Articles Posted in David Badertscher

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DAVID BADERTSCHER
Tomorrow is Lincoln’s birthday; it is also the 200th anniversary of his birth, all of which calls for a special celebration of the life, works, and thought of such an inspiring individual. Our current President has said that he has found the thoughts and deeds of Abraham Lincoln to be a source of great inspiration. I too have been inspired by Lincoln’s words, his principles, his focus on justice, his focus on equality, and his strong belief in our nation and our constitutional democracy; but as a law librarian working in a court setting I will focus primarily on books about Lincoln and leave the other topics to historians and others.

Before leaving this section however, I want to commend the American Bar Association (ABA) for its efforts to help make this a banner year for the Lincoln Bicentennial. They have been working with many other organizations, including the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL), to incorporate a celebration of the legacy of Lincoln in various events nationwide throughout the year. In addition they have prepared a comprehensive planning guide, “A Legacy of Liberty: Celebrating Lincoln’s Bicentennial”, which is being distributed widely. The ABA has also devoted a significant part of the February 2009 issue of its journal, The ABA Journal to features about Abraham Lincoln including his practice of law and discussions of what that practice has in common with that of lawyers today.

Now back to the books. The list below is divided into two sections. The first section consists of a few books about Lincoln recommended by William Safire in his New York Times Book Review article,”Lincoln Monuments”. (February 8, 2009). The second list is of books devoted to Lincoln the lawyer. This list is based on books retreved through what we call bibliographic searching for materials about Lincoln as a lawyer. The listings will be brief and some abbreviated:

RECOMMENDED BOOKS (GENERAL)

McPherson, James M. ABRAHAM LINCOLN. (Oxford University).

White, Ronald C. Jr. A. LINCOLN: A Biography. Random House.

Burlingame, Michael. ABRAHAM LINCOLN: A Life. (Johns Hopkins University), 2 vols. 2000 pages.

Holzer, Harold and Joshua Wolf Shenk Eds. IN LINCOLN’S HAND: His Original Manuscripts With Commentary by Distinguished Americans, Bantam.

Holzer, Harold. THE LINCOLN ANTHOLOGY: Great writers on His Life and Legacy From 1860 to Now. (Library of America).

LINCOLN THE LAWYER: (These are listed in Books in Print format).

Lincoln the Lawyer
Author: Dirck, Brian Publisher: University of Illinois Press ISBN or UPC: 0-252-07614-1 (Active Record)
Format: Trade Paper Date: Dec 2008 Price: $19.95 Market: United States Availability: Readily Available
ISBN 13: 978-0-252-07614-5

Lincoln, Lee, Grant, and Other Biographical Addresses
Author: Speer, Emory Publisher: Read Books ISBN or UPC: 1-4086-8446-2 (Active Record)
Format: Trade Paper Date: Jul 2008 Price: $29.45 Market: United States Availability: Available for Order
ISBN 13: 978-1-4086-8446-7

The Papers of Abraham Lincoln: Legal Documents and Cases, Set
Author: Lincoln, Abraham et al. Publisher: University Press of Virginia ISBN or UPC: 0-8139-2606-8 (Active Record)
Format: Trade Cloth Date: Nov 2007 Price: $300.00 Market: United States Availability: Readily Available
LC Class #: KF213.L53S76 2007 Dewey#: 973.7092 B ISBN 13: 978-0-8139-2606-3

Lincoln the Lawyer
Author: Dirck, Brian R. Publisher: University of Illinois Press ISBN or UPC: 0-252-03181-4 (Active Record)
Format: Trade Cloth Date: Mar 2007 Price: $29.95 Market: United States Availability: Available for Order
LC Class #: E457.2.D575 2007 Dewey#: 973.7092 B ISBN 13: 978-0-252-03181-6

An Honest Calling: The Law Practice of Abraham Lincoln
Author: Steiner, Mark E. Publisher: Northern Illinois University Press ISBN or UPC: 0-87580-358-X (Active Record)
Format: Trade Cloth Date: Aug 2006 Price: $42.00 Market: United States Availability: Available for Order
LC Class #: E457.2.S8 2006 Dewey#: 340.092 B ISBN 13: 978-0-87580-358-6

Courage and Country: James Shields
Author: Callan, J. Sean Publisher: Authorhouse ISBN or UPC: 1-4107-8895-4 (On Demand)
Format: Trade Paper Date: Jan 2004 Price: $24.95 Market: United States Availability: Available for Order
LC Class #: E403.1.S5C35 2004 Dewey#: 973/.049162/0092 B ISBN 13: 978-1-4107-8895-5

Lincoln, the Constitutional Lawyer [1932]

Author: Zane, John Maxcy Publisher: Lawbook Exchange, Limited, The ISBN or UPC: 1-58477-257-3 (Active Record)
Format: Trade Cloth Date: Mar 2003 Price: $80.00 Market: United States Availability: Available for Order
LC Class #: KF368.L52Z36 2002 Dewey#: 973.7/092 B ISBN 13: 978-1-58477-257-6

Life on the Circuit with Lincoln: With Sketches of Generals Grant, Sherman and McClellan, Judge Davis, Leonard Swett and Other Contemporaries, 1892
Author: Whitney, Henry Clay Publisher: Lawbook Exchange, Limited, The ISBN or UPC: 1-58477-115-1 (Active Record)
Format: Trade Cloth Date: Jan 2001 Price: $110.00 Market: United States Availability: Available for Order
LC Class #: KF368.L52W48 2001 Dewey#: 973.7/092 B ISBN 13: 978-1-58477-115-9

Lincoln for the Defense: The Only Known Transcript of an Abraham Lincoln Criminal Jury Trial
Author: Plaetzer, Ross F. Publisher: High House Press, Incorporated ISBN or UPC: 0-9641176-0-6 (Active Record)
Format: Trade Paper Date: Sep 1994 Price: $15.95 Market: United States ISBN 13: 978-0-9641176-0-0

Lincoln the Lawyer
Author: Hill, Frederick Trevor Publisher: William S. Hein & Company, Incorporated ISBN or UPC: 0-8377-0711-0 (Active Record)
Format: Trade Cloth Date: 1986 Price: $45.00 Market: United States LC Class #: KF368.L52H55 1986 Dewey#: 349.73/092/4 B ISBN 13: 978-0-8377-0711-2

Lawyers Before the Warren Court: Civil Liberties and Civil Rights, 1957-66
Author: Casper, Jonathan D. Publisher: University of Illinois Press ISBN or UPC: 0-252-00244-X (Out of Print)
Format: Trade Cloth Date: Jun 1972 Price: $24.95 Market: United States Availability: Hard to Find
LC Class #: KF298.C27 Dewey#: 342/.73/0850269 ISBN 13: 978-0-252-00244-1

Abraham Lincoln, the Lawyer-Statesman
Author: Richards, John Thomas Publisher: Library Reprints, Inc. ISBN or UPC: 0-7222-8804-2 (Active Record)
Format: Trade Cloth Date: Not Supplied Price: $98.00 Market: United States ISBN 13: 978-0-7222-8804-7

SEE IMPORTANT ADDITIONAL INFORMATION BELOW:
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I was going to post something about the comparative funding levels between the House and Senate versions of the stimulus legislation, but have just learned that ProPublica has already done so on their blog. Congratulations to ProPublica for a really good posting.

Here is the link. http://www.propublica.org/special/the-stimulus-bills-house-vs.-senate

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A Report of the New York State Commission on Sentencing Reform, dated January 30, 2009 and released on February 3, 2009.

The Report, Future of Sentencing in New York State, calls for reforms to New York Stae drug laws; determinate sentencing, graduated and sanctions for parole violators are among the other recommendations offered.It provides the Governor, Legislature and Judiciary with several different options for historic reform.The State Commission on Sentencing Reform is a bi-partisan panel that has spent nearly two years studying New York States sentencing statutes before releasing this Report

Also see the Press Release announcing release of thr Report and New York State Executive Order Number 10 (March 5, 2007) under which the Commission was created:

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The above titled January 27, 2009 article by John Markoff, published in the New York Times is relevant because it discusses digitization, preservation and authentication of records (and by extension information) in terms of continuously preserving these qualities in an authentic state as the underlying technology constantly changes or “shifts” over time, thus taking into account and emphasizing the importance of both the initial authentication of information in accordance with accepted polices and practices and the urgency of maintaining that authenticity over time. In terms of this discussion the question for law librarians and others throughout the legal profession working with digital legal information is how to best provide assurance that primary and other legal information officially authenticated at a given time can be safely perceived as remaining reliably authentic over a much longer period of time in the midst of these constant shifts? Since John Markoff’s article may help us at least clarify these issues I wanted to share it with you.

David Badertscher

Here are some excerpts:

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State of New York Supreme Court Criminal Term Library (New York County)

Inspired by the recent New York Unified Court System Report Green Justice: An environmental Action Plan for the New York State Court System*, the New York Supreme Court Law Library, Criminal Term (New York County) is pleased to announce a major upgrade to the section of our website dealing with search engines. Our objective is to best serve your information needs through enhanced access to reference and research sources. Consequently, we have have provided a wide variety of general Internet search engines as well as search engines that specifically target legal information sites. Moreover, we have included in our resource page meta search engines which combine the search results and different technologies of multiple companies (e.g. Google and MSN). We hope that these resources are another means for you to conveniently and best retrieve information from the Internet. Our new search engine page is located at: /nyc_criminal/search_engines.shtml .

You may wish to reacquaint yourselves with out library homepage which is located at: http://www.nycourts.gov/library/nyc_criminal/ .

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On December 22, 2008 we posted a list of House committee assignments preferred by many freshman in the 111th congress.

Although we have heard nothing more about House commitee assignments, we have heard from the Senate. Senate Majority Harry Reid has announced a partial list of the committee assignments he anticipates members of the Democratic Caucus will hold during the 111th Congress. As required by Senate rules, Senator Reid will meet with the Republican Leader to finalize the make-up of each Committee. For additional information including the anticipated committee assignment click on the link below
Partial List of Democratic Senate Committee Assignments Proposed for the 111th Congress

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At the beginning of 2007, the steering committee of OpenTheGovernment.org put a spotlignt on the importance of developing recommendations for the next administration and Congress to strengthen government transparency. OMB Watch agreed to spearhead such a project and to work with the OpenTheGovernment.org coalition and others including the AALL Government Relations Office staff in fashioning recommendations for providing a new roadmap for openness in the federal government that will in turn provide greater government transparancy, accountability and usability of government information.

The resulting report “Moving Toward a 21st Century Right-to-Know Agenda: Recommendations to President-elect Obama and Congress,” was delivered to President-Elect Obama’s transition team the day after the election. It includes more than 70 prioritized recommendations on issues relating to national security and secrecy, usability of government information, and how to create an environment for greater transparency. Those who are concerned and would like to make their own positions known can go to a special website established by OMB Watch and endorse the findings of the Report.

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One of the historic functions of libraries has been preserving and providing access to information in various media. In many ways, digitization of information has positively altered the information landscape. However, with the dynamic nature of such information, vital information preservation issues arise.

In a timely September 13, 2008, New York Times article by Robert Pear that is entitled “In Digital Age, Federal Files Blip Into Oblivion,” the issue of institutional preservation of digital information is addressed. The author maintains that many federal records created by email, word processing, or posting on the Internet are being lost to history. This is due to federal employees failing to preserve such material due to the incredible volume being generated. Dramatic examples of these preservation issues include, the appearance of non-functioning links on government websites and removal of important reports such as those critical of the Bush administration.

There is another concern about information loss not addressed directly in Robert Pear’s article. The issue Mr. Pear raises regarding the apparent failure of federal employees to implement adequate procedures to preserve the huge amounts of significant digital materials being generated may also relate to the ongoing necessary maintenance of such information to keep it trustworthy and authentic. No matter how carefully information in digital formats is maintained on an ongoing basis there is always a possibility that it may become corrupted or otherwise tainted, making it untrustworthy and therefore “lost” in terms of its value and relevancy to users. The American Association of Law Libraries (AALL) is very concerned about this issue because the trustworthiness of all online legal resources, including federal. is fundamental to permanent public access and is inherently a matter of great concern to the legal community

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David Badertscher*

How trustworthy are state-level primary legal resources on the Web? The American Association of Law Libraries (AALL) published the State-by-State Report on Authentication of Online Legal Resources (Authentication Report) that answers this very important and timely question. The comprehensive report examines and draws conclusions from the results of a state survey that investigated whether government-hosted legal resources on the Web are official and capable of being considered authentic. The survey was conducted by the Access to Electronic Legal Information Committee of AALL. The principal authors and editors of the comprehensive report were Richard J. Matthews, Editor in Chief of the 2005-2006 Access to Electronic Legal Information Committee and Mary Alice Baish, Executive Editor, AALL Washington Affairs Office; volunteer authors were responsible for sections within the comprehensive report devoted to individual states. The survey and comprehensive authentication report could not have been completed without their efforts.

The Authentication Report follows the publication in 2003 of AALL’s State-by-State Report on Permanent Public Access to Electronic Government Information that researched and reported what, if anything, state governments were doing to meet the enormous challenges of ensuring permanency and public accessibility of government information on the Web. The Permanent Public Access Report raised national awareness and encouraged states to take steps to ensure permanent public access to electronic state government information. As a result, several states have enacted legislation requiring permanent public access.

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The May 13, 2008 issue of the Library Journal Academic Newswire reports that Harvard University Law School (HLS) has adopted an open access policy for making its scholarly publications available online. Quoting from the Academic Newswire report:

“The Harvard University Law School (HLS) faculty last week followed the lead of their colleagues in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences by voting unanimously to make their scholarly articles available online for free, making HLS the first law school to commit to a “mandatory open access policy” via an institutional repository. ”

“Under the new policy, HLS will require that articles authored by its faculty members be placed in an online open access repository. The measure comes just months after the Harvard FAS approved its landmark mandate, after which, university librarian Robert Darnton, an architect of the policy, said he would be talking to Harvard’s professional schools immediately about adopting similar measure. HLS is the first professional school at Harvard to approve the measure. “That such a renowned law school should support Open Access so resoundingly is a victory for the democratization of knowledge,” Darnton said.”

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