SLAW Being Re-Launched

Tonight as I write this, some strange and interesting things are happening over at SLAW. SLAW, for those of you who do not keep track of such things, is a co-operative Canadian web log on law and technology (and a whole lot of other things). I have been a core contributor since its inception. I have thoroughly enjoyed being part of this premier law blogging initiative.

Simon Fodden, our fearless leader, is launching a redesign of the site tonight. It is something he has been working on all summer. He has hinted at some of the changes, but the contributors really only know piecemeal what is to come. In an email message to the contributors tonight he said: "All should be well--nay, much better than well--by the morning." So we wait, watching features and strange images come and go on the site.

He also shared a German saying I hadn't encountered before which I quite like: "Now comes the moment when the monkey leaps into the water and risks his life."

I can't wait to see the new SLAW. Swim, little monkey, swim!!

UPDATE: Well, it appears the monkey has swum back to the shore. Simon reports that he had the change part-way done, but has more work to do. So, for now our beloved SLAW looks unchanged. But I'm sure he'll get there soon.

Carnival of the Infosciences #78 has been posted

The latest installment of the Carnival of the Infosciences has now been posted over at DIYLibrarian. This is a great summary of some of the key posts in the biblioblosphere from the past couple of weeks.

We are Librarians, hear us Social Network! Carnival of the Infosciences #77 Now Posted

Wow--we are trying to get interest back up for Carnival of the Infosciences and I must say Wow! the participation is splendid this time around. Even without my contributions, it is a very strong episode. Check it out over at Jessamyn West's blog librarian.net:

Carnival of the Infosciences #77
Now an improved feature, you can make submissions simply by tagging a blog post "carninfo" in del.icio.us and adding note about why you have selected the post, plus your name.

Of course, you can still submit using the groovy form that does half the work for you here.

DIYLibrarian is the next host. For more info and links to past Carnival posts, check out the Carnival of the Infosciences wiki.

We are Librarians, hear us Social Network!!

New course: Social Networking Tools: Hands on Learning (Aug. 9/07)

I am very excited to announce a new continuing ed course I will be teaching at the Professional Learning Centre, Faculty of Information Studies, University of Toronto:

Social Networking Tools: Hands on Learning

Web 2.0, Facebook, Second Life - have taken the world and the library by storm! Explore these social media networking tools in this hands-on computer lab class. Set up a blog and wiki, view RSS feeds in an aggregator, try a social bookmarking site such as del.icio.us, and create a profile on professional networking site LinkedIn. Look at Flickr, LibraryThing, Ning, Facebook, MySpace and Second Life. Test out the latest apps such as Twitter and Jaiku. We will try some of these and have a "tour" of others, as well as discuss the implications for libraries.

Specific learning outcomes for students

At the end of the course, participants will:

* be able to set up a blog using Blogger or Wordpress
* be able to set up a wiki using PB Wiki
* set up some RSS feeds in a web-based aggregator such as Google Reader or Bloglines
* set up a profile on business networking site LinkedIn
* try using a web-based social bookmarking site such as del.icio.us or equivalent
* become familiar with Ning, Twitter, Jaiku, Flickr, LibraryThing , MySpace, Facebook and Second Life either through hands-on use or a live "tour" given to the class, depending upon time
* become familiar with how these are being used by libraries and library staff

Key topics covered

* who in society is using these applications?
* how are they being used by libraries and library staff?
* what are both the positive and negative aspects to these technologies?
* using social networking applications inside the firewall
* issues surrounding communication in public spaces
* what is Library 2.0 compared to Web 2.0
* how to learn more
* how to stay current in this area

Target Audience:
Library technicians, librarians, library managers and directors as well as others interested in Web 2.0.

When: Thursday, August 9, 2007, 9 am - 5 pm
Where: Faculty of Information Studies, University of Toronto, Toronto
Register

Thanks go to Rebecca Jones who shared the original concept with me (and I just had to jump on the opportunity), and to Eva Kupidura for working with me to set this up and who keeps things running smoothly at the PLC.

This will be my very first time attempting this feat, and you won't want to miss it!! Sign up now since spaces will be limited to the number of computers in the room.

New CALL SIG Knowledge Management Blog

I've been keeping a low profile lately, trying to get away on my "big vacation". Alas, that has largely fallen through. I'm still taking a break for a couple of weeks but may take advantage of this time off to catch up on a few things including my blogging.

First off, I congratulate Wendy Reynolds and Linda Matte, chairs of the Knowledge Management Special Interest Group (KM SIG), part of the Canadian Association of Law Libraries (CALL), for kicking off a new blog called KM Librarians! As part of this SIG, I can't wait to contribute my bit. If you are a member of CALL and would like to contribute to the blog, please contact Wendy or Linda.

Thanks to Simon Fodden on SLAW for linking to it.

