Legal Research News and Information with an Emphasis on Wisconsin
The American Association of Law Libraries has announced the winning photographs in the “Day in the Life of the Law Library Community” Contest. The photos were taken by AALL members during National Library Week 2005 (April 10-16). Photos depict law librarians working, meeting, teaching, and doing all that law librarians do in a given day …
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 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 …
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 …
House of Representatives has compiled a A Citizen’s Guide on Using the Freedom of Information Act and the Privacy Act of 1974 to Request Government Records (HR Report 109-226). From section IV, How to Use this Guide: This report explains how to use the Freedom of Information Act and the Privacy Act of 1974. It …
From Law.com: The policy-making body of the federal judiciary [the Judicial Conference] on Tuesday [9-20-05] endorsed a sweeping rule change that will allow lawyers to cite unpublished opinions in federal appeals courts nationwide beginning in 2007. . . The citation rule change, if ratified by the Supreme Court and untouched by Congress, would end a …
From DCLRC Blawg: The American Civil Liberties Union is teaming up with the Dane County Legal Resource Center (DCLRC) to observe Banned Books Week, which runs the last week of September. On Wednesday, September 28th they will host bilingual readings of the Bill of Rights and a brief presentation planned for the lunch hour on …
My last Blue Book post prompted me to do a little digging around in its pages. The State Symbols section is a lot of fun. Here’s what I learned about our state song, “On, Wisconsin!” The music for “On, Wisconsin!” was composed in 1909 by William T. Purdy with the idea of entering it in …