Law Librarian Blog

Friday Fun: Digitus Impudicus

Oh, the subtleties of road rage communication. In this video clip a lawyer tackles the complexities of "sign language" in court. [JH]

Meanwhile, check out Ira P. Robbins' (American University, Washington College of Law) Digitus Impudicus: The Middle Finger and the Law [SSRN] for an examination of the long arm of the law going way too far. Here's the abstract:

The middle finger is one of the most commonly used insulting gestures in the United States. The finger, which is used to convey a wide range of emotions, is visible on streets and highways, in schools, shopping malls, and sporting events, in courts and execution chambers, in advertisements and on magazine covers, and even on the hallowed floor of the United States Senate. Despite its ubiquity, however, as a number of recent cases demonstrate, those who use the middle finger in public run the risk of being stopped, arrested, prosecuted, fined, and even incarcerated under disorderly conduct or breach of peace statutes and ordinances.

This Article argues that, although most convictions are ultimately overturned on appeal, the pursuit of criminal sanctions for use of the middle finger infringes on First Amendment rights, violates fundamental principles of criminal justice, wastes valuable judicial resources, and defies good sense. Indeed, the Supreme Court has consistently held that speech may not be prohibited simply because some may find it offensive. Criminal law generally aims to protect persons, property, or the state from serious harm, but use of the middle finger simply does not raise these concerns.

Friday Fun: Wrapped Up in Books

A soothing video for you from Belle and Sebastian filmed in a library with a very bookish theme. Please enjoy and try not get distracted like I did thinking, "Who is going to re-shelve all those books?" [BB]

Friday Fun: Law School Men of Genius

This video, a production of the Illinois Law Revue, highlights the unsung contributions of law school administrators.

Hat tip to Cincinnati Law's own real law school man of genius, Paul Caron (Associate Dean of Faculty), TaxProf Blog. [JH]

Friday Fun: Project Law School

A parody of Project Runway from the Cardozo Law Revue 2008. [JH]

Friday Fun: Do Robots Have Too Much Power Over Our Lives

Panelists on Onion News discuss whether robots have been given too much power. President Executron pandering to robotic special interest groups, the automated police force "just doing its job" and what ever happened to the subservience chip are among the topics covered. Hat tip to Ron Jones for sharing! [JH]

Friday Fun: A 1L Student's Ode to His Law Library

Well, he'll escape from the library soon enough...in 5 or 6 or 7 years from now.

Hat tip to Legal Writing Prof Blog. [JH]

Friday Fun: It's Great, I Heart Law School

Check out this Utah law student's video, The Two Sides of Law:

Friday Fun: Help Prevent Legal Research Stress Toy Abuse

We'll end Spring Break month with this reminder from Westlaw. This is last chance for academic law librarians to drum some legal research principles and techniques into the heads of 3Ls before they are dumped into the laps of our long-suffering colleagues who serve members of the bench and bar. [JH]

Friday Fun: Protecting Those Who Can't Walk and Chew Gum Text at the Same Time

East London's trendy Brick Lane holds the record for cell phone texting injuries. To protect London pedestrians so preoccupied with emailing and text messaging on their BlackBerrys and cell phones that they can't make it down a city block without crashing into stationary objects, lamp posts have been padded with rugby goalpost cushions! Is this the IT equivalent to not being able to walk and chew gum at the same time? {JH}

Check out Time's story, Texting and Walking: Dangerous Mix, and this ITN News video, which looks a wee bit staged:

Friday Fun: Syd Kaufman, Plaintiff SuperLawyer!

