Category: Data & Databases

Law Library of Congress Releases Collection of Research Reports Offering Comparative Analysis of Foreign & International Law since the 1940s

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Those of you who follow federal legislation may be familiar with CRS Reports. The Congressional Research Service is a non-partisan legislative branch agency, housed inside the Library of Congress, that provides comprehensive analysis on issues that may come before Congress.  Although created for Congress, these reports can be tremendously insightful on matters of federal policy …

Judicial Conference Endorses Making PACER Searching Free to All Non-commercial Users

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Free federal court records are now one step closer:  The federal judiciary’s policymaking body has endorsed a proposal to make federal court records searches via the PACER electronic database free to non-commercial users.  According to a newly released report, the Judicial Conference of the United States has endorsed “making all searches free of charge for all …

Oldestsearch.com Retrieves Google results in Reverse Chronological Order

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Looking for a blast from the past?  Oldestsearch.com will retrieve Google results in reverse chronological order.  beSpacific notes that “this is useful for many subjects including medical illnesses which return search results back to the 1070’s allowing you to build a more complete perspective on an illness over time.”  

WI Tax Index & Appeals Commission Decisions Available on Wisconsin.gov

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I recently discovered that Wisconsin Tax Appeals Commission Rulings and Orders are now available in full text on Wisconsin.gov.  The Tax Appeals Commission (TAC) is an independent state agency that was created by the Wisconsin State Legislature to hear and determine disputes between taxpayers and the Wisconsin Department of Revenue and, in some limited instances, …

5th Circuit Limits Use of “Wayback Machine” Archived Content without Additional Authentication

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In an opinion issued earlier this year, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit placed a limitation on the use of content archived by the Internet Archive’s “Wayback Machine” without additional authentication.  The Internet Archive is a nonprofit digital library that seeks to maintain an archive of publicly accessible web pages at various …

Getting Hacked Could Lead to Ethics Violations – Use LastPass to Secure Passwords

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“Lawyers whose attorney trust accounts are cleaned out by cybercriminals should be prepared to answer to attorney-disciplinary authorities. And such a theft could result in disciplinary action for a lawyer who is careless about safeguarding client funds, ” warns the New Jersey Law Journal. On Friday, a suit was removed to federal court in Trenton, …

Recollection Wisconsin Documents State History through Thousands of Photos, Documents, Records, Etc.

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Yesterday, the Law Librarians Association of Wisconsin put on an excellent program about Recollection Wisconsin, a free web resource that brings together digital cultural heritage resources from Wisconsin libraries, archives, museums, and historical societies and shares them with the world in partnership with the Digital Public Library of America. Speaker Andi Coffin explained that the …

USPTO Launches New, Free Patent Public Search Tool 

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This week, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) announced the release of a new Patent Public Search tool that provides more convenient, remote, and robust full-text searching of all U.S. patents and published patent applications. According to the USPTO, this free, cloud-based platform combines the capabilities of four existing search tools scheduled to be …

How to Request Public Records in Wisconsin

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Thinking of filing a public records request but aren’t sure where to start? Wisconsin Watch has compiled a helpful primer.  Here’s a selection: First, determine what you want to know and who has that record. The person in charge of keeping and managing these documents at an agency or department is known as the “custodian” …

URL Change for Badgerlink, a Collection of Subscription Databases available to All Wisconsinites

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If you’re a Badgerlink user, take note that the URL has changed to https://badgerlink.dpi.wi.gov.  The old URLs badgerlink.net and badgerlink.org no longer work. If you’re not a Badgerlink user, what are you waiting for?  Badgerlink is a collection of amazing resources available for free to all state residents via Wisconsin’s libraries through funding from the …