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.
Even the Periodic Table of Comic Books has a Disclaimer.
“Even” you may ask? Of course! Copyright (and trademark): the ever present bugaboo.
(This and other fun stuff at Neat New Stuff, from the “librarian without walls.”)
As reported in the Oregonian’s In Portland 11/15/07 insert, in the Keeping It Weird column (which is eluding me online but read on for details), headline: “Did you hear what the semi-colon said, ” you will find an announcement of a fund-raising for Portland’s (Oregon) Independent Publishing Resource Center.
“Guests are encouraged to come ‘dressed as text.’” Dressing up as punctuation seems popular, but other bookish, typesetting, or literary costumes will be seen, if not heard. (Aren’t most people blissfully quiet while they read?)
What: Elements of Style fundraiser
When: Saturday, November 17th, 8 p.m.
Where: Portland Art Center, 32 NW Fifth Ave. (details)
How much: $5-15
Music: Pete Krebs Trio
Contact: 503-236-3322
Due to a blogger’s strike (well, one might be happening somewhere), we interrupt the currently scheduled program to bring you Art and the Law.
(Please don’t blame me for this. I got the link from Tom Mighell’s Internet Legal Research Weekly! 🙂
Law Librarian Blog links to a new CRS report, “State Statutes That Proscribe the Use of Symbols of Fear and Violence with the Intent to Threaten.”
Incidents at OSU and Reed come to mind.
Excerpt from the blog post and the report:
Oregon Legal Research Blog