Sunday, February 27, 2005

Rhode Island's RSSonate

The Rhode Island Secretary of State has launched RSSonate which will use RSS to give individuals and agencies easy access to constantly updated data. See the recent press release.

(For an example, see its Public Information Division's page on Open Meetings: Upcoming Meetings As Filed with the Office of the Secretary of State. Notice the orange RSS button!)

source: ResearchBuzz

Law Dawg Blawg

Former LLNE News editor Diane Murley and her colleagues at Southern Illinois University Law Library have received quite a bit of attention in the blogosphere for their fantastic Law Dawg Blawg. Diane often posts very useful research tips, for which there is also an archive.

source: AbsTracked

Wednesday, February 23, 2005

Seattle Public Library to Add RSS feeds

Future Tense reports, "Next month, the Seattle Public Library will offer feeds that will help patrons stay on top of their accounts, and track favorite authors or subjects from the library catalog." Cool idea! Source: Future Tense via LawLibTech

Monday, February 14, 2005

Report Points to Court Staffing Problems

A nine month staffing study by the National Center for State Courts points to disparities in court staffing throughout the Commonwealth. The Staffing Model Report can be found online at http://www.mass.gov/courts/staffingmodelreport.html. The Boston Globe has more.

New Tools Ease Online Collaboration

The Boston Globe has an article on some new tools designed to turn the web into online collaboration space. It looks at JotSpot.com. JotSpot's new web service is designed on a wiki platform to give users space online to collaborate. One cool feature is that all changes are archived so nothing can be lost. Another platform it touches on briefly is Bubbler. Bubbler allows many users to set up a blog-style page.
Source: The Boston Globe

Thursday, February 10, 2005

SJC Decision Upholds Default Judgment Against Globe

The SJC just released a decision that upheld a default judgment against the Boston Globe for failing to reveal confidential sources after order by the trial judge. See Robert J. Ambrogi's account of this decision on Media Law for more.

Tuesday, February 08, 2005

Search Tool Chart

Joe Barker has updated his Best Search Tools Chart. This chart breaks down features of some of the top search engines, such as Google, AskJeeves, and Yahoo. He also breaks down the features of other online search tools such as Librarians Index to the Internet and Infomine.
Source: beSpacific

SCOTUSblog has moved

The new and improved SCOTUSblog is now hosted at www.scotusblog.com. SCOTUS brings us news and information about the cases before the supreme court.

Saturday, February 05, 2005

Westlaw database

Westlaw has added a database 50 States Surveys (STSURVEYS) derived from Richard Leiter's National Survey of State Laws.

Local Library Event

The Boston Public Library currently has an exhibit called Riot and the Rule of Law: The Boston Massacre, John Adams and the Trial of 1770. Focusing on John Adams' role in defending British troops, it contains original manuscripts, rare books, maps and political cartoons related to the Boston Massacre and Adams' defense of British troops who were indicted and tried for murder.

new source for foreign blawgs

Blawgs Gerais is a new directory of foreign blawgs from countries such as the U.K, Australia, Portugal, Brazil, Spain, France, Italy and more.

source: Inter Alia

Bound Volume of Congressional Record on GPO Access

The Bound Congressional Record has recently become available on GPO Access. At present, only Volume 145 (1999, first session of the 106th Congress) is available).

source: beSpacific