision, budgeting and fiscal management; employee and public relations. Must also have the ability to: organize, direct, coordinate and evaluate activities of library staff; effectively develop and incorporate new programs to carry out the goals of the law library; develop and implement education programs in legal research and  bibliography for court personnel, members of the bar, paralegals and legal secretaries, and librarians of state institutions, public libraries, and county law libraries; establish and maintain effective relationships with public and private officials; express ideas clearly and concisely, orally and in writing.

Education and Experience: Statutory requirements (NRS 2.440) for this position are: Graduate of a library school accredited by the American Library Association and have at least 2 years of library experience in an administrative capacity and have at least 1 year of training in a law school or 2 years of experience as an employee in a law library. Preferred requirements are: Master’s degree in Library Science from an American Library Association accredited library school and 5 years of professional level library work including a minimum of 2 years in a supervisory and/or administrative capacity and/or a Juris Doctorate with 4 years experience in a law library.

Salary Range:  $95,633 - $101,276 DOE, employee/employer paid retirement.
 
Application Process: In order for you to be considered for this position, you must complete a Supreme Court of Nevada Employment Application, a cover letter, and a resume. It is your responsibility to provide specific, accurate and complete information describing how you meet the minimum qualifications in your original application materials. Applications are available at www.nevadajudiciary.us under the Administrative Office tab, where the application may be completed online, printed and mailed or delivered to:

Cynthia Sampson, Personnel Analyst
Administrative Office of the Courts
Supreme Court Building
201 South Carson Street, Suite 250
Carson City, Nevada 89701-4702

You may also submit your application packet via e-mail to lawlibrarian(at)nvcourts.nv.gov or via fax to (775) 684-1777
 
Deadline. The deadline to submit applications is Monday, January 31, 2011.  Applications received after January 31, 2011, will not be accepted.  
 
The Supreme Court of Nevada is an equal opportunity employer.  If accommodation for a disability is needed during the application or examination proce/ss, contact the Personnel Analyst at 775.684.1744.

20 Gadgets, Gizmos (Including Some Former Christmas Gifts), Services and Products That Became Obsolete During the Last Decade

See HuffPostTech's look back at the things that have become obsolete. And what did you open under the Christmas tree that will become just as obsolete in a couple of years? [JH]

Where is the Legislation That Banned Christmas?

A republication of LLB's Dec. 25, 2007 post.

Cromwellian apologists, like the Cromwell Association, argue that there is no evidence to support the myth that Oliver Cromwell banned Christmas:

There is no sign that Cromwell personally played a particularly large or prominent role in formulating or advancing the various pieces of legislation and other documents which restricted the celebration of Christmas, though from what we know of his faith and beliefs it is likely that he was sympathetic towards and supported such measures, and as Lord Protector from December 1653 until his death in September 1658 he supported the enforcement of the existing measures.

I see. He was just a fellow-traveler. The Cromwell Association explains that it was "the broader Godly or parliamentary party, working through and within the elected parliament, which in the 1640s clamped down on the celebration of Christmas and other saints’ and holy days."

OK but where is this legislation? Nigel Jamieson, Senior Lecturer in Law, University of Otago, New Zealand, has found it and his delightful tale of the research that went into locating the Ordinance 360 years after the fact is published in Oliver Cromwell—The Grinch That Stole Christmas, 26 Statute L. Rev. 189 (2005) [Westlaw (user account and plan coverage required)].

Although without royal assent, The Ordinance, bearing the date of 4 January 1645 and resolved upon before both Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament, provides in its 'Appendix touching Dayes and Places for Publique Worship':

There is no Day commanded in Scripture to be kept holy under the Gospel, but the Lord's Day, which is the Christian Sabbath.

Festival dayes, vulgarly called Holy dayes, having no Warrant in the Word of God, are not to be continued.

Jamieson explains that the application of this general prohibition against feast-days to the specific celebration of Christmas is clear from an earlier Ordinance, dated 19 December 1644, 'for the better observation of the monethly Fast; and more especially the next Wednesday, commonly called The Feast of the Nativity of Christ, Thorowout the Kingdome (sic) of England and Wales'. This Ordinance provided:

Whereas some doubts have been raised whether the next Fast shall be celebrated, because it falleth on the day which heretofore was usually called the feast of the Nativity of our Saviour. The Lords and Commons in Parliament assembled doe order and ordaine that publique notice be given that the Fast appointed to be kept on the last Wednesday in every moneth, ought to be observed until it be otherwise ordered by both Houses of Parliament: And that this day in particular is to be kept with the more solemne humiliation, because it may call to remembrance our sinnes, and the sinnes of our forefathers, who have turned this Feast, pretending the memory of Christ into an extreme forgetfulnessse of him, by giving liberty to carnall and sensuall delights, being contrary to the life which Christ himselfe led here upon earth, and to the spirituall life of Christ in our soules for the sanctifying and saving whereof Christ was pleased both to take a humane life, and to lay it down againe.

Probably only English legal historians and law librarians will appreciate Jamieson's research narrative. To them, I say, enjoy the pleasure of reading this article about the process of legislative research and legal authentication. Merry Christmas. [JH]

WikiLeaks Founder Assange's First Cable News Interview Since Being Released from Jail

Details with MSNBC interview video here. [JH]