Lex Libri: Archive

Summer Learnin'

School may be out, but the learning never stops! Here are a few general library things I’m excited to brush up on this summer, while the job search kicks into high gear:

Languages (French; Italian; Irish)
HTML, CSS, XML (upcoming workshop from Ladies Learning Code)
MS Office (I use Office for Mac every day, but should revisit Windows)
Presentation tools (Prezi; SlideShare)
LibGuides
Sirsi Workflows
Sharepoint

Tumblibrarians: are there other tools I should be learning and/or brushing up on this summer?

Business/Competitive Intelligence Databases (thanks, J.)

Apr 21, 20123 notes

#library school #librarians #to do

Legal Research: Rated M for Mature

Apr 21, 20121 note

#legal research #tools #funny

Legal Apps

The Law Librarians of Puget Sound have put together a list of nine essential apps for legal practitioners. I like this list because it sticks to the essentials: four productivity apps and five legal research apps.

Most of these would be useful for Canadian legal research, apart from Fastcase and LawStack. I haven’t been able to find all-in-one Canadian alternatives to those products—seems like this area is ripe for innovation. Is this something CanLII might be able to take the lead on?

Top: Evernote, iAnnotate, Dropbox, Dragon Dictation
Bottom: Fastcase, LawStack, HeinOnline, WestlawNext, Lexis Advance

Apr 21, 2012

#legal research #law library #productivity #tools

baralgin:

Look up words to find their meanings and associations with other words and concepts. Produce diagrams reminiscent of a neural net. Learn how words associate.

Apr 20, 20128 notes

#words and phrases #tools

You’re a recent law grad and a new hire at a small firm. A partner asks you to use your Westlaw or Lexis student account to get your research done for free. What do you do? What do you do?

In this post, Jason Potter offers two irrefutable reasons for avoiding any sort of unauthorized use (i.e., it’s unethical and Westlaw/Lexis will recover from you). He also gives students a great solution: offer to leverage all available free legal research tools to get the job done.

Apr 20, 2012

#legal research #law #law library

Getting to know Steve Matthews, the founder of Stem Legal. I was especially interested in Steve’s take on the potential interplay between the law library and the IT department…

Law librarians need to be involved in [IT] projects much much earlier. That means:

being a bit of a visionary, and seeing what the firm is not doing;

maintaining dialogue and ongoing discussion – especially during planning season;

bringing information to the table that helps IT make better decisions;

watching for ways to support IT’s projects, building some “good will”; and finally,

moving some of that good will towards IT-Library joint projects.

…and the marketing department:

Most law libraries have BI & CI on the radar these days (or at least they should), but librarians can also have a role in marketing. Think about:

resource collections with a marketing draw beyond law;

getting the newest decisions to the blogging lawyers in your firm;

rounding up industry news, and helping your firm publish content as a service.

Apr 20, 20122 notes

#law librarian #law library #library services #marketing #information technology

All Over But The Pomp & Circumstance

I just handed in my Information Policy, Regulation & Law paper…which means I have finished all of the requirements in satisfaction of the Master of Information (Library and Information Science, Collaborative Program in Rare Books and Print Culture) degree.

YAY!

Apr 19, 2012

#library school #personal

Apr 13, 2012

#law librarian

Apr 11, 20122 notes

#infographic #law #social media

“Make sure you know how much time you can spend on something, and how much Westlaw or Lexis money you can burn…you’re going to be the one who gets yelled at when the client balks at the $30,000 research bill you ran up on a fairly minor point of law. If you’re not sure how much time something should take, ask. If you don’t know how much time you can spend on Westlaw or Lexis, ask. Even, “Hey, do you have a ballpark idea of how long this should take?” can save you from a very unpleasant situation down the road. (Oh, and make sure you know how to research cost-effectively. When in doubt, ask.)” —10 Things Your Law Firm Boss Wants You To Know, but Isn’t Going to Tell You | The Girl’s Guide to Law School

Apr 10, 20121 note

#ask a law librarian #law #legal research

From the Dictionary of International Business Terms (Owen & Clark, 2001)

Poison Pill: Technique used by companies facing a hostile takeover bid to make their stock as unattractive as possible to the aggressor.
Porcupine Provision: Provision written into a company's articles of association, or into a corporate charter or bylaw, designed to act as a deterrent to hostile takeovers.
Shark Repellent: Informal term for defensive tactics resorted to in the event of a takeover bid.

Apr 8, 2012

#law dictionary #words and phrases #oddities

Causal Links, Vol. 5

The Lillian Goldman Law Library at Yale has a comprehensive country-by-country guide to researching foreign law that includes links to WorldLII, online research guides, and other online databases. [Guide to Foreign Law Research]

The Library of Congress offers detailed guides for researching laws from fourteen international jurisdictions: Australia, Brazil, Britain, China, Egypt, Eritrea, France, Hong Kong, India, Israel, Japan, Lebanon, Russia, and Sweden. [Foreign and International Law]

Toujours sur le thème du droit international, Legisfrance, le “service public de la diffusion du droit” offre plusieurs traductions du droit français (en plusieurs langues) comme le code civil et la constitution, parmi d’autres lois et décrets. [Catalogue des Traductions]

Apr 7, 2012

#causal links #international law

Apr 7, 2012

#books #reading #lit

Jason Potter, a legal research and writing professor at the University of San Diego School of Law, is curating and blogging/tweeting about free legal research tools at researchfreedom.com and @researchfreedom.

I’m really jazzed about this project. On the surface, the delivery is so simple and straightforward—but the implications for access to justice? To help legal professionals and law students be more cost-effective in their work? It makes me want to shout and point: “Yes! This!”

Apr 6, 2012

#legal research #legal information

Apr 5, 20121 note

#legal history #quote #rare books #law books

Apr 3, 2012

#legal research #legal history

This post from Allison C. Shields is full of useful tips—on everything from networking to live tweeting—just in time for the spring conference season. I’m attending (and, with any luck, volunteering at) my first CALL conference in May—so excited.

I have one additional tip, based on my recent symposium experience. If you can, take five minutes after each presentation just to reflect and make some summary notes. It will give all those new ideas a chance to sink in, and save you from that information overload feeling at the end of the day.

Apr 3, 2012

#conferences #law librarian

My First Symposium™

I gave my first professional presentation at an e-reading symposium this past weekend.

It was a terrifically informative day; the talks were on such diverse subjects as serendipity, close vs. distant reading, fan fiction, read-along records, commuter reading, and locative reading. The keynote by Bonnie Mak was a fantastic romp through book history as she sought the “e” in e-reading.

Of all the kind words and positive feedback I received, perhaps most exciting was being encouraged to submit my paper for publication. My goal for this year was to submit at least two papers for peer-review; along with a currently-in-progress paper on rare books in law libraries, I’m thisclose to achieving that goal and it feels incredible.

Apr 3, 2012

#conferences #publishing #personal

Apr 3, 201218 notes

#libraries #librarians #books

Lex Libri

April 2012

19 posts

March 2012

18 posts