TRACK THE STATE OF THE ECONOMY BY STATE

Use CNN.com's Economy Tracker to see state-by-state unemployment rates (by sector), jobs lost, and foreclosures. Depressing, but interesting.

URL: http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2009/map.economy/index.html

CONGRESSIONAL RESEARCH REPORTS NOW AVAILABLE FREE

All reports (over 6780, 127,000 pages) from the US Congressional Research Service are now available for free from WikiLeaks. The reports date back to 1990 and “are highly regarded as non-partisan, in-depth, and timely.” There are alphabetical and chronological lists, but no index. All are in pdf files.

They are supposed to be included in OpenCRS, but I didn’t find one I had found in the WikiLeaks list. Maybe they haven’t indexed them all yet.

URLs:
WikiLeaks: http://mirror.wikileaks.morphium.info/wikileaks-crs-reports/
OpenCRS: http://opencrs.com

COPYRIGHT COMIC BOOK--REALLY!

Duke University's Center for the Study of the Public Domain has created a comic book on copyright. It is called Bound by Law and features the issues surrounding film making and copyright. It is both entertaining and very informative.

It is also free. You can download a digital version, buy a hard-copy version, remix the comic for your own use by downloading individual pages, read it a page at a time (including turning the pages with your mouse), or download the text so you can translate it into another language.

This is one of the neatest new library services I've seen. They are working on another comic, too. I can't wait.

URL: http://www.law.duke.edu/cspd/comics/digital.php

CHAT WITH A GOVERNMENT LIBRARIAN

Have a difficult question about US government information? Now you can chat with a government information librarian from any of nearly twenty institutions. The project is organized through the Committee on Institutional Cooperation and the University of Illinois at Chicago. The hours are 8 am to 6 pm, Central time, Monday-Thursday and 8 am to 5 pm on Friday. You can also ask questions or for advice by email anytime.

URL: http://131.193.153.128/

TWO NEW RESOURCES FOR LAW LIBRARIANS

The Public Library of Law is a free site that includes “all the available online caselaw, statutes, regulations, court rules and constitutions from the federal and state governments.” Acesss to the following is through FastCase’s “intuitive interface that woks like popular Web search engines” (read, Google©). The site is updated daily

“All” of the free legal resources that exist on the Internet

An additional 10 years of case law from all 50 states

U.S. Reports: Vol. 1-546, inclusive (1757 to present)

F.2d Vol. 178-999, inclusive (1950 to 1995)

F.3d Vol. 1-491, inclusive (1995 to present)

State cases from 1997 to present

Statutes, regulations, court rules, and constitutions of (federal and all 50 states)

Commonly used legal forms

URL: http://www.plol.org/Pages/Search.aspx

The Law Library of Congress now offers RSS feeds, consisting of headline, brief summary, and a link back to the website for more information. You can sign up for each of the 4 available feeds or receive the updates by mail.

that leads back to the Library's Web site for more information. You can also keep up with the LLOC by signing up for an email newsletter at http://service.govdelivery.com/service/multi_subscribe.html?code=USLOC&origin=http://www.loc.gov (free registration required)

Law Library News and Events: http://www.loc.gov/rss/law/news.xml
Legal Research Reports: http://www.loc.gov/rss/law/reports.xml
Law Library Webcasts: http://www.loc.gov/rss/law/webcasts.xml
Global Legal Monitor: http://www.loc.gov/rss/law/globalmonitor.xml

LISTS OF US GOVERNMENT DATABASES, BY SUBJECT

The Government Documents Roundtable (GODORT) of the American Library Association has created a Subject Focused Lists of Government Databases site to go along with their 50 State Agency Databases site. It links to lists created by others, such as universities. So far, the only subjects are business (US State Corporations), history (biographical media, newspaper, museum, and official records), and prisoner locater tools. Let’s hope it grows.

URLs:
Subject lists: http://wikis.ala.org/godort/index.php/Subject_focused
State agencies: http://wikis.ala.org/godort/index.php/State_Agency_Databases

US LEGISLATIVE PROCEEDINGS

“METAVID is a project which seeks to capture, stream, archive and facilitate real-time collective (re)mediation of legislative proceedings.” Only in the development stage, this free and open source service is hosted by the University of California at Santa Cruz, but there is information there already. You can search the archives now, follow their blog, and read their wiki and FAQ pages. Video files include closed caption text.

URL: http://metavid.ucsc.edu
Blog: http://metavid.ucsc.edu/blog/
Wiki: http://metavid.ucsc.edu/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

SEARCHABLE CHARITABLE DONATIONS DATABASE (USA)

The founders of NOZA [Santa Barbara, California] were professional nonprofit fundraisers They have built a searchable database containing more than 26 million charitable donation records (growing by 1,000,000 records monthly). Their mission? “To help nonprofits raise more money, and spend less money doing it.”