What's your favorite complaint? [JH]

Friday Fun: IT in Miss Teen South Carolina English

Remember the Miss Teen South Carolina interview? The creative folks at CommonCraft do in this parody of their series of IT in plain English videos. [JH]

Friday Fun On Wednesday! The Law Accordion To Hanson Bridgett

This hilarious YouTube video by the San Francisco firm of Hanson Bridgett, LLP, has been burning up the legal blogosphere. Hat tip to Mitchell Rubinstein, Adjunct Law Prof Blog, and Bill Childs, TortsProf Blog. [JH]

Friday Fun: Google Maps, the Creepy Video

Hat tip to Google Blogoscoped. [JH]

Friday Fun: The Subprime Primer

Do you understand the subprime mess? Really understand it? Nothing beats a slide presentation to make things clear. Hat tip to Ernie the Attorney. [JH]

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

Friday Fun: The Reasonable Man Exists!

Meet the Reasonable Man!

Friday Fun: How Not To Conduct a Reference Interview

Six MLIS students created this puppet show to illustrate what not to do at a reference interview. [JH]

Friday Fun: Can You Classify and Shelve Books

Check out this Tech Services game developed by the Carnegie Mellon University Libraries. You have to shelve books in the right spot. First you get books labeled with their LC call numbers. Then, as the game progresses, they disappear, leaving you with only book titles to go by. A very basic LC classification guide and a hint option are provided but this damn little game is still a challenge! Hat tip to Ron Jones for sharing the madness.

Also stacks-related, check out this video. Our law school students are too mature for this, right? [JH]

Friday Fun: Borat and Ali G Go to Law School

Sacha Baron Cohen impersonators visit (their?) law schools in these two video clips. Well, I think the Borat clip features an impersonator.

Meanwhile it is rumored that the real Sacha Baron Cohen will play Abbie Hoffman in The Trial of the Chicago 7. Having lived through the trial and its antics as a suburban Chicago teenage hippie full of righteous indignation against The Man, I think Cohen would be perfect casting for Abbie Hoffman. The film is in the pre-production stage with a 2010 target release date.  Hello Hollywood, I'm available to play Mayor Daley. Call my agent.

For the youngsters in the profession who may not have heard of the Chicago 7 Trial, check out this very comprehensive website (if interested in hippie history). What a flashback! [JH]

Borat:

Ali G:

Friday Fun: Bad Day at the Office

I've seen "rage against the machine" happenings like the ones in this video in a law firm office! Hat tip to Lisa Wernke, Acquisitions Librarian, University of Cincinnati Law Library for sharing. [JH]

Friday Fun: The Librarian Dialogues

The producers describe this video as "a short comical satire about a group of librarians who take their job very serious." OK, it reinforces librarian stereotypes ... but that doesn't mean the video isn't funny.[JH]

Friday Fun Extra: Librarians Play Discard Dominoes When They Get Bored on the Job

"effinglibrarian" took up my suggestion to post on YubeTube a video clip demonstrating what librarians do when they get bored on the job. This librarian wants everyone to know that no library books were harmed in this production because they are discards. Submissions still welcome. [JH]

Discard Dominoes submitted by "effinglibrarian:"

Friday Fun: Play Library Science Jeopardy

Just like the popular television version, the primary rule is to provide your answer in the form of a question. There are six categories to select from, each containing five answers in ascending order of difficulty. Click on any of these from the game board and you will encounter your first answer. Below the answer will appear four possibly correct questions, from which you must select the correct question.

If you are of the competitive sort, call a  colleague or two to your office, grab a pencil and piece of paper to keep score. Are you ready to play Library Science Jeopardy? [JH]

Friday Fun: I'll Sue Ya

Featuring none other than a likeness known as Weird Al Yankovic.

Hat tip to Paul Caron, TaxProf Blog, who writes, "Great commentary on the legal profession." [JH]

Friday Fun: Ig Nobel Award for Stunning Breakthrough in Indexing

A spoof of the Nobel prizes, the Ig Nobels celebrate the quirkier side of science, including library and information science this year. Glenda Browne of Blaxland, Blue Mountains, Australia, was awarded the Ig Nobel Prize for Literature for her groundbreaking study of the word "the" -- and of the many ways it causes problems for anyone who tries to put things into alphabetical order. The Ig Nobel Committee of the Annals of Improbable Research cited her work The Definite Article: Acknowledging 'The' in Index Entries, The Indexer, vol. 22, no. 3 April 2001, pp. 119-22 (pdf). About this she got the recognition she deserves.

