Law Librarian Blog: Reviews

September 28, 2007

Cornell Law Library's InSITE Website Reviews

Reviews published in the September 17, 2007 issue of InSITE:

AILA InfoNet
American Constitution Society for Law and Policy
Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law
Reflink
SIPRI: Stockholm International Peace Research Institute

[RJ]

The American Immigration Lawyers Association is the professional organization for U.S. immigration lawyers, established to promote justice and to advocate for fair and reasonable immigration law and policy. This site is intended for the benefit of its members, as well as for journalists, managers, and others who need legal information on immigration. In addition to federal and state legislation and cases, there is a unique section of Featured Topics, such as "Workplace Enforcement," "Violence Against Women," and "Comprehensive Immigration Reform." Under each topic, materials such as press kits, proposed legislation, practice pointers, analyses, and conferences are gathered. For a significant fee, members of the Association can access AILALink, a fully searchable, web-based immigration law library of immigration laws, regulations, court decisions, treatises, forms, and much more. This website is up-to-date and easy to use, with an advanced internal search engine and a growing portion of the documents available in Spanish. [PC]

American Constitution Society for Law and Policy

Founded in 2001, the American Constitution Society for Law and Policy (ACS) bills itself as “one of the nation’s leading progressive legal organizations.” ACS is focused on ensuring that individual rights, equality, and access to justice occupy a central place in American law. The website highlights ACS special projects and issue groups. The special projects pages provide information on judicial nominations, as well as Supreme Court previews. The issue groups are part of an ACS initiative, "The Constitution in the 21st Century." The eight issue groups cover topics ranging from access to justice to separation of powers. Within each issue group users will find news stories and links to relevant materials from the most recent ACS convention. Under the "Separation of Powers" issue group, users will want to review the Index of Presidential Signing Statements, 2001-2007. The index is published in PDF and for each act cites to the signing statement, indicates the provision objected to, and notes the reason for objection. Also, each objection is assigned one or more categories from a set of twenty-three. These categories include constitutional, doctrinal, structural, and other justifications for objection. [MM]

Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law

Stanford University’s Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law (CDDRL) strives to “promote innovative and practical research on the design and implementation of policies to foster democracy, to promote balanced and sustainable growth, and to advance the rule of law in countries undergoing dramatic change.” Founded in 2002, the center supports specialized teaching, training, and outreach activities, as well as interdisciplinary research. Program research focuses on five primary topics: evaluating international influences on democratic development, comparative democracy, democracy in Taiwan, economic performance, and the rule of law. CDDRL’s publications include academic publications, working papers, reports and policy briefs, journal articles, books and book chapters, and op-ed pieces. CDDRL also hosts frequent workshops and research seminars. Select presentation transcripts are available. The site is keyword searchable. [JJ]

Reflink

Sponsored by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Reflink is a web portal of materials on refugee-related topics. More than 300 links have been compiled and thematically organized to facilitate research and information searching on topics related to refugees and other persons of concern to UNHCR. Users may access the portal through three main areas: “Primary Sources,” “Subject-Based Sources,” and “Other Useful Sources.” “Primary Sources” is broken down into subcategories such as “Academic Institutions” and “Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs).” The “Subject-Based Sources” area contains sub-categories such as “Ethnic Groups and Minorities,” “Guerrilla and Terrorist Groups/Terrorism,” and “Children.” A drawback of the site is that the individual pages are not date-stamped, so users cannot easily determine when the links were last verified. One nice feature of the site is that a separate page has been created which contains the entire contents for easy downloading and printing. [BWK]

SIPRI: Stockholm International Peace Research Institute

SIPRI, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, was established in 1966 “to conduct research on questions of conflict and cooperation of importance for international peace and security…” The SIPRI home page is uncluttered and easily navigated. The News column on the left side, the Research column on the right, and the navigation bar across the top form a static frame for viewing selected information, so one is never lost. "News" refers to recent SIPRI papers, databases, surveys, and reports, all posted within the last three months. "Research" focuses on arms control, chemical and biological weapons, and arms production, to name a few areas. Each Research page identifies the researchers, articulates the purpose of the project, provides background information and an overview of the research done, and links to relevant publications and websites. The links across the top lead to Databases, Library, and Publications. A notable database is "Facts on International Relations and Security Trends"(FIRST), a collaborative effort that pulls in data from research institutions around the world. FIRST is an integrated database that allows simultaneous searching of over 50 different sources covering international relations and security, each of which may also be searched individually. Finally, a refreshing feature allows users to search the SIPRI library catalogue, arrange to borrow materials, or buy publications. [JC]

InSITE contributors: J. Callihan, J. Jones, B. Kreisler, M. Morrison, J. Pajerek (editor)

About InSITE: InSITE highlights selected law-related Web sites in two ways: as an annotated publication issued electronically and in print; and, as a keyword-searchable database. The law librarians at Cornell evaluate potentially useful Web sites, select the most valuable ones, and provide commentary and subject access to them.

Digital versions of this information can be accessed via:

The contents of InSITE and any recommendations therein are the opinions of the authors and do not reflect the views of Cornell University. InSITE is copyright protected by Cornell Law Library, © 2007 Cornell Law Library. Permission to republish InSITE issues on Law Librarian Blog has been granted. For permissions, contact Jean M. Pajerek [jmp8@cornell.edu].

Cornell Law Library URL: http://www.lawschool.cornell.edu/library

September 28, 2007 in Reviews | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

September 20, 2007

Cornell Law Library's InSITE Website Reviews

Reviews published in the September 3, 2007 issue of InSITE:

Corporate Accountability International
Justia Regulation Tracker: Rules, Proposed Rules & Notices
National Organization for Victim Assistance (NOVA)
Open Society Justice Initiative
Trial of the Major War Criminals before the International Military Tribunal

[RJ]

Corporate Accountability International

For 30 years, Corporate Accountability International (CAI), a non-profit organization, has been waging and winning campaigns that challenge irresponsible and dangerous corporate actions around the world. Its website reflects and amplifies its founding principle: irresponsible behavior by global corporations is endangering the health and welfare of people around the world in a myriad of ways. The site’s featured campaign is entitled “Think outside the bottle,” which seeks truth in labeling on bottled water and the removal of corporate control over this key resource. The site’s home page also shines the spotlight on campaigns targeting three other industries: tobacco, oil, and food and agribusiness. The organization engages in more than one activity at a time. Among other things, it is also urging Big Box Retailers to subscribe to its corporate code of conduct. CAI’s website is oriented towards both environmental activists and concerned individuals. The site provides fact sheets on campaigns, take-action suggestions, and campaign resources (papers and reports.) The website provides current news items, annual reports, newsletters, and announcements for speakers and conferences. An interesting public relations feature is the Corporate Hall of Shame, designed to “expose corporate manipulation of public policy and its harmful consequences. …” The CAI seeks nominations for the Hall of Shame and lists the corporate winners along with short descriptions of their foul deeds. However, CAI also removes companies from the Hall when companies change their practices. [JC]

Justia Regulation Tracker: Rules, Proposed Rules & Notices

The Justia Regulation Tracker is one of the innovative products from Justia that pipes information from Federal websites into a more easily navigated interface. Still in beta, it provides free access to Federal rules, proposed rules, notices, administrative orders, executive orders, and proclamations. Users may search by department or agency, include keywords, and limit by document type or date; or browse by agency or date. Coverage begins January 1, 2005. Each search retrieves the title and full-text of the document, document number, link to PDF, document type, and agency. The full-text provides hyperlinks to related documents available from the GPOAccess website. Interested persons can subscribe to an RSS feed that will display administrative documents as they are published online. For researchers and attorneys in need of free and easy access to the most recent Federal administrative information, this is a valuable resource. [JJ]

National Organization for Victim Assistance (NOVA)

Founded in 1975, The National Organization for Victim Assistance (NOVA) is a private, non-profit organization of victim and witness assistance programs and practitioners, criminal justice agencies and professionals, mental health professionals, researchers, former victims and survivors, and others committed to the recognition and implementation of victim rights and services. The NOVA website provides comprehensive information on its Crisis Response Team (CRT), which was begun in the early 1980s to evaluate the impact of collective trauma on communities. The information covered is useful to both service professionals and victims or communities wanting assistance. The most extensive section of the site, however, is dedicated to victim assistance. Written in accessible language, these pages describe practical concerns for individuals wishing to prevent crime as well as deal with the aftermath of victimization. From a researcher’s perspective, the lack of source citation (such as statutory authority) can be frustrating. The site is not searchable. [BWK]

Open Society Justice Initiative

The Open Society Justice Initiative, an operational program of the Open Society Institute (OSI), pursues law reform activities grounded in the protection of human rights, and contributes to the development of legal capacity for open societies worldwide. The Justice Initiative combines litigation, legal advocacy, technical assistance, and the dissemination of knowledge to secure advances in five priority areas: national criminal justice, international justice, freedom of information and expression, equality and citizenship, and anticorruption. The Justice Initiative's webpage offers visitors news, articles, reports and editorials arranged by topic and by region. Legal researchers will be interested in the site’s “Justice Initiative Legal Resources Database,” which contains over 1100 documents. Results are abstracted and available in full in Word format. The “Legal Briefs, Reports, & Papers” section also contains a large selection of resources. The site’s Program Areas section is available in Portuguese, French, Russian, Spanish, and Arabic. [BWK]

Trial of the Major War Criminals before the International Military Tribunal

The Federal Research Division (FRD) of the Library of Congress, in conjunction with the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General’s Legal Center and School Library, provides online access to numerous military legal resources. One of the collections available on the FRD website is the Trial of the Major War Criminals before the International Military Tribunal. Originally published in forty-two volumes, the collection is “the official record of the trial of the major civilian and military leaders of Nazi Germany” facing accusations of war crimes. The International Military Tribunal, which was established by the London Agreement in August 1945, directed the original publication of the series. Documents in the collection are available in English, French, or German. Hearings were also conducted in Russian, but none of those documents was able to be transcribed so are not published. Each volume is a separately linked PDF file. Volume twenty-three provides both chronological and subject indexes of the proceedings. Additional volumes contain various exhibits and documents, including correspondence, affidavits, and interrogations. [MM]

InSITE contributors: J. Callihan, J. Jones, B. Kreisler, M. Morrison, J. Pajerek (editor)

