Year End Review Time

In Custodia Legis has a nice wrap up of the Most Viewed Legal Research Reports in 2015. 

Nice Colbert interview on FTN

The interview John Dickerson did with Stephen Colbert was on Face the Nation today.  See more online.

Beatles for the holidays!

Paul sighting on SNL!

Ringo Bells!?

AND... one of my most prized possessions is the 1968 Beatles message sent to fan club members.

The cover

The back

There is no crying in baseball..

...  but there is in law libraries.

Keep calm and...

Love love love the Keep Calm-o-Matic!

Sources coming and going

Just got the new Search Engine Roundtable app, available in iTunes. Let’s see if I can keep up with the daily reading mode.

And, let's have a moment of silence for Zimmerman's Research Guide. RIP - It will close shop at the end of the year.

Congress.gov news

The In Custodia Legis Blog from Library of Congress has this update - New End of Year Congress.gov Enhancements: Quick Search, Congressional Record Index, and More.

A research guide for Digital Scholarship

David Dillard has a research guide for Digital Scholarship in progress.

The Secret History of the Bluebook

Cool read - The New York Times has a story about the article by Fred Shapiro and Julie Graves Krishnaswami entitled "The Secret History of the Bluebook."  This article will be printed in the Minnesota Law Review in its April issue, and the unedited version is already posted on SSRN:

http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2697068

Here is a link to the Times story, which is headlined "Yale Finds Error in Legal Stylebook: Harvard Did Not Create It."

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/08/us/politics/yale-finds-error-in-legal-stylebook-harvard-did-not-create-it.html

Google study

Check out this article from College and Research Libraries -
Undergraduates' Use of Google vs. Library Resources: A Four-Year Cohort Study.

Deep thoughts

If the Homer Laughlin Company is just across the river from East Liverpool, shouldn't they have Beatles themed Fiestaware?

For Banned Books Week

Kind of obligatory for a librarian, a post to mark the closing of the week.  Here is a useful, and generally hilarious, summary of complaints about several classics. From the ACLU.

Starting up again

Not feeling inspired lately, but this graphic about sharing responsibly caught my eye. Pardon the swears.  It's always something I'm aware of but it always make me feel unsure.  Bottom line - try to give credit to the authors/creators, Loldwell and SystemComic for example.

Long overdue cat pix

Guess I've been too busy to post but am also questioning the need for continuing this. Maybe I will add things intermittently.  It's fun to select a cute cat photo too.

Sittin' funny

New gig

Very nice bunch of folks at the new job - since I don't seem to understand the retirement thing it is a good solution (I hope) for everyone concerned.

Congress.gov updates

At least someone listens to you.  Congress.gov has added more updates based on feedback from users. 

Plagiarism checker

Assignment Editor has a plagiarism checker.

Tech grrrls

Nice story from NPR - The Forgotten Female Programmers Who Created Modern Tech. 

Cool images

The British Library has made available a huge amount of material for anyone to use.

Friday Cat Pix

Laptime naptime

Elections and Congress info

GovBookTalk had a recent post on sources for finding out about federal elections, government, etc.

Want to Google better?

Got Google tips here.

Memory check

This is a memory test to gauge early onset dementia or Alzheimer's risk.

WW2 story

The very entertaining podcast Stuff You Should Know recounts the story of  That Time Nazis Invaded Florida.

Friday Cat Pix

Curiosity, we haz it.

Libguides

It's really happening!  Looking forward to a new job where I'll be able to use Libguides.  More info on Libguides.

Need English case citation help

Try Cardiff's.  According to the site "This database allows you to search for the meaning of abbreviations for English language legal publications, from the British Isles, the Commonwealth and the United States, including those covering international and comparative law".

Statuesque

ICL has nice photos of statutes by the Rayburn House Office Building.  They were designed by the same artist as similar work at DOJ. More on Jennewein here.

Friday Cat Vid!

This is not my cat but mine surely do make that chattering noise when they get excited about yummy looking stuff outside the window.  But yes, it is adorable to imagine them laughing. 

