Washington Post Extends Free Access to Content

The BeSpacific blog (12/26/2005) points us
to a report by ClickZ News that states that
"the Washington Post.com will now provide
access to articles for a 60 day period following
publication, according to James M. Brady,
Executive Editor. Prior to this, articles were archived
after 14 days. Extending access to readers via blogs
and RSS is credited as a key reason for the change."

50 Greatest Gadgets of the Past 50 Years

Is your favorite gadget listed in PC World's
"50 Greatest Gadgets of the Past 50 Years?"

The e-zine's editors selected the top fifty, which "had to
be relatively small (no cars or big-screen TVs, for example),
and ...whose digital descendants are covered in PC World
(cameras, yes; blenders, no). [Items were] rated..on usefulness,
design, degree of innovation, and influence on subsequent
gadgets, as well as the ineffable quality we called the "cool
factor." The Sony Walkman ranked #1.

CRS Report: Limitations on Congressional Access to Certain National Intelligence

The CRS (Congressional Research Service) has
issued a report requested by Senator Feinstein
on Congress and its role as a consumer of national
intelligence. The report also includes a listing and a
description of some of the U.S. Intelligence Community's
principal intelligence products, including an identification
of those which the executive branch routinely shares
with Congress, and those which it does not.

Seasonal Depression Awareness Month

As I look out on the heavy snowfall and leaden
skies I am reminded that this is Seasonal
Depression Awareness Month. According
to Medical News Today (12/5/2005), as
many as 10-20% of the population suffer
from this form of depressive illness also
known as Seasonal Affective Disorder.

Help is available! A SAD web page (from
the National Mental Health Information Center
of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services
Administration (SAMHSA), U.S. Dept. of Health and
Human Services ) explains the symptoms of and
treatment options for SAD, and offers links to information
on related mental health topics.

Related web links:

SAD Association
(International support group web site
with lots of information)

Cleveland Clinic Health Information Center
(Good overview with sources for light therapy equipment)

Westfield State College Counseling Services: SAD Fact Sheet
(Succinct but complete fact sheet. Includes recommendations
for prevention and self-help as well as a list for further reading)

NARA: Access to Archives Databases

The National Archives and Records Administration
announces its "new and improved" Access to
Archives Databases (AAD) site. It "features global free-
text searching across all series and files in addition to
standard fielded searches, [as well as] easier and faster
ways to find the series and files you want."

Categories include: Genealogy/Personal History;
Private Sector; Places; Wars/International Relations;
and Government Spending. Browse by Subject is also
available.

Barclay Law Library Receives National Attention

Last Spring, the American Association of Law Libraries conducted
a photo contest of the "day in the life" of law libraries. The Barclay
Law Library had eight pictures selected out of the best twenty. Four
of the Law Library's pictures were published in the December, 2005,
issue of the AALL Spectrum, the monthly journal of the
national law library association.

The article containing the pictures of our library,
A Day in the Life of the Law Library Community, is available at:http://www.aallnet.org/products/pub_sp0512/pub_sp0512_DIL.pdf

Look for pictures number 1,10, 13 and 18, taken by Ted Holynski,
Reference Librarian and Nancy Ward, Office Coordinator.

The Relationship Between Law Review Citations and Law School Rankings

The Law Librarian Blog (12/13/2005) brings our
attention to a study by Alfred Brody (University
of Alabama Law) that addresses the Relationship
Between Law Review Citations and Law School
Rankings. Brody "explores the connections between
US News rankings (particularly the peer assessment
scores) and citations of schools’ main law reviews by
journals and by courts." According to Brody, there are
high correlations between the US News peer assessment
scores and citations of main law reviews by journals for
the US News top 50 schools.

Barclay Law Library December New Materials List

The December 2005 New Materials List is now available
on the Barclay Law Library's web site. It contains new
book, journal, and audio-visual titles received last month.
The materials are now available for use by patrons at the
Law Library.

Each month, the Law Library publishes this list to alert library
patrons to new materials. A news item is posted on the Law
Library main web page when the list is available.Current and
previous lists can also be accessed from the Publications and
SUMMIT Catalog web pages.Although the lists contain location
information, please check the SUMMIT Catalog to confirm
location and item availability. Some new items may be
temporarily found on the New Book display or the Atrium
Casual Reading display -- both located on Floor 3 of the Law
Library.

University of Chicago Judges Project

The University of Chicago Law School's "Judges
Project" was launched in 2004 to assess whether
ideology affects judicial voting. A preliminary
investigation by the Project indicates that, in
many cases, ideology does affect judicial behaviour.
The Project will "substantially expand the empirical
examination..and will apply the findings to enduring
questions in both jurisprudence and politics. It will
explore how judicial behavior relates to the question
of judicial neutrality, the nature of the rule of law, and
the appropriate behavior of the Senate and the President
in the confirmation process."

Law Review Word Limits at Emory Law Web Site

Jim Milles (Out of the Jungle Blog, 12/9/2005)
brings our attention to MacMillan Law Library's
(Emory School of Law) listing of word limits for
the most-cited 25 law reviews.

The list, which may be viewed by ranking or
alphabetically, provides word and page limits
as well as preferred word and page limits for
each title.

European Monitoring Centre on Racism & Xenophobia

Cornell Law Library's InSite newsletter (12/05/2005)
highlights the European Monitoring Centre on Racism
and Xenophobia.