Digital versions of this information can be accessed via:

Cornell Law Library URL: http://www.lawschool.cornell.edu/library

September 20, 2007 in Reviews | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

August 16, 2007

Cornell Law Library's InSITE Website Reviews

Reviews published in the August 6, 2007 issue of InSITE:

Federal District Court Filings & Dockets
Foreign Law Translations
Pesticide Action Network North America (PANNA)
Social Watch
Transparency International: the Global Coalition Against Corruption

[RJ]

Federal District Court Filings & Dockets
Justia is the newest kid on the block to provide free legal information to the public, similar to Cornell’s Legal Information Institute and FindLaw. According to their website, Justia strives to provide the public with easy access to primary U.S. legal materials, as well as explanatory essays, blawgs, and other secondary materials. They also provide website, blogging, and online marketing solutions to private law firms, which appears to be how they support their free services. The Federal District Court Filings & Dockets site, still in beta, is a very interesting use of web 2.0 technology. Users can search all federal district court filings from January 1, 2006 to the present by party name, jurisdiction, or subject matter. Results provide party names, case number, date filed, court, name of judge, type of law suit, specific cause of action, basis of jurisdiction, and whether a jury has been demanded and by which party. Links are then provided into the U.S. Court’s subscription PACER system for further information. Tailored blog, news, and web searches are created for the user, requiring only one click to access results. Finally, users can add their search to any one of many RSS feeds. This could be a very useful tool for practicing attorneys and legal researchers alike to freely search and monitor specific parties and/or substantive areas of law. [JJ]

Foreign Law Translations
The Institute for Transnational Law is hosted by the School of Law at the University of Texas at Austin. This site is a resource for French, German, Austrian, and Israeli legal materials in the fields of constitutional, administrative, contract and tort law. The English translations of decisions from Germany include cases from the Reichsgericht, the Bundesverfassungsgericht, and the Bundesgerichtshof. Translations from French include decisions of the Conseil constitutionnel, the Conseil d'Etat and the Cour de cassation. Since it is very difficult to find any English translations of foreign court opinions or statutes even at subscription services, this is a valuable resource, although the material available is limited. According to the Institute for Transnational Law's website, their intention is to eventually "build a comprehensive database of leading French and German cases, beginning with the areas of contract, tort, commercial, and constitutional law (mainly human rights) and making them available to foreign audiences who cannot access the originals." The site does issue warnings that the collection is not complete and “should not be relied upon for the basis of a legal opinion or course of action without careful review of current applicable authority." Because the English translations are intended to emphasize readability rather than exactness, no absolute reliance on the translations should be considered. [CF]

Pesticide Action Network North America (PANNA)
Pesticide Action Network North America (PANNA) is the American regional center for the Pesticide Action Network (PAN), one of five such regional centers worldwide. PAN consists of over 600 nongovernmental organizations, institutions, and individuals in over 90 countries. PAN and PANNA seek “to replace pesticide use with ecologically sound and socially just alternatives.” PANNA sees pesticide use as a health and environmental hazard that both undermines food security and threatens agricultural biodiversity. The website provides a source for publications, as well as explanation of pesticide issues. The Resource Library offers reports, articles, guides, videos, and databases. Topics are numerous, including DDT, hunger and food security, and pesticides and autism. Some material must be purchased, but much of it is available in full-text online. Links to relevant websites, including the PAN Pesticides Database, are provided. The Campaigns and Projects section offers significant discussion of PANNA activities; the group currently focuses on pesticide drift, corporate accountability, and pesticide-free lawn care, among other areas. Among the extensive information in this section are PANNA’s public comments on administrative actions, as well as advice on how individuals can get involved in pesticide matters. [MM]

Social Watch
Social Watch is an international NGO watchdog network monitoring poverty eradication and gender equality. Visitors to the organization's website may peruse country reports from over 60 countries and principalities. In these reports, members of Social Watch's national coalitions detail progress made towards internationally agreed-upon commitments and goals, compiled from the latest available authoritative statistical sources. Social Watch also produces issue papers, under the "Big Issues" section. These papers are arranged by date and by topic, specifically the ten commitments of the World Summit for Social Development. A wonderful resource from this website includes the graphic arrangement of data under the site's "Progress and Regressions" section. These social indicator resources are in PDF and HTML, and go back to 1999. The site's "Development Indicators" section also presents its data in interactive graphical form, but this information is not easily printed. Social Watch is available in Spanish as well as English. [BWK]

Transparency International: the Global Coalition Against Corruption
Transparency International (TI) is a global nongovernmental organization with more than 90 local national chapters and chapters-in-formation. TI is not an investigatory organization. Its mission is to generate educational materials, lobby for reform, and provide advice on how to combat corruption. Its website is current, reporting on recent and upcoming events. The home page is organized with links to current news; regional pages that connect to TI chapters; research, surveys, and indices; and helpful tools such as an anticorruption handbook. The pages within the site are not stylish, but provide links to full text PDF scholarly articles (with shorter summaries,) working papers, annual reports from 1999, press releases and conference notices. Each page is searchable, has a direct e-mail feature, and provides the name and contact information for the editor of the page. TI also links to CORISweb ( http://www.corisweb.org/) its portal to over 16,000 resources. CORISweb allows anyone to enter information that meets editorial standards in a variety of languages using simple online forms. CORISweb includes databases on resources, events, projects, news, contacts and courses. [JMC]

InSITE contributors: J. Callihan, C. Finger, J. Jones, B. Kreisler, M. Morrison, J. Pajerek (editor)

Digital versions of this information can be accessed via:

Cornell Law Library URL: http://www.lawschool.cornell.edu/library

Digital versions of this information can be accessed via:

Cornell Law Library URL: http://www.lawschool.cornell.edu/library

August 16, 2007 in Reviews | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

August 09, 2007

Cornell Law Library's InSITE Website Reviews

Reviews published in the July 23, 2007 issue of InSITE:

Centre for the Study of Global Governance
Drug Court Clearinghouse
Internet Cases
Protection Project
Refugee Studies Centre

[RJ]

Centre for the Study of Global Governance
The Centre for the Study of Global Governance has a scholarly presence on the web devoted to content rather than graphics. The Centre, housed at the London School of Economics since 1992, is dedicated to the “research, analysis and dissemination about global governance” and to “encourage interaction between academics, policy makers, journalists and activists, and to propose solutions.” The Centre is quite transparent and displays the backgrounds of its members, noting prestigious grant awards that help fund their efforts. The key components of the site reflect the stated mission of the Centre: News, Research Themes, Teaching Events, Publications, About Us, Press Site, and Contact. All pages are up to date, except the Press site which was last updated in 2005. Otherwise the Centre generally presents full text of materials for recent lectures, debates, papers, classes, conferences, and publications under the "Research Themes" of Global Governance, Globalisation, Global Civil Society, Global Security, and Regions. The parameters for research cover a wide spectrum of politically hot issues, from global warming and AIDS in Africa, to historical topics such as peace movements during the Cold War. A search feature and site index round out the convenient navigation features. [JC]

Drug Court Clearinghouse
The Drug Court Clearinghouse Project has been in existence at American University in Washington, DC since 1994, and is currently administered in partnership with the U.S. Dept. of Justice's Bureau of Justice Assistance. It is a nation-wide clearinghouse for drug court information and activity, providing a range of services which include telephone consultation, e-mail responses to information requests, networking and facilitation of telephone conference calls among peers to discuss issues of concern, and dissemination of sample operational materials developed by drug courts. The Clearinghouse maintains a reference collection of drug court-related documents which is categorized and retrievable under an extensive list of topics, ranging from "acupuncture" to "welfare." Other sections of the website feature training announcements, fact sheets, a "frequently asked questions" series, "Drug Courts in the News," and an interactive "Drug Court Activity Map." With the increasing prevalence of drug courts in the U.S., this site provides a valuable way for those involved to locate useful information gathered from a variety of sources. [JG and JMP]

Internet Cases
Internet Cases is a weblog that “highlight[s] some of the more interesting court cases dealing with issues relating to the Internet and new technologies.” It is the creation of Evan Brown, an attorney practicing in the areas of intellectual property and computer-related law. Mr. Brown’s curriculum vitae is impressive, listing extensive speaking engagements and publications on technology issues. His stated goal is to discuss one or two cases a week. The blog itself is in a typical format divided into Home, Categories, Archives, Recent News and a Search Feature. There are 30 categories ranging from Anonymity to Unfair Competition, and several web-specific categories such as cybersquatting, spam, spyware and podcasts. Unfortunately at the time of this review, there was no link to the listed category of "electronic discovery." Brown’s postings summarize the facts, the court’s analysis, and holding in a conversational style. He provides a link to the full opinion or gives a citation where available. At times, Brown adds an editorial observation at the end of a post regarding litigation strategy or predicting developments, but overall his reporting appears neutral. The easy-to-read posts, the news links and blogroll make this a convenient place to get current legal information and up-to-date insights about an area of law that changes daily. [JC]

Protection Project
The Protection Project is a human rights research institute based at the Foreign Policy Institute at The Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, DC. Founded by Laura Lederer in 1994 to address the issue of trafficking in persons as a human rights violation, the Protection Project focuses on the promotion of human rights values throughout the world. The Project offers Human Rights Reports (in Microsoft Word format), covering all major geographic regions in nation-by-nation reports. These reports focus on the nature and structure of human trafficking, as well as governmental responses. The site also offers essays and commentary, and a Q&A section covering reader-submitted queries. Legal researchers will be interested in the site’s Legal Library, which covers texts of foreign laws, international conventions, a table of U.S. cases on human trafficking, and the full-text of related law review articles. Of particular interest to all researchers are the maps of trafficking routes in HTML and PDF form. These sections of the website are accessed by using the "Quick Navigate" drop-down list near the top of the homepage and selecting "Protection Project." [BWK]

