Law Librarian Blog

Google News Search Launches New Quotes Feature

How to search quotes using Google News Search:

1. To access these new features, first search for a person's name on Google News. If we have a recent quote, we'll show it above the search results.
2. Clicking on the speaker's name will take you to a page with even more of their quotes. From there you can search within the quotes by entering a query on the left side of the page.

Source: Google News Blog (check out the screen captures)

Hat tip to beSpacific. See also Matt Cutts' blog post. [JH]

Organizing Digital Research

I've received a few questions lately about how to organize digital research for the academic. The askers have been interested in some product that will allow them to bring together email, web sites, web pages, PDFs, word docs, etc., in a meaningful and organized manner; something that can handle all digital information, regardless of format.  Interested in hearing if anyone uses these products, or knows of any others, and their experiences. Here's what I've found so far, arranged in alphabetical order: 

asksam - "It's never been easier to organize, search, and manage your information. askSam 6 is a flexible and powerful way to organize information and create searchable databases from Web pages, Email, PDF files, texts, and Word documents. For over 20 years askSam has been the choice of researchers and other information professionals."

imiser - "Download, Save, Search Organize, and annotate  Web pages and links, email, images,  selected  text, and newsgroup messages. Save any text from EVERY drag-enabled program,  such as Microsoft® Word®,  Outlook Express®, or Forte® Agent. Save local text, HTML, RTF, DOC, and PDF files to the iMiser database for instant retrieval."

OneNote - "Gather, store, and manage your notes and information — including text, pictures, digital handwriting, audio and video recordings, and more — in a single location. Having all your important information at your fingertips can help you make more informed decisions and be better prepared..."

Onfolio - "Onfolio is an add-in for the Windows Live Toolbar that helps you collect and organize online content, read RSS news feeds, and share content in emails, blogs and documents. With Onfolio, you get all of these tools built into your browser for simplicity. Whether you are planning a trip, looking for a job, investigating a major purchase, or simply looking for a better way to keep up with the news that interests you, Onfolio will help you be more efficient, thorough and organized."

PersonalBrain - "PersonalBrain helps you organize all your Web pages, contacts, documents, emails and files in one place so that you can always find them - just like you think of them. This saves you time and makes your life easier! With PersonalBrain you can even find related items that you worked on, but forgot existed."

Zotero - "Zotero is an easy-to-use yet powerful research tool that helps you gather, organize, and analyze sources (citations, full texts, web pages, images, and other objects), and lets you share the results of your research in a variety of ways. An extension to the popular open-source web browser Firefox, Zotero includes the best parts of older reference manager software (like EndNote)—the ability to store author, title, and publication fields and to export that information as formatted references—and the best parts of modern software and web applications (like iTunes and del.icio.us), such as the ability to interact, tag, and search in advanced ways." [seems not to allow email integration]

[JJ]

Photoshop for Free

Photoshop has just launched its free photo editing service, Photoshop Express.  A more basic version of the real thing for the web masses.  Take a test drive here. 

[JJ]

ICED, Video Game Puts You in the Shoes of an Immigrant Teen

ICED (I can end deportation) is a video game that puts you in the shoes of an immigrant to illustrate how unfair immigration laws deny due process and violate human rights.

Game players have to live the day-to-day life of an immigrant teen. The teens are being chased by immigration officers, while making moral/consequential decisions and answering myth & fact quizzes about current immigration policies. Players can earn civic points by doing good deeds in the community.

If the player chooses or answers incorrectly, he/she increases his or her chances of being thrown into detention. Once in detention, the player endures both physical separation from his/her family and unjust conditions while awaiting, often for unknown amounts of time, the random outcome of his/her case.

ICED was created by Breakthrough, a New York-based international human rights organization that uses education and popular culture to promote values of dignity, equality and justice. Here's some still images from the game. [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]

Bringing Trials to your Desktop

Here's something not typically seen in most library budgets today, but may become the line-item of the future.  CourtroomLive is a new product that provides live and on-demand video coverage of noteworthy trails, directly to your computer.  From the homepage:

Viewers can simultaneously view video of the proceedings while examining digital snapshots of evidence presented in court. Video is used for trial preparation, research, and educational purposes by a range of legal and business professionals, from litigators to in-house counsel to financial analysts to educational institutions.

A joint product of ALM and CVN, it could be a great teaching tool, or used to scope out the style of opposing counsel, conduct jury research, and many other applications. 

