Articles Posted in Library News and Views

Susanne Pierce Dyer, Reference/Devilopment Librarian, Bernard E. Witkin Alemeda County Law Library in Oakland, California has sent the following information and announcement regarding the tenth anniversary of the Bernard E. Witkin Memorial Symposium:

“How quickly a decade flies by! As we look back to the first Witkin lecture in May of 1998, it is hard to believe that our tenth anniversary event is coming soon. Now called the Bernard E. Witkin Memorial Symposium, it is co-sponsored the Bernard E. Witkin Alameda County Law Library and the Witkin Legal Institute.”

“This year’s topic is “Taking your Practice to New Heights with Effective Management Techniques and Cutting Edge Technologies.” We are very grateful for the assistance of members of the State Bar of California Section on Law Practice Management and Technology for their assistance in organizing the program and recruiting speakers.”

BY TAMAR RAUM*

March is Women’s History Month, and a wealth of historical, social, political, and cultural knowledge is available on the internet. The following internet page of the NWHP (National Women’s History Project) highlights notable achievements of outstanding women.

http://www.nwhp.org/whm/test.php

The March issue of WSLL @ Your Service has been published at http://wsll.state.wi.us/newsletter/0803.html In this issue:

* What’s New: New Volunteer @ WSLL; Economic Stimulus Checks – A Heads Up * This Just In… : New & Updated library materials * Click To It! Legal Research @ Your Fingertips: finding law journal articles using the WSLL Catalog * The Story of a Great Classic: finding legal classics using HeinOnline * Tech Tip in Brief: “I Guess I Should Have Known That” – A Variety of Quick Tech Tips * Odds & Endings: St. Patrick’s Day 2008; Other March Notables

February 27, 2008.

Supreme Court rejects wiretapping suit

“The U.S. Supreme Court declined February 18 to consider whether plaintiffs who believed they had been spied on without a court order could challenge the legality of such surveillance without tangible proof-even if the proof is classified as a state secret. The rejection of the ACLU v. NSA appeal came two days after the expiration of the Protect America Act, which from August 2007 until February 16 legalized warrantless eavesdropping on phone and internet communications to U.S. homes, workplaces, libraries, and elsewhere….”

ISO (International Organization for Standardization) is the world’d largest developer and publisher of international standards. Many of these standards relate to matters of interest and concern to law libraries and law librarians. Part of their process for standards development is to prepare drafts to various interested groups for comment and review. The following are among the standards currently under review by various groups, including the American Association of Law Libraries.:*

ISO TC 46 Open Ballots These ballots are in progress. Please send your vote and comments to: nisohq@niso.org

ISO/DIS 23081-2, Information and documentation — Records management processes for Metadata — Part 2: Conceptual and implementation issues

From: OCLC Updates. February 26, 2008.

WorldCat.org users who want to keep tabs on lists of items created by fellow users can now do so without having to return to the site: Public WorldCat lists are available as RSS feeds that can be monitored using any RSS-capable service or software.

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is an information format used by news-media sites, blogs and other Web services that are frequently updated. RSS feeds typically carry brief summaries of the information currently available at a specific Web location, so you can see what’s new without having to view the site in a browser.

News from the American Library Association:

House allows warrantless wiretaps law to expire

A dramatic showdown between House Republicans and Democrats February 14 has led to Congress beginning a one-week break without sending any surveillance legislation to the White House. The result is the February 16 expiration of the Protect America Act, which since its enactment in August 2007 has permitted the National Security Agency to eavesdrop without a court order on foreign communications, including phone calls and email exchanges, between someone “reasonably believed to be outside the United States” and a person on U.S. soil, as well as communications traveling to or from U.S. libraries…

“(U.S. 6th Cir., Feb. 5, 2008) – Defendants’ sentences resulting from their clumsy robbery of rare books from a university and attempts to sell them at auction are vacated and remanded for re-sentencing, where the district court erred by excluding books dropped and abandoned in the library stairwell from the valuation of loss and computation of the sentencing range. The court held that the defendant-robbers “took” the books, under USSG, 2B3.1, when they exercised dominion and control over them, such that they completed the acts necessary to seize the books.”

U.S. Charles Thomas Allen II et. al.

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