In anticipation of the incorporation of Ravel Law visualization technology into an upcoming iteration of LexisAdvance, Reference Librarian and Professor Sarah Gotcshall shows us examples of how Ravel Law and Shepard’s graphical view work now.
Ellyssa Kroski is the Director of Information Technology at the New York Law Institute and an award-winning editor and author of 36 books. In Part One of a three part series for LLRX, she describes the current landscape of eBooks relevant to the law library field, the benefits and challenges of offering eBooks in law libraries, the different ways to purchase law-related eBooks, and how to get started choosing a solution.
While Lyonette Louis-Jacques was conducting research on the subject of illustrated law books, she identified the extensive work of her colleague, Michael Widener – Yale Lillian Goldman Law Library. Mike has shared his research in a number of presentations and lectures that Lyo identifies for us, in addition to sharing her considerable insights and own work on this subject. The confluence of their respective work provides us with a “sense of wonder and play, things that can be in short supply in today’s world.”
For law librarians, the past 25 years have engaged us in a journey from fee based access to the law via books, followed by dedicated terminals and CDs, to online portal services, to the current state of far more open, accessible and free access to the law. Sarah Glassmeyer’s perspective on this journey helps us focus on information access as a key facet of justice, highlighting the critical foundation that Cornell’s Legal Information Institute established for our communities of best practice to follow as we continue to pursue complete and free access to all facets of legal information on the Internet.
Our exposure to and reliance upon an increasingly ubiquitous range of technology is intertwined with issues related to intellectual property law. With smartphone cameras used to capture and share what their respective creators otherwise claim as intellectual property, to the devices, services and applications that comprise the Internet of Things (IoT), Ken Grady raises significant and as yet unresolved concerns about how the rule of law will be applied in response to the use, and misuse, of AI and digital personal assistants.
The Internet of Things (IoT) has permeated all facets of our lives – professional, family, social – more quickly and expansively than many are willing to acknowledge. The repercussions of IoT are multifaceted – and directly impact issues that span privacy, cybersecurity, intellectual property rights, civil liberties and the law. Law and technology scholar Joshua A.T. Fairfield discusses the ramifications of allowing our environment to be seeded with sensors that gather our personal data using a plethora of devices we now consider to be essential conveniences.
This overview by Peter Charles focuses on the impact of data collection in reference to DUI prosecutions, and includes recent court cases, notable articles on DUI law, and loops in the escalating use of data collection and privacy rights.
Notable developments in courtrooms, academia and government institutions, both state and federal, are laying the groundwork for challenges to fingerprint matching. This extensively researched, comprehensive annotated bibliography by Ken Strutin includes new and noteworthy materials such as key opinions, significant articles and online resources concerning accuracy, reliability, validity as well as authenticity of fingerprint evidence. It also includes information on scientific and technological developments that are pushing the frontiers of biometric analysis.
Genevieve Zook’s guide to fake news takes a multifaceted, long view of the history of spreading misinformation, through word of mouth to the acceleration of this activity through social media. Zook identifies examples in which fake news impacts different disciplines, diverse topics and subject matter. She references the survey data gathered by reliable organizations that assist us in better understanding the dimensions of this issue. And vitally, Zook documents actionable resources, many of which are authored by law librarians, to facilitate our ability to make sound decisions, exercise our critical skills, and deliver expert services to our users and customers moving forward.
Attorney Carolyn Elefant discusses what she has learned from her recent experience with data-driven decision making – specifically, although data improves the accuracy of predictions, it doesn’t remove all risk.