Author archives

Sabrina I. Pacifici - Editor, Publisher, Founder , Owner - LLRX.com® – the free web journal on law, technology and research for Librarians, Lawyers, Researchers, Academics, and Journalists. Established in1996. See also the LLRX Twitter feed updated daily with unique resources to support effective, timely subject matter resource sharing. Sabrina I. Pacifici is also the solo Researcher/Author, beSpacific® - Accurate research and knowledge discovery of documents and resources focused on law, technology, government reports, civil liberties, justice and emerging technology issues - with a global perspective. Updated daily since 2002 with a searchable database of over 45,000 postings. See also the beSpacific Twitter feed. ABA Top 100 Law Blogs 2016-2017.

Death of Colleague, Ken Strutin, Author of LLRX Criminal Justice Guides for 13 years

Kennard (Ken) R. Strutin, lawyer, law librarian, Director of Legal Information Services for the New York State Defenders Association, professor, author, teacher, colleague, friend and respected leader in the effort to illuminate the struggles of incarcerated persons and to champion justice for them, died on November 30, 2018 after a brief illness – he was …

Subjects: Big Data, Civil Liberties, Criminal Law, Ethics, Government Resources, Human Rights, Legal Education, Legal Ethics, Legal Research

Competitive Intelligence – A Selective Resource Guide – Updated June 2017

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.

Subjects: Competitive Intelligence, Financial System, Government Resources, Internet Resources - Web Links, Legal Research, News Resources, Reference Resources, Search Engines

Introducing the Central Library of the General Secretariat of the Council of the European Union and of the European Council

Carlo Marzocchi Head of Sector, Library & Information Service shared this announcement on the resources of Central Library Council of the European Union. The Council of the European Union is the European Union institution where the Member States’ ministers responsible for specific areas (e.g. finance, health, education) meet to discuss issues of common concern within their countries. The European Council consists of the Heads of State, or Government, of the Member States, together with the President of the Council and the President of the Commission. The European Council provides the Union with the necessary impetus for its development and defines its general political directions and priorities. It does not exercise legislative functions. The administrative support to both institutions is ensured by the General Secretariat of the Council or GSC. The Central Library holds over 100,000 monographs and EU publications. Newspapers and periodicals from EU Member States are available in the reading room. The Official Journal of the European Communities is available on paper, on microfiche (until 1997), on CD-ROM (from 1998 on) and via internet.

Subjects: Comparative/Foreign Law, Legal Research, Libraries & Librarians, Reference Services

2011 Sparky Award Winners Announced, People’s Choice Contest Now Open

“Four new student films on the importance of Open Access to research and data have been voted the best by a panel of new media experts, students, and librarians in “Open Up!”, the fourth annual Sparky Awards. Calling on students to articulate their support in a two-minute video, the contest has been embraced by campuses all over the world and has inspired imaginative expressions of student support for the potential of Open Access to foster creativity, innovation, and problem solving.”

Subjects: Features

The Risky Business of Information Sharing: Why You Need to Care About Copyright

Copyright is an essential tool in the spread of new ideas, and the workplace has become ground zero for infringement. Ask employees up and down the corporate hierarchy, and they’ll tell you that whisking information electronically to co-workers is integral to their jobs. Their employers will emphatically agree. But unauthorized swaps of information also carry enormous potential risk: Ordinary office exchanges, so natural to the digital world, can easily violate the copyright rights of others and bring costly lawsuits or settlements. Now the same technology that has dramatically defined the Internet age is drawing a new roadmap to compliance, with software tools that simplify adherence to copyright requirements.

Subjects: Copyright, Features, Internet Use Policies, Law Library Management, Technology Trends

The FDsys: the new GPO Access

“GPO Access will be going away soon as the U.S. Government Printing Office rolls out the Federal Digital System (FDsys), an advanced digital system that will enable GPO to manage Government information from all three branches of the U.S. Government. Learn about the new system and its features, what content is available through it, and search strategies. Not only is FDsys a powerful tool for the public to access online, authoritative Federal information, but it also serves as a preservation repository for the content and a content management system for Federal agencies.”

Subjects: Government Resources