The Classroom Law Project has loads of fun volunteer opportunities, some of which are for a few hours, a day, or every week or month.
Check the Classroom Law Project website for more information or telephone them: (503) 224-4424
You can sign-up right now to volunteer at the 2011 Mock Trial Competition.
I couldn’t resist this: “That’s one big book: Book is 2-feet thick, has 10,119 pages,” by Stephanie Wise, Iowa City Press-Citizen, January 27, 2011
Excerpt: “The University of Iowa Libraries has a new book in its collection — a 100-volume, 10,000-page, 2-feet-thick book of poetry.
The book, “Poetry City Marathon,” written by Iowa City poet Dave Morice of Dr. Alphabet fame, is the culmination of a 100-day poetry marathon this summer….” (Link to full article – or use a search engine if the link doesn’t work anymore.)
Gale Cengage is running a contest: Are You a Librarian Superhero?
Your librarian can turn into a cartoon, which to some might not sound like such a good deal, but to many librarians, We Love It!
You can read the Contest Rules and the Press Release for more information.
Be prepared to be mesmerized: there are lessons aplenty for us all in the tale of Jon Alexander (Californian and Oregonian) as told by Justice Bedsworth:
The February 2011 Orange County Lawyer brings us:
While searching for recent 2011 Oregon bills, I found a glitch in their search engine. The bill I knew existed wasn’t showing up, no matter what word or number I used to search for it. I double-checked (against the actual bill) and triple-checked by asking colleagues to see if the problem was me rather than the database. It wasn’t me.
The lesson here is: Be careful about relying solely on the Oregon Legislative bill searching utility, Ultraseek. (You can also reach this search engine from the Legislature’s website. Then, click on Bills/Law, and then click on the year you want to search – and then “Search the bills and laws.”)
Keep in mind also that Ultraseek is not an exception to any search engine reliability rule – and it’s actually not too bad as these sorts of free search engines go. The problem exists for all search engines (and databases); they are all flawed (e.g. Google isn’t perfect either –aren’t you shocked, shocked?!)
Law and the Multiverse: Superheroes, supervillains, and the law is a fun, new blog dealing with theoretical legal issues in relation to superheroes and comic books. The authors, licensed attorneys, apply existent laws to fantastic situations. For example, recent posts include “Supers and Social Secutiry,” “Costumes and the Confrontation Clause,” and “Supers and the Eighth Amendment.”
While playing around with our newly installed OSB BarBooks database and came across this mysterious Boolean search: variable: 4 and weights:7
While waiting for the answer to reveal itself, I went off to catch up with my law library blogs and ran across this excellent research tip post at the KCCLL (King County Law Library) Klues blog:
“Cheat sheet” comparing Lexis and Westlaw search syntax Research Tips
It links to:
Start the new year with Justice Bedworth, who cuts to the chase, and the chuckle, when it comes to electing judges.
“Electoral Processpool,” by Justice William W. Bedsworth
Excerpt: “…I’m pleased that my friends(2) have been impressed by the margin of my victory. With no opponent, I received 73.3% of the vote. Just call me Landslide Bedsworth.
Every blogger has a “Comment” policy, written or unwritten. As “public sector” bloggers, we have responsibilities (to readers and employers) beyond our own narrow personal preferences.
I really like the Rules for Commenting that are posted at the Multnomah Law Library’s Social Software Policy for Multnomah County Library Users, and generally adhere to them myself:
Excerpt: “Rules for commenting
Protect your privacy. Do not post personally identifying information. Young people under age 18, especially, should not post information such as last name, school, age, phone number, address.
As if bibliophiles didn’t have enough to do in December, here are more things to do FOR or WITH the bibliophiles in your life:
1) Museum of Contemporary Craft, exhibit: Object Focus: The Book (through Feb 26, 2011)
2) Holiday Author Event, Oregon Humanities, December 20, 2010: Ursula LeGuin, Brian Doyle, Guy Maynard, Live Wire, etc., etc., etc.
Oregon Legal Research Blog