Q&A from public librarians and their patrons: I will continue to post these Q&As periodically (see April 11th post), and please forgive any delays in doing so. Solo librarians, like solo practitioners, are their own chief cooks and bottle-washers and there are times when the day just isn’t long enough to deal with all the chopping, dicing, roasting, basting, burning, and cleaning up. Without further ado, however, the next posting will be a Q&A – hurrah!
Published on:
Mandamus in Land Use Cases: The latest issue (Spring 2006, vol 25, #1) of the OSB “Litigation Journal,” has an article by Mark Fucile on “Mandamus in Land Use Cases.” The newsletter is not available on the section’s web page.
Published on:
Podcast Internal Revenue Code: Librarians everywhere know that there are many people in the world who can’t read the printed page, for any number of reasons. While an audio ORS is probably a long way off, thanks to Jack Bogdanski, a podcast of the Internal Revenue Code is already here. Here is his description of the project, here is the link to the podcast, and here is the home page of his blog. Hmmm … maybe he can round up a few law students to podcast the ORS. It has a two-year shelf-life, so the effort might not be in vain. One can dream. Organizing a podcast of the index might be a bit tricky, but not impossible. I know a lot of really smart taxonomists who could probably come up with a zillion ways to do it.
Published on:
May 2006 Election Judicial Candidates: TheOSB has posted its Judicial Voter’s Guide to its web site.
Published on:
Dog Law blog: Nolo Press has teamed up with Little Sheba and others to create a Dog Law blog. It has links to law and legislation, books, travel tips, and much more. Check it out, here.
Published on:
Thinking about Measure 37: The latest issue of Lewis & Clark Law School’s Environmental Law Review (volume 36, no. 1, 2006) is a Measure 37 Symposium Issue. Check it out.
Published on:
Legal Information vs Legal Advice: An excellent place to look for articles and guides on how non-attorneys in courts, legal offices and libraries can serve members of the public productively and lawfully is at the American Judicature Society’s website. Their Pro Se forum resource pages are full of useful documents.
Published on:
Citing unpublished opinions in the federal courts: It’s a Yes. The Supreme Court has not surprisingly approved citing to unpublished cases next year. beSpacific and How Appealing, among others, have been tracking this issue for years and link to a Tony Mauro story on the latest development, here.
Published on:
Law Librarian Disclaimers
Law Librarian Disclaimers: Please use disclaimers and use them with great feeling whether you are responding to a patron’s legal reference question or preparing a handout, a Power Point, or a web page on legal reference materials. Disclaimers come in all shapes and sizes. We’ll link later to a variety of them, but in a pinch, use this one:
“It is against state law for library staff members to engage in any conduct that might constitute the unauthorized practice of law (ORS 9.160, 9.166 and 9.21). They may not interpret statutes, cases and regulations, or advise patrons regarding their legal rights. They may, however, assist patrons in locating materials or links that would aid in individual research.”
Published on:
Legal Reference Question #1 (see April 11th posting for details): Does the prohibition against helping patrons select/complete forms include IRS forms? The short answer is: YES, YES, YES!! The longer answer: Please do not EVER select or help a patron select a tax form, local, state, federal or foreign. You do not know what tax form they need so how could you select one – right? Even if you are a tax attorney, an enrolled agent, or a CPA, the patron is not your client, you do not know anything about their household or finances, and you have no professional relationship to them giving you the right to make their financial decisions.