Refugee Studies Centre
The Refugee Studies Centre (RSC), founded in 1982, is part of the University of Oxford’s Centre for Development Studies. Social anthropologist Barbara Harrell-Bond established RSC to develop scholarship devoted to refugees and the issues of forced migration. The website is a source of information about the RSC and its work, as well as the group’s publications and materials. Researchers will want to focus on three of the site’s many sections: Research, Publications, and the Library. Within the Research section, users can access various reports and articles addressing topics such as the effects of forced migration on Palestinian children. Under Publications, researchers can find information, including tables of contents, of the RSC journals Forced Migration Review and the Journal of Refugee Studies. Numerous working papers are also made available covering topics of displacement, asylum, and refugee protection. The site also provides an introduction to the RSC library, which is a part of the Oxford University Library Services. Accession lists and access to the catalogue are provided. [MM]

InSITE contributors: J. Callihan, J. Gillespie, B. Kreisler, M. Morrison, J. Pajerek (editor)

Digital versions of this information can be accessed via:

Cornell Law Library URL: http://www.lawschool.cornell.edu/library

August 9, 2007 in Reviews | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

July 17, 2007

Cornell Law Library's InSITE Website Reviews

Reviews published in the July 2, 2007 issue of InSITE:

Congresspedia
Lincoln/Net: Abraham Lincoln Historical Digitization Project
Litigation Podcast: Tips & Tactics for the Practicing Trial Lawyer
Restorative Justice Consortium
START: National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism

[RJ]

Congresspedia
Congresspedia is the latest project of the Sunlight Foundation and the Center for Media & Democracy, in partnership with SourceWatch. Deemed “the ‘citizen’s encyclopedia on Congress’ that anyone – including you – can edit,” it is a wiki-based website that monitors federal politicians and interest groups that shape public policy at the national level. While content is reviewed by an editor to ensure fairness and accuracy, organizations, “citizen journalists,” and professors and students are encouraged to add their knowledge here and use it as a teaching aid. Articles on each member of Congress are available, which detail their voting record and controversies; biography; use of money in politics; committees and affiliations; background data; contact information; and source articles, websites (both official and unofficial), books written by and about the representative, and select speeches. Articles are also available that list candidates for federal office in past years, and discuss various political issues and major legislative action. For people interested in politics, this is an excellent use of technology to help expand public information about Congress and Congressional activity. [JJ]

Lincoln/Net: Abraham Lincoln Historical Digitization Project
The Abraham Lincoln Historical Digitization Project, which is based at Northern Illinois University and works with numerous other Illinois institutions, offers Lincoln/Net. The site provides materials from Abraham Lincoln’s Illinois years, covering 1830-1861. Lincoln/Net aggregates materials from collaborating institutions and includes books, manuscripts, maps, and images. The site provides users with access to these materials via both searching and browsing. Users will see two major categories displayed on the left: Historical Themes and Lincoln’s Biography. Within the historical themes, material may be browsed within eight thematic categories, including frontier settlement, law and society, and politics. The biography section organizes material by time periods of Lincoln’s life; for example, the Indian fighting years of 1831-1836 and the years 1857-1858, which saw Lincoln’s rise to national prominence. Images, video, and sound are separately categorized for browsing. The search feature permits users to search by author, title, theme, document type, genre, and date. Overall, this is a great site for Lincoln history. [MM]

Litigation Podcast: Tips & Tactics for the Practicing Trial Lawyer
Starting in August of 2006, the Litigation Section of the American Bar Association has been offering podcasts for practicing trial lawyers and other legal professionals. Featuring the vocal talents of a variety of practitioners and authors, these podcasts are lengthy and cover a wide range of issues. Some of the podcasts are broadly directed towards new attorneys and law school graduates. Others are focused on specific substantive or procedural issues. A sample of the issues covered so far includes managing privilege, electronic discovery, client service, voir dire, and civility in the practice of law. The podcasts are directly downloadable as MP3s (there is no streaming audio) or via subscription. New episodes are offered bi-weekly. [BWK]

Restorative Justice Consortium
The UK-based Restorative Justice Consortium was formed in 1997 to bring together a wide range of organizations with an interest in Restorative Justice as a means of resolving conflict and promoting reconciliation for the public benefit. By providing networking tools such as conferences, seminars, and a quarterly newsletter, the Consortium develops and promotes best practices for evaluating and guiding restorative practices. Researchers will be interested in the organization's "Research" section (click on the "Resources" link), which contains reports and analysis dating back to the 1990s. The Restorative Justice Consortium publishes FAQs on using restorative justice in schools, prisons, and the criminal justice system at large. Information is also provided on restorative justice policy and research from countries outside the UK. The site's "Policy" section (also under "Resources") offers government papers, legislation, and published reports, organized by date. A handy glossary is also featured on the site. [BWK]

START: National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism
The National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terror (START) is a “center of excellence” of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. START is charged with using state-of-the-art behavioral and social science “to improve understanding of the origins, dynamics, and social and psychological impacts of terrorism.” Based at the University of Maryland, College Park, START employs an interdisciplinary team of researchers with the goal of providing guidance on disrupting terror networks and reducing terrorism overall. The main features of the website are the Data and Publications sections. In the Data section, users will find the Global Terrorism Database. The database can be browsed by date, country, attack type, weapon type, and number of casualties. For each country or type, data is provided about the terror attack, including city, perpetrator, fatalities, and target type. In the Publications section, users will find PDFs of START’s research briefs. These cover a range of topics, including counterterrorism in Northern Ireland and support for violence directed against the United States. [MM]

InSITE contributors: Julie Jones, Research Attorney, Brandy Kreisler, J.D., M.L.S., Matt Morrison, Research Attorney, Jean Pajerek (editor), Head of Technical Services & Information Management, all current or former members of the professional staff at Cornell Law Library.

Digital versions of this information can be accessed via:

Cornell Law Library URL: http://www.lawschool.cornell.edu/library

July 17, 2007 in Reviews | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

July 10, 2007

Cornell Law Library's InSITE Website Reviews

Reviews published in the June 18, 2007 issue of InSITE:

Civil Rights Documentation Project
Copyright & Fair Use
National Labor Committee for Worker & Human Rights
Progress & Freedom Foundation
RacetotheBottom.org

Civil Rights Documentation Project
The Civil Rights Documentation Project is the product of the Dirksen Congressional Center, a non-partisan, not-for-profit organization that seeks to improve public engagement in politics through better understanding of Congress. In furtherance of that goal, the Dirksen Center created this project to discuss at length the legislative process involved in the struggle to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Much has been written about the civil rights movement, but the Dirksen Center found that in depth coverage of the story of the law itself was missing. This website provides a detailed, month by month timeline of that development, from January 1963 through the law’s enactment in August 1965. Icons indicate whether a timeline date focuses on the social context or legislative process, and names of key politicians and cites to specific bill numbers are included. For people interested in the civil rights movement or how major legislation works its way through the political process, this is a very interesting site. [JJ]

Copyright & Fair Use
The Copyright & Fair Use website from Stanford University Libraries is an essential resource for librarians and professors alike. It provides a thorough overview of copyright and fair use basics, including a FAQ section, answers about what falls into the public domain, when, why, and how to acquire copyright permission, special considerations for academic and educational use of copyrighted materials, and when to use a release. Resources are provided especially for academic librarians to inform their internal copyright policies. For those interested in the status and development of copyright law, the site links to primary federal and international law, including a thorough list of U.S. copyright cases. Additionally, current legislation dealing with copyright law is tracked, with links to bill text, news coverage, and more. This is a key site for professors grappling with copyright issues for their courses, librarians dealing with digital information management, and anyone looking for a solid starting point to begin copyright research. [JJ]

National Labor Committee for Worker & Human Rights
Founded in 1981, the National Labor Committee (NLC) works to defend the human rights of workers in the global economy, by investigating and exposing human and labor rights abuses committed by U.S. companies producing goods in the developing world. The NLC is creating a coalition of religious, labor, women's, student, civil rights, solidarity, policy and grassroots groups to catalyze popular campaigns based upon original research. The NLC’s website offers visitors videos, campaign reports, and other educational materials to highlight this research. Many of the NLC’s materials are available for sale. A summary of NLC accomplishments and the organization’s mission statement is also available. This site is searchable. [BWK]

Progress & Freedom Foundation
Founded in 1993, the Progress and Freedom Foundation (PFF) is a “market-oriented think tank that studies the digital revolution and its implications for public policy.” Through research, PFF seeks to educate policymakers on technology from a free-market, limited-government perspective. PFF studies several major issues, including communications, intellectual property, and e-commerce. The group’s website provides a platform for distributing information about the group, as well as its published research. The Issues & Publications section is the centerpiece of the site. Here, users will find an extensive database of PFF materials. These materials include amicus briefs, webcasts, testimony, and journal articles. The database is searchable by keyword, date, author, topic, and publication type, and it covers from 1994 to the present. Also of note, PFF holds the annual Aspen Summit, which looks at how public policy and business strategy impact the digital future. The website provides online registration for the summit, as well as some limited information from previous summits. [MM]

RacetotheBottom.org
Also known as proSOXblog, RacetotheBottom.org is a collaborative effort from the University of Denver Sturm College of Law. Professor Jay Brown and students discuss the corporate governance process, the role of the Securities and Exchange Commission, and many other related issues in this active blog. Comments from the public are allowed and encouraged, and browsing the content of this blog is easy thanks to navigation by subject headings, such as “International Governance,” “Preemption of Delaware Law,” “Shareholder Rights,” and “The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB).” RacetotheBottom.org has archives going back to January 2007, although it is not easy to browse by date. This blog is searchable and syndicates its content via multiple subject-specific RSS feeds. Due to its highly customizable features, this site offers items of interest to a wide audience, including practitioners, students, and law faculty. Researchers will appreciate the site’s links to outside content, which include a recommended reading list, relevant statutes and regulations, and the academic and government sourced cited by the blog.[BWK]

Digital versions of this information can be accessed via:

Cornell Law Library URL: http://www.lawschool.cornell.edu/library

July 10, 2007 in Reviews | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

June 18, 2007

Cornell Law Library's InSITE Website Reviews

Reviews published in the June 4, 2007 issue of InSITE:

Actual Innocence Awareness Database
NCSEA Research Clearinghouse
Tribal Justice and Safety in Indian Country
White House Project
Williams Institute, UCLA School of Law

