March 2012
18 posts
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On the Agenda
Rare books meeting
Cataloguing paper
Rehearse symposium presentation
Finish slides for symposium presentation
Send resume & cover letter to Ottawa
Law paper on rare law books
Research proposal on therapy dogs and literacy
Cataloguing exam
Information Policy exam
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Legal Research, American Style
Bryan M Carson, Finding the Law: Legal Research for Librarians and Paralegals (2011), Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press.
Serena Brooks, “Educating Aspiring Law Librarians: A Student’s Perspective” (2005) 97 L Libr J 517.
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I rather serendipitously read Carson’s book on the heels of Brooks’s article. In “Educating Aspiring Law...
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Tips and Tricks (I Learned This Week)
To create a quick summary of a document:
In OS X: Highlight the text of any document (e.g. a Word doc, PDF, website, etc.), then go to the Application Menu > Services > Summarize. Adjust the summary size bar to the 20-25% marker; you now have a rough and ready summary of the text (great for skimming through before jumping into a long article).
To search for an online image’s...
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Causal Links, Vol. 4
The Ontario Court of Appeal has reserved judgment in a potentially precedent-setting case, Baglow v. Smith, dealing with online defamation [International Forum for Responsible Media]
Fuller details about Baglow v. Smith may be found via the Osgoode Hall Law School blog [The Court]
A timely primer by a partner at Field Law: “Liable for Libel on the Internet? You Bet!” [Shaunna...
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Found in a Dictionary of Words and Phrases Used in...
Waive: To relinquish; to abandon; to cast aside. To outlaw a woman; a convicted woman who is outlawed.
Corsage: An ancient and extraordinary impost payable in corn.
Court of Dusty Feet: Court of record anciently held at fairs to do justice between buyer and seller.
Scintilla juris: The smallest interest. A particle of right.
Feu et lieu: In old French-Canadian law, actual settlement on land by a tenant; hearth and home.
Appostille: In French law, an addition or annotation made in the margin of any writing.
De char et de sang: Of flesh and blood; words used at the time of Edward I in claiming one as a villain.
Corium forisfacere: To forfeit one's skin; to be whipped.
Aver et tener: To have and to hold.
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Terms of Service
Always read the terms of service (even if they’re longer than Hamlet or Macbeth), because you never know what you might be missing out on (i.e., important legal obligations; pure comedy gold).
From the new Tumblr ToS:
“You have to be at least 13 years old to use Tumblr. We’re serious: it’s a hard rule, based on U.S. federal and state legislation, even if you’re 12.9 years old. If you’re...
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Notes on a Lecture
Here are my notes from the Robert Darnton lecture on the future of libraries in a digital age. The lecture was structured around a quote from Thomas Jefferson (1813):
“He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lites his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me.”
My notes are in point-form and it’s a rather lengthy list, so...
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The Zen of Law Librarian Job Interviews →
This is an older (2004) article by Jennifer S. Murray detailing the art of the law library interview, with particular emphasis on the academic law library context.
Murray emphasizes that inasmuch as the panel is interviewing you, you should also be interviewing them. She includes a long list of potential questions to ask, to help you conduct your evaluation of the library.
Although things have...
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Better Than Expected
Happiness is finding out that the book you were looking for, Law Library Collection Development in the Digital Age, which your library did not have a copy of, was simultaneously published as a series of articles in Legal Reference Services Quarterly, which you do have access to. Hurrah!
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“True librarians can walk into an empty room, and suddenly it becomes a library....”
– New Librarianship: Librarians by Topher Lawton
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Inside Higher Ed: Gender, Technology, and... →
Too often, library workers are seen as passive drones doing uncomplicated and routine tasks that require no decision-making or learning.
I loathe this stereotype. In her lectures on library advocacy and leadership, Professor Wendy Newman has made it quite clear that the time of librarians being mere functionaries is long dead.
Librarians are leaders, decision-makers and lifelong learners;...
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Information Technology and Libraries →
The new issue of this IT- and library-related journal is open access, e-only.
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Keeping Current
In librarianship as in law, it’s so important to keep up with the state of the profession—by staying on top of trends and knowing what your colleagues are working on. Two professional publications I’ve been looking at especially are Law Library Journal and Canadian Law Library Review.
I’d like to keep a running list of articles I’ve found interesting and/or useful; if...
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Mark Twain on Copyright Law →
Mark Twain’s statement to the Congressional Joint Committee on Patents in 1906, on amending the copyright law.
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