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Library Technology Reports 43:6 2007 By Brad Eden

Excerpts from ALA TechSource publication announcment:

“As library technologists and librarians are well aware, since the advent of the Internet, the relationship between the user and his/her library has changed”.

Basil Tilmon of GalleryWatch in Washington, D.C. prepares informative and sometimes enertaining updates of the comings and goings in the Washington legislative world. Here are exerpts from his update for the week ending December 14:

The omnibus appropriations bill is still in limbo as both the House and Senate on Thursday passed a third continuing resolution to keep the government funded until Dec. 21. The House took advantage of this free time and decided to take today off. Appropriators will work over the weekend on a new plan for an omnibus package, which could hit the House floor as soon as Monday.

Homeland Security

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.’ “

Wsll @ Your Service, an E-publication of the Wisconsin State Law Library is now available. It contains an interesting variety of news under heading such as: What’s New, This Just in, Tech Tip in Brief, Learn @ the Law Library, and Odds & Endings. Those who are concerned about the conversion to Digital TV on February 17, 2007 will find the information and links in the Tech Tip in Brief section especially valuable.

To see the entire issue click here.

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..

See the complete whitepaper by clicking on the link below:

Impact of Cybercrime

“Who’s reading magazines and how do they flip through the pages? One research company is using RFID technology to find out.” Question: What are the implications of this development, both positive and negative? Comments welcome.

To read the complete article in the December 12, 2007 CIO Insider, click here.

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.”

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