Constitution amendments article

Written by me! 

CRS reports at State Dept site

Some Congressional Research Service reports are kept on the State Dept site.

Not so secret bunker

If you go down to Greenbrier, take the bunker tour, which has an interesting historical artifact.

Supreme Court term notes

Good stuff here analyzing recent Supreme Court doings.

Also on July 4...

Declaration of Rights of the Women of the United States, 4 July 1876.

More from In Custodia Legis

In Custodia Legis blogs on the Index of legal reports prepared by the Law Library of Congress.

Revised statutes info

Another neat post from In Custodia Legis on a very important resource for historical law research.

Supervisory Librarian position at DOJ

Posted on USAJobs now until July 13.

Sup Ct Breakfast Table should be on your menu

Sorry for a silly title of this post.  It is a terrific take on recent Supreme Court ups... and downs. 

Grace

The Atlantic has an excellent piece analyzing the remarks by President Obama in Charleston. 

Good vibes?

More from my apparently massive saved pile - this time, a weird view of qualities useful for librarians.

Friday Cat Pix!

Celebrating love

OSG FTW!

Happy to think that my library helped make these victories possible.

DIYs

In a mood to fix things up?  Some ideas via YouTube are shown on Lifehacker.

Are you prepared?

More cleaning up of some material  in the old "for a rainy day" pile.  This seems a little morbid, but recent family events pointed up the importance of letting the right people know what might be needed when you go.

Google bias

And here is another older article I had saved, this from the Atlantic on Google's efforts to eliminate its own biases.

Friday Cat Pix!

Something under the towel!

Standing in line for history

Another piece from a few weeks ago, this time from Slate.  It is still of interest - concerning who gets to witness Supreme Court arguments.

Justices get out more, but...

This is an older article I saved and came to mind as the current term comes to a close soon. Justices get out more, but...

Myers-Briggs book links

A classic book for every Myers-Briggs personality type - this sounds fun.

Citations

This article from a few weeks back discusses modernizing academic citations to include digital and full text info.

LCSH

How to Use Subject Headings to Browse the Library of Congress Online Catalog

Illustration Archive

Neat - o.  The Illustration Archive sez:
"The archive contains over a million book illustrations from the British Library’s collections, taken from around 68,000 works of literature, history, geography and philosophy​. The images span the late eighteenth to the early twentieth century, covering a variety of reproductive techniques (including etching, wood engraving, lithography and photography)."

World Environment Day

Some resources highlighted for this day, brought to you by GPO's GovBookTalk. 

Is your profession predominantly Democrat or Republican?

Survey says...

Friday Cat Pix

Unsolicited help with filing - again

PDF files in Windows

From How-To Geek: How to work with PDF files in Windows.

Federally-funded research

Public access mandates for federally funded research: implementation plans -  there's a great summary table here.

The world changes today!

Ok, so maybe just my world is changing. I left my job of 18 years and am determined to have the best summer since being a timid teenager - so watch out!

Friday Cat Pix

What are you looking at?

Congress.gov growing

More good news from In Custodia Legis about Congress.gov updates.

Tour Abbey Road studios

Virtually. This article gives a lot of details but the actual link is sort of lost in all the text.  This is a more direct link, but you may have to use Chrome or Safari rather than Firefox.

Google has a map for that - your favorite books

This mash up map works in Chrome - in Firefox, not so much - but it's fun to play around and see locations for a large number of popular books.

New 10 Commandments

A little old but oh so relevant.

Case law on Google Scholar

Over at Law Librarians Blog, Mark Giangrande reported on his recent experiences searching case law on Google Scholar, coming away with a better impression than his earlier forays.

Friday Cat Pix

Cats at work!

Fedflix

FedFlix is Joint Venture NTIS-1832 between the National Technical Information Service (NTIS) and Public.Resource.Org (PRO). The FedFlix project aims to digitize videos from NTIS, DoD and the National Archives and Records Administration, and make these videos available online through YouTube and the Internet Archive. All of the FedFlix films are in the public domain, and span from  1916 to 2014.  You can see gems such as the nuclear paranoid inspired classic "Duck and Cover"and in the Law Resource.org area Sen. Robert Byrd delivering an oration on Roman law.

