Law Librarian Blog

Friday Fun on Wednesday: The Muppets Perform Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody.

Setting the mood for New Year's Eve festivities... Hat tip to Mark Giangrande for finding this gem! [JH]

Teaching Bluebook Citation Format in a Research Minute

If Santa brought you a Windows 7 computer and some editing software, grab your copy of the Bluebook and some legal texts, In other words, here's a suggestion -- why not create a law library version of this Research Minute video that shows a helpless student being schooled by an intrepid librarian on reading citations. Just about every legal research instructor feeling a bit guilty about using ALWD instead of the Bluebook in class will thank you. Doubt you can do it in a "research minute" which in the below video is more like 90 seconds but you can try. Hat tip to The LibVid Awards. [JH]

Friday Fun on Wednesday: A social media Venn Diagram to determine your level of ADHD, narcissism, and stalking potential

If you've never seen the website Despair.com, you owe it to yourself to check it out.  They sell really funny, cynical parodies of those cheesy corporate motivational posters we're all familiar with.  (I have no interest in the company but I am a huge fan).  Indeed, some of their "de-motivators" are fairly brilliant.

Below is one of their "Despairwear" t-shirt designs reflecting the same, dark sense of humor: 

So, are you more of a Facebook narcissistic-stalker or a MySpace ADHD-narcissist?  If you Tweet as well, according to Depair.com, you probably have a personality disorder.

(jbl)

Friday Fun Part Deux: 20th Anniversary of The Simpsons

Yesterday marked the the 20th anniversary on that cultural institution known as The Simpson, the longest-running primetime animated series in history and the longest-running comedy on primetime television. Too many great clips to try to pick just one favorite but here's one that seems appropriate for librarians -- Homer complaining that there's no more room in his brain for new information.

More: Behind the scenes footage of the creation of the first season of The Simpsons and Hulu's The Simpsons show page. Enjoy. [JH]

Friday Fun: Impact! The Law Review Article vs. the Commercial Press Book

Boston Univ law prof Jay Wexler's humorous comparison of the impact of publishing forms on audience attaction (read law reviews need marketing departments) It's also a cute indirect ad for his book, Holy Hullabaloos: A Road Trip to the Battlegrounds of the Church/State Wars (Beacon Press, 2009). Hat tip to Wexler's PrawfsBlawg post. [JH]

Friday Fun: Tour the Library

The LibVid Awards highlights some of the best library instructional videos out there, including this one nominated for Best Acting – Librarian and Best Comedy. Hat tip to LISNews. [JH]

Friday Fun: The Daily Show on Eminent Domain

Hat tip to Matt Festa on Land Use Prof Blog who writes about this 2006 Daily Show episode that came out about a year after Kelo, "Apparently the town [in Long Island] proposed taking the [Deepdale] country club golf course through eminent domain under the rationale that the public would benefit from access to the private course."  On a more serious note, see the following two recent Kelo-related LLB posts: Five Years Later, Kelo a Hollow Victory for New London and The Kelo Back-Story. [JH]

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Course Correction
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Health Care Crisis

Friday Fun on Monday: A Little Post-Thanksgiving Holiday Pilgrim History

Hat tip to LegalEase on CKUT 90.3FM, a group of McGill University law students whose public legal education initiative is trying to transform legal jargon into legal-ease. Their podcasts are available here. [JH]

Friday Fun on Wednesday: A Little Thanksgiving Music Festival

Happy Thanksgiving! [JH]

Friday Fun: Jon Stewart Explains Net Neutrality

Hat tip to Public Knowledge. [JH]

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
From Here to Neutrality
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Health Care Crisis

Friday Fun: Library Patrons Gone Wild

And a library staffer has to deal with them without going postal. [JH]

Friday Fun: League of Librarians Trading Cards

Librarians at the University of Rochester River Campus credit Carleton College for giving them the inspiration for their League of Librarians Trading Cards including political science and law librarian Ann Marshall's card, click to enlarge, left. View the Flickr slideshow. Hat tip to Betsy McKenzie, Out of the Jungle. [JH]

Friday Fun: LLB's PSA for Halloween, Zombies in Plain English

From the creative staff at Common Craft. [JH]

In Celebration of the Card Catalog

As reported in LJ, the University of South Carlolina celebrates and says goodbye to their card catalog in great style.  Although it has not been added to since 1991, the catalog stayed on the floor in the open stacks.  This year, the nearly four million piece card catalog is being retired in favor of more space for students, though some parts of it will be recycled.  For example, the music school will take part of the physical catalog to store cassette tape boxes.  Apparently, card catalog drawers are the perfect size for cassette storage. Who knew? (Though I thought they went the way of the card catalog ages ago.) 

Instead of just chucking the cards that populated the 3,168 drawers, the Librarians turned the occassion into a year long series of events designed to recognize the contribution of the card catalog in the transformation of knowledge.

Some of the events include the Card Catalog Boat Race and, my personal favorite, Card of the Day which features a new card each day with some annotation to but it in context.When I visited, the new card was, ironically, Russell Eugene Bidlack's 1970 publication: Typewritten Catalog Cards: a manual of procedure and form with 300 sample cards. 

The current celebratory event is called "What you can Make With Card Catalogs."  There are four catagories: Functional (serves a purpose), Foundational (building models), Fashionable (wearable), and Free Form.  You have until November 30th to register your entry!  I'm thinking about a card catalog turkey for Thanksgiving Day. (VS)

Friday Fun: 20 Greatest Celebrity Courtroom Sketches

Hat tip to  Karen R. Schneiderman for contributing this link to the 20 Greatest Celebrity Courtroom Sketches from Comedy.com for this week's Friday Fun. Sorry about the 10-month delay in posting Karen. I don't check my Facebook page often. [JH]

Friday Fun: Library Limbo

I love the 1920's style animation. Kudos to the student who created it for a film course. [JH]

Friday Fun: Who Has the Better Sales Pitch, LexisNexis or Westlaw?

I think Westlaw wins with "we will literally spoon feed you for the rest of your life." [JH]

Friday Fun PSA: Jon Stewart on CNN's Warning that Texting While Driving is Dangerous

Observing in this brief clip that CNN featured new iPhone application for real-time traffic reports the day before. [JH]

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
CNN Warns Against Texting While Driving
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Ron Paul Interview

Friday Fun: World Domination: Gordon Gekko v Stewie Griffin

Luxury and power: Wall Street, the Griffin household and the world at large. [JH]

More Friday fun - Westlaw videos feature stress-toy abuse

Westlaw has a pair of promotional videos demonstrating how using its online research products can help reduce office-related stress.  We must warn you, though, some of the images in these videos are very disturbing.  You may not want to watch if stress-toy abuse upsets you. 

Hat tip to Professor Jane Cross.

(jbl)