Watch the video of this year's ceremony and view the list of this and past years' winners by categories. Hat tip to one of the quirkier websites on the Internet, The Dull Men's Club. [JH]

Friday Fun: Librarians Gone Wild!

Just in time for holiday staff parties! [JH]

Friday Fun: Pacman in the Library

Nearly fell off my chair laughing when I saw this one! [JH]

Good for a Chuckle

Just came upon this via Feminist Law Profs Blog.  To help us better understand and commiserate with our faculty and faculty-to-be (or not-to-be, that is indeed the question).  Pretty funny - check it out!  [JJ]

Friday Fun: Librarian's Blues

Written, performed, sung, and played by Keith Johnson. For a background story about this new Blues classic, visit Blue Skunk Blog. [JH]

Friday Fun Supplement: What Do Librarians Do When They Get Bored?

Long before camcorders (and when I was a student library clerk) we held book cart races.

So what do you do when you get bored on the job? Why not create a video clip during the Winter Break and post it to YouTube to show your colleagues! If you email me the YouTube link, I'll start posting the clips in January. [JH]

For inspiration, see:

What Robot Programmers Do When They Get Bored

What Graphic Artists Do When They Get Bored

Friday Fun: The Blogosphere Covers Everything!

I reached the "end" of the "blogosphere" and this is what I found: The “Blog” of “Unnecessary” Quotation Marks. [JH]

Friday Fun: Three Short Videos on a Common Library Theme

Blonde in a Library

Video Shoutout in the Library: Here.

Computer Startup in a Library

[JH]

Friday Fun: Curious Lives of Law Students

This is a "documentary" by students at the University of South Carolina School of Law parodying the lives of law students.

Friday Fun: Lexis v. Westlaw

Great skit performed in this year's Virginia Law Libel Show. [JH]

Friday Fun: The Rock of Law School: 1L Doctrines Set to Music

Josh Keesan, Boalt ’09, believes that there ought to be an alternative to the standard commercial study aids peddled to law students. He has toiled considerably in pursuit of this belief, and now, his selfless mission has borne fruit for law students everywhere: The Law of Rock, Vol. 1.

Put down your commercial outlines and treatises: here, for the first time, you can learn complex legal doctrines through these digestible pop-rock gems. Spend no more time puzzling over these once impenetrable concepts – the rock n’ roll antidote has arrived! On his first EP, he turns to the chestnuts of 1L year, pumps them through his infallibly infectious pop songwriting process, and ends up with songs guaranteed to boost your spirits AND your GPA.

Click the link to hear samples from The Law of Rock, Vol. 1:

• Contributory Negligence
• Promissory Estoppel
• Mens Rea

Hat tip to Hat tip to Brian Leiter's Law School Reports. [JH]

Friday Fun: Book Covers Set to Music

How many have you read?

See also this video. [JH]

Friday Fun: And Then Came Law School..

I Lost My Life in Law School

Law School Musical

Friday Fun: Hey, I have a question

Fake patron, fake librarian, but how about that library policy!

PSA Update on Batgirl, the Librarian

Measured by the number of emails I have received, last week's Friday Fun feature was the most popular one ever. Julie Jones submitted the video clip on the never aired pilot of Batgirl, revealing to me (but not to many Batgirl fans who read this blog) that Batgirl was a librarian.

Kathryn Stoppello, Law Librarian, Legal Services of NJ, emailed me an image file (below left) and Paula Lichtenberg, Librarian, Keker & Van Nest LLP, San Francisco, called to my attention that ALA sells posters and bookmarks of Batgirl, the librarian! (poster image file below right)

Note to Julie: Look for a poster in your mail box! [JH]

Friday Fun: Batgirl the Public Librarian

Here's the never aired 1966 pilot of Batgirl which takes place in Gotham Public Library. Did you know that Batgirl was a librarian?