Blawg Review #105

I agreed to host this week's Blawg Review in tribute to UNESCO’s World Book and Copyright Day. Being a librarian, and former student of English literature, books and literacy are near and dear to my heart. Working in a law library, copyright is also of particular interest to me. From the UNESCO website:

“By celebrating this Day throughout the world, UNESCO seeks to promote reading, publishing and the protection of intellectual property through copyright.”

Here, then, are this week's feature law blog posts. I have taken the liberty of being a complete library geek and cataloguing the posts according to the Library of Congress schedule for K - Law (or an approximation thereof). I note that in Canada, many law libraries employ a modified version of this scheme, known affectionately as KF Modified.

Blawg Review Library of Blawg Posts


JK511 - Presidents - United States

At Balkinization, Sandy Levinson offers More on Presidential dictatorship in a thoughtful, in-depth post.


K100 - Legal education

J. Louis May discusses his method of preparing for exams in his post How I "Do" Law School Exams: at The Legal Scoop. Preparation and organization are key!


K115 – The Legal Profession

Al Nye tells us about The Power of Nice at Al Nye The Lawyer Guy. The title says it all!

Scott Greenfield presents It's Tough To Be The Big Guy posted at Simple Justice, a commentary on the blog post Not Really Legal MalPractice But… by Andrew Lavoott Bluestone over at the New York Attorney Malpractice Blog. The post is about a no-confidence vote in making Manhattan attorney Raoul Lionel Felder chair of the New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct because of a book he wrote with comedian Jackie Mason, entitled Schmucks!

I love seeing people honour their colleagues! Stephanie West Allen does just that in The motley band of lawyers: Let's honor the diverse symphony of the profession posted at idealawg. She discusses the myriad reasons lawyers went to law school, and quotes a number of comments from individuals. I found this an up-lifting read, confirming that so many people want to work towards making a positive impact on society.


K115 - The Legal profession – law firms

Patrick J. Lamb at the blawg In Search of Perfect Client Service takes A Sobering Look Into the Future. With the exponentially accelerating flattening of the world, the standard law firm structure must be reexamined. It appears to the author that big firms, like many big businesses, will be particularly challenged to thrive in an environment where both China and India are each producing more honors students annually than the total number of students in the United States. Businesses will be confronting problems with technology that has yet to be developed. The author simply raises the question of whether a seismic change in the law profession is on the horizon.

Good news for blogging law firms! In Chubb Insurance law firm blog update: Big to do about nothing Kevin O'Keefe reports at Real Lawyers Have Blogs that the recent kerfuffle caused by Chubb's recent denial of coverage for a law firm which has a blog has been much ado about nothing, as Chubb has essentially backtracked from their earlier position. “…the insurer now says law firms publishing blogs will be covered by their malpractice policy so long as lawyers are not answering specific questions in a way that could be construed to be legal advice.” There is additional follow-up in O’Keefe’s post Malpractice coverage and blogs: More lawyers respond to Chubb Insurance.


K115 - The Legal Profession - lawyer fees

Mark Ross presents Time To Stop Time Recording posted at LawScribe's Legal Process Outsourcing Blog. UK attorney Mark Ross, based in Los Angeles, discusses the billable hour versus fixed fee or contingency fees especially in light of outsourced legal work. He argues:

The argument that time recording enables managing partners to assess the level of work being carried out by their fee earners also no longer holds true, because the technology in place enables tasks such as standard letters and documentation to be processed in a fraction of the time which would be recorded as single unit for time recording purposes. Those firms that survive will be those who embrace such technology, together with the desires of the client for greater transparency, and provide clients with a fixed fee quotation for the work to be undertaken.

Over at the Law Blog at the Wall Street Journal Online, Ashby Jones found out how high-profile attorney Willie Gary arrived at an $11,000 hourly billing rate in a case and shares the story in Willie Gary and His $11,000-An-Hour Fee. This post really should go into the category “I picked the wrong career path” but I can’t find a Library of Congress heading for that. :-P

K115 - The Legal profession - professional responsibility

Timothy Bishop describes A Good Example of "Unprofessional Irresponsibility" posted at The Legal Scoop.

K115 - The Legal profession - legal services

In Enough Health 2.0: What about Law 2.0? Avvo posted at Health Care Law Blog, Bob Coffield gives us advance notice of Avvo, a “Law 2.0” service just setting up shop in Seattle.

K270 - Jurisprudence. Philosophy and theory of law - Acts and events

A number of events this past week have exposed a number of moral challenges for the law:

Hanna Hasl-Kelchner pulls together a number of news making events in Two Universities and a Shock Jock posted at LegalLiteracy.com. She discusses lessons the Virginia Tech, Duke lacrosse, and Imus firing can teach business about building a culture of compliance.

Amidst discussion of increased and decreased gun control in the wake of the Virginia Tech murders, at Is That Legal? Eric Muller wonders how a Kent State situation happening again on a well-armed campus would turn out. See his post Gun Control, Campus Shootings, The Wild West, and Kent State.

Eugene Volokh at The Volokh Conspiracy takes the discussion a step further in So What Are We Going To Do About It?, discussing how rare but horrific events like the murders can skew public consideration of related issues.

