Articles Posted in Commentary and Opinion

Former senator George Mitchell released his Report on Performance Enhancing Drugs in Major League Baseball on Thursday December 13, 2007. Here is an excerpt from a news release on the Major League Baseball (MLB) website:

” — Former Sen. George Mitchell said on Thursday that performance-enhancing drug use has been pervasive in the sport for more than a decade as he released his findings in the shape of a 311-page report, which was fashioned during the past 20 months of investigations.”

” ‘Everyone involved in baseball shares responsibility,”‘Mitchell said during a news conference at the Grand Hyatt Hotel. ‘Commissioners, club officials, the Players Association and players. I can’t be any clearer than that.’ “

The New Jersey Senate voted Monday December 10 to make the state the first in the country to repeal the death penalty since 1976, when the United States Supreme Court set guidelines for the nation’s current system of capital punishment.

Legislators on both sides of the debate said they expected the measure to pass easily on Thursday in the General Assembly, where Democrats hold 50 of the 80 seats.

Gov. Jon S. Corzine, a staunch opponent of the death penalty, has said he would sign a measure ending executions

This white paper explores the emerging crimeware industry, examining web based techniques and methods being used to perpetuate cybercrime, with a focus on the business impact of these attacks. The paper also explores the benefits of real time content inspection technology as a possible solution to help secure enterprises frm the growing crimeware threat..

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Impact of Cybercrime

STEVEN ESSIG

Recently, Cassidy Cataloguing Services announced a partnership with Thomson-West that would make available to law school libraries MARC 21 cataloging records for Westlaw items. In the words of Cassidy’s Donna Rosinski-Kauz “The Cassidy-Westlaw MARC21 records collections will be an expansion of the very popular “WLX E-Treatise Collection,” which was originally created and distributed by Cassidy Cataloguing. The new Cassidy-Westlaw MARC 21 records collections will be released in phases. All legal content of Westlaw will be covered by these new collections when they are completed.”

Already available from Cassidy are cataloging records for E-treatises, most Canadian titles, and directories published by Westlaw. The second phase, “Law Journals and Law Reviews”, is due out by January 2008. There is a “monthly update service” that informs user libraries of any dditions, deletions and other changes, while Name and Subject Authority Control is run on all records. “Authority files are available for purchase separate from the collections.”

BY: David G. Badertscher

The New York Supreme Court Criminal Term Library of New York County (sometimes referred to as the New York Criminal Law Library) is located in lower Manhattan near the Brooklyn Bridge, City Hall, and State andFederal courthouses. It is one of several Supreme Court libraries located throughout the State of New York, which operate under the auspices of the New York Unified Court System.

Although its primary mission is to provide reference and research support to personnel of the Criminal Term, its actual responsibilities and obligations are quite broad. Using its various collections in all formats, including digital, in conjunction with various web and online services, including a website and a weblog, this library functions as both an information repository and an information service. These resources and services enable it to reach out to patrons both local and worldwide, as time and resources permit. Part of the library’s responsibility is to provide support as needed and operational oversight to the New York County Public Access Law Library, which is charged with serving those members of the public who need law-related information.

“A Look at the best and worst of the years Technology implementations and innovations” as reported by Douglas Bartholomew et. al. in the November 30, 2007 issue of Baseline:

Triumphs and Travails of 2007 November 30, 2007

By Doug Bartholomew, David F. Carr, Ericka Chickowski, Mel Duvall, Deborah Gage, Laton McCartney and Lawrence Walsh

BY: Theodore Pollack Senior Law Librarian New York County Public Access Law Library

The United States Declaration of Independence states, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal….” Perhaps no more beautiful words have ever been written. However, self-represented litigants who are attempting to protect their rights, often discover the vast gulf between the political platitude and the reality of becoming self-educated attorneys competing against trained litigators before the courts.

In order to bridge this gulf, self-represented litigants look to a variety of resources. New York State established by statute the existence of a public access law library in each New York State county. These libraries are part of the New York State Unified Court System and are charged with providing access to legal materials in the hope of making the legal process more equitable and transparent. Legal databases, case reporters, encyclopedias, codes all provide a means for the self-represented litigant to learn the law and educate him/herself.

We received the following letter from William H. Neukom President of the American Bar Association on December 3, 2007 and are forwarding it for your consideration:

Dear Fellow Lawyer,

Each day, evidence mounts that pressure brought by Americans and people of other nations is forcing Pakistani leader Pervez Musharraf to soften his assault on the rule of law. But he has failed to address some of his most destructive actions.

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