HSDL blog

The Homeland Security Digital Library has a blog on national security related issues.

Cool regionalisms

Love to see DARE (Dictionary of American Regional English) in the news with some of their quirky word finds. I once worked in the building where it all began. And fortunately, they found funding to continue until at least June 2016.

Preserving digital data

The Boston Globe has an article The race to preserve disappearing data. There is more bad news about government data, too.

Caturday Cat Pix

So lazy

Crazy palindrome week

The week was insanely busy and so I almost missed this phenomena - all the dates were palindromes and today is the last for a while : 5-15-15.

Cat pix will get their day on Caturday.

Female Superhero Coloring Pages

Female_Superhero_Coloring_Pages.pdf · version 1
Need I say more?

GPO’s FDLP Academy

These sessions are presented virtually through GPO’s FDLP Academy. Presenters from GPO, other Federal Government agencies, and from Federal depository libraries across the Nation will present on topics related to Federal Government information and the Federal Depository Library Program.

Don’t miss these upcoming, one-hour webinar sessions:

·         Cybersecurity: A Shared Responsibility with Infinite Opportunities, May 13 at 1:00 p.m. (Eastern) http://www.fdlp.gov/about-the-fdlp/fdlp-events-calendar/event/50-webinar-cybersecurity-a-shared-responsibility-with-infinite-opportunities

·         Ben’s Guide to the U.S. Government, May 14 at 2:00 p.m. (Eastern) http://www.fdlp.gov/about-the-fdlp/fdlp-events-calendar/event/51-ben-s-guide-to-the-u-s-government

·         Using Metadata to Navigate GPO’s Federal Digital System, May 19 at 2:00 p.m. (Eastern) http://www.fdlp.gov/about-the-fdlp/fdlp-events-calendar/event/52-using-metadata-to-navigate-gpo-s-federal-digital-system

·         Occupational Employment Statistics: Online Data about Occupations from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, May 21 at 2:00 p.m. (Eastern) http://www.fdlp.gov/about-the-fdlp/fdlp-events-calendar/event/53-webinar-occupational-employment-statistics-online-data-about-occupations-from-the-u-s-bureau-of-labor-statistics

·         Cataloging Government Serial Publications using RDA, May 26 at 2:00 p.m. (Eastern) http://www.fdlp.gov/about-the-fdlp/fdlp-events-calendar/event/55-cataloging-government-serial-publications-using-rda

Attendees will receive a Certificate of Participation from GPO for each webinar they attend.

GPO’s FDLP Academy offers a wide range of educational opportunities, tools, and resources related to Federal Government information. Learn more here: http://www.fdlp.gov/about-the-fdlp/fdlp-academy.

Guides on Police issues

Here are two, from Temple Univ. and from Florida A&M.

Ghost testimony

OOh, scary.  Elva Zona Heaster: The Ghost Who Helped Solve Her Own Murder.

Lifehacks, pt 1

Odds and ends - even shorter posts than usual.

In Endnote, Command A copies webtext.

Gateguru is an app to help find options for airport food.

Instapaper now has an annotate feature.

Caturday livestreaming

Too bad I discovered this as it could become an obsession.  This is a livestream of some recently born kittens and their awesome mama Eve.

Friday Cat Pix

Box luv

RIPS Law Librarian Blog

 RIPS is the Research, Instruction, and Patron Services Special Interest Section of the American Association of Law Libraries. They have a nice little blog "Covering trends in research, instruction, and patron services within today's law libraries" according to the site.

US Federal Government Documents Initiative

More information on the US Federal Government Documents Initiative, including information about the Advisory Group, and some FrequentlyAsked Questions can be found on the HathiTrust website.

Hilariously Terrible

House Judiciary Committee Web Page Labeled "Hilariously Terrible" - neat find by Free Government Information (FGI).

Academic citation practices

Discussion of how to improve citation - worth a read.

