Library Reference and Research

July 8, 2008

Selections from the American Libraries Direct E-Newsletter July 2, 2008

“OCLC has announced a new OCLC Minority Librarian Fellowship program designed to provide a unique opportunity for aspiring library professionals from historically underrepresented groups. The 12-month program offers the selected Fellow two 90-day assignments within specific divisions of OCLC, and one six-month assignment with a specific operating unit within the OCLC organization. Applications will be accepted between July 15 and August 29..”

.Georgia State: Online course reserves are fair use

I”n a closely watched copyright-infringement lawsuit, Georgia State University fired back at its accusers, three academic publishers who say the institution invites students to illegally download and print readings from thousands of works. The university asserts that its online distribution of course material is permitted under copyright law’s fair-use exemption. Georgia State made its case in papers filed June 24 in U.S. District Court in Atlanta…”

June 25, 2008

Selections from American Libraries Direct June 18, 2008

by David Badertscher

From the American Library Association (ALA).*

Midwest libraries endure rising floodwaters

“Days of sandbagging could not keep the Cedar River out of Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Overflowing barriers on June 12, it deluged more than 100 blocks of the city’s eastern side, including the Cedar Rapids Public Library (a YouTube video, above left, shows the library at about the 6:20 mark). Some 64 miles to the northwest, some 18 inches of water destroyed the wooden interior of the Elizabeth Rasmussen Martin Memorial Library in New Hartford (bottom left). In Iowa City, the University of Iowa ordered the June 13 closing of the Main Library and a number of other campus buildings in the wake of several area bridges collapsing. Hundreds of volunteers formed a chain (top right) to remove books and dissertations from the campus library, while others transferred artwork from the museum as the arts campus was submerged. River towns throughout the upper Midwest continue sandbagging in anticipation of record overflows predicted to hit by June 20…”

June 20, 2008

New ABA Publication: SCITECH e-Merging News

by David Badertscher

The ABA Section of Science and Technology Law has just published the first edition of SCITECH e-Merging News, an electronic newsletter to be published quarterly. See theTable of Contents for the first issue follow:

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Practice Edge

June 20, 2008

Some Recent ABA Publication Announcements June 2008*

by David Badertscher

Street Legal: A Guide to Pre-trial Criminal Procedure for Police, Prosecutors, and Defenders

By Ken Wallentine

This 396-page book provides specific guidance on pre-trial criminal procedure of all sorts, and explains in understandable terms “what you can do and what you can’t do” under 4th Amendment search and seizure law. From traffic checkpoints and forceful felony arrest, from Miranda warnings to inmate and cell searches, it’s all covered in this concise reference. In addition, numerous charts and guides are included throughout the book to make this as practical a guide as possible.

June 19, 2008

How Trustworthy Are State-Level Primary Legal Resources on the Web?

by David Badertscher

David Badertscher*

How trustworthy are state-level primary legal resources on the Web? The American Association of Law Libraries (AALL) published the State-by-State Report on Authentication of Online Legal Resources (Authentication Report) that answers this very important and timely question. The comprehensive report examines and draws conclusions from the results of a state survey that investigated whether government-hosted legal resources on the Web are official and capable of being considered authentic. The survey was conducted by the Access to Electronic Legal Information Committee of AALL. The principal authors and editors of the comprehensive report were Richard J. Matthews, Editor in Chief of the 2005-2006 Access to Electronic Legal Information Committee and Mary Alice Baish, Executive Editor, AALL Washington Affairs Office; volunteer authors were responsible for sections within the comprehensive report devoted to individual states. The survey and comprehensive authentication report could not have been completed without their efforts.

The Authentication Report follows the publication in 2003 of AALL’s State-by-State Report on Permanent Public Access to Electronic Government Information that researched and reported what, if anything, state governments were doing to meet the enormous challenges of ensuring permanency and public accessibility of government information on the Web. The Permanent Public Access Report raised national awareness and encouraged states to take steps to ensure permanent public access to electronic state government information. As a result, several states have enacted legislation requiring permanent public access.

