Articles Posted in September, 2007

My years in academic law libraries could not ever have been described as boring (especially the 8+ years working here during these years), but we seldom had the stream of wonderful people we see in public law libraries, bless their hearts. (Though my 3+ years at the jail comes close. I’ve had some great jobs in my life)

The latest: the patron wanted “a fast and speedy“ trial for her boyfriend, who couldn’t be here to make the request himself because he is currently being unfairly and unjustly detained at the Oregon State Prison.

We also have what I call our French Farce Days, when, in addition to outraged public patrons, lawyers and clients are in and out but keep missing each other for appointments, the equivalent to phone tag but more fun to watch. One goes to the restroom, the other to the Courthouse (across the street), the other waits in the conference room only to miss the attorney, again, when off on another visit to the restroom to change diapers (there is always a baby), then to the Courthouse, then back again to the library. Repeat as needed.

There is an interesting discussion about “Career Blogging” going on through the lawyer, librarian, strategist, and other blogs. If I’m not mistaken, it started with web strategist (!) Jeremiah Owyang’s post on Career Blogging. I picked it up here with Jason Eiseman (the Content Librarian), traveled the links, and eventually landed on attorney Kevin O’Keefe’s Real Lawyers Have Blogs blawg, who started me thinking about how lawyers (and law librarians) teach other lawyers to blog.

You do have to begin with a discussion of those key questions: Why blog? and What are you trying to do in the short and long run? and of course, the toughest one, Does it have legs, and do you? That is, can you, do you even want to, keep the blog going day after day, year after year? (Gives you new and great respect, doesn’t it, for cartoonists who crank those panels out for year after year.)

When all else is said and done, we blog for our readers, who weave through the links sometimes with grace, sometimes with angst, and always with curiosity.

This organization hasn’t been born yet, but the story of its gestation is amazing. See the Sept 13th story, “Making a Difference,” by Cori Bolger, in the Lake Oswego Review:

‘… To form the Breast Cancer Legal Advocacy Project of Oregon, he began contacting lawyers that run a similar program in Seattle. Many of them asked why such an organization had not been established sooner in Portland.

“It’s an evolving process that we’re trying to figure out as we go along,” Matt said. “So far, people seem very supportive of the idea.”

The Oregon Department of Consumer and Business Services (DCBS) has useful information at their website, including a summary of consumer and business laws (yes, sometimes with opposing interests) enacted in the 2007 legislative session.

Here is a MARC record for Nicole Engard’s blog, What I learned today.

It had to be Nicole, our all-time favorite new librarian and geeksterette, who did this. She is our techie librarian role model– the future for libraries is good with Nicole’s in the digital library world.

Nicole is NOT Fred (courtesy of Library Link of the Day, 9/13/07), but nor is codger-Fred our favorite Fred-the-mutt in Anyone But You, a funny love story about an “older” woman and a “younger” man (age is relative 🙂

I am (still) celebrating Constitution Day this year here in Hillsboro. I’ll be handing out free pocket and wallet-size U.S. Constitutions in my Law Library (all day) and on the Washington County (Oregon!) Courthouse steps from Noon – 1 on Monday, September 17th. I’m inviting our local attorneys, judges, and elected officials, and will do a little publicity as the date gets closer, but it will still be a very informal event. See our web page for more information.

If you haven’t heard (and many of my readers follow their own bliss rather than the legal research news blogs – really!), you may still want to know about the Index of Presidential Signing Statements.

(Don’t you? I think you do, I’m happy to say. A group of young Yahoo staffers got on my MAX car yesterday on my return home journey and they had the most interesting conversation, about history, life, and everything else – not just techie talk! Made me feel better about the future. And I bet they would want to know about Presidential Signing Statements 🙂

Rob posts about the Index for us at Boley Blogs and it also appears at Law Librarian Blog.

If you are an independent researcher (not otherwise affiliated with a university and all the library benefits that attach to such an affiliation), or just want to find a 1989 article from the Wall Street Journal or some reliable info on the drug your doctor prescribed, then the following words should thrill you, if not outright rock your world (librarians live a sheltered life, but one day you will appreciate us).

(I won’t provide links to them all, so visit your local public library to find out more.)

JSTOR
GALE
PAPERSFIRST
HEINONLINE
ABI/INFORM
GROVE ART ONLINE
REFERENCE USA
SIRS RESEARCHER
MAS FULLTEXT EXTRA
GROLIER
ACADEMIC SEARCH PREMIER
NEWSPAPER SOURCE
AGRICOLA
MIDDLE SEARCH PLUS
WORLDCAT
ERIC
LIBRARY2GO
HERITAGE QUEST
MEDLINE PLUS