Tag: legalresearch

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lawlibrary Maryland Law

National Inventory of Primary Legal Materials

The American Association of Law Libraries (AALL) believes that the public should have “no-fee, permanent public access to authentic online legal information on government Web sites” as stated in the Government Relations Office Issue Brief, AALL Working Groups to Ensure Access to Electronic Legal Information.

The Government Relations Office of AALL has coordinated a major project, the National Inventory of Primary Legal Materials, to collect information on the availability of all primary legal materials in the United States at every level of government from the judicial, legislative and executive branches.  Once information from all fifty states, D.C. and the Federal Government is collected, it “will be analyzed and used by experts working with  LAW.gov, the Law Library of Congress and AALL public policy committees according to the Issue Brief.  The data will provide a picture as to the availability of primary legal material.  The inventory collects such information as the availability of online and print versions and whether the material is copyrighted.  Other information collected for the inventory for online materials include provisions for authentication, preservation and permanent public access.

Authentication ensures that online  information is, in fact, the law.  This is done through the use of certifying marks and the establishment of chain of custody of the electronic document.  A more detailed description of authentication can be found in the Executive Summary of the AALL State-by-State Report on Authentication of Online Legal Resources Full Report.

It is important that electronic online legal materials be preserved by an appropriate government entity.  Print resources are easily preserved by court libraries and archives by storing the books in a proper environment.  Digital information presents a problem.  The technology for methods and media for accessing electronic information can change quickly.  Preservation would involve making sure that the digital information migrates to new platforms as technology changes.  The preserved information should remain accessible to the public permanently. The above principles were outlined in  the AALL policy paper, Principles and Core Values Concerning Pubic Information of Government Websites.

Maryland law librarians formed a Working Group to address the issues of authentication, preservation and permanent public access.  The Working Group has contributed to the National Inventory of Primary Legal Materials by collecting the information for Maryland primary legal materials.  The project was completed as of June 1, 2011.  All of the information was entered into a Google spreadsheet for the sate, county and municipal levels all of the  branches of Maryland government.  The Maryland Inventory Spreadsheet will be added to the information collected by other state working groups to form the National Inventory of Primary Legal Materials.

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lawlibrary Legal Technology

“Watson” and legal research

I watched the IBM computer “Watson” compete on Jeopardy last night against the two all time Jeopardy champions.  I have to admit that I was relieved when the evening ended with Watson in a tie with one of the humans.  Still, I couldn’t help but think how this technology could change the way we find information in the future on the Internet and the legal databases we use now for legal research.

Robert C. Weber is an IBM and senior vice president and among other things general counsel for IBM.  His article,  Why ‘Watson’ Matters to Lawyers, published in the Law Technology News today describes the technology, known as Deep QA, behind Watson and how it could  improve the ability to retrieve and evaluate information.  Weber, however, does not see Watson or Deep QA as a replacement for an attorney but as technology that “can unquestionably extend our capabilities …”

Tonight we will see how Watson does in double Jeopardy.

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lawlibrary

Google Scholar Adds Option to Search Opinions by Court or Jurisdiction

A recent Google Scholar Blog post, “Search opinions from specific courts,” on January 11, 2011 announced that case law searches now have the option of being restricted to a specific court or jurisdiction.

You would now be able to choose all Maryland courts or just the Court of  Appeals.  This option can be found in the advance search page of Google Scholar.

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lawlibrary

Maryland People’s Law Library Announces Redesign

Yesterday the Maryland Judiciary issued a press release announcing that the redesigned Maryland People’s Law Library had been launched.  The AACPLL has relied on the People’s Law Library in assisting the self represented litigant for years.

The home page still has lists of topics from which to choose such as consumer, health, and family.   In the right sidebar there are now links to popular articles and updates.  I like the new left sidebar with quick links to “How do I” topics: evaluate my situation, file a case, prepare a case, and appeal a case.  How to appeal an administrative decision is a frequent question asked by the self represented litigant in the law library and the article, “Appealing an Administrative Decision,” provides the information needed to understand the process.  Another frequent question is how to file a mandamus action for a car title.  “Correcting a Public Record/Court Ordered Vehicle Titling” is a great resource.  The bibliographies listing materials we have in the law library and the links to Maryland rules and code sections bring the pertinent information in one place in these articles.

I appreciate that Maryland law libraries have this resource to rely on in our mission of providing legal information and congratulate the Maryland State Law Library on the redesign effort.

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AALL Conferences lawlibrary

AALL Annual Meeting Roundup: Working With Public Libraries

Two programs at the meeting dealt with the role of public libraries in providing access to legal information: “Partnering with Public Libraries to Expand Services” and “Statutes, Cases and Codes, Oh My! Easing Public Librarians Down the Road to Legal Reference.”

Many states do not have an extensive system of court libraries and public libraries can fill the gap.  Where court law libraries are available, public libraries can supplement with additional hours and locations.

