Features and Columns — August, 2008

Technology Tools for Information Management

Roger V. Skalbeck and Barbara Fullerton's fast paced presentation of 19 practical, low cost and innovative tech tools they respectively use on a regular basis. So if you are looking for ideas to improve your use of Outlook, RSS, Adobe, and enhance your presentations and collaborative goals, this article is a must read. — Published August 18, 2008

FOIA Facts: Expanding the FOIA

Scott A. Hodes highlights the recent introduction of legislation that would eliminate the FOIA shield for the Smithsonian Institute, and the continued lack of transparency when dealing with other federal agencies. — Published August 17, 2008

July, 2008

Law of the Pacific Islands: A Guide to Web Based Resources

Ruth Bird's guide is expertly updated by Dianne Thompson and Anna Matich, each of whom possess comprehensive legal research expertise on this topical area. — Published July 31, 2008

Commentary: Immunity for Telecom Eavesdropping

Beth Wellington's commentary tracks the legislative path of retroactive immunity for telecom eavesdropping. — Published July 30, 2008

Reference from Coast to Coast: Summer Musings

Jan Bissett and Margi Heinen provide a timely and valuable refresher on a range of well-sourced, reliable, topical websites, guides, print and program materials useful for summer associate legal research training. — Published July 29, 2008

A Review of Zotero, the free, Firefox extension to assist in collecting, managing and citing research sources

Stacy Bruss focuses on specific and practical examples of using this flexible application to organize and manage current collections of resources as well as citations to documents, web sites, and blogs. — Published July 24, 2008

Criminal Justice Resources: Sex Offender Residency Restrictions

Ken Strutin's guide collects recent court decisions, research papers and reports that have addressed the efficacy of exclusionary zoning laws and the impact of these restrictions on sex offenders reentering their communities. — Published July 20, 2008

E-Discovery Update: Lessons From An E-Discovery Disaster

Conrad J. Jacoby examines the recent case of Southern New England Telephone Company (“SNET”) v. Global NAPS, Inc. as an example of how stonewalling and committing perjury, especially with respect to electronic discovery matters that can be independently validated, remains a poor litigation strategy. — Published July 20, 2008

The Goverment Domain: Government Topics at the SLA 2008 Conference

Peggy Garvin's article focuses on key speakers and significant issues, services and websites that hightlighted issues, initiatives and services significant to the government documents arena. — Published July 9, 2008

June, 2008

E-Discovery Update: Precision, Accuracy, and Relevance

Conrad J. Jacoby discusses the challenges and ramifications inherent in an evironment where litigants have increasingly come to rely on computerized search queries rather than free-form document review to identify potentially relevant documents. — Published June 30, 2008

LLRX Book Review by Heather A. Phillips - Tabloid Justice: Criminal Justice in an Age of Media Frenzy and The Star Chamber: How Celebrities Go Free and their Lawyers Become Famous

Heather A. Phillips reviews a new book whose main focus is on uses on six major criminal cases of the 1990s, as well as one that concentrates on the details of what really happens when the media circus invades the courthouse, and the effect it has on both the trial participants and the verdict. — Published June 29, 2008

FOIA Facts: My Proposals for the FOIA

Following up on the passage earlier this year of the OPEN Government Act of 2007, FOIA expert Scott A. Hodes make two proposals absent from the law, but which would help FOIA requesters. — Published June 29, 2008

60 Gadgets in 60 Minutes

Three techie gurus (Barbara Fullerton, Ed Vawter, and Dina Dreifuerst) take you on a whirlwind, freewheeling virtual trip of the latest, greatest, fun, fanciful, must have gadgets available now and in the near future. — Published June 24, 2008

Competitive Intelligence - A Selective Resource Guide

Sabrina I. Pacifici's revised and updated pathfinder focuses on leveraging selected reliable, focused, free and low cost sites and sources to effectively profile and monitor companies, markets, countries, people, and issues. This guide is a "best of list" of web and database products, services and tools, as well links to reliable sources produced by governments, academia, NGOs, the media and various publishers. — Published June 1, 2008

