Cheryl Niemeier and Michayla Sullivan discuss significant considerations involved in the implementation process of your new online catalog. Please see also A 360 View: Essential Steps for a Successful Next-Gen Online Catalog Upgrade (Part 1 – System Selection).
This new article by David Rothman aligns effortlessly with the 21st anniversary of LLRX.com, this site that I created and have published since 1996, during the first wave of World Wide Web initiatives. Rothman has been contributing continuous forward thinking, expertise and innovative leadership since the early1990s on the importance free ebooks, well-stocked national digital libraries, and of librarians enjoying far more of a presence on the Internet.
This road map by Cheryl Niemeier addresses specific issues that law librarians should consider prior to commencing the process of upgrading to next-generation online catalog systems.
How to turn phone-aholics and others into library book readers and gung-ho patrons, if they aren’t already? One answer is greater visibility for libraries on the Web and elsewhere. David Rothman explains that’s what Koios, Troy Gordner’s company, is about. Rothman, a national digital library evangelist, also shares innovative ideas that many libraries can implement to raise their visibility, accessibility and viability now and into the future.
Nicole Black advises lawyers on a range of applications and technology from which they can choose to establish standardized secure, encrypted email communications for all but the most extreme case-related interaction.
Smart computing is changing the nature of legal work even as the profession struggles to understand its scope. Machines sophisticated enough to communicate intelligibly and naturally with human hosts, technology with the processing power to wrangle big data are enhancing the way attorneys do their jobs and affecting the way they think. Law practices are now set up in paperless offices, cases litigated in hi-tech courtrooms, research done almost exclusively online, demanding higher levels of technical competency and professional responsibility. The vocabulary of technology is filling the legal landscape: algorithms, analytics, artificial intelligence (A.I.), automated decision-making, avatars, big data, cloud computing, code, cognitive computing, computer-aided, computer-generated, creative computing, cyborg, data driven, data mining, data science, data trails, deep learning, electronic discovery (e-discovery), expert systems, machine learning, metadata, mobile technology, mosaic theory, natural language, neural networks, paperless and virtual offices, pattern matching, predictive analytics, robotics, self-replicating technologies, smart data, smart technology, source code, and supercomputers. So, time worn lexicons and practice libraries are infiltrated with the latest computer terminologies and technical manuals. The work of lawyers, judges and government officials increasingly relies on the processing power of microchips. So, the Bartleby of tomorrow is taking shape today. From document assembly to document drafting, the borderlands of decision-making, data analysis, and communication will mark the progress of law and raise new questions for the administration of justice. And the breadth of information competence will need to expand with each new generation of technology. This article by Ken Strutin is a significant, comprehensive and expert guide to recent and notable works on the automation of lawyering, the administration of law and legal thinking.
Sabrina I. Pacifici has completely revised and updated her guide, which she first published in 2005 and has updated yearly since that time. A wide range of free sites with expertly sourced content specific to researchers focused on business, finance, government data, analysis and news from the US and around the world, are included in this article. The resources in this guide are the work of corporate, government, academic, advocacy and news sources and individuals or groups using Open Source applications. This guide is pertinent to professionals who are actively engaged in maintaining a balanced yet diverse group of reliable, actionable free and low cost sources for their daily research.