Law librarian Mary Whisner (U of Washington Law) reported on the AALL Academic SIS listserv today the resulted of a survey done by The ABA Section of Litigation of law students (they apparently do regular surveys). Although the response rate is admittedly low (172), the students who responded indicated a strong vote of support for legtal research:

Which of the following first-year courses has proven to be the most valuable to you during your time in law school?

40% of respondents answered with Legal Research and Writing (with the next highest response being contracts at 17%)

Which of the following . . . [more]

For the first time, the annual CALL conference, this year in Edmonton May 7-10, will be blogged.

An announcement on the AALL Listserv was made today for a new legal research blog that focuses on social justice issues. The blog is called Vox Bibliothecae and is run by the law librarians at the Zimmerman Law Library at Dayton School of Law. . . . [more]

Quicklaw/LexisNexis announced today that the Butterworths NetLetters have been transmogrified — well, they didn’t actually use that word — into the LexisNexis NetLetters “with a brand new look and style.”

Other changes:

The Aboriginal and Immigration Law NetLetters will become bilingual, meaning that they will contain both English common law and French civil law decisions when available. Summaries in both languages will also be provided where decisions are released in both languages. The Patent NetLetter will merge with the Copyright and Trade-mark NetLetter into one Intellectual Property NetLetter, which will also be bilingual.

NetLetters on the following subjects are available . . . [more]

[cross-posted on the VLLB]

How closely aligned are social software tools and your KM goals? As noted by Jack Vinson this morning, Mike Gotta’s post is an excellent reminder that the two often go hand-in-hand.

I’m currently in Portal construction mode these days (why I missed my post last week), so both Jack and Mike’s comments really hit home. When it comes to delivering on the goals of KM, as Jack points out, it really is about “smoothing bumps in the path of finding, using and creating knowledge”.

I’ve always been a fan of well honed online communities (both . . . [more]

The Toronto Star reports today that the hoped-for announcement about funding for the York subway line extension may be just the boost that’s needed for York University to win the bid for the new location for the provincial archives. Apparently there are several competitors for the projected new building but the ease of access to be provided by the new subway line would be a major factor in York’s favour. And there’s a huge vacant space adjacent to Osgoode Hall Law School and near the Scott Library that would be just perfect for the new building. I confess to already . . . [more]

This (gently self-promotional) letter from Sean Hocking, received yesterday:

Dear Slaw,

I was doing some googling over the weekend and noticed your january 06 post about myself and my blog House of Butter.

Just FYI

House of Butter was created as a blog in early 2002 after I resigned from the Australian arm of Lexis Nexis. The House of Butter title is a reference to Butterworths purchased by Lexis Nexis and then dismantled by it’s US parent I think much to the detriment of the legal publishing industry as a whole and especially any Butterworths client.

I see LN these

. . . [more]

« Le scandale du monde est ce qui fait l’offense. Et ce n’est pas pécher que pécher en silenceMolière, Tartuffe.»

In a post September 11 environment, one value that appears to have compromised (if not sacrificed) is transparency in the availability of legal norms. This should be an issue for all Slaw readers, not just those whose work touches on criminal law or constitutional rights.

A few examples.

We now know about the secret court, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, whose minimal process was too much for the DoJ.

But now it seems that we have . . . [more]

Taking up on my colleague Laurel Murdoch’s post at the end of my Day of Destruction thread last week, she said that “the process of research… affects the final result”.

We talk occasionally about serendipity, the intersction of apparent chance on the research process. On Friday, Laurel asked whether I knew of any cases which dealt with the phenomenon of a court deciding an issue on grounds or citing caselaw completely different from what counsel had argued.

A brief reflection and a couple of calls to our Slaw colleague Eric Gertner (l) and John Swan (r), which led me to . . . [more]

Those of you subscribing to comments, either by email or by RSS, may have noticed that on occasion comment spam is getting past the filters. It gets deleted as soon as I notice it. If it continues at this rate, it’s a manageable problem. However, if it gets worse, I’ll have to make the filter even more stringent, which might hinder (but not prevent) legitimate comments, so I’m loath to do that. . . . [more]

Well, seems like someone did not tell staffers at the CIA that Wikipedia has become more vigilant in monitoring ‘who changes what’ on the online encyclopedia. A sidebar story “Look Who’s Using Wiki To Rewrite History” from Capital Insider (Business Week, March 13, 2006, p. 49, By Richard S. Dunham) reports as follows:

“… What does the CIA have against Bill Clinton? In the latest episode of virtual vandalism by federal employees, CIA staffers have been caught altering entries in Wikipedia, an online encyclopedia that can be edited by anyone with an Internet connection. Someone using

. . . [more]

Is it just me, or does there seem to be an increase in fraudulent activities these days? I have seen increased evidence of activities such as phishing, spoofing, faux lottery schemes, and calls asking for renewals of directories never previously purchased, as well as the ever popular grabbing of company logos from websites and using them on letters to defraud people out of money in their bank accounts.

And as if phishing weren’t enough, there is something even more targeted called “spear phishing“:

How spear phishing scams work
Spear phishing describes any highly targeted phishing attack. Spear phishers

. . . [more]