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This may sound like dry stuff, but when you need that CFR section, now, RIGHT NOW!, suffering ahead of time through a few moments of eye-rolling, eye-crossing, mind-numbing search instructions could pay off.

See the HeinOnline blog for a post on: Searching for a Section in CFR.

And even if you remember only a fraction of this search tip, you’ll be a better researcher in the end. I’ve learned that showing attorneys just a few creative online search techniques (in a database that allows more than and/or connectors) can in a few minutes turn them into almost super searchers. It’s as if a little light goes off in their nifty lawyer brains and they can take over from there.

More short essays worth reading to soften out the edges of a week in the world of lawyers: Courthouse News Editorials

It’s not often that in memoriam essays are both funny and moving, but Coyote’s 3/14/08 essay, Jim Brantly was my Friend, is both:

From the legal humor, Lowering the Bar blog: A Donut Drama in Three Acts

Thanks to Blawg Reviewer #150: Trusted Advisor

(But, doesn’t the ultimate Portland Donut Drama always happens here?)

What a combination! Not everything you should know about dog law, but darn close to what you need most often: Dog Law Hug Pub

Nolo Press
Justia
Hug Pug

This is a wonderful article from The Stranger in Seattle: Flying Off the Shelves: The Pleasures and Perils of Chasing Book Thieves,” by Paul Constant

Excerpt: “…I know a few booksellers who have literally been driven a little bit crazy at the thought of their inventory evaporating out the door, and with good reason: An overabundance of shoplifters can put bookstores out of business. One local bookstore owner can famously talk about shoplifters with total strangers for hours, with the detail and passion that some people reserve for sexual conquests….”

Check here for more articles by this author. And I’ve blogged about book thieves here and here and here.

If you’re a handy-dandy sort, and need to give a special present to a lawyer or law librarian in your life, try this project: make a lamp using books as the base (used law books preferred by the Oregon Legal Research blogette :-). The diynetwork website link with instructions is here.

I found these directions a while ago and posted them to a law librarian listserve, so every once in a while someone e-mails me for the link, which is tough to find. If you search for lamps books diy (or similar search) you keep getting books ABOUT making lamps, not lamps made WITH books. So here it is.

Cool Tool: Popcorn Popper as Coffee Roaster

I’ve had more than one lawyer tell me that speaking publicly to an audience of law librarians is scarier than talking to any other group of people, including other lawyers. (I wonder if doctors feel that way about medical librarians.)

I’m not sure what that has to do with Cool Tools, but there it is. (And is it possible to do really good legal research without coffee?) Librarians have strange thought processes, in addition to being really good at Finding Things, including popcorn poppers that roast coffee.

Librarian in Black has this post, Online word processing options:

Excerpt: “… Looking for free online word processing programs? Look no further than Mashable’s List of 13 Online Word Processing Apps. Each has its strengths, but there’s something there for everyone…” (full post)

Librarian in Black also has this loveable-book-geek post, about Scriblio: Text me that call number, baby!

More than you may ever want to know about Web 2.0:

Go2Web20 directory (click About for background)

In the words of another librarian, this is “moderately overwhelming!”

You can live without oil (petroleum, not the stuff you put on pasta or a salad) but you can’t live without water:

Water Pipe Game.

The Sunday Oregonian Business section (3/9/08) had an interview by Anne Saker with Northwest Pipe Co. CEO Brian W. Dunham about the company’s move to Vancouver from Portland. An hour later I came into work and read Tom Mighell’s Internet Legal Research Weekly (archives here) and found a Water Pipe Game. Who said lawyers and librarians, and plumbers, don’t have fun.