law prof posts free, downloadable Torts casebook

North Dakota law prof Eric Johnson has posted a free, downloadable casebook for torts. He says that after using three different casebooks over the past three years he decided to create his own casebook and make it available as a pdf through SSRN.
He advises: "Not only should all instructors and students feel free to download this casebook and use it for free, but if any instructor out there would like to customize it, add to it, delete from it, etc., let me know, and I will be happy to give you the original document to work from... This casebook is extremely basic. There are no notes, no questions, no problems, and no exercises. Volume One only has cases, plus one statute. The value of the work is solely in terms of the editing. With no bells and whistles, it's not for everyone. But if you tend to use a casebook only for the cases, then mine might be worth checking out."
Since Torts is a 2 semester course at ND, he has posted the first volume, for the first semester, which covers negligence and liability relating to health care. For the spring semester he will post a second volume, which will include intentional torts, strict liability, economic torts, dignitary torts and a few other subjects.
Prof. Johnson says he was inspired by Prof. Thomas Field Jr. of the University of New Hampshire School of Law, who had already posted his own IP law casebook, Fundamentals of Intellectual Property: Cases & Materials, on SSRN.

Post-Gazette, Legal Intelligencer partnership

American Lawyer Media has announced that he Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and The Legal Intelligencer (the nation’s oldest daily legal newspaper) have formed a new content partnership that will expand coverage of legal news for the region’s business community. The Post-Gazette  launched a new print and online weekly legal news section on Monday October 4, which will be published in the newspaper every Monday and feature bylined news and analysis from both publications. The first section, published yesterday, featured a Legal Intelligencer column titled "After a Summer of Discontent, All Eyes on Pennsylvania Supreme Court"  and an article about pro bono work by Pittsburgh law firms.  The weekly section will run in the Post-Gazette’s business section with a “Legal Intelligencer” column, local legal news, as well as other news content from the LI selected by the editors of the Post-Gazette.
Coverage will focus on state and regional legal, court, legislative and law firm news of interest to business readers.

MAX PLANCK INSTITUTE on SSRN

The Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law has started a Law Research Paper Series within the Legal Scholarship Network (LSN). Series publishes research papers authored exclusively by scholars of the Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law (editors: Prof. Juergen Basedow, Prof. Holger Fleischer, Prof. Reinhard Zimmermann). Papers cover topics on foreign, European and international private law including commercial law, business law and procedural law as well as comparative legal history and the foundations for comparative law and legal harmonization. You can subscribe to the eJournal at the SSRN website.

Lexis for MO & WestlawNext

The Process of Legal Research

Thanks to LII for posting this. Click on the image to enlarge it.

IBISWorld: new ULS database

Pitt's University Library System has notified us that we now have access to a new database called IBISWorld.  It is a business database containing research reports on over 700 U.S. industries. These industry reports are searchable by the 5 digit North American Industry Classification System (NAICS code), keyword or company name. There is also a browse feature organized by industry name and NAICS code.  For example, this page has a report on the search engine industry and includes information on the current state of the industry, the future outlook for the next five years, the major search engine companies and their market share, key industry statistics and a helpful "Jargon and Glossary" section.  The report also has some hyperlinks to "Additional Resources For additional information on this industry".

Library liaisons for students?

Inside Higher Education today reports that some academic libraries are setting up programs in which students are assigned their own personal librarians. According to the story, Drexel and Wesleyan universities are starting "personal librarian" programs for undergraduates, following the lead of the University of Chicago and Yale University, which began a program for undeclared majors aafter providing a similar service to medical and law students. 

Heavy hitters file amicus briefs in Wal-Mart class-action case

Bloomberg news reports that 19 companies have filed amicus briefs supporting Wal-Mart's appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court seeking to limit class-action lawsuits by workers by blocking female Wal-Mart employees from suing on behalf of 1.5 million women.  The companies filing amicus briefs include Microsoft, GE, Intel and Bank of America; they argue that judicial approval of a class action puts too much pressure on defendants to settle even frivolous claims. One brief argues that “Because the specter of potentially enormous class-wide liability compels defendants to settle even meritless claims, class certification decisions are often tantamount to a decision on the merits.”

Crime in the United States 2009

The FBI has released a web-only publication titled Crime in the United States, 2009.  It countains 81 tables, as well as charts and graphics, based on information privded by nearly 18,000 city, university and college, county, state, tribal, and federal law enforcement agencies from all 50 states and Washington D.C., as well as from law enforcement in Puerto Rico and other outlying areas.  You can download excel spreadsheets of the data.

Google Transparency report

Google has added a "transparency report" page to the Google website, which links to an interactive map of government requests for Google to take down or censor content.  Google says that transparency is an important value for the company, and their goal is to maximize transparency around the flow of information through their web products. They say that "We hope this step toward greater transparency will help in ongoing discussions about the appropriate scope and authority of government requests."

Optimize your cellphone photos

Digital Inspiration blog has a useful post today with tips for taking good photos with your cellphone's camera. As the author says, “The best camera is the one that’s with you.”  A couple of the tips are:  if possible, turn off the flash if you don't absolutely need it; and avoid using the zoom feature because The built-in zoom in most phone cameras are not optical but digital and you aren't really zooming - you're better off moving closer to the subject or cropping after the fact.

kafkaesque

A fascinating article in today's New York Times magazine section describes the bizarre legal battle surrounding the papers of Franz Kafka - giving new dimension to the term "kafkaesque".  The second most troubling piece of information contained in the article (after the fact that "during his lifetime, Franz Kafka burned an estimated 90 percent of his work") is that an unknown amount of the Kafka papers reside in an apartment in Tel Aviv with Eva Hoffe (secretary of the friend Kafka entrusted his papers to) and "between 40 and 100 cats. ...members of the scholarly community have expressed concern regarding the effects of these cats on their surroundings."

Ithaka and GPO project will develop model for the FDLP

The Government Printing Office is working with Ithaka (Ithaka is the not-for-profit organization that manages the Portico electronic archiving project) to lead a project that will develop a model for the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP) to more efficiently accomplish its mission in a rapidly changing digital environment. According to the project website, "GPO has defined the objectives and structure of this project. There will be no reassessment of the fundamental mission of the FDLP, which is to ensure that the American public receives no-fee ready and permanent public access to federal government information. In this project, Ithaka S+R will conduct an environmental scan, examine other library networks, identify a practical and sustainable model (or models) for the FDLP going forward, analyze the value proposition for the FDLP in the 21st Century, and provide regulatory and legislative recommendations to guide possible implementation."

Public Resource awarded Google prize

Google has announced the winners of their Project 10^100, awardomg 10 million dollars in total to ideas, chosen by the public, that will help change the world. One of the $1 million winners is Carl Malamud's Public Resource dot Org.  From the Google announcement:
Idea: Make government more transparent
Project funded: Public.Resource.Org is a non-profit organization focused on enabling online access to public government documents in the United States. We are providing $2 million to Public.Resource.Org to support the Law.Gov initiative, which aims to make all primary legal materials in the United States available to all.
Google also has a pretty fabulous one minute video that shows all the winning ideas. It's on YouTube.
Carl also has posted on O'Reilly Radar about the prize and what a difference it will make to his organization. This is great news as well for those of us working on the AALL's National Inventory of Primary Legal Materials.

