Tara Calishain is the co-author of Official Netscape Guide to Internet Research, 2nd Edition, and author or co-author of four other books. She is the owner of CopperSky Writing & Research.
In This Issue:
Kentucky Prepares to Put Inmate Information Online
Bloomberg Makes More Headlines Available
FindLaw Streamlines Their Site
Questia to Offer Free Trial of Their Service
Ask Jeeves Gets Multimedia Search
LLRXBuzz Archives: April 3, 2000 – Present
LLRXBu zz Research Tip Archives
The Latest on Legal Research
Click here to subscribe to the weekly LLRXBuzz Email Update.
BankruptcyData.com Expands
Business Wire: November 6, 2000. BankruptcyData.com has added a daily list of business bankruptcy filings from selected bankruptcy courts. The list currently contains over 200 companies that have filed bankruptcy in the last 30 days. Users have access to the date a company filed, where, when, and the attorney contact information. You can read the press release on this at http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/001106/ma_bankrup.html . If you want information on older filings, you can either browse the database by the name of the company or do a database search. (You can search by name, company type, business type, or bankruptcy start date.) However, for in-depth information on the older filings, you’ll have to pay some moolah. A variety of reports are available for a variety of prices. I found synopses for $5, extended synopses for $10, a creditors report for $15, and a news archive report for $15. Sample reports are available so you can get an idea of content.
Kentucky Prepares to Put Inmate Information Online
Later this month the Kentucky Department of Corrections will launch KOOL — the Kentucky Offender Online Lookup. this database will contain information about every inmate in the Kentucky prison system including a photo, information on their crime, and the date of scheduled release or parole hearing. it can be searched by first or last name and prison location. the database will contain information on all 15,623 inmates in Kentucky’s 12 state prisons and information about inmates on parole. Eventually, this site will contain information back to 1976. You can get the Courier-Journal story on this new database at http://www.courier-journal.com/localnews/2000/0011/07/001107priz.html .
Bloomberg Makes More Headlines Available
Bloomberg has expanded their News-To-Go feature to include 21 category specific newsletters covering particular regions, countries, and industries and financial topics. The News-To- Go feature is accessible from Bloomberg’s welcome page. Users can receive a free, immediate, printable e-mail summary of the day’s news distributed about the time major markets close in a particular region. Each overview includes a summary of the top ten financial stories for each category selected. You can check out the press release for the expanded service at http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/001108/ny_bloombe.html or sign up for the service at http://quote.bloomberg.com/newstogo/registration.html .
You can choose from several regions or a few (6) countries. You can also choose from five industry sectors or four different topics (mergers, commodities, currencies, economies). The newsletter can be received as text or html.
FindLaw Streamlines Their Site
FindLaw has redesigned is site, making it hopefully faster and easier to conduct legal research, obtain legal services, and connect to members of the legal community. The site can now be navigated through four channels targeted at FindLaw’s four user groups, legal professionals, law students, businesses, and the public. Each channel can search FindLaw’s offerings by jurisdiction, legal subject, or primary or secondary materials distinction. Check out the press release at http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/001109/ca_findlaw.html .
If you really like this site, don’t forget to check out the personalized traffic information you can get. This site needs more city information — 28 isn’t all that much – but there are some cool things here, and it’s nicely put together. Worth a look.
Questia to Offer Free Trial of Their Service
Questia is an academic research site that will launch officially early next year. They’re planning to have 50,000 volumes digitized and available for browsing, along with crosslinked biographies and footnotes. By 2004, they hope to have 250,000 volumes digitized. There is no list of the volumes being digitized, only a note that it’s designed to support undergraduate study in the liberal arts (more information on the collection development at http://www.questia.com/what_coll.html .)
Questia is not offering institutional access to this material. Instead, they are concentrating on individual subscribers. (Isn’t THAT a revolutionary thought.) Check them out.
Ask Jeeves Gets Multimedia Search
Ask Jeeves ( http://www.ask.com ) has hooked up with StreamSearch to allow for multimedia searching at Ask Jeeves. StreamSearch claims a multimedia database of over 2 million streaming and downloadable audio and video files which will be available now at Ask Jeeves. Note that it’s “if multimedia-related questions are asked. “The materials are down at the bottom under “other search engines.” The question “Where can I get a picture of a giraffe?” brought from StreamSearch, strangely enough, several audio clips. Going from giraffes to the song “Can I Get A Witness” is a bit of a stretch but hey, searching on Ask Jeeves is sometimes surreal anyway. Get the press release on this new alliance at http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/001101/ny_ask_jee.html .