Secretaries of Defense Biographies

The Librarians' Index to the Internet (3/30/2006)
points us to "Secretaries of Defense Biographies" on
the web. This Department of Defense web page includes
biographies of U.S. secretaries of defense from 1947 to
the present, including Donald Rumsfeld, Richard Cheney,
Caspar Weinberger, William Cohen, Les Aspin, George
Marshall, and others. The essays cover the life events
leading up to each person's time in office, and highlights
their careers in the position. Includes photographs of
the secretaries.

Taxonomy of Legal Blogs

The Law Librarian Blog (3/30/2006) points us
to a handy "Taxonomy of Legal Blogs" compiled
by Ian Best, a 3L at Ohio State University. This
is an easy way to identify law-related blogs by
categories such as legal speciality, jurisdiction,
author/publisher, topic and blog 'styles.'

Posner-Stone Debate Podcast : "Presidential Power in an Age of Terror: A Debate on NSA Wiretapping"

From the University of Chicago Law School Faculty Blog
(3/30/2006):

One January 31, 2006, the Law School chapter of the American
Civil Liberties Union presented a debate entitled "Presidential
Power in an Age of Terror: A Debate on NSA Wiretapping."
The participants were Hon. Richard Posner of the Court of
Appeals for the Seventh Circuit (and also Senior Lecturer at
Chicago) and Geoffrey Stone, Harry Kalven, Jr. Distinguished
Service Professor of Law at Chicago. The debate was moderated
by Joseph Margulies, trial attorney and Lecturer at the
MacArthur Justice Center at the University of Chicago Law
School.

The blog post (link above) provides access to the podcast and
instructions.

New on Globalex

Globalex, published by the Hauser Global Law School
Program at NYU School of Law, is an electronic legal
publication dedicated to international and foreign law research.

New articles on Globalex:

An Introduction to Sources for Treaty Research: Mark Engsberg
A Legal Research Guide to Armenia: Sergey Arakelyan & Anna Margaryan
A Guide to the Legal System of the Islamic Republic of Iran: Omar Sial
A Guide to the Legal System and Legal Research in the
Kyrgyz Republic - UPDATE: Sania Battalova
A Research Guide to Ukrainian Law: Alexander Biryukov &
Myroslava Kryvonos

Aggregation of World Blogs

The beSpacific blog (3/26/2006) points us to
Global Voices A country-by-country aggregation of
world blogs. Under the auspices of the Berkman
Center for Internet and Society at Harvard, the
Global Voices editors find, aggregate and track
interesting blog entries, news, podcasts and other
communications coming from regions and countries
around the world.

You can browse by country/region or by topic.
Topics of potential interest include "Freedom
of Speech," "Human Rights," "Law," and "Racism."

The Effect of Presidential Signing Statements

Betsy McKenzie at the Out of the Jungle blog (3/24/2006)
addresses what she calls the President's "attempt to modify the
carefully crafted [reauthorization of the USA Patriot
Act] through his own signing statement." McKenzie republishes
the statement in question as well as Senator Leahy''s views
on the subject in his statement of March 15, 2006.
According to Leahy, "this Administration’s 'unitary executive'
doctrine and the signing statements that articulate it are nothing
short of a radical effort to re-shape the constitutional separation
of powers and evade accountability and responsibility for following
the law."

"I'm Sorry" Laws Permit Physicians to Apologize Without Admitting Negligence

The Law Librarian Blog (3/23/2006) has posted
an interesting article about "I'm Sorry" legislation, laws
which "allow physicians (and in some cases other health
professionals) to apologize to patients without their statements
being construed as admissions of negligence..."

The article sets forth Iowa's newly approved "I'm Sorry"
law (Iowa House File 2716 ) as a typical example, cites
to similar Michigan and California legislation, and provides
a list of states that have adopted this type of legislation.

