Year archives: 2017

The ‘internet of things’ is sending us back to the Middle Ages

The Internet of Things (IoT) has permeated all facets of our lives – professional, family, social – more quickly and expansively than many are willing to acknowledge. The repercussions of IoT are multifaceted – and directly impact issues that span privacy, cybersecurity, intellectual property rights, civil liberties and the law. Law and technology scholar Joshua A.T. Fairfield discusses the ramifications of allowing our environment to be seeded with sensors that gather our personal data using a plethora of devices we now consider to be essential conveniences.

Subjects: AI, Cybersecurity, Intellectual Property, Privacy

High Schoolers in the Law Library: A Law-Related Programming Using Graphic Novels

Assistant Professor of Law and Reference Librarian Brandon Adler’s pathfinder succinctly and instructively communicates how your law library can encourage seniors from local high schools to attend a programming activity in the law library to learn about the opportunities of pursuing a J.D. program.

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Education, Librarian Resources, Libraries & Librarians

Fingerprint Forensics: From Lore to Law

Notable developments in courtrooms, academia and government institutions, both state and federal, are laying the groundwork for challenges to fingerprint matching. This extensively researched, comprehensive annotated bibliography by Ken Strutin includes new and noteworthy materials such as key opinions, significant articles and online resources concerning accuracy, reliability, validity as well as authenticity of fingerprint evidence. It also includes information on scientific and technological developments that are pushing the frontiers of biometric analysis.

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Courts & Technology, Criminal Law, Human Rights, Legal Research

Spotting Fake – Best Practices for Authenticating Trustworthy News Sources

Genevieve Zook’s guide to fake news takes a multifaceted, long view of the history of spreading misinformation, through word of mouth to the acceleration of this activity through social media. Zook identifies examples in which fake news impacts different disciplines, diverse topics and subject matter. She references the survey data gathered by reliable organizations that assist us in better understanding the dimensions of this issue. And vitally, Zook documents actionable resources, many of which are authored by law librarians, to facilitate our ability to make sound decisions, exercise our critical skills, and deliver expert services to our users and customers moving forward.

Subjects: Evaluation of Internet Resources, Internet Resources - Web Links, KM, Law Librarians, Legal Research, Libraries & Librarians, Reference Resources

Why Knowledge Management Is A Misnomer

Knowledge Management has many facets, applications and roles within organizations, large, small and solo. Ken Grady’s interpretation of KM in this article represents the role of the “puzzle master,” one with which librarians, research analysts and infopros have demonstrated mastery.

Subjects: KM, Legal Technology

The Confusion Of Legal Education

Ken Grady identifies significant disruptive reasons why undergraduate students are veering away from choosing law school for other graduate education, and offers effective, innovative responses which should be put into action with alacrity.

Subjects: Legal Education

The Library of Congress opened its catalogs to the world. Here’s why it matters.

Melissa Levine’s article articulates for us the historic significance and professional impact of the recent announcement by the Library of Congress that 25 million digital catalog records are now available to the public, at no cost. This remarkable treasure trove of free descriptive data sets includes records from 1968 to 2014.

Subjects: Cataloging, Digital Archives, Virtual Library