[JJ] 

Suffolk Law School Unveils iTunes U

According to the press release, the Suffolk University Law School iTunes U site includes podcasts on how to write a legal memorandum and mp3 files of Dean of Admissions Gail Ellis responding to the most frequently asked questions of prospective law students. Future features will include webcasts of open houses, mock classes and mock trial competitions. [JH]

A Quick Look at SCOTUSwiki

SCOTUSwiki is the companion site to the great SCOTUSblog. The site is still in its early stages of development. From the About Page: "we’ve created a page for each case set for argument in the October sitting, and at each case’s page, you’ll find detailed previews, recaps, and analyses, as well as links to briefs and other articles of interest. Each page will be regularly updated as the case progresses, but all the information will be available in one easy-to-find place." Registered users can use the SCOTUSwiki's Watchlist to monitor developments for a specific case. [JH]

Wild, Wild Wimmin Bare All for Charity Calendar

The calendar, called "Wild, Wild Wimmin Of Williams," features twelve women in their 40s, 50s and 60s from Williams, Arizona, a great little town my wife and I visited this year to board a train to the Grand Canyon. The proceeds will be donated to the American Cancer Society. "No naughty bits showing."

The story and the video; neither give purchasing information! The calendar's price is $20 and can be obtained by calling 928-635-4426 or sending an email to wildwimmin@yahoo.com. Why not support this great cause. [JH]

Google's My Location for Mobile Maps

Here's a great tip if you are traveling during the holidays. The great folks at Common Craft Paperworks produced this video for the Google Maps for Mobile Team. [JH]

A Quick Look at LawCrossing

LawCrossing features the largest collection of active legal jobs in the world, including more than 70,000 positions at top law firms, corporations, public interest organizations, and government offices throughout the U.S. A free job search function is provided on the website's front page as is legal news and other useful information resources.

Launched in July 2003, LawCrossing is a brainchild of CEO A. Harrison Barnes, who also founded the hugely successful parent company of LawCrossing, Juriscape, in 2000. The very popular JD2B is another website published by the Company and one I have frequently recommended to law students.

LawCrossing reports that the Company’s 300 staff members monitors the hiring needs of legal employers throughout the U.S. and worldwide. From the site: "We spend over 4,000 hours a day and 25,000 hours a week searching over 250,000 employer websites, newspapers and job boards so you do not have to." LawCrossing counts tens of thousands of law students, attorneys, and legal staff professionals as members. [details]

I think LawCrossing has established itself as the web destination for legal-career-placement information. See for yourself. [JH]

Some Holiday Gift Ideas for Law Librarians

Here's some products really generous library employers should provide because they are all work-related. If you're not in that kind of situation, you may want to give some as holiday gifts to your colleagues or ask your significant other to give them to you. My wife has already vetoed the LCD monitor listed below. Apparently I don't need a monitor that costs more than my desktop.

Reading Materials

Dictionary of Legal Bullshit (2007) by Randall Young, is a humorous resource into law's archaic and convoluted language and is sure to make anyone you know in the legal profession laugh out loud at its accurate absurdity. [Recommended by a blog reader who would get credit for this suggestion if I find her email. Sorry, email me here.]

Control + Alt + Delete: A Dictionary of Cyberslang (2007) by Wired magazine's "Jargon Watch" columnist, Jonathon Keats. "Not since Dr. Johnson explained the English language to the people of his time has there been a lexicon so witty, deep and indispensable.  For any citizen of either the analog or digital space who wishes to  live in this century instead of the last, this is required reading." --Stanley Bing, author and columnist for Fortune magazine.

Software

When all else fails, comic book software is a great tool for creating guides for the technophobic (e.g., "How to use a DVD player in the classroom"), part-time staff (e.g., "Loose-leaf filing 101"), etc. Plus, personalized comics are fantastic attention-getting additions to law library blogs. If you don't have the graphic artist chops that the creators of Shelf Check or Unshelved have, check out the Marvel Heroes Comic Book Creator app. It provides 300+ Marvel backgrounds, characters, action words, and more. But it you do, I recommend Comic Book Creator 2.0.

Equipment

New Monitor. Forget the tablet PC, the Wacom Cintiq 21UX is an interactive, pressure-sensitive pen-driven display that will "wow" your colleagues after their hearts has stopped racing just from the sight of this 21.3 inch beautiful high resolution (1,600-by-1,200) LCD monitor on your desk. At $2,500, your boss may not ante up the cash for it right away but once you've demonstrated how much better your comics are, that will change, Keep the receipt!

