May 7, 2008

In Memory of Roy M. Mersky

We were saddened to learn of the death of Law Library titan, Roy M. Mersky. Law Librarian Blog reports:

Professor Roy M. Mersky died yesterday from complications of a recent fall. A member of the University of Texas-Austin School of Law faculty and the director of its law library since 1965, Mersky held the Harry M. Reasoner Regents Chair in Law. He was also a professor in the University's graduate School of Information.

Professor Mersky received his B.S. in 1948, J.D. in 1952, and Master's degree in Library Science in 1953 from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He was a member of the Bars of New York, Texas and Wisconsin. He served in the US Army during World War II and was awarded a Bronze Star.

Mersky's first law library position was at the University of Wisconsin Law Library, working as U.S. Government Documents Cataloger from May 1951 to June 1952. He served as Director of the Washington State Law Library, 1959-1963, and Professor of Law and Law Librarian at University of Colorado, 1963-1965, before his Texas appointment....

2008 marks the 50th anniversary of his first professional publication: Bibliographic Organization in Law Libraries: A Panel, 51 Law Library Journal 338 (1958). Of course, everyone knows his Fundamentals of Legal Research, first published in 1975 (with J. Myron Jacobstein), Spirit of Librarianship (with Richard Leiter), and his many works on Supreme Court history. He was working on Unknown Justices with William Bader at the time of his death.

For more on Professor Mersky's many accomplishments, along with his Wisconsin connections, see his 40+ page CV.

May 6, 2008

Library Book Vending Machines

From SF List (via Tame the Web):

Starting sometime in April, library books will be available at Contra Costa County BART stations via "ATM style lending machines." A new program called Library-a-Go-Go, along with the Contra Costa County Library, will allow BART riders to simply swipe a card, select a book, wait for said book choice to drop, and then return the book after the rider is finished reading their literary gem. The machines will "hold around 400 popular and best-selling titles, both fiction and nonfiction, and will be accessible during Bart hours."

Sweden, Norway, and Finland already use these nifty little gadgets. The Pittsburg/Bay Point station is first up to receive the literary lenders, which "cost a little under $100,000 each."

It would seem that book vending machines aren't new overseas. A company called Novel Idea has created a Mini-Bookshop vending machine which vends 20-24 new and bestselling titles and can hold up to 290 books. The machine has an LCD screen on the front which enables any customer to read a synopsis of any of the books available in the machine. All books are pre-packed in a gift box specifically designed to protect both the machine and book from being damaged during the vending process. The box comes with a pull-out carry handle and currently includes a press out bookmark.

May 5, 2008

Gather All Google Apps, RSS Feeds, Gadgets Etc. with iGoogle

Do you iGoogle?
iGoogle is a personalized Google start page (similar to My Yahoo!) where you can aggregate all the Google resources you use on your online desktop - search, gMail, Google Calendar, etc. It also allows you to add RSS feeds and Google Gadgets (similar to those available on Google Desktop).

I found this simple little tutorial over at YouTube.

On the advice and instruction of MakeUseOf.com, I created a iGoogle Gadget for WisBlawg. Simply click on this link, or the iGoogle icon in the right toolbar, and you'll be prompted to add WisBlawg to your iGoogle page.

Chief Justice Abrahamson READ Poster & Bookmarks

As part of their National Library Week celebration, the Wisconsin State Law Library unveiled a new READ poster and READ bookmarks featuring Wisconsin Supreme Court Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson.

The poster, along with bookmarks also featuring the Chief Justice, is on display at the State Law Library.

Source: WSLL @ Your Service

Oregon Revised Statutes Copyright Claim

Boing Boing reports that the situation regarding the contested copyright claim for Oregon Revised Statutes has reached an impasse. Oregon says they are copyright-able; Justia and Public.Resource.Org, who plan to post them online, say they aren't.

From the attorney representing Justia and Public.Resource.Org:

My clients respectfully cannot agree to the Public License. First, and most fundamentally, it would require them to acknowledge that portions of the Oregon Revised Statutes (ORS) are protected by copyright, and they respectfully but vigorously disagree that portions of the ORS are protected by copyright.

Both organizations plan to go ahead with the release of the full text of the 2005 and 2007 statutes as of June 2nd.

May 2, 2008

UW Madison Introduces Emergency Text Message Service

Members of the campus community can now sign up to receive text messages in the event of an emergency. UW-Madison students, faculty and staff, along with employees of campus affiliates can sign up for WiscAlerts through the My UW Portal.

The new service will be used to send critical safety information from UW-Madison Police. It will be reserved for the highest level of emergency.

Tune in Today to BlogTalkRadio for Interview with Ken Svengalis

Tune in to BlogTalkRadio at 3:00 PM (central) today for a live Internet radio call-in program featuring Ken Svengalis of Legal Information Buyer's Guide. Ken will be interviewed by Brian Striman and Richard Leiter.

From Richard Leiter:

We hope to discuss pricing practices of legal publishers and their effects on law libraries and legal researchers. Ken will also discuss the new edition of the Buyer's Guide and we'll speculate on implications of the Thomson-Reuters merger. We hope to hear from private, public and academic libraries - and publishers. We also expect to have time to take calls and comments on any topics of interest to listeners.

Listeners can call-in at 347-945-7183 or use the chat feature to ask questions.

Leiter reports that this is the first attempt at such a program. "At this point, we have no plans to carry it on beyond tomorrow, but, if it is a success, we may offer the show once a month, on the first Friday." Find out if there is more to come by subscribing to the RSS feed for the Law Librarian program.

Source: Lawlibdir listserv

About WisBlawg

Bonnie Shucha "I like the challenging questions - the ones that require me to dig into the information crevices that only librarians know."
UW Law Library
IM: BonnieatUWLaw

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