WisBlawg, UW Law LIbrary

New Issue of The Gargoyle Features Women in Law

Thu, 23 May 2013 13:16:21 -0600

The UW Law School has recently published an outstanding new issue of The Gargoyle, our alumni magazine. A very attractive online edition of the magazine is available on the Law School website.

The feature article in this current issue is about Women in Law. It highlights the careers of six UW Law School alumnae, including Senator Tammy Baldwin, Belle Case La Follette, Vel Phillips, Marygold Melli, Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson, and Dean Margaret Raymond.

An interactive timeline featuring the achievements of Wisconsin's Women in Law is also available. It includes numerous interesting photos and videos.

Note that a complete, searchable archive of The Gargoyle is available on the Law School's website.

Congress.gov to Replace THOMAS

Thu, 23 May 2013 09:48:41 -0600

Congress.gov is a beta site by the Library of Congress that contains U.S. legislative information. It will eventually replace THOMAS.gov.

At this point, the beta Congress.gov contains legislation from the 107th Congress (2001) to the present, member profiles from the 93rd Congress (1973) to the present, and some member profiles from the 80th through the 92nd Congresses (1947 to 1972).

For more information, see the comparison of coverage currently available via Congress.gov and THOMAS.gov.

Former UW-Madison Law School Dean George Bunn Dies

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 08:13:37 -0600

From the Wisconsin State Journal:

Former UW Law School Dean George Bunn, a noted nuclear arms expert and negotiator, died of spinal cancer Sunday in Palo Alto, Calif., said his son Matthew Bunn. He was 87.

A more detailed obituary appears at Stanford University's Center for International Security and Cooperation site.

George Bunn served at the UW Law School from 1969 to 1986. He was dean of the from 1972-1975.

The Bunn family has a long ties with the UW Law School. Other family members include Judge Romanzo Bunn, who served as a lecturer in the 19th century; Charles Wilson Bunn, who received his bachelors and law degrees from UW; and Charles (Bob) Bunn, a long-time member of the Law School faculty from 1934-1962.

There is an interesting article about the Bunn family in the Autumn 1969 issue of The Gargoyle.

Happy National Library Week!

Tue, 16 Apr 2013 08:46:47 -0600

Stop by the Law Library this week and help us celebrate National Library Week!

READ Poster
View this year's poster featuring Steve Barkan, Professor of Law and Director of the Law School Library
- On display inside the library entrance on the 5th floor
- View posters from previous years on our Facebook page
Trivia Contest
Law students, faculty and staff - Test your skills in sports, movies, history and more
- Tues., April 16th at 5:00 pm in the Law School Atrium
Make your own READ Poster
Law students, faculty and staff - Bring your favorite book and be a literary star!
- Wed., April 17th from 11:00-2:00
- Thurs., April 18th from 1:00-4:00
To reserve a time for a photo, email circ@law.wisc.edu or ask at the circulation desk. Walk ups also welcome.

WI Act 5 Changes Publication and Effectiveness Process for Acts - Removes Authority of Sec of State

Fri, 29 Mar 2013 16:04:42 -0600

2013 WI Act 5, which modifies the establishment of a publication date for acts, quietly went into effect yesterday.

According to the Wisconsin Legislative Council the act does several things:

Removes the authority of the Secretary of State to designate the date of publication
Instead, under the Act, the date of publication of an act is the day after the date of enactment unless a different effective date is expressly prescribed
The Act requires the Legislative Reference Bureau to publish each act on its date of publication
An act's effective date is the day after its date of publication

Ads from Legal Publishers during Wartime

Thu, 21 Mar 2013 14:26:00 -0600

The AALL Spectrum Online has a very interesting article examining advertisements from legal periodicals and bar publications published during the Second World War, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and the Cold War.

"Due to the scale and scope of the conflict, every aspect of civilian life was affected. The American legal system, including legal publishing, was greatly transformed by the conflict."

Many very interesting ads are reprinted in the article. I think that my favorite is the one from Shepards pondering "Were the Pilgrims Communists?"

Book Madness Tournament

Thu, 21 Mar 2013 09:35:17 -0600

From the UW Madison Libraries:
Love the NCAA basketball tourney, but wish it was just a little more ... bookish? You're in luck. The UW-Madison Libraries are hosting our first annual Book Madness Tournament.

A brutal selection process resulted in a collection of 64 books - 8 divisions with 8 books each - going head-to-head to determine our favorite book.

Vote for your favorites in each round. Total votes will determine which books move on.

The eight divisions are:
Fantasy
Horror
Sci-Fi
Classics
Romance
Mystery
Contemporary Literature
Non-Fiction

Film About Public Defenders at WI Film Festival

Wed, 20 Mar 2013 14:44:10 -0600

The Wisconsin Film Festival will be showing Gideon's Army, a documentary about the daily work lives of three present day public defenders, at the Marquee Theater in Union South on Thursday April 11 at 9:00p. Tickets are on sale now, $8.00 for the general public or $5.00 with a student ID.

Hat tip to my colleague, Lisa Pfaff.

Paper is not Dead!

Thu, 14 Mar 2013 09:08:20 -0600

From the Law Library Directors email list, I hope you enjoy this short video demonstrating that Paper is not Dead! It certainly made me laugh.

Top Ten Things Law Librarians Wish Law Students Would Know or Do

Wed, 13 Mar 2013 08:44:57 -0600

In preparation for a session that I'm doing for some of our Legal Research and Writing students next week, I pulled together a list of Top Ten Things Law Librarians Wish Law Students Would Know or Do.

The list was first created by Betty Karweick for our Legal Research and Writing program years ago. I've updated the list for 2013 using suggestions from members of the Law Librarians Association of Wisconsin.

Thomson Reuters Sells Law School Publishing Division

Wed, 13 Feb 2013 15:34:11 -0600

By Kris Turner, Reference and Technology Services Librarian

Thomson Reuters has officially gotten out of print publishing for law schools. On Friday, February 2nd, the publishing wing of the legal research giant was sold to Eureka Growth Capital, a private equity firm located in Philadelphia. It seems that paper publishing is not something that Thomson Reuters will be involved with in the future, at least for legal research. According to spokesman John Shaughnessy, "It's a segment of the market that, longer-term, we didn't see as within the core of our legal research offerings...", suggesting that Thomson Reuters will be focusing solely on electronic content in the near future.

Westlaw Next and other e-resources that Thomson Reuters provides will continue to be available to legal researchers. The publishing wing, which was sold for an undisclosed sum, will continue to publish various textbooks and study guides, but will now go under the name "West Academic Publishing". Thomson's legal business, of which the publishing was only a small part, will continue with sales of software and online databases.

For more information, see Eureka Growth Capital's press release or read the brief articles covering the sale in the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal or Wall Street Journal Blog.

Digital Commons Network Makes Open Access Articles More Accessible

Tue, 12 Feb 2013 10:06:53 -0600

bepress recently launched a new product called The Digital Commons Network. It indexes and makes available scholarship contained in the broad network of open access institutional repositories that use the Digital Commons platform. Digital Common Network is available to researchers at no cost.

According to the about page, "the Digital Commons Network brings together scholarship from hundreds of universities and colleges, providing open access to peer-reviewed journal articles, book chapters, dissertations, working papers, conference proceedings, and other original scholarly work."

The main Network covers all subject areas included in the Digital Commons repositories. However, legal researchers may be most interested in the Law Network, which is a subset of the full product.

Once in the Law Network, you can do a broad search for scholarship in all legal subject areas, or you can narrow your search by practice area first (on the left). On the right side, there is a display of the most popular institutions, authors or articles in that subject area. This is based on the number of downloads.

There are also several options to follow content by email. You can follow all new scholarship or just content in a specific practice area or choose to follow the most popular institutions, authors or articles.

