Checking out the new Blogger interface

I've almost entirely abandoned this blog, but when I saw Three Geeks mention that they've cleaned up the interface, I thought "maybe I should check that out!" 

This interface is much better, but is it better *enough* that I'll start blogging regularly again?  We'll see.

SC Nominees, SC Statistics, True Stories of Bluebooks on Amazon.

Is there anyone out there who isn't fascinated with the Supreme Court nominations process?  Any attorney or legal professional who doesn't arm-chair quarterback the congressional interviews and think how he or she would answer if he or she were nominated?  Who doesn't enjoy comparing and contrasting the prospective Justice's answers with the answers of those who came before?

Along with the rest of the legal world, I'm keeping an eye on the nomination of Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court, replacing Justice John Paul Stevens.  ResourceShelf has pointed me to a few different resources for information on Ms. Kagan, including a compilation from the Library of Congress, which includes a lot of information from the William J. Clinton Presidential Library.  The Clinton library has put together a set page for resources on Justice Sotomayor, I hope in time they'll do the same for Kagan.

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The Wall Street Journal's Law Blog has an interesting piece on Supreme Court oral argument statistics, using data put together by O’Melveny & Myers' Sri Srinivasan. 

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Finally (and the real reason I'm updating this blog), I wanted to link to a thoughtful and well-reasoned review of the new edition of the Bluebook, including the timeless comment "The plot is quite contrived and character development is stagnant at best, regressive at worst. Apparently, the authors think we'll automatically care for the protagonist, "Statute." Well, newsflash, Harvard Law Review, we don't! What kind of home does he come from? What are his hobbies? Does he have a girlfriend? All of these answers are conspicuously absent. Personally (and I don't pretend to be an author of any kind), I would have made "Periodicals" the main character, instead of just a on-again off-again third wheel. And he'd have an drinking problem. Also, it doesn't take a genius to realize that for something to be successful nowadays, it needs vampires! What, are law students too busy to enjoy a movie once in a while? There could even be "Team Periodicals" versus "Team Statutes." Think outside the box, Harvard Law Review. Seriously."  I've always thought that the plotting and character development of the Bluebook are sadly lacking.  Kudos to Evan612 for this overdue criticism.

Hey, guys - do you need a job? You could be the President's librarian!

http://jobview.usajobs.gov/GetJob.aspx?JobID=87119748&JobTitle=Librarian+%28Reference%29&q=librarian&x=0&y=0&brd=3876&vw=b&FedEmp=N&FedPub=Y&tm=3&AVSDM=2010-03-26+13%3a34%3a00

I'm astonished at how terrible that salary is, though. Didn't the last President's librarian get half his stuff? Laura Bush, how dare you not increase the pay on this job!

Time Saving Tips and Free Online Legal Sites

Tips on Productivity!
Shocking news: it’s almost March. Didn’t the new year just happen? Why are the months flying by so quickly? Happily, time is moving faster, in part, because we’re busy.
Since time is moving faster, I’m trying to find ways to do more with my work day. Strangely, no matter how hard I try, I can’t squeeze more hours into my day and I’m left trying to squeeze more work out of my hours. Since I know I’m not the only one interested in managing my time better, I’m putting together some interesting resources to share with you.
One of the best time- and workflow-management systems I’ve found is the “Getting Things Done” system by David Allen. This system gives you a framework for dealing with every work assignment, email, and chore in your personal or professional life. It gives you a way of keeping track of your ongoing projects that is supposed to eliminate (and actually does cut down on) those moments you spend thinking about all the things you need to get done. I call those my “mental Outlook Pop-Up Reminder moments” because they remind me of those annoying reminders from Microsoft, and are generally about as welcome.
You can check out some of the free articles on the Getting Things Done system on David Allen’s website. Some other quick and interesting articles on time management are available at the Legal Watercooler (an excellent legal marketing blog), Brazen Careerist (a dubious but fascinating career blog), lawjobs.com and on ABAJournal.com. There’s also a free e-book available called Time Management for Creative People that works extremely well for lawyers.
I hope you find these resources helpful – here’s to productivity!