At The Technology Liberation Front Adam Thierer argues the FCC should not take the Don Imus situation as an opportunity to regulate hate speech on-air in post Don Imus and the FCC: Should Hate Speech be Regulated?

K300 - Jurisprudence. Philosophy and theory of law - Classification of law

At the Vancouver Law Librarian Blog, my colleague Steve Matthews gives a nice, concise run-down of the controlled vocabulary versus tagging debate in InfoWorld Editor Stuck in 2005 . Matthews says:

So here's the deal... Tagging is a great technology. Every corporate librarian out there will tell you that. And it works even better when teamed with a controlled vocabulary. But for Mr. Margulius to equate Librarians with one classification style over the other, and claim that we are a waste of money, is simply insulting. Librarians were examining the merits of folksonomies 2 years ago, and he's just getting into the game now?

K583 - Comparative Law - Legal systems compared

Over at Overlawyered, Ted Frank presents Underlawyered: Iran comparing the U.S. litigation and tort system with Iran’s.

K1297 - Product liability - medical devices - defense of preemption

Mark Herrman and Jim Beck present Why Does Preemption Matter? at the Drug and Device Law blog. This post explains why, in pharmaceutical product liability cases, the defense of preemption is important to drug companies. The post was prompted by media inquiries arising out of Merck's preemption victory in the Vioxx statewide coordinated proceeding in Texas.

K3255 – Constitutional Law – Individual and State – Freedom of speech

Nicole Black presents Rebel With a Cause, or Without a Clue? posted at Sui Generis--a New York law blog. “On March 19, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in this case, during which our finest judicial minds used their collective brainpower to decipher the underlying meaning and free speech implications of a nonsensical phrase first seen by Frederick on a snowboard. “Bong Hits 4 Jesus” — a seemingly meaningless slogan made suddenly meaningful by virtue of the possibility that it could change First Amendment jurisprudence for generations of teenage pranksters to come. By either design or mere happenstance, Frederick hit the judicial jackpot.” Black takes law blog posting to a new level by including a related video in her post.

K5462 - Forensic psychology

An emu dead under suspicious circumstances gives Norm Pattis pause for reflection and self-accusation and a new understanding of guilty conscience confessions by innocent suspects in J’accuse at Crime & Federalism.

Scott Greenfield is on a roll this week at Simple Justice! In My Brain Made Me Do It! he discusses the difficult question as to how those suffering from some mental illnesses are treated in the courts, that there is either “not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect” or guilty (i.e. evil) with no middle ground. Even the subject headings in the cataloguing system don't seem to handle this subject very well.

K8915 - Defense (Civil Procedure)

Scott Greenfield presents It's the Defense Lawyers, Stupid posted at Simple Justice in response to Randy E. Barnett, in an April 17th Wall Street Journal editorial, Three Cheers for the Lawyers.

KD807 - Contract law - England and Wales

Ken Adams talks about The U.K. Approach to “Representations” and “Warranties” at AdamsDrafting. He is interested in hearing the views of U.K., Canadian and Australian lawyers about the use of these “magic words”. His assertion is that, “if you want to accomplish a given contract goal, address it directly rather than relying on courts to breathe the intended meaning into obscure language.”

KE2750 - Internet publishing - Law and legislation - Canada

In Conservative MP Introduces 'Clean Internet Act', Canadian IP/IT guru Michael Geist says:

Conservative MP Joy Smith yesterday introduced the Clean Internet Act (Bill C-427). The private member's bill would establish an Internet service provider licensing system to be administered by the CRTC [Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission] along with "know your subscriber" requirements and content blocking powers. Just about everything associated with this bill is (to be charitable) rather odd.

In Social (Media) Host Liability - BC Libel Lawsuit, Rob Hyndman (a terrific fellow who I seem to run into everywhere, including in the submissions for this review), talks about one of the first cases of its kind in Canada, and what could be the first case to go the distance (based at least on the deep pockets of one defendant). Google, Wikipedia and Openpolitics.ca are being sued in BC for libel based on user-generated content. Hyndman also speaks about deleting a comment for the first time because of libel chill. [Oh! Been there, done that, got the T-shirt.]

KE3775 - Water - Pollution - Law and Legislation - Canada
KZA1118 - Law of the sea - Treaties and other international agreements

For anyone who hasn't found this gem, I strongly suggest you check out the Library Boy blog. Michel-Adrien Sheppard is a former news researcher/journalist/web producer who now works as a reference librarian at the Supreme Court of Canada. He does any amazing job of pulling together important resources on a myriad of topics. This past week in particular, he was looking at water law resources in three posts:

International Water Law Research Guide
Canadian Water Law Resources
More Water Law Resources

[I have given these two call numbers since these posts would likely be split apart as they cover a range of subjects about water.]

