Category «Legal Technology»

The top six library issues – from the Amazon threat to the need for a national digital library endowment

Long time public library advocate David Rothman shares what he identifies as the Six Big Issues for libraries, and a related discussion about each. They are: 1. Whether public libraries will even exist half a century from now; 2. The urgent need for a national digital library endowment to help fund two separate but intertwined systems, one public and one academic; 3. America’s changing demographics. Can public libraries respond when both their hiring practices and book collections lag so badly in this respect?; 4. Copyright threats and opportunities; 5. Threats to patron confidentiality from governments, marketers and others; 6. Censorship and onerous porn-filter requirements.

Subjects: Libraries & Librarians, Library Marketing, Mobile Technology

Adobes laxness with e-book data shows the need for a library-controlled ecosystem for library e-books

David Rothman highlights the recent revelation of an Adobe e-book reader data collection privacy issue, and suggests this security vulnerability offers a key opportunity for libraries to collaborate with other organizations to diminish data breaches, increase reader privacy, and empower libraries as stakeholders in a new relationship with vendors and customers.

Subjects: E-Books, Libraries & Librarians, Library Marketing, Library Software & Technology, Privacy

Turning Challenges into Opportunities: New Directions for Legal Information Professionals

Attorney, journalist, author, legal tech expert, speaker and blogger Robert Ambrogi made a presentation recently at the fall meeting of the Law Librarians of New England and the Association of Boston Law Librarians. He addressed the pivotal ways in which law librarians remain critical contributors to the work product of law firms, professors and researchers in the academic arena, and change agents within the overall professional communities whose work places are increasingly dominated by Big Data, business intelligence and complex analytical tools.

Subjects: Law Librarians, Law Library Management, Legal Research Training, Librarian Resources, Libraries & Librarians, Library Marketing

Internet-of-Things (IOT) Resources

This is a comprehensive listing of Internet-of-Things (IOT) research resources and sites available on the Internet. Marcus P. Zillman developed this guide with the goal of highlighting the most current and actionable research resources available on this topic.

Subjects: Internet Resources - Web Links, Internet Trends, Technology Trends

How to read e-books on a $20 cell phone: Tips for the cash-strapped and plain adventurous

The LG Optimus Dynamic Android Phone, aka the LG 38c or the LGL38C, is a smartphone that David Rothman bought new on Amazon for $20, excluding shipping. Rothman calls out the importance of this device in relationship to its potential impact among among racial minorities and young families with children that also experience high poverty rates. He contends that low-end smartphones like the 38c may be a way to bring e-books to many low-income people in America and elsewhere, including the U.K., where so many libraries have closed. Rothman discusses the objective to inform librarians, tech-savvy volunteers and nonprofits to the possibilities, in terms of training and motivation and the creation of community groups, to promote smartphone technology for literacy and self-improvement. For the underserved who already own smartphones, David details the need to install the right e-reading software to expand capabilities of the devices for accessing e-books.

Subjects: E-Books, Libraries & Librarians

Tech goals for solo and small-firm lawyers

Nicole Black review the highlights of results of two legal technology surveys about lawyers’ plans to use legal technology in their law practices. They offer a glimpse into the businesses of solo and small firm lawyers and provide indications of their assessments of the value that different types of technologies will bring to their law practices.

Subjects: Law Firm Marketing, Legal Marketing, Legal Profession, Legal Technology

Will Lawyers Embrace Wearable Tech, And The Future?

Nicole Black predicts that smartwatches will soon be very popular with lawyers as they offer an easy and unobtrusive way to filter only the most important information received on your smartphone. So if you’re expecting a priority email or phone call, you can program your phone to forward it to your smartwatch so that you’ll receive a subtle vibration on your wrist. This will come in handy when you’re in court, for example. So instead of causing a disruption in the proceedings, you can leave the room quietly and tend to the matter in the hallway with no one else the wiser.

Subjects: Internet Trends, Law Firm Marketing, Legal Technology, Mobile Technology, Product Reviews, Technology Trends

Online tools to streamline your email

Nicole Black talks about email add-ons to assist busy lawyers respond more effectively to a continuous avalanche of communications that require sorting, prioritizing, tagging and timely actions. She highlights several effective online tools designed to solve these problems by integrating with your Gmail account and other programs as well.

Subjects: Contact Management, Email, Internet Trends, Legal Technology

How to choose Web-based legal software

More and more lawyers are moving to Web-based legal software because it’s convenient, provides 24/7 on-the-go-access to case-related information, and is affordable. Lawyer and legal tech expert Nicole Black says the good news is now that cloud computing is becoming more familiar and accepted, new platforms are being introduced into the legal marketplace at record speed. She explains how to make effective business choices when determining how and what cloud based applications to use.

Subjects: Case Management, Contact Management, Digital Archives, Information Architecture, Law Firm Marketing, Legal Profession, Legal Technology, Mobile Technology, Technology Trends, Web Management

On tablets, summer reading and parental role models for young readers: How schools and libraries can together connect the dots

David Rothman discusses how his Washington, D.C. suburb and in countless other places, U.S. schools are buying tablets for students, and each city could potentially be a test bed for the ideas in this commentary. We’re talking about a partial solution to a national reading divide; well-off kids actually can make gains over the summer. Regardless of family income, however, more reading is likely to help. All the more reason to increase coordination between schools and public libraries to exploit e-book-related technology to the max!

Subjects: E-Books, Features, Librarian Resources