FERC pamphlet about natural gas lines for property owners

This may be a bit of timely information for property owners concerned about Marcellus shale underlying their land. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has created an online booklet (24 page pdf) called An Interstate Natural Gas Facility on My Land? What Do I Need to Know? that explains property owners' rights, now the FERC procedures work, what safety and environmental issues might be involved, etc.  The booklet discusses addresses such issues as the legal rights and responsibilities of all parties, archaeological sites, safety issues, pipeline installation procedures, how long a pipeline might stay in place and many other questions.

PA county reports

It seems that LLMC Digital, one of the consortiums to which we belong, has recently digitized many state legal materials including many PA county reporters that go back to the nineteenth century.

Streaming Video of films or clips to enhance course content

NELLCO (New England Law Library Consortium) recently offered a web-based demo of Digital Campus, the Swank Streaming Video solution for the curriculum.You can see the Swank Streaming Video demo online at your convenience.  This service will allow faculty to legally stream video content from more than 17,000 movies and tv shows to students, along with annotations and questions, via course websites.

BEPress offers free webinar on Institutional Repositories

BEPress (Berkeley Electronic Press) is offering a free webinar called "Kick-Starting IR Success at Any Stage" which will discuss how to create the foundation for successful institutional repositories.
Courtney Smith, Manager of Outreach and Scholarly Communications at bepress, will be the presenter on October 12th, 2010 at 1:00 PM EDT.
According to the blurb, "Drawing from the knowledge and best practices across the Digital Commons community, Courtney will look at how libraries are developing strong repository teams and expansive repository collections, and are using these to create strategic and sustainable connections on campus."

You can register for the free webinar at: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/ register/674051714.

Children's Privacy Online

The Wall Street Journal has conducted an investigation into  online privacy in which they found that sites popular with children and teenagers install more "tracking technologies" (like cookies) than websites popular with adults. They examined 50 sites popular with U.S. teens and children to see what tracking tools they installed on a computer and found that as a group, the sites placed 4,123 "cookies," "beacons" and other pieces of tracking technology- 30% more than were found in an analysis of the 50 most popular U.S. sites overall, which are generally aimed at adults.  The WSJ Digits Blog has a new post about "How to Protect Your Child's Privacy Online" that lists some steps parents can take to protect their children's computers.

Loislaw news...

FYI I was having difficulty getting online with Loislaw yesterday and had to contact their tech support.  It turns out that Loislaw only works well if you are using either Firefox or InternetExplorer as your browser.  It doesn't work with Google Chrome and it also doesn't work with Safari, so Mac users are out of luck.  Tech support said they are working to make it compatible with more browsers.  So if you want to use Loislaw remember to use Firefox or Internet Explorer!

e-personation may become a crime in California

Business Week reports that if Gov. Schwarzenegger signs a new "e-personation" bill anyone who poses as another person online with malicious intent may be hit with fines of up to $1,000 and a year in jail. The law would also allow victims to file civil suits.

When books go digital

Emily Williams, who blogs over at Digital Book World, made an interesting observation in a recent post: she says "Stripping away the paper form has revealed the true nature of books: they are complicated bundles of copyrights.  It is this fact even more than the centuries-old maturity of the print book market or the robust codex form (look ma, no plugs! no compatibility issues!) that has slowed the transition from print to ebooks." 
She goes on to talk about how the images associated with a book, like the cover art, must be licensed both for digital use and international distribution.  And for nonfiction books that have photos and illustrations it's a headache for the publishers who have to deal with not just author copyrights but the rights to all the images.

Pirate law

The Law Library of Congress recently announced that it has digitized its collection of pre-1923 piracy trials. According to their website, "this historical collection of piracy trials is critical for understanding how the various nations of the world handled piracy issues before the year 1900". Full text of the collection is available on the Law Library of Congress website.

Comparing eBook stores

Digital Inspiration blogger Amit Agarwal has posted the results of his look at how many titles are available at the various eBookstores for the various eBook readers. The Kindle store at Amazon.com offers around 700,000 electronic titles which also includes public domain works that are free. Sony's  eBook store has  around 60,000 titles.  Barnes & Noble’s eBook store  claims to have more than a million books for the Nook but the number of titles available in the store is around 26,000 – the rest are public domain  works that you may download through Google Books.  Apple’s promotional material says that “tens of thousands” of book titles are available on their iBookstore but the exact numbers are unknown. However, a simple Google query reveals that iBookstore is the smallest of them all with a collection of around 22,400 titles.

Google Beat video channel

Google has launched a separate YouTube channel called The Google Beat, which presents the latest search trends on Google like a news broadcast. The channel reports on the week's hottest Google Search trends from around the US, with a map (a Google map, of course). For example, searches featured last week: glenn beck rally, hurricane earl, ufc 118, paris hilton, and the emmy awards. It's weirdly interesting.

Federal court sides with Eminem

The Wall Street Journal's law blog has a post today with the title "Federal Court Sides with Eminem in royalty dispute; Record Business does not Implode." In reviewing a decision in a suit brought against Universal Music Group by producers affiliated with rapper Eminem, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals held that iTunes downloads (even the DRM-free variety) are encumbered by enough restrictions that they can’t be considered sales at all; the songs are instead being licensed by the "purchaser".  The opinion is available here.

Blawnox woman posts videos of borough council meetings

There is an article in today's paper about Melina Brajovic, a Blawnox woman who is annoying some Blawnox Borough elected officials with her videos of borough council posted on YouTube. In her video, "Obama and Ron Paul Told Me I Can Record Public Meetings of Local Government…," resident Melina Brajovic argues with council President Sam McNaughton. The debate was sparked over council's requirements of people videotaping to sign in before council meetings.McNaughton blurts out: "You weren't even born in this country. You can't even speak English."To which Brajovic, a native of Serbia, responds, "You're saying I'm not as American as you are? I am as or better." McNaughton replies, "I don't think so."
According to the article, "the video, filmed and produced by Brajovic, has been viewed more than 200 times on the website YouTube since it was posted last week. Another video featuring Blawnox Borough Council disagreements with residents entitled "Constitution Versus Tyranny, Give Me Liberty or Give me Death, Patrick Henry 1776" has racked up more than 11,500 views since it was posted in early June."

Westlaw stresstoy video part 2: a little friday fun

NEW ULS database trial during September

Through September 24 the University Library System is trying out the database "Oxford Dictionary of National Biography Online." Of course the "national" refers to Britain, not the US, but still. It features "the people who shaped the history of the British Isles and beyond, from the earliest times to the end of the year 2000." The database contains, according to its website, 57,348 biographies and 10,671 illustration. Also 65 million words.
State-of-the-art search options, extensive internal cross-referencing, access to articles from the original DNB, and navigation by "themes" combine with rigorous research and scholarship to make the Oxford DNB one of the most innovative and important reference sites available online.

THOMAS Updated, now mobile-friendly

This just in from the Library of Congress:
"Just in time for the return of Congress from August recess, THOMAS has undergone its third major enhancement of 2010. Building upon the enhancements made in January  and June , the latest enhancements add a mobile friendly homepage, integrate features from the Library of Congress and Law Library of Congress websites into THOMAS, and add a new portal to state legislature websites.

THOMAS now has a mobile-friendly homepage that will display on devices with lower screen resolutions like BlackBerrys. The homepage has also been optimized for iPhones and Droids, leveraging their larger screens to provide complete access to the full version of the THOMAS homepage.

The global footer now available on most Library of Congress websites, including the Law Library of Congress website, appears throughout THOMAS. The global footer includes ways to stay connected with the Library including an "All ways to connect" link.

In addition to easier access to the Library's social media, there is a new box to highlight ways to connect with THOMAS and the Law Library of Congress through the In Custodia Legis Blog , Facebook, Twitter , YouTube  and iTunes U.

A link to State Legislature Websites  has been added to the THOMAS homepage. This new page displays a map with links to the legislative bodies for all fifty states, Washington, DC, and U.S. territories. It provides quick access to state legislative websites that are similar to what THOMAS provides on a federal level.

THOMAS was launched on January 5, 1995 in response to the bipartisan leadership of the 104th Congress that directed the Library of Congress to make federal legislative information freely available to the public. Named for the third president, the system represents Thomas Jefferson's ideals of an informed electorate. THOMAS is publicly accessible at thomas.loc.gov."

OED not dead, just digital

There have been a number of reports and blogposts (for example on NPR, the Washington Post, Fast Company) about the imminent demise of the print version of the Oxford English Dictionary.  Some of the headlines paint this as a sad loss. Librarians on the whole, however, don't mind.  The behemoth print OED in all its volumes is massively heavy, takes up a lot of shelf space, and is daunting to the average reader. Some libraries - and people who want the OED but don't have the room - decided to get the wacky 2-volume "Compact Edition", which shrinks the size of the OED by the simple method of making the font so tiny you need a magnifying glass to read it (the magnifying glass is included). 
The electronic version, by comparison, takes up no room.  The first electronic version had a clunky cumbersome interface that was no joy to use, but several years ago was completely revamped and the electronic version is now very user-friendly with a supple, intuitive interface. 
Let's face it, reference books are just plain better when they're digital.
But you don't have to take my word for it: Pitt's subscription to the OED is here.

New York Times branches out into higher education?

Is this something new? In today's Sunday New York Times (the print edition) there is a section dedicated to the "New York Times Knowledge Network". This Network seems to be a partnership between the Times and a number of higher education institutions, offering courses both for-credit and not, certificate programs, and something called "NYT Programs of Study". These last are, according to the NYT Knowledge Network website, "Programs of Study courses, on various topics,... developed and are taught by Times journalists. Students can select any number of these courses: to stand alone, or be taken as a sequence. Each course is a four-week module, taught by New York Times journalists and delivered online."
The website lists courses of study in a whole variety of subject areas including Law: 2 courses in legal writing (in conjunction with Thomas Edison State College) called "Effective Advocacy through Legal Writing" and "The Tao of Legal Writing";  a course in Health Care Law.   A certificate program in Immigration Law is offered in a partnership with City University of New York and includes several immigration law courses for which you apparently pay the standard CUNY per-credit cost.  There's a course in "Journalism Law for Bloggers" (costs $175.00) which " will teach you the fundamentals of media law, including special concerns that apply to online journalists and bloggers. One of the most experienced lawyers at The New York Times will guide you through the standard definition of libel law (plus specific exceptions), the standards of proof and how they are applied, as well as various libel defenses. "
All the courses are online, though some offer a "face to face" version.  This is all very interesting; by offering reasonably priced educational programs the New York Times is tapping into the expertise of its journalists and perhaps seeing a new way forward for the declining newspaper business.

DRAGNET federated search of free legal databases

The Mendik Law Library at New York Law School has recently developed DRAGNET, a search tool that allows the user to run a Google search simultaneously in more than 80 legal web sites and databases. DRAGNET stands for "Database retrieval access using Google’s new electronic technology".  A list of the active sites is included on the page, with hyperlinks. DRAGNET was developed  by librarians at the Mendik Library using Google’s free custom search option. The sites were chosen by Library staff for their reliability and utility to legal researchers; they include sites related to international law, tax law and cyber law, as well as a significant number of state and local government sites.  Search results are limited to the top 100 hits, so users are encouraged to be very specific.

Facebook files trademark infringement lawsuit against Teachbook

The Chicago Tribune reports that Facebook has sued a tiny start-up called Teachbook.com over the use of 'book' in its name. The start-up, which has two employees and fewer than 20 users signed up for its free web community, aims to provide tools for teachers to manage their classrooms and share lesson plans and other resources. In a trademark infringement lawsuit filed in California district court in San Jose, Facebook said its use of 'book' in its name is 'highly distinctive in the context of online communities and networking websites.' Facebook, based in Palo Alto, accuses Teachbook of federal trademark dilution, trademark infringement and unfair competition.

Free iPads in the news

Two stories this week about free iPad programs:  first, Monterey College of Law in California is providing free Apple iPads to all students enrolled in a supplemental curriculum program that helps them prepare for the state's bar exam. According to a report by Campus Technology, all entering first-year students signed up for the program within the first week, as did 70 percent of the remainder of the student body. 
The second story comes from the UK's Telegraph, which reports that the Japan Sumo Association is distributing about 60 iPads among  51 sumo training centers to help improve communication: apparently sumo wrestlers' fingers are too fat to use cellphones, but the size of the keys on the iPad are just right.

SPEECH Act may be tested soon

Earlier this month, the US approved a new law against so-called 'libel tourism,' the practice of suing US companies in foreign jurisdictions (quite frequently, the UK) which do not have the same level of free speech protections. This new law, the SPEECH Act (Securing the Protection of our Enduring and Established Constitutional Heritage), may now get put to the test. Techdirt reports that UK lawyers, acting for a client named Jeffery Morris, have demanded the entire Techdirt site shut down due to unidentified comments on a 2004 Techdirt blogpost that upset Mr. Morris.
Techdirt says "As such, given the newsworthy nature of an example of where the brand new law (thankfully) protects us, as well as the fact that we do not feel it is decent or right for anyone to demand we shut down our entire site or be sued halfway around the world because he does not appreciate a comment someone made about him, we are publishing the letter that was sent to us. Thanks in part to the new law, we have no obligation to respond to Mr. Morris, his friend or the lawyers at Addlestone Keane, who (one would hope) will better advise their clients not to pursue such fruitless legal threats in the future. Should Mr. Morris and his solicitors decide that they wish to proceed with such a pointless and wasteful lawsuit against us, which will only serve to cost Mr. Morris significant legal sums with no hope of recovery, we will continue to report on it, safe in the knowledge that it has no bearing on us."

Online OCR Tools for Converting Images to Text

The Digital Inspiration blog has a post today that evaluates and ranks online OCR tools. OCR (Optical Character Recognition) software can be used to convert images such as scanned pages that are in jpg or pdf format into text.  Once you have used OCR on an image you can search the text for words like any other digital document.

National Archives treasure hunters

The Los Angeles Times recently featured a story about a small but interesting band of treasure hunters, called the Archival Recovery Team, working for the National Archives in Washington D.C. The story reports that when Paul Brachfeld took over as inspector general of the National Archives he discovered the American people were being robbed blind. Many important (and valuable) documents that should be in the Archives have gone missing. Examples: "The Wright Brothers 1903 Flying Machine patent application? Gone.
A copy of the Dec. 8, 1941 "Day of Infamy" speech autographed by Franklin D. Roosevelt and tied with a purple ribbon? Gone.
Target maps of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, war telegrams written by Abraham Lincoln and a scabbard and belt given to Harry S. Truman? Gone, gone and gone."
The small but dedicated team hopes to track down and reclaim missing items. They now have a Facebook page where you can keep up with their activities.

Almanac of Higher Education 2010

Today's Chronicle of Higher Education has an article and other information about the 2010-2011 Almanac of Higher Education. There are many interesting statistics about the demographics and finances of the higher education industry.

McAfee lists most dangerous celebrities for malware

McAfee, the big anti-virus software company, has named the "Most Dangerous Celebrities" in cyberspace for the year. Cameron Diaz has replaced Jessica Biel for the dubious top spot, as internet searches for her name result in the most links to websites loaded with malware. Cybercriminals often use the names of popular celebrities to lure people to sites that are contain malicious software. Fans searching for “Cameron Diaz” or “Cameron Diaz and downloads,” “Cameron Diaz and screen savers,” “Cameron Diaz and wallpaper,” “Cameron Diaz and photos” and “Cameron Diaz and videos” are at risk of running into online threats designed to steal personal information. Clicking on these risky sites and downloading files like photos, videos or screensavers exposes surfers or consumers to the risk of downloading the viruses and malware. The top ten celebrities:

1. Cameron Diaz
2. Julia Roberts
3. Jessica Biel
4. Gisele Bündchen
5. Brad Pitt
6. Adriana Lima
7. Jennifer Love Hewitt, Nicole Kidman
8. Tom Cruise
9. Heidi Klum, Penelope Cruz
10. Anna Paquin
Among athletes, tennis stars Maria Sharapova and Andy Roddick came in at (#13) and (#14) respectively. Most of the risky sites were uncovered when searching for screensavers featuring these sexy athletes. David Beckham ranked (#29) and Tiger Woods ranked (#33) this year.

Google's online prediction API

Many "smart" web services rely on algorithms that can learn and respond to new information; examples are Amazon's personalized recommendations for books you might enjoy, or iTunes music recommendations that are based on the music you buy. Now Google labs offers the online Google Prediction API (API stands for "application programming interface") service for software developers, providing an easy way to help create smart software that learns to sort incoming data. MIT Technology Review article on the new service explains that "Google's service provides a kind of machine-learning black box-- ata goes in one end, and predictions come out the other...For example, the Google-hosted algorithms could be trained to sort e-mails into categories for "complaints" and "praise" using a dataset that provides many examples of both kinds. Future e-mails could then be screened by software using that API, and handled accordingly."
Currently there is a waiting list for invitations to have access to the Prediction API.

College boosts student retention by providing smart phones to faculty

Inside Higher Education today has a story about a small college in Georgia - Georgia Gwinnett College - that has decided to provide all its full and part-time faculty with smartphones and pay for the service plans. The college then encourages faculty to respond to any calls or texts from students within 24 hours. This is part of an effort to increase the number of students who stay the course for 4 years. The story says that the plan is working: the retention rate for returning sophomores at Georgia Gwinnett is 75 percent, about double the average rate for similar colleges in Georgia.

Facebook Places

Walt Mossberg's most recent All Things Digital blogpost he talks about the new Facebook service called "Places". The service, which is optional for members, allows you to check in to the places you go and share that info with your Facebook friends. It is similar to Twitter's Foursquare network. According to the blogpost, you initially can check in to Places only if you have Apple’s iPhone, though you can use a site at touch.facebook.com via your browser on other phones and laptops that can track your location and support HTML 5 technology.

LexisNexis Congressional Topics: Gory, Gruesome and Grisly

LexisNexis is offering a Webinar on Friday Aug. 20 at 11 am EDT called "Congressional topics: Gory, Gruesome and Grisly. "
Their description: Are you responsible for teaching the incoming students about the reference databases? Are you working on handouts for using government documents? Looking to add some spice to your examples?
As we all know, sometimes it’s the off-the-wall topics that interest students the most. Join us on August 20th as LexisNexis presents “Gory, Gruesome and Grisly”. We will show you some of the quirkier content included in LexisNexis Congressional that could pique the interest of your students as you start of the school year. We look forward to having you join us!
This webinar lasts approximately 1 hour.
You can reserve a Webinar seat now at:
https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/265766401

Justia Forms Beta

Justia has a new Forms site (still in beta) containing links to "Free Legal Forms - US Federal & State Court Forms & Government Forms." You can browse the forms by State or Category. Included are 2,276 official federal forms - listed by category and/or federal agency - and 1,103 Pennsylvania state forms listed by category and alphabeticall by title.

AALL offers "Law Library Management" online course

The AALL is offering six-week online course, to be held from September 28 to November 2, 2010, designed to "help you achieve higher management performance and advance your career potential." The course will be taught by Maureen Sullivan, owner of Maureen Sullivan Associates and Professor of Practice in the Simmons College Graduate School of Library and Information Science Ph.D. Program in Managerial Leadership. The course will consist of a combination of live interactive GoToWebinar sessions and course work conducted through RCampus, an education management system and collaborative learning environment. There will also be assignments and readings between sessions.
You can register for the course on the AALL website by Sept. 17; the cost is $275 for AALL members, $375 for non-members.

Online sources for stock video

Connie Crosby has a post on the slaw blog where she links to five prominent sources for stock video that can be used in presentations or websites. Note that some require fees or copyright clearance.

Survey of Electronic Research Alternatives to Lexis and Westlaw

Laura K. Justiss of the SMU Dedman School of Law has posted an interesting article on SSRN titled A Survey of Electronic Research Alternatives to Lexis and Westlaw in Law Firms (including a link to the downloadable 33 page pdf). The User Education in Law Librarianship blog has posted more information about the article, pointing out several useful tables in which she compares alternative resources and their usage in law firms.
From the abstract: "Justiss conducted a survey of law firm librarians in 2010 that identified electronic research database alternatives to Lexis and Westlaw and ranked them by subscription frequency. The survey included research databases for primary source alternatives; court docket and case information services; secondary sources for topical legal research and legal periodicals; financial, business and news sources; public records; and non-legal and legal-related sources, including intellectual property databases. The survey also generated information regarding suggested or mandated legal research policies in law firms for the use of alternatives to Lexis and Westlaw and examined their applicability to billable and non-billable research. Lastly, it examined the prevalence in firms of flat rate pricing agreements with Lexis, Westlaw or both. "

A copyright version of Snopes.com?

Brandon Butler of the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) has an interesting article called "Urban Copyright Legends". He says that as a copyright lawyer, he sometimes wishes there were a copyright law version of Snopes dot com, the Urban Legend dispeller. He goes on to discuss some "urban legends" about copyright law that are not correct, and that are misunderstood by librarians and educators as well as copyright holders.

Barco at the American Assn. of Law Libraries annual conference.

Many of the Barco librarians recently returned from the annual conference of the American Association of Law Libraries, which was held in Denver this year. We have all returned with a lot of enthusiasm, knowledge and ideas that we hope to use to make the Barco Law Library even better.

Barco librarians presented two programs at the conference this year. Library Director George Pike, who among other things is the noted Legal Issues columnist for Information Today, presented a program called "Ten Things Every Librarian Should Know About Copyright". This lively program was presented in the format of a radio talk show called "Copyright Corner". Attendees acted as a "studio audience" for the broadcast, as radio talk show host George Pike (who clearly enjoyed playing the role of an irascible and argumentative conservative!) interviewed special guest James Heller, author of The Librarian's Copyright Companion. Heller shared ten things every law librarian needs to know about copyright, while the Copyright Players (played by other law librarians) illustrated some important do's and don'ts regarding copyright issues that might arise in a law library. Members of the audience had an opportunity to ask Heller about their real-life copyright dilemmas. Video of the program is available on the AALL Learning Center website.