KF85 - Legal research

How best to provide reference services in libraries has always been of debate by law librarians. The centralized reference desk in some types of libraries has gone in and out of style over the years. Now with new technologies, methods of service delivery have becoming increasingly diverse. Over at Out of the Jungle, Marie S. Newman opens up the subject for conversation in The Future of the Reference Desk.

At WisBlawg celebrity law librarian blogger Bonnie Shucha shared with us the "Read" posters put together by the University of Wisconsin Law Library in celebration of the U.S. National Library Week. This year's posters feature UW Law School faculty members Ken Davis, Allison Christians, and Jim Jones. What a great idea!

KF564 - Computers - Law and legislation

Scott Vine, a.k.a. Information Overlord out of the U.K. tackles the new assertion that supporters of the concept of net neutrality also support piracy in Net Neutrality supporters = Piracy Supporters. Worth noting: he also does a nice little round-up of new technology ideas in a snappy regular feature called Odds & Sods.

At Canadian legal research and technology blog, SLAW, Patrick Cormier and Simon Fodden did a fantastic job blogging the Legal IT conference held last week in Montreal. [Interesting blog note: the "a" in Legal is supposed to be an @ symbol but Blogger does not seem to know how to handle this with a link.]

KF574 - Stare Decisis

Michael Stokes Paulsen is guest blogging over at Balkinization. The Pernicious Doctrine of Stare Decisis is a thought-provoking post arguing against the principle of stare decisis: "Stare decisis is a charade. The doctrine, taken seriously, suggests that judges should deliberately decide cases in ways they otherwise are fully persuaded are wrong, on what they otherwise would regard as the proper interpretive criteria -- sometimes . . . Taken seriously, the doctrine is unconstitutional: it suggests that a court should prefer the (by hypothesis) faithless earlier departure from the Constitution to the correct understanding of the Constitution, in situations where they conflict." If this topic hits home with you, be sure to read through the thorough discussion in the comments as well.

KF905 - High Technology Industries

Jim Calloway's Law Practice Tips Blog covers the session Gadgets, Gadgets Gadgets presented at Computers in Libraries this past week in Librarians Show Off Cool Gadgets. Calloway says: “Like many others, I love a program about tech-related gadgets. Too bad none of us can afford all of the gadgets we want. Barbara Fullerton, Manager, Librarian Relations, 10-K Wizard, Sabrina Pacifici, Editor & Publisher, LLRX.com and beSpacific.com and Aaron Schmidt, Director, North Plains Public Library, gave their annual presentation on gadgets at the Computers in Libraries meeting. They have posted a PDF of their PowerPoint on LLRX.com for all to enjoy. This is one of the best gadget round-ups you will find. They even include gadgets not yet available.” I was at the session and have to say my favourite gadget was the low-tech reusable collapsible chopsticks. Madinkbeard agrees.

If you like to keep up with the latest in tech tools (we're talking on the web, not gadgets this time), you should have a look at lo-fi librarian's weekly This Week's Useful Tools. Lots to keep you busy for a full week until the next list!

KF1296 - Products liability - damages

“The less efficient a company, the fewer punitives? The more efficient (the more it adds value to the country) the greater the punitives? Decisions like these are surely applauded by defendants, but they are just as surely indications that punitive damages as currently awarded make no sense at all. “ So asserts Michael Krauss in NJ Verdict Demonstrates Absurdity of Punitives posted at PointOfLaw Forum. [April 24/07 - name corrected!]

KF1446 - Auditor committees - United States

Leon Gettler presents Judges' low opinion of auditors posted at SOX First. Gettler provides a warning for auditors: researchers have found that judges now have a low opinion of them and they will no longer take the excuse that a bad set of accounts is management’s responsibility. That means more auditors could be taken to court and put out of business.

KF2750 - Internet publishing - Law and legislation - United States

At The Volokh Conspiracy, Orin Kerr has a lively discussion about cyber-bullying, a subject close to my heart, taking place. In Legal Responses to “Cyber-Bullying”, he suggests that provider immunity for online defamation and "cyber-bullying" could be conditioned on simple measures to prevent search robots from indexing offending "free-for-all" sites. But who would really want to trade indexing on Google for allowing anonymous comments on a blog? Not me.

KF2805 - Broadcasting - law and legislation - United States

Timothy Bishop talks about the FCC’s attempt to curb the “payola” practice in the U.S. radio industry in Payola Settlement between Gov't & 4 Broadcast Companies posted at The Legal Scoop.

And over at Concurring Opinions, Frank Pasquale describes how the pending XM-Sirius merger may be a "standard-setting" merger which promotes innovation and saves an industry -- satellite radio -- and why that position might have changed since the FCC's original licensing of the former competitors in the post The XM-Sirius Merger.

KF2905 - Medical malpractice - blogs

Those of us in the blogosphere should take note of Walter Olson’s update on accounts from authors of medical blogs who are being pulled into malpractice suits at Doctors' first-person accounts of litigation posted at Overlawyered.