Your Google history

From PBS - Here’s how you can see and delete your entire Google search history.

Late humor for Earth day

America the Beautiful: a collection of the nation's trashiest humor.  In 1970, EPA republished  this set of cartoons about garbage.  Sudocs no. is HE 20.1402:Am3 for govdocs experts.

Friday Cat Pix

Got  yer tail

At last!

Loretta Lynch confirmed by Senate as attorney general.

Information Literacy - Government sources

Bluebooks

State “bluebooks” are helpful for basic facts and information in each of these locations. Not all states have them, but this Blue Books list is a good summary of what is available and includes State Encyclopedias as well.  It is maintained by librarians working in State and Local documents collections.

Women's speeches

The Women’s Political Communication Archives created by the Carrie Chapman Catt Center for Women & Politics at Iowa State University is collecting speeches and campaign material concerning women candidates. 

LION, oh my!

The Library Information Literacy Online Network has a Youtube channel for help with instruction. Hey, it should be LIION but who's paying attention?

Magna Carta - more info

For the big anniversary this year, the British Library has launched its Magna Charta archive.

And here is a New Yorker article on the topic by the great Jill Lepore,  The Rule of History.

8 great libraries

Those "best" lists don't always impress me but what the heck - here are the Smithsonian magazine's eight most interesting and accessible collections.

David McCullough on libraries and librarians

Some may dispute the need for "library shoes" and quiet but you have to love David McCullough's comment - Never try to hide what you don't know from the librarian!

Library scenes in film

Book Riot lists their favorite scenes in movies taking place in libraries.  My personal favorites are from All The President's Men and of course Ghostbusters. 

Ilovelibraries.org

This site has NLW ideas if you haven't planned ahead.  But then you probably wouldn't be a library staffer then, would you?

National Library Week...

...Gets off to a nice start with a NLW shout out on Chris Carter's Breakfast with the Beatles!  It makes total sense that he would be a library fan with all the facts and tidbits he dispenses on this weekly show.

Friday Cat Pix

So this camelia did have flowers once.  Hmm. 

Gov mobile apps

Would you like to know about a site listing mobile apps from  government agencies? Of course you would.  Another one just has census information.  

Bill tracking options

LegiNation's BillTrack50
GovTrack.us, GovTrack States (beta)
LegiScan
The Sunlight Foundation's OpenStates
Ballotpedia

Congress.gov Spring Cleaning

Wheee!  From a few days ago, here is info posted on Congress.gov and recent improvements. Databases from THOMAS have been added, also legislation, the Congressional Record, Committee Reports, and nominations.  The latest goodie is the inclusion of treaty documents.  If you select “All Sources” you can search across all of these data sets at once, something THOMAS couldn't do.  Next to add will be Senate Executive Communications.

Oliver on Snowden

Love John Oliver, and am glad to see him still doing good stuff.  He saved Net neutrality almost single handedly, they say, and here he grills Edward Snowden better than most journalists.

Easter Egg Roll

John Dickerson describes a visit to the iconic event in his inimitable fashion. 

MoCat lives

The majority of GPO's Monthly Catalog volumes can be found in HathiTrust, as in this example. An exception will likely be the Periodicals Supplements, however.

In the Internet Archive, you can find volumes added by the University of Illinois, linked mostly in order.

If you have access to the Chadwyck-Healey database, that is another alternative to keeping the huge print collection for the occasional use.

Friday Cat Pix

Shadow

Federal Administrative Law Overview

The Legislative Research Special Interest Section of the Law Librarians’ Society of Washington, D.C. (LLSDC) has a helpful guide Federal Administrative Law: A Brief Overview. Sections cover such things as: how the system works, major players, and where to find official and related info.

Fictional librarians list

It's not my favorite holiday by any means but perhaps for April Fool's day a Fictional Librarians List would be ok. Prize goes to Paige Turner - what an awesome name.

Women's History Month - last one (for now)

The end of Women's History Month is not the end of posting on that but it won't be the daily effort it has been of late.  I saw this about Rachel Carson who was  huge hero in the environmental movement.

