City of Milwaukee's Legislative Research Center Offers Offers Improved Access to Legislative Documents

In her Wisconsin Law Journal blog, Law Librarian Bev Butula highlights some changes to Milwaukee’s Legistar service, now called the Legislative Research Center. “If you are not familiar with Legistar, it is a system to help manage the flow of documents through the municipal legislative process. Obviously, a great help to the Clerk’s office. However, …

Google to Digitize Historical Newspapers

Earlier this month, Google announced that it is partnering with newspaper publishers to digitize millions of pages of news archives. From the announcement: You’ll be able to explore this historical treasure trove by searching the Google News Archive or by using the timeline feature after searching Google News… Not only will you be able to …

State Board of Bar Governors Supports Petition for Citation of Unpublished Opinions

WisBar reports that The State Board of Bar Governors has voted to support Wisconsin Judicial Council Petition 08-02 to amend Wis.Stat. 809.23(3) to allow the citation of unpublished appellate opinions for persuasive value. From WisBar.org: Petition 08-02, asks the Supreme Court to expand the opportunities for citation by adopting the following: (a) An unpublished opinion …

U.S. Courts Announce Victim Notification System Enhancements

U.S. Courts has announced that starting this fall they will be launching a system which automatically sends crime victims and their families information from federal courts, helping ensure that crime victims are afforded the right to reasonable, accurate, and timely notice of any relevant public court proceeding. Victim notification data will be sent from a …

WI Law Review 2008 Symposium: The Continuing Evolution of Securities Class Actions

The Wisconsin Law Review has recently announced its 2008 Symposium: The Continuing Evolution of Securities Class Actions. It will be held on Friday, October 17, 2008 at the Edgewater Hotel in Madison, Wisconsin. The symposium is co-sponsored by the Institute for Law and Economic Policy. For more information, please contact the symposium editors.

Search Twitter and Track Updates with RSS

Here’s an update to my post earlier this month on Tracking Blog Posts & Comments. Now, it seems that you can search and track what people are saying on Twitter, as well. [What is Twitter?] Go to the Twitter search page and run your search. On the results page, you’ll see a RSS Feed for …

WI Dept of Children & Families Offers Search of Licensed Child Care Facilities

The Wisconsin Department of Children and Families’ licensed child care search seems to be a hit, according to Gov. Doyle. Since its debut in July, it has logged over 200,000 visits. The licensed child care search website contains information and regulatory history on nearly 6,000 child care centers licensed by the Department of Children and …

Fastcase Free to State Bar of WI Members Starting Nov. 1st

Beginning November 1st, Fastcase will be available free to State Bar of Wisconsin members. See the press release for more information. The Fastcase database contains state and federal caselaw, statutes, administrative codes, and court rules. See this list of documents included in the State Bar of Wisconsin Fastcase subscription. Per the rep I spoke with …

Badgerlink Databases Available to All Wisconsinites – Now with Federated Searching

If you’re a regular WisBlawg reader you know that I often sing the praises of Badgerlink. Badgerlink is a collection of databases containing over 11,000 periodical titles and over 700 newspapers (including the Wall Street Journal, New York Times and many Wisconsin newspapers), children’s and adult literature, business, medical, and education sources, and many other …

LexisOne Doubles Coverage of Free Case Law from 5 to 10 Years

WSLL @ Your Service, the newsletter of the Wisconsin State Law Library, reports that “LexisOne recently doubled the number of years’ worth of free case law on its website – from five years to ten. Users can search by keyword or citation, or browse by year. As before, U.S. Supreme Court cases are available for …