02
Last spring, ALA and ARL together issued a letter to the co-chairs of the Congressional Joint Committee on Printing, Senator Charles Schumer and Congressman Robert Brady. Here is the letter: Read the rest of this entry »
01
There was a very powerful story in the Chronicle of Higher Education issue dated November 25, 2009, under Advice, “Mental Illness in Academe,” by Elyn R. Saks. The title is rather bland, actually, and does not begin to describe the dynamite within the short essay. She begins by recalling a psychotic break she endured while teaching an upper level class in law school in September, 1991. Professor Saks was diagnosed ten years earlier with chronic paranoid schizophrenia with acute exacerbation, a devastating mental illness, which would prevent most people from any kind of productive work life. Instead, she is justifiably proud: Read the rest of this entry »
24
Well, it’s not really like in Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, and Tiny Tim is certainly different from tinyThom.As, but I just like the name so much, I couldn’t resist.
23
Rich Leiter twittered Xyggy legal, a new beta search engine for finding similar cases on the web. Xyggy offers more than just general legal searches, so you can reach Xyggy Patent, which covers patents from 1976 onwards. Xyggy Articles searches through archived news articles of the New York Times from 1987 - 2007.
22
Massachusetts is one of only six states without a public law school. I suspect it is a combination of the fact that there are so very many private law schools here, and that (at least some of them) have lobbied so assiduously against the idea every time the issue has come up. I work at one of the schools that certainly has lobbied against the idea. And I will try to present an even-handed report here despite that fact.
20
See here to see a fascinating post on the Google Blog. The Google engineers are pioneering a new radio button on Google Scholar that allows the user to search by legal topics or by case names. They include a rather graceful statement about “standing on the shoulder of giants:” Read the rest of this entry »
17
The Wall Street Journal reports that the Authors Guild, the Association of American Publishers and Google have re-submitted their revised Settlement Agreement for Google Books to U.S. District Judge Denny Chin in New York. The Department of Justice, which had responded to the original Settlement with a list of concerns in a Statement of Interest, is reviewing the new revision. Read the rest of this entry »
14
The Wired Campus feature of the Chronicle of Higher Education dated November 9, 2009 carries a story about Penn State requiring faculty advisors to appear in Second Life to advise students. Penn State has had a campus presence in the virtual world of Second Life for some time, and decided to offer advising there, in addition (according to a comment at the online article) to office hours, e-mail, phone and Skype. Faculty advisors are required to offer a minimum of two hours a week in Second Life and are given training in the online game. They are allowed to choose their own avatar names. It was not clear from the article how fanciful the avatar faculty may be. Second Life avatars do not, of course, have to reflect the gender, height, weight or ethnicity of the person behind the electronic face. But they may also appear as giant rabbits, may sport wings, or become more exotic still. Clothing, of course, can also be negotiable, but one supposes that is still somewhat bound by standards of propriety for advisors during office hours. Many law librarians are Second Lifers. It’s a fun way to interact. The Chronicle article reports that faculty members do enjoy their time once they get used to Second Life.
13
The Boston Globe included a story yesterday about the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Syracuse University in New York stating that they would not consider roll-outs of Kindle e-readers until Amazon addresses problems with accessibility for blind users. Both schools bought some Kindles this fall on trial, but were appalled to discover that the Kindle’s read-aloud feature would almost certainly require assistance from a sighted companion. The National Federation of the Blind released a statement about the two universities’ decisions, based on their nondiscrimination policies. The most disappointing aspect is that: Read the rest of this entry »
09
The Boston Globe Idea section today has an interview with author Allison Hoover Bartlett about her recent book, The Man Who Loved Books Too Much: The True Story of a Thief, a Detective, and a World of Literary Obsession (Riverhead), about John Charles Gilkey. Gilkey stole rare books from dealers and bookstores around the country. While serving several prison terms, he took classes to improve his understanding of literature and help him recognize rare books and manuscripts. Read the rest of this entry »