My Favorite Connectors

As you know, I am a fan of Google. (In fact, imho, if they can pay over a billion for YouTube, they could send some cans of tuna my way for promoting them).

As great as Google is, Lexis and Westlaw has it beat with respect to the sophistication of search connectors. On Lexis and Westlaw, I can search for documents with words in the same sentence - for example, tuna /s can - which will retrieve both "can of tuna" and "tuna fish can" . I can also search for words within the same paragraph - for example, tuna /p brand - which will retrieve discussions of various brands of tuna, as long as the two words are in the same paragraph.

I hope Google gets my hint. Time for a snack.

Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

The Federal Budget Process

Are you researching aspects of the Federal budget, or the budget-making process? If so, then the Budget Process, Columbia University'’s excellent library and online resources site covering all aspects of the Federal budget, will greatly assist you. From links to introductory material about how the basic process works, to sources related to the budget calendar, as well as news and commentary, and even the U.S. National Debt Clock, it's all here.

Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

Project Posner

How many sitting federal judges have written several thousand opinions and found time to write more than 30 books on topics as diverse as the Economics of Justice, Sex and Reason, Law and Literature, and the Workload of the Supreme Court? Judge Richard Posner of the United States Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, one of the most prolific judges in America, has done all of this and more. Now there is Project Posner, a web site devoted exclusively to Judge Posner’s opinions, with links to his biography, information about his books, articles and activities from his personal site, and his blog. Created by Columbia Law School professor Tim Wu, one of Judge Posner’s former law clerks, the site is a free keyword searchable repository of Posner opinions, including a statistical breakdown of the cases by cited literary figures, scholars, and even animals--an enjoyable way to become acquainted with the famous judge.

Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

21st Century Library: Introduction to Tax Law Research Online

Next Week: Introduction to Tax Law Research Online: Whether you plan to specialize in tax law or not, as some point you will need to address an issue regarding taxation. Come find out the easiest way to do tax research online in the third of the Library's 21st Century Library workshop series. Also, if you are taking any Tax classes, this workshop is for you.

When: Mon., Oct. 16th - 5:10 to 6pm; and
Tues., Oct. 17th - 11:10 to 12 noon

All 21st Century Library workshops are held in the lower level computer lab and all law students are welcome.


Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

Health News Review

Health News Review is a website that reviews news stories about medical treatments, tests and procedures. A team of reviewers from the fields of medicine, journalism, health services research and public health rate the stories for quality. They look for accuracy, balance and completeness. The mission of this organization is to help people understand their choices and have the information they need to make decisions regarding their health.

New stories appear on the home page of the site. A keyword search can also be done to bring up articles on a particular subject.

Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

Google Puts Lid on New Products

is the title of an article in Friday's Los Angeles Times.
In this article Google guy Sergey Brin states that instead of constantly pushing new products, the company is going to focus on improving and better integrating what they already had. From the article:

the campaign started this summer when Google executives realized that myriad product releases were confusing their users. "It's worse than that," said Brin, Google's president of technology. "It's that I was getting lost in the sheer volume of the products that we were releasing."

..Google admitted this year that its internal audits discovered that the company had been spending too much time on new services to the detriment of its core search engine.

Pretty candid, and quite a departure from the Google game plan of the past few years.
I am optimistic that this bodes well for those of us interested in the future of websearch!

Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat