Library News and Views

May 15, 2008

Harvard Law School Faculty Approves Open Access Policy for Scholarly Publications

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.”

May 15, 2008

AALL Presents the Joseph L. Andrews Bibliographical Award to Edward Grosek*

by David Badertscher

AALL presents the Joseph L. Andrews Bibliographical Award to Edward Grosek for his work, The Secret Treaties of History. As the title states, the book indexes treaties that nations entered into secretly. Some treaties trace back as early as 499 A.D. The result of the longtime effort of Grosek, this work includes 110 nations involved in secret treaties. The book annotates 973 secret treaties and includes an annotated bibliography, as well as an important country index. It is a unique resource that researchers in a variety of disciplines-from history to law to political science-can use.

Grosek is currently associate professor at Northern Illinois University and is in charge of the United Nations collection at the Founders Memorial Library. He has published a number of articles on government information.
______________________________________ “From: Ann Fessenden, AALL President, May 15, 2008.

May 15, 2008

In Memory of Professor Roy M. Mersky

by David Badertscher

It is with regret and sadness that I forward information from Ann Fessenden, AALL President of the passing of Professor Roy M. Mersky, Professor of law and Director of the University of Texas Tarlton Law Library and Jamail Center for Legal Research since 1965. I have known and from time-to-time worked with Professor Mersky during the past 25 years and will miss him greatly. For more information please click here

May 9, 2008

AALL State-by-State Survey and Report on Authentication of Online Legal Resources

by David Badertscher

An Introduction*

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 Legal Information Committee of AALL. For a quick overview, the Authentication Report’s Executive Summary provides an excellent introduction to some of the underlying issues and facts surrounding the pressing and timely issue of the authenticity of state primary digital legal materials.

May 6, 2008

Take the Lead: AALL Leadership Academy

by David Badertscher

Take the Lead:

AALL Leadership Academy October 3-4, 2008 Hyatt Lodge 2815 Jorie Blvd Oak Brook, Illinois 60523

REGISTER ONLINE NOW!

May 5, 2008

Web Based Services at the New York Supreme Court Criminal Term Library, New York County*

by David Badertscher

by: David Badertscher

For those who have not visited us, the New York Supreme Court Criminal Term Library of New York County (sometimes referred to as the New York Criminal Law Library) is located in lower Manhattan near the Brooklyn Bridge, City Hall, and State and Federal courthouses. Like other Supreme Court libraries located throughout the State of New York, it operates under the auspices of the New York Unified Court System and participates in the various state-wide initiatives sponsored by the OCA Office of Legal Information.

Although the primary focus of this library is to provide reference and research support to personnel of the Criminal Term, its actual responsibilities and obligations are quite broad. Using its various collections in all formats, including digital, in conjunction with various web and online services, including a website and a weblog, this library functions as both an information repository and an information service. These resources and services enable it to reach out to patrons both local and worldwide, as time and resources permit. Part of the library’s responsibility is to provide support as needed and operational oversight to the New York County Public Access Law Library, which is charged with serving those members of the public who need law-related information.

May 5, 2008

Results of Survey: Library Use of E-Books

by David Badertscher

Primary Research Group has published Library Use of E-books, 2008-09 Edition, (isbn 1-57440-101-7) and would like to share some of the results. *

Data in the report is based on a survey of 75 academic, public and special libraries.. Librarians detail their plans on how they plan to develop their e-book collections, what they think of e-book readers and software, and which e-book aggregators and publishers appeal to them most and why. Other issues covered include: library production of e-books and collection digitization, e-book collection information literacy efforts, use of e-books in course reserves and inter-library loan, e-book pricing and inflation issues, acquisition sources and strategies for e-books and other issues of concern to libraries and book publishers.

Some of the findings of the 110 page report are:

May 2, 2008

Working Group on the Future of Bibliographic Control – Resource Description and Access (RDA)

by David Badertscher

As information becomes available to us, we post information about the status of various initiatives including the Working Group for Bibliograph Control and RDA. On May 1 we received the following correspondence from Richard Amelung, the AALL representative to this group:

Dear all–

As your AALL representative on the Working Group on the Future of

April 17, 2008

Conference: Ninth Annual South African Online Information Meeting

by David Badertscher

The Organisation of South African Law Libraries (OSALL) is one of the sponssors and will be participating in this Conference:

NINTH Southern African Online Information Meeting

Tuesday 3rd of June to Thursday 5th of June 2008 CSIR Conference Centre

April 14, 2008

National Library Week

by David Badertscher

National Library Week is being observed April 13-19, 2008 with the theme, “join the circle of knowledge @ your library.”

First sponsored in 1958, National Library Week is a national observance sponsored by the American Library Association (ALA) and libraries across the country each April. It is a time to celebrate the contributions of our nation’s libraries and librarians and to promote library use and support. All types of libraries – school, public, academic and special – participate.

National Library Week affords a wonderful opportunity for librarians and non-librarians to both promote and reflect on the importance of libraries to our society. Here are some examples of various groups are observing National Library Week: