Commentary and Opinion

December 12, 2007

Cataloging Westlaw Records: A Question of Access

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.”

December 12, 2007

Blogging and Virtual Reference at the New York Supreme Court Criminal Law Library

by David Badertscher

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.

December 5, 2007

Technology Triumphs and Travails of 2007

by David Badertscher

“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

December 4, 2007

Cataloguing Philosophy: University of Colorado Law Library

by David Badertscher

We were happy to receive the following in an e-mail from Karen Selden and would like to share it with our readers:

University of Colorado Law Library

Cataloguing Philosophy

December 3, 2007

Public Access Libraries: An American Institution

by David Badertscher

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.

December 3, 2007

ABA Petition for Justice in Pakistan

by David Badertscher

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.

November 30, 2007

Should the Web Be Changed From WWW to GGG (Giant Global Graph) ?

by David Badertscher

David Badertscher

“Why we need to move from thinking about Web pages to thinking about the information on those pages.”

http://www.gcn.com/blogs/tech/45477.html

November 26, 2007

Six Techniques to Get More from the Web than Google Will Tell You

by David Badertscher

The following is from an article by Margaret Locher, published in the November 26, 2007 issue of CIO Insider. We especially call your attention to item 2 where she discusses the importance and usefulness of blogs in research:

________________________

Professional librarians and researchers will tell you that the Web has many unexplored opportunities for finding more information on business topics. Pursue these six techniques to improve your research results:

November 23, 2007

Sharing, Privacy and Trust in Our Networked World

by David Badertscher

As part of its mission, OCLC a worldwide library cooperative prepares in depth studies and topical surveys of issues and trends of interest and concern to all types of libraries, including law libraries. One of their latest reports addresses the topic of sharing, privacy and trust in our networked world .

Although this report was prepared primarily for OCLC member libraries the topic being addressed is of obvious importance to all of us, regardless of occupation, who are working in this highly interractive world of networks and are confronted daily with the necessity of reconciling matters related to information sharing, information security, and privacy. Recognizing this importance we are posting the entire document below. Since it is quite large we have created three links for your convenience. The first links only to the Introduction, the second only to the Conclusion, and the third links to the complete report in pdf format.

The report is divided into 15 sections including the following:

November 21, 2007

A Group of Internet and Media Companies Push for Principles Regarding User Generated Services to Protect Copyrights

by David Badertscher

On October 18, 2007 a coalition of major media and technology companies released a set of guidelines designed to halt online piracy. Media companies involved include CBS, NewsCorp, Fox Enertainment Group, NBC Universal, Viacom Disney, and MySpace. Google was notable absent from the list. A You Tube spokesperson who asked not to be named said that Google had talked to Disney and You Tube about the guidelines but decided not to join the group out of concdrn that ‘ “industry-wide mandates would stifle innovation’ “. I

In a posting on LEXOLOGY by four attorneys from Arent Fox LLP “…The joint collaboration aims to eliminate infringing content on services providing user-uploaded and user-generated audio and video content (UGC) services, encourage uploads of wholly original and authorized user-generated content, and accommodate fair use of copyrighted content, and protect user privacy interests.” It is interesting to note that many of the concerns reflected in the guidelines are similar (except perhaps in context) to those confronted by libraries in their own efforts to resolve issues the reproduction and transfer of materials.

To provide added context for those interested in this topic, this posting includes the full text of an article published on FindLaw Corporate Counsel by Julie Hilden. Finally,some additional links to other sources are listed.