Of particular interest is a table from the
I'm Sorry Works! Coalition that reveals what 958 people
had to say about how likely they were to forgive a
physician for medical errors. According to this survey,
the most unforgivable error is when a "physician made
a poor decision because he or she was trying to keep
costs down."

Coast to Coast Podcast: The legal gender gap

Robert Ambrogi and Craig Williams are addressing the
gender gap in the legal profession this week on their
Coast to Coast legal podcast. Joining the hosts are
Lauren Stiller Rikleen, senior partner at Bowditch & Dewey
and author of Ending the Gauntlet: Removing Barriers to
Women’s Success in the Law; New England School of Law
Professor Ronald Chester, author of the award-winning book,
Unequal Access: Women Lawyers in a Changing America; and,
Mary Musette Stewart, president of the Central Florida
Association for Women Lawyers, an organization devoted to
promoting the advancement of women in the legal profession.

New resources from LLRX

LLRX, a leading legal research and legal technology web
resource, announces new articles for March 15, 2006.
Among the new entries are:

Analyze This: The Evolution of Competitive Intelligence
Products for the Legal Profession

Interpretation and Translation Resources for the
Criminal Justice System

Campaign Finance and the Internet

Competitive Intelligence - A Selective Resource Guide

A complete list may be found on the web site.

Law Professors Release Comic Book on Copyright

Duke Law School's Center for the Study of the Public Domain
has just released "BOUND BY LAW?" - a comic book on copyright
and creativity that uses the example of documentary film. The
comic, created by Keith Aoki, James Boyle and Jennifer Jenkins,
lays out the basics of copyright in clear and easy to understand
examples. It deals with such issues as fair use, how to determine
if a work is in the public domain, and the effects of digital technology
on the meaning of intellectual property. You can read or download
the comic for free; hard copies are on sale at Amazon . Educational
orders for over 50 can be purchased directly from Duke at a
subsidized cost.

Thanks to Richard Danner, Director of the Duke University Law
Library, for posting this to the AALL ALL-SIS listserv.

White House RSS Feeds & Podcasts

The Law Librarian Blog (3/22/2006) points us
to an updated list of White House RSS feeds and
podcasts:

RSS Feeds
White House News
Presidential Speeches & Remarks
Presidential Weekly Radio Address
Discurso Radial del Presidente
White House Press Briefings

Podcasts
Presidential Speeches & Remarks
Presidential Weekly Radio Address
Discurso Radial del Presidente
Barney Cam (Video)

For more information about government RSS feeds and
a link to newsreaders you can download, see the
U.S. Government RSS Library web site.

Historic Recordings Archive

The Leiter Reports (3/20/2006) points us to the
wonderful Cylinder Digitization and Preservation
Project at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
The collection boasts more than 6,000 cylinders which
have been converted to downloadable MP3's, WAV files
and streaming audio. In addition to musical pieces, this
historic treasure trove includes speeches by the likes
of Theodore Roosevelt, William Jennings Bryant, and
Thomas Edison. The site is searchable and browsable
(although the search function may be intermittently unavailable
due to heavy traffic).

Consulting Foreign Law

The University of Chicago Law School Faculty Blog
(3/20/2006) is discussing the practice of consulting
foreign law in light of Justice Ginzburg's qualified
defense of the practice in a recent speech.

Best of the Best Business Web Sites

The Business Reference and Services Section of the
American Library Associated has compiled a list of
the best business web sites. The list is organized into
the following topics: Accounting and Taxation; Advertising
and Marketing; American Corporations; Banking; Business
Ethics; Economics; Electronic Commerce; Financial Martkets
and Investments; General Management; Human Resource
Management and Labor Relations; Insurance; MIS/Knowledge
Management; Real Estate; and Small Business.

Selection criteria are described on the site. Open-access was
important as a criterion. Fee-based sites were selected if they were
well known and offered unique content. They are indicated as
"$ Fee-based" on the guides.

Thanks to the E-LawLibrary Weblog for the tip.