Librarians Sallie Smith, Pat Roncevich and Susanna Leers presented a program called "Database Ownership: Myth or Reality?". The program description: For some databases, vendors advertise the option to purchase data outright so libraries "own" the content if the vendor goes out of business or the library cancels its subscription; this option is expensive but promises perpetual access to the data. Join Barco Law Librarians as they explain the hidden costs of "owning" a database and the difficulties of storage and access when a subscription was cancelled and the vendor provided content as promised.. Video of their presentation is embedded below.

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WaPo's new investigative report & website: Top Secret America

The Washington Post published a large interactive website today called Top Secret America. This impressive site is a result a two year investigation by more than a dozen journalists at the Post. It details the companies and government agencies currently doing top secret work in the United States.
The Post divided top-secret work into 23 different categories, from border patrol to psychological operations to weapons technology. The Top Secret database was put together by compiling hundreds of thousands of public records of government organizations and private-sector companies. The Post has identified 45 government organizations (e.g. the FBI) engaged in top-secret work and determined that those 45 organizations could be broken down into 1,271 sub-units (e.g. the Terrorist Screening Center of the FBI). There is a catchall category called "unknown” that contains companies doing work for a government organization that could not be determined. At the private-sector level, The Post identified 1,931 companies engaged in top-secret work for the government. Private-sector companies were grouped together and listed by a parent company's name
To tell the story of top secret America, the Post has "created an immersive online reading experience that combines all of the elements of our two-year investigation together into a single frame. Page horizontally through our stories and view photos, video and graphics without leaving the package."

Analog computing

The Art of Analog Computing from meltmedia on Vimeo.

Zotero adding Bluebook format

Zotero, the free, open source add-on for the Firefox browser, has taken notice of law schools, according to a letter posted to the teknoides listserv. from Frank Bennett . Zotero enables users to manage bibliographic data and to store web-page snapshots and other electronic objects during their research and writing, but until now was not able to compose citations in Bluebook format. Now the development trunk version of Zotero has acquired the basic capabilities needed for legal writing, has a user interface and is ready for action of a sort.
And Zotero would welcome our help! From this point, the project will benefit greatly from the input of actual legal writers. Unfortunately, there are very few lawyers in the Zotero community now, for the obvious-enough reason that Zotero has until now not been terribly useful for things legal.
The developers are looking for people to do beta-testing: who are comfortable with a few basic technical things (installing Firefox, installing plugins), who are able to invest a small amount of time playing with software with limited and occasionally broken functionality, and who have the patience to report a bit of detail when things do not work correctly. We can help build a Zotero that is useful and welcome to law students and other legal writers.
Links to the development forum and utilities:
Zotero-legal (Google group): A forum for discussion and a repository of notes and proposals.
Zotero development trunk (main and word-processor plugins): The utilities that run in Firefox.
Bluebook style (CSL 1.0): The current version of the Bluebook style in CSL 1.0.

AAUP criticizes PA legislature

The American Association of University Professors (AAUP) has issued an open letter titled "Academic Freedom in Pennsylvania" which criticizes some of the wording of a bill passed by the Pennsylvania Senate on Friday. The Bill, SB 929, called the College Textbook Policies Affordability, Accountability and Accessibility Act, concerns the AAUP because it would seem to dictate specific choices to professors on which books to select. The bill has not yet been taken up by the PA House of Representatives. The AAUP letter states that "The Pennsylvania legislation is also worrying because it is part of a national trend to regulate textbook selection. Certainly rising textbook prices are a serious matter. Increased availability of electronic versions of textbooks that certainly should prove less expensive is likely an inevitable feature of a changing marketplace. But the main ways to reduce the expense of a college education are to increase state appropriations to public colleges and universities and to eliminate unnecessary administrative positions."

New York prosecutors' definition of "hate crime"

An ABA Journal report refers to a New York Times article about how prosecutors in Queens are broadening the definition of the term "hate crime." They are applying hate crime law to nonviolent crimes (for example, mortgage fraud) committed by people who prey on the elderly because they believe older people are easy to deceive and might have substantial savings or home equity. The legal theory is that New York’s hate crimes statute does not require prosecutors to prove defendants “hate” the group the victim belongs to, merely that they commit the crime because of some belief, correct or not, they hold about the group. The theory has not yet been tested in an appellate court, possibly because many of those charged have pleaded guilty and waived their right to appeal. But Queens trial judges have upheld it against defense lawyers who argue that the hate crime charges are inappropriate. At least five defendants have pleaded guilty to or have been convicted under this hate-crime theory, and charges against two others are pending. Prosecutors across New York state are closely watching how this approach is being used, because it can result in stiffer sentences for the criminals.

Minority under-representation on juries

The Wall Street Journal's Law Blog has a post reporting that there is a continuing problem with "racially skewed" juries in our courts. The post discusses a report (60 page pdf) published recently by the Equal Justice Initiative that found "shocking evidence of racial discrimination in jury selection" in the eight states they studied: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, and Tennessee.
The blog post says that there is also another challenge in getting minority representation in juries, as recently reported by an Iowa newspaper: potential jurors there are drawn from driver's license and voter lists, but minorities are less likely to be on those lists because, as a court administrator says, "there are people who choose not to vote. There are people who don't have driver's licenses".

2 resign from AALL's vendor relations committee

Law Librarian Blog has a lengthy and troubling post about the AALL CRIV (Committee on Relations with Information Vendors) committee. This is the committee that plays the important role of, among other things, being "ombudsman" between law librarians and vendors. Joe Hodnicki of Law Librarian blog now reports that last month two members of the CRIV committeee tendered their resignations effective immediately. He goes on to explain "Why? Well one may say, well, I am saying and am not speaking for either Lucy or Caren, that our association has eviscerated this Committee's mission." The blogpost, and comments it elicited, is a must-read for any AALL member.

FBI monitoring Facebook?

The BBC reports that armed police were called to St Aelred's Catholic Technology College in Newton-le-Willows (UK) after being advised of a potential threat by the FBI. The school stated that the FBI 'raised the alarm after Internet scanning software picked up a suspicious combination of words,' which implies that they are carrying out routine, automated surveillance of social networking sites.

Guggenheim Museum soliciting artistic YouTube videos

PC World reports that the Guggenheim Museum in New York is collaborating with Google on a project called YouTube Play: A Biennial of Creative Video. The project will showcase up to 20 video works submitted to YouTube at the Guggenheim in New York on October 21, and online at YouTube.com/Play.'"

PACER fees & PACER costs

A recent blogpost by Steve Schultze, Assoc. Director of the Center for Information Technology Policy at Princeton, analyzes the US Courts' PACER (Public Access to Court Electronic Records) system, the source for federal court records and its well-known 8-cents-per-page charges for access to these records. He observes that "Digital technologies have a way of pushing the cost of information dissemination toward zero, but ... this does not appear to be the trajectory of public access fees." When Schulze took a careful look at the federal Judiciary's financials for the past few years he found that even though there is a statutory limitation on PACER fees such that "the Judicial Conference may, only to the extent necessary, prescribe reasonable fees... to reimburse expenses incurred in providing these services", the Judicial Conference has been expanding its spending of PACER fees so that most fees are being spent on other services, such as expensive technology and media upgrades for federal courtrooms.

Turn your old typewriter into a keyboard

Technabob blogs about someone who has created a way to turn old manual typewriters (yes, the ones that tax the strength of your fingers) into 21st century keyboards. You can DIY or custom order ath his Etsy shop.