New Mouse. Replace the campus map or text instructions to the courthouse with 3Dconnexion's SpacePilot 3D Mouse. There's no better tool for navigating the virtual 3D space of Google Earth. In our Web 2.0 world, shouldn't this be the way we give directions? It's the Law Librarian Blog's Reference Desk Tool of the Year -- "50% fewer mouse clicks, 30% greater productivity" according to the product description. And it is a must-have for your library's Second Life site.

New Clock. "Time is money" in the law firm world so the Kinetic Motion Clock (image left; click to enlarge) is the ideal present for the law firm librarian who is billing his or her time. The product description says, "you’ll be amused every minute as a chrome ball is added to the track and travels to the minute tray on this time machine. Then on the hour when the tray becomes full, it automatically empties, sending one ball to the hour tray and the remaining balls cascading back to the hopper for the next hour’s use." More likely, you will be driven to distraction.

Portable PA System.  Plug the Griffin iKaraoke microphone into your iPod and, voilà, you have your own personal karaoke machine...or...a portable PA system for your library. "The library is closing ... because the night belongs to lovers.." Patti Smith on YouTube

Interactive Circ Desk Assistant. Using voice recognition technology, The Interactive Parrot can record and repeat phrases spoken to it. The Interactive Parrot has amazing potential if it can be trained to answer in classic parrot squawk common Circulation Desk questions. It could replace untrainable student assistants. "Squawk, no. that book can't be checked out, squawk."

Some Gadgets for the Traveling Law Librarian

• The Skype Travel Mouse is a mouse with an integrated phone. Details.
• The Spy Pen detects Wireless and RF Signals. Details.

One gizmo to put on next year's list: The Cell Phone Pen (better order two so you have a back-up after losing the first one). Details.

Happy Holidays to All! [JH]

Beyond the Kindle Hype

So what is Kindle? Tech Law Prof Blog editor and DePaul Law librarian Mark Giangrande explains succinctly in Thoughts On Amazon's Kindle Reader: "This is a proprietary device that offers wireless access to DRMed text from books to newspapers to [Amazon-] selected web sites [and blogs]." Mark continues

The device sells for $400 and apparently is exciting enough for enough of the literate public that Amazon notes that the item is temporarily sold out due to heavy demand.  Reviews on the site breathlessly declare that this is the future of reading.  Perhaps.

Perhaps indeed. Continuing reading Mark's post here because I'm now stepping on to my soapbox to say "not likely." Why not? Because it is a "a proprietary device that offers wireless access to DRMed text"! Computerworld may be right that Kindle will be "the forerunner of a number of limited-purpose wireless devices that are expected to hit the market in the next few years" but such devices, particularly limited-purpose gizmos with sticker-shocking price tags are so oh so 20th century I believe their appeal will not be very wide. Yes, I recognize the popularity of iPods but we're now in the iPhone age. Consumers are demanding portable multi-purpose devices and disposable digital content they can easily share with others without having to lend them their handhelds for the weekend. Plus, these gadgets better look neat too and Kindle doesn't. It's bland ... not even ugly enough to earn "lovably cute" status from any cult of users.

Would you buy a Kindle? My very unscientific blogosphere sampling of librarians indicates probably not. Some examples: Jenkins Law Library's Dan Giancaterino post This Baby Hasn't Kindled My Interest, Loose Cannon Librarian, Science Library Pad, Academic Librarian, and Free Range Librarian where K. G. Schneider writes, "I believe we are moving to a networked future. I just hope this isn’t it." Each post offers good reasons to avoid Kindle. I hope you will read them all. Since "we" won't be buying Kindle, here's Paul Glaskowky's unboxing post.

A Few Thoughts About the Technology. What I like about Kindle is the Amazon Whispernet. Apparently "free" (the cost must be charged back to the consumer somewhere in the product pricing formula), Whispernet is built on top of Sprint's EV-DO network to deliver its products. [Kindle Store].  I believe this may be the first instance of a bookseller using a cell phone wireless network for book distribution. (Is it?) Watch out FedEx and UPS! Watch out Amazon too. I can't imagine Steve Jobs not working on an "iReader"component for iPhone right now and cell phones powered by Google's Android won't miss this opportunity.  Unlike Kindle, I'm betting the competition will support PDF documents!

Good luck finding comprehensive tech specs for Kindle. See, e.g., 15 Things I Just Learned About the Amazon Kindle, Many details about the Kindle (follow the comment trail) and Engadget's live blog coverage of the the Kindle launch. See also Amazon's Digital Text Platform. Bottom line: Someone is going to have to write Kindle's "missing manual" real soon.

