INTERNATIONAL NUCLEAR INFORMATION SYSTEM NOW AVAILABLE FREE

The International Nuclear Information System database is now available for free. It comes from the International Atomic Energy Agency. According to the press release, there are over 3 million bibliographic citations and abstracts from all kinds of sources (journals, conferences, patents, laws, web documents, including over 85,000 full-text scientific and technical reports, conference papers, patents, theses and preprints.

URL: http://inisdb2.iaea.org/

UNITED NATIONS VIDEO/AUDIO AVAILABLE

Audio and video of some United Nations events are now available from the UN University Office in New York.

Thanks for Library Boy Michel Adrien for alerting me to this.

URLs:
UN: http://www.ony.unu.edu/news/unu-ony-audiovideo-archives-no.html
Library Boy blog: http://micheladrien.blogspot.com/

FOREIGN LAW RESEARCH RESOURCE

FLARE is a collaboration between the major libraries collecting law in the United Kingdom: Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, Bodleian Law Library, Squire Law Library, British Library, and School of Oriental and African Studies. It is working to improve the coverage and accessibility of foreign legal materials at the national level and to raise expertise in their use. The work is currently focused on improving national coverage of the law of the transition states of central and Eastern Europe and building a distributed national collection of official gazettes. Current projects include: a series of Research Guides to the law of foreign jurisdictions, training courses on the law of the transition states, a Union List of holdings of European Legal Gazettes in major research libraries.” (from the website)

URL: http://ials.sas.ac.uk/flare/flare.htm

HOW THE WORLD REALLY SHAPES UP

Victoria Moore wrote a neat article in the Daily Mail (1 March 2007) showing computer-generated maps (cartograms) that show the world with each country’s size proportional to its share of categories such as alcohol consumption, HIV/Aids, house prices, war deaths, military spending, toy imports and exports, and wealth. The cartograms were produced in a unique collaboration between the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor, USA) and Sheffield University, UK.

URL: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/
worldnews.html?in_article_id=439315&in_page_id=1811

TWO PORTALS: ONE SCIENTIFIC, ONE GLOBAL

New Scientist magazine is online. Subjects and features covered are: space, technology, environment, jobs, news, and blogs on space, technology, “short sharp science,” environment, and invention. There are also special reports, an archive, a RSS feed, and e-zine, exclusive features, a picture gallery, video exclusives, and podcasts.

URL: http://www.newscientist.com/home.ns

The Globalist “provides a daily account of the key issues before the global community. Combining cutting-edge analysis with first-rate storytelling, [it] covers the most important issues, people, companies and organizations shaping the global economy, politics and culture. We focus on what unites and divides countries, societies and cultures, what challenges they face in the global era—and what solutions they offer to the global community. Through cross-country comparisons, our features provide the key to understanding our common future.” Globalization Topics covered: Children, Companies, Culture, Development, Diplomacy, Economy, Environment, Finance, Health, History, Markets, Media, Music, People, Politics, Religion, Security, Sports, Technology, and Women. Also included: Today in history, Quote of the day, Fact of the day, and Link of the day. Available in English, French, and German.

URL: http://www.theglobalist.com/

LOCATE POLITICAL FEEDS AND PODCASTS FOR POLITICIANS

Political Feeds is a portal to news feeds and podcasts by our about politicians. Categories include Asia, Australia, Canada, China, Philippines, UK (blogs and politicians), USA (left-leaning, right-leaning, conservative, independent, liberal, Democratic, Green Party, Independent Party, Libertarian, Populist, Republican Party), local and state government, and by states. A RSS feed of feeds is available.

URL: http://www.political-humor.net/

FOREIGN LAW TRANSLATIONS

The Institute for Transnational Law

This site is a resource for French, German, Italian, Austrian and Israeli legal materials in the fields of constitutional, administrative, contract and tort law. The English translations of decisions from Germany and France include cases from the Reichsgericht, the Bundesverfassungsgericht, the Bundesgerichtshof, the Conseil Constitutionnel, the Conseil d’Etat and the Cour de Cassation. From the University of Texas at Austin Law School, funded in part by the MD Anderson Foundation.

URL: http://www.utexas.edu/law/academics/centers/transnational/work/

SEARCH ENGINE FOR LAW FIRM NEWSLETTERS

Linex Legal is a new search engine that allows you to search the newsletters put out by "over 1,000 leading law firms and government organisations" in in ten countries: Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Ireland, New Zealand, South Africa, the UK, and the USA. Specialty areas include: product liability, international arbitration and mediation, employment, health and safety, pensions, property, planning and construction, and European Competition law.

This looks to be a very useful and unique tool--and it is free.

URL: http://www.linexlegal.com

LIBRARY BLOGS AROUND THE WORLD

Infobib has guest articles from library bloggers all over the world on their LibWorld page. Currently available are articles on Spain, Hungary, Norway, Sweden, Singapore, France, Australia, Denmark, Iran, Brazil, Puerto Rico, Netherlands, Austria, and Belarus. They are VERY interesting.

URL: http://infobib.de/blog/features/libworld

IS THERE AN EMBASSY IN (INSERT COUNTRY HERE)?

Next time you are asked this question, turn to the online Directory & Search Engine of the World's Embassies & Consulates. Answer "whose embassy?" and "in what location?" and you're taken to list. You can also search alphabetically by nation and there are 34 pages of embassies inside the USA and an alphabetical list of US embassies worldwide, United Nations peprmanent missions, and links to other resources (international telephone directory, global reference desk, maps of the world, and international voltage directory).

I wish there were more contact information, but at least there are links to the embassies's websites. It seems to be sponsored by ads and links to international real estate, employment, and yacht websites. That's ok, I can ignore them to be able to access this information.

URL: http://embassyworld.com/

NEW WEBSITE FOR BAILLI

The British and Irish Legal Information Institute, BAILLI (Bailey, as in Old Bailey—cute), has launched a new website. It has “British and Irish case law and legislation, European Union case law, Law Commission reports, and other law-related British and Irish material.”

URL: http://www.bailii.org/

HANDBOOK ON COPYRIGHT AND RELATED ISSUES FOR LIBRARIES

This is a practical guide to topical legal questions affecting the information work of libraries in the fast moving digital environment. Each topic is described briefly, the main policy aspects for libraries are outlined, and there are links to library policy statements for further reading. It is sponsored by the UNESCO Information for All Programme. You can download each chapter in html or pdf format. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 License.

The chapter titles are: The Relationship between Copyright and Contract Law: Electronic, Resources and Library Consortia, Technological Protection Measures—the “Triple Lock,” Copyright, the Duration of Protection and the Public Domain, Orphaned Works, Collective Rights Management, Public Lending Right, The Database Right—Europe’s Experimental, Creative Commons: an “Open Content,” Open Access to Scholarly Communications, Copyright and Trade Agreements, International Policy Making: a Development Agenda for WIPO, and National Policy Making: Advocating for Fair Copyright Laws.

URL: http://www.eifl.net/services/handbook.htm

BLOG ON THE UN

UN Pulse, blog from the Dag Hammarskjold Library at the United Nations. Categories (in order of most posts) economic and social development, peace and security, Specialized agencies, In the News, human rights; plus conferences, appointments, committee activities, headquarters announcements, international law, and research tips. With archives back to March 2005.

URL: http://www.un.org/Depts/dhl/unpulse/