Why Do So Few Women Reach the Top of Big Law Firms?

New York Times writer Timothy L. O'Brian's article in
the International Herald Tribune (03/19/2006) addresses the
hurdles that women at the top of the legal profession
still face. Citing the National Association for Law Placement (NALP),
to O'Brian reports that "only about 17 percent of the partners at
major law firms nationwide were women in 2005, a figure that has
risen only slightly since 1995, when about 13 percent of partners were
women." O'Brian spoke with a number of women about the reasons
for continuing disparity. Lack of mentoring, the "maternal wall" that
assumes that women who return to firms after having children will
"automatically be less willing to work hard," differences in the
way women self-promote, and entrenched biases are cited as possible
reasons why women are still underrepresented at the top.

Fake News Appears on Google News?

The LawLibTech blog (3/19/2006) brings our attention
to a fascinating story by Rich Wiggins on Wigblog
(03/09/2006). Wiggins reports that anyone can insert
a story into the Internet-based "PR agencies" that Google
News includes in its index. After tracking a series of
questionable press releases in Google News over a period of
time, he decided to test the system himself by writing up a
press release about his trip to Key West. He threw in a few
serious quotations and used i-newswire.com, which purports
to be a “free press-release distribution center” based in Fountain
Valley, California.) Shortly after he submitted his story
to i-newswire it was indexed by Google News.

Wiggins concludes, "Obviously this raises a lot of questions about
what sources are indexed by Google News and whether Google News
hasn't grown way beyond the parameters of an index of bona fide media
outlets."

Findlaw's New Civil Rights Center

Findlaw has launched a Civil Rights Center containing
articles and resources on civil rights and discrimination.
The new web resource, directed at the general public,
encompasses the following sections:

Basics and Background
Race Discrimination
Gender Discrimination
Disability Discrimination
Employment Discrimination
Housing Discrimination
Enforcement of Civil Rights: Getting Help
Civil Rights: More Topics
Civil Rights Laws and Resources

The overviews presented under each category
provide a useful starting point for those unfamiliar
with the law.

Empirical Study of Legal Scholarship

Jim Milles (Out of the Jungle blog, 3/8/2006) brings our
attention to an empirical study of legal scholarship announced
on Conglomerate : Business, Law, Economics & Society
(3/07/2006). Funmi, the author of the post, describes
the project: "We are creating a relational database about legal
scholarship and are using this database to ask (and hopefully
answer) a number of questions about legal scholarship. In this
project, we will look at changes in the nature and content of legal
scholarship, including assessing trends toward interdisciplinary
scholarship. We are also planning to measure the impact of letterhead
bias, assess the influence of “outsider” voices in legal scholarship
and evaluate other aspects of the characteristics of authors of law
review articles. As part of this project, we are also planning to
evaluate the impact of legal scholarship by looking at citations
to law review articles. "

E-Bulletin on Counter-Terrorism and Human Rights

The Law Librarian Blog (3/8/2006) brings our attention
to the E-Bulletin on Counter-Terrorism and Human Rights,
issued by the International Commission of Jurists.
The site includes briefs, reports, press releases, and court
decisions on topics covering Africa, the Middle East, the Americas,
Asia-Pacific, Europe Commonwealth of Independent States,
U.N. and Regional Organizations.

Blackprof.com

Nine African-American law professors have launched
Blackprof.com to discuss race, law and culture. The blog
welcomes guest contributors to its growing family.

Stanford Launches Rock Center for Corporate Governance

BusinessWire (3/06/2006) reports that Stanford
Law School has announced the launch of the Arthur and
Toni Rembe Rock Center for Corporate Governance.
Arthur Rock is a well-known venture capitalist who
was instrumental in founding Apple Computer, Intel,
Scientific Data Systems, Teledyne, and many other
successful firms. The new Rock Center plans to sponsor
a series of programs "designed to deepen the understanding
of the governance process, enhance the quality of governance
-related education, and improve the practice of governance
around the world."

