Category «Legal Technology»

Evolutions in DNA Forensics

Criminal law expert Ken Strutin’s new article is yet another research tour de force – a collection of recent and notable developments concerning DNA as forensic science, metric of guilt, herald of innocence, and its emerging place in the debate over privacy and surveillance. The increasing use of DNA evidence to support assumptions of an individual’s guilt and less frequently as a tool to prove the innocence of prisoners wrongly convicted, reflects many facets of the changing fabric of the American criminal justice, the role of the Fourth Amendment and the increasing collection of a wide range of biological evidence from crime scenes whose metadata then is searchable within the national DNA database.

Subjects: Criminal Law, Discovery, Legal Research

Legal Research at Your Fingertips: Lexis Views, Bestlaw, and Google for Lawyers?

Ashley Ahlbrand is the Educational Technology at Librarian Indiana University’s Maurer School of Law. Her expert teaching and training skills offer readers insights into the role of Google as well as integrative browser add-ons like Lexis Views in preparing students to effectively and comprehensively complete research assignments.

Subjects: Internet Resources - Web Links, Internet Trends, Law Librarians, Legal Research, Legal Research Training, LEXIS, News Resources, Online Legal Research Services, Open Source, Technology Trends

Introducing a New Success Framework for Information Professionals

Author, librarian, and professor Bruce Rosenstein’s article clearly articulates key deliverables that librarians and information professionals can frame, communicate about and deliver – specifically expert knowledge services, data curation, research, training and leadership skills – to organizations in a wide range of sectors.

Subjects: Information Management, Libraries & Librarians, Training

You Say Aggregate, I Say Curate

Zena Applebaum, a law firm competitive intelligence director, defines an important development in the way that critical business information is shared within laws firms and similar organizations. Applebaum defines and aligns the role of “content curation,” a practice and skill wherein information from all the content in the world is provided to stakeholders through a precise, focused and filtered process with the result of direct benefits to specific groups, teams and projects.

Subjects: Business Research, Communication Skills, Competitive Intelligence, KM, Libraries & Librarians, Library Marketing

State Legal Information Census: An Analysis of Primary State Legal Information

This report by Sarah Glassmeyer presents findings from a survey of state level primary legal information. Primary legal information includes code (codified statutes passed by state legislatures), regulations (codified collections of rules passed by administrative agencies) and case law (appellate court decisions). This survey was done with the goal of reviewing the free and open status of this legal information.

Subjects: Government Resources, Law Librarians, Online Legal Research Services, Reference Resources

Web Data Extractors 2016

Extracting data from the internet has become an increasingly high priority for organizations with teams that focus on mining and leveraging huge amounts of data as part of an effective, collaborative and actionable work product. Tools and protocols to extract content rich information are in demand as researchers seek to discover new knowledge at an ever increasing rate. As robots (bots) and intelligent agents are at the heart of many extraction tools, Marcus Zillman has created a compilation of a wide range of free, fee and collaborative sources, services and sites that offer users a range of approaches to extract information from the web.

Subjects: Business Research, Competitive Intelligence, Internet Resources, KM, Social Media, Wiki

Fight for Kindle all-text bold option: Why you STILL need to write Amazon – and the media

David Rothman has been proactively and consistently engaged in an effort to increase visual usability of the Kindle for K-12 kids, the elderly and others with contrast-sensitivity problems. He has requested the company implement either an all-text-bold option or the ability to use a slider to vary the boldness.

Subjects: E-Books, Product Reviews, Technology Trends

Bill Gates: A billionaire book critic who apparently shuns e-books

E-book pioneer and advocate David Rothman’s commentary shines a critical light on the reading habits of Microsoft founder Bill Gates who reads his average 50 books each year, in print format. The potential impact of Microsoft in the e-book market as well as in funding support of e-books for public libraries has been muted. Rothman’s insights include hope to win over much needed support for free public sector digital libraries.

Subjects: E-Books, Libraries & Librarians, Library Marketing, Library Software & Technology

The Growing Need to Standardize and Validate Online Education Credentials for the Job Market

Learning new skills to support more effective engagement in a competitive job market has attracted many job seekers and employees to online education, most often through Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). Alan Rothman is proficient in the arena of e-learning and expands the discussion of what courses are available to how they are accredited and subsequently whether they are recognized by potential employers.

Subjects: Continuing Legal Education, Distance Learning, Internet Resources, Job Hunting, KM, Training, Web-Based Training