Tag Archives: technology

SOPA and PIPA

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As many of you know, there are two bills under review in the House (Stop Online Piracy Act) and Senate (Protect Internet Property Act) that are currently being  discussed in the library world.

For your reference, here’s a link to an informative chart made by Corey Williams of the Washington ALA (American Library Association) Office.  Williams details the specifics of both SOPA and PIPA, as well as the OPEN (Online Protection of and Enforcement of Digital Trade) Act, which some view as a more viable and less stringent alternative to SOPA and PIPA.

http://www.districtdispatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/ALA_pipasopaopen_ref_guide.pdf

Williams, C. (January, 11, 2012). PIPA, SOPA and the OPEN Act Quick Reference Guide [Figure]. Retrieved from: http://www.acrl.ala.org/acrlinsider/archives/4574

PC World: The 25 Worst Tech Products

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PC World has an interesting list of “The 25 Worst Tech Products of All Time.” Librarians being the charge leaders in this new age of technology and gadgets, I thought you might find it interesting to take a look back at those technological advances that almost made it but, for whatever reason, didn’t quite get off the ground.

Article here.

Catalog Your Own Books At Home: Fun and Geekily Awesome

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Check out IBM’s new application sMash. Allows you to catalog your private collection in a way that makes sense to you.

Search in vain for the John Grisham you borrowed from your neighbor and never returned no longer!

(Warning: A bit complicated to get started; to get things to work you’ll either need WebSphere sMash or Project Zero– links are provided to download both, but the tutorial assumes you already have these on your computer and therefore a basic knowledge of one or the other.)

Things Other Than Westlaw

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The ABA recently released the 2008 Legal Technology Survey Report, which showed that the number of lawyers doing online research is larger than ever, and the majority of them are using free online sources, rather than the traditional Westlaw and Lexis.

Which leads the Law Librarian Blog to ask law school and firm librarians: Are you showing these lawyers how do to these things? Come on now, where else did they pick this kind of behavior up?
Are Librarians Training Lawyers and Law Students in the Use of Alternatives to LexisNexis and Westlaw?

LexisWeb: Making Legal Websites Your Friend

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Lexis is beta testing a new search engine just for law related websites:

http://www.lexisweb.com/

LexisWeb’s User Guide tells us how this search interacts with LexisNexis, the giant database of Very Important Things:

“All search results from Lexis Web will contain value-added features
unique to LexisNexis:
• Navigation based on our Search by Topic or Headnote legal
classification system
• Navigation based on our LexisNexis SmartIndexing Technology
• Navigation based on legal citations
• Recommended list of sources to search in LexisNexis”

And the best part– while it’s in beta testing, the use of it is completely free.

Law Student Books: Source of Scoliosis and Poverty

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SeattlePi.com has an article this morning that says that the average law student has “28 pounds of books worth about $1,000 per semester” in their backpacks. Amazon.com and other content providers are examining e-books as a back (and wallet) friendly alternative in a conference later on this month.

Books a weighty issue for law schools

We’re going to take this opportunity to promote PLI’s own Online Library, which allows online access to all of our Course Handbook and treatise titles, with releases automatically updated; a space and budget saving alternative to a print subscription. For more information, email us at LibraryRelations@pli.edu.