Marcia Koslov, of the Los Angeles Law Library, began the “Partnering” program by stating that law libraries are a  means of bridging the gap between the courts and public libraries.  Public libraries and court libraries can complement each other. Public libraries can make legal resources more available to the public with better hours and more locations and have an established user population.  Court law libraries have trained staff, access to extensive legal material and are located within or adjacent to the court building.

Court law libraries can expand service to the public by partnering with public libraries to provide collection support, online services and staff training for public libraries.  Public libraries, in turn,  can provide additional space and extended hours.  Understanding the legal system, legal materials and the difference between legal information and advice can be a challenge for public librarians.

Los Angeles has a model outreach program consisting of three parts:  an introduction to the courts, access to legal information which includes a “civics” lesson, and legal materials in the public library collection.

While there might be concerns that this model could lead to competition, it must be considered that the public library will not be able to provide the extensive law collection or staff expertise found in a court library.  This model of partnering will allow the public library to provide better service to patrons needing legal information.

Liz Reppe, of the Dakota Law Library in Minnesota, described the partnership between the public libraries and law libraries in Minnesota.  You can find law libraries embedded in public libraries there.  This model provides the advantage of having public library substitutes when the law librarian is out of the library.  Other ways in which libraries partner in Minnesota include attorney legal information sessions in public libraries, guides to legal resources on the Internet created by law librarians, self help terminals in public libraries and legal clinics.

Sara Galligan, of the Ramsey Law Library in Minnesota, presented information on grant opportunities that Minnesota has taken advantage of to fund partnerships between public and law libraries.  LSTA grants are a source of federal funds implemented by the State Librarian.  The Gates Foundation is another source mentioned.

The program, “Statutes, Cases…” provided examples of programs developed by law librarians for training public librarians in legal reference.

Brian Huffman, a law librarian in a Minnesota public library, spoke about the “Austin” Conference held earlier this year.  Teams representing states from across the country met in Austin, Texas to address the needs and methods of training public libraries in providing legal information to the public.  He shared a FAQ and template resulting from that conference that could be used by public librarians to develop materials for use in providing access to legal information.  He provided a link to the conference materials: http://www.webjunction.org/legal-information/-/articles/content/93601257.  His overview of Minnesota efforts in developing materials for public libraries included MALL‘s resources, a MLA 2009 Handout, “Access to Justice for All: The Public Library’s Role,” and the Ramsey County Law Library Guide.  Other resources mentioned included a training program for public librarians that deals with the unauthorized practice of law, “What Public Librarians Can Do,” and a handout on the topic for patrons.

In Georgia, the ALLA offers a Legal Research Institute that provides training to public librarians.

Terrye Conroy, of the University of South Carolina Coleman Karesh Law Library, described  South Carolina as a very rural state without a state law library and only a few public law libraries.  Public libraries are needed to fill the gap.  The need for the training of public librarians called upon to provide legal reference service to the public is being addressed by the  Circuit Riders Outreach Program. South Carolina law librarians travel the state to deliver the program and provide the presentation materials online for reference.

Maryland is one of the states that sent a team to the Austin Conference. The team was made up of  Sarah Frush, a Legal Aid attorney who heads the Glen Burnie District Court Self Help Center, Julie Strange who administers Maryland’s Ask Us Now service and Cathy Ashby, the director of the Ruth Enlow Library of Garrett County.  They are now collaborating with the staff of the Maryland State Law Library to create a three part webinar on legal information for public librarians.

On a local level, I recently worked with Catherine McGuire of the Maryland State Law Library to present a program to Anne Arundel County public librarians on legal information.  Catherine provided an in depth overview of law and legal materials.  I was able to highlight resources and referrals  specific to Anne Arundel County.

As a result of meeting Wanda Wagner, the director of  the North Area County Library,  at this training we can now offer the “Ask a Lawyer” program in north county on a regular basis beginning  in January of 2011.  Without taking part in that training, the AACPLL would still be an unknown resource to many Anne Arundel County public librarians and it would not have been so easy to expand the program.  The public can only benefit from such partnerships.

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lawlibrary Uncategorized

Free Online Law School Course on the Health Care Reform Act

A recent article at Law.com reported that the University of Iowa College of Law is offering a course on health care reform law online and free to the public.  Participants have the option of viewing the sessions live or the videos and PowerPoint presentations later.

The weekly classes of the Innovation, Business & Law Colloquium: Health Care Reform Act began on August 26, 2010 and will continue through December 2.

The text for the course is CCH’s Law, Explanation and Analysis of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (2010).  Supplementary readings will be available online.  A link to the act is also provided at the course website.

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AALL Conferences lawlibrary

AALL Annual Meeting Roundup: Authentication and Preservation of Online Legal Material

“It’s all online.”  We hear that often in the law library here.  The problem is that it is not true.  The truth is that “it” comes and goes quite quickly.  What was online yesterday may not be there today.  Other problems with  “it’s all online” is that it is difficult to be sure that information found online is even a reliable source.

These are issues addressed in the program, “A Vision for the Future: Authenticated and Official Online Legal Resources.”  Mary Alice Baish, executive director of  AALL’s Government Relations Office, began the program by reviewing AALL’s vision: “to ensure equitable and permanent public access to authentic legal information.”  Through advocacy efforts AALL strives to “ensure the authentication and preservation of official digital legal resources” and AALL will advocate that government information must be in the public domain, and that information on government Web sites must be permanently available to the public at no charge.”  Mary Alice outlined components of a solution:  “Protect the official original as produced by the official publisher, without changing the file in any way and regardless of file type, protect the official copy made publicly available, and have easy an easy method for public to verify and warrant the chain of custody between the official original and the official copy, and have an easy for public to verify.”

Mary Alice reported that AALL State Working Groups are on the lookout for attempts to eliminate print and replace with online only without a means of authentication and for preservation for permanent public access.  These State Working Groups are taking on a large national project as well: the National Inventory of Primary Legal Information.  When completed information such as cost, copyright, official status, permanent public access, digital authentication and preservation will be known for all of the states, counties and municipalities in the U.S.

Handouts for the program included AALL issue briefs which contain more information on these topics of significance to AALL.  “AALL Leadership on the Authentication and Preservation of Online Legal Resources” and “AALL State Working Groups to Ensure Access to Electronic Legal Information” can be found at http://www.aallnet.org/aallwash/reports.asp

The program included an update on the “2009-10 Updates to State-by- State Report of Online Legal Information” and the status of the draft of the Uniform State Law “Authentication and Preservation of State Electronic Legal Materials Act.”  (Since the meeting Joyce Janto reported in the July AALL E-Newsletter that the Committee of the Whole of the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws (NCCUSL) accepted the draft on July 15.)

At the GD-SIS program, “FDLP Law Libraries in the 21st Century” I learned of the preservation efforts of the Chesapeake Digital Preservation Group (www.legalinfoarchive.org) “to preserve our digital legal heritage for generations to come.”  Already they have found that as time progresses more URLs are disappearing at a great rate illustrating the urgency of this project.  It is comforting to  now that our Maryland State Law Library is a member of this preservation group and that the MSLL is preserving Maryland’s digital legal information.

Categories
lawlibrary Legal Technology

Google Scholar adds new feature: “search within citing articles”

In the beginning of this month the 3 Geeks and a Law Blog reported that Google Scholar has added a new feature that allows searching within the citing articles.    Their review states that this new feature “takes its “cited by” function up a notch by allowing you to limit the search to cases or secondary resources that have all cited the same document.”  The post provides a good description of how it works.  You can also read about it in the Google Scholar Blog.

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lawlibrary

Legal Research on a Budget

In a recent issue of the Law Technology News I saw a link to an article in the Texas Lawyer entitled “Legal Research on the Cheap.”  This  article described ways to perform legal research for free.   The author talked about his inability to construct first search successful Boolean queries using Lexis or Westlaw and suggested the use of free resources to get a better handle on the legal research question.  These sources were also recommended as a way to reduce client legal research costs.

Google Scholar is recommended because of its user-friendly interface and the large coverage of the database that includes caselaw and journals.   Still, he found limitations and would not recommend using this tool instead of Westlaw or Lexis.  Using  Internet searches as a means of getting basic, general information about a research issue is another recommendation.   He cites legal blogs as good resources on legal topics.  The third recommended resource is the Cornell University Legal Information Institute as a user-friendly site with links to state and federal statutes and rules.  LexisOne Free Case Law Research is recommended as well, again with limitations.

When I read the post I was compelled to reply.  What is missing  from this list is the best free resource I know, the law library and law librarian.  Attorneys who are fortunate enough to work in a firm with a comprehensive  library and professional librarians should be aware that the librarian is expert at formulating queries for use in Lexis and Westlaw.  A librarian can also suggest resources, in print or online, that would provide the overview needed for the research to begin.  Secondary sources such as topical treatises and encyclopedias are a great way to get a handle on a new research project.

Attorneys without a firm library or librarian might be able to take advantage of the local county, court or state law library.  The website of the State, Court and County Law Libraries Special Interest Section of the American Association of Law Libraries contains a listing of law libraries on the web and an interactive map for locating law libraries across the country.  Links to information on Maryland law libraries can be found on the Maryland’s Peoples Law Library.

Public law libraries often provide free access to the legal research databases such as Westlaw, Lexis, HeinOnline and BNA as we do here in the AACPLL.  Librarians can suggest other sources and assist with query formulation.  All for free and much more personalized.  A visit to the law library can be a much more efficient use of attorney time than multiple, unsuccessful searches on Westlaw, Lexis or the Internet in general.