Kindle-ing Legal Publishers. OSU law professor, blogger, and friend Douglas Berman writes:

After learning about Kindle and other e-books in production, I really think the question is not whether, but rather when and how, the traditional casebook will go digital.

Not just casebooks, Doug. Today's law students want the option to buy digital versions of all titles sold by Thomson-West, LexisNexis, Aspen, etc. Some legal publishers, well at least one that I know of, is bundling selected eBooks into proprietary study aid applications. See the very interesting AspenLaw Studydesk which I believe will morph into a sister app for studying for the bar. The legal publishing industry needs to start offering eBooks to law students for all titles in their sales catalog. Kinde-ing their titles is not the way to go but it most definitely is time to light a fire under the major players in the law book publishing industry.

My experience indicates that most recent law book titles are available from our publishers in PDF so it is about time to include a web catalog link to "buy the digital version" now! [JH]

Note to Jeff Bezos. Love what you have done to make my life easier by setting the standard for online shopping, will be buying most of my Christmas gifts from Amazon.com again this year, made a ton of money trading AMZN before the tech bubble burst, but most of all, I'm open to bribery so if you want to ship me a free Kindle, here's my mailing address:

Joe Hodnicki
University of Cincinnati Law Library
Clifton Ave. & Calhoun St.
PO Box 210142
Cincinnati, OH 45211-0142

What the heck, it is a business expense or a chartable donation because I'll put Kindle in our library's IT petting zoo after playing with it. [JH]

A Quick Look at Freedocumentares

Freedocumentaries.org offers a catalog of documentaries that could be a great resource for law professors looking to offer their students media presentations illustrating issues in their courses.

You can browse the films by region, theme, or title. Themes include:

•  Activist Documentaries
•  Animal Abuse Documentaries
•  Election Fraud Documentaries
•  Environmental Documentaries
•  Female Focused Documentaries
•  George Bush Documentaries
•  Globalization Documentaries
•  Health Documentaries
•  Human Rights Documentaries
•  Media Documentaries
•  Politician Documentaries
•  Religious Documentaries
•  Slavery Documentaries
•  Societal Documentaries
•  War Documentaries

From the site's about page:

At freedocumentaries.org we believe strongly that in order to have a true democracy, there has to be a free flow of easily available information. Unfortunately, many important perspectives, opinions and facts do not make it to our televisions or cinemas (you can watch movies in our media category if you want to know why).

For this reason we decided to start freedocumentaries.org, a site where anyone with an internet connection can watch a movie and educate themselves or simply explore another perspective whenever they want.

Providing films free not only allows anyone to watch a film but it also allows curious people who think they may disagree with a filmmaker to watch a film without worrying that they are giving money to someone who's views they don't agree with.

Everyone that watches a film at freedocumentaries.org should learn something, whether it be a new perspective on a topic or simply understanding how others think. We can say that the vast majority of people that watch our films are glad they do so.

The videos are free and are accompanied by a brief description, comments, and sometimes a link to a related page. Below the fold, I've listed three videos with their descriptions and links. [JH]

The War on Democracy
John Pilger's 2007 documentary explores the historic and current relationship of Washington with countries such as Venezuela, Bolivia and Chile. Pilger claims that the film "...tells a universal story... analyzing and revealing, through vivid testimony, the story of great power behind its venerable myths. It allows us to understand the true nature of the so-called "war on terror". According to Pilger, the film’s message is that the greed and power of empire is not invincible and that people power is always the "seed beneath the snow".

Pilger interviews several ex-CIA agents who purportedly took part in secret campaigns against democratic countries and who he claims are profiting from the war in Iraq. He investigates the School of the Americas in the U.S. state of Georgia, where General Pinochet’s torture squads were reportedly trained along with tyrants and death-squad leaders in Haiti, El Salvador, Brazil and Argentina.

Born into Brothels: Calcutta's Red Light Kids
Amidst the apparent growing prosperity of India, there is a dark underbelly of poverty, another side of the nation that is little known. This film chronicles filmmakers Zana Briski and Ross Kauffman's efforts to show the world of Calcutta's red light district. In order to do so, they inspired a special group of children of the prostitutes of the area to photograph the most reluctant subjects. As the kids excel in their new found art, the filmmakers struggle to help them have a chance at a better life away from the miserable poverty crushes their dreams.

The Trials of Henry Kissinger

Is Henry Kissinger a war criminal, guilty of lying to the American public and Congress in order to overthrow governments and kill civilians? The film focuses on Kissinger's years as national-security adviser and secretary of State to presidents Nixon and Ford, and details his involvement in prolonging the war in Vietnam, the secret bombing of Cambodia, Suharto's invasion of East Timor, and the assassination of democratically elected communist president Salvador Allende in Chile. In a larger sense, this powerfully muckraking film is about the accountability of public figures and about how, in regard to international justice, there can and should be no exceptions.

Politics 2.0: Website Measures Internet Performance of 2008 Presidential Candidates

The Spartan Internet Political Performance (SIPP) Index is the first quantitative metric to measure the Internet-wide performance of each Presidential candidate for the 2008 election. The Index is comprised of over 650 quantitative factors measuring the level of support and how well each candidate is connecting with individuals across the Internet.  The score for each candidate represents their overall Internet market share. Check it out. [JH]

Just in Time for Holiday Shopping

The glut of holiday catalogs has begun, which prompted my search for an easy way to opt out of catalog mailings.  I found a few contenders.  Catalog Choice is a new not-for-profit that allows anyone to sign up and enter the catalogs from whose mailing list they would like to be removed.  Catalog Choice does the rest.  DirectMail.com National Do-Not-Mail List is a service provided by a mass mailing company to help people opt out of mass mailings.  Both are free.  There is more general information from the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse that gives guidance on stopping catalogs, pre-approved credit offers, sweepstakes, and more. 

My shameless effort to save a few trees this holiday season.  Our gift to the pale blue dot.

[JJ]

11 USB Toys Your Boss is Sure to Hate

Sometimes you just don’t want to be productive. That's why God created USB toys! Check out these USB toys.

Which one is your favorite?

Mine is the Speed Typing Mouse. Once plugged in to your USB drive the hairy-chested mouse starts pedaling, the faster you type, the faster he pedals. Wait a minute, this toy might increase my productivity. zxserdsfgzzr53u7sfdgiue3sdf853wvhjsaerfdkserhe ... Maybe not! [JH]

Nina Platt's Strategic Librarian Blog

Formerly Director of Information Resources at Faegre & Benson LLP, Nina Platt has started her own business offering library consulting services. Check out Nina's Strategic Librarian blog. [JH]

Launch of study for/law

Adjunct Law Prof Blog editor Mitchell H. Rubinstein has called attention to a new web service called studyfor.com [About Page |Company's press release ]. The site is currently being launched in Beta with a focus on the legal education process and the Bar Exam. Check out studyfor/law.

In his blog post, Mitchel Rubinstein notes that he checked out some of the bar exam questions on the studyfor/law site and found that students may find the tips there helpful. Don't let the graphics distract you. [JH]

Bepress to Acquire Digital Commons

From the press release:

Berkeley, CA - August 10, 2007 - ProQuest and The Berkeley Electronic Press ("bepress")  today announced that they have reached an agreement for bepress to purchase ownership of Digital Commons, the world's leading hosted institutional repository solution.  Bepress will be adding sales and marketing staff and augmenting its existing customer support and services in addition to the hosting and technology services that it has always provided Digital Commons customers.

Bepress Chairman, Aaron Edlin, said "Institutional Repositories are core to the bepress mission of furthering scholarly communication and thus bepress is excited at the opportunity to build a close relationship with Digital Commons customers. Developing successful and vibrant Institutional Repositories will be bepress's central focus."

ProQuest continues to believe that institutional repositories play an important role in the mission of academic libraries.  In the future, it plans to offer tools that enhance or are complementary with institutional repositories. ProQuest is confident that bepress will offer a high standard of customer service for Digital Commons subscribers.

Plain Language Information on Hot Legal Topics

Hot Topics aims to provide information on often controversial areas of the law that are being widely discussed in the media. The Legal Information Access Centre (known as “LIAC”), based in the State Library of New South Wales produces four Hot Topics a year on different areas of the law, and distributes them free of charge to every public library in NSW, as well as to Legal Aid offices and community legal centres in NSW. Past issues of LIAC's Hot Topics have ranged from Personal Injury to Terrorism. Great idea! [JH]

Power-Napping Office Products and Services

From the ad copy:

MetroNaps enhances workforce productivity through ... mid-day napping equipment. Born from the realization that individuals can significantly increase their energy with brief daytime rest, MetroNaps seeks to be the world’s premier provider of professional napping products and services.