Free and Trustworthy Online Legal References

There are a lot of different free legal reference sources out there, some that are well-maintained and some that were put up some time ago and haven’t been updated in ages. In fact, the federal government is looking into starting up Law.gov, a website that is “A Proposed Registry and Repository of All Primary Legal Materials of the United States”
While Law.gov is still under construction, Cornell’s Legal Information Institute has a number of great resources available online, including the entire US Code, Supreme Court Cases from 1992 on, and a link library that directs people to state-level resources in their own state. They also have a wiki-style legal dictionary, built by the site’s users and administrators.
Another great legal resource with access to case law is Findlaw for Legal Professionals - it has cases, practice-area specific pages, interesting legal news, sample business contracts and more. However, you do have to wade through some pop-up screens to access the information.
And, in honor of this past President’s Day, here are some Presidential documents that you might be interested in looking into:
Daily Compilation of Presidential Documents from GPO Access: searchable, from 2009.
Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents from GPO Access: searchable, 1993-Jan. 29, 2009.
Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents from Hein Online: searchable, from 1965.
Public Papers of the President from the National Archives and Records Administration via GPO Access: searchable, from 1992.
Codification of Presidential Proclamations and Executive Orders from the National Archives and Records Administration: searchable, with an index and disposition tables, from 1945 to 1989.
Executive orders disposition tables, from the National Archives and Records Administration: arranged by president then year, from 1937-date.
Presidential Documents Guide from the National Archives and Records Administration.
(Hat Tip to the Marian Gould Gallager library for the Presidential Information!)

New Year, New Habits

I was reading "The Legal Watercooler" on my google reader stream, and was really intrigued by her New Year's post. I love New Year's superstitions and resolutions, even if I don't always follow them. I often think about what's gone well or badly over the past year, and come up grandiose visions of who I'll be by the dawn of the next year. What I liked about Heather's list is that she's focusing on stuff she can accomplish on a smaller scale. Small things she can always do, but that add up to big things over time. Here are hers:

• I can clean out my in-box of today's messages before I leave the office
• I can call a client (in my case, an in-house attorney at my firm)
• I can write a blog post
• I can return the phone calls on my list
• I can prep the ad for the magazine
• I can schedule the ad placement for that conference
• I can participate in networking (online or in person)
• I can make plans for an in-person meeting with a fellow legal marketer
• I can go to the gym and follow my trainer's food plan
• I can give more than I take

Can you tell it's a legal marketer's blog? Anyway, though my perspective as a law librarian is different, it inspired me. Here are my bite-sized daily resolutions:

• I can color-code all standing requests in my in-box before I leave the office
• I can log my time before I leave the office
• I can write a blog post (even if it's just some thoughts on an article, it can be my personal or library blog)
• I can review and file all my new action items (ie, actually open all the mail and email and figure out what I need to do with it next)
• I can make a schedule for the next morning
• I can spend a few minutes remembering what I like about my job and my life
• I can be social (online or in person)
• I can do ten push-ups on the balance ball
• And I like her last one - I can give more than I take

What would you like to do every day? What little steps would actually make a big difference in your life?

Official Google Blog: Finding the laws that govern us

Official Google Blog: Finding the laws that govern us

This is very cool, folks. I'm a huge Google fan, as you can probably tell from my blogger page with it's Google Reader feed, and my constant presence on Gmail.

Now Google is making my professional life easier, too! They've added a widget to Google Scholar that restricts your search to legal materials, meaning that the average person with an internet conection can now find a lot more legal information a lot more easily. I've long thought that Google Scholar was the best way to search Hein Online (their on-site search engine is dreadful) but this is even better.

Hi Folks,

I was messing around in Google Reader, and saw there's a way you can create and share bundles of resources with friends! If you'd like to read the same feeds as me in legal or law library subject areas, check out my bundles (hah-hah) half-way down the left hand column. Or, you can keep trusting me to share the funny and weird headlines in my "Google Reader Shared Items" widget, at the top of the the left hand column.

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Academic Lectures Online:


What did you like best about lectures when you were in college? The mental stimulation? The new information to discuss at parties? Nap time when you sat in back? Some (though not all) of your favorite undergraduate memories can be relived now, thanks to the wealth of academic lectures now available online.

Just-launched Forum-Network is a website created by PBS and NPR bringing you a variety of lectures, searchable by keyword.

An older site, Research Channel, has made over 3,500 lectures available online. They are browseable by subject, program title, series title, or University/Institution. YouTube EDU also has some interesting academic lectures, and iTunes U has a section of academic podcasts. If you need to help your kiddo with his or her homework, there's WatchKnow, a site illustrating different concepts with videos for the K-12 set.

These are great sources to learn about new topics or refresh your memory of old ones. And if you use them for their soporific effect, I promise not to tell.