Bloomberg Law news

The CEO of Bloomberg Law sent an email message to subscribers recently, viewable here. In the message he announced that "Bloomberg is taking the next step to deliver better and faster solutions for our clients. Beginning in January 2014, we will join together into a single subsidiary all of our Bloomberg Law legal and business intelligence solutions, as well as Bloomberg BNA's industry-leading legal and regulatory businesses." He adds that "We are committed to making individual users more effective, and our clients' enterprises more profitable. For example, we are exploring how to integrate the BBNA Tax Management Portfolios with the Bloomberg Law DealMaker product to give tax professionals even more powerful tools for serving their clients."
We'll keep you posted.  

FRED database continues to grow

The St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank (FRED) database now has more than 140,000 economic time series available, due to the addition of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)'s Main Economic Indicators. You can check out all the data at the FRED website. The additional data allow users to make cross-country economic comparisons for the 34 OECD-member countries, plus Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, the Russian Federation and South Africa. These data include granular employment data by age, status and gender; balance of payments data; monetary aggregates; and compensation. The folks at St. Louis Fed continue to work to make economic data easily accessible, with many options for saving, sharing, and customizing the display. You can email them with requests for other data.

Detroit declares Chapter 9 bankruptcy

Detroit's bankruptcy filing is big news all over the country.  The Office of the United States Courts a very good post titled "When Cities Go Bankrupt" that explains Chapter 9 Bankruptcy with a map and links to more info.
UPDATE: BloombergLaw has an excellent discussion about Detroit's bankruptcy with bankruptcy attorney Harvey Miller.  

Public Resource challenges the Bluebook

Public Resource has published a letter it sent to the Harvard Law School Dean and "select members of the faculty".  The letter points out that Harvard Law is one of the 4 sponsoring institutions of the Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation. It goes on to say that  "it is clear that the stringent and unbending copyright restrictions surrounding the Bluebook® are a huge brake on innovation for the legal profession. Those who would build new legal tools that incorporate the mechanics of citation are prohibited from doing so by the terms of use and the lack of response to requests for permission by the current corporate owners of the Bluebook®....enforcing a monopoly over a system of citation in the Internet era is immoral and nonsensical." Public Resource bought a copy of the Bluebook, translated it into valid xhtml, put the resulting document on a thumb drive and sent it along with their letter, saying "if you or others choose to publish the enclosed work, we would be delighted."  

Unpaid internships come under scrutiny

A recent decision favoring the plaintiffs in an unpaid internship lawsuit in federal district court has led to more suits being filed against employers who use unpaid interns. It was decided by Judge William H. Pauley III, federal judge for the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, in Glatt v. Fox Searchlight Pictures Inc., (11 Civ. 6784 (WHP) decided June 11, 2013) that two interns working on the set of the film Black Swan should have been paid, given that the work they accomplished did not meet the six criteria used for determining that an internship may be unpaid, as published in a fact sheet by the U.S. Department of Labor. The judge determined that Fox Searchlight violated the minimum wage law when it failed to pay its interns for their work. The New York Times reported the day after the decision that “ Two former interns filed a lawsuit against Condé Nast on Thursday, saying the company failed to pay them minimum wage at their summer jobs at W Magazine and The New Yorker, and asked that it be approved as a class-action suit.” The ABA Journal reports that the Hearst (publishing) Corp. which has been defending the use of unpaid interns, is supporting the plaintiffs in their request for an interlocutory appeal of a recent trial court ruling in order to obain federal appellate court clarification on the topic.
   Legal commentators at BU,  Business Insider , the Law of Work blog (Canada) and others are  predicting a flurry of lawsuits and saying the days of unpaid internships may be numbered.

"Gov Info on the Web" libguide

Government info librarian Kathy Amen of St. Mary's U. library has moved her helpful "government information on the web subject index" to a libguide. The purpose of the index is to provide starting points for browsing government info subject areas, bringing both broad and detailed subject listings from many libraries together in one index. It aims to provide a single place to find link collections on particular subjects, taking advantage of the varied organizational schemes and terminologies developed by federal depository libraries and other organizations. The Government Printing Office has accepted the Index as a Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP) Service Partnership, publicizing and supporting the Index.