KF2972 Intellectual property – trade mark

Ron Coleman presents That’s a wrap posted at LIKELIHOOD OF CONFUSION. In it, Coleman follows up on an earlier story about New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s IP enforcement program focused on the train symbols of the NYC subway system, how those symbols are pretty much being used by other agencies including the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene to promote condoms. Bonus points for the double-entendre post title!

Attention law bloggers! Marty Schwimmer at The Trademark Blog announces a meetup of law bloggers at the International Trademark Association convention to be held on April 30th:

Billy Goat Tavern, 430 N. Michigan, Monday Night, April 30, 7:30 to 9:30. Convenient to all buses going to bigger better financed INTA parties. Ron Coleman of Likelihood of Confusion, John Welch of TTAB Blog and a domestic shorthair from IPKat will be signing copies of their blogs. My colleagues from Moses and Singer will buy you a drink. Special prize to the best avatar.

KF2996 Copyright – United States

Episode 011 of Rules For The Revolution: The Podcast by Colette Vogele is entitled Fair Use!. This episode brings back Tony Falzone, Executive Director for the Fair Use Project at Stanford's Center for Internet and Society. Tony describes what Fair Use is under the Copyright Act, and how the law is developing in this important field that helps to balance copyright and free speech under the First Amendment.

KF3771 - Abortion - Law and Legislation - United States

At Legalities, one of the ABC News blogs, Jan Crawford Greenburg discusses Anthony Kennedy’s landmark abortion case handed down on April 18th in her post The Last Word. An excerpt:

It's sometimes too easy to mock Anthony Kennedy, and people sure have done a lot of it over the years. He can seem infuriatingly unmoored. He agonizes over his decisions. He's been known to change his mind in a case or two. And his writing style is about as grand as his ornately decorated chambers in the Court. But in yesterday's landmark abortion case, Kennedy was the Associate Justice he believes himself to be.

KF8775 - Judges--United States

In Another Reason Not to Elect Judges Norm Pattis discusses the catch-22 situation wherein elected judges are expected by voters to comment on issues of interest, yet are prohibited in doing so by ethics rules over at Crime & Federalism.

KF8999 - Summary judgments - United States

In"Eenie Meenie" redux posted at Overlawyered, David Nieporent talks about a summary judgment in favour of an airline in a customer service complaint from a 1996 flight.

KF9350 - Internet Crime

Scott Felsenthal tells us about a Cruel Craigslist Hoax over at The Legal Scoop. Be careful what you read on the Internet, people!

KFN2142 - New Jersey - Workers compensation

In NJ comp fraud case: lawyers settle out, workers nailed posted at Overlawyered, Walter Olson tells us about 84 workers who are personally on the hook for at least $2.26 million after filing en masse for workers compensation following the closing of a bathroom-components factory in New Jersey.

KFT1496 - Texas. Transportation code

Scott Henson discusses how data gathered by Texas police indicates there are racial disparities in searches associated with traffic stops, and how wide disparities also exist in the rates of searches for all races from department to department. He indicates: “changes in the law would allow law enforcement to drill down into these data deeper to determine whether departments that search more often gain any law enforcement benefit from the practice.” See Traffic stop info shines light on police searches; date needs tweaking for maximum benefit at Grits for Breakfast.

KFT1497 - Drunk driving - Texas

The Austin DWI Lawyer Jamie Spencer writes about flaws in three new proposed pieces of DWI legislation in Texas. He comments on each in individual posts all available from 3 DWI Bills covered by the Austin American Statesman.

KNQ1139 - Joint ventures - Law and Legislation - China

Dan Harris presents Danone v. Wahaha - Which Of Us Is The Most China Rookie? posted at China Law Blog, discussing an IP dispute between Danone and Wahaha in China, and then broadens the lesson to give some precautions about joint ventures in China.

KPT78 - Thailand

The University at Buffalo Law School is taking an interesting approach to covering research and ideas by faculty and other prominent scholars by podcasting what it calls "Faculty Conversations." Instigated by Jim Milles, the conversations take a more accessible approach to the formal papers regularly presented by faculty. The latest of these is Faculty Conversation: David M. Engel on Legal Pluralism and Injury in Contemporary Thailand.


Linkworthy - wrapping things up!

10 things they didn't tell you about blogging, a thoughtful blog post by Rajesh Setty, includes a secret that's at the heart of the success of Blawg Review, the carnival of law bloggers:

7. If you want to succeed, you HAVE to start making others succeed.

You want to succeed in your blogging initiatives. Others want to do the same. If everyone thinks that ONLY they want to succeed, it will be hard work for everyone. Please spread the word about other blogs. You don't have to promote other blogs blatantly. A little bit of "link love" will go a long way. Don't worry. People will reciprocate if you write "linkworthy" content.

Brett Trout, who will be hosting Blawg Review #106 on April 30th, has compiled the Top 10 Ways to Commit Malpractice with Your Blog including references to Kevin O’Keefe’s post mentioned above. Now, that's linkworthy.

