Articles Posted in News from Organizations

This is indeed the season for presenting awards. The ABA Silver Gavel Awards honor those in media and the arts that foster a better understanding of the law. All are invited to the Gavel Awards presentation at the National Press Club, Washington, D.C. on July 7 at 5:00 p.m. The event is preceded by a reception and registration is required [http://www.abanet.org/publiced/gavel/presentation.shtml

Here are the event details sent to us by the ABA:

Event Details Wednesday, July 7, 2010 5:00 – 6:30 P.M.

April, 2010

This Report of the Executive Director to the ABA Board of Governors* highlights issues related to ABA Membership, and Personnel, Also highlighted is an extensive list of Programs and Projects including those related to Bioethics and the Law, Center for Professional Responsibity, Criminal Justice, Family Law, Government Affairs, Immigration, Intellectual Property, Law Library of Congress, Mental Health and Disability, Rule of Law Initiative, Science and Technology Law, Substance Abuse, Women in the Profession, and many more. See the entire Report by clicking on the link below:

April 2010 Report of the American Bar Association Executive Director to the ABA Board of Governors

Many of us just learned the sad news that Nylink, which has served New York State Libraries for 37 years, is phasing out its operations and will be closing in one year. We understand that Nylink will be closing its operations primarily due to a steep decline in its revenue stream which has seriously degrated Nylink’s ability to remain fully self supporting and continue delivering an acceptable level of service to its members beyond this period. Throughout the years many of us have come to rely on Nylink for its sustained high level of dedicated, personalized service. Nylink will be missed. We wish the employees a good 12 months and every success in the future

David Badertscher

For additional details see:

May 2010 (Vol. 5)

Excerpt from message of Chair,Charles Hynes:

The ABA Criminal Justice Section is the national entity that brings all the players in the criminal law arena together to address critical issues for the field. The focus of the Section is not only on policy development concerning those critical issues, but also on designing collaborative practical projects that help forge solutions to those systemic problems at the local and national levels. Our work on reentry and on the disparate racial impact of the criminal justice system are but two examples of how the CJS has developed cutting edge policy coupled with consequential project work. We are currently working on a project to address issues raised by the U.S. Supreme Court Padilla decision and have already developed a web resource page to assist attorneys in complying with the decision. Further, former Chair Stephen Saltzburg is forming a Task Force on Padilla which will strengthen resources to support the ability of defense lawyers to comply.

NYLINK reports that on May 30, 2010 OCLC plans to discontinue access to the NetLibrary database on WorldCat.org, WorldCat Local and WorldCat Local “quick start” on May 30. This database of NetLibrary metadata was released in July 2009 to facilitate discovery of NetLibrary eBooks and eAudiobooks through WorldCat.org-based services. Discontinuation of the discrete NetLibrary database is a result of the March 2010 acquisition of NetLibrary by EBSCO Publishing. For more information, please see the NYLINK Status Line blog at http://nylink.org/SL/?p=1325&preview=true.

By Joni L. Cassidy Cassidy Cataloging Services, Inc,

On March 17, 2010, my post about www.theSkyRiver.com and OCLC included the following statement:

“OCLC and Cassidy Cataloguing Services, Inc. may finally reach a compromise. OCLC may grant permission to allow a WorldCat Local institution that has purchased Cassidy MARC record sets to view the records as part of its WorldCat Local subscription.”

The Brennan Center has launched an online book review site with a focus soley on books about law and policy. The site (Just Books) includes book reviews, author interviews, and recommended reading from prominent legal figures.The site was spearheaded by Susan Lehman, the director of communications and strategy at the Brennan Center. Ms. Lehman said “I want it to be a virtual water cooler for lawyers and people who work in policy….There are declining venues for serious material….Clearly there is a continuing appetite for that material.”

We agree. Many thanks to Susan Lehman for spearheading this worthy project.

In March 2010 OCLC announced an important change to their FirstSearch content services. According to the announcement, OCLC is transitioning out of their role as reseller of vendor-owned content. Therefore they will transfer or discontinue sale of the vendor-owned databases on FirstSearch when subscriptions have ended. According to the announcement, they will instead increase their focus for both FirstSearch and WorldCat.org on providing libraries with access to a rich set of library-owned content and increasing visibility and access to the full scope of a library’s collection. They will work with libraries, publishers and other information providers to expand WorldCat.org as a comprehensive platform for eContent. As a part of this migration, EBSCO has acquired the rights to license a select number of vendor-owned databases that OCLC currently offers on FirstSearch. OCLC’s long-term relationship with H.W. Wilson is also changing as OCLC will work together to transition from reselling Wilson databases on FirstSearch to indexing Wilson databases in WorldCat Local over the coming months. According to OCLC there will be no interruption in service to libraries.

FirstSearch FAQ’s: http://www.oclc.org/firstsearch/content/questions/

EBSCO News Release: http://www.oclc.org/news/releases/2010/201015.htm

“On January 21st, 2009, President Obama issued a Memorandum on Transparency and Open Government in which he described how: ‘public engagement enhances the Government’s effectiveness and improves the quality of its decisions. Knowledge is widely dispersed in society, and public officials benefit from having access to that dispersed knowledge.’

To support the President’s open government initiative, DOT has partnered with the Cornell eRulemaking Initiative (CeRI) in a pilot project, Regulation Room, to discover the best ways of using Web 2.0 and social networking technologies to: (1) alert the public, including those who sometimes may not be aware of rulemaking proposals, such as individuals, public interest groups, small businesses, and local government entities that rulemaking is occurring in areas of interest to them; (2) increase public understanding of each proposed rule and the rulemaking process; and (3) help the public formulate more effective individual and collaborative input to DOT. Over the course of several rulemaking initiatives, CeRI will use different Web technologies and approaches to enhance public understanding and participation, work with DOT to evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of these techniques, and report their findings and conclusions on the most effective use of social networking technologies in this area….”

Quote from U.S. Department of Transportation Website.

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