Women's History Month

Never heard this story  I'm glad it popped up on my FB feed.  Hacking the Nazis: the secret story of the women who broke Hitler's codes - via NARA.

Women's History Month

It's getting near the end of Women's History Month and my selected posts. This site features a short video on Funny Ladies, exploring women cartoonists.

Women's History Month

You know her as a nurse, but this is a nice article about the many other accomplishments of Clara Barton.

Friday Cat Pix

Laundry pal

Women's History Month

Frances Perkins, first female cabinet member, appointed by FDR. Here's a photo of her depicted in a DOJ mural (but sorry about the weird angle).

Women's History Month

Happy birthday to Gloria Steinem and Aretha Franklin!

Women's History Month

Here is a tour of the Sewell-Belmont House from a few years ago. From the official site :
"One of the premier women's history sites in the country, the Sewall-Belmont House & Museum maintains an extensive collection of suffrage banners, archives and artifacts documenting the continuing effort by women and men of all races, religions and backgrounds to win voting rights and equality for women under the law."

Women's HIstory Month

Neat idea related to women's history is a campaign to put a woman on the 20 dollar bill.

Women's HIstory Month

Quotes for women's history month.

Women's HIstory Month

GovBookTalk recently posted resources on the origin of Women's History Month.

Friday Cat Pix

Helping me with filing ? No, not really.

Women's HIstory Month

Another nice post from In Custodia Legis - Women in History: Lawyers and Judges.

Women's HIstory Month

National Archives has an event  Temperance and Woman Suffrage: Reform Movements and the Women Who Changed America for WHM, March 31.

Women's HIstory Month

Another hero of women's rights - Carrie Chapman Catt.

Women's HIstory Month

Happy birthday to Notorious RBG. 

Women's HIstory Month

Matilda of Canossa and the Origins of the Renaissance is an exhibit on the life of Countess Matilda at William and Mary.  The press release has a summary of her accomplishments and impact.  She was instrumental in protesting the feudal system of medieval Europe, paving the way for the Renaissance and reinvigorating study in Roman law.

Friday Cat Pix

Snow is almost gone but the cold made boyz very chummy last week.

Women's HIstory Month

How the US treats women - in 6 charts, from the Washington Post.

Women's HIstory Month

This is not history exactly but I recently came across a nice list of Books for empowering girls.

Women's HIstory Month

Harriet Tubman died March 10, 1913.  She helped free 300 slaves, and fought for women’s suffrage as well as abolition.

Women's HIstory Month, now with Legos!

Very, very cool idea to make Women of the Supreme Court legos.

Women's HIstory Month

It's good to think about some positive moves forward on International Women's Day.  Ms Magazine lists the Top 10 Women's Rights Victories of 2014.

Friday Cat Pix

Little Guy doesn't like it when Big Guy is enjoying himself on my lap.  He starts out like this

Grooming

then it escalates

 

Say what?

Couldn't get a pic of the next development but you can probably guess - a swat from LG and quick retreat by BG.

Women's HIstory Month - Elected Women

I could spend all month just reposting from the In Custodia Legis Blog from Library of Congress. Hope I'm not stealing, but the have such great stuff:

Women in History: Elected Representatives

In celebration of Women’s History Month and International Women’s Day (March 8) we thought we’d try something a bit different for the blog. We asked the foreign law specialists, analysts, and interns at the Law Library of Congress to provide responses to a series of questions related to the history of women’s rights in various […]

Women's HIstory Month - a Beatles link!

This counts as history. Sheila Bromberg is the first woman to play on a Beatles record!  She is the harpist on She's Leaving Home, as is shown here in a video story.

Women's HIstory Month - Voting rights

Another nice post from the In Custodia Legis blog from Library of Congress -  Women in History: Voting Rights.

Women's HIstory Month - Women of the Civil Rights movement

Another clip from the White House from a few days ago.  A great video honoring civil rights women.

Women's history month - Equal Pay?

Here's some info from the White House site on equal pay efforts.

Chronicling America

Neat old newspapers from Library of Congress on Chronicling America.

Friday Cat Pix

I just like this one.

UN info

The UN Chief Executives Board for Coordination has created a website of the major/flagship publications from the UN Specialized Agencies (FAO, ICAO, UNESCO, WIPO, etc.).  Statistics and other areas are covered.

Abbey Road crossing cam?

Ok, I suppose so.  Here it is in honor of the birthday of George Harrison, who was born either yesterday or today.

Finding depository libraries

The Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP) helps citizens connect to government information and the website has a directory tool for locating Congressional districts. Use the following parameters in the advanced search tool :

State = California (or whichever state you're interested in)
Cong. Dist. = 01

to find FDLP libraries within the 1st Congressional District of California.
Note you need a preceding "0" for single-digit districts. For places that
don't have a congressional district (like DC) enter "00."

Play fair

Fair Use Week this year is Feb. 23-27, supported by the Association of Research Libraries and others.  This graphic and other info provided will help with understanding the concepts of copyright and fair use.

DipLawMatic

DipLawMatic is the official blog of the Foreign, Comparative, and International Law Special Interest Group of the American Association of Law Libraries. Here you'll see ideas and information on foreign, comparative and international law and legal research.

FRASER

FRASER - the Federal Reserve Archival System for Economic Research - has added thousands of new items to its free digital library of economics and banking history and offers a wealth of primary and secondary sources for economics and history researchers, and now offers integration with the citation manager Zotero.

Highlights of new additions include:

* Bulletin of the Bureau of Labor Statistics from the late 1800s through the early 1920s, including historic reports on women and minority labor conditions

* Annual Reports of the FDIC from the first issue in 1934 through 2013

* Publications of the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, including the magazine Econ Focus, the research journal Economic Quarterly, and more than 300 working papers

* Policy statements and speeches of the presidents of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, 1914 - present

* Thousands of additional statistical releases from the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, 1914 - present

Find FRASER at https://fraser.stlouisfed.org. Follow @FedFRASER on Twitter for updates on new collections and items added, interesting photos and documents, and glimpses into US economic history. FRASER librarians are also available at historical@fraser.stlouisfed.org for reference questions.

Friday Cat Pix

La-Zee-Boyz

Word play

We’ve had a lot of requests for older dictionaries lately, and this is actually a common question year round. Slate ran a piece a few weeks ago, The Definition of a Dictionary, that should be of interest to word history buffs.

Happy President's Day!

Don't buy a mattress today, go visit a Presidential Library - virtually if you have to.

Fugitive hunter?

Free Government Info has details on contributing to the fugitive documents effort.

Friday Cat Pix

Hunting what's under the stove.

Getting ready for Mardi Gras

Some history here. 

Translation station

Some great ideas for finding case translations from Lyonette Louis-Jacques.

Little Free Libraries

Little Free Libraries on the wrong side of the law - LA Times.

Free e-book on Hispanics in Congress

GovBookTalk posts on a few of their notables titles and offers a free ebook too. 

Language change

Another neat article on language by Arika Okrent.

Friday Cat Pix

Someone enjoyed the Kitten Bowl.

CRS blues

An article about the Congressional Research Service in Washington Monthly has a view about the problems going on there. Love the photo caption "a temple of wonkery".

Postage stamps are cool

Carlos Diaz has been doing great stuff in gov docs for years. He has a fun site using stamps (those are like gov docs, right?) in themes, showing the great variety of people, events and such.  Take a look.

Satire, cartoons, politics

EBSCO has a new-ish blog and this recent post explores political cartoons with some great illustrations.

100 days

Jill Lepore, writing in the New Yorker, says “The average life of a Web page is about a hundred days”.  The article is The Cobweb: Can the Internet be Archived?  Sheesh, the sites you want others to be able to find disappear but photos someone posted that you’d rather not see can float around forever.

Internet history - an oxymoron?

The title kind of says it all - Never trust a corporation to do a library's job. Google gave up, Internet Archive does better, but saving internet content from the past turns out to be kinda tough. Do people not care or not understand why it might be important?