Disclaimer: I am not a cataloguer. The classifications applied to blog posts above are for entertainment purposes only and may be inaccurate. These should not be used for cataloguing purposes. Please consult a cataloguer for questions about categorization and classification of your blog or blog posts. I assume no responsibility for any party who applies these classifications to blogs or blogs posts and is thereby unable to locate respective information in searches.

Happy Book Day, everyone!

Cheers,
Connie

Blawg Review #105 Coming Soon!!

I am proud to be hosting the Blawg Review on this site this coming Monday, April 23rd. Blawg Review has more information, including instructions on how to get your blawg posts reviewed in this upcoming issue. Remember: for this carnival, I am looking for law-related posts.

I have had a few submissions already. Please keep them coming!!! I was selected to host by Ed. in honour of World Book and Copyright Day. So, anything related to this subject particularly welcome.


Cheers,
Connie

[April 21/07 - name of carnival corrected! ]

Project Planning Using Blogs and Wikis

Liveblogging

Nicole Engard, Jenkins Law Library

problem using email for project planning; difficult to follow and go back to decisions a year later.

Use a blog for each project; give every staff member the ability to contribute to or create a blog. Discussion is still date-stamped.

Everyone can read what is happening in other departments.

Reduces clutter in in-box. Easy to go back to see the year, and complete reports.

Uses wikis for collecting documentation.

She opened up their site live to us and demonstrated some of the features. Kind of hard to transcribe everything, but here are a few things:

They have a shared calendar that is web-based. Everyone is able to edit it.

To do lists - share to do items with other staff, mark items off, keep track of everything. She hasn't said what platform they are using (or perhaps I missed it).

Every staff member has the ability to start their own project.

Staff members don't have to focus on making things look good; they have the power but should focus on writing (i.e. creating content). The web team go in to make things pretty. Web team also have the ability to delete posts, but doesn't happen very often.

Staff get email alerts when things are updated if they want.

Use good web design, icons to make things clear, Dilbert cartoon to inspire people to visit the site. :-)

They have a "future wish list" thread for everyone. Also works for posting meeting minutes and people can post their comments about the meeting.

WYSIWYG editor - WYSIWYG Pro; they also have ability to edit by HTML. They decided to go with editor since it allows for multiple editors on one page. Approx. $40 for non-profits.

Limit the number of Word documents; prefer to term them into wiki pages so they are searchable, easier to handle.

People can read about projects in other departments; improves communication, lets people know what is happening across the organization.

It is an in-house developed platform based on MySQL using PHP for the front end. They would have to do a lot of work to make it available as open source. She is willing to share parts of their code.

See her website where she will post her presentation:

web2learning.net

Blogging at Computers in Libraries

I'm now settled into the conference hotel, ready for Computers in Libraries to start tomorrow. I spent the last two days with Sabrina Pacifici preparing our workshops for Thursday, a new one on blogging for the enterprise, and one that Sabrina runs annually on mining blogs and RSS for research purposes.

I've now had a look at the list of people planning to blog the conference, and it is quite impressive! For anyone not here, it will be a well-covered conference. My only regret was deciding not to bring my new microphone, so I won't be recording people. Too bad, because it would have been a great opportunity with all these interesting people here.

Lots of ideas for future projects are already flying around. I may have to take a sabbatical from my usual job to get all these extra projects done! Heh.

Anyway, if you are here as well please do say hello. :-)

Cheers,
Connie

Caveat Emptor? Researching Metropolitan Who's Who

I find it incredible the number of people finding my blog post about Metropolitan still. They are trying to determine whether to take memberships, whether to take the risk. You will note I do not call the Internet-based private social network a scam. As a librarian, I believe in presenting the various points of view, good, bad or indifferent, so that people can form intelligent, well-informed opinions on their own. People deciding whether to join should make up their own minds about Metropolitan. In addition to the Metro-written website, blogs and press releases which as with anything written by most organizations are very positive, also have a look at this and this and weigh the risks carefully for yourself before you pay $741 or whatever amount they quote you. If you don't feel uncomfortable giving them your money after reading the various points of view, then you will have piece of mind giving out your credit card number.

Remember, in any relationship when you sign on to join a group or buy something, caveat emptor. A nice Latin phrase for you legal research fans!!

Third Winner Found in Blog Anniversary Draw!

Congratulations to Heather Acton who is the third winner in my third blog anniversary draw! Heather has been away from her email and just saw my message today.

Again, congratulations to all our winners! I'm still waiting for our Cafe Press store to open up.

Cheers,
Connie

Slaw home page not available

It has been a frustrating day for Slawyers... the Slaw main web page has been unavailable. Apparently if anyone has a link to one of the individual pages, those are still accessible since the web site is still available from the web. It is just the front page for some reason (the part I really like to read) that we can' t get to right now. Hopefully it will be resolved soon.

Cheers,
Connie

Blog Anniversary Survey - There's Still Time!

