This question comes to librarians usually in this form:
I am looking for Criminal Records for someone I want to hire, want to rent to, want to date, etc. Can I search for that information online – and for free?
The answer:
If you don’t know where to begin, try these:
2) UW, Gallagher Law Library: Expert Witnesses: Researching Factual Experts to Use in Litigation
Check out GPO’s MetaLib:
“Welcome to MetaLib, a service of the Catalog of U.S. Government Publications! MetaLib is a federated search engine that searches multiple U.S. Federal government databases, retrieving reports, articles, and citations while providing direct links to selected resources available online. To learn more, view additional brief or detailed search information.” (Link to Metalib homepage.)
To learn more about GPO (the Government Printing Office), link to their homepage and to FDSys, the Federal Digital System, and don’t forget visiting their award winning Government Book Talk Blog.
OPB’s Think Out Loud radio program had a recent show on Pedestrian Law: Nov. 1, 2010, Foot Traffic and guests included Ray Thomas who wrote Oregon Pedestrian Rights: A Guide to People on Foot.
Read more about loopy, oblivious, clueless, narcissistic, aggressive, flaky, indifferent, silly, stupid, and distracted pedestrians, drivers, and bicyclists at the Foot Traffic program Comments section and at my previous OLR blog pedestrian law posts.
If you’re a history buff or just (!) a bibliophile, this Government Book Talk Blog is for you.
What award did they win? The Silver Inkwell Communications Award.
Justice William W. Bedsworth, in the November 2010, “Criminal Waste of Space” column in the OC Lawyer Magazine:
Excerpt: ‘… Take Congress.(1) Congress is about as lousy a job as you can have without getting involved with fish or sewage. I don’t understand why it isn’t the loser of the election that gets stuck going to Congress.(2)
…
And since I’m not willing to do the job myself, I don’t question the work being done by the guy who is. That’s a rule of mine. You will never hear me criticize the work of my garbage man or my presiding judge.
…
But I must admit my willingness to kvetch has expanded somewhat since the two national political parties turned the Congress of the United States into a third-rate game of frat boy dodgeball. I really am dismayed that they are so busy trying to beat the other team that they no longer care about the cost to the country. They’re so obsessed with being doctrinally pure Republicans and Democrats that they’ve lost interest in being Americans. …‘ (Link to full article.)
Take a judicious, so to speak, humor break and read Justice William W. Bedsworth, in his November 2010, “Criminal Waste of Space” column in the OC Lawyer Magazine: Accursed Congress
Excerpt: ‘… Take Congress.(1) Congress is about as lousy a job as you can have without getting involved with fish or sewage. I don’t understand why it isn’t the loser of the election that gets stuck going to Congress.(2)
…
And since I’m not willing to do the job myself, I don’t question the work being done by the guy who is. That’s a rule of mine. You will never hear me criticize the work of my garbage man or my presiding judge.
But I must admit my willingness to kvetch has expanded somewhat since the two national political parties turned the Congress of the United States into a third-rate game of frat boy dodgeball. I really am dismayed that they are so busy trying to beat the other team that they no longer care about the cost to the country. They’re so obsessed with being doctrinally pure Republicans and Democrats that they’ve lost interest in being Americans. …‘ (Link to full article.)
Sent to me by a favorite lawyer library-patron:
20 Heroic Librarians Who Save the World
There are also flesh and blood librarian heroes, some of whom you can read about in this book – and they are almost as much fun, and as ornery, as the comic books ones:
It’s never too soon to note this on your mind’s calendar:
November 7, 2010: First Sunday in November at 2 a.m. (local time).
Clocks must be moved back one hour (use it or lose it – or just lose it – sigh).
Why should you read Justice Bedsworth? Who else would write a sentence like this in a judicial opinion? (Which also won him a Judicial Wisdom of the Year (2003) award.)
“There is no non-culpable explanation for monkeys in your underpants.”
For this month’s joyful ruminations from the Bedsworth bench:
Oregon Legal Research Blog