June 19, 2008

Codes Rules and Regulations of the State of New York (NYCRR), Sections Affected

by David Badertscher

Register Citations from 8-1-07 to 6-11-08 (Cumulative)

The following citator compiled by James R. Sahlem, Principal Law Librarian of the New York Supreme Court at Buffalo, is intended to “fill the gap” in NYCRR, both print and electronic format. It covers the most recent ten-month period. It is designed to be printed and stapled and left at the end of your NYCRR or retained in e-format as a back-up to electronic research. Hopefully, this will demonstrate that the long-standing NYCRR gap problem can be cured. I will be providing twice-monthly cumulative updates. Those familiar with the CFR- LSA will have a good analogy.

PROCEDURE

June 13, 2008

Regisration for Web 2.0 Challenge

by David Badertscher

Bonnie Shucha has asked us to “spead the word” about the exciting Web 2.0 Challenge that is being sponsored by the Computer Services Special Interest Group of the American Association of Law Libraries. We are happy to do so. Here is part of Bonnie’s announcement:

Are you interested in learning about applications like blogs, wikis, and Second Life, but don’t have a lot of time?

Take the Computing Services-SIS Web 2.0 Challenge!

June 4, 2008

Analysis and Response – On the Record: Report of the Library of Congress Working Group and the Future of Bibliographic Control

by David Badertscher

From the Introduction:

“On the Record, the report from the Working Group on the Future of Bibliographic Control, describes a new technological environment in which libraries have exciting opportunities for making information resources available and useful to new and demanding audiences. The Working Group has spent a year studying how best to exercise bibliographic control within this environment. The opening sentence of the report’s introduction sums up conclusions with which the Library of Congress agrees: ‘The future of bivbliographic control will be collaborative, decentralized, international in scope, and Web-based.”

This Response to the report was prepared under the supervision of Deanna B. Marcum, Associate Librarian for Library Services at the Library of Congress.

June 4, 2008

Conference: A Reference Renaissance: Current and Future Trends

by David Badertscher

The complete program for A Reference Renaissance: Current and Future Trends is now available on the conference website.

This exciting two-day event features keynote speaker David W. Lewis, Dean of the University Library at Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis, who will talk about Reference in the Age of Wikipedia, Or Not… and the implications of the technological and social transformations brought on by Google, Wikipedia, and answer services such as ChaCha. On day two of the conference, a plenary panel discussion, Theory Meets Practice, made up of educators and library directors will highlight what’s being taught in schools of library and information science and what’s being implemented in libraries. This panel features Dr. David Lankes (Information Institute of Syracuse), Dr. Marie L. Radford (Rutgers University), Jamie LaRue (Douglas County Libraries, CO), and Carla J. Stoffle (University of Arizona).

Other sessions cover the full gamut of reference and information services in public, academic, and special library settings. Learn about “predatory reference” techniques, screencasts for distance reference, gathering meaningful statistics, the impact of serious leisure on reference services, new staff training initiatives, widgets, IM, marketing in-person services – and more! Meet and network with your colleagues from all over the U.S., Canada, and other countries, and spend time with exhibitors showcasing a variety of reference focused products.

June 4, 2008

Deep Indexing: A New Approach to Searching Scholarly Literature*

by David Badertscher

From: “This Week’s News”, Library Journal.com (May 29, 2008).

Close to 200 attendees took part in a May 20 Library Journal webcast Deep Indexing: A New Approach to Searching Scholarly Literature, sponsored by ProQuest. While a majority of those participating were from the United States, librarians and electronic resource coordinators from 17 other countries also joined in, making it the most “international” of webcasts so far in the LJ series. An archive of the webcast will be available for year from the Library Journal web site, and can be found here.

Carol Tenopir, editor of LJ’s Online Databases column, kicked off the panel by providing background on the research behind the development of “tables and graphs” indexing, now known as deep indexing. Her partner in research, Robert Sandusky from the Richard J. Daley Library, University of Illinois at Chicago, offered his insights on the relevancy of types of searching and indexing for various disciplines, particularly the sciences.