May, 2008

The Art of Written Persuasion: The Rise of Written Persuasion

In this column, Troy Simpson writes on persuading judges in writing. This first article in the series surveys the history of written advocacy in three jurisdictions — England and Wales, Australia, and America - to show why good written advocacy is vital to the modern lawyer. — Published May 30, 2008

Commentary: Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2007

Beth Wellington focuses on the issue of pay inequity through an exploration of the positions taken by the administration, Congress, the Supreme Court and various journalists. — Published May 28, 2008

The Government Domain: Plain Language in Government Communications

Peggy Garvin demonstrates the impact of the Plain Language in Government Communications Act of 2008 on the accessibility of content posted on e-government websites. — Published May 20, 2008

Keeping Up with Class Actions: Reports, Legal Sites and Blogs of Note

Staying current on the latest cases and news in the area of class actions can be challenging, but Scott Russell's guide to reliable subscription based publications, free legal sites and blogs that offer timely news, analysis and selected copies of court filings, is a valuable resource. — Published May 19, 2008

Burney's Legal Tech Reviews - Gadgets for Legal Pros: Ergotech "Convertible" Monitor Arm and Canary Wireless Digital Hotspotter

Brett Burney reviews a multi-screen flat panel LCD monitor mount solution and a Wi-Fi gadget that provides network ID, signal strength and accessibility information for multiple networks. — Published May 12, 2008

A Little Grafting of Second Life into a Legal Research Class

Rob Hudson discusses how Second Life can be used to enhance legal research instruction/ Experiments in full class lectures and other uses of Second Life in higher education offer a mixture of hype and excitement. — Published May 9, 2008

CongressLine: Running for Congress

Paul Jenks recounts how for the past two years he has run marathons and monitored Congress at the same time, describing how the two experiences are very similar. — Published May 9, 2008

LLRX Book Review by Heather A. Phillips - A Guide to HIPAA Security and the Law

Heather A. Phillips reviews Stephen S. Wu's book whose focus is coming into compliance with the recent and complex new HIPAA requirements. — Published May 7, 2008

Conrad Jacoby's E-Discovery Update: Attorneys, Experts, and E-Discovery Competence

Conrad J. Jacoby focuses on two recent cases that emphasize the credibility problems counsel can face in the context of e-discovery - and suggest that outside assistance may be the only way for some counsel to demonstrate that these materials are being managed in a competent and trustworthy way. — Published May 7, 2008

FOIA Facts - My Proposal: FOIA Litigation Reporting Requirements

Scott A. Hodes makes the case that there should be a reporting requirement for all FOIA lawsuits requiring agencies to inform a central FOIA Office the outcome of FOIA lawsuits. — Published May 7, 2008

April, 2008

The Personal Information Trainer

Stuart Basefsky documents how the Personal Information Trainer can become a unique employee benefit written into the employment contract of key individuals deemed to be essential to the success of a firm or institution. This concept is useful to human resource managers, libraries, and the institutions they serve. This article provides the fundamental concepts and constructs necessary to implement such a program with an emphasis on why and how this should be done. — Published April 4, 2008

Criminal Law Resources: Fingerprint Evidence Challenges

Ken Strutin's article includes selected resources published on the web concerning the reliability and admissibility of fingerprint evidence. Links to guides, standards and related materials are listed to provide some background on the processes and application of this identification technique. — Published April 4, 2008

The Social Networking Titans: Facebook and MySpace

With this article, librarians Deborah Ginsberg and Meg Kribble raise awareness about the different features provided by these services, and their respective impact on students, lawyers, public users, fellow professionals, and other patrons. — Published April 4, 2008

Update to Choosing Law Librarianship: Thoughts for People Contemplating a Career Move

From the perspective of several decades in the profession, Mary Whisner provides advice and specific data on what new law librarians should know about salaries, career opportunities, job responsibilities and challenges. — Published April 4, 2008

Living With the Asus Eee PC

Conrad J. Jacoby who wrote this review about the Eee, on his Eee, details the strengths and weaknesses of this popular lightweight PC, including its range of software applications, overall functionality, networking and connectivity, and the rationale for keeping his laptop. — Published April 4, 2008

Doing Legal Research in Canada

Ted Tjaden's comprehensive guide provides information and links to print and online resources and is aimed primarily at researchers outside of Canada needing an overview of Canadian legal research. — Published April 4, 2008