ZiefBrief

Advanced Google

I just completed a presentation for our faculty on advanced Googling techniques & some tips on the next generation of search engines and thought I'd post it here: Download googleinternetfaculty.ppt

I'm also providing a link to the Google "Cheat Sheet" that I discussed during the presentation. 

CRS Guide: Tracking Current Federal Legislation

The Congressional Research Service (CRS) just released a very useful guide, "Tracking Current Federal Legislation and Regulations: A Guide to Resources."  The document covers government and commercial resources that are available to researchers who wish to obtain information about current federal legislation or regulations.  The CRS guide includes tips on how to find this information on Westlaw and LexisNexis Congressional -- both of these databases are available to USF Law students and faculty. 

Bluebook Haiku

Belle Lettre, LLM student and "aspiring law professor," has penned a Bluebook haiku on her blog, Law and Letters:

The Bluebook makes me
Hate the color blue, and books.
But I hate me more.

You can read more of Belle Lettre's Law Thesis Hell haikus, but be forewarned, some profanity is used!

Premium New York Times Content - Free to Students & Faculty

ZiefBrief has just heard from BoleyBlogs that the New York Times is unlocking its premium "TimesSelect" content for university students and professors — and it's free, provided you register with a current academic (".edu") email address.

TimesSelect gives subscribers access to the New York Times op-ed and news columnists, and to a searchable New York Times archive going back to 1851.

To get started, visit the TimesSelect University Discount page.

[Update, 4.4.2007] ZiefBrief has learned that the New York Times offer is not as generous as it sounded at first blush. For details, see today's post New York Times Reneges on Offer.

Online Petition Protesting Proposed Settlement of BAR/BRI Suit

If you're a member of the BAR/BRI class action and you're unhappy with the proposed settlement of the case that we reported last month, you can sign a petition at PetitionOnline registering your displeasure.  As of this morning, the petition only has 43 signatures, and there are approximately 290,000 eligible class members. 

Pin Cite Smackdown

Concurring Opinions penned a long post that is critical of the Bluebook rules for pin cites.  Daniel Solove argues:

I believe pin cites are important for direct quotations or for difficult-to-find facts in sources. But they are often unnecessary for many facts or for holdings of cases. What annoys authors is that instead of working on improving the substantive arguments and writing of an article, a ton of time is wasted hunting for pin cites that few readers will care about.

Pretty uncontroversial issue, right?  Think again!  The post drew the attention (and ire) of some current and former law review editors, and they quickly weighed in with their own opinions about the citation abilities (or lack thereof) of legal scholars and law professors.  One former law review editor unleashed this opinion:

My disagreement with you lies in the willingness to give the authors' statements presumptive validity. Having personally seen many respected authors attempt to blow a fast one past the editors (and, consequently, the readers), I'm defending the requirement for more precision. And I am doing so not as an editor who wanted to Bluebook the article to perfection. I didn't. I'm defending the precision (namely, the use of pin cites) for the readers' sake.

Many readers are fooled by the authors into thinking that their articles are novel and insightful. The authors do so by making statements of the following form: "Many scholars in the field argue X. Shockingly, no one has paid sufficient attention to Y. I am going to argue Y and show how brilliant I am." Often, the authors want to omit a citation for the first proposition--that many scholars argue X. Their reasoning mirrors that in your response to my previous post, that the statement should be obvious to anyone well-versed in the field. Well, not necessarily.

And there's more!  All in all, the post generated 33 lengthy comments from law professors and current and former editors, all fiercely defending or condemning the pin cite requirement. If you're cite-checking and need to take a break, this post and its comments should provide welcome comic relief from the tedium of cite-checking. 

Anna Nicole Smith’s First Husband Not the Law Prof. They Say He Was

It is rare that Zief Brief has a chance to deflate an urban legend, especially one that involves the object of ongoing media frenzy. The story all started with a simple reference question and it ends with our questioning the accuracy of the ultimate in print journalism – the New York Times.

Attorneys Honored During Women's History Month

March is National Women's History Month, and the National Women's History Project is honoring several women attorneys and law school graduates as part of the month-long celebration:

• Martha Wright Griffiths (1912-2003):  Congresswoman Griffiths served in Congress from 1954 to 1974.  During that period, she fought successfully for the addition of language in the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that would prohibit sex-based discrimination.  She also worked to pass the Equal Rights Amendment and Title IX, the federal statute that prohibits sex discrimination in education.

• Constance Baker Motley (1921-2005): Judge Motley's career included many "firsts."  She was the first African American woman accepted at Columbia Law School in 1944, the first African American woman elected to the New York Senate, the first woman to serve as Manhattan Borough President, and the first African American woman appointed as a federal district judge.  Before she became a judge, Judge Motley worked as a staff attorney with the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, and she was the only woman to serve on the Brown v. Board of Education legal team.

• Monique Mehta: A 2006 graduate of Brooklyn Law School, Ms. Mehta is the Executive Director of the Third Wave Foundation, an organization that supports "groups and individuals working towards gender, racial, economic, and social justice" through grants, leadership development, and advocacy.

Here's an interesting tidibit of local women's legal history gleaned from last Sunday's SF Chronicle:  In 1911, California passed Amendment 8, which gave women the right to vote in state elections years before the successful passage of the Nineteenth Amendment.  Guess which city failed to pass Amendment 8?  San Francisco.

What's New on GlobaLex

We've posted several times about GlobaLex, the website dedicated to providing research guides on international, comparative, and foreign law.  You can check out GlobaLex research guides by category at these pages:  foreign law research guides; international law research guides; and comparative law research guides. The site has just posted several new and updated guides, including the following:

• Guide to Legal Research in Honduras by José Miguel Álvarez and Jessica Ramos
• Researching Icelandic Law by Rán Tryggvadóttir and Thordis Ingadóttir
• A Guide to the Singapore Legal System and Legal Research by Tzi Yong Sam Sim
• The Law in Zimbabwe by Otto Saki and Tatenda Chiware
• Guide to Caribbean Law Research (updated Feb. 2007) by Yemisi Dina

Thanks to Law Librarian Blog for reminding us to check out the latest on GlobaLex!

Google Works to Increase Access to Government Information

Ever wonder just how much information from government websites is accessible through search engines such as Google?  According to this article on Govexec.com, half of all government web pages cannot be accessed by using search engines.  This figure doesn't come as a surprise to most law librarians, but I suspect that a lot of legal researchers would find this statistic surprising, even alarming.  Fortunately, as the Govexec.com article reports, Google is working with federal agencies to reconfigure agency websites so that search engine Web crawlers can access them more easily.  In the meantime, if you're searching for government information, here are a few research tips:

• Use a search engine dedicated to searching just local, state, and federal government information, such as USA.gov;
• If you don't find what you're looking for when you run a search on Google, Yahoo, Ask, or any other search engine, don't assume that the information isn't out there.  Ask a librarian for help with your search.
• When you visit government agency websites, you need to be prepared to dig, dig, and then dig some more.  Most agency websites are incredibly complex (take a look at this Medicare agency site!), and it takes patience and perseverance to find the information that you need.  Try the website's search function if a search box is provided, and don't give up after a few clicks!