You can search for free—you can only search the over 825,000 foundation records and are limited to 1000 records per search. For US$25 and up, you also have access to records of donations from people and companies, with a limit of 2000 results per search. You only pay for the full records you view at prices from 5 to 12 cents per record, depending on the package you buy.

The database includes over 2800 cities in all 50 states. It is comprised of detailed charitable gift information that has been collected from publicly available sources, such as Internet-based annual reports, newsletters, campaign honor rolls, press releases, event sponsor lists, etc. Full donation records contain: donor name, dollar range of donation, category, year, recipient organization name and location (including website), recipient organization program scope and activity, and hyperlink to internet location where data was found.

They also have a free tutorial—Prospect Research 101—and downloadable prospect research workbook and profile template.

URL: https://www.nozasearch.com/

BEST BLAWGS

The anonymous blogger at Blawg Review listed the “top ten law blogs he thinks are simply the best.

Above the Law (USA), “a legal tabloid”—behind the scenes, http://www.abovethelaw.com/
Adam Smith, Esq.(USA), an inquiry into the economics of law firms,”
http://www.bmacewen.com/blog/
Balkanization (USA), http://balkin.blogspot.com/
Concurring Opinions (USA), http://www.concurringopinions.com/
Deliberations (USA), juries and jury trials, http://jurylaw.typepad.com/
f/k/a/ (USA), ethics and politics, http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/ethicalesq/
May It Please the Court (USA), http://www.mayitpleasethecourt.com/journal.asp?
QuizLaw (USA), http://www.quizlaw.com/
Sentencing Law and Policy (USA), part of the Law Professors Network,
http://sentencing.typepad.com/
The Volokh Conspiracy (USA), http://www.volokh.com/

He also challenged other blawgers to choose their own “best.” Here is the list from the (again) anonymous blogger at lo-fi librarian:
Slaw (Canada), http://www.slaw.ca/
Enquiring Minds Want to Know (UK), http://enquiring-minds.net/
LI Issues (UK), legal publishing, http://ligissues.blogspot.com/
Jennie Law (Scotland), http://jennielaw.blogspot.com/
Information Overlord (UK), law firm librarian Scott Vine,
http://www.informationoverlord.co.uk/index.htm
Connie Crosby (Canada), http://conniecrosby.blogspot.com/
Library etc. (USA), Web 2.0 libraries, http://neilstewart.wordpress.com/
Vancouver Law Librarian (Canada), http://vancouverlawlib.blogspot.com/

and two non-librarians he enjoys:
Binary Law (UK), Nick Holmes, the original blogger, http://www.binarylaw.co.uk/
Charon Q.C. (UK), http://charonqc.wordpress.com/

URLs:
Blawg Review’s top ten: http://blawgreview.blogspot.com/2007/10/simply-best.html
lo-fi librarian: http://www.lo-fi-librarian.co.uk/?p=720

WELCOME TO DIPNOTE

The US State Department has started a blog, Dipnote (jargon for a diplomatic note—“a formal communication between an ambassador and a minister of the host government or another ambassador.” They hope it “will provide you with a window into the work of the people responsible for our foreign policy, and will give you a chance to be active participants in a community focused on some of the great issues of our world today. With Dipnote we are going to take you behind the scenes at the State Department and bring you closer to the personalities of the Department. We are going to try and break through some of the jargon and talk about how we operate around the world.”

Articles on Dipnote as of today are: The Question of the Week: Who Should be Allowed To Possess Nuclear Technology? UNGA (United Nations General Assembly) 101, Protecting Diplomats at UNGA: The Inside Story, Direct from the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi (India), August in the Big Easy (New Orleans, Louisiana, USA), and an impressive Blog Roll.

It is probably worth checking out this blog just to get information on some the blogs the State Department follows.

URL: http://blogs.state.gov/index.php/P5/

BIOGRAPHIES OF NOTABLE AMERICAN SCIENTISTS

The National Academy of Sciences makes available brief biographies of deceased members of the Academy online. Not all are available yet, but they will be soon. This is a good place for students (and others) to start when looking for information on prominent US scientists.

URL: http://www.nasonline.org/site/PageServer?pagename=MEMOIRS_A

FREE (US) PUBLIC RECORDS

The people from Facts on Demand have links to sites with free access to state, county, city, federal, court, and military records in the USA and some records in Canada and elsewhere. There are also links to for fee records vendors and other related resources. You can even sign up for a free monthly electronic newsletter, Public Record Update. Nice site.

URL: http://brbpub.com/pubrecsites.asp?h=1

PUBLIC LIBRARY BLOGS: 252 EXAMPLES, BY WALT CRAWFORD

Walt Crawford has self-published a new book, Public Library Blogs: 252 Examples. From the description: “The 299-page paperback features descriptions and sample posts for a wide range of blogs from 196 public libraries of all sizes, in the United States, Canada, Australia, Ireland and New Zealand. If your library is considering a blog, this book should help you find blogs from comparable libraries to consider as examples. If your library has a blog and is considering more (or revising the ones you have), this book should help you find interesting examples--the public library blogging community is remarkably diverse!"