Thanks to everyone who has taken my Big Fat 3rd Blog Anniversary Survey to be in on the Big Fat 3rd Blog Anniversary Draw. All who have responded to date are regular readers. What a terrific surprise--I have more than 2 regular readers! Thanks so much for your kind words, everyone. I'm glad you enjoy reading along as I learn about this great big info world of ours. We live in exciting times, I think. And I am privileged to know a lot of smart and interesting people, including many of you. I'm just a big sponge and like to learn from everyone.

If you haven't taken part yet in the survey/draw, there is still time! For details see: this post.

Cheers,
Connie

New Law Librarian Blog: All-Purpose Biblioblawg

I welcome Meg Kribble to the law librarian blogger community! This is part of a fantastic note I received from Meg today:

I wanted to let you know that I’ve started a blog, and I’ve included yours in my blogroll as one of my favorites. My introductory post is here:

http://biblioblawg.blogspot.com/2007/03/introduction.html

I realize that because of the subject matter, not all of you will be interested in reading regularly, but I still wanted to take a moment to introduce myself, and to say thank you with a bit more personalization than is possible with “blogs that link here.”

Thank you, and keep on blogging!

Regards,
Meg

I am honoured to be on Meg's original blogroll. Moreover, I would encourage you to have a look. She is just getting started but I'm sure she will be great!

Connie Crosby's Big Fat 3rd Blog Anniversary Giveaway Draw!

To celebrate my third year of blogging, I have decided to thank my friends and readers with a little informal giveaway draw. We are just in the process of setting up Cafe Press with Swag (t-shirts and maybe a couple other things) for the 4th Northeast Regional Law Libraries Meeting, Libraries Without Borders II. So, I thought it would be fun to give a few of those items away. Since that is not *quite* set up just yet, what I can say is I will be drawing for 3 items from our lineup.

To be eligible for the draw:

1. You must take my Big Fat 3rd Blog Anniversary Survey
2. You must provide me with your email address in the last survey question.
3. If you get selected in the draw, you must give me a mailing address.
4. You must be in North America or have a North American address I can send the Swag to, 'cause this is out of my own pocket.

I haven't seen the full swag line-up, but I expect prize winners will be able to choose your own groovy item from the list. Woo hoo!

Okay, click here to take Connie Crosby's Big Fat 3rd Blog Anniversary Survey! And best of luck in the draw!!

Thanks so much, everyone!!

Cheers,
Connie

Happy Birthday Little Bloggy

Well, yesterday was your 3rd birthday. You are growing up pretty fast, little blog! I didn't forget about you. I have actually been working on a BIG SURPRISE for readers. I will post something more about it in the next day or so. Readers should check back tomorrow for news on how I am going to celebrate this blog's birthday!

Cheers,
Connie

Carnival of the Infosciences #67

Welcome to the Hangover Edition of the Carnival of the Infosciences! It was a slow week for the Carnival, no doubt because of a combined effect of Spring break, the early North American time change, and St. Patrick's Day celebrations (commemorated over at the Vincent G. Rinn Law Library blog) . We had only one submission for Carnival #67, so I am afraid you will now be subjected primarily to picks from my blogroll and maybe even some personal promotion. I'll try not to shout.


St. Patrick's day parade originally uploaded to Flickr by chidorian.


Superstar submitter Chris Zammarelli kindly submitted this post by cindiann from Chronicles of Bean: Library Agitprop . It riffs on this post by Karen Schneider at ALA TechSource: Dear Library of Congress... and takes a good, long, look at what we are doing with Library 2.0. Thank you for a fantastic submission, Chris!

Top on my list is those who have just concluded taking part in Five Weeks to a Social Library, the ground-breaking web-based course put on by the biblio glitterati:

• Meredith Farkas, Chair
• Michelle Boule
• Karen Coombs
• Amanda Etches-Johnson
• Ellyssa Kroski
• Dorothea Salo
  

I was going to list individual blog posts, but I suggest you just go over and explore the whole website, including blogs, wiki and course content. Meredith Farkas has also been blogging the experience over at Information Wants to be Free. And congratulations to Amanda Etches-Johnson for just being named one of LibraryJournal.com's Movers and Shakers of 2007!!

Turning my sights to the other side of the globe, CW at Ruminations based in Perth, Australia, discusses her trip to Margaret River to meet with a number of viticulture (wine-making) students and academic staff and provide them with some information literacy seminars and EndNote training. She talked about the trip beforehand, her plans to use Twitter to communicate with the biblioblogosphere while she was on the trip and away from blog access, and then summarized the experience in What we did in Margaret River.

One of my favourite law library bloggers, Michel-Adrien Sheppard who works at the Supreme Court of Canada and blogs at Library Boy, celebrated International Women's Day with a list of Feminist Legal Theory Resources. Michel-Adrien always picks up on the best of Canadian and international legal information.

At the cooperative group blog Out of the Jungle, Betsy McKenzie celebrated International Women's Day by taking part in Blog Against Sexism Day with a post called Letter to My Daughter. It is a touching read.

