Winter in Cosmic Perspective

Well, exams are finally over, and the snow is here. In other words, it's time to appreciate winter's beauty as only the web, NASA and the astronomers can bring it to us. It's no coincidence that today's Astronomy Picture of the Day, from the space agency's web site image gallery, captures the northern winter solstice at the Newgrange megalith in Ireland. The 2008 winter solstice at Newgrange happens tomorrow morning (actually 3:30 am Eastern Time in the U.S.), and anyone who would like to follow along can be there via the live streaming webcast at this site. At the very least, take a few minutes to browse the Astronomy Picture of the Day Archive for more astounding photos of our planet and the cosmos, one for every day you were focused on exams. This is a great site for an uplifting look at the universe whenever you need one.



Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

OUTTA HERE!!!!!!

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!!!! You made it through exams! First years - it gets easier after this.

Now that you have finished, I can take a much needed break. My reduced prowling hours (and the hours of the Library, coincidentally) will be as follows:

Friday, December 19 – Tuesday, December 23
Friday 8:00 A.M.- 5:00 P.M.
Saturday 10:00 A.M. - 6:00 P.M.
Sunday Noon - 8:00 P.M.
Monday - Tuesday 8:00 A.M - 5:00 P.M.

After next Tuesday, I am indeed OUTTA HERE. The Library will be closed and I will be napping from Wednesday, December 24 - Thursday, January 1, 2009.

I'll be back on January 2nd, 9-5pm and will be around Saturday and Sunday as well. For hours, check the hours page on the Library's web site.

Meanwhile, have the happiest of holidays, and happy and healthy New Year. It is a time for lots of naps and purrs.



Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

Is Technology Rewiring Our Brains?

Some scientists are beginning to suspect that the “wired world” may be changing the way that people read, learn, and interact with one another. Click here to read why.

Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

It's Almost Time To Curl Up With A Good Book

Our holiday break is just around the corner and I’m sure you can’t wait to curl up with a good book. To help you, I'd like to share a few readers’ advisory tolls.

First, check your local library for NoveList Plus. It is a wonderful tool that is accessed through many public libraries. NoveList is a searchable database that provides full-text reviews and annotations for over 20,0000 titles. It allows searching by author, title, series, a variety of traditional index terms, natural language terms or phrases, and Boolean combinations.

Another great resource is www.BookSpot.com. This free web site is a compendium of news about books, publishing, authors, and awards. It isn’t as user friendly as NoveList, but it is packed with information. BookSpot provides numerous reviews and a great deal of genre-specific information including links to the book review pages of major newspapers and to book excerpts.
Well, I hope these help. Have a wonderful holiday break.



Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

2008 Comparison of Legislative Resources

A comparison of legislative resources available on GPO Access and other Government and non-Government Web sites was recently completed. Eight Web sites were selected for in-depth analysis including GPO Access, THOMAS, House.gov, Senate.gov, CQ.com, HeinOnline, Lexis-Nexis Congressional, and Westlaw. The report specifically evaluates the availability of legislative resources on all of the databases examined, the scope of the resources on each database, the source of those resources (i.e., whether they house their own content or link to other Web sites for it), and additional legislative resources or features exclusive to comparable Web sites.

The 2008 comparison report and previous reports are available at http://fedbbs.access.gpo.gov/library/compare/ . This analysis was last conducted in 2003.




Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

Gifts for bookworms

Need a holiday gift for the legal history buff in your family? Shopping for a friend that can't get enough American law in society? You might one to check out this list-- the winners of the Littleton-Griswold prize for the best book on the history of American law in society.

The prize is administered by a joint committee of the American Historical Association and the American Society for Legal History and has been awarded every year since 1985 (and once in 1966).

For more gift ideas, take a look at the New York Times list of the 10 Best Books of 2008 and Notable Children's books of 2008.


Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

10 Weirdest Legal Cases of 2008

At this point in the exam period, a little humor and perspective about the law might help. Take a quick break with this London Times article in which Professor Gary Slapper, Director of the Centre for Law at the Open University (UK), has distilled the "ten weirdest legal cases" of the past year from his regular Friday column on amusing and strange legal disputes from around the world. Links to the original articles about these cases and others are provided.



Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

More on Study Guides

For a quick reference to study guides we have available in the library, check out our Study Guide handout . This handout is also available in print in the handout rack near the Reference desk.

Good luck on your remaining exams!!



Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

Stanford Intellectual Property Litigation Clearinghouse

The Law, Science & Technology Program at Stanford Law School recently launched the Stanford Intellectual Property Litigation Clearinghouse, an online database that offers comprehensive information about intellectual property disputes within the United States.

This publicly available online research tool will enable users to review real-time data about intellectual legal disputes that have been filed nationally. According to the press release, “the first release, the Patent Litigation Module, includes over 23,000 cases filed in U.S. district courts since 2000. The database includes real-time data summaries, industry indices, and trend analysis together with a full-text search engine”.

Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

United Nations Audio/Visual Library

The United Nations Audio/Visual Library is not only an excellent collection of links and resources but the multimedia aspect provides additional depth to the collection.

From the Introduction: The Audiovisual Library is a unique, multimedia resource which provides the United Nations with the unprecedented capacity to provide high quality international law training and research materials to an unlimited number of recipients on a global level. The Audiovisual Library consists of three pillars: (1) the Historic Archives containing documents and audiovisual materials relating to the negotiation and adoption of significant legal instruments under the auspices of the United Nations and related agencies since 1945; (2) the Lecture series featuring a permanent collection of lectures on virtually every subject of international law given by leading international law scholars and practitioners from different countries and legal systems; and (3) the Research Library providing an on-line international law library with links to treaties, jurisprudence, publications and documents, scholarly writings and research guides. The Audiovisual Library is available to all individuals and institutions around the world for free via the Internet.



Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat