Email as KM Platform: “Excited Utterances” links on Jan 3, 2006, to an interesting article on the subject of using email, Outlook in this instance, as a platform for a law firm’s KM system. If you don’t know what KM (knowledge management) is, this article is not a bad place to begin. You have KM whether you know it or not. If you use paper file folders and a telephone or email folders and a shared drive so others in the firm can work on the same document, then you have a KM system – one that is low-tech to be sure, but KM nonetheless.
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Attorney Help Center: MyShingle, a wonderful blog for not-just-solos (law librarians too!) links to and comments about the Maryland Personal Injury Help Center. Interesting that the content isn’t hidden behind a password. Good for them. (MyShingle offers the story up from another blog, another of Evan Shaeffer’s, he of the Legal Underground.)
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How many email accounts should you have?: The answer is 3, according to Mike Trittipo at Technically Legal: “One will be your main attorney-role e-mail address, meant only for communications with clients, colleagues, and the courts. Another will be a duty-grade business address, meant for purchasing, discussion lists, and the like. The third is a personal address, for use with family, friends, and generally outside work.” Jim Calloway, a blawging mensch, gave us the leg-up to Technically Legal. Read the full email entry posted Oct 19th, 2005. The other postings are worth reading too.
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Criminal Background Checks: Today’s (1/3/06) Oregonian had a teaser of a story about the perils of pre-employment background checks. It will give you some idea of the complexities of the process. If you think you know everything there is to know about criminal records checking, test your knowledge. Virtual Chase and LLRX offer overviews of the problem. And if you think an article from 2001 is out of date, think again. It’s no easier now than then, especially if you factor in bigger and not better online companies that compile the information with minimum quality control.
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I think therefore I am the Court of Appeals: The OSB Constitutional Law Section blog has a blurb about “Carey v Lincoln Loan Co“, out of the Court of Appeals on 12/28/05. Yes, Virginia, there really is a Court of Appeals.
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RFID Blocking Wallet: While you may not now think you need one of these, blink. I bet in a year or so that everyone from Martha Stewart to the Fashionistas will have one to show off. Thanks to my favorite security and privacy issues blogger, Bruce Scheier. Now about those tin foil hats … maybe they know something we don’t know.
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How private is your personal RSS Feed?: See this warning at the Seattle Public Library. See also the continuing discussion on the subject at LibraryLaw Blog.
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Getting a seat at the Jan 10th Measure 37 oral argument: OJD has information for people who might want to try and get a seat in the courtroom to listen to Oregon Supreme Court oral arguments in the “MacPherson v DAS” Measure 37 case on January 10th. Upshot: don’t count on getting a seat but argument will be broadcast over the legislative cable network. The link given for the legislature’s cable network doesn’t work now, but may later, or it may change. For more information click on “News” at OJD and follow the drop down link to Supreme Court. (There’s lots of other useful info at the OJD web site so explore if you haven’t already done so.)
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Cataloging a small collection: I’ve written about Library Thing before and now there is one that seems even more fun, Delicious Library. What sort of people catalog their home collections and how large does your office collection need to be before finding it useful to catalog it? Do true bibliophiles want organization or disorder? Would I really exchange the joy of finding a “lost” book for the satisfaction of seeing them all arranged and tidy in my catalog? And how do you catalog – author alpha, title alpha, subject, size, color? I like the way Roget organized the knowledge of the world and West did it with law, but there are a zillion other ways of classifying information. Ask any library science student 🙂
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Oregon Forfeiture Law: Interesting story in today’s Oregonian about civil and criminal forfeiture. (Go to Oregonlive and search for the word “forfeiture.”) It also discusses HB 3457.