Actual Innocence Awareness Database
The Tarlton Law Library at the University of Texas (Austin) provides the Actual Innocence Awareness Database, a listing of resources pertaining to the topic of wrongful convictions. The database consists of references to popular media, journal articles, books, legislation, and websites on the topic. The resources are classified according to the “primary causes of wrongful conviction”: Forensics/DNA; Eyewitness Identification; False Confessions; Jailhouse Informants; Police / Prosecutorial Misconduct; Ineffective Representation; and General, where everything else is located. Out of concern for "fair use" copyright issues, only the first page of an article (in PDF when possible) is made available, which is a limitation if the whole document is not easily found, but the citation to the full document is provided. Some of the newspaper links can expire very quickly, so for retrospective searching this database is not the best source. However, an RSS feed allows users to receive timely notification of new material. The database includes a fielded search feature that defaults to a Boolean "and" search when search terms are entered into more than one field. [CF]

NCSEA Research Clearinghouse
Developed and maintained by the Indiana University Institute for Family and Social Responsibility (FASR) on behalf of the National Child Support Enforcement Association (NCSEA), this site includes a searchable database of citations and abstracts of child support-related articles, books, book chapters, dissertations and reports to Federal, state, and local governments. The database is updated continuously and is searchable by use of any keyword or phrase, including the names of authors, journals, or topical subjects. The database provides extensive documentation on its Boolean search feature. Researchers should note that the full text of the articles cited in this database is not generally available on the NCSEA Research Clearinghouse site. [BWK]

Tribal Justice and Safety in Indian Country
Described as the “newest resource guide developed specifically for Indian country,” the Tribal Justice and Safety in Indian Country website is a project of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). The goals of the site are to improve safety in tribal communities and to help educate the public about issues of justice in Indian Country. The site is organized into multiple components covering training and technical assistance, crime prevention, DOJ initiatives, and research and statistics. General information about Federal law that is of interest to American Indians is available in the “Government-to-Government” section. In the other sections of the site, users will find links to organizations and departments, as well as various bureaus within DOJ, all providing information for the specific audience. Users will also find links to a variety of DOJ publications covering topics from youth gangs in Indian Country to Native American sentencing issues. Overall, the site provides a gateway to documents, websites, and various resources applicable to tribal justice. [MM]

White House Project
The White House Project (WHP) takes its name from the concept that they are “aim[ing] to advance women’s leadership in all communities and sectors — up to the U.S. Presidency — by filling the leadership pipeline with a richly diverse, critical mass of women.” The non-partisan, 501c3 organization behind this website promotes women as political, social, cultural and economic leaders through training and information sharing. This is a website that works to think outside the box and contributes unique material, including fourteen ways to take the lead now, and as a resource providing women experts for media commentary. A major component of the WHP is teaching women the basic skills involved in running a campaign and being a candidate, for which details are available on the website. This attractive and easy to use site makes good use of side navigation and an effective search engine, and is up to date with news and projects. Outreach through the website includes e-mail news delivery, videos, reading lists, web links, and public service radio spots, all with the aim of increasing participation of women as leaders in American life. [PGC]

Williams Institute, UCLA School of Law
The Williams Institute, housed at the UCLA School of Law, was founded with an inaugural gift from philanthropist Charles R. Williams. As a think tank devoted to sexual orientation law and policy, the Institute supports scholarship, research, analysis, and education “regarding sexual orientation discrimination and other legal issues that affect lesbian and gay people.” The Institute seeks to fill a niche not currently occupied by established think tanks. In so doing, it attempts to provide courts and legislatures with the arguments and data needed to address gay issues. The website offers ample information about the Institute and its various programs, including judicial training. Upcoming judicial training programs will cover New York family law and gay youth in the juvenile justice system. Various publications are available in full text. The policy studies are of particular interest covering topics from adoption to military issues to immigration. The Institute also has a reading room located in the UCLA Law Library. Be sure to check the reading room section on the site. There, users will find an extensive bibliography of the materials found in the Institute’s collection. [MM]

Digital versions of this information can be accessed via:

Cornell Law Library URL: http://www.lawschool.cornell.edu/library

June 18, 2007 in Reviews | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

June 04, 2007

Cornell Law Library's InSITE Website Reviews

Reviews published in the May 14, 2007 issue of InSITE:

CeRI: Cornell e-Rulemaking Initiative
Journal of Philosophy, Science & Law
National Fathers' Resource Center
Prison Policy Initiative
Rutherford Institute

CeRI: Cornell e-Rulemaking Initiative
The Cornell e-Rulemaking Initiative (CeRI) is a collaborative effort of Cornell Law School’s Legal Information Institute and various faculty and students. CeRI pursues both theoretical and applied research on both the technology and practice of e-rulemaking and, in turn, provides consultation to government agencies. The Initiative’s principal researchers represent the legal, information and social science disciplines at Cornell. These principal researchers collaborate with affiliated researchers and research assistants. Sponsors and partners of CeRI include the National Science Foundation and the Environmental Protection Agency. In addition to informing users about CeRI and offering the latest CeRI news and events, the website explains the group’s projects and provides its publications. The Public Interface Project is geared toward creating “a substantially enriched public user interface” for Regulations.gov, which is the online portal for federal agency rulemaking. The Learn About Rulemaking project is developing a web tutorial to help the general public comprehend the complex rulemaking process. Users interested in more technical details should consult the publications on the site. Publication topics include how the use of natural language processing improves e-rulemaking. [MM]

Journal of Philosophy, Science & Law
Sponsored by the University of Miami Ethics Programs and the Georgia Institute of Technology School of Public Policy, the Journal of Philosophy, Science & Law (JPSL) is an interdisciplinary forum dedicated to examining issues at the intersection of applied philosophy, science, and the law. At the Journal’s website, visitors may view the JPSL’s manuscript and article archive dating back to 2001, organized by date or author. Each item is abstracted and many articles are available in PDF. The JPSL offers prospective authors detailed submission guidelines, and accepts unsolicited manuscripts by email. The Journal’s site is not searchable. [BWK]

National Fathers' Resource Center
The National Fathers' Resource Center (NFRC) is a research portal for those seeking to promote equitable family laws and assert the rights of fathers during divorce and child custody cases. The NFRC is a project of the Fathers for Equal Rights, Inc. (FER), a 30 year-old Dallas-based non-profit organization dedicated to helping men. Because the FER is based in Texas, the NFRC’s site is oriented towards Texas state law. Designed for use mostly by pro-se litigants and non-professionals, this site covers issues such as trial preparation, divorce and credit ratings, visitation, and DNA testing. These issues are organized into questions such as “What if I Lose My Job and Am Unable to Pay Support?” The guides for pro-se litigants are quite detailed, and offer such things as checklists for what to expect from a family court, and a glossary of legal terms. Legal researchers will find useful the section on state family codes. The NFRC requires (free) member registration. [BWK]

Prison Policy Initiative
The Prison Policy Initiative conducts research and advocacy on incarceration policy. The site is full of data for researchers and activists alike, with a special emphasis on the state of New York. The Prison Policy Initiative site is browseable by categories such as “Reports,” “Articles,” “Atlas” and “Research Index.” The “Reports” section focuses on census and state constituency issues. “Articles” covers issues such as the death penalty, disciplinary hearings, health care, and racial disparities. This section also offers factsheets and book reviews. The “Atlas” section provides a large amount of data in graphic form, covering issues such as disenfranchisement, global and U.S. incarceration rates, and the death penalty. The “Research Index” section contains links to other empirical criminal justice research available on the Internet. The site is searchable, and, as an added bonus, each page is syndicatable via RSS so users will be alerted when the content on each subscribed page changes. [BWK]

Rutherford Institute
The Rutherford Institute was founded in 1982 by attorney and author John W. Whitehead. As a “civil liberties organization that provides free legal services to people whose constitutional and human rights have been threatened or violated,” the Institute has a mission to both litigate in defense of religious and civil liberties and to educate the public about constitutional rights. The website provides extensive information about Rutherford and its nine issues of focus. These issues include free speech, religious freedom, search and seizure, and sexual harassment. Within each issue section, users will find an explanation of the issue and how the Institute is involved with it. Links are provided to press releases and related commentary, articles, and other resources. The commentaries are penned by Mr. Whitehead, while articles are provided by various contributors. Resources made available include transcripts of interviews, white papers, in-depth discussions of case law, and audio of Rutherford’s public radio campaign. [MM]

Digital versions of this information can be accessed via:

Cornell Law Library URL: http://www.lawschool.cornell.edu/library

June 4, 2007 in Reviews | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

June 03, 2007

A Quick Look at the Seton Hall Guantanamo Project

Seton Hall law prof Mark P. Denbeaux and Joshua W. Denbeaux (Seton Hall '91), supervised a group of eight Seton Hall law students in preparing a series of reports concerning the Gitmo detainees. The reports draw on Department of Defense data and public statements to develop profiles of the detainees in terms of the offenses with which they are charged, if any, the places of their capture, and the terrorist groups with whom they are said to be associated. The reports can be obtained from the Seton Hall Guantánamo Project website. [JH]

June 3, 2007 in Reviews | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

May 21, 2007

Cornell Law Library's InSITE Website Reviews

Reviews published in the April 30, 2007 issue of InSITE:

LibraryLaw Blog
National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges
Scholars at Risk Network
Sweatshop Watch
Voices of Civil Rights

LibraryLaw Blog
LibraryLaw Blog is the blog companion to the website LibraryLaw.com Created in 1997 by consultant Mary Minow, LibraryLaw.com focuses on legal issues of interest to libraries, such as copyright, privacy and the First Amendment. LibraryLaw Blog discusses these and other issues, with contributions by fellow bloggers Peter Hirtle, Raizel Liebler, and Susan Nevelow Mart. Powered by Bloglet, LibraryLaw.com is archived back to July 2006 and is syndicatable to your favorite news reader. Blog entries are categorized by topic, and the site is searchable via Google. The entries are nicely fleshed out and developed; posts consist of full paragraphs of original content, and aren’t just lists of links to other blogs. LibraryLaw Blog’s contributors post daily, sometimes more often. User comments are welcome. [BWK]

National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges
Based at the University of Nevada at Reno, the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges (NCJFCJ) is dedicated to improving courts and justice systems practices, as well as raising awareness of the core issues that impact many children and families in the United States. The NCJFCJ focuses on issues such as "child abuse and neglect," "family violence," "juvenile delinquency," "domestic relations," and "substance abuse." These issue sections contain links to the Council's current and past projects, topical news, and the NCJFCJ's related publications. Legal researchers will appreciate the Council's publications, especially the Model Code on Domestic and Family Violence, and the Model Courts documentation. Some of these documents are available for free, but most are not available online. The NCJFCJ website is searchable. [BWK]