Hat tip to Julie Jones, Cornell Law Library. [JH]

Friday Fun: Conan The Librarian

Weird Al Yankovic, not one of my favorites, admits to "borrowing" part of this bit from Monty Python.

Friday Fun: The Adventures of Super Librarian

I hope there really is a McCracken County Public Library!

Friday Fun: World Beard and Moustache Champions, Which One is the Librarian?

None that I know but maybe you will spot one in the Gallery of Contestants and Champions on the Beard Team USA (TM) website for the World Beard and Moustache Championship.

Hat tip to Cornell Law Library's Julie Jones who writes, "don't miss the official beard and moustache judging categories." 

Besides the great Melvil Dewey (image above left), who's your favorite librarian? Send your photos with comments, using the applicable categories if you like, to me for posting. [JH]

Friday Fun: Microsoft Surface

Microsoft's next big failure, surface computing "where everything happens face-to-face family style," on a 30-inch table-like display operated by hand gestures or by placing physical objects on the computer's surface is the subject of the following two parodies. [JH]

Friday Fun: Librarian Job Interview

Monty Python style!

On the same theme, see also On a Claire Day's great comic strip [JH]

Friday Fun: Librarians don't die ...

"Librarians don't die ..." (mp3) was written and performed by U of MN Law Librarians! My top three favorites are "library directors don't die..." "teen librarians don't die..." and "law librarians don't die..." Which ones are your favorites? Leave a comment so the good folks at Minnesota know how much you enjoyed their work.

Attention ad agencies, the performers are available for voice-over gigs! [JH]

Friday Fun: Men Can Be Librarians

News Flash: men can be librarians! Check it out. [JH]

Friday Fun: PC v Mac Ad Parody, South Park Style

A parody of the Mac vs. PC commercials with South Park characters. Created as the final project for a multimedia production class at California State University Northridge (CSUN).

2 Good 2 Wait 4 Friday Fun: The Wall of Monty Python

With publication of this post, law librarian productivity comes to a grinding halt today. Check out the Video Wall of Monty Python. Yes, each of the 88 thumbs on the web page is a video clip!

The most important web site I've ever seen! -- John Hopkins, Associate Director for Information Technology, University of Cincinnati Law Library

If this isn't workplace safe, find a new job. [JH]

Friday Fun: Librarian Blogger Sing-along

You don't have to hold a tune to sing along with the Laughing Librarian's Blogga song (by Brian Smith). [JH]

Friday Fun: What We Have Learned from History, or Why the IT Staff Goes Berserk

From "The Chaser's War on Everything:"

Hat tip to Don Mac Gregor, CCH Law Library. If you would like to contribute a "Friday Fun" feature, please email me.

Friday Fun: Cubicle Carl is not using the facsimile machine properly

Love the pop culture references.

Friday Fun: I am thesaurus

Hat tip to Don Mac Gregor, CCH, for this one!

Friday Fun: Ray of Light at St. Joseph County Public Library

This video was created for library staff in service day at the St. Joseph County Public Library in South Bend, Indiana by Dale Kerkman, Bob lewandowski, Michael Stephens and Adam Tarwacki. The video details a day in the life of a thriving public library system, highlighting the faces and places that make the library the library.

Friday Fun: No Cookies in the Library

Much to the chagrin of a tempermental librarian Cookie Monster can't seem to comprehend that libraries don't have cookies. This is a classic Sesame Street parody of the Monty Python book shop skit.

Friday Fun: Crazy Warehouse Guy in a Library

Hat tip to Don Mac Gregor, CCH Law Library. If you would like to contribute a "Friday Fun" feature, please email me.