Law Commons^™

Tweet Treats: How One Law Library Uses Twitter To Educate And Connect With Patrons, Marcia L. Dority Baker, Stefanie S. Pearlman

Marvin and Virginia Schmid Law Library

As law librarians, we strive to reach out to our patrons, publicize our collections and services, and create welcoming environments in our libraries. One way our library integrates our goals with current technology is through the use of Twitter (http://twitter.com).

Digital Rights Management, Fair Use, And Privacy: Problems For Copyright Enforcement Through Technology, Eric A. Robinson

Other Topics

This article discusses the nature of Digital Rights Management (DRM) systems with regard to the problems they pose to traditional exceptions to copyright restrictions. Problems of fair use and the copying of material for preservation are examined in the context of the architecture of digital rights management systems, and the limitations of current DRM systems in accommodating these policies are examined. The monitoring of usage by the licensing modules of these systems is also criticized for its lack of protection of user privacy and the potential chilling of intellectual freedom. Various potential solutions to these are briefly surveyed with a …

The Status And Future Of Government Documents, James T. Shaw

Criss Library Faculty Proceedings & Presentations

Depository libraries have traditionally enjoyed a pretty sweet deal—we receive free copies of documents in return for space, processing, and staff to help people use them. Depository libraries have served as key players in two areas of public policy: 1) public access to government information for the needs of today; and 2) widespread distribution of documents helps them survive to form a historical record.

Open Access Week (Retention Of Author Rights), Mark Perry

Law Presentations

No abstract provided.

Institutional Design And Governance In Microbial Research Commons, Charlotte Hess

Libraries' and Librarians' Publications

Presentation slides on institutional design and governance to facilitate a global research commons for microbiology delivered at the International Symposium on Designing the Microbial Research Commons, sponsored by the National Academy of Sciences, Washington, DC, 8-9 October 2009.

Aall Review: Beyond Copyright: How License Agreements & Digital Rights Management Post Challenges To Fair Use & The Provision Of Electronic Or Media Services, Michele Lucero

Faculty Publications

License agreements and Digital Rights Management (DRM) technologies are common among content suppliers. DRM is the use of technological means to control digital content. Librarians need to understand the connection between copyright and contract, and the implications of fair use.

Persuasive Arguments For Establishing An Institutional Repository, James M. Donovan, Carol A. Watson

Presentations

Presents the business case for creating an institutional repository (IR), including a comparison of the advantages and disadvantages with Social Science Research Network (SSRN); offers advice on obtaining faculty buy-in to the project in order to obtain content; reviews copyright right issues involved in depositing published materials into the repository; and suggests ways in which creating a repository can build relationships beyond the institution.

A Law Library Development Project In Iraq: Looking Back Two Years Later, Kimberli Kelmor

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Sometimes you get a chance to work on a project so complex, even you don't come to fully understand its impact until years later. At least that has been the experience for me regarding the opportunity I had to work in Iraq with the International Human Rights Law Institute (IHRLI) from February 2004 to January 1, 2006. As I reported in a previous essay, IHRLI, an institute of the DePaul University College of Law headed by Cherif Bassiouni, received a United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Higher Education and Development (HEAD) contract to work with three Iraqi law schools.' …

Should You Use It? Tips On Authenticating Online Legal Sources, Emily M. Janoski-Haehlen

Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

A Close Encounter: People To People International's Legal Research And Library Science Delegation Visits China, Richard Leiter

Marvin and Virginia Schmid Law Library

Last October, I had the privilege of leading a delegation of (mostly) law librarians on a 10-day professional visit to Beijing and ghai, China. The goal of the trip was to get acquainted with Chinese legal bibliography and China's legal system. The visit was arranged and facilitated by the People to People International Citizen Ambassadors Program headquartered in Spokane, Washington. (If you haven't heard of the organization, please check out its Web site at jwptpAi.so rsgta.)t ed on the Web site, "The purpose of People to People International is to enhance international understanding and friendship through educational, cultural, and humanitarian …

Rss: The Hov Lane On The Information Highway, James M. Donovan

Presentations

Today’s world suffers from no lack of readily available information. The challenge is rarely the finding of information; it is rather laying your hands on just the right piece at just the right time. While attorneys have a duty to be well-informed about the state of the law, remaining current can be difficult. The goal should be to have information delivered and organized in a timely, convenient way that both maximizes exposure—assuring that you aren’t missing that perfect nugget that will give you the competitive edge—yet minimizes time-investment in retrieval and scanning through items that may be of no use …