Scholars at Risk Network
The Scholars at Risk Network (SAR), housed at New York University, is a global network of colleges and universities that responds to attacks on scholars. SAR gets involved because of “those seeking power” who want “to limit access to information and new ideas” and restrict academic freedom while “repressing research, publication, teaching and learning.” SAR provides sanctuary to threatened scholars, advocates on their behalf, and seeks to educate the public. The website is part of the education mission, providing information about SAR and its activities, which are detailed on the site. These include working to match threatened scholars with safe host institutions, providing resources for displaced scholars, promoting speaking events, and conducting research. Of note is a table of displaced and at risk scholars indicating their degree, field, and risk status. For detailed scholar profiles, users must become members of the SAR network. [MM]

Sweatshop Watch
Founded in 1995, Sweatshop Watch is a coalition of over 30 labor, community, civil rights, immigrant rights, women's, religious, and student organizations, and many individuals, committed to eliminating the exploitation that occurs in sweatshops. An affiliate of the AFL-CIO, Sweatshop Watch serves low-wage workers nationally and globally, with a focus on garment workers in California. Visitors to Sweatshop Watch can access the organization’s FAQ, read recent news concerning sweatshops, and access Sweatshop Watch’s newsletters back to 2000. They can also learn about the history of the garment industry and sweatshops, order Information and Action kits, and consult the site’s glossary of commonly used terms. The site is searchable. [BWK]

Voices of Civil Rights
Sponsored by the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP), the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights (LCCR) and the Library of Congress, the Voices of Civil Rights (VCR) project is dedicated to collecting and preserving thousands of personal stories, oral histories, and personal artifacts of the civil rights movement through a searchable online archive. Visitors may search and browse the archive for submitted stories from those who witnessed, or were a part of, America's civil rights experience, or may submit their own, unpublished recollection. The VCR staff also select certain accounts to highlight as a “Featured Story.” Educators will appreciate the “History” section of the site, which features a civil rights timeline, a music video, a photo gallery, and an interactive quiz. The “Civil Rights Today” section features advances in the contemporary civil rights movement. While already a robust and fascinating web site, the Voices of Civil Rights project is due to be expanded extensively in the future. [BWK]

Digital versions of this information can be accessed via:

Cornell Law Library URL: http://www.lawschool.cornell.edu/library

May 21, 2007 in Reviews | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

May 11, 2007

A Quick Look at The Spy Who Billed Me

The Spy Who Billed Me is a blog by R J. Hillhouse. She reports on how the U.S. government hires private companies and contractors to do intelligence and military work. This blog is filled with compelling posts on private intel corporations, mercenaries, and the War on Terror.

A former professor and Fulbright fellow, Hillhouse earned her Ph.D. in political science at the University of Michigan. Her next novel, Outsourced (Forge Books, June 12), is about the turf wars between the Pentagon and the CIA and the privatization of national security. So is her blog truth or fiction? I believe the former but... . [JH]

May 11, 2007 in Reviews | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

May 03, 2007

Cornell Law Library's InSITE Website Reviews

Reviews published in the April 16, 2007 issue of InSITE:

National Consumer Law Center
Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR)
POCLAD: Program on Corporations, Law & Democracy
Racial Profiling Data Collection Resource Center at Northeastern University
RTK Net: the Right-to-Know Network

National Consumer Law Center
The National Consumer Law Center (NCLC) helps consumers, their advocates, and public policy makers use powerful and complex consumer laws on behalf of low-income and vulnerable Americans. The website is broken down into different sections for attorneys and non-professionals. For non-professionals, there are pages covering low-income and consumer justice initiatives, such as “Predatory Small Loans,” “Sustainable Homeownership,” and “Debt Collection Abuse.” These initiatives offer summaries of the major points of law, as well as pamphlets, brochures and other free publications to help consumers. For attorneys, there are sections offering detailed information regarding NCLC publications, as well as the capability to keyword-search through all NCLC manuals. The site also provides samples of the NCLC’s litigation and work product in areas such as “Auto-finance Discrimination” and “Private Child Support Collection Agencies.” In addition, there is a “Testimony and Comments” section, which contains statements from NCLC experts on issues such as consumer fraud, debt collection, and energy assistance programs. [BWK]

Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR)
Created in 1990 in Warsaw, Poland, the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) is an affiliate of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and is responsible for promoting human rights, democratic traditions, and tolerance throughout participating states. Visitors to the ODIHR website can find official ODIHR publications (beginning from September 1999), broken down by topic (such as “Elections” and “Human Rights”). Visitors can also browse the site by issue (“Democratization,” “Roma And Sinti Issues”). Each section contains an overview of the issue; a news feed on the topic; official documents related to the concern; important meetings, seminars, and other activities; and information about pertinent ODIHR projects. Each main issue page is broken down into sub-issues as well, covering more specialized concerns such as “Freedom of Religion or Belief” and “Gender Equality.” Many documents are available in PDF as well as HTML, and some are available only in languages other than English, primarily Russian. [BWK]

POCLAD: Program on Corporations, Law & Democracy
The Program on Corporations, Law & Democracy (POCLAD) is a branch of the Council on International and Public Affairs (CIPA). It was created to promote CIPA’s idea of democracy by fighting corporate personhood. The POCLAD website is oriented towards educating the public-at-large as much as it is to assist already-engaged political activists. To this end, the site is easy to navigate, containing links to the organization’s FAQ, its activities, a nice collection of political cartoons, articles and statements, and the group’s Resources and Publications. Unfortunately, many of these are for sale and not available for free on the website. What is available for free includes a “Model Legal Brief to Eliminate Corporate Rights,” which was drafted to “to assist communities organizing to challenge the United States government's gift of constitutional powers to property organized as corporations.” While many POCLAD publications are available in PDF, the brief is in HTML only. [BWK]

Racial Profiling Data Collection Resource Center at Northeastern University
The Racial Profiling Data Collection Resource Center is a project of the Institute on Race and Justice (IRJ) at Northeastern University. The IRJ is dedicated to examining questions on race and justice facing urban communities. The Resource Center provides data on Community and Civil Rights initiatives and describes the process of data collection. Of interest is the section entitled “Jurisdictions Currently Collecting Data,” which is a state-by-state list of individual jurisdictions which collect data, either voluntarily or through legislation, consent decrees, or settlements. The Resource Center details the history of the racial profiling controversy, offering a glossary and timeline. The Resource Center has also produced maps of legislation and litigation concerning racial profiling, offering not only detailed summaries of the legal activity but quick and effective visual snapshots of progress in various regions of the United States. Researchers will be interested in the site's “Interactive Data Tables,” which allows users to parse the data extracted from various traffic stop study reports. [BWK

RTK Net: the Right-to-Know Network
Begun in 1989 in support of the Emergency Planning and Community Right to Know Act (EPCRA), the Right-to-Know Network (RTK NET) is a service provided by OMB Watch (reviewed in vol. 4, no. 19 of InSITE). RTK NET is dedicated to providing free and robust access to numerous environmental databases. With the information available on RTK NET, visitors can identify specific factories and their environmental effects, and assess the people and communities affected. The environmental databases available include the Emergency Response Notification System (ERNS), Accidental Release Information Program (ARIP), and Risk Management Plans (RMP), among others. Users may also search all the databases simultaneously. The site's "Resources" section covers fact sheets and data sets for the included databases as well as links to additional information about environmental concerns (e.g. drinking water contaminants). The RTK NET Help documents and the "Help" section exhaustively cover the use and scope of the Networks databases. Finally, visitors to the RTK NET site may quickly search the EPA Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) for toxic pollution by city and state. [BWK]

Digital versions of this information can be accessed via:

Cornell Law Library URL: http://www.lawschool.cornell.edu/library

May 3, 2007 in Reviews | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

April 18, 2007

Cornell Law Library's InSITE Website Reviews

Reviews published in the April 2, 2007 issue of InSITE:

Clean Up Washington
Daily Caveat
Docuticker
National Center for Mental Health and Juvenile Justice
OpenTheGovernment.org

Clean Up Washington
Public Citizen, the public interest group founded by Ralph Nader, has launched Clean Up Washington, which is the “on-line face of a grassroots campaign” seeking “to rid our nation’s capital of entrenched special interest influence-peddling.” Designed to provide users with the latest news of Washington corruption, the site also provides educational materials and information on grassroots campaigns. The site offers numerous in-depth reports covering topics from lobbyist-funded travel to a campaign by wealthy individuals to repeal the estate tax. There is also the Watchdog Blog with various Public Citizen staff members contributing content. The "Tell the Press" feature allows users to quickly look up contact information for newspapers in a particular state. The fun part of the site, the "Hall of Shame," includes members of Congress and others who have been identified as particularly unethical and details of their conduct are provided. [MM]

Daily Caveat
Formerly of Caveat Research, LLC, the Daily Caveat is a daily blog by Michael Thomas which focuses on issues of interest to corporate investigators, including corporate fraud, white collar crime, and investigative research. Entries are robust and provide in-depth comments and analysis of relevant news items and events. The tone of this blog is chatty and accessible, but not irreverent. People new to this area will appreciate the blog’s well-developed links to related sites, which cover topics such as “Investigation & White Collar Crime,” and “Data Security & Competitive Intelligence.” Archives for the Daily Caveat go back to February 2005. This blog allows comments and Digg, del.icio.us, and Technorati submissions, and offers an RSS feed. The site is best viewed using Firefox or Safari. [BWK]

Docuticker
Designed for information professionals, Docuticker (a part of ResourceShelf.com), is a daily blog offering news reports from government agencies, the U.S. military, non-governmental organizations, think tanks, and other groups. Links are to free and (mostly) non-subscription based sources. Librarians and other researchers will appreciate the meaty abstracts for each document cited, and that most material is in PDF form. The blog editors do not comment on the items and there is no mechanism for reader response. This blog is syndicatable and keyword searchable, and has been published since June 2004. [BWK]

