Law librarian listserves and websites are a never-ending source of valuable, entertaining, and illuminating information:
“How the sixth amendment guarantees you the right to a lawyer, a fair trial, and a chamber pot,” by Robert McWhirter and published in the Arizona Attorney, is all of those and more.
(Thanks to a federal circuit court librarian for the lead and to the Arizona Attorney for making the article publicly accessible!)
A new Bedsworth! Justice Bedsworth goes to Ashland, Oregon, and beyond to comment on the entertainment value of being an elected local government official.
Excerpt from the December 2007 issue of the OC Lawyer Magazine:
“… But for truly unique entertainment, nothing beats a city council. A city council meeting is what would have happened if Abbott and Costello had met not Frankenstein but Edward R. Murrow. Try to imagine a play written by Geoffrey Chaucer, Eddie Izzard and Jar Jar Binks alternating every third word and you’ll start to get the flavor.”
It’s early days yet, but here’s what we know so far …
Two tiny computers, two bibliophile computers, $200 difference:
Different origins/manufacturers, different target users, but same outcome: an electronic device for readers and students, who roam, explore, and perhaps discover Nirvana.
Do you need weather-related school, road, bridge closings? Here is one I have found fairly useful, though there are others no doubt. Portland Emergency Info (PDXInfo dot net) is back in action after a long lull. Welcome to Winter in the Northwest.
But don’t look for Trimet announcements at PDXInfo; they didn’t participate last year and we aren’t holding our breath this year. You will need to go here to find out if your bus or train has broken down, though you may know it before they do.
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?
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 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.”
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.
Inter Alia pays homage to Jim Calloway, the Master of Shortcuts (inter alia :-), and between them we can all now know about KeyXL, which claims to be “the largest database of shortcuts in the world”. That may be an accurate claim, or maybe it’s not; either way, KeyXL is a mighty nice collection.
Oregon Legal Research Blog