WisBar Launches New Website

Thu, 07 Feb 2013 09:37:53 -0600

By Kris Turner, Reference and Technology Services Librarian

The Wisconsin State Bar launched a completely redesigned website on February 4th. Located at http://www.wisbar.org, the new site is the first upgrade since 2005. Combining resources that can be used by both the public and by members, the new site also features an intuitive navigation bar, improved lawyer searching and a distinctive home page for members to view all of their purchased content. While the transition has led to some issues, the website does improve it's navigability and usability.

The biggest change that visitors will notice is the enhancement of the home page and the addition of the navigation bar. The site is divided into five categories: About us, for Members, Marketplace, News and Publication, and for Public. Hovering your mouse over each of these options gives you a drop-down menu that allows you to select an even more specific area of the content to explore. With the advent and continuing popularity of Google-type searches, some users may find the search box to be more helpful. Located at the top right-hand side of the site, simply type into the box what you are looking for, and the entire site will be quickly searched.

Gaining access to member content is obviously one of the most important elements to the Wisconsin Bar website. When you sign into your account by clicking on "myStatebar" at the top right, you will be taken to a personalized home page that lists all the resources you have access to, which may include Books Unbound and Fastcase Legal Research. This page is customizable, and users can follow legal news that may be of interest to them. Users can also interact with other legal professionals by posting comments to news stories and adding more information to their profile.

Giving staff at a busy law office or library access to the resources is critical. After clicking the "myStatebar" link on the top right, State Bar members can then click on "myStaff", which is the farthest selection on the right. Here bar members may add staff, thereby sharing access to resources, such as Books Unbound, that are available to the member. Currently, the "myStaff" is still being designed and built, but once the final touches have been made behind the scenes, it will be possible for members to allow their entire staff access to the resources using only one log-in.

The transition hasn't been entirely smooth. Access to Books Unbound for both the UW Law Library and the State Bar Library has been affected. We are working with the State Bar to resolve this issue. Some areas of the site are still under construction, such as the above-mentioned staff access. As with many new sites, it takes time to get used to where the new locations for links are located. Nevertheless, the new website is an improvement over the previous one, and once these issues are worked out, should be helpful to visitors.

Improving and maintaining website navigation and content is a great challenge for any organization. The Wisconsin State Bar has redesigned their website to be more intuitive and to provide a 'one-stop shop' experience for legal professionals and the public. While the site is still a work in progress, check it out for yourself at http://www.wisbar.org. The staff at the State Bar wants your feedback on what you think of the new website. Email any thoughts you may have to WisBarFeedback@wisbar.org.

City of Madison Launches Open Data Platform

Tue, 22 Jan 2013 11:28:22 -0600

From the journal, Government Technology:

On Jan. 8, city officials announced the launch of its open data ordinance and a more accessible open data platform. Thus far, only one other city in the country, New York City, has implemented an ordinance mandating widespread government release of data, according to officials.
The city, officials said, is making open data projects a high priority. The new ordinance will require agencies to eventually release most of their data in raw format and make it available for download through the city's new open data Web portal.

Though the city made open data available in the past, the effort was far less comprehensive and the data was not in a format that developers could easily use, said CIO Paul Kronberger. "We recognize that this data has been created with public funds," he said, "so it rightfully belongs to the public and should be made available to the public."

Almost all city data will be made available, he said, with the exception of personally identifying information and any data prohibited to be released by existing regulations. In some cases, the city will further support software developers by providing access to APIs through the new portal, Kronberger said, and will look for opportunities to work with local developers.

Another benefit to the Web portal, Kronberger said, is that the city will field fewer formal requests for data because it will already be openly available to those who need it on the portal. Not all city data will be made available at once, but the city plans to gradually make most data available, Kronberger said.

Wisconsin Women Legislators

Thu, 17 Jan 2013 15:53:08 -0600

The Wisconsin Legislative Reference Bureau has recently published a brief summarizing the service of Wisconsin women legislators.

Section I lists all women members alphabetically by house and indicates their party, district, occupation, and terms of service. Section II lists the members serving in each session.