Ask Jeeves still exists?!

And there is more to searching than Google?  Yes, and Phil Bradley lists a whole bunch of search engines you could try for various needs. Or just when you're tired of the big G.

Friday Cat Pix

Blue boys with snow (from a few years ago, not the recent threatened snowmageddon).

Fed Soup

This is a site I need to remember to check for news about federal employee issues.

Value of Library Services

Some good thoughts in this piece.  We can't assume others see the value in libraries that we take for granted.

Bluebook updates - free!

For help with citing legal documents you use the Bluebook.  That's not free, but the updating service they provide is.

Scalia sarcasm

According to a NYT article a few days ago, Justice Antonin Scalia really does make a lot of sarcastic comments.

Serial Set book review

Yes, and I'm mentioning it here because it's good! Just a little brag. The book review is for the Serial Set book containing my chapter on proposed Constitutional amendments.

Friday Cat Pix

Friday? What's that?

So SCOTUS clerks can be normal people?

This is the story of a dad defying convention.

Scheduling is hard!

Funny New Yorker article about how hard it is to plan anything these days.

POTUS stuff

SOTU tonight, but also Jan.20 was JFK's inauguration day so here is his address from 1961.  Yeah, I know, lots of acronyms but you can figure it out, right?

For MLK Day

The Greatest MLK Speeches You Never Heard via CNN.

Be word wise

Neat article about dictionary behemoth Merriam-Webster.  For their Word of the Day, you can read or subscribe to the podcast.

Arrggg - another late Friday Cat Pix post

Had to work late yesterday, which made me forget about my ironclad commitment to post pictures of my cats that probably no one will see.

Artistic, isn't it?

Fairfax County Law Library

Been wanting to visit Fairfax Co Law Lib.  Keeping this here  sos I don't forget about it.

Global Legal Monitor

The GLM, as folks in the know refer to it, is a good source of news on legal developments in other countries. 

Maps of nowhere

Fictional place maps via Bookriot.

Myth busted +

A family names article indicates what we often heard about immigrants having their names arbitrarily changed is probably not true.

AND the + is I just noticed a book I recently picked up is by the same author Arika Okrent - In the Land of Invented Languages: Esperanto Rock Stars, Klingon Poets, Loglan Lovers and the Mad Dreamers who tried to Build a Perfect Language.  Pretty interesting stuff.

Friday Cat Pix

My sweet little one who is over the bridge now.

Cat's eye view - I'm there!

Ernster is an odd name for a cat, or am I not getting some legal/cat related humor? Whatever.  Enjoy the views of the Law Library Virtual Cat at the Maurice A. Deane School of Law at Hofstra University.

Hoarding is not collection development

Yes, that heading should be my motto but I have so many reasons to keep things - really I do.  Anyway, that gem was found on Awful Library Books.  Can't say I have any books quite as awful as those.

FOIA resources

The Law Librarians’ Society of Washington D.C. (LLSDC) site has new material to help with FOIA needs.  Relevant acts and legislative history are highlighted along with Department of Justice resources, CRS reports, executive orders, Presidential memos,  court decisions and more.  In addition,  blogs and newsletters on the topic complete the range of relevant sources.

First Breakfast with the Beatles of 2015

It's the first Sunday of the new year, so may as well get it started right listening to Breakfast with the Beatles. I never get tired of these songs and with fun trivia and guests thrown in it's  become a habit for me. Yes, there are a lot of commercials, but that's a good opportunity to take care of little chores that have to be done on the weekend right?

S Ct filings "as soon as 2016"! Wowee!

The New York Times reports that the Supreme Court plans to make filings available for free.  Um, but not right now.  Money quote : Chief Justice Roberts explained the court’s approach to technological change in the balance of the report, saying that judges had a special obligation to move more slowly than the rest of society. The "report" mentioned is found here.  

Friday Cat Pix

New Year's day cat pic - there may be a joke here about the hair of the dog, or something like that.

Happy new year all you librarians - and everyone else, too

Kinda wish we had questions like this at my library - by way of John Hodgman and others.