The Harvard Law School Library Blog
announced a new feature for the library catalog. Students and researchers now have the option to text location and call numbers to their cell phones. Back in my college days, I would scribble call numbers on scraps of paper (and then struggle to decipher my own writing). This innovation should make students very happy. Very neat feature!
The Patent Bar Exam will be updated this year. The changes are expected in April, according to the US Patent and Trademark Office. If you are interested in learning more, PLI is holding a free One-Hour Briefing to discuss the changes.
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New Patent Bar Exam is Coming! PLI is Already There for You!
February 25, 2011, 1:00 pm – 2:00 pm (E.S.T.)
The Patent Office recently announced that there will be a major update of the material tested on the Patent Bar Exam in April. PLI has been preparing for this change for years already. In this briefing, John M. White, PLI’s Director of Patent Professional Development and chief lecturer of PLI’s Patent Bar Review, will share the critical information and strategies for taking the Patent Bar Exam.
Topics to be addressed include:
• The new materials that will be tested on the Exam
• PLI’s preparations to make sure that you’re up to speed with everything tested on the Exam
• Strategies for taking the Exam into the foreseeable future
And for the most recent information, please visit the Patent Bar Review homepage, click here.
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Please note this program has expired. If you are interested in current PLI Library Programs, please visit www.pli.edu/libraryaudiobriefings.
A mother is suing the makers of Nutella for deceptive advertising. Nutella is a spread that usually appears in the peanut butter aisle of grocery stores. In case you’ve never had it, the taste is described on the Nutella site as “a unique taste” from the “blend of simple and wholesome ingredients – hazelnuts, sugar, skim milk and a hint of cocoa.”
The deception cited is that Ferrero, the Italian company that makes Nutella, advertises the spread as nutritious. It does seem like a stretch to call something nutritious when the first ingredient listed is sugar (followed by palm oil, hazelnuts, cocoa, skim milk, reduced minerals whey (milk), lecithin as emulsifier (soy), vanillin: an artificial flavor). And there are 200 calories per two tablespoons. The entire complaint is here.
Not familiar with Nutella? It seems that this European brand is not heavily advertised in the US. It has a bit of a cult following, as well as a major Facebook presence. I learned all this from an article in BrandWeek that I stumbled across. Read the article here.
If you are interested in this area of the law, see if you library has a copy
of Advertising and Commercial Speech: A First Amendment Guide. The title examines the origin, meaning, and legal evolution of the Supreme Court’s commercial speech doctrine, focusing on how this central doctrine’s rights and restrictions affect advertising in nearly 50 industries and professions.
To order the title, click here or email libraryrelations@pli.edu.
Thank you Onion News Network for a parody news report on Congress. The fake story is about Congress forgetting how to pass a bill—complete with CSPAN-like coverage. My favorite part is when they decide to find the Library of Congress.
Congress Forgets How To Pass A Law
Karen Carter is an MLIS student at Rutgers University. For the past eight years she worked for the American Psychological Association (APA) doing bibliographic productions and quality assurance for the PsycINFO database. Before that she worked as a professional researcher for a variety of organizations including a crime database, a suicide prevention association, a law firm, and the Department of Education.
Why did you decide to become a librarian?
I’ve always been interested in librarianship, having actually been accepted to this LIS program the first time 15 years ago. My passion has always been research and librarianship seemed like a terrific field for someone with a constant thirst for knowledge. I took a detour back then and pursued another field, but when I came to APA, I found myself re-exposed to many areas of librarianship – user services, bibliographic production, database and systems management and more — and I actually think that all of that additional exposure served to solidify a foundation for entry into the field at this time. Now, I can combine my earlier passion for research and information with all of the new professional knowledge I have, and I actually think this is an amazing time to enter the field.
What area of librarianship are you most interested in?
I am most interested in digital libraries and digital archives. Over the last few years I’ve really fallen in love with technology and I think that digital preservation of our resources is one of the most important initiatives we have right now. Also, creating the opportunity for more people to access more information via digital collections is so critical, and I like the idea of being involved with that. I’ve recently started volunteering on a public library digitization project, focusing on the state’s history, and I really enjoy learning the nuts and bolts of what goes in to creating a digital archive.
How do you feel technology has changed the field of librarianship?
Well, certainly technology has been responsible for an exponential growth in access to information. Anyone can get just about anything at the fingertips now, so librarians have to adjust to having changed roles in the lives of users, perhaps changing from the go-to person for information to being a teacher/guide to help people both navigate information sources and use current tools to maximize their information-seeking. This requires librarians to be skilled in technical areas they may not have had to have been before.
How do you think the field of librarianship is changing? How is it staying the same?
Since I’m new to the field, my observations are certainly basic, but it seems that the field is becoming more driven by user needs and preferences that are influenced by technology shifts. And there is greater focus on delivery of services and design of systems that meet those needs. Perhaps there is also more focus on community and collaborative environments, with all of the social media influence on the way we communicate. I would think that the way that it stays the same is that it remains a field focused on service. Whether that service is providing tangible resources to a local community in a bricks-and-mortar location or providing access to information in a virtual environment for scholars scattered across the globe, the profession always remains vital to meeting our knowledge needs in constantly changing times.
