LISNews Librarian And Information Science News

Professor Roy M. Mersky, the Harry M. Reasoner Regents Chair in Law and longtime director of the Tarlton Law Library and Jamail Center for Legal Research at The University of Texas School of Law, died May 6, 2008 in Austin after a brief illness. Mersky, a decorated World War II veteran and civil rights advocate, was 82.

Paragraph above is from University Texas at Austin website. There is additional information there you will want to look at.

More on the passing of Professor Roy Mersky . . .
at the Legal Writing Prof Blog

During his 40-plus years, Professor Mersky developed the University of Texas law library into one of the preeminent research facilities in the nation, a legacy few achieve. Details on Law Librarian Blog at
http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/law_librarian_blog/2008/05/roy-m-mersky-de.html

Barbara Pasqua was 4 years old when she started preparing for a music career. For the next 14 years, she studied voice at the Pittsburgh Playhouse with the goal of studying music at Carnegie Mellon University.
"I wanted to be an opera singer," said Pasqua, 57, assistant law librarian at the Fayette County Law Library.

A standing-room-only crowd listening to her sing the national anthem in a recent courthouse ceremony heard evidence that she could have been a contender.

Popgadget had post about legal resources, including the Public Library of Law, which bills itself as the "world's largest free law library." They claim to search content from many law sites on the web, including free links to paid Fastcase (the site sponsor) content. They offer searches for case law, statutes, regulations, court rules, constitutions and legal forms.

Two events have the legal academy buzzing before the release of the dreaded US News Law School Rankings on March 28th. Details on Law Librarian Blog. First, the ABA Journal article, The Rankings Czar: Law deans hate Bob Morse's rankings. He'd like their help to make them better is out. Second, lawschooldiscussion.org has posted what the site claims to be pages from an advance copy of USN&WR's 2009 Law School Rankings, instead of listing the Top X schools.

Fastcase recently launched what it claims to be the largest free law library. Granted, that library is online, but that's nothing to take away from the fact that it boasts a collection of 1.8 million pages of federal cases, all in the public domain. The collection also contains all US Appeals Courts decisions dating back to 1950.

The free part involves signing up for a 24 hour subscription or paying US$95 for a one month access.

More from Legal Technology.

Now It's Legal: Several years ago, the law library at Maynard Cooper & Gale PC occupied portions of two floors.
These days, John Bolus, an attorney with the firm, said only about 800 square feet on one floor is needed for the firm's library. Like many things once indispensable before technology made them obsolete, the Internet has also had an impact on the libraries in some of Birmingham's largest law firms. "Everything is done electronically now, as far as legal research," Bolus said.

George Mason law prof and editor of Green Bag, Ross Davies is going to lead a team of researchers who will exam the puffery published in law school websites. In what is proposed to be a regular, perhaps annual report, The Deadwood Report, this effort will attempt to reality check the claims and actual work performed by law school faculty members. Details at Law Librarian Blog

The Law Librarians' Society of Washington, D.C. (LLSDC) has transitioned its website to a new server and nearly all parts of its very useful Legislative Source Book have been assigned new URLs. Visit Law Librarian Blog for page links to their resources, research guides and directories.

Mindy's latest book, Sorcery and the Single Girl, features Jane Madison, a special librarian who also is a witch. See Spotlight on Law Librarians: Mindy K. Maddrey.