Just The Facts, Ma’Am: Make The Web Your Investigative Partner, Anne Burnett

Presentations

The web is a handy investigative tool, allowing a researcher to obtain information about persons, property and things. One can find email addresses, home addresses, telephone numbers, criminal records, military service information, property records, vital statistics information, photographs and more. This information may help locate a missing heir, reveal useful information about a potential expert witness, confirm the legitimacy of a business, determine who owns a piece of property or expose the litigious nature of a potential client. The focus in these program materials is on free resources, but I also cover a few fee-based services that can be accessed …

Journals' Policies On Compliance With The Nih Public Access Policy, Carolina Population Center, Unc

Copyright, Fair Use, Scholarly Communication, etc.

This resource provides information about select journals' policies related to the NIH Public Access Policy. Many of these journals are based in the social sciences and publish population research articles. Authors who publish in a journal listed below can quickly determine whether the publisher has a policy, who must submit the manuscript and which version to submit to PubMed Central, as well as the embargo period. Journal titles were gathered from the ISI Journals Citation Reports in the subject categories of Demography, Sociology, Economics, and Gerontology. Additional titles were supplied by members of the Association for Population/Family Planning Libraries and …

Kf Modified And The Classification Of Canadian Common Law, F. Tim Knight

Librarian Publications & Presentations

This article was inspired by a previous article written by Vincent DeCaen in an earlier issue of CLLR. It explores classification, the different approaches taken by KF Modified and LC Class KE, and the role KF Modified has had in organizing collections in Canadian law libraries. It argues that there is no right or wrong way to classify legal resources and suggests that KF Modified can benefit cataloguing workflow and is well suited to both the Canadian and common law library environments.

Preserving And Ensuring Long-Term Access To Digitally Born Legal Information, Sarah Rhodes, Dana Neacsu

Law Faculty Publications

Written laws, records and legal materials form the very foundation of a democratic society. Lawmakers, legal scholars and everyday citizens alike need, and are entitled, to access the current and historic materials that comprise, explain, define, critique and contextualize their laws and legal institutions. The preservation of legal information in all formats is imperative. Thus far, the twenty-first century has witnessed unprecedented mass-scale acceptance and adoption of digital culture, which has resulted in an explosion in digital information. However, digitally born materials, especially those that are published directly and independently to the Web, are presently at an extremely high risk …

The World Of Charles J. Kappler: A Digital Portrait, Charles D. Bernholz, Robert J. Weiner

UNL Libraries: Faculty Publications

Charles J. Kappler (1868–1946) is known primarily for his compilation, Indian Affairs: Laws and Treaties. His life, however, reached beyond this accumulation of fundamental documents. He was a staff member of, among other entities, the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs; served as co-counsel in the first case before the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague; brought important tribal issues before the courts, just a quarter century after the Battle of the Little Big Horn; married, was widowed, married again, developed a family, and found a place in District society; and, in one role or another, participated in a number …

Open Access To Student-Edited Law Journals, Benjamin J. Keele

Library Staff Publications

No abstract provided.

The Law Librarian Of The Twentieth And Twenty-First Centuries: A Figuration In Flux, Theodora Belniak

Law Librarian Journal Articles

Through inspection of scholarly writings of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, Ms. Belniak articulates the skill sets, knowledge areas, and personality characteristics of the archetypal law librarian over the last one hundred years.

The Effect Of Economics And Electronic Resources On The Traditional Law Library Print Collection, Amanda M. Runyon

Librarian Scholarship at Penn Law

The exponential rise in the cost of legal materials and the increasing availability of and expectation for electronic materials have strained the budgets of academic law libraries. The author surveyed directors of academic law libraries to identify trends in collection management, such as canceling, weeding, and signing library maintenance agreements.

Helpful Resources For Handling A Domestic Relations Case, Emily M. Janoski-Haehlen

Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

'Formerly The Property Of A Lawyer’: Books That Shaped Louisiana Law, Florence M. Jumonville Ph.D.