To order the book:
Cites & Insights Books store at Lulu.com: printed on 60lb. cream book stock, http://www.lulu.com/content/1117701
After 14 September, from Amazon.com, ISBN 978-1434805591

RAND RADIUS R&D DATABASE, PART 2

I got my password for RaDiUS and did a quick search so I can tell you how it works. I entered the term “library” and got 1974 hits just for fiscal year 2006! They were listed by federal organization: the most were for Health and Human Services with over 1200. I chose one from the US Department of Agriculture.

What was in the record? I won’t give you the details because there are security issues, but it had a short description of the project, the department and division sponsoring it, the type of funding mechanism (this one was “extramural/cooperative agreement,” start and end dates, who is doing the work and their location (contact name and phone), “Average FY Federal Funding,” and “FY Actual Funding” (both Federal and non-Federal). It’s not a lot of information, but may be useful to some of your customers.

US SUPREME AND FEDERAL APPELLATE COURT CASE REPORTS

AltLaw provides the first free, full-text searchable database of Supreme Court and Federal Appellate case reports. It is a resource for attorneys, legal scholars, and the general public. As of late August 2007, there are over 170,000 cases in the database. Coverage, for most Circuits, is limited to about the last 10 to 15 years. As of yet, no state law or district court cases. The site included full text searching of the last decade or so of federal appellate and Supreme Court opinions, and advanced search options (proximity searching, Boolean, concentration, wildcards, etc.). Note: the site is still in beta.

AltLaw is a joint project of Columbia Law School’s Program on Law and Technology and the Silicon Flatirons Program at the University of Colorado Law School.

URL: http://www.altlaw.org/

(US) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE CONTACT INFORMATION

Need to contact a candidate (loosely defined) for the US Presidency? This site has the names, titles, telephone number, website URL, and media contact information, as well as for the Republican and Democratic National Committees. Nice to find this all in one spot.

URL: http://fpc.state.gov/documents/organization/91528.pdf

DATABASE OF (USA) FEDERAL RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT

The RAND Corporation and the US National Science Foundation have created RaDiUS, “the most comprehensive database of information on federally-funded research and development.” It is free, but you have to request a password. There is a user handbook and glossary of terms—nice. Note: “Certain records in RaDiUS can only be accessed by employees of agencies of the Federal Government and/or entities that are a direct party to a contract with federal agencies, as defined in FAC 90-40, Part 2.101, or that are participating in formal potential contractor programs sponsored by federal agencies. Access to some of these records is further restricted to only employees of DOD [Department of Defense] and DOD contractors and participants in DOD's Potential Contractor Programs, while access to others is restricted to only employees of DOE [Department of Energy].”

URL: https://radius.rand.org/radius/index.html (be sure to type https)

GREAT LAKES WIKI

If you are looking for information about the (US) Great Lakes, a good place to start is this wiki, started by students of environmental journalism, telecommunications, information studies, and media at Michigan State University (Lansing). It “explores new ways of speeding the flow of information, knowledge and news about one of the world’s greatest natural resources. [The five lakes contain over eighteen percent of the world’s fresh surface water.] It relies on the experience and knowledge of a network of citizens, including scientists, hunters, policymakers, environmentalists, anglers, lakeside property owners, boaters, business operators, and others.” Articles are grouped under Culture, Recreation, Geography, Commerce, Ecology, and Areas of Concern.

URL: http://greatlakeswiki.org

IT AND THE AMERICAN PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN

“TechPresident was started by Andrew Rasiej [Personal Democracy Forum, New York, New York, USA] and Micah Sifry [Public Campaign, Washington, DC, USA] as a new group blog that covers how the 2008 presidential candidates are using the web, and vice versa, how content generated by voters is affecting the campaign.” There will be input from blogger-contributors, a daily digest of fresh news clips, blog posts and campaign initiatives, live from-the-campaign-trail photo feeds created by voters, campaign website reviews, links to campaign ads and websites (official and unofficial), charts showing who’s winning the most friends on MySpace and Facebook and the most YouTube channel views and subscribers for each candidate, and a searchable repository of emails from each campaign” (coming).

URL: http://techpresident.com/

DATABASE OF US STATE DATABASES

The Government Documents Roundtable (American Library Association) is putting together a wiki of state agency databases on business, people, agriculture, and more. This site will attempt to collect links to them in one place. They hope to add search capability at a later date. Only the following states’ sites are active as of today, but this looks to be a great idea. Alabama, Alaska, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Washington, West Virginia, Wyoming

URL: http://wikis.ala.org/godort/index.php/State_Agency_Databases