Libraries are bridges to information and knowledge.

The John Marshall Award was established to honor those dedicated to the improvement of the administration of justice. The 8th annual Award will be presented at the 2008 ABA Annual Meeting in New York, NY.

For additional information on the Award and how to make a nomination, please visit the Award homepage at http://www.abanet.org/justicecenter/johnmarshall.html.

The deadline for all nominations is March 14, 2008.

On Monday December 3, 2007 the U.S. Intelligence agencies released a new National Intelligence Estimate which concludes that Iran halted a nuclear weapons program in 2003, though it continues to enrich uranium, ostensibly for peaceful purposes.

For the convenience of our readers we are posting below without any editorial comment of our own a copy of the ScopeNote of the Intelligence Estimate and a link to the full document:

S c o p e N o t e

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.

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.

As many of you already know, significant changes, both stylistic and substantive, are being made to the federal judicial procedure and rules. We understand these changes will become effective on December 1.

Recently we have received some e-mails from the publisher Thomson West alerting us to the changes and providing a link to more substantive discussion and a video on their website. For your convenience we are reproducing two of the e-mails here. The first e-mail was sent of November 14 and the second on November 30.

First e-mail:

Contact Information