The Center's first program, the "Governance and the
Regulators," lecture series, which will be held on
April 3, 2006 in Washington, D.C., addresses the SEC's
proposed executive compensation disclosure rules.

Center on Democratic Performance Human Rights Report Card

The Center on Democratic Performance at SUNY
Binghamton has issued it's third annual Report Card
of the Policies and Preferences ofPresidential Administrations
with Regard to Human Rights.

The report gives President Bush a ‘D' for his policies and
performance on central issues of human rights for the year
2005, reflecting a decline of one grade over 2004. According
to the Center, "this decline is attributable mostly to reports
on the use of political detention without trial, torture of political
detainees, and the use of secret detention of political prisoners.
On most other indicators of human rights policy – such as
recognition of leaders from countries deemed repressive, and
budgetary consideration of human rights issues, and treaties –
the Administration remained relatively static from last year."

Reactions to the Solomon Amendment Decision

The blogosphere is abuzz about the Solomon Amendment
Decision.

TaxProfBlog has compiled a extensive list of law schools'
and law bloggers' reactions:
"Reactions to Rumsfeld v. Fair"

see also:
David Barron (Law Culture blog)
"It's Not Just Foreign Law They Don't Like"

ACS Blog (several posts)
"Solomon Amendment Ruling"
"Solomon Reactions"

Wikipedia and Britannica

The LibrarianInBlack blog (3/6/2006) brings our
attention to an article in Searcher Magazine (March,
2006) comparing Wikipedia and Encyclopedia Brittanica.
The strengths and weaknesses of each are explored.
The conclusions are not startling but worth pointing
out - again- to your students. "Wikipedia is a great starting point
with excellent pointers to external resources and sometimes
has information on topics not covered elsewhere. Britannica
is indispensable as a trusted reference tool."

Tarasoff Symposium Set for March 17 at Cincinnati Law

The Law Librarian Blog (3/5/2006) reports that
the Glenn M. Weaver Institute of Law and Psychiatry
at the University of Cincinnati Law School is hosting
a one day symposium entitled, "The Future of the Duty to
Protect," to mark the 30th anniversary of Tarasoff v.
Regents of the University of California. The Tarasoff decision
established psychotherapists' duty to protect the public from
the violent acts of their patients.

The symposium will be held March 17. For agenda and
registration information, visit the symposium's
web announcement.

Yale Law Journal Debates Controversial Article

From the YaleDailyNews.com, 3/3/2006:

"The [Yale] Law School will hold a forum next week to
address deep divisions in the school surrounding the Yale
Law Journal's decision to print an article later this month by
law prodigy Kiwi Camara, who, it was discovered, repeatedly
referred to black individuals as "nig" and "nigs" in class notes
he posted online as a Harvard Law School student. Yale Law
Journal Editor-in-Chief Curtis Mahoney LAW '06 said that
when the editorial board became aware of Camara's past
actions last semester, members deliberated with faculty and
students before erring on the side of academic freedom by
deciding to continue with plans to run his article in the Journal's
March special symposium edition..Although some law students
and professors said they support the Law Journal's decision
on the basis of academic freedom of expression, others said
they reject the Journal's publication of Camara's work, arguing
that Camara -- who graduated from Harvard Law School in 2002
at age 19, the youngest graduate in the institution's history --
is a bigot whose past actions overshadow his legal expertise."

The forum will be held this evening to discuss "whether or not
speech and the speaker can be separated."

Adding Graphics to Word Documents

Have you struggled with adding graphics and keeping
them where you want them in Word documents?
If so, check out Microsoft's free tutorial. The tutorial
will help you to: identify a variety of graphic types,
insert those graphics, resize, group, and rotate graphics,
precisely position a graphic on the page, align a graphic
with text, and keep a graphic in place by using an anchor.
You can review any of the four mini-lessons or take the entire
online course in less than an hour. Thanks to the InterAlia
(2/ 13/2006) for the tip.