Also at Out of the Jungle, Marie S. Newman responds to a New York Times article about digitization, whether anything not digitized will be forgotten in the future, in Digitizing History.

Over at the Vancouver Law Librarian Blog, my west coast counterpart Steve Matthews created a fantastic summary called Biggest Hurdles for Law Firm RSS Adoption just before heading off to Disney.

Scott Vine, at Information Overlord based out of the UK, has shared with us his secrets for finding music in places other than iTunes: Let the Music Play On...

Since we last met, the lo-fi librarian celebrated a first blog anniversary. Happy blogaversary, lo-fi!! Keep on blogging! And check it out--each week lo-fi puts together a list of This Week's Latest Tools - March 18th list and March 11th list.

Which reminds me, Jim Milles is currently teaching a class on how to teach legal research, and he has been blogging and podcasting the content of the course over at TLR07. The students are learning how to incorporate new technology into their teaching. I strongly recommend having a look if you are involved in adult education.

Finally, I would be remiss if I did not mention the new cooperative blog we have created for the Northeast Regional Law Libraries Conference, librarieswithoutborders.wordpress.com . Wendy Reynolds has written a fantastic post called Pushing the borders of the profession . I hope you will have a look. (Okay, that is the blatant self-promotion part. I hope it wasn't too loud and painful!).

Everyone! Show the love and submit your blog article picks to the next edition of Carnival of the Infosciences using the carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on the blog carnival wiki page. Our next host, on April 2, 2007 will be Grumpator (just missed April Fool's by one day!).

Cheers,
Connie

NE2007: Libraries Without Borders II - Now Blogging!

I mentioned it somewhere in a past blog message, but thought I would mention this again more formally We are now blogging about the 4th Northeast Regional Law Libraries Meeting (affectionately known as NE2007) over at the new blog Libraries Without Borders II which happens to be the conference title! For anyone who would like to link over to it, the URL is http://librarieswithoutborders.wordpress.com . The main website (which will soon be nicely updated) is still http://www.librarieswithoutborders.net . But do check out that blog for the inside scoop on everything that is happening.

Later this week we will be releasing initial conference details to help everyone with conference attendance planning. Woo hoo!

Cheers,
Connie

Can You See the Wind Rushing Through My Hair?

In my usual style, I am over-committed and should be committed! Too many things on the go, doing my best to do them all somewhat brilliantly.

I just finished penning an article on trends in legal research training for the National, the Canadian Bar Association magazine. Whew! It is overdue and they have been very very patient with me, so it is good to have that finished.

We have also been working on NE2007, the planning of which has been heating up to a frantic pace. I had been anticipating it being this busy in June/July, not already in February/March. Meetings and email messages galore, and a growing concern that we are not getting enough information out to people in a timely fashion. That is being addressed this week. We are going to put out some "hard" details for people by next week and I have started up a blog for us so we can start talking about what it really is we have been doing. Have a sneak preview at http://librarieswithoutborders.wordpress.com.

Work has been a flurry of large projects including research outside the office, and the redrafting of our business continuance plan for the whole office. This time we are taking into account a pandemic scenario since that was not on the radar back in--what?--1999 when we last put some elbow grease into this thing.

In my spare time I have been thinking about and talking about podcasting and video podcasting, figuring out what I want to do. I definitely want to do something.

Oh yeah, and I have been taking a fabulous survey course through the PLC on Web Site Management and Implementation. My group project is to create a website for a real legal aid clinic. I have enjoyed being the liaison between the clinic and the rest of the team. I have also been working on the project report we have to submit, giving the team feedback on the site we have been creating, and being all-round cheerleader. Heh.

And I still have to create a personal site for myself in the next week. We have been creating one as we have gone along in class, but mine managed to somehow go awry and I have to start over. I am envisioning something that will incorporate my blog, a CV which I can update as I complete my growing list of professional activities, and a schedule so people can see what I am doing next. It would also be nice to have a place to post documents, such as presentations I have given, and maybe links to my various web presences. Tall order, but would be very useful!

Oh, yeah, and my next LLRX.com column has to be on the radar too. The plan is to write it on networking. Not the computer kind, but the people kind. It is something I am always coming back to somehow in the column, but haven't addressed it specifically as a topic. I met a bunch of super-networkers at Podcamp and learned a thing or two about networking, so am itching to share it.

So, enough about me. What have YOU been up to?

Carnival of the Infosciences #67 Coming!

Carnival of the Infosciences #66, hosted by Joshua Neff at The Goblin in the Library has now been posted!

That can only mean one thing: Carnival of the Infosciences #67 is on its way. And yours truly Connie Crosby is hosting it here! I am scheduled to post it on Monday, March 19th. Please submit your suggestions for infosciences blog posts by Sunday, March 18th. I need you to keep open all your eyes and ears! Find and send me the best, brightest, most exciting blog posts you see in the next two weeks. You can either send your submissions to me directly at connieblog@sympatico.ca or via the Carnival's submission form. Woo hoo! The Carnival is coming!