Category «Libraries & Librarians»

A User Guide to the Marrakesh Treaty

Jonathan Band provides a comprehensive guide to the recent international adoption of the “Marrakesh Treaty to Facilitate Access to Published Works for Persons Who Are Blind, Visually Impaired, or Otherwise Print Disabled.” The Treaty is intended to promote the making and distribution of copies of books and other published materials in formats accessible to people with print disabilities. The Treaty would achieve this objective by obligating signatory countries (referred to as Contracting Parties) to adopt exceptions in their copyright laws that permit the making of copies in accessible formats as well as the distribution of those copies both domestically and internationally. This memorandum explains the Treaty’s provisions. The memorandum concludes that Title 17 of the United States Code complies with the Treaty’s requirements, and thus that the United States could sign and ratify the Treaty without making any changes to domestic law.

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Subjects: Copyright, Features, Government Resources, Intellectual Property, International Legal Research, Law Librarians, Libraries & Librarians, United States Law

Rebooting Legal Research in a Digital Age

Steven A. Lastres writes that research has always been core to the practice of law. However, the results of a recent survey Steven has authored identified a “New Normal” in today’s business climate that has a profound effect in the delivery of legal services and impacts how research is conducted.

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Subjects: Features, Law Firm Marketing, Legal Research, Legal Research Training, LEXIS, Libraries & Librarians, Library Marketing

A to-do for the American Library Association and local and state governments: Resolutions calling for a National Digital Library Endowment

David Rothman’s proposed FAQ includes suggested wording for an ALA resolution on the National Digital Library Endowment. His focus is less on the exact language at this point and more on the basic endowment concept on the agendas of various constituencies, NGOs, library associations and Washington policymakers.

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Subjects: Features, Internet Resources, Libraries & Librarians, Portals, Virtual Library

Promising DPLA debut–but please don’t confuse with a full-fledged ‘public library’ demo

David H. Rothman discusses the strengths and gaps of the current site, which he notes is a demo project with which the DPLA hopes to raise money and attract more, and much needed volunteers. The organization also plans to use this iteration as an opportunity to apply lessons learned to future versions as the project navigates forward in a demonstrably challenging time for libraries.

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Subjects: Features, Libraries & Librarians, Library Marketing, Library Software & Technology, Web Accessibility

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.

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

A national digital library endowment: How Americas billionaires could be modern Carnegies for real

David H. Rothman discusses how e-books, collections of electrons, not atoms, come with special advantages. They eliminate physical-shelving costs and are especially useful for blind people and others with special needs. Digital technology can also help multiply the selection of books for residents of small towns as well as large cities with underfunded neighborhood library branches. This technology can likewise drive down the costs of providing best-sellers and help with popularizing authoritative information on key issues such as health and finance.

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Subjects: E-Books, Gadgets, Internet Resources - Web Links, Legal Technology, Libraries & Librarians

Knowledge Discovery Resources 2013 – An Internet Annotated Link Dataset Compilation

Marcus P. Zillman’s current annotated link compilation encompasses top value-added resources for knowledge discovery available through the Internet. The selected resources and sites provide a wide range of actionable knowledge and avenues for information discovery to leverage as part of your overall research project strategy.

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Subjects: Competitive Intelligence, Data Mining, Features, Internet Trends, Libraries & Librarians
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