American finance 1861 - 1935

The folks in St. Louis Federal who maintain the Federal Reserve Archival System for Economic Research (FRASER) have added a new, cool chart to their website. It covers what was happening in American finance between 1861-1938, including such historical reference points as the battle of Gettysburg, the patenting of the rubber stamp, the purchase of Alaska, the invention of roller skates, and the Chicago fire. The chart is available as either a very large pdf file, or in an interactive slideshow.

Measuring the value of federally funded research

The Chronicle of Higher Education reports that federal science-financing agencies have been working with universities to devise a way to measure how their expenditures help the national economy. A new initiative called Science and Technology for America’s Reinvestment: Measuring the Effect of Research on Innovation, Competitiveness and Science (STAR METRICS) will monitor the impact of federal science investments on employment, knowledge generation, and health outcomes. The initiative is led by the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation (NSF), and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP). STAR METRICS will help the Federal government document the value of its investments in research and development, to a degree not previously possible. Together, NSF and NIH have committed $1 million for the program’s first year. The program will measure the impact of federal grants on jobs, patents, publications, citations, and business start-ups.
According to participants, data for the program will come from research institutions that volunteer to participate and the federal agencies that fund them and information will be gathered from the universities in a highly automated way, with minimal or no burden for the scientists and the university administration.

National Federation of the Blind sues law schools

The National Federation of the Blind (NFB), the nation’s oldest and largest organization of blind people, and three blind students who have applied or are considering applying to law school in California have filed a lawsuit against the Law School Admissions Council and four California law schools for violating and the Americans with Disabilities Act. The suit claims that the law schools require or encourage applicants to use a centralized Internet-based application process provided by the Law School Admissions Council (LSAC) through its Web site that is inaccessible to blind law school applicants

Students create their own library

The Los Angeles Times has a story about students at Cal State Los Angeles who have created their own "people's" library. The regular university library, due to budget cuts, was forced to limit the hours that it's open. Instead of staying open until midnight, the library now closes at 8 pm. Students contend that reduced access to library resources was affecting their studies, especially during the period before final exams. So they gathered donated chairs and tables and have been using campus electrical hookups for lighting and equipment just outside the university's main library and created an open air study area. The "People's Library" stays open until midnight, and provides a copy machine, a printer and free coffee as well as a quiet place to study and internet access.

Wikipedia founder discusses academic use

The Chronicle of Higher Education today has a podcast of an interview with Jimmy Wales, a founder of Wikipedia. He talks about the best and worst ways to use Wikipedia in teaching and research, and how to teach students about the validity of Wikipedia articles.

Homeland Security essay contest winner

The Naval Postgraduate School's Center for Homeland Defense and Security (CHDS) recently released the results of its Third Annual Essay Contest. Participants were asked to answer the following question: "How can, or should, the United States make homeland security a more layered, networked, and resilient endeavor involving all citizens?"
The contest-winning essay, Twitter, Facebook, and Ten Red Balloons: Social Network Problem Solving and Homeland Security (6 page pdf), was submitted by Major Christopher Ford, a Judge Advocate with the U.S. Army. According to the CHDS director, the winning "essay touched on a topic of increasing relevance in homeland security. Emergency managers and first responders are beginning to realize the potential social media has in helping them meet their missions and are grappling with how to effectively apply this technology. The winning essay offered a glimpse into the possibilities Web 2.0 holds for homeland security use." The essay is well worth a read. It concludes that "with little funding, de minimis incentive, and a strong social cohesive element, individuals can (using social media) create efficient, layered, and accurate organizations that are able to accomplish complex objectives. Applying these systems
to homeland security is a natural development. "

North Korea's (soda) Fountain of Youth

The BBC reports that North Korea's government, in a joint venture with a fruit juice company, has announced the development of an anti-aging "super drink" that "helps improve mental and retentive faculties by multiplying brain cells.... protects skin from wrinkles and black spots and prevents such geriatric diseases as cerebral haemorrhage, myocardium and brain infarction by removing acid effete matters in time... (and) is efficacious for different skin diseases, including allergic dermatitis. It also makes skin fair."
No word yet on the flavor or whether there's a diet version.

Sunlight "Design for America" contest winners

The Sunlight Labs blog, a part of the Sunlight Foundation (a non-profit, non partisan Washington, DC based organization focused on digitization of government data and making tools and websites to make it easily accessible) has announced the winners in its recent "Design for America" contest. The contest was "a 10 week long design and data visualization extravaganza focused on connecting the talents of art and design communities throughout the country to the wealth of government data now available through bulk data access and APIs, and to help nurture the field of information visualization." There were three categories that contestants could choose from, with several subcategories in each. The main categores were Data Visualization, Process Transparency, and Redesigning the Government.
Some of the winners were: How a Bill Becomes a Law (in the Process Transparency category); an elegant redesign of the IRS website (in the Redesigned the Government category); an interactive game called Who Paid Them (Data Visualization), another game called http://sunlightlabs.com/projects/coolkids/ (who visits the White House and why); and a Redesign of the US Passport Form that you can compare to the current US passport form.

hat tip: Joe Hodnicki at Law Librarian Blog

CMU prof. to advise on Bush Oral History project

The Chronicle of Higher Education has a story about CMU professor Kiron Skinner who has been asked to serve on the advisory board for the George W. Bush Oral History Project at the University of Virginia. Prof. Skinner is an associate professor of social and decision sciences and director of the International Relations and Politics Program at CMU, and is one of the country's most renowned experts in the areas of international relations, U.S. foreign policy and political strategy. The project, conducted by the Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia, will document the life and career of the 43rd president with a focus on the White House years. Skinner will be one of two historians on the board, and will advise on the project's implementation and development, recommend individuals most familiar with the Bush presidency to interview and work to bring attention to the project.
Prof. Skinner is quoted as saying "It's an honor to be a part of documenting a comprehensive oral history of George W. Bush's presidency — which happened during a challenging and unique time in American history."

Cambridge University library announces digitization project

The Chronicle of Higher Education reports that Cambridge University in Cambridge, England has received a gift of $2.1 million from British philanthropist Leon Polonsky. Cambridge will use the donation to launch a project to digitize some of the most significant rare books and manuscripts in its "Foundations of Science" and the "Foundations of Faith" collections which include some of the oldest Korans in existence, as well as centuries-old Christian and Jewish texts, and papers by well-known scientific thinkers like Isaac Newton and Edmond Halley.

Using social media for teaching

The Chronicle of Higher Education's ProfHacker blog has a post in which he discusses how he has used social media technologies - specifically Twitter, a wiki, Zotero and Google Wave with his students in his classes. He has some interesting thoughts on what works well and how some problems might be fixed in the future. He also invites comments by posing questions for his readers:
What experiences have you had using social media in the classroom?
What are your favorite (social media) tools? Which would you never, ever use again?

Libraries evolving: a view from the Courts

The Third Branch, online publication of the US Courts, has an interesting article titled The Evolving Library. In the article Ann Fessenden, librarian for the Eighth Circuit, discusses the changes she has seen in libraries over the past 25+ years, during which today’s libraries are becoming less repositories for books and more about knowledge management. The Judicial Conference Committee on Court Administration and Case Management is currently conducting a study of circuit libraries to determine how a significant reduction in law book funding in FY 2012 and beyond would impact court libraries and library services. The study began with a nationwide survey of all legal researchers, according to Committee member Judge Julio Fuentes (3rd Cir.), chair of CACM’s Library Subcommittee.

