Libraries are bridges to information and knowledge.

Robert Richards, Editor in Chief of the VoxPopuLII Blog at the Legal Information Institute at Cornell has just announced an important and helpful posting “IT and the Access to Justice Crisis” by Judge Dory Reiling, Vice President of the Amsterdam District Court on that blog.

Mr. Richards writes: “Judge Dory Reiling, mag. iur., Ph.D., Vice President of the Amsterdam District Court, has posted ‘IT and the Access to Justice Crisis,’ http://j.mp/cKmHz5 , on the VoxPopuLII Blog, http://blog.law.cornell.edu/voxpop/ , published by the Legal Information Institute at Cornell University Law School.

In her post — which is based on a chapter in her recent book entitled Technology for Justice: How Information Technology Can Support Judicial Reform, http://j.mp/cpG7OY — Judge Reiling discusses what we currently know about citizens’ information needs and behavior respecting access to civil justice. Judge Reiling describes the information that citizens need to resolve disputes outside of the legal system — whether without a third party or via alternative dispute resolution (ADR) — as well as the information they need in order to proceed pro se via the civil justice system. Judge Reiling then discusses how technology can be used to encourage dispute resolution outside of formal legal proceedings, as well as to improve outcomes for self-represented litigants in the civil justice system.

According to the New York Times, the articles published on July 25 are based on thousands of United States military incident and intelligence reports – records of engagements, mishaps, intelligence on enemy activity and other events from the war in Afghanistan – that were made public on Sunday on the Internet by WikiLeaks, an organization devoted to exposing secrets of all kinds. These reports are used by desk officers in the Pentagon and troops in the field when they make operational plans and prepare briefings on the situation in the war zone. Most of the reports are routine, even mundane, but many add insights, texture and context to a war that has been waged for nearly nine years.

The New York Times article, Piecing Together the Reports, and Deciding What to Publish, explains the process of deliberation through which the New York Times decided to publish, and sometimes not to publish, material from some 92,000 individual reports made available by WikiLeaks to the Times, The Guardian newspaper in London, and the German magazine Der Spiegel.

Like others who have expressed their condolances, I felt both saddness and a sense of loss upon hearing that Gloria Dinerman, a prominent Information Sepecialist and business person, had passed away in New Providence, NJ on Sunday July 17, 2010. As mentioned in the obituary below, Gloria will be remembered by all of us for her “….unique style, sharp wit, and cultural savvy”. I also remember her as a person of humanity and caring who was always ready to lend assistance when needed.

David Badertscher

Below is an obituary from the Home News Tribune July 21, 2010. followed by links to two articles by Gloria.:

More than a dozen Washington Post journalists spent two years developing Top Secret America, a multimedia presentation put together by compiling hundreds of thousands of public records of government organizations and private sector companies. From these records, the Washington Post identified a web of these organizations, both government and private, that are engaged in top secret work for the government. According to Dana Priest and Matthew M. Arkin, two Washington Post reporters who have written about the Project, these findings amount to “…a Top Secret America hidden from public view and lacking in thorough oversight.”

Here are some additional links for those interested in the Washington Post Project:

Introductory Video: http://projects.washingtonpost.com/top-secret-america/

Many thanks to Jonathan Stock, recently retired as Supervising Law Librarian at the Connecticut Judicial Branch Law Library at Stamford, for writing this fine, thought provoking article. It has been published in the July 2010 issue of AALL Spectrum and we have linked to the Spectrum article with Jonathan’s permission.

Jonathan’s article is truly an allegory which can be considered from many perspectives, not the least of which are Jonathan’s impressions of recent efforts to help save many of the court law libraries in Connecticut from possible oblivion.

Before linking to the actual article, I would like to share a bit of our e-mail exchange after his article first appeared in AALL Spectrum

BY: Paul Morris p.morris54@gmail.com

Paul Morris an attorney who is now pursuing a masters degree in library and information science at Queens College City University of New York has just written a stimulating paper in which he presents “…a wakeup call to have archivists start clamoring for an enforceable code of ethics as indispendable for the advancement, perhaps even viability of archives as a profession”. Even though Mr. Morris understandably emphasizes archivists in his paper many of the observations included will also be of interest to librarians, especially those working with special collections. We are pleased to publish this paper with the permission of its author Paul Morris. Paul has indicated that he would be interested in receiving comments regarding his paper addressed directly to him at the above e-mail address

Immediately below are the introductory and concluding paragraphs of the paper followed by a link for viewing and downloading the complete document.

We recemty receoved the following e-mail from the ABA Judicial Division and are grateful for the opportunity to share this column by Judge Dixon with you our colleagues and friends.:

Judge Herbert Dixon’s technology column, Developing an Addition to Your BlackBerry in 13 Easy Steps, is available free to the general public at http://new.abanet.org/divisions/Judicial/PublicDocuments/2010SpringDixon.pdf

. The Judges’ Journal staff and Editorial Board have concluded that certain articles have a short shelf life and are more valuable for generating interest in the Judicial Division if they are freely to the public rather than listing the articles for purchase. Please share the article with your colleagues and friends as a way to generate interest in the Judicial Division

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