Library Stuff

“Thomson Reuters today announced the latest version of Thomson Reuters ProViewTM, the leading professional eReader platform. Currently available in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and Spain, the new version of Thomson Reuters ProView adds power and functionality for iPad users – as well as public betas of native apps for Android tablet, and Windows and Mac users – to the first eReader platform specifically built from the ground up for professionals, allowing users to interact with legal content on eBooks in entirely new ways.”

via Thomson Reuters

“Well-known is the story of Justice Harry Blackmun hunkering down in the medical library of the Mayo Clinic to research abortion procedures in advance of authoring the 1973 majority opinion in Roe v. Wade. But there’s been an information revolution since then. “Now the justices (and their clerks and their librarians) are flooded with information literally at their fingertips. Social science studies, raw statistics, and other data are all just a Google search away,” writes Allison Orr Larsen, a professor at William & Mary Law School.”

via The Washington Post

“The Congressional Record app now works across all iOS devices (iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad).  The iPad app has been downloaded over 12,000 times.  I’m guessing with this update, that number will go up.”

via LOC

“Thomson Reuters, the world’s leading source of intelligent information for businesses and professionals, has added powerful new functionality to WestlawNextTM with the introduction of the WestlawNext AndroidTM app. The mobile app will work on both Android tablets and smartphones, extending the capabilities of legal professionals and giving them mobile access to the preferred legal research service to enhance their productivity and efficiency. Features that can be leveraged through the app include the ability to: search all core content with WestSearchTM, the world’s most advanced legal search engine; use KeyCite® to confirm whether your cases and statutes are still good law; read and email documents; add notes to documents; and access and add documents to your folders.”

via Thomson Reuters

“The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) announced today that it has put its appellate and amicus briefs going back to 2000 on its external website. These briefs from the EEOC’s Appellate Services Division represent litigation in the U.S. Circuit Courts of Appeals in which the Commission was a party, or briefs filed as a ‘friend of the court’ (amicus curiae) in those courts, as well as in U.S. District Courts and state courts. The new database allows full text searches for key words or phrases, such as “reasonable accommodation diabetes” or “race harassment nooses,” as well as searches by case name, court, statutes involved, basis and type of brief. New briefs will be added within several weeks of being filed in court.”

via EEOC Press Release

“We’re happy to announce that we’ve just released our first title in eBook form: United States Code -Title 17 – Copyrights. It is now available for download from the Amazon Kindle and Barnes & Noble Nook stores for $5.99. The LII plans to offer the most full-featured primary legal materials available in two popular eBook formats. All LII titles feature live cross-references with fully-functional navigation between references within each title. Out-of-title cross-references and references to supporting notes and documents link directly to the LII web site. Each eBook title is updated annually, but links to the LII web site put the most recent official version and an array of updating and research tools at your disposal. The text of LII eBook editions is beautifully formatted and indented, making it far easier to read than other e-book editions.

via Legal Information Institute.

Boston Globe – “Everyone knows that Google is changing the way college kids write their term papers. What’s less obvious is that it’s also changing the way that judges write their opinions — even America’s most august judges, those on the Supreme Court. In an absolutely fascinating article in the Virginia Law Review, “Confronting Supreme Court Fact Finding,” Allison Orr Larsen, a law professor at William & Mary, shows just how prevalent online research is at the Supreme Court. “In-house research,” she argues, much of it done online, is changing the way America’s highest court works, and not for the better.”

Press Release – “Legal publisher Fastcase today launched the first legal research application for the Android platform. With the free download of the new app, Fastcase for Android, users can search Fastcase’s comprehensive national law library of cases and statutes anywhere, anytime, and on any Android device. Like Fastcase’s award-winning apps for iPhone and iPad, the Android app incorporates Fastcase’s smarter search tools from the Web environment, including powerful algorithms that rank best results first, citation analysis tools, and Mobile Sync with desktop subscriptions to Fastcase. And like Fastcase’s apps on iOS, the app is free to download, and although it requires a registration, it is free to use, either with or without a Fastcase desktop subscription.”

paidContent – “For decades, the multibillion dollar market for legal research has been a cozy club for two. But now financial giant Bloomberg has fully powered up Bloomberg Law, a rival that could at last disrupt the status quo. For Bloomberg, the new legal product is an expensive test of the company’s ability to find a major revenue stream outside its core financial business. But it also raises the question of how a stodgy industry is responding to sweeping changes that makes it easier for Americans to look up the law.”

WSJ – “The law professor equivalent of career hits is the “number of times cited” in journals. The stat is a measure of influence, not stroke, but a high citation count open doors, just the same. Institutions consider them when doling out grant awards, awarding tenure or making promotion decisions. “Three thousand hits means you’ve had a great career. I’d say 3,000 citations means you’re one of the all time citation champions,” said Fred Shapiro, an associate librarian at Yale Law School, who recently finished his third study on the most-cited law review articles of all time, with co-author Michelle Pearse, a Harvard librarian.”