Law Librarian Blog

Rutgers Newark Law Library Receives IMLS Grant

The Rutgers (Newark) Law Library just received a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Sciences (IMLS) to preserve old and rare books in its collection.  Specifically, the grant applies to manuscripts and books in the U.S. Supreme Court Justice Joseph P. Bradley (1870–1892) collection, Garden State Bar Association archives, National Bar Association archives, and some rare books such as those on English law dating back to the 16th century.  The full press release on the grant is here.  Congratulations to Rutgers on getting the grant.

What surprised me about the IMLS is that it is a government agency.  Here is the mission statement from the IMLS web site:

The Institute of Museum and Library Services is the primary source of federal support for the nation’s 123,000 libraries and 17,500 museums. The Institute's mission is to create strong libraries and museums that connect people to information and ideas. The Institute works at the national level and in coordination with state and local organizations to sustain heritage, culture, and knowledge; enhance learning and innovation; and support professional development. 

Rutgers grant came through the Connecting to Collections program which provides funding for collection preservation.  851 museums, libraries, and archives were selected last year to receive awards.  As Rutgers notes in its announcement, their grant is significant because the IMLS tends to cover museums and general collections rather than law.  Nonetheless, in these times of tight budgets, some law libraries with truly unique materials may be competitive for future funding cycles.  The general IMLS web site is here, and the Connecting to Collections page is here.  [MG]

The Feds Are All A-Twitter

Just like libraries, the government is also taking advantage of Web 2.0 technology to get the word out.  Dozens of  federal agencies are already twitter prolific.  Now we have a service that monitors their tweets. 

“The Feed” is produced by NextGov (http://www.netgov.com/thefeed), a service that monitors the technology and business of the U.S. government. On teh front page for The Feed, you will see the latest tweets from various government organizations.  You can also organize the tweets into the following categories:

• Business and Finance
• Defense and Diplomacy
• Health and Safety
• Homeland Security
• Law Enforcement
• Science and Environment
• White House
• Other

Nextgov also has a cute tool that performs a freqency analysis for the most used word in the tweets of ten pre-selected agencies.  It is called Word-by-Word http://www.nextgov.com/countingtwitter
It isn't that useful, but it is cute.  For example, the most used word in the tweets from the Army, is, not surprisingly, the word: army.  (VS)

Possible Bankruptcy Changes for the Referencers in the Audience

The Executive Office for U.S. Trustees recently published two proposed rules for public comment in the Federal Register. These proposed rules concern: 1) the procedures and criteria for the approval of credit counseling agencies; and 2) final reports filed by trustees in cases under chapters 7, 12 and 13. The procedures for submitting comments are described in the rules and the deadline for comments is April 1, 2008 for credit counseling and April 4, 2008 for the trustee final reports. The proposed rules and the final report forms may be viewed on the "Proposed Rulemaking" page of the Program's Internet site or on the Federal Register's web site. The citation for the credit counseling rule is 73 Fed. Reg. 6062-6073 (Feb. 1, 2008). The trustee final reports rule may be located at 73 Fed. Reg. 6447-6451 (Feb. 4, 2008). If you assist patrons in these areas please be aware of these possible changes. [BB]

Federal Government

• FirstGov Portal
• Regulations.gov
• President
• Senate
• House of Representatives
• Supreme Court of the US
• Cong Budget Office
• GAO
• GPO Access
• GPO Listserv
• Library of Congress
• Law Library of Congress