ULS adds new database PolicyMap

The University Library System at Pitt has announced that we now have access to PolicyMap, thanks to a state grant. PolicyMap is a fully web-based Geographic Information System that captures data and presents it visually through custom demographic maps, tables, reports and an analysis tool. You can also use the GIS mapping services to incorporate your own data along with that of PolicyMap. Available data include demographics, home sale statistics, health data, mortgage trends, school performance scores, unemployment, crime statistics and city crime rates. The PolicyMap Data Directory has a complete list of the available data.

United States Code Website Beta from the OLRC

The Office of the Law Revision Counsel of the United States House of Representatives has been working to create a new website for the Office and the United States Code. The latest (second) version of the beta website is now available for testing and feedback.
Some key features of the new release are:

•  Default search and browse is now the most current USC (now called "Online", formerly called "prelim") 
• Ability to search and browse previous versions of the Code 
• Internal links between USC sections and chapters 
• Updates to explanatory material
•  External links from the United States Code Classification Table to public laws 
• Miscellaneous usability enhancements derived from first release feedback.
Features still under development include  additional enhancements to external links and additional download formats.
 The new website will replace the current website as the primary site after the testing and feedback period is complete. Your comments and questions about the beta are welcome and can be sent to uscode@mail.house.gov .

Notable Government Documents of 2012 published

The list of 2012's Notable Documents appears in the latest issue of Library Journal and is now available online. This was the result of an effort to raise awareness of noteworthy government information resources issued by state, local, and national governments, and intergovernmental organizations.

Finding or Compiling Federal Legislative Histories Electronially

Recently at a Congressional Information Symposium Federal Reserve Board law librarian Rick McKinney gave a presentation entitled "Finding or Compiling Federal Legislative Histories Electronically." The eight page PDF handout containing more than 240 links, which accompanied the presentation, can be found on the Legislative Source Book of the Law Librarians' Society of Washington, D.C. The topics of the Presentation include: -

•  What Are Federal Legislative Histories and How Are They Used - 
•  What Kind of Documents Are Included in a Federal Legislative History - 
•  Some Helpful Resources for Federal Legislative History Research - 
•  Major Electronic Sources for Compiled Federal Legislative Histories -
•  Electronic Sources for Customary & Miscellaneous Federal Legislative History Documents - 
• How Federal Legislative Histories Are Generally Arranged - 
•  Options in Using Free and Commercial Electronic Legislative Sources - 
•  Some Bibliographic, Print and Microfiche Sources for Federal Legislative Histories 

Open and machine-readable data requirement for all gov info

Last week the White House announced that President Obama has issued Executive Order 13642 (3 page pdf) "Making Open and Machine Readable the New Default for Government Information", affecting federal agencies. The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has sent a memorandum (12 page pdf) to agency heads establishing guidance for implementing the Open Data Policy. The guidance identifies the policy requirements to collect or create information, build information systems that support interoperability and accessibility, manage data and release practices, and identify related privacy and confidentiality measures.The memo defines “open data” as publicly available data that is “structured in a way that enables the data to be fully discoverable and usable by end users.” Under the guidance, open data is: public; accessable in open formats; fully described with documentation; reusable (available under open license); complete, with as much detail allowed by law; timely; and supportable after release.  This is a big step forward in making government data accessible and useful for citizens, scholars, entrepreneurs, politicians, and others.

LLMC to launch new interface

The Law Library Microform Consortium publishes a monthly newsletter which it sends via email link. The May 2013 newsletter just arrived and it contains the excellent news that LLMC has been beta testing a major redesign of the LLMC-Digital interface. The new interface is set to launch at the AALL annual meeting in Seattle this July.

3D printer gun plans pulled from website

A University of Texas law student and his company called "Defense Distributed" recently figured out how to make a working handgun on a 3D printer and made the plans available on the Defense Distributed website. The federal government got involved when the "Department of Defense Trade Controls", an agency of the State Department, wrote to the company arguing that the files should not be posted because the website uses servers in New Zealand, and sharing gun manufacturing information through servers operated in a foreign country amounts to an illegal export. The plans were removed from the website but the New York Daily News reports that prior to the takedown, copies of the gun blueprint were downloaded more than 100,000 times and are now available on other websites. The Atlantic has an interesting story, titled "How Defense Distributed Already Upended the World", in which there is a discussion of various facets of the issues involved.

Build-Your-Own Law School Rankings

The Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System has an online tool that essentially lets you build your own law school rankings, depending on what sort of legal career you want. The tool they provide is called "Law Jobs By the Numbers" and it focuses on the types of jobs graduates get. According to the website, "you have the flexibility to review the (law school) employment rates using formulas that are commonly applied by organizations such as the National Association for Law Placement (NALP), US News & World Report, National Jurist and Law School Transparency (LST). But more importantly, you can build a formula based on what matters most to you."

Justice Dept. approves use of data-review software

The Wall Street Journal and the ABA Journal report that the U.S. Justice Department recently approved the use of data-sifting software (rather than lawyers) to go through over a million documents produced for review in the proposed merger of beer producers Anheuser-Busch and Grupo Modelo. Lawyers for the 2 companies loaded the documents into a software program (by kCura Corp.) and manually reviewed a batch to train the software to recognize relevant documents. The manual review was repeated until the Justice Department and Constellation were satisfied that the program could accurately predict relevance in the rest of the documents. The companies spent 50% less than they would have using more traditional methods, said Warren Rosborough, a partner at the firm who represented one of the parties. "Something that would easily cost three, four, five million dollars, you can do in the range of one to two," Mr. Rosborough said.
The Wall Street Journal says that "Only a handful of judges have approved the use of such data-review software in litigation, and law firms have been cautious about deploying the technology, which can be trained to hunt for concepts and unleashed across millions of documents at once."

Important Lexis Info: single access ID

To everyone at Pitt Law who uses LexisNexis, please note that LexisNexis is moving to a single ID system in early summer 2013. Your current lexis.com® ID will be deactivated; your Lexis Advance® ID will be required to access lexis.com, Lexis Advance, Web Courses and the Law School Home Page. If you don't have a Lexis Advance ID, or if you have forgotten your Lexis Advance username/password, contact Susanna Leers, eResearch & Technology Services Librarian.

50 years of Nimmer on Copyright

The U.S. Copyright Office is recognizing the 50th anniversary of the treatise "Nimmer on Copyright" by hosting a program on May 6, 2013. "nimmer" is the most cited work in the field and the undisputed leading authority for in-depth, comprehensive analysis of U.S. copyright law. The program will feature David Nimmer of UCLA School of Law who will discuss his own role with respect to the treatise, as well as that of his father, the late Melville Nimmer. Scholars Robert Brauneis of The George Washington University Law School and Peter Menell of Berkeley School of Law will also speak, as will Jon Baumgarten, former general counsel in the Copyright Office, and Shira Perlmutter, Chief Policy Officer at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Karyn Temple Claggett, Associate Register of Copyrights for Policy and International Affairs, will moderate the discussion. The panel of experts will offer insights and observations about the treatise, including its effect on both the theory and practice of copyright law.

International content added to WestlawNext

Info from WL: The first set of International Content is now available on WestlawNext. The International Materials browse category will allow you to access the following international materials directly on WestlawNext without having to bridge out to Westlaw Classic: • UK Cases/Statutes/Journals • EU Cases/Journals • Australia Cases/Journals • Some UK Treatises To get to the unmigrated international materials, click the International Materials (on Westlaw Classic) link under Tools & Resources in the right pane of the International Materials page. This link bridges to the International Directory on Westlaw Classic.

Immigration FOIA requests problem

The Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University (TRAC)  reports that "at Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) there has been a rapid rise in the backlog of FOIA requests received that have been waiting unanswered for long periods of time. According to its annual FOIA report, ICE had only 50 pending requests at the end of FY 2011; this number jumped to 2,903 at the end of FY 2012 after the agency was assigned the responsibility of processing some of the backlog of FOIA requests received by the Citizenship and Immigration Service (CIS). And according to the latest available agency records analyzed by TRAC, ICE's backlog is projected to grow to over 13,125 by the end of September 2013 when the fiscal year ends, three and a half times higher than it was at the end of FY 2012."
TRAC derives much of its data from FOIA requests that it files with the federal government. 

DPLA opens

The Digital Public Library of America website has launched, despite the delay of the grand opening festivities due to the Boston Marathon bombings.  MIT Technology Review calls it "he start of a bold project to digitize America’s cultural heritage." Yes, it is still in beta, but already contains about 2.4 million digital objects including books, manuscripts, photographs, recorded sound, and film/video. It also gives access to the application program interface (API) Codex for the site, enabling users to tinker and create new tools for sorting and presenting the library’s materials. The DPLA created an open API "to encourage the independent development of applications, tools, and resources that make use of data contained in the DPLA platform in new and innovative ways, from anywhere, at any time."