Stanford Law School Dean Speak Out About 1L Curriculum

On the Law School Innovation Blog (10/29/2006)
Stanford Law School Dean Larry Kramer shares
his thoughts (from of an email he sent to Stanford
law students) about the importance of the first-year
law school curriculum. Kramer discusses why he
believes that the traditional, highly structured 1L
curriculum "succeeds much better than the upper
two years." Clearly, Kramer is taking aim at the
recent reform of the first year curriculm
implemented at Harvard Law School.

A number of interesting comments on the post
may be found on the Volokh Conspiracy blog.

RAND Corporation "Voices of Jihad" Database

This Rand Corporation "Voices of Jihad" Database is
a compilation of selected speeches, interviews, statements,
and publications of jihadist leaders, participants and
advocates. Most of the content, which has been collected
from publically-accessible websites, is in English translation.
Original links are provided, along with excerpts and full-text
content when available.

The site is searchable and is indexed by date, author,
affiliated group, online source, and keyword.

Hat tip to the Librarians' Internet Index (10/26/2006).

NCSL 50-State Legislative Tracking Web Resources

Cornell Law Library's InSite current awareness
service (10/30/2006) brings our attention to the
National Conference of State Legislatures 50-State
Legislative Tracking Web Resources. The InSite
entry states that the LTWR "provides access to
legislative and statutory databases, compilations, and
state charts and maps covering a variety of issues
throughout the fifty states. The material is organized
by topic and sub-topic...For sub-topics that point to
legislative databases, users can search for bills and
resolutions, by state, within very specific issue areas.
Statute charts indicate the states that have legislated
in a particular area with reference to the relevant code
sections."

RSS Comparisons: "Make Your Own Headlines"

LibrarianInBlack.net points us to an article on
cNet (10/13/2006) that describes and
compares popular (fee and free) RSS news
aggregators.

If you haven't yet used a newsreader as an
easy way to subscribe to online news, blogs
and podcasts, check out this article to get
started. If you have been using a reader
for awhile and want to see what features
are available on other aggregators, see the
easy-to-read comparison chart.

How Search Engines Rerank Results

Did you know that the [order of] results you see for
web pages in response to a search query may not
be the same as what other people see?

SEO, a search engine optimization blog, has
published a fascinating post by William Slawski
on why and how search engines rerank search
results. The post is highly readable and may
surprise you. For example, search results may be
ranked by your previous search behaviour or
by community endorsement.

Thanks to Betsy McKenzie at Buffalo for the
tip!

"Law in 10" Offers Ten Minute Legal Analysis on Hot Issues

Those with limited time to stay up-to-date
on the latest legal news might appreciate
California Western School of Law's "Law in 10,"
a weekly series of "snack size" podcasts that
analyze current legal issues.

Examples of recent ten-minute podcasts by
California Western faculty include: issues
surrounding North Korea testing a nuclear weapon;
the battle over immigration reform; a U.S. Supreme
Court preview, and; possible charges facing Mark
Foley.

You can listen to the podcasts on the web site or
subscribe using RSS feeds in popular readers.

International Humanitarian Law Research Initiative

The Cornell Law Library Insite current awareness
service (October 16, 2006) brings our attention
to the International Humanitarian Law Research
Initiative (IHL) Portal, which offers access to a
database of academic and policy-oriented research
materials related to international humanitarian law
(IHL).

Registered users (it's free) have access to:

*A gateway to the latest news, research and analysis,
judicial decisions, legal instruments, and more, organized
by region and topic;

*Links to key IHL-related organizations and a calendar of
IHL-related events

*Customized research services responsive to the specific needs
of practitioners, scholars, and policy makers

*A network of IHL practitioners and experts

Westlaw Expands Holdings of American Lawyer and Other ALM Publications

Westlaw has expanded its holdings of the
following American Legal Media (ALM)
publications:

American Lawyer (AMLAW) – January 1986 (Previously 1995)
Legal Times (LEGALTIMES) – June 1978 (Previously 1994)
National Law Journal (NLJ) – January 1983 (Previously 1989)
The Recorder (RECORDER-SF) – January 1990 (Previously 1998)

Hat tip to the Law Librarian Blog.

New Research Guides from LLRX

LLRX announces the following research resources:

Criminal Justice Resources: Juvenile Law and Family Court Resources
Ken Strutin

Competitive Intelligence - A Selective Resource Guide
Donna Cavallini and Sabrina I. Pacifici

Coast to Coast Podcast: Military Chaplains and the First Amendment

In this week's Coast to Coast podcast, Robert Ambrogi
and J. Craig Williams discuss the First Amendment
and religious freedom with Charles L. "Chip" Babcock,
a top First Amendment lawyer and partner in the Houston
office of Jackson Walker LLP, David W. New, a lawyer and
frequent speaker on religious freedom issues, and Eliot
Mincberg, vice president, general counsel and legal
director of People For the American Way.

Click here to listen or download.

