Treaties Out of Print: The word on the law librarian listserve is that Treaties in Force and Treaties and Other International Agreements Series (TIAS) will no longer be published in print. The online source will be the U.S. Department of State. The Los Angeles County Law Library, among others, has a nice little guide to treaty research.
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Podcasting Legal Guide: Creative Commons has posted a Podcasting Legal Guide. Thank you to Neat New Stuff for the link!
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Old Bailey Proceedings: I did a lot more English legal research in my previous life when it was much harder than it is now to find the documents we wanted, so I give a wistful sigh over how much fun it would be today with the avalanche of English legal history materials coming up on the web, including these Old Bailey Proceedings.
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Measure 37 Third-Party Rights: A KATU story reports that: “A judge has ruled that property owners granted waivers from land-use rules under Measure 37 must take further steps to establish their development rights before they can sell them.” The opinion is by Crook County Circuit Court Presiding Judge Neilson. The opinion is not yet on their web site.
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THE Library Catalog for the World: Any day now, Worldcat will make its online catalog available to anyone with an Internet connection. This is OCLC’s pride and joy (they do other things worthy of accolade too). The bittersweet side of this is that OCLC’s founder, Frederick Kilgour, just died this week at age 92.
For biblio-wonks: This Worldcat news is bigger and better than you might even imagine, as librarians the world over know. One of the biggest drawbacks to conventional Internet search engines is that they allow for very limited and very crude field searching, but then they are search engines, not databases. (Now if only they could direct my search results into a database that could be manipulated … well, never mind.) For example, try limiting your Google search by date (no, not the Saturday night kind). It’s impossible to get the desired results, which is frustrating for those of us used to searching databases that allow for complex field searching, e.g. most library catalogs and full-service databases such as Dialog, Lexis, and Westlaw.
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Internet Privacy and Reference Questions: With the deepest and sincerest apologies to Jane Austen: It is a truth universally acknowledged that anything you write on the Internet is as likely as not to be declared a public record or discoverable in a legal action, by a judge, state or federal attorney general, law enforcement agency, advocacy group, or an attorney. Any electronic medium disclaimer statement should reflect that fact. No matter which state or federal public records laws apply, this basic and universal truth is unassailable.
When I answer email reference questions, I use this public records disclaimer in addition to the usual one about the librarians and the unauthorized practice of law, They both make people really nervous, as they should, but not knowing is worse.
Disclaimers:
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Podcasting as a Business Strategy: Go easy on the move to podcasting as a means to talk to other people in a professional milieu (you can podcast all you like in your personal life). One reason I don’t like a podcast instead of a transcript (rather than giving me a choice of either) is that most people are not very good at public speaking and it’s very painful to have to listen instead of being able to read a transcript. At best, many public speakers talk too slowly, which will lose an audience faster than a dull PowerPoint presenter in a cold, dark, cavernous, hotel conference room. At worst, well, we all know how bad public speakers can be. Even wonderfully talented, incredibly smart people um can a, um, be like, a, um, um, disaster when, ah, um, speaking ah, a, um, like, um, publicly. You get my um drift. So, please, like, a, um, PLEASE, don’t skip those transcripts and go directly to podcast. I, um, ah, like really, like wow, won’t listen to you and won’t get to hear your words of wisdom. Or, at least give Toastmasters a try first.
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Packaging Law: Who knew? A packaging law firm too. I came to it honestly via Inter-Alia’s July 30th Research Weekly. Wrap it around Food Law.
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Legally Speaking: Jenn and I appeared with attorney Jim Hilborn on his TVCTV public access call-in program Legally Speaking (no web site yet). I know we should have told you before the program, but while I’ve spoken in front of large groups before, TV is a whole different and stressful ball-game. I figured the fewer people watching the better, at least for our debut. And if all went well and Jim wanted us back, then maybe I’d put the word out. All did go well. Jim was a wonderful host, we had callers with excellent questions (thanks to our best-ever call screeners who performed with unmatched skill and humor), and I survived, although a word of advice. Don’t wear linen on TV. It is cool if the room is hot, but the wrinkles that appear on screen aren’t pretty. (Marlene Dietrich and Ingrid Bergman can pull it off the linen look, but heaven knows, I’m no Marlene or Ingrid!) But do coordinate with your fellow guests. Jenn was lovely in her lavender and I in my pink so how wrong could we really go. The tough part is next. Is the law librarian work we do, and in particular the reference work we do, suitable for a TV call-in show, even with only periodic appearances? With Jim, who made it all seem easy and fun, we had a good time and showed viewers how a lawyer would answer the caller’s question and how a law librarian would answer the same question. But can a call-in legal research show ever hope to become the law librarian/lawyer version of Click and Clack? I don’t think so. In our defense, there isn’t ANY call-in show to match them, but realistically, can one play reference librarian on TV once a month, perhaps a 10 or 15 minute spot on the show? Maybe, maybe not. Jim is brave enough to welcome us back on so we’ll see.
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Small Claims Question (WARNING: LONG ANSWER AHEAD): Non-attorneys, including non-law librarians, have a tough time understanding why law librarians just won’t answer questions. This answer from my colleague to a “simple question” will give you an excellent idea why we don’t and won’t answer questions. Law librarians will, however, show you how you might answer your own question. To use an overused analogy, we won’t hand you the fish, but we will show you how to fish.
Question from a public librarian: If someone comes in to the library and wants to sue for a small amount, is it “practicing law without a license” to suggest they consider small claims?
The short answer is “No.”
Merely “suggesting” someone “consider” a particular course of action would not likely constitute the unauthorized practice of law. However, it doesn’t hurt to recognize that this is a very fine line. For example, telling someone they “should” consider small claims, might constitute the unauthorized practice of law.