LLRX.com - Legal and Technology Articles and Resources for Librarians, Lawyers and Law Firms

Pet Overpopulation Infographic

Sun, 06 May 2012 10:08:47 -0700

Spencer Belkofer's Infographic documents the critical importance of spaying and neutering cats and dogs to saves lives, promote health and to facilitate adoption. For all the readers who are involved in "rescue", and those who are considering this option, Spencer brings us key facts to help support our decision to become involved in making a difference in the lives of companion animals.

Opening Government: On the Limits of FOIA and the Metaphor of Transparency

Sun, 29 Apr 2012 17:32:26 -0700

Professor Annmarie Bridy discusses the use of “transparency” as a metaphor for openness in government, the use of FOIA as a mechanism for ensuring such openness, and the ways in which proponents of greater public involvement in policy-making may disserve the cause by focusing too single-mindedly on access to information and the right to know, both of which are operationalized through FOIA.

A Technical Examination of SOPA and PIPA

Sun, 29 Apr 2012 17:01:42 -0700

The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Protect IP Act (PIPA) are the subject of this Infographic, by Spencer Belkofer, Lumin Consulting. See also his related Infographic on the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA).

Veterans in the Criminal Justice System: Defending Conditions of the Mind

Fri, 20 Apr 2012 11:25:11 -0700

Ken Strutin's guide includes key recent and notable cases, surveys, studies, guides, web resources and directories for legal research specific to veterans' deployed to war who subsequently developed mental health problems, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PSTD).

SOPA’s Evil Twin Sister – CISPA

Sat, 14 Apr 2012 14:33:25 -0700

Well known graphic artists Jake O'Neil and Spencer Belkofer created this infographic out of a sense of urgency to visualize the salient information with as many communities as possible. This bill, the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act of 2011, has not garnered the media coverage of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), but its high impact implications target key legal issues involving privacy and intellectual property.

Fiction is harder than fact, but the Web helps

Sat, 24 Mar 2012 12:49:43 -0700

Nicholas Pengelley's wide ranging global career spans law librarian, lawyer, law professor and analyst for a major international NGO. Now as the author of a new political thriller he explains why writing fiction is much harder to write than fact, based on comparison to work accomplished to publish academic articles in his fields of expertise, and opinion pieces on political issues. He attributes the success of aspects of this project to effective and expansive Web research for sources and information to facilitate fact checking and information gathering, as well as to the use of a manuscript editing software, AutoCrit.

New Economy Resources

Fri, 09 Mar 2012 13:31:17 -0700

Marcus P. Zillman's guide is focused on current web sites, blogs and database sources targeted to researchers whose goal is the discovery and effective use of specific, reliable resources to track the New Economy. These sources assume added importance with the expansion in U.S. government transparency, the rise in prominence of "big data" and the public release by agencies, NGOs, public interest groups and media, of diverse databases of analytics, reports, statistical releases, and customized charts.

FOIA Facts: FOIA as Golf

Fri, 09 Mar 2012 11:58:03 -0700

Recent reports of both the Department of Justice and others about the administrations FOIA overall program have led FOIA expert Scott A. Hodes to imagine FOIA as golf. President Obama is currently on the fairway of the ninth hole. Voters will let him know in November if he gets to play the back nine.

Animal Rights in the Human Legal System

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 15:10:41 -0700

The struggle for human rights has gone on for ages, but the story of animal rights has only begun to be told. Ken Strutin's guide is a compilation of new and notable legal resources on animal rights and welfare. Its jurisprudence takes into account the various roles that society has assigned to animals, e.g., companion, servant or object, as well the implications of their participation or use in different sectors of modern life. Some of the key legal areas of confluence include: (1) animal rescue; (2) protective legislation; (3) law enforcement and forensics; (4) elder care and end of life issues; (5) abuse registries; (6) environmental hazards; (7) witness assistants; and (8) development of advanced degrees and specialization in animal law.

Help with SharePoint is on the way in The Adventures of SharePoint Reading Bee© Animated Series

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 14:54:02 -0700

Microsoft SharePoint expert Lorette S.J. Weldon asks us to imagine walking into the library without worrying about file compatibilities and adjustments of applications to do what you want when you want. All you would see is a library with your workstation. When SharePoint is properly implemented, it could blend into the background. You would never know that it was there. Lorette created an animated series to assist librarians to leverage this application, and has included a very short survey to offer suggestions for future episodes.

SharePoint Blogging with Permission

Sun, 22 Jan 2012 21:50:03 -0700

Lorette S.J. Weldon continues to share her guides on how librarians in various sectors can effectively leverage SharePoint within the enterprise, in groups, and with individuals outside the organization. She refers to her 2010 survey, "How is SharePoint used in Libraries?" that found 16 out of 54 participants used SharePoint's site features, such as the blog. Lorette provides insights and associated documentation on this application's limitations, features, and operational structure.

"Stolen" LinkedIn Profiles and the Misappropriation of Ideas

Sun, 22 Jan 2012 13:00:33 -0700

Within the context of the decline of the law tort of "hot news" misappropriation, Professor Annemarie Bridy discusses a recent Pennsylvania case in which the parties are fighting over ownership of a LinkedIn account containing the plaintiff’s profile and her professional connections. The defendant, the former employer, asserted a state law counterclaim for misappropriation of ideas.

Forensic Bibliometrics: Information Quality Assurance in Scientific Literature

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 13:14:25 -0700

Everyone is familiar with the "corrections" columns in newspapers and the errata pages in the backs of books. But those corrigenda are a far cry from identifying the problems created when authors deliberately offer for publication fraudulent results. Research misconduct and the publication of fraudulent results in scholarly publications and news media has become a growing concern in many disciplines. Ken Strutin has researched, annotated and compiled core documents that address the causes of misconduct, spotting faked data, and repairing the damage to the information stream.

Knowledge Discovery Resources 2012 - An Internet MiniGuide Annotated Link Compilation

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 08:53:05 -0700

This guide by Marcus P. Zillman is focused on the latest and most competent resources for knowledge discovery available through the Internet from a wide range of open source authors and sponsors. These sites are sustained by academics, publishers, professional organizations, corporations, governments and NGOs. With the constant addition of new and pertinent information to the Web, a critical key is to find and leverage the relevant and reliable knowledge discovery resources and sites both in the visible and invisible World Wide Web. The selected knowledge discovery resources and sites compiled by Marcus provide a wealth of knowledge and information discovery sources to facilitate your research goals.

Deep Web Research 2012

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 07:39:02 -0700

Marcus P. Zillman's extensive research over the years into the "invisible" or "deep" web indicates that it covers somewhere in the vicinity of 1 trillion plus pages of information located throughout the Internet in various files and formats that current search engines either cannot locate, or have difficulty accessing. The current search engines find hundreds of billions of pages at the time of this publication. His guide provides extensive and targeted resources to facilitate both a better understanding of the history of deep web research as well to effectively and productively search for and locate these often undiscovered but critical documents.