Articles Posted in Commentary and Opinion

by

FROM: News from the [New York] State Archives, Region 1, No. 1-2/2009.

Preserving the American Historical Record Act (PAHR): The Act will authorize grants to support the essential evidence of American government and society held by state and local governments, historical societies, and libraries.

Status: On May 15, 2008, the Preserving the American Historical Record Act (H>R> 6056) was introduced in the 110th Congress. Original co-sponsors were Representatives Maurice Hinchey (D-NY) and Chris Cannon (R-UT). This legislation would provide authorization for the Preserving the American Historical Record program to preserve essential documents and archival records held in state and local governments and historical institutions….

Continue reading

by

Recent news and developments regarding investors and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ( SEC ) as related to the Madoff ponzi scheme:

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has posted information for Madoff investors at:

http://www.sec.gov/news/press/2008/2008-293-update.htm

Continue reading

by

A Report of the New York State Commission on Sentencing Reform, dated January 30, 2009 and released on February 3, 2009.

The Report, Future of Sentencing in New York State, calls for reforms to New York Stae drug laws; determinate sentencing, graduated and sanctions for parole violators are among the other recommendations offered.It provides the Governor, Legislature and Judiciary with several different options for historic reform.The State Commission on Sentencing Reform is a bi-partisan panel that has spent nearly two years studying New York States sentencing statutes before releasing this Report

Also see the Press Release announcing release of thr Report and New York State Executive Order Number 10 (March 5, 2007) under which the Commission was created:

Continue reading

by

Sometimes it seems as though Google has become ubiquitous in the world of searching and may want to repeat its act in the world of books. While thinking about this, two articles, one forthcoming and one published Febrary 1 have come to our attention>

The forthoming article Google and the Future of Books* by Robert Darnton, Director of the Library and Carl H. Pforzheimer University Professor of Harvard has much to say on the subject and should be required reading for all who are concerned about these developments. He writes:

“How can we navigate through the information landscape that is only beginning to come into view? The question is more urgent than ever following the recent settlement between Google and the authors and publishers who were suing it for alleged breach of copyright…”

Continue reading

by

George Prager, Head of Cataloging at New York University Law School Library has sent his summary of the ALA Midwinter MARBI meetings to members of the American Association of Law Libraries Technical Services Special Interest Group. With his permission I am also posting it here along with his opening comments:

COMMENTS:

I have added a brief summary of each proposal and discussion paper presented at the American Library Association Midwinter MARBI Meetings, whhich took place January 24-25, 2009. A more detailed analysis of the papers will be available in my 2008/2009 Annual report, which will appear on the TSIS Website shortly before the AALL 2009 Annual Meeting, and later in TSLL.

Continue reading

by

In a January 28, 2009 New York Times article, “Hang Him Up? The Bad Judge and His Image”, Benjamin Weiser describes a debate that has arisen in a New York Courthouse over whether the portrait of a disgraced judge should continue to be displayed or thrown in a closet.

To read the story click on the link below to the article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/28/nyregion/28portrait.html?partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

by

The above titled January 27, 2009 article by John Markoff, published in the New York Times is relevant because it discusses digitization, preservation and authentication of records (and by extension information) in terms of continuously preserving these qualities in an authentic state as the underlying technology constantly changes or “shifts” over time, thus taking into account and emphasizing the importance of both the initial authentication of information in accordance with accepted polices and practices and the urgency of maintaining that authenticity over time. In terms of this discussion the question for law librarians and others throughout the legal profession working with digital legal information is how to best provide assurance that primary and other legal information officially authenticated at a given time can be safely perceived as remaining reliably authentic over a much longer period of time in the midst of these constant shifts? Since John Markoff’s article may help us at least clarify these issues I wanted to share it with you.

David Badertscher

Here are some excerpts:

Continue reading

by

In case you missed it, the results from the 2008 version of Marshall Breeding’s Library Automation Survey are available at http://www.librarytechnology.org/perceptions2008.pl. This Survey is international in scope. There were 1,450 responses.

Contact Information
ATTORNEY ADVERTISING

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Please do not include any confidential or sensitive information in a contact form, text message, or voicemail. The contact form sends information by non-encrypted email, which is not secure. Submitting a contact form, sending a text message, making a phone call, or leaving a voicemail does not create an attorney-client relationship.

Copyright © 2016 – 2025, David Badertscher
JUSTIA Law Firm Blog Design