Legal Research News and Information with an Emphasis on Wisconsin
Since January, we’ve had a chat box on our home page. Law School and other UW–Madison students, faculty & staff can use it to ask legal research questions of our reference librarians. The chat box is courtesy of a service called Plugoo. The questions asked through the chat box are routed to our regular IM …
From the New York Times article, Prisons Purging Books on Faith From Libraries: Behind the walls of federal prisons nationwide, chaplains have been quietly carrying out a systematic purge of religious books and materials that were once available to prisoners in chapel libraries…. Traci Billingsley, a spokeswoman for the Bureau of Prisons, said the agency …
Indie Pop Band SNMNMNM pays homage to librarians in it’s new song, “Addy Will Know.” It’s about a real librarian who helps a patron find four books for which he is looking. The names of the books are never mentioned, but as a kind of puzzle, the song itself includes call numbers that correspond to …
My colleague, Jenny Zook, has written a funny and thought-provoking article for this month’s LLRX entitled, Technology and the Generation Gap. Abstract: Genevieve Zook’s forthright, insightful and timely commentary addresses the challenges of balancing the push for gadgets and applications with the concepts of direct customer contact and value added services. Whether you’re an “oldster,” …
I’m pleased that my article, IM a Librarian: Establishing a Virtual Reference Service with Little Cost or Technical Skill appears in the August edition of LLRX. The article is basically a how to on using IM and chat in a library. It’s based on my own experience with both at the UW Law Library. We …
If you missed The Hollywood Librarian at ALA, there’s good news. It is being screened in libraries this fall during Banned Books Week. A map of screening locations is available. Looks like it is showing in a handful of libraries throughout Wisconsin (times updated 9/27/07): UW–Madison SLIS – Sep 30 at 4 pm, Oct 4 …
Two recent surveys on librarian job satisfaction offer conflicting views. According to Law.com, LawFirmInc.’s sixth annual survey of law firm librarians at Am Law 200 firms reveals that they are continuing to move beyond “traditional” library work, like legal research, and into marketing and competitive intelligence, computer training and even knowledge management projects… Yet the …
I stayed up late last night reading The Book Thief: The True Crimes of Daniel Spiegelman which was written by fellow law librarian, Travis McDade. Here’s a good description that I found on Amazon: The Book Thief tells the real life story of Daniel Spiegelman, who took a turn stealing rare books and manuscripts from …
From Things You Never Knew Existed: Possessed Books Antique looking books seem perfectly harmless until someone walks by, then the middle book slides out toward the victim as if it will fall from the shelf. Books also emit spooky sounds for a totally haunted effect. 8″ x 8″ x 6.5″. And they can be yours …
There is a very good article on CNet about all the wonderful resources and services you can get for free at or from public libraries. It includes databases, e-books, audio books, and “your own personal librarian” (i.e. reference assistance). Source: Oregon Legal Research