University of Wisconsin-Madison Joins Google Book Project

Google has announced that the University
of Wisconsin-Madison and Wisconsin Historical
Society Library will make hundreds of thousands
of their historical and public library holdings
available through the Google Books Library
Project. According to the press release, "the
combined 7.2 million holdings of these libraries
comprise one of the largest collections of historical
documents and books to be found in the United
States. "

Collections are searchable through Google Book
Search. Currently, full-text is available for
materials in the public domain. Basic information
(author, title, text excerpts) is available for
copyrighted materials.

UC Berkeley Offers Courses & Symposia Via Google Video

A UC Berkeley press release (9/26/2006)
announced that the University will deliver
educational content free of charge through
Google Video. According to the release,
Berkeley is making 250 hours of content
available through its own page at the
Google Video web site.

Current offerings include a number of course
videos as well as seminars/events in the areas
of arts & humanities, global & public affairs (with
several titles of potential interest to law students
and faculty), and science & technology.

Hat tip to the Law Librarian Blog.

Scalia Defends His Position in ACLU Debate

In a one-hour televised debate with ACLU
President Nadine Strossen, Justice Antonin
defended his stance on abortion rights, race
in school admissions, and other politically
charged issues. A synopsis of Scalia's
statements appear in "Scalia Defends Positions
in TV Debate," at ABC News (October 16, 2006.)

Project Posner: The Opinions of Judge Richard A. Posner

Timothy Wu (professor at Columbia Law School) and
Stuart Sierra (web designer at Columbia Law School)
have created Project Posner, a database of Judge Richard
A. Posner's judicial opinions from 1981 to 2006 (ex-
cluding the most recent opinions).

The site is searchable or can be browsed by year.
A fun feature is the 'interesting results' page, which
tells us - among other things - that Posner has cited Kafka
in seven cases and cats (the animal, not the musical) in fifty-
six cases.

New on the Law Prof Blogs Network

Here are the latest additions to the Law Professors
Blog Network. Like their fellow blogs on the network,
these sites offer you and your students a combination of
daily news and information together with valuable research
references to permanent resources and links.

Aviation Law Prof Blog
(Brian Havel (DePaul), Michael Jacobs (DePaul) & Andrew
Eastmond)

Banking Law Prof Blog
(Ann Graham (Texas Tech))

Legal Profession Blog
(Alan Childress (Tulane), Michael Frisch (Georgetown)
& Jeffrey Lipshaw (Tulane))

Mass Tort Litigation Blog
(Byron Stier (Southwestern))

Science & Law Blog (David Faigman (Hastings),
David Kaye (Arizona State), Michael Saks
(Arizona State), Joseph Sanders (Houston) &
Edward Cheng (Brooklyn))

Statutory Construction Blog
(David Hricik (Mercer))

On "Vlogs" and "Vodcasts" What Are You Missing?

No, a 'vlog' is not an extraterrestrial life
form from a George Lucas movie. A 'vlog'
is a video blog; a 'vodcast' is a video-on-
demand cast (also know as a video podcast.)

Intrigued? Check out the following web
sites for more information:

Vlogger (noun): Blogger With Video Camera
(Wall Street Journal, 12/16/2005)

Podcasts are So Last Year
(Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 8/23/2006)

Vodcast.com (directory of vodcasts and
vlogs)

Designing Courses: Podcasting and Video-
blogging (How to resources from ibritt.com)

National Center for Education Statistics: Crime and Safety Surveys (CSS)

The Librarians' Internet Index (10/5/2006) points
us to the National Center for Education Statistics:
Crime and Safety Surveys (CSS), a compilation of
school crime and safety data and reports, including
the annual Indicators of School Crime and Safety
(2002 to the present), and surveys of principals,
teachers, and students. Includes reports on student
discipline, victimization, gangs, bullying, weapons, drugs,
and other school violence and crime topics.

Supreme Court Preview on the ACS Blog

From the American Constitution Society
for Law & Policy (ACS) Blog (9/25/2006):

"ACS is pleased to present an online Supreme
Court Preview, featuring leading legal experts
explaining just what is at stake this Term--the
first full Term in which recently confirmed Justices
John Roberts and Samuel Alito will sit. Along with
their seven colleagues, they will consider such issues as:

Whether a woman, whose health is endangered by her
pregnancy, has a constitutional right to a safe abortion.

How quickly a victim of race, gender or religious
discrimination in the workplace must initiate an action
against a discriminatory employer in order to obtain relief.

Whether the Clean Air Act imposes a mandate on the EPA
to issue rules restricting greenhouse gas emissions.

To what extent a court may impose punitive damages
on a company engaged in "highly reprehensible" acts.

Whether the Constitution denies local school districts
the authority to voluntarily integrate racially segregated schools."

Research Guides on LLRX

Recent additions to the research guides on LLRX:

Identity Theft: A Bibliography of Federal, State,
Consumer and News Resources (Sabrina I. Pacifici)

European Union Law: An Integrated Guide to
Electronic and Print Research (Marylin J. Raisch)

Small Content, Long Tails, and Big Ideas in Law Libraries
(Jason Eiseman)

The Government Domain: Information Checks and
Balances (Peggy Garvin)

FOIA Facts - The Slow Road: FOIA Litigation
(Jason Eiseman)