Resources for online collaboration

Computerworld has an article that discusses 20 free and low-cost online tools that can be used for online collaboration. The article presents descriptions of what each tool offers, screenshots of what each tool looks like, and suggestions for situations that are particularly suited to using these tools.

Gerald R. Ford library digitization

The Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library has announced the launch of a major program to digitize and post to the web some of its most important materials. The first digitization project was the "National Security Adviser Memoranda of Presidential Conversations, 1973-1977" - the Library's most popular and most used textual collection. Each folder of the collection contains the White House's transcript-like records and handwritten source notes from over 1,000 presidential meetings on foreign relations and national security matters, January 1973 - January 1977. The online collection is updated as new material is released. The Library holdings include more than 25 million pages of documents, about 450,000 photographs, and thousands of audiotapes, videotapes, and films with an online guide providing descriptions and finding aids. The Library continues to digitize to make more of this massive collection available to researchers via the Internet.

Appeals court dismisses Katrina greenhouse gas case because of judges' recusals

The New York Times reports that the US 5th Circuit Court of Appeals has been forced to dismiss Comer v. Murphy Oil because half of the 16 judges in the Court recused themselves; a quorum of 9 judges is required. The case began with a lawsuit by residents of coastal Mississippi residents affected by Hurricane Katrina, who charge energy companies with contributing to the effects of Hurricane Katrina by emitting greenhouse gases. The companies being sued have argued there is no evidence linking their emissions to Katrina's effects. Last fall, a three-judge panel from the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the plaintiffs could proceed with their lawsuit; the defendants asked for an en banc rehearing. At that point, seven Fifth Circuit judges recused themselves from the case and the remaining nine voted in February to vacate the three-judge panel’s ruling and move forward with the en banc. But on April 30, the court posted a notice saying that an eighth judge had recused him or herself. The court didn’t give the rationale behind the eighth recusal or even name the judge; (The recusals are likely due to stock-ownership issues.)

Pedestrian sues Google over Google Maps

PC World reports that a woman who says she relied on Google for walking directions in Utah that got her hit on a major roadway has filed a lawsuit against the Internet company claiming it supplied unsafe directions. Lauren Rosenberg filed the $100,000 lawsuit Thursday in U.S. District Court in Utah. She says that she used her BlackBerry to download walking directions from Google Maps between two Park City addresses. Apparently it was dark outside, and Google maps had her walk through Park City on a road without sidewalks that she says isn't safe for pedestrians.

British student fined over library matchmaking

A student at University College London has been fined by the university for creating a dating website for library patrons, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education's Wired Campus blog. Richard Martell, a UCL student in his final year, started the website called FitFinder with a couple of his classmates. The site was an instant success and quickly spread to other British universities. Unfortunately, some students and other universities complained about the "offensive tone" of some messages posted on the site, and administrators at UCL fined Richard and asked him to take it down. The administration said that the site brought "the college into disrepute."

Now other students are signing an online petition at FitFinder to bring the site back.

The scoop on ebook readers

The Wall Street Journal's Personal Technology department has published an article that discusses the wide variety of ebook readers on the market - as well as the mechanisms for purchasing and downloading ebooks from various sources. The author talks about the good and bad points in all of them and concludes that "For now, the e-bookstore choice comes down to which compromises readers are willing to accept. "

Students Prefer Print Over Digital Textbooks

The National Assn. of College Stores recently commissioned a survey of college students and has reported some findings: 74% of students prefer print textbooks to digital and 53% are unsure if they would buy digital textbooks.

Greening Interlibrary load procedures

OCLC has published a report (64 page pdf) that they commissioned on how libraries can reduce their carbon footprint through greener ILL practices. Nothing especially earth-shattering: The single most important finding of the study is that an ILL unit can cut its greenhouse gas emissions in half simply by re-using packaging materials.
A succint summation of the recommendations:
"The assumed effectiveness of common-sense practices to reduce ILL’s impact on the environment is borne out by scientific analysis:
• Re-use is preferable to New
• Ground is preferable to Air
• Near is preferable to Far
• Aggregation is preferable to 1X1
• Nylon bags are preferable to Plastic bins (unless the bins are always shipped full)
• 30% recycled paper equals New."

WestlawNext discussion

There has been some confusion about the WestlawNext rollout caused to some extent by mixed messages that West is sending out. Greg Lambert over at 3 Geeks and a Law Blog has been reporting. First, that the Westlaw website said that everyone with Westlaw.com access would also have access to WestlawNext with their One Pass ID starting on June 1st. Then someone at ThomsonReuters explained that this is NOT the case, that WestlawNext and OnePassIDs will NOT be linked on June 1.

Your privacy on Google

Computerworld features an article titled The smart paranoid's guide to using Google. The article points out that many of us have used Google for all sorts of things, including Search and Gmail; and all sorts of information may be stored on Google's servers. Like data about your habits, interests, activities, schedule, professional pursuits, stock portfolio and medical history, records of the trip routes you've mapped, and the Web sites you've visited. Google "anonymizes" user IP addresses after 9 months and cookies after 18 months. But if you want more privacy than that, the Computerworld article offers some precautions that will minimize any security risks.

E-book Readers

There are lots of ebook readers available - how to know which one to get? This website is a table comparing the features of a wide variety of ebook readers.

hat tip: Lyo Louis-Jacques

A new look for PACER

Over the weekend the administrative office of the US federal courts unveiled an all-new look for the PACER (Public Access to Court Electronic Records) website. We haven't had a chance to study the new site, but at least it looks like a real professionally designed site, which is a big step.

Open Graph and social media

A couple of weeks ago Facebook unveiled what CEO Mark Zuckerberg said is "the most transformative thing we've ever done for the Web." The "thing" is a platform called Open Graph, and it allows sites and apps to share information about users in order to tailor offers, features and services to an individual's interests and tastes — even if that individual has never visited the site before. CNN's report likened "Open Graph" to turning the internet into one big cocktail party. Open Graph was launched with more than 30 content partners, including The New York Times, Yelp, Pandora, CNN, ESPN and the Internet Movie Database. When you visit these sites now, you will see the Facebook "like it" thumbs up icon; when you click on it the site is recorded on your Facebook page and is sent out as a post to your friends and networks.
The Thicket State Legislatures blog reports that state legislatures are increasingly adopting social media, and says that the National Conference of State Legislatures is currently tracking the number of legislative social media sites across the country, along with policies for social media use on these sites.

More mentally ill people in jail than hospitals

A new study (22 page pdf) by he Treatment Advocacy Center and the National Sheriffs' Association finds that Americans with severe mental illnesses are three times more likely to be in jail or prison than in a psychiatric hospital. The director of the Treatment Advocacy Center, a nonprofit dedicated to removing barriers to timely and effective treatment of severe mental illnesses, says that "America’s jails and prisons have once again become our mental hospitals. With minimal exception, incarceration has replaced hospitalization for thousands of individuals in every single state.”
According to the report, it is now extremely difficult to find a bed for a seriously mentally ill person who needs to be hospitalized. In 1955 there was one psychiatric bed for every 300 Americans. In 2005 there was one psychiatric bed for every 3,000 Americans.
The report includes statistics for each state.

