Year: 2005

Next week marks the fourth annual Wisconsin Book Festival in Madison (October 13-17). The schedule features events all around the Madison area, including discussions by renowned writers, including Isabel Allende, James Magnuson, Philip Gourevitch, Tim Tyson, Joan Silber, Thylias Moss and many more! Discussion of number of legal books are planned (see schedule for details), …

Earlier this week the University of Wisconsin Digital Collections Center reached a milestone with the digitization of their 1 millionth digital object, according to Library Communications. The image, “Harvest Time,” is a painting by Lois Ireland that shows the picturesque nature of Wisconsin’s rolling hills, cobalt skies, regional agriculture and rustic barns. The scene reflects …

Law Librarians Association of Wisconsin Vice President, Diane Duffey has compiled a useful collection of tips in the Wisconsin Law Journal article, To Google or Not to Google? Different Web Research Tactics. In the article, which appears in the October 5, 2005 issue, Diane explains that despite their popularity, search engines have two key downsides: …

A classic from today’s Odd Wisconsin: There’s a clamor in the press this morning over the President nominating for justice of the U.S. Supreme Court a candidate who’s never sat as a judge anywhere, even in a small-town traffic court. Here in Wisconsin we once had a powerful judge with a similar amount of judicial …

The University of Chicago Law School has started a Faculty Blog. Although law faculty blogs are not new, a group blog of this type seems to be rather unique.

The October edition of the Wisconsin State Law Library newsletter, WSLL At Your Service is now available. Highlights include reference services, how to access Supreme Court oral arguments and more.

It’s a good thing it was hot today in Madison as UW Law School faculty, staff, and students lined up for the Student Bar Association sponsored dunk tank. The event was held to raise funds for Hurricane Katrina Relief. “You don’t know your active from your passive” taunted Legal Writing Instructor, Mary Barnard Ray – …

A couple months ago, Westlaw unveiled a new enhancement called Graphical Keycite. If you haven’t tried it yet, give it a look. I think it is vastly easier to interpret the direct history of a case through this pictorial view. For a quick demo, take the jazzy tutorial. At a law librarian’s update today, I …

From JS Online re: DNA analysis: The state’s 11-year-old DNA database is on pace to solve more than 324 cases this year, but like elsewhere, a national backlog of unanalyzed evidence from 1,100 Wisconsin cases prevents the technology from reaching its full potential. . . But the increasing success has been accompanied by an increase …

I recently discovered a new note taking tool called EverNote and I just love it. I’m starting work on a book and needed a way to manage my notes. 3×5 index cards weren’t going to cut it this time. It needed it to be electronic, so I could just cut and paste when it comes …