"The primary task of the Centre is to provide European
Union and its Member States with objective,
reliable and comparable information and data on racism,
xenophobia, Islamophobia and anti-Semitism. It is the
task of the EUMC to work out strategies to combat racism
and xenophobia, and to highlight and disseminate examples
of good practice regarding the integration of migrants
and ethnic and religious minority groups in the EU Member
States.

...the site includes analytical country reports.., [and] annual
reports that also provide executive summaries [on] racism
and xenophobia in the EU and its Member States and highlight
examples of good practice. Discussion papers, a quarterly
newsletter, and a searchable database (RAXEN) covering the
fields of employment, education, housing,
racist violence and crime, and related legislative provisions are
also available."

Ethics Journal of the American Medical Association Online

Are you interested in health law and policy?

Virtual Mentor: the Ethics Journal of the American
Medical Association addresses ethical issues of
interest to physicians, including a wide range of law-
related topics such as bioethics, human rights and
medicine, constitutional issues, and regulation of the
health care industry.

The journal on is available at no charge for the
period 1999- present. The site is browsable by author,
topic, and issue date.

Lawyers Rank Low in Gallup's Ethical Standards Poll

Robert Ambrogi (LawSites, 12/7/2005) brings
our attention to Gallup's annual poll asking Americans
to rate the honesty and ethical standards of those in various
professions. A summary of the report, which appears
in Editor & Publisher, ranks lawyers near the bottom of
the list. Ambrogi notes, "The good news: lawyers rank
higher than senators, congressmen, labor union leaders
and car salesman. But they rank behind funeral directors,
bankers and journalists. "

New Blog from Pace on International Criminal Law

The Out of the Jungle blog (12/6/2005) brings our
attention to Jus in Bello, a new blog launched by the
Pace University School of Law that focuses on the
International Criminal Court, other international
criminal tribunals, and the law of international
criminal prosecutions.

Congressional Votes Database

The Washington Post has established a Congressional
Votes database that includes every vote in the U.S.
Congress since the 102nd Congress (1991). The site
includes an RSS feed of recent votes by each member
of Congress and a feed of the most recent votes in
both chambers. The database is browsable by Congress
or member's name.

The Washington Post generally updates the site daily, but
the site reminds us that there is a delay between a vote in
Congress and its appearance on the official Congress Web sites.

Historic Nuremberg Trial Artifacts Collection: Dedication Today

To commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Nuremberg
Trials, the Robert H. Jackson Center will dedicate a display
of artifacts and documents to the Syracuse University
College of Law on Wednesday, Dec. 7. The event is
scheduled for 12:00 noon in the H. Douglas Barclay
Law Library.

The Jackson Center promotes the legacy of the American
jurist who served s the chief American prosecutor against
Nazi war criminals. The grandson of Justice Jackson, Robert
H. J. Loftus, as well as other dignitaries, will be at the
ceremony to recognize Jackson’s pioneering efforts in
international law and his longstanding relationship with the
College of Law. Jackson’s ties to SU date to 1943, when he
delivered the commencement address at the College of Law.
He was scheduled to return to the campus in 1955 to
dedicate the new law school building, E.I. White Hall, but
died before the ceremony. His speech was delivered post-
humously.

The only other American to serve as an international war
crimes prosecutor is David M. Crane, who is an alumnus and
a distinguished visiting professor in the College of Law. Crane
recently finished a three-year appointment with the United
Nations and the Special Court for Sierra Leone as the chief
prosecutor against those responsible for war crimes and
human rights violations committed during the brutal 10-year
civil war in Sierra Leone during the 1990s.

A live Webcast of the Dec. 7 ceremony will be available.

The display, housed in the H. Douglas Barclay Law, will
be available for public viewing during normal library hours,
with parking available in paid visitor lots on a space-available
basis. For more information, call (315) 443-9560 or e-mail
jflecken@law.syr.edu.

Robert Ambrogi on Legal Podcasts

In his Law.com article, "2005: Year of the Podcast,"
Robert Ambrogi describes the podcast phenomenon,
reviews a cross-section of law-related podcasts and
lists additional law podcasts currently available
on the web.

Release of Oral Argument: Rumsfeld v. FAIR

The Law Librarian Blog (12/6/2005) reports that
"the oral arguments being conducted today before the
Supreme Court in Rumsfeld v. Forum for Academic &
Institutional Rights, et al. ,No. 04-1152, are scheduled
for immediate release after the proceedings. "

Check OYEZ for availability.

Google Book Search

Google's controversial new Book Search feature allows you to
search the full-text of thousands of books.
If a retrieved title is in the public domain or
Google has received permission from the copyright
holder, the searcher can view the full-text online.
If a retrieved title is protected by copyright, the
searcher can see a descriptive 'snippet,' bibliographic
details and links to sources for purchase.

Click here for more information about Google
Book Search.

Related materials:

NPR: Writers Sue Google Over Book Search
Boston Globe: Publishers Battle Google Book Index
Lawrence Lessing Blog: Google Book Search & Fair Use

Wikipedia Woes

Wikipedia is a free electronic encyclopedia
that allows anyone to add and edit entries.
Students love it. But is it reliable?

The BeSpacific blog (12/5/2005) links to
several articles investigating recent
incidents that question the credibility
of this online reference giant.

BarclayBlog Back in Business

I've returned to the Law Library after a medical leave
and look forward to reentering the blawgosphere.

Please let me know if you have news or updates
you would like me to post.