Check out the EnergyPod! Perfect for the 50-something library manager while the 20-30-somethings do that Library 2.0 thing. [JH]

Newscom and World Picture Network Images Now Available On LexisNexis

From the blurb:

With this alliance, Newscom < www.newscom.com > now provides LexisNexis customers access to pictures, graphics, and illustrations from the world’s premiere publishers of global content, such as Ai Wire, Congressional Quarterly, Roll Call, and WENN.  Newscom represents more than 100 of the world’s foremost publishers of visual content, including Getty Images, Color China, Nucleus Medical Arts, and Grupo de Diarios América, a consortium of the 11 leading newspaper publishers spanning all of Latin America.  Breaking news photos and historical images range from behind-the-scenes White House coverage and visuals from the ground in Iraq, to images of the Kremlin. Newscom’s sports coverage includes action from the British Open, cricket and rugby, as well as Formula 1 racing, the World Cup, the Olympics, and the rest of the sporting world. Newscom also boasts a comprehensive collection of the people and events that drive the entertainment industry.

With World Picture Network, < www.worldpicturenews.com >, LexisNexis customers gain access to a deep collection of primary image categories, such as news, sports & entertainment, business, science & technology, and lifestyle. WpN represents some of the world’s top photojournalists, photo agencies, and newspapers. In addition to their own photographers in 72 countries, the international coverage is augmented by sister agencies in England, France, Italy, Germany, Spain, Sweden, Denmark, Greece, the Middle East, China, India, Kenya, Namibia, and Brazil.

...

Several key features of image searching within LexisNexis will be presented to the user, including the commingling of images with traditional text search results, which provides a more complete view of a particular topic.  Additionally, once a search is run, the user will have the ability to delineate between image and non-image results in two ways:  1) Via a camera icon in the search results list clearly designating that the cite contains an image; 2) Via an “images” category, which is driven by LexisNexis SmartIndexing Technology™, allowing the user to drill down within their search results and only view those results that have images.

Subscribers to Nexis® and lexis.com® can pay per transaction to access each photo or graphic for $6.

Relaunch of the ABA Journal Website

From the announcement:

The ABA Journal has radically revamped its website. It aggregates and filters breaking news from the nation’s best legal journalists and daily analysis from lawyers who are experts in their fields. It’s a place where the legal community can comment about today’s developments, and learn from each other.

The revamped site has three major components:

Law News Now: www.abajournal.com  The home page features the latest legal news stories, hand selected by our lawyer-journalists. It’s updated continuously every business day with 25-50 summaries of and links to the most sophisticated legal reporting from around the web. A quick glance at the top of our home page will tell you the most important legal stories right now, whether it’s today’s Supreme Court decision, this morning’s developments in high-profile trials, yesterday’s law firm mega-merger, or Paris Hilton’s latest scrape with the law. If you only want to see the news about your practice area or state, we’ve created dozens of topic pages (www.abajournal.com/topics) that take you directly to the news you need.

The Blawg Directory: www.abajournal.com/blawgs  We’ve indexed more than 1,000 blogs written by lawyers who are experts in their practice areas, with more being added daily. We tell you about the author, what they cover, and include excerpts from their 10 latest posts. You can sort the directory by subject, who writes the blog (partners, associates, judges, law professors, etc.), or by the state or court they blog about. We even have a list of blogs written by students and professors at more than 130 law schools. Know of a blog we haven’t included? Tell us about it: www.abajournal.com/blawgs/submit

The Magazine: www.abajournal.com/magazine  The award-winning Journal’s deep analysis of legal trends makes it the nation’s most-read and most-respected legal affairs magazine. We’ve posted every story from every issue back through 2005; issues from previous years will be posted soon. New issues will go online the day they are published, and they’ll be augmented with Web-only exclusives like court opinions, white papers and interview transcripts that add depth to the printed stories.

The site also has all the tools you’d expect:

• Visitors can comment on every story.
• The list of most-read stories, appearing on almost every page, shows what the legal community is reading right now.
• You can e-mail any story to friends and colleagues.
• Too busy to visit the site? It will deliver the news to you with our free daily and weekly e-mail newsletters. www.abajournal.com/subscribe
• Add our news feeds to your RSS feed reader. www.abajournal.com/subscribe/#rss
• Keep up with the latest news on your Internet-capable cell phone or BlackBerry with our mobile edition. www.abajournal.com/subscribe/#mobile

Apple, AT&T Unveil iPhone Service Plans

From CNN:

AT&T Inc. and Apple Inc. on Tuesday said wireless service for the iPhone will range from $59.99 per month to $99.99 per month.

