Tues Feb 28: Amazon Web Services problems causing various database problems

We've confirmed that Proquest databases and JSTOR are down because of reported problems with Amazon Web Services (see also email msg from our IT Department on the outage).

Lexis Prepare to Practice Program

Lexis has announced the 2017 Prepare to Practice program for law students, available on-demand. Content for the program is based on feedback from legal employers and former summer associates. The Prepare to Practice program is designed to help students master some of the practical skills they need to arrive "practice-ready" on day one of any legal employment. Prepare to Practice has three steps:
(1) Researching an Unfamiliar Topic (Video / Quiz)
(2) Transactional and Litigation Drafting (Video / Quiz)
(3) After completing training 1 & 2, students are eligible for certification.
Lexis says that "Through the Prepare to Practice program, students will learn to quickly and thoroughly research unfamiliar topics, research regulations, their regulatory history, and the administrative decisions that interpret them. They will also learn how to write, prepare, and find any legal document."
For more information visit the LexisNexis Prepare to Practice site. 

ICE Immigration Raids: A Primer

TRAC, the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse data gathering and research organization from Syracuse University, provides comprehensive, independent and nonpartisan information about federal enforcement, staffing and spending. They have just published a report titled "ICE Immigration Raids: A Primer." This report breaks down the numbers on ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) apprehensions in recent years to provide a better picture of the role of ICE fugitive operations as compared with other components of ICE. The data presented in the report provide a useful baseline against which arrests under the new Trump Administration by fugitive operations teams and other components of ICE can be compared.

New Law Librarian of Congress

The Library of Congress has announced that Jane Sánchez has been named the Law Librarian of Congress. Sánchez earned a bachelor’s degree in English from the University of New Mexico, an MLS from Simmons College in Boston, Massachusetts, and a Juris Doctorate from The American University, Washington College of Law in Washington, D.C. She has worked in a variety of different libraries. Before coming to the Law Library, Jane was the chief of the Humanities and Social Sciences Division at the Library of Congress. She has previously worked in the legislative branch as the Director of Library Services & Content Management at the U.S. Government Publishing Office. When she was appointed to her previous position she was praised by Mark Sweeney, acting associate Librarian for Library Services at the Library of Congress, who said “Ms. Sánchez brings a wealth of experience to this position. Throughout her career, she has developed innovative, dynamic and strategic operations and services, has managed multidisciplinary projects and developed processes, including being an early adapter of technology.”

Visual Personality Quiz by Getty Images

Getty Images has a Visual Personality Quiz online that can help you "discover your visual personality." The quiz uses a unique format in which you answer questions by selecting images rather than text. The colors and images people are drawn to can give indications about their personalities and subconscious. Anyway, it's short, free, and fun. Take the quiz here.

GPO Director reports on goals for the upcoming year to Congress

The U.S. Government Publishing Office (GPO) Director Davita Vance-Cooks testified before the Committee on House Administration of the House of Representatives about priorities for the agency in the coming year(s). Vance-Cooks was joined by leaders from the Library of Congress, U.S. Capitol Police, and the Architect of the Capitol at the hearing titled "Priorities of the House Officers and Legislative Branch Entities for FY 2018 and Beyond."
These priorities include:
Modernizing the publishing of Congressional products
Developing a new cost accounting system emphasizing transparency
Strengthening GPO's partnership with the Nation’s Federal depository libraries
Automating GPO’s print procurement process
Releasing govinfo from beta and retiring FDsys
Beginning production of the next generation U.S. Passport

Director Vance-Cooks' prepared statement is available from the GPO website here (20 page pdf).

State of Washington v. Donald J. Trump, 17-35105 (9th Cir. 2017) info

The Court Listener has a link to the opinion in the case, and also has provided the Table of Authorities with links to all the cases that were cited. 

LOC Recommended Format Statement - Open for comment

An announcement from Donna Brearcliffe, Electronic Resources Coordinator at the Library of Congress: "The Library of Congress is calling for input as it looks forward to the upcoming review and revision of the Recommended Formats Statement. In April, the teams of experts charged with maintaining, improving and ensuring the accuracy of the Statement will begin the annual process of examining the Statement and the creative works represented in it, to ensure that it reflects correctly the technical characteristics which best encourage preservation and long-term access.
 Given the interest and the feedback received over the past few years since the Statement was first issued in 2014, we at the Library of Congress feel that the Statement could benefit this time around by focusing the review and revision process on a few key areas. The first of these is the metadata which is so crucial to preservation and access. This has long been an important part of the Statement, but we are aware that it can sometimes be overshadowed by questions of file formats. This year we plan on taking a more focused look at options for metadata, including the work of the Federal Agencies Digital Guidelines Initiative (FADGI) to determine what might be applicable to the Recommended Formats Statement.
 Similarly, work by the Library of Congress on the archiving of podcasts has raised some interesting questions about the metadata used for this particular and important type of sound recording, which potentially might be included in the Statement as well. Taking a closer look at metadata across the creative categories has the potential to better identify metadata or even metadata schemas which could prove very valuable for preservation and long-term access and should be included in the upcoming version of the Recommended Formats Statement.
 This is not to exclude the examination of other aspects of the Statement. As this is the first year in which Websites have been included, we are very interested in reviewing the first iteration and determining what holds up and what should be changed – and the Library would very much like to get feedback from external stakeholders in the web archiving community on this as well. Likewise, we will be asking about how best to ensure that, when it comes to Software and Electronic Gaming and Learning, we are very clear on the preference of source code and of direct file submission. If this is not absolutely clear, we need to know. So, the Library of Congress requests that anyone with input, comments or feedback, either on the topics above or on any aspect of the Recommended Formats Statement, including on ways in which to make it more user friendly, please share that with us by March 31, through one of the e-mail contacts listed on the Recommended Formats Statement website."