Library Faculty Publications

Books are indispensable to lawyers and judges, containing as they do the official record of the laws that define rights, liberties, and behavior, as well as the accumulated wisdom with which those laws have been interpreted. Law books were particularly important during the formative years of the American nation, from its founding until the Civil War, as the young federal government and each state developed its unique legal literature. This study focuses on the sources that shaped Louisiana law by examining collections that were developed during approximately the first fifty years after the Louisiana Purchase by six New Orleans attorneys, …

Who Gets To Be The Expert?: Legal Research Skills Certification In Legal Education, Richard Leiter

Marvin and Virginia Schmid Law Library

This article considers the question of whether there is a need for law schools to offer certification for specialization in legal research skills and discusses various approaches to legal research skills cer­tification. The author argues that it is unnecessary to offer legal research certification as it is presupposed that a basic legal educa­tion should include instruction in how to find and read the law. Anything less is a failed legal education.

Exactly how special are legal research skills? Are they special enough to warrant certification? As a matter of fact, the act of legal researching is so intimately connected with …

The Spirit Of Law Librarianship: Legal Education Reform In Iraq, Kimberli Morris Kelmor

Law Library Faculty Works

Morris talks about her changing perspectives on her experiences while working in Iraq with the International Human Rights Law Institute from February 2004 to Jan 1, 2006. The contract was initially proposed as a three-year plan to help Iraqi law schools overcome the effects of more than twenty years of economic, physical, and intellectual isolation. The complete project included a program for clinical legal education, curriculum reform, rule of law, and library and educational technology. Accomplishing this in three geographically dispersed schools was a logical plan, but a very ambitious one. As the security situation and travel restrictions worsened, and …

Liability For Spatial Data Quality, Harlan J. Onsrud

Spatial Information Science and Engineering Faculty Scholarship

Liability in data, products, and services related to geographic information systems, spatial data infrastructure, location based services and web mapping services, is complicated by the complexities and uncertainties in liability for information system products and services generally, as well as by legal theory uncertainties surrounding liability for maps. Each application of geospatial technologies to a specific use may require integration of different types of data from multiple sources, assessment of attributes, adherence to accuracy and fitness-for-use requirements, and selection from among different analytical processing methods. All of these actions may be fraught with possible misjudgments and errors. A variety of …

The Law Librarian’S Tool For Fair Compensation In The Best - And Worst - Of Times, Femi Cadmus, Loretta Orndoff

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

For Your Dining Pleasure: A Menu Of Legal Websites, Wendy E. Moore

Presentations

The focus of this paper is to explore websites that you may find helpful in your daily work and research. There are 40 featured websites drawn from governmental, educational, and commercial information resources. Consider these websites a good jumping off point to familiarize yourself with the types of information available to assist you in your Internet legal research needs.

The Changing Shape Of Legal Information, David H. Michels, Mark Lewis

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

As IT, Reference and Instruction librarians, we have experienced significant changes to the shape of legal information over the past five years. The changes are to both the very nature of legal information and how we perceive it. This can be illustrated by our use of the phrase "legal information". Depending on your age and life situation, the words "legal information" will have created specific images in your mind. These changes in perception challenge how we develop our programs of legal research instruction.

Making The Leap To Management: Tips For The Aspiring And New Manager, Femi Cadmus

Faculty Scholarship

As the result of innate ability, a fortunate few are able to effortlessly transition from line positions. However, most of us need to plot the path to management astutely and with deliberation. Library professionals might also become "accidental" managers, finding themselves thrust into an unplanned and perhaps unwanted managerial position for which they were not prepared. This is particularly true in the current climate of constrained budgets characterized by restructuring, job freezes, and layoffs.

Thinking Like A Research Expert: Schemata For Teaching Complex Problem-Solving Skills, Paul D. Callister

Faculty Works

The difference between expert and novice problem solvers is that experts have organized their thinking into schemata or mental constructs to both see and solve problems. This article demonstrates why schemata are important, arguing that they need to be made explicit in the classroom. It illustrates the use of schemata to understand and categorize complex research problems, map the terrain of legal research resources, match appropriate resources to types of problems, and work through the legal research process. The article concludes by calling upon librarians and research instructors to produce additional schemata and develop a common hierarchical taxonomy of skills, …

The Canadian Legal Information Institute - Ten Years On, Yemisi Dina, Louise Hamel

Articles & Book Chapters

CanLII, the free virtual law library for Canada, has its roots in three separate developments. The first was the launch of the Legal Information Institute movement, with Cornell and Australia as the first models of these efforts. Second, in Canada, LexUM (Centre for Research at the Universit6 de Montreal's Faculty of Law) had a long history of supporting open access to law since it started publishing the case law of the Supreme Court of Canada. Third, the Director of the Law Society of Upper Canada at the time was advocating to the National Virtual Library Group of the Federation of …