The highly anticipated gadget retails for $499 for a model with 4 gigabytes of storage and $599 for one with 8 gigabytes. It's slated to go on sale at 6 p.m. local time Friday at Apple and AT&T retail stores as well as Apple's Web site.

The $59.99 monthly plan includes 450 minutes of voice time; a $79.99 plan includes 900 minutes; and a $99.99 plan includes 1,350 minutes. All three offer 200 text messages, unlimited data services, minutes that roll over month-to-month and mobile-to-mobile calls. There also is a $36 activation fee.

Looks like a cool but pretty pricey gadget. After watching Apple push dead-end products like the Newton and the Cube to Mac addicts, I'll wait for iPhone 2.0 before thinking about buying one. [JH, a CrackBerry addict]

Something We All Need -- The MP4 Video Watch

From the product description: This is the MP4 watch that downloads videos from a PC directly to itself for immediate viewing on a 1 1/2" color OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diode) that is brighter, uses less power, and has a greater range of color than typical LCDs. When not in video mode, the device can download and play MP3 and WMA music files (compatible with DRM 9), display digital photographs in JPEG format, or be used as a standard digital watch. An integrated microphone allows digital voice recordings and playback, a five preset equalizer and super-bass feature provide enhanced audio control, and color icons ensure ease of menu navigation. Capable of 3 hours of continuous video playback, 8 hours of music playback, and it recharges in 1 1/2 hours. Includes 1 GB mem ory, software for converting video and photo files, USB cable, and earphones.

Only $149.95 from Hammacher Schlemmer. [JH]

Westlaw's State Trial Court Orders

From Westlaw's product description:

State Trial Court Orders, available in 25 states and counting, deliver something you never had before: online access to the full text of a judge's orders in state courts.

State Trial Court Orders save untold hours, provide invaluable insights

• Motion practice can be the most time-intensive portion of a litigation practice. This database saves you hours of time, travel and trouble at the very point you need it most – preparing and drafting those key documents.
• Uncover judicial biases, trends, experience in similar cases. You can view orders by judge, and link to a full profile on Westlaw.
• Develop winning strategies more efficiently: By viewing both the motions and the final decision, you have an almost forensic-type insight into what will work – or fail – in your type of case. What motions prevailed, and why? What motions and strategy did not persuade the same judge you're about to face?
• Manage your client's expectations by providing a realistic evaluation of a case's merits.
• Make better informed evaluations about accepting a case, how to handle it, and what to tell the client to expect if litigation does go forward.
• Develop a motion practice and negotiation strategy for your own case by seeing how motions were resolved in other, similar cases.

Follow this link for an online demo and additional information: State Trial Court Orders. [JH]

Google Launches Authors@Google

From the announcement:

The Authors@Google program brings authors of all stripes to Google for informal talks centering on their recently published books. Through the program, we invite authors to our Mountain View headquarters as well as our New York, Santa Monica, and Ann Arbor offices, where they treat Googlers to readings of everything from serious literature and political analysis to pioneering science fiction and moving personal memoirs; past participants have ranged from novelist Martin Amis and Nobel-prizewinning economist Joseph Stiglitz to primatologist Jane Goodall and U.S. Senator Hillary Clinton. When possible, we share these remarkable conversations with the world outside the Googleplex via Google Video and YouTube.

GPO's Browse Topics Finding Tool

Remember GPO's Subject Bibliographies Index? Browse Topics, an online finding tool, organizes US government websites using the index headings from the Subject Bibliographies Index as the basis for the site's main topic list. Browse Topics is managed by Oklahoma State University Edmon Low Library. Great job! [JH]

Web Hosting Firm Targets Libraries

LISHost is a low cost Web hosting and design for the entire library world according to the firm's About page. [JH]

Justia's Searchable Database of Federal Register Rules and Notices

Justia has launched another free resource: Federal Register Regulations, Proposed Rules and Notices. Check it out. [JH]

PinHawk LLC Launches Law Librarian NewzDigest

PinHawk LLC, recently launched the Law Librarian NewzDigest, a complimentary daily email current awareness service that aggregates news from traditional sources, law library blogs, and legal vendors. I'm delighted to note that the Law Librarian NewsDigest includes Law Librarian Blog.