What would your dream job be?
My approach to starting my program has been that I’m going to get as much exposure to as many areas as possible to actually discover where my skills are, and then come up with a dream job. But I do dream sometimes of working in a large repository like the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, which has such a diverse and interesting set of collections. Honestly, my dream job is anywhere that provides intellectual stimulation on a daily basis and gives me a sense of accomplishment at the end of the day.
Recently, I heard someone suggest that you should recall what you used to answer as a child when someone asked “what do you want to be when you grow up?”, and if you end up going into that field, you’ll probably be happy. Until I heard this, I’d forgotten that sure enough, starting from 7 years old, I used to say I wanted to be a librarian when I grew up. I may have taken a circuitous route to get here,, but when I reflect on that today, I think…”well, how about that?” It feels like I’ve made the right choice.
Here are the PLI Course Handbooks that were published during the month of January 2011.
From the Corporate Law & Practice Series
From the Real Estate Law & Practice Series
From the Tax Law & Practice Series
Please write libraryrelations@pli.edu if you have any questions or would like to order a title.
Mergers, Acquisitions & Tender Offers Law and Strategies is a recent PLI treatise title written by Samuel C. Thompson, Jr. More about the title here, and here.
Recently, he was interviewed about the book. In the 4.13 minute video clip, he answers.
The link to the video is posted on the PLI site. Or you can watch it below.
I’d like to thank 3 Geek and a Law Blog. They started a Free Advertising Experiment which offered publishers and vendors free advertising space on their very well-read blog; it recently won the ABA Journal’s best Law Biz blog—congrats! They accepted PLI’s advertisement for PLI Discover. It is currently running along with about five other ads. The ads run randomly so if you do not see our ad, you can click refresh or reload the page until it appears. Thank you 3 Geeks for the opportunity.
So what is PLI Discover? It’s online access to PLI’s treatises and course handbooks. We make our collection of publications available in html and pdf chapter segments. Our treatise library contains our complete collection of authoritative treatises – nearly 100 titles. The online titles are supplemented automatically. Our course handbook library contains a collection of stand-alone reference guides to our acclaimed annual series. We publish more than 250 course handbooks per year. All these titles are added to PLI Discover and available 24/7.
Interested in learning more? Click here.
This is both a legal and a library related piece – in that a library was vandalized and the vandal was caught and will be serving time in jail. The headline in the Idaho Stateman reads: Boise library vandal sentenced to a month in jail. A woman vandalized the public library ten times in the course of a year by pouring condiments such as maple syrup, ketchup, and mayonnaise down the book-drop. After the library set up a surveillance system they were able to catch the culprit and bring her to trial. The prosecutor did not push for jail, but the judge determined that at least twenty-seven days in jail would be served. Read the full story here.
Sheila Doherty currently works as a Reference Librarian at Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP.
What made you decide to specialize in legal librarianship?
I used to be a Social Studies teacher, so I taught about the development of governments throughout the world. While I left that profession after three years, I have always enjoyed learning. I thought working in a law firm would be interesting, so I spent one year at the Palmer School (Long Island University) alternating between their four campuses and one legal class at Queens college to be sure and get the most out of my education. As a reference librarian at Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP, I do legal and corporate research. I’m glad to say that it is better than I ever imagined.
How do you feel technology has changed the role of the library in your law firm?
Quite honestly, the thought of working with books alone kept me away from librarianship. It is something that just did not appeal to me. With the advent of internet search engines, I learned to love finding facts quickly. As I honed this skill, the field of librarianship became an option that was not there in the past. As a newer librarian, I only hear about the past from more experienced librarians. To sum up their thoughts in a sentence, it was much slower paced. With the incredible advances in technology, there is a “I need this NOW” attitude that did not exist in the past.
What do you like most about your career?
I love always learning. As a reference librarian, I do not have a niche, and this means there is always a new question or challenge to make the day more interesting.
Do you still use books or do you find you do most of your research online? Which books? Which online resources?
It really depends on the question. If people need an overview, print treatises are still best to flip through. If the question is very specific and would require many resources to answer it, online is best.
Do you still use the “reference interview”? Do you find most of your questions come in via email, phone, person?
In a way, yes. Most questions come in e-mail form, and these can get a follow-up e-mail or phone call to ask for more details. However, if a person calls the library, we can perform the reference interview right then. This is much better, especially for newer attorneys, as it allows us to use our experience to shape their questions.
Can you discuss a particularly challenging reference question?
Well, it has been five years, and there have been countless challenging questions. I would have to say that the challenge has very simple origins. The longer I do this, the easier it seems to become. Of course, there are still plenty of questions that require a great deal of thought and effort, but the process by which you answer them becomes easier. Going back to your previous question, I absolutely still use the reference interview. In fact, the more experience I get, the better that interview becomes. Practice really does make perfect!