Volume 13, Number 2 of this Newsletter is being reproduced in full on this posting with the permission of its Editor and Publisher, Lesley Ellen Harris. I am grateful to her for granting us this permission.
FROM THE OFFICES OF LESLEY ELLEN HARRIS Copyright, New Media Law & E-Commerce News __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________
Vol. 13, No. 1, January 5, 2009 ISSN 1489-954X
We recently received the following information regarding a legal information and legal informatics workshop being held in Poznan, Poland on April 28, 2009, thanks to Robert Richards of Philadelphia, PA.:
Call for Papers: Workshop on Legal Informatics and Legal Information Technology, Poznan, Poland, April 28, 2009.
Submission details are at http://bis.kie.ae.poznan.pl/12th_bis/wscfp.php?ws=lit2009 .
The following are links to issues of American Libraries Direct, the e-newsletter of the American Library Association from December 23, 2008 through February 4, 2009, including a special issue devoted to the “tough economy”. Each link will take you to a particular newsletter issue as noted below:
http://link.ixs1.net/s/ve?eli=m292611&si=u98437424&cfc=3html December 23, 2008
http://link.ixs1.net/s/ve?eli=m292611&si=u98437424&cfc=3html December 24, 2008
Rob Richards an in independent law librarian and legal information consultant based in Philadelphia has pub together a Website listing resources useful in creating metadata for digital legal materials . According to Mr. Richards, “the site is intended for use by researchers studying legal information systems and by librarians building digital libraries of legal materials…” As he explains: “…I wasn’t able to find a pathfinder for people new to the study of legal information systems…, so I wrote my own, and then put it on a Website in hopes that it might be helpful to others. Suggestions and comments are welcome.” He can be contacted at richards1000@comcast.net
Here are the links to his site:
http://home.comcast.net/~richards1000/LegalInformationSystemsBibliography.htm#METADATA, and links to legal scholarly respositories, http://home.comcast.net/~richards1000/LegalInformationSystemsBibliography.htm#INSTITUTIONALREPOSITORIES (listing only stand-alone repositories of legal materials),
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….
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…”
I received the following e-mail from Scott Frey on January 29 and am posting it here for those who are interested. If you are interested please contact Scott directly as noted below:
I’ve received a grant from the Wolters Kluwer Law & Business Grant Program to develop a search engine for law-related public domain electronic books (http://www.aallnet.org/news/newsdisplay.asp?nid=146). As part of the project, I’m seeking law librarians and other legal researchers to provide feedback on the search engines’ interfaces and results.
I envision that the initial test in April 2009 would take about 30 minutes, followed by tests of similar length in May, August, September, and potentially October. (I figure that 30 minutes would be sufficient for good testing and feedback, without impinging unduly on people’s busy schedules.) I might call or email some testers for clarification or elaboration of their feedback.
Charlotte School of Law would like to assess its library collection and subsequently develop an acquisition strategy. At this initial stage, we’re seeking qualified consultants who can respond to a more detailed RFP after signing a confidentiality agreement.
Objective
Our objective is to assess the library collection and to develop a collection enhancement strategy that will be used to guide future acquisitions. More specifically, we would like to:
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:
The September 2008 issue of the Technical Services Law Library Newsletter (TSLL) Volume 4 Nol 1 is now published.and can be viewed at http://www.aallnet.org/sis/tssis/tsll/34-01/34-01.pdf
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