PinHawk's Joe Bookman says, “Our newest daily email is a great way for law librarians to appreciate the benefits of PinHawk technology. Growing numbers of law librarians are learning about Law Librarian NewzDigest and the response has been fantastic. With this newsletter, we promote our services for the legal community and, at the same time, we keep librarians informed on important topics. A growing number of legal professionals subscribe to PinHawk services. Many of our law firm subscribers rely on a customized daily email, which often includes client press releases and other targeted news sources. Others prefer RSS feeds or customized pages offered through our Web Alert service."

To receive a complimentary subscription to Law Librarian NewzDigest, email subscription@pinhawk.com with contact information.

PinHawk's NewzDigest Service
PinHawk daily emails for the legal community include: Law Firm NewzDigest, Securities NewzDigest, Corporate Legal NewzDigest, Court Opinions NewzDigest, Law Firm Press NewzDigest, and Banking NewzDigest. To receive a complimentary two week trial to PinHawk daily emails, go to www.pinhawk.com.  For educational discounts to law schools, email jbookman@pinhawk.com. pinHawk news is also delivered through customized newsletters, web alerts, and RSS feeds. For more information about PinHawk and the NewzDigest service, go to www.pinhawk.com.

As editor of the Securities Lawyer's Deskbook, PinHawk's Securities NewsDigest is an indispensable current awareness tool for me. Great job Joe! [JH]

Shepard's Brief Suite, A "Must Have" Desktop Utility

LexisNexis has created a great set of productivity-enhancing tools in the Shepard’s Brief Suite™ The product includes four powerful document-drafting and legal-validation tools that help you create and review legal documents (e.g., briefs, pleadings, memoranda). These desktop-based applications provide Shepard’s analysis within your work product, offer formatting guidance, automatically construct Tables of Authorities and add Shepard’s hyperlinks to internal Microsoft® Word documents and Web pages.  Take a tour!

Brochures:

• Shepard's Brief Suite: Four Steps to a Better Brief
• Shepard's® BriefCheck™ for the Web

File under "must have." [JH]

Photos of Vintage Mobile Phones

From back in the day when one had to pump it up just to carry your mobile phone. Check it out. [JH]

Looking for an Alternative to MS Office?

Check out OpenOffice.org, a multiplatform and multilingual office suite and an open-source project. Compatible with all other major office suites, the product is free to download, use, and distribute.  [RJ]

Word 2007: Coming January 30 Like It or Not

About Microsoft's Word 2007, Jonathan Blum, Fortune Small Business contributor, warns "business users, get ready for #&!? frustration."

Word 2007 is lovely to look at and use. But Word's 450 million global users can expect major, unwelcome surprises from the new code. Everything you've learned about Word over the years is now wrong. The familiar menu names - File, Edit, View, Insert, Format and the rest - are gone, replaced by cryptic new headers: Home, Insert, Page Layout, and Reference.

This can't be good. Check out Blum's review. [JH]

A New Year's Reminder from the Law Professor Blogs Network

Click over to the Law Professor Blogs Network from Westlaw

To view our catalog of blogs, search the Network, and view recent posts from our blogs.

The Clock is Ticking for Windows Vista

Countdown to Windows Vista

While businesses could acquire Microsoft's Windows Vista operating system under site licenses on November 30, the rest of us must wait until January 30. That's OK with me. I learned long ago that being an early adapter of Microsoft products is not a good idea. My beta version of Internet Explore 7 lasted only three days on my kids computer. Security flaws for the production version of IE 7 are now being revealed. For Microsoft's new OS, I advise proceeding with caution and ignoring the company's minimum hardware requirements. See our earlier post, Top 10 Reasons to Delay Your Upgrade to Windows Vista.

There are five Vista versions compared to the two versions of Windows XP (home and professional). The upgrade path starts at Windows 2000 or Windows XP.

• Home Basic ($200 full; $100 upgrade): a very stripped down no frills OS;
• Home Premium ($239 full; $159 upgrade): features Vista's Aero interface and includes media hub features;
• Vista Business ($300 full; $200 upgrade): no fancy media features but includes malware protection and backup tools;
• Vista Ultimate ($400 full; $259 upgrade): a hybrid of Visa Business and Home Premium that is likely to be the most attractive version, it includes Vista's Aero interface, media hub features with enhanced business features; and
• Vista Enterprise (only availabe with site licensing): includes drive encryption).

For consumers, see Microsoft's Windows Vita GetReady site.

For techs, Microsoft offers three resources:

• Windows Vista home page on Microsoft TechNet
• Window's Vista Team Blog
• Window's Vista Securty Blog

[JH]