Genomic testing in your local drugstore

Technology Review's Editors Blog has a post that tells how genome test kits will be available this month at your local drugstore. For a few years now there have been a few companies that offer direct-to-consumer gene testing over the internet: 23 and me, Navigenics, and DeCodeMe .
Now genomic testing is going mainstream, as a company called Pathway Genomics will begin selling DNA testing kits at Walgreens drugstores this month.
Users of the kits will have to send in their saliva sample and then go to Pathway's website to select the particular test they want. Users choose from drug response ($79), which assesses how well an individual can metabolize certain drugs, predicting the best dosage for that person or whether they will be susceptible to certain side effects; pre-pregnancy planning ($179), which determines whether parents carry mutations for serious genetic diseases; health conditions ($179), which assesses risk for a number of conditions, including diabetes, Alzheimer's, prostate cancer and more; or a combination of all three ($249). The kits won't be sold in New York because the state's laws require medical professionals to be involved in this type of testing.

Amazon using Kindle owners' highlighting

MSNBC's Red Tape Chronicles reports that some Amazon Kindle (ebook reader) users are concerned about a new feature whereby Amazon will now remotely upload and store user notes and highlights from Kindle, which it then compiles into "popular highlights". Just as readers can use highlighters or make notes in the margins of print books, ebook readers offer users the ability to highlight text and make notes about what they are reading. Kindle users who highlight passages will now have a record of those highlights sent back to Amazon servers - and many users don't realize that this is happening. An Amazon spokesman denied that the new service raises any privacy issues with consumers, comparing it to the popular "Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought..." feature on Amazon.com.

Federal lobbying industry database

Lobbyists.info is now offering a new resource in its free resources section, the Factors of Influence Chart. This new feature allows you to sort Lobbyists.info's comprehensive database on the federal lobbying industry by nine critical areas and serves as an easy way to rank over 2,800 lobbying firms by the most influential criteria in the industry, including: number of employees, clients, issue areas, income and Congressional connections.

Webcast from conference on civil litigation in federal courts

A two-day conference on civil litigation in federal courts, sponsored by the Judicial Conference Advisory Committee on Civil Rules and conducted at the Duke University School of Law, will be streamed live over the Internet this week, starting 8:15 a.m. Monday, May 10. The purpose of the 2 day conference is to explore the current costs of civil litigation, particularly discovery, and to discuss possible solutions. The Conference will rely on new empirical research done by the Federal Judicial Center to assess the degree of satisfaction with the performance of the present system and the suggestions of lawyers as to how the system can be improved. This research will be supplemented by additional empirical data. A major portion of the Conference will be devoted to an assessment and discussion of the empirical research.

You can watch the webcast online using RealPlayer, which is free to download here.

Facebook and privacy

Ryan Singel, writing in Wired magazine, decries the way Facebook has chipped away at its users' privacy and calls for an alternative that would let users take control of their own information. And last Wednesday, the Electronic Privacy Information Center filed a complaint (38 page pdf) with the Federal Trade Commission, demanding that Facebook cancel new features introduced in mid-April that compel users to share more information than before.
Here's a graphical representation of "The Evolution of Privacy on Facebook" over the past 5 years.

HeinOnline World Constitutions database webinar

Last week HeinOnline held a webinar that discussed and explained the new database World Constitutions Illustrated. This database contains thousands of contemporary and historical resources and custom features to enable you to browse and search across the constitutional law of more than 190 countries. The video of this webinar is now available from Hein's video library; you can access it via the HeinOnline wiki Webinars page.

New content & organizing in FRASER

The Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis has added some new content to their website that is highlighted on the What's New Archive page. In partnership with the brookings Institution they are digitizing the archival collection of the Committee on the History of the Federal Reserve. They have also made some changes to the home page of FRASER, the Federal Reserve Archival System for Economic Research; they have organized material into topical collections, like this one on Depressions and Panics. One of the digital documents from this collection is an interesting timeline chart from the 1940's that shows Business Booms & Depressions since 1775.

Link Rot & legal resources

The Chesapeake Project Legal Information Archive has just published its 3rd annual study of link rot among the original urls for web-published legal materials. Link rot, according to the study, describes “a URL that no longer provides direct access to files matching the content originally harvested from the URL and currently preserved in the Chesapeake Project’s digital archive. In some instances, a 404 or ‘not found’ message indicates link rot at a URL; in others, the URL may direct to a site hosted by the original publishing organization or entity, but the specific resource has been removed or relocated from the original or previous URL.”
In the 3 years since the launch of the Chesapeake Project, researchers have found that link rot increased from about one in every 12 archived titles in 2008, to one in every seven titles in 2009, and finally to about one in every 3.5 titles in 2010.
All of the Web resources described in the report that have disappeared from their original locations on the Web remain accessible via permanent archive URLs at legalinfoarchive.org, thanks to the Chesapeake Project's efforts.

Comedian wins defamation suit by mother-in-law

Here's a charming story just in time for Mother's Day. The ABA Journal reports that a federal judge in New Jersey has ruled that stand-up comedian Sunda Croonquist's mother-in-law jokes were statements of opinion protected by the First Amendment. U.S. District Judge Mary L. Cooper of New Jersey concluded that the examples cited — including one in which Croonquist says her sister-in-law's voice sounds like a cat in heat — fell under the category of protected speech. The suit was filed by Croonquist’s mother-in-law, sister-in-law and brother-in-law, and claimed defamation, infliction of emotional distress, false light and unjust enrichment. The plaintiffs targeted video clips on Croonquist’s website and comments on her blog. Croonquist was represented in the suit by her husband’s law firm, Abrams, Fensterman, Fensterman, Eisman, Greenberg, Formato & Einiger in New York.

2010 Public Online Information Act

The Helena (MT) Independent Record reports that Senator Jon Tester (D-Montana) has introduced a bill ( S. 3321) in the Senate called the 2010 Public Online Information Act. The bill would require the federal government to post all public documents and records in a free, searchable online database. The bill also would create an independent advisory committee to issue guidelines for making public information accessible online. The bill allows government offices to exempt some documents from the database if they explain why making them public could cause harm.
The bill expands the statutory definition of a government record to include "contracts entered into by persons working as agents of the federal government, including records in the possession of government contractors." A companion measure in the House, H.R. 4858 , does not require agencies to disclose contracts. Other documents that would be required to be put online: details about executive agency travel paid for by outside parties; details of lobbying activity; and financial disclosures by government officials.
Senator Tester's bill has the support of the Sunlight Foundation, an organization dedicated to making government transparent and accountable.

Comparison: WestlawNext & Westlaw

Westlaw has posted a helpful Quick Reference Guide (8 page pdf) that lists corresponding features and functionality on Westlaw and WestlawNext, including finding documents, selecting content to search, searching for information, viewing results, browsing documents, checking citations, and delivering information.

Law schools charged with discriminating against blind students

The PR newswire reports that the National Federation of the Blind has filed complaints with the DOJ civil rights division against nine law schools. They accused the schools of violating the rights of blind would-be law students by using the Law School Admission Council's (LSAC) online application process. The 9 law schools are U. Chicago, Cardozo, John Marshall, U. of Denver, U. of Miami, Washington & Lee, William Mitchell, Gonzaga and Northeastern. According to the complaints the LSAC's streamlined online application system, which makes it easier to submit applications to different schools, is not compatible with software that vocalizes visual information or displays it in Braille for blind users. This means that blind users can't use the LSAC system without the assistance of a sighted person.

Gulf of Mexico Transocean Drilling Incident

A govdocs librarian at the University of South Alabama in Mobile has created a webpage where she is gathering links to government information about the Gulf of Mexico oil drilling accident. She continues to update the page as more information comes in. Included are NASA pictures of the oil spill as it moves towards the Mississippi Delta.