Newly Discovered Photographs from the Civil Rights Era

The Birmingham News reports that dozens
of previously unpublished photographs from the Civil Rights
era have been located in a storage closet at the newspapers'
offices. Some of the photos may be viewed on the
newspaper's web site. Photos from the collection are
organized by theme (such as the Freedom Riders, school
desegregation, and voting rights) and year.

AMA Code of Medical Ethics

The Librarians' Internet Index (LII, 3/2/2006) reminds
us that the AMA Code of Medical Ethics, with related updates
and opinions, can be read online or downloaded to PDAs.
The code covers social policy issues (such as abortion, capital
punishment, cloning, and end-of-life care), patient-physician
relationships, confidentiality, and other ethical issues. The "CEJA
Reports" include papers on topics such as medical testimony and
organ donation. You can also find a history of the AMA principles
of medical ethics on the site.

Katrina Task Force Subcmte. Report From ABA

"The ABA Standing Committee on Law and National Security,
the ABA Section of State and Local Government Law and the
ABA Section of Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice
have released a report evaluating current legal authorities
available to meet national disasters and emergencies. The
purpose of this study was to examine the legal authorities
available to guide the preparation and response to a
catastrophic incident, whether from terrorism, accident or
natural causes." (55 pages, PDF)

Syracuse University Among "Most Connected Campuses"

Syracuse University is ranked as one of the top
twenty-five colleges and universities on the
technological 'cutting edge,' according to the
Princeton Review's Most Connected Campuses
(as reported on Forbes.com, 1/20/2006).

The Forbes.com article reports; "to determine the
rankings for America's Most Connected Campuses,
'The Princeton Review' solicited data from 361 top colleges
and universities around the country, asking them a number
of questions about the technological sophistication of their
campuses." The complete survey may be found here.

Open J Gate: Open Access to Global Journal Literature

Thanks to the LibrarianInBlack blog (3/1/2006) and
Peter Scott's Library Blog (2/28/2006) for pointing us to
Open J Gate, "an electronic gateway to global journal literature
in open access domain. Launched in 2006, Open J-Gate provides
seamless access to millions of journal articles available online.
Open J-Gate is also a database of journal literature, indexed from
3000+ open access journals, with links to full text at publisher sites."

Law subjects covered in the collection include: Arbitration,
Education & Training, Banking Law, Constitution and Judicial
System, Corporate Laws, Crime, Criminology and Law
Enforcement, Domicile and Immigration Law, Environmental
Law & Policy, Foreign Trade & Commercial Transactions,
General Law, Industrial Relations, Insurance Law,
Intellectual Property, Investment Laws, Regional and
International Law, and Tax Law.

You can browse by title or search within subject categories
by keyword, author, title, abstract or institution.

Are Law Profs' Blogs Scholarship or a Cyber Chit-Chat?

An article by National Law Journal staff writer, Leigh Jones,
(Blogging law profs assault ivory tower, 2/27/2006) asks
if the increasing number of law professors' blogs are "chipping
away at the ivory tower." The topic is hot enough to be
the theme of a two-day symposium to be held at Harvard Law
School in April. Proponents, such as Law Professor Blogs
Network editor Paul Caron, claim that, "in the not too distant
future ... blogging will become a mainstream component of
legal scholarship." Skeptics like Ann Litvak (Texas) counter
that the blogging "has nothing to do with scholarship."

The article cites a recent survey by Daniel Solove, a law professor
and blogger at George Washington University, who estimates
that 182 law professors have blogs. According to Solove, this
number represented a 40% increase from his earlier count, taken
five months earlier. Of those bloggers, 41 are female and 141 are
male. The schools with the most bloggers are University of Chicago
Law School, University of California at Los Angeles School of Law,
University of San Diego School of Law and George Washington
University. Among the top 20 schools, as ranked by U.S. News &
World Report, there are 59 bloggers.