Commentary and Opinion

November 24, 2009

The Continuing Quest for Health Care Reform in the U.S.

Updated to November 25, 2009

Over the past months we have posted a variety of items related to the quest for health care reform in the United States. See our last posting at “Health Care Update as of the Beginning of October 2009. The quest continues. During the last month the House of Representatives passed HR 3962(Affordable Health Care for America Act) on November 7 and the Senate has at least agreed to begin debate on their bill HR3590 (Patient Protection and Affordable Health Care Act) on November 21.. Given the historical record of attempts at health care reform these are remarkable achievements but we still do not know if the end is in sight.

Rather than engage in extended discussion on this posting we will concentrate identifying selected documents related to the two bills mentioned above and close by mentioning a few recent news articles of interest. First the documents:

November 19, 2009

CLLB: Criminal Justice Abstracts. November 16-20, 2009.

by David Badertscher

For week of November 16-20, 2009.

PREPARED BY: Michael Chernicoff

Weighing Life in Prison of Youths Who Didn’t Kill

November 18, 2009

Book Review: Gay Families and the Courts

by David Badertscher

TITLE: Gay Families and the Courts SUBTITLE: The Quest for Equal Rights

AUTHOR: Susan Gluck Mezey PUBLICATION DATE: September 2009

PUBLISHER: Bowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.

November 17, 2009

The Jury Expert

by David Badertscher

Volume 21 Issue 6 November 2009.

Table of Contents

Sex and Race in the Courtroom: Shifting Gender-Role Attitudes in a Changing World

November 16, 2009

AALL Maryland Authentication Working Group and Maryland Register Print Discontinuation

by David Badertscher

The Maryland Authentication Working Group and the print discontinuation of the Maryland Register are both discussed in the following e-mail from Joan M Bellistri, a member of the Working Group:

The AALL Maryland Authentication Working Group has been created. Ideally, this working goup would have been formed before there were any issues in Maryland but we now have the immediate issue of the conversion of the Maryland Register to pdf distribution only. The Working Group is composed of librarians from court, academic and firm libraries and consists of Joanne Colvin, President of LLAM, Janet Camillo, Chair CMCLLD, Pat Behles, Carol Mundorf, Andy Zimmerman, Steve Anderson and myself. We hope to be adding members from the public library government docs community and the academic libraries and the Maryland State Bar Association. The ultimate purpose of the group would be to monitor

Maryland’s legal resources in terms of e-life cycle management (authentication, permanent public access and preservation) and work to educate the appropriate officials about the importance of these issues through the creation of a policy paper as a follow up to the

November 13, 2009

ABA Journal Weekly Newsletter. August 13, 2009.

by David Badertscher

For Week Ending August 13, 2009.

CLLB: Criminal Justice Abstracts. November 13, 2009.

by David Badertscher

For week ending November 13, 2009.

PREPARED BY: Michael Chernicoff

Looser Rules on Sentencing Stir Concerns About Equity

November 12, 2009

American Libraries Direct. November 11, 2009.

by David Badertscher

The e-Newsletter of the American Library Association – November 11, 2009.*

Highlights:

Extending the library’s reach

November 12, 2009

Congressional Printing: Background and Issues for Congress

by David Badertscher

A Report from the Congressional Research Service (CRS) prepared by R. Eric Petersen, Analyst in American National Government November 5, 2009.*

Summary

Periodically, concerns have been raised about the number and variety of products created to document congressional activity. Other concerns focus on the process for authorizing and distributing printed government documents to Members of Congress, committees, and other officials in the House and Senate. These concerns reflect broader issues related to the manner in which government and private information is created, assembled, distributed, and preserved in light of the emergence of electronic publishing and distribution.

November 10, 2009

The Power of Librarian Collaboration to Provide Better Information

by David Badertscher

I was delighted to receive the following e-mail this morning from Camilla Tubbs, Chair of the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL) because it illustrates how librarians are working together to provide an improved information environment for the benefit of us all –librarians and non-librarians alike. Clearly these are the types of initiatives that need to be shared with our readers.

Some of the links below may be accessible only to members of AALL but others are potentially valuable research links which should be accessible to all. We encourage readers to comment. Anyone can send comments and provide other feedback directly from this posting. Those who are members of AALL and its Chapters can also subscribe to the Library Advocacy listserv at http://www.aallnet.org/aallwash/aalladvocsubscribe.asp and post directly from there. Without further discussion from me here is Camilla’s e-mail. I am greateful for her permission to publish. David Badertscher.

From: Camilla Tubbs