I’m a huge fan of the legal research guides created by our neighbors to the north, in Washington State. The Washington State law librarians, lawyers, and judges are very public spirited and we are grateful for that. Here are some of my favorite and most heavily used links to Washington State legal research materials:
1) Washington Association of County Law Libraries and their Law Links
J. Mapes at the Oregonian in “Four Democrats Compete for State’s Oddest Elected Post” has an interesting take on the Sec’y of State position:
Excerpt from post:
“… The secretary of state’s job is arguably less difficult than serving as state treasurer (who oversees billions of dollars in investment funds) or as attorney general (who is essentially the lawyer for all of state government). The secretary of state oversees elections, audits, the archives, the corporations division and sits on the land board. “Realistically, the job isn’t that terribly important,” one insider familiar with the position told me.
But the secretary of state is also next in line to become governor if something happens to the state’s chief executive. And it’s traditionally been a good platform for running for governor. And the job doesn’t demand a law degree or specialized financial knowledge….”
It sounds to me as if the best person for the job might be a law librarian or other professional (without any political ambition 🙂 who knows how important to the state those departments truly are and wants to make sure the department managers have the tools they need to work at peak service levels. What’s the old song about not knowing what you have until you lose it?
Good heavens, what next? A non-jurisprurient U.S. Supreme Court book that will possibly become a best-seller, at least among the wonkish: legal, political, librarian, and chattering all.
Thanks to Law Librarian Blog for the link to the law dot com (Legal Times, 11/27) story, “Scalia to Join Supreme Court Book Club.”
Excerpt from the article:
Six Techniques to Get More from the Web than Google Will Tell You
These are excellent suggestions (as any librarian will tell you :-).
Thanks to Jessamyn West at Librarian.net for the link.
The Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) alerts us to new reports, but you can get them yourself hot off the press.
Visit their What’s New at BJS site and read this one, Medical Causes of Death in State Prisons, 2001-2004, and its press release, “Death Rates Lower in State Prisons than in the General Population.”
Thank you to the Law Librarian blog for the link.
Uniform – Digital – Library: These used to be considered very dry geeky librarian words but now they are not (though I could be kidding myself here :-).
The UDL has both a Vision and a Mission. What more could you want (other than, perhaps, a shorter commute and more time to cook, maybe)?
Library Link of the Day today (check their Archives if it is no longer “today,” i.e. 11/28/07) alerted us about this story about the Uniform Digital Library.
The World Digital Library is a work in progress, so stay tuned. From the web site:
“The World Digital Library will make available on the Internet, free of charge and in multilingual format, significant primary materials from cultures around the world, including manuscripts, maps, rare books, musical scores, recordings, films, prints, photographs, architectural drawings, and other significant cultural materials. The objectives of the World Digital Library are to promote international and inter-cultural understanding and awareness, provide resources to educators, expand non-English and non-Western content on the Internet, and to contribute to scholarly research.”
The Oregon Federal Public Defender has this report, Developments in Federal Search and Seizure Law, and much more at their web site (including an Oct 2007 Blakely/Apprendi and State v. Ice update).
Many more Oregon legal news stories where this came from: Go to Justia’s Blawg Search, type Oregon in the search box, click on Sort by Date.
Others of you who yesterday heard the Terry Gross interview with Mark Shapiro from the Center for Investigative Reporting and author of Exposed: the Toxic Chemistry of Everyday Products and What’s at Stake for American Power may also be wondering about this.
The whole interview was interesting (or possibly terrifying for parents), but what may have surprised many was when Shapiro pointed out that the EU is now a bigger consumer market than the US and as a consequence has more political (social and business) clout than the US in China and elsewhere in the world. And, that people who live under EU laws (and here and here) have greater consumer protections than we do in the US. Toys are safer and food is safer. It was only partly in jest that Shapiro recommended that parents buy “plastic” toys abroad rather than in the US (one among many reasons is that phthalates have been banned in the EU countries but not in the US and China makes phthalate-free plastics for the EU).
See also the AP story in today’s Oregonian (11/27/07) EU Pushes China on product safety) by Audra Ang.
Some people read their daily horoscope, some their recipe-of-the-day, some the daily cartoons(me!). And then there are law students, lawyers, and law librarians. We’re a sad bunch. We read the Thomson/West Headnote of the Day. You don’t really want to know Why, but Rob at BoleyBlogs, on 11/19, reminds us How much we think about West Key Numbers and Headnotes.
Oregon Legal Research Blog