Library Organization and Planning

June 19, 2008

How Trustworthy Are State-Level Primary Legal Resources on the Web?

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.

June 19, 2008

Codes Rules and Regulations of the State of New York (NYCRR), Sections Affected

by David Badertscher

Register Citations from 8-1-07 to 6-11-08 (Cumulative)

The following citator compiled by James R. Sahlem, Principal Law Librarian of the New York Supreme Court at Buffalo, is intended to “fill the gap” in NYCRR, both print and electronic format. It covers the most recent ten-month period. It is designed to be printed and stapled and left at the end of your NYCRR or retained in e-format as a back-up to electronic research. Hopefully, this will demonstrate that the long-standing NYCRR gap problem can be cured. I will be providing twice-monthly cumulative updates. Those familiar with the CFR- LSA will have a good analogy.

PROCEDURE

June 13, 2008

Regisration for Web 2.0 Challenge

by David Badertscher

Bonnie Shucha has asked us to “spead the word” about the exciting Web 2.0 Challenge that is being sponsored by the Computer Services Special Interest Group of the American Association of Law Libraries. We are happy to do so. Here is part of Bonnie’s announcement:

Are you interested in learning about applications like blogs, wikis, and Second Life, but don’t have a lot of time?

Take the Computing Services-SIS Web 2.0 Challenge!

June 10, 2008

Conference: Court Leadership and Self Represented Litigation: Solutions for Access, Effectiveness and Efficiency

by David Badertscher

Self-Represented Litigation Network Leadership Package Launch Conference Baltimore MD, September 8-10, 2008

In September 2008, the Self-Represented Litigation Network will be launching its leadership package entitled: Court Leadership and Self-Represented Litigation Solutions for Access, Effectiveness, and Efficiency.

Following the model of last years successful judicial conference at Harvard, the launch, to be held at the Court Solutions Conference sponsored by the National Center for State Courts, held in Baltimore on September 8-10 will provide an opportunity for groups of leaders to come together and learn about, and practice the use of leadership tools for innovation for the self-represented.

June 4, 2008

Analysis and Response – On the Record: Report of the Library of Congress Working Group and the Future of Bibliographic Control

by David Badertscher

From the Introduction:

“On the Record, the report from the Working Group on the Future of Bibliographic Control, describes a new technological environment in which libraries have exciting opportunities for making information resources available and useful to new and demanding audiences. The Working Group has spent a year studying how best to exercise bibliographic control within this environment. The opening sentence of the report’s introduction sums up conclusions with which the Library of Congress agrees: ‘The future of bivbliographic control will be collaborative, decentralized, international in scope, and Web-based.”

This Response to the report was prepared under the supervision of Deanna B. Marcum, Associate Librarian for Library Services at the Library of Congress.

June 4, 2008

Conference: A Reference Renaissance: Current and Future Trends

by David Badertscher

The complete program for A Reference Renaissance: Current and Future Trends is now available on the conference website.

This exciting two-day event features keynote speaker David W. Lewis, Dean of the University Library at Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis, who will talk about Reference in the Age of Wikipedia, Or Not… and the implications of the technological and social transformations brought on by Google, Wikipedia, and answer services such as ChaCha. On day two of the conference, a plenary panel discussion, Theory Meets Practice, made up of educators and library directors will highlight what’s being taught in schools of library and information science and what’s being implemented in libraries. This panel features Dr. David Lankes (Information Institute of Syracuse), Dr. Marie L. Radford (Rutgers University), Jamie LaRue (Douglas County Libraries, CO), and Carla J. Stoffle (University of Arizona).

Other sessions cover the full gamut of reference and information services in public, academic, and special library settings. Learn about “predatory reference” techniques, screencasts for distance reference, gathering meaningful statistics, the impact of serious leisure on reference services, new staff training initiatives, widgets, IM, marketing in-person services – and more! Meet and network with your colleagues from all over the U.S., Canada, and other countries, and spend time with exhibitors showcasing a variety of reference focused products.

June 4, 2008

Deep Indexing: A New Approach to Searching Scholarly Literature*

by David Badertscher

From: “This Week’s News”, Library Journal.com (May 29, 2008).

Close to 200 attendees took part in a May 20 Library Journal webcast Deep Indexing: A New Approach to Searching Scholarly Literature, sponsored by ProQuest. While a majority of those participating were from the United States, librarians and electronic resource coordinators from 17 other countries also joined in, making it the most “international” of webcasts so far in the LJ series. An archive of the webcast will be available for year from the Library Journal web site, and can be found here.

Carol Tenopir, editor of LJ’s Online Databases column, kicked off the panel by providing background on the research behind the development of “tables and graphs” indexing, now known as deep indexing. Her partner in research, Robert Sandusky from the Richard J. Daley Library, University of Illinois at Chicago, offered his insights on the relevancy of types of searching and indexing for various disciplines, particularly the sciences.

June 4, 2008

Harvard Professor Stuart Shieber Downplays the Role of “Revolutionary”

by David Badertscher

From: “This Week’s News”, Library Journal.com (May 29, 2008).

Last week, Harvard University professor Stuart Shieber made history-he was named the first director of Harvard’s newly minted Office for Scholarly Communication (OSC). In his new role, Shieber will oversee the implementation of the university’s groundbreaking open access mandate, which he helped author, and which many suggest could have wide-ranging implications for the future of scholarly communication. “Let’s not go overboard,” Shieber says with a laugh and an audible wince when asked if he views his new role as a historic opportunity. “People like to extrapolate that [the mandate] will have a revolutionary effect. But you can’t make a policy based on that extrapolation. Sometimes there’s too much talk about momentous, revolutionary effects, it gets too far in front of what is really happening. There are lots of things going on, and there will be changes. We’re just trying to do our part.”

That sober approach should be heartening to observers concerned with getting the implementation rolling. In a conversation with the LJ Academic Newswire this week, Shieber embraced a straightforward mission “to support the efforts of the Harvard faculty to make their collective scholarly output as broadly available as possible.” It’s a big job, Shieber conceded, and one he didn’t necessarily expect to fall to him, despite his role in authoring the policy. “Certainly, there was no lobbying effort,” he laughed, when asked if he had expected to be tapped to lead the OSC. “But I have spent lots of time and effort on these issues, so it was a natural fit.”

June 3, 2008

Wisconsin State Law Library June 2008 Newsletter

by David Badertscher

The June issue of WSLL @ Your Service has been published at http://wsll.state.wi.us/newsletter/0806.html

In this issue:

*What’s New: Please take a 5-minute survey about our website; Library news and upcoming events *Start Here: A Selected List of Resources on … Estate Planning in Wisconsin *This Just In…: Selected new and updated library materials, and a link to our latest New Titles List *Tech Tip in Brief: Highlighting in presentations and on webpages

June 3, 2008

HeinOnLine: Monthly Recap for May 2008

by David Badertscher

World Trials Library

With the addition of 99 new trials in the May content release, HeinOnline’s World Trials Library now contains 1,300 titles. If your library does not already subscribe to one of the most astounding online trials collection in the world, now is the time. Click here for the complete brochure, or contact a member of our sales team for pricing information.

English Reports