There is an interesting article by Roy Kaufman of the Copyright Clearance Center on the center’s website. The CCC did a study on how copyright is handled in law firms and it’s worth a read. http://www.copyright.com/

Interesting post to read, especially after the CRIV program on the bookless (or almost bookless) library. Dewey B Strategic by Jean O’Grady
http://deweybstrategic.blogspot.com/2014/07/law-firm-space-planning-as-knowledge.html

PACER announced some improvements to be released Aug. 11. Finally, you can choose your own user name!
http://www.pacer.gov/announcements/general/improvements.html

Interesting post on the blog Law Librarians Thinking Out Loud in the Blogosphere about attorneys trying to copyright briefs to prevent (or get paid for) use by Lexis and Westlaw in their databases.

http://llb2.com/2014/07/23/court-holds-west-lexis-legal-briefs-offering-is-fair-use/

Interesting article on LLRX by Jonathan Band about fair use, particularly how it relates to digitization.
http://www.llrx.com/features/hathitrust.htm

You may recall that earlier CRIV received a complaint about a few state encyclopedias published by Lexis that had been changed from pocket parts to a single supplement for the whole set. I just heard from our rep that for the MN publication, Lexis will reinstate the pocket parts. I have not heard about any other publications. Those of you in other states might want to contact your reps.

From editor:
“I want to let you know that I am reversing the decision to move to a single bound supplement. It wasn’t our intention to create problems but we’ve heard the dissatisfaction from the librarians so we are going back to the pocket part supplements. Please let your clients know that we are making this change.”

I hope you will join us for 2 CRIV events in San Antonio!

The CRIV Vendor Roundtable will be held on Monday, July 14 from 11:45am to 12:45pm in HBGCC-Room 007B. This year’s topic for discussion is “The Role of Customer Feedback in Vendor Decisions”. If you have any questions about the roundtable, please contact me.

Also, the CRIV sponsored program “The Bookless Law Library: Potential Reality or Flight of Fancy?” (H3) will be on Tuesday, July 15 from 3:45pm to 4:45pm in HBGCC-Room 214AB.

Description:
The nation’s first “bookless” public library recently opened in San Antonio. Hear from two librarians at BiblioTech, who will discuss their experiences in creating this library. Learn about their patrons, what their staff of 12 does, how their digital collection is used, and what occupies their physical space. Also, find out how this unique library is faring, including the community’s response. Then, a manager from a large law firm will explain how his firm shrunk its print collection by more than 60 percent, but has maintained the same staffing levels as eight years ago. He’ll share attorney and staff responses to this change, as well as compare electronic and print collection costs. Is a bookless library in your future? You might be surprised!

From the news release –

http://www.loc.gov/today/pr/2014/14-109.html?loclr=rssloc

The new features include:

• User Accounts & Saved Searches: Users have the option of creating a private account that lets them save their personal searches. The feature gives users a quick and easy index from which to re-run their searches for new and updated information.
• Congressional Record Search-by-Speaker: New metadata has been added to the Congressional Record that enables searching the daily transcript of congressional floor action by member name from 2009 – present. The member profile pages now also feature a link that returns a list of all Congressional Record articles in which that member was speaking.
• Nominations: Users can track presidential nominees from appointment to hearing to floor votes with the new nominations function. The data goes back to 1981 and features faceted search, like the rest of Congress.gov, so users can narrow their searches by congressional session, type of nomination and status.

Other updates include expanded “About” and “Frequently Asked Questions” sections and the addition of committee referral and committee reports to bill-search results.

The Library of Congress unveiled a new Pinterest site today. The site is intended as another way for the LOC to make its rich digital content available. http://www.pinterest.com/LibraryCongress

News Release:  http://www.loc.gov/today/pr/2014/14-108.html?loclr=rssloc

Please see the message below from Cindy Spohr of Lexis regarding an earlier CRIV question to Lexis about supplementation.

***

Supplementation Changes to the Dunnell Minnesota Digest and the Pennsylvania Law Encyclopedia

LexisNexis is aware that budgets and staff are  shrinking in legal libraries.  We hoped that the move to a single-bound supplement would eliminate the need  to keep sets up-to-date and would reduce or eliminate lost supplements. 

LexisNexis provides up to three additional copies of the supplement, at no charge, for each set to eliminate issues with the single-bound supplement. Contact your print representative to secure additional copies.

We would  be delighted  to discuss the eBook version of these sets.  eBooks incorporate updates directly in each volume so that users always have the latest information.  eBooks also eliminate filing costs and lost supplements problems.

There are no current plans to change the supplementation method for other titles.

http://www.usnews.com/education/best-graduate-schools/top-law-schools/articles/2014/03/19/11-apps-for-law-school-students

Some of these mobile apps are great for lawyers and librarians too. HeinOnline, Lexis Advance, WestLawNext, NOLO’s Plain English Law Dictionary, Camera to PDF, JotNot, ABA Journal, SCOTUSblog

Law lIbrarians were the sources for this list. Nice shoutout to our expertise!

“If in doubt, librarians say to go to the law library or check your library’s website to find the best apps and verify which have the most reliable information.

“‘In the law, of course, it’s very important that you get the law from the right sources,’ says Wisconsin’s Turner.”

This is a reposting from the AALL Advocacy listserv, for those who did not see it yesterday.

***

Hi Advocates—

Last week, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee reported out the Federal Register Modernization Act (HR 4195). The bill, introduced the night before the mark up, changes the requirement to print the Federal Register and Code of Federal Regulations to “publish” them, eliminates the statutory requirement that the CFR be printed and bound, and eliminates the requirement to produce an index to the Federal Register and CFR. The Administrative Committee of the Federal Register governs how the FR and CFR are published and distributed to the public, and will continue to do so.

While the entire bill is troubling, I most urgently need examples of why the Federal Register and CFR indexes are useful and how you use them. Stories in the next week would be of the most benefit, but later examples will help, too. I already have a few excellent examples from our Print Usage Resource Log – thanks to all of you who submitted entries! But the more cases I can point to, the better.

Interestingly, the Office of the Federal Register itself touted the usefulness of its index when it announced the retooled index last year: https://www.federalregister.gov/blog/2013/03/new-federal-register-index.

Thanks in advance for your help!

Emily Feltren
Director of Government Relations

American Association of Law Libraries

25 Massachusetts Avenue, NW, Suite 500

Washington, D.C. 20001

202/942-4233

Follow AALL’s Government Relations Office on Twitter.

***

I hope you will join us for the CRIV Vendor Roundtable in San Antonio!  The roundtable will be held on Monday, July 14 from 11:45am to 12:45pm in conference center room 007B. This year’s topic for discussion is “The Role of Customer Feedback in Vendor Decisions”. If you have any questions about the roundtable, please contact me.

Liz Reppe

State Law Librarian

MN State Law Library

651-297-2089

liz.reppe@courts.state.mn.us

Government Printing Office Is Churning Out Less Paper – read the transcript of an interview with Davita Vance-Cooks (who incidently will be speaking at AALL).

Hat tip to the AALL Advocacy listserv for this one.

Interesting post on 3 Geeks and a Law Blog. Reading it made me think of the struggle libraries are having with e-books.

http://www.geeklawblog.com/2014/03/the-myth-of-disruptive-technology.html