National Center for Mental Health and Juvenile Justice
Established in 2001, the National Center for Mental Health and Juvenile Justice (NCMHJJ) strives to assist juvenile justice systems in developing improved policies and programs for youth with mental health disorders. The Center aims to be a research clearinghouse for maximizing the awareness and usefulness of new information to guide practice and policy. Visitors may find quick information regarding juvenile mental health in the "Key Issues" section. Researchers will be interested in NCMHJJ's "Publications" section, which offers PDF versions of research and program briefs, training and assessment materials, curricula, and policy reports. Practitioners will appreciate the Center's "Evidence-based Practices" section, which provides reviews, resources, and links to information and descriptions about standardized interventions and treatment across multiple research groups. [BWK]

OpenTheGovernment.org
OpenTheGovernment.org is a coalition of journalists, environmentalists, labor and consumer groups, and others united out of a concern for the expanding secrecy of our local, state and federal governments. The organization is focused on making the federal government more open and accountable, strengthening public trust in government, and supporting universal democratic principles. Of interest to researchers, the site's "Resource Center" contains policy analysis and data on the U.S. Census, energy consumption, and environmental, labor, and transportation concerns. OpenTheGovernment.org also covers the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), Homeland Security policies, judicial secrecy, and whistleblower protection issues. OpenTheGovernment.org issues periodic reports on open government and secrecy, including the "Secrecy Report Card" and the "Ten Most Wanted," a list of requested documents as polled by the site's visitors. The site's "Issues" section covers topics such as democracy, national security, and public trust and accountability. These issue pages provide an overview of the subject and links to further reading, with an emphasis on recent and pending policy changes. [BWK]

Digital versions of this information can be accessed via:

Cornell Law Library URL: http://www.lawschool.cornell.edu/library

April 18, 2007 in Reviews | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

April 02, 2007

Cornell Law Library's InSITE Website Reviews

Reviews published in the March 19, 2007 issue of InSITE:

iAbolish
Labour Web
National Center for Children Exposed to Violence
odr.info - CITDR
OFHEO - Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight

iAbolish
iAbolish is the website of the American Anti-Slavery Group (AASG), a non-profit founded in 1994 devoted to ending modern day slavery. AASG pursues its goal by “promoting awareness, engaging in advocacy and activism, and providing direct aid for victims.” The website is a communication vehicle for the group. In addition to the background and history of AASG, the main feature of the site is material discussing the current state of slavery — AASG estimates that more than twenty-seven million people are enslaved today. Users of the site can pick up various fast facts while learning more about the four types of slavery: chattel slavery, debt bondage, sex slavery, and forced labor. Essays on slavery are posted to the site, including pieces that address the situations in the U.S. and India, which, it is claimed, has more slaves than any other country. The site also provides news items and links to related organizations. [MM]

Labour Web
Labour Web is a repository of documents describing the evolution of the welfare state and the jurisprudence of labor law and industrial relations within the context of European integration. It is run by the Centre for the Study of European Labour Law “Massimo D’Antona” of the University of Catania. Labour Web is broken down into four sections, “Documentation,” “Research,” “PhD,” and “News.” The “Documentation” area of Labour Web includes acts and documents adopted by the EU institutions, by the EU member States and by the main international organizations acting in the field of labor law, social and employment policies, and in industrial relations. The “Research” section contains working papers and conference materials dating back to 2001. The “PhD” area is for students of the University, and “News” contains recent updates to the site. The site is available in both English and Italian, and is searchable in both languages, as well. [BWK]

National Center for Children Exposed to Violence
Established in 1999 at the Yale Child Study Center by the U.S. Department of Justice, the mission of the National Center for Children Exposed to Violence (NCCEV) is to increase the capacity of individuals and communities to reduce the incidence and impact of violence on children and families; to train and support the professionals who provide intervention and treatment to children and families affected by violence; and to increase professional and public awareness of the effects of violence on children, families, communities, and society. The NCCEV website offers visitors training, technical assistance, and consultation on a variety of collaborative community programs throughout the country. The site's "Resource Center" provides public access to a wide variety of materials on children’s exposure to violence within homes, schools, and communities. However, not all material listed is available through the NCCEV website, and certain publications are for sale only. A limited number of guides are published in Spanish as well as English. [BWK]

odr.info - CITDR
The Center for Information Technology and Dispute Resolution (CITDR) is dedicated to supporting and sustaining the development of information technology applications, institutional resources, and theoretical and applied knowledge in order to better understand and manage conflict. CITDR has created an online dispute resolution web portal at odr.info in order to explore the nature and origins of online conflict. This portal provides a frequently-updated news blog, an e-mail list for resolution professionals, a 51-page list of online dispute resolution (ODR) resources (in Word format), and other important tools. Researchers will appreciate the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy Database (UDRP-DB), and the section for working papers on online dispute resolution. The portal also provides links to ODR standards and practices, a list of ODR providers, and current ODR projects being developed on the Internet. The site is not searchable. [BWK]

OFHEO - Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight
Established by the Federal Housing Enterprises Financial Safety and Soundness Act of 1992, the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO) is mandated to promote housing and a strong economy by ensuring the safety and soundness of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, as well as foster the vitality of the nation's housing finance system. The OFHEO’s website is full of information for the legal researcher. The “News Center” provides material such as detailed information on how to make FOIA requests, the full transcripts of speeches, statements, and testimony from the Office, the full text of research and working papers, and OFHEO administrative orders. Other parts of the site offer proposed and final regulations and capital classifications dating back to 1999. The “House Price Index” section provides a crash tutorial for those unfamiliar with the Index as well as all of the data necessary for research in this area. Most documents are available in PDF. The site is searchable. [BWK]

Digital versions of this information can be accessed via:

Cornell Law Library URL: http://www.lawschool.cornell.edu/library

April 2, 2007 in Reviews | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

March 15, 2007

Cornell Law Library's InSITE Website Reviews

Reviews published in the March 5, 2007 issue of InSITE:

Cybercrime Law
Environmental Law Net
NACA: National Association of Consumer Advocates
NCAI: National Congress of American Indians
Religion & the Law

Cybercrime Law
Edited by Chief Judge Stein Schjolberg of the Moss tingrett Court, Norway, Cybercrime Law is a universal repository of information on cybercrime and the law. The site defines cybercrime as “offenses against information technology infrastructure,” with an emphasis on interception and interference. Crimes such as child pornography and copyright infringements are beyond the scope of the site. Legal researchers and practitioners will find the “Global Legal Framework” section useful, as it details the adoption of legal standards and recommendations from the G-8 States, OAS, APEC, The Commonwealth, EU, ASEAN States and United Nations. The website also offers a global survey of cybercrime laws, with unofficial English translations from non-English speaking countries. The “Papers” section offers visitors original research, presentations, and white papers. Students and researchers will appreciate the “Brief History of Computer Crime Legislation.” [BWK]

Environmental Law Net
Created as a client service tool in 1998 by environmental and energy lawyer David Blackmar, Environmental Law Net is a leading resource for environmental law research and news. This mega-site contains a wealth of original content not available anyplace else, on the Internet or in print. Visitors may access information via the two main content divisions: legal information libraries and community resources. There are six legal information libraries which are broken into document libraries and task-specific libraries. The document libraries cover laws and regulations, court and agency decisions, and other agency documents. The task-specific libraries cover compliance, enforcement and litigation, and real estate and corporate transactions. The community resources area provides a daily newsfeed, reference tools, a moderated interview and seminar forum, editorial articles, and other useful features. Comprehensive and interactive, this website is directed towards attorneys and business clients, but is free and open to the public. [BWK]

NACA: National Association of Consumer Advocates
The National Association of Consumer Advocates (NACA) is a nationwide association of attorneys and consumer advocates who have a wide range of experience curbing abusive and predatory business practices and who promote justice for consumers, particularly those of modest means. NACA focuses on areas such as home equity scams, unfair credit reporting practices, and mandatory arbitration clauses. The organization’s website is directed at members and potential members, as well as the general public. For the public, it provides information about the organization, and offers visitors useful tools such as a directory of attorneys practicing in the area of consumer law. Legal researchers will appreciate the site’s extensive collection of amicus briefs. NACA also offers a collection of the advocacy letters it sends to promote its cause. The site’s “Consumer Resource Center” provides fact sheets, handbooks, and other guides to consumer issues such as debt and deceptive practices. Most of this site’s documents are in PDF. [BWK]

NCAI: National Congress of American Indians
The National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) was founded in 1944 in response to U.S. government policies towards tribal governments. Currently including 250 member tribes, NCAI works to inform the public and Congress about the governmental rights of American Indians and Alaska Natives. The NCAI website provides a wide range of information on social, political, and economic issues affecting American Indians today. Three main areas of the website will be of particular interest to the researcher. “Policy Issues” includes links to information and documents covering tribal governance, community development, health and human services, and land and natural resources. “Resolutions” records the NCAI’s official position on federal, state, local, or tribal legislation, litigation, and policy matters. And the “Policy Research Center” is a clearinghouse of research affecting Native American interests. Be sure to take advantage of the “Quick Search” that allows the user to search over 200 Indian specific websites at once. An additional resource of note is the Tribal Directory, providing contacts to tribes, tribal organizations, and the federal government. [JJ]

Religion & the Law
The Religion and the Law page is one of several offered by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. The Forum was launched in 2001 “to promote a deeper understanding of issues at the intersection of religion and public affairs.” Religion and the law is one of the Forum’s key research areas covering various church-state controversies. The Forum provides additional issue pages addressing bioethics, gay marriage, religion and public schools, and other topics. The Religion and the Law page provides transcripts, publications, and news items. Transcripts of Forum-sponsored events on the death penalty and Supreme Court abortion cases are available. The publications provide users with detailed background and public opinion information on issues such as abortion, gay relationships, and holiday displays in public spaces. For detailed research on abortion, researchers should consult the section titled “Abortion Laws Around the World.” [MM]

Digital versions of this information can be accessed via:

Cornell Law Library URL: http://www.lawschool.cornell.edu/library

March 15, 2007 in Reviews | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

March 06, 2007

Copyright Compliance for Electronic Reserves, ILL, and Media Specialists

The February issue of Library Student Journal includes reviews of two works on copyright compliance:

Legal Solutions in Electronic Reserves and the Electronic Delivery of Interlibrary Loan
By Janet Brennan Croft
Binghamton, NY : Haworth Information Press, 2005.
xvii, 84 pp. $36.00.
ISBN: # 0-7890-2558-2

David McCaslin, Dickinson School of Law Library and MILS student at the University of Pittsburgh, writes "In only 84 pages and five chapters, Croft creates a handbook that should be in reserve services and interlibrary loan offices of every academic library. As the Head of Access Services at the University of Oklahoma Libraries, Croft writes from a librarian's perspective and avoids legalese. ... As a quick reference guide, this book is an asset to reserves or interlibrary loan departments for any situation that might arise." Read the entire review. Well done.

Copyright for Schools: A Practical Guide, 4th ed.
By Carol Simpson
Worthington, Oh. : Linworth Books, 2005.
223 pp. $44.95.
ISBN: #1-58683-192-5 (pbk.)

Laura M. Reed, an MLS student with a School Library Media Specialists (SLMS) concentration at the University at Buffalo writes:

Reed continues by saying 'The chief value of Copyright for Schools ... will be as one of the continually useful texts that makeup a SLMS' personal reference collection, to be consulted as copyright issues arise." Read the entire review. Another job well done.

Congratulations to both reviewers. [JH]

March 6, 2007 in Reviews | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

February 27, 2007

Cornell Law Library's InSITE Website Reviews

Reviews published in the February 19, 2007 issue of InSITE:

Breastfeeding and the Law
IWGIA: International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs
Juriscom.net
Legal Research Engine
National Online Resource Center on Violence Against Women

Breastfeeding and the Law
The La Leche League is a nonprofit organization devoted to providing breastfeeding information, education, and support to pregnant women and nursing mothers. To this end, La Leche League International’s website contains a section on “Breastfeeding and the Law,” which offers legal resources for non-professionals covering concerns such as custody and breastfeeding, the legality of extended breastfeeding, and balancing breastfeeding with other life tasks such as work or jury duty. While most of the articles on this site are written as advisory pieces addressing specific circumstances, “Breastfeeding and the Law” also provides a state-by-state summary of legislation pertaining to breastfeeding in the United States. Another section offers advice and direction for activists on how to enact positive breastfeeding legislation. The site also offers a section on “Breastfeeding Legislation in Italy,” in Italian. Each page is date-stamped, so users can easily determine when it was last updated. This site is searchable. [BWK]

IWGIA: International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs
The International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs (IWGIA) was founded in 1968 by human rights activists and anthropologists and was a response to genocide of Indians occurring in the Amazon. IWGIA pursues an agenda of documentation, advocacy, and research in pursuit of its mission “to endorse and promote indigenous peoples' right to self-determination, their cultural integrity and their right to development on their own conditions.” The website is organized into multiple components explaining IWGIA’s activities and issues and provides an outlet for the group’s publications. Researchers will want to pay attention to three sections: International Processes, Indigenous Issues, and Country Profiles. The International Processes section details various United Nations and other international entities devoted to indigenous issues. Users can link into relevant documents produced by these groups. The Indigenous Issues section explains such issues as land rights, self-determination, and racism, among others. Relevant publications are linked from these topics. For detailed country information, users should consult the Country Profiles. While the section includes only seven countries, details of the history, political system, constitutional rights, and indigenous peoples of each country are provided. [MM]

Juriscom.net
Juriscom.net is a French-language web-based law journal focusing on information technology, offering news, articles, and court decisions. Designed for academics, attorneys, and other professionals, Juriscom.net has been online since 1997. Here visitors may access decisions regarding science and technology in a variety of different ways. Legally-oriented researchers can browse by legal topics such as “patent law,” “unfair competition,” and “labor law.” Other researchers can browse by technological concepts, such as “domain names,” “HTML/hypermedia,” “privacy” and “licenses.” The site also offers not only news items, but timely observations and commentary on pending and recent developments in legal and technology-related areas. This is in addition to the highly technical publications available in the “articles” section. These are academic and professional papers, white papers, and legal analyses, some of which have been republished from other sources. Most articles and commentaries are date-stamped, and some are only available in PDF. Juriscom.net also offers a publicly-available forum. The site is searchable. [BWK]

Legal Research Engine
Cornell Law Library has created a Legal Research Engine that provides “easy access to authoritative legal research guides on every subject.” Designed to be a simple way for researchers find reliable research guides without extraneous results, it searches approximately twenty academic and government websites. Sites were selected based on the number of guides available, as well as their depth of coverage, authority, and currency. Websites that systematically link to other guides were also included. The number of sources searched was kept deliberately small to keep search results focused and manageable. Results typically include guides that briefly describe the area of research, then list both print and online materials including primary and secondary sources, providing links were available. It should prove useful to students or lawyers researching an unfamiliar area of law. Users can also add the search engine to their Google home page. [JJ]

National Online Resource Center on Violence Against Women
Owned and operated by the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Domestic Violence (PCADV), the National Online Resource Center on Violence Against Women (VAWnet) is an activist site dedicated to harnessing the Internet for those working to end violence against women. The staff and consultants of VAWnet collect, analyze, prepare, and disseminate information and materials on domestic violence, sexual assault, and related issues via the VAWnet website and online discussion list. Visitors to the site may access VAWnet’s campaigns, including its National Awareness Initiatives, such as Domestic Violence Awareness Month, and its Holiday-Related Initiatives, which focus on Super Bowl Weekend and Valentine's Day. Researchers will appreciate VAWnet’s collection of annotated bibliographies related to domestic violence, the Coalition’s links to related papers, reports, and other publications, and VAWnet’s commissioned research documents, which are abstracted and provided in PDF. The site is searchable and most materials, including awareness materials and Resource Packets, are available free-of-charge. [BWK]

Digital versions of this information can be accessed via:

Cornell Law Library URL: http://www.lawschool.cornell.edu/library

February 27, 2007 in Reviews | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

February 16, 2007

Cornell Law Library's InSITE Website Reviews

Reviews published in the February 5, 2007 issue of InSITE:

Child Welfare Information Gateway
Early Recognized Treaties with American Indian Nations
International Labor Rights Fund
Moving Ideas: the Electronic Policy Network
National Youth Gang Center (NYGC)

Child Welfare Information Gateway
The Child Welfare Information Gateway is the product of the merger between the National Clearinghouse on Child Abuse and Neglect Information and the National Adoption Information Clearinghouse. This was done to offer child welfare, adoption, and related professionals a single portal to the information offered by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Children's Bureau. The Gateway now offers information on a wide range of topics, such as child abuse and neglect; supporting and preserving families; achieving and maintaining permanency; and out-of-home care. Each of these topical sections provides resources for professionals, such as relevant excerpts from pertinent federal and state laws, training and diagnostic resources, statistical data, and research abstracts. For the general public, the site provides definitions, summaries, and overviews for each topic. Of special interest to legal researchers is the “Systemwide” section, which covers laws and policies, the judicial system, cultural competence, and racial disparities issues. [BWK]

Early Recognized Treaties with American Indian Nations
Early Recognized Treaties with American Indian Nations, a website hosted by the University of Nebraska at Lincoln, fills a gap in online treaty coverage. Charles J. Kappler’s Indian Affairs: Law and Treaties is the standard resource for the full-text of treaties between American Indian tribes and the United States government. The Oklahoma State University Library Electronic Publishing Center digitized those five volumes, which cover treaties created between 1778 and 1868 and published in Statutes at Large, and made them freely available on the Internet (previously annotated in InSITE). However, they do not include nine treaties created between 1722 and 1805 that were not published in the Statutes at Large. The Early Recognized Treaties website completes the collection. All nine treaties can be searched collectively, and each is available in HTML with picture images of each print page. [JJ]

International Labor Rights Fund
The International Labor Rights Fund (ILRF) promotes enforcement of labor rights internationally through public education and mobilization, research, litigation, legislation, and collaboration with labor, government and business groups. The ILRF website highlights the organization's current projects, provides news and press releases, and offers opportunities for activists. The Fund’s projects cover topics such as corporate labor rights abuses, child labor campaigns, rights for working women, and sweatshop monitoring. Visitors to the site can access ILRF publications, such as its “Worker Rights News” back to 2002. The organization also makes its papers and speeches available, covering issues such as “Trade Agreements,” “World Bank,” and “Child Labor.” Some of these publications are for sale only. This site is not searchable. [BWK]

Moving Ideas: the Electronic Policy Network
A project of liberal political magazine The American Prospect, Moving Ideas: the Electronic Policy Network bills itself as “the leading source for easily searched and sorted progressive policy information.” Founded in 1995, Moving Ideas strives to be a portal to political issues and activism regarding topics such as foreign policy and national security, education, civil liberties, jobs and the economy, and retirement security. Visitors to the site can navigate the aforementioned issues for reports and analyses, articles, press releases, newsletters, commentary, as well as organizations, events, and “action alerts.” A nice feature of the site is its promotion of “Member Organizations.” This section can be browsed alphabetically or by issue. Each organization page provides contact information and a blurb about the group’s focus and activities. The Moving Ideas front page provides quick and clean navigation to other sites of interest, including blogs, news sites, and featured articles. [BWK]

National Youth Gang Center (NYGC)
The purpose of the National Youth Gang Center (NYGC) is to assist policymakers, practitioners, and researchers in their efforts to reduce youth gang involvement through the implementation of effective gang prevention, intervention, and suppression strategies. For new visitors, the NYGC website provides an extensive FAQ, complete with references. Professionals working with youth gangs are invited to join the site's online mailing list. Researchers will be interested in the site's "Publications" section, organized by topic. The "Gang-Related News" section provides a searchable database of material dating back to 2003. The site's compilation of gang-related legislation is organized by state and by subject. This section also provides gang-related municipal codes, organized by subject. The site's "Addressing Community Gang Problems" section offers technical assistance on the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention’s (OJJDP) Comprehensive Gang Model, including an assessment guide and an implementation manual. [BWK]

Digital versions of this information can be accessed via:

Cornell Law Library URL: http://www.lawschool.cornell.edu/library

February 16, 2007 in Reviews | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

February 08, 2007

Cornell Law Library's InSITE Website Reviews

Reviews published in the January 22, 2007 issue of InSITE:

Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence
Institute for Politics, Democracy & the Internet
Marriage Equality USA
Media Coalition Inc.
National Data Archive on Child Abuse and Neglect

Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence
The Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence (CSPV) is a research program of the Institute of Behavioral Science (IBS) at the University of Colorado at Boulder. CSPV was founded in 1992 to provide informed assistance to groups committed to understanding and preventing violence. The CSPV website provides visitors with searchable databases of bibliographic information and abstracts of violence-related research and literature, with links to the full text when available. Databases of violence prevention, intervention, and treatment programs and violence-related curricula, videos, and other resources are also available. Researchers may be interested in CSPV's Safe Communities/Safe Schools (SCSS) initiative, which offers a wealth of statistical data on school violence, broken down nationally and by state. Another area of research is the Blueprints for Violence Prevention, which is a national violence prevention initiative created to identify effective violence prevention programs. So far, the initiative has selected 11 model programs that have been effective in reducing adolescent violent crime, aggression, delinquency, and substance abuse. [BWK]

Institute for Politics, Democracy & the Internet
In 2002, the George Washington University Graduate School of Political Management developed the Institute for Politics, Democracy & the Internet (IPDI) to promote the development of U.S. online politics in a manner that increases citizen participation and upholds democratic values. The goals of the IPDI include establishing a research base for the study of online politics, promoting appropriate standards of practice for the conduct of online campaigning, and creating an online public space where good campaign practices and democratic values may thrive. The Institute’s website contains many important reports, papers, studies, and surveys about these issues which may be of interest to legal researchers. The materials are abstracted in detail and visitors may easily browse the collection, but neither the site nor the publications are searchable. The papers are available in PDF. [BWK]

Marriage Equality USA
Marriage Equality USA (MEUSA), a national organization founded in 2000, grew out of two entities that now constitute the New York and California chapters of the group. MEUSA seeks “to secure legally recognized civil marriage equality for all, at the federal and state level, without regard to gender identity or sexual orientation.” The group works to fulfill its mission through education, media campaigns, and partnerships with both gay and non-gay social and civic groups. Organized into multiple components, the website provides extensive information about the group and offers numerous resources for users. Pay particular attention to the “Get the Facts” section. This section is divided into fifteen subsections addressing the legal, financial, practical, and personal issues surrounding marriage and its lack of availability to same-sex couples. The subsection on “Federal Rights” links to General Accounting Office materials that detail the vast array of federal rights related to marriage. Other subsections detail the tax burdens faced by same-sex couples, as well as immigration issues peculiar to couples that cannot marry. Legal researchers also will be interested in the subsection summarizing current marriage cases before the courts. [MM]

Media Coalition Inc.
The Media Coalition is an association that defends the First Amendment right to produce and sell books, magazines, movies, recordings, videotapes and videogames, and defends the American public's First Amendment right to have access to the broadest possible range of opinion and entertainment. The Media Coalition Inc. website provides visitors with a "Legislative Update" section, which dates back to 2001. This section also contains the Coalition's letters and memos written in opposition to state bills. The "Current Litigation" section offers summaries of current cases in which Media Coalition Inc. is involved; most cases have attached orders, briefs, and opinions. The "Reports" section of the website provides PDF versions of the organization's detailed research papers and publications. The "Members Only" section contains PDF catalogues of materials, including books, studies, reports, and cases that are available to lend to Media Coalition Inc. members. These catalogues contain synopses and annotations in addition to full bibliographic information, which make them good research resources. [BWK]

National Data Archive on Child Abuse and Neglect
Since 1988, the National Data Archive on Child Abuse and Neglect (NDACAN) has been promoting scholarly exchange among researchers in the field of child maltreatment. NDACAN acquires micro-data from leading researchers and national data collection efforts and makes these datasets available to researchers. NDACAN disseminates datasets of archived research for secondary analysis with statistical software, but does not maintain statistics on child abuse and neglect, or provide reports of research findings. Datasets are available for a fee; most of the documentation for the datasets is available for free. Visitors may read each dataset's abstract in the site's "List of Holdings" prior to ordering. The Child-Maltreatment-Research-L (CMR-L) e-mail listserv is available to all child abuse and neglect (CAN) researchers, and an archive of all past posts back to 1996 is offered as well. [BWK]

Digital versions of this information can be accessed via:

Cornell Law Library URL: http://www.lawschool.cornell.edu/library

February 8, 2007 in Reviews | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 22, 2007

Cornell Law Library's InSITE Website Reviews

Reviews published in the January 8, 2007 issue of InSITE:

CADRE: Consortium for Appropriate Dispute Resolution in Special Education
Freedom House
IFEX: International Freedom of Expression Exchange
National Sexual Violence Resource Center (NSVRC)
Nazi War Crimes and Japanese Imperial Government Records Interagency Working Group

CADRE: Consortium for Appropriate Dispute Resolution in Special Education
The Consortium for Appropriate Dispute Resolution in Special Education (CADRE) is funded by the Office of Special Education Programs in the United States Department of Education. CADRE's mission is to encourage the use of mediation and other collaborative strategies to resolve disagreements concerning special education and early intervention programs. Researchers will be interested in the site's Process and Practice Continuum, which is a database of dispute resolution activity in special education. The Continuum is searchable and browseable by topic. CADRE also offers a Literature Database, which provides an annotated bibliography of research-, policy-, and practice-related literature. This database provides information on items written in both English and Spanish. Another useful tool is the site's State Database, which offers visitors basic information about each state's special education and early intervention mediation systems. The CADRE website is searchable by topic or keyword, and is also available in Spanish. [BWK]

Freedom House
Freedom House is an independent non-governmental organization that supports the expansion of freedom in the world. Founded over 60 years ago by Americans concerned with mounting threats to peace and democracy, Freedom House has been a vigorous proponent of democratic values and a steadfast opponent of dictatorships of the far left and the far right. The Freedom House website focuses on global and regional initiatives which touch on human rights and religious freedom issues through its "Advocacy" section. The "Action" section contains press releases, links to related websites, and detailed program descriptions arranged by topic. Researchers will be interested in Freedom House's "Publications" section, which offers "Freedom in the World," an annual assessment of the state of political rights covering 192 countries and 18 related and disputed territories. "Freedom in the World" has been published since 1972. An interactive version of this report is available on the website dating back to 2002. A number of special reports are also available for free in this section. [BWK]

IFEX: International Freedom of Expression Exchange
Since 1992, the International Freedom of Expression Exchange (IFEX) has been a global community of those opposed to violations of the right to free expression. Comprising 65 organizations, the IFEX works through its Canadian-based Clearing House to help coordinate the work of IFEX members, both as individuals and organizations, by reducing overlap among their activities and making them more effective in their shared objectives. The IFEX website provides visitors with news (broken down by geographic region), articles and reports, a weekly newsletter (archived back to 1998), and related sites. The organization sponsors the Campaigns and Advocacy Support programme, which "focuses on bringing further attention to specific free expression cases and campaigns, and to supporting members on action-oriented advocacy projects." The site has simple and advanced search features, and is available in English, French, Spanish, Russian and Arabic. [BWK]

National Sexual Violence Resource Center (NSVRC)
The National Sexual Violence Resource Center (NSVRC), a project of the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape and funded by the Centers for Disease Control, was established in June 2000. Supporting providers that serve victims of sexual assault, NSVRC “collects and disseminates a wide range of resources on sexual violence.” These resources include research, statistics, and prevention initiatives, as well as position statements and statutory materials. The website is organized into numerous sections, but be sure to look under “resources” because it provides one-stop shopping for users of the site. From the resources page, users can access NSVRC publications, a directory of organizations, and selected resources organized topically. The group’s publications include newsletters, booklets, and news releases, most of which are available in PDF. The organizations directory provides descriptions and contact information for relevant groups. The directory is organized topically, and includes college groups, legal groups, and men’s groups among many others. The selected resources, which can be browsed by type of sexual violence or by “strategies/responses,” provide users with links to materials available on the web published by other entities. The resources made available by NSVRC are significant. [MM]

Nazi War Crimes and Japanese Imperial Government Records Interagency Working Group
Sponsored by the National Archives, the Nazi War Crimes and Japanese Imperial Government Records Interagency Working Group (IWG) locates, identifies, inventories, and recommends for declassification, currently classified U.S. records relating to Nazi and Japanese Imperial Government war crimes. Once declassified, these records are released to the American public. The group, consisting of high-level representatives from federal agencies and public members, was established by the Nazi War Crimes Disclosure Act and the Japanese Imperial Government Disclosure Act. The site's "Resources" section offers visitors declassified records, finding aids, and two interim reports: the Nazi War Crimes Interim Report, and the Japanese War Crimes Interim Report. An exciting offering of this section is the "Research Papers" feature, which provides the full text of related papers, reports, speeches, testimony, and other relevant materials. These papers are listed alphabetically by author. Another useful feature for the beginning researcher is the "Names, Terms, & Timelines" section, which provides links to important background information. [BWK]

InSITE contributors: Julie Jones, Research Attorney, Brandy Kreisler, J.D., M.L.S., Matt Morrison, Research Attorney, Jean Pajerek (editor), Head of Technical Services & Information Management, all current or former members of the professional staff at Cornell Law Library.

About InSITE: InSITE highlights selected law-related Web sites in two ways: as an annotated publication issued electronically and in print; and, as a keyword-searchable database. The law librarians at Cornell evaluate potentially useful Web sites, select the most valuable ones, and provide commentary and subject access to them.

Digital versions of this information can be accessed via:

The contents of InSITE and any recommendations therein are the opinions of the authors and do not reflect the views of Cornell University. InSITE is copyright protected by Cornell Law Library, © 2006 Cornell Law Library. Permission to republish InSITE issues on Law Librarian Blog has been granted. For permissions, contact Jean M. Pajerek [jmp8@cornell.edu].

Cornell Law Library URL: http://www.lawschool.cornell.edu/library

January 22, 2007 in Reviews | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

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A Quick Look at the Seton Hall Guantanamo Project

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A Quick Look at The Spy Who Billed Me

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Copyright Compliance for Electronic Reserves, ILL, and Media Specialists

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Cornell Law Library's InSITE Website Reviews

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Cornell Law Library's InSITE Website Reviews

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Cornell Law Library's InSITE Website Reviews

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