Short Takes On The News

• The National Labor Relations Board issues a preliminary report covering investigations where an employee’s use of social media clashed with an employer’s social media policy.  Though there have been reports where an employee’s criticism of an employer has been protected, that protection is not a universal rule.  The report, authored by Acting General Counsel Lafe Solomon, covers 14 investigations by the NLRB.  It is available here.

• Law school is a waste of time according to Penelope Trunk, co-founder of Brazen Careerist.  Among her 5 points is that a law degree is not useful for non-law work and not worth the cost ($150k, her estimate) for that kind of work.  I suppose, but try being a law librarian these days without one.  She also says that most forms of graduate school are outdated.  Her statements are obviously provocative, though I’m not sure how much stock I’d put in them.  She describes the admissions test for law school as the LSA rather than the LSAT in the CNN report sourcing her comments.  A typo or a lack of detail on her part?  Read it here.

• Pennsylvania is holding hearings on rewriting its library code, the one that requires, for example, district library centers to hold at least 300 16 mm films.  Try explaining that to those “born digital.”  One other provision urged is term limits for library trustees.  Bill Hudson, acting administrator for the Library System of Lancaster County, is quoted:  "In the most distressing instances, some board members refuse to leave the board, even when it is clear to others that they are no longer effective."  Ever been part of a library organization’s board where that happened? 

• Today is Justice Antonin Scalia’s 25th anniversary of taking his seat on the Supreme Court.  Enough said on that one.

[MG]