Your Money

Congrats to those who have just finished the Bar Exam

Unless you are independently wealthy, whether you look forward to earning your first post Law School paycheck or are returning to Law School to finish your degree, you will need to learn how to manage your finances.  

One great source of information  is the Your Money section of the N.Y. Times.  You will find links to information on student and auto loans, as well as articles on topics ranging from financial planning for those of us not independently wealthy, online contracts we all agree to without reading and, one of my favorites - the Haggler - a columnist with a sense of humor who helps aggrieved consumers.


Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

Unusual U.S. Government Publications, Part Nine: Archaeology With Coffee Cans

From the Hills Bros. Coffee Can Chronology Field Guide, published by U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management (Fairbanks, Alaska):

“Archaeologists use various relative and absolute dating techniques to refine the chronology of the sites they research. One artifact that is especially helpful on many 20th century western United States historic sites is the Hills Bros. coffee can. Hills Bros., established in San Francisco, California in 1878, produced the first vacuum-packed coffee available on the market. Through time, the lithographic images and information on Hills Bros. cans changed in subtle yet distinctive ways, which were first discussed and illustrated in T. Carroll Wilson’s A Background Story of Hills Bros. Coffee (1967). This field guide further refines the chronological attributes identified in these cans’ lithographic panels. We decided the easiest way to provide this data [sic] was to produce images of the entire lithography of each unique can type produced between 1900 and 1963. This time period spans from the first year that a Hills Bros. coffee tin can was produced to an arbitrarily selected end date associated with numerous technological changes in the cans’ manufacture.”

Read more here (opens PDF) about this novel archaeological technique.

This is the last post in our Summer series on unusual U.S. Government publications. We hope that you have enjoyed the series.

Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

Deep Web 2013

"The Deep Web covers somewhere in the vicinity of 1 trillion plus pages of information located through the world wide web in various files and formats that the current search engines on the Internet either cannot find or have difficulty accessing. The current search engines find hundreds of billions of pages at the present time of this writing." Click here to read more by Marcus P. Zillman.

Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

Good Luck on the Bar Exam!

This is the week for state bar exams.  You have studied and worked hard to reach this point and are as prepared as you can be.  Now take a deep breathe and release it slowly.  Do this again.  We are keeping you in our thoughts and wish you the best.

After the exam, we hope you take some time off to relax and unwind.

Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

Research Resources: Computer Technology Law Report (BNA)

If you are interested in a semi-monthly publication that provides legal developments in liability and insurance coverage issues relating to computers, try the Computer Technology Law Report. The report also offers coverage of computer technology issues on the federal, state and international levels.  Dates of coverage are from May 5, 2000 to the present.
To access the Computer Technology Law Report (BNA):

• Go to the Library's home page, click "Online Resources"
• Then, click "Intellectual Property" link
• Scroll down, click the " Computer Technology Law Report(BNA)" link

Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

Time for a Break..

From my spot near the Reference Desk, this Virtual Library feline is witnessing the true meaning of intensity this weekend, as recent law school graduates spend their last few days preparing for the New York State bar exam.  When it's time to take a break and take your mind somewhere far, far away for a few minutes, I always recommend outer space.  Here, from the NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) Picture of the Day page, you can browse through the Astronomy Picture of the Day Archive.  Then check out the exquisite photos of the universe, like this one, in NASA's HubbleSite Gallery Picture Album.  Be inspired.

Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

Unusual U.S. Government Publications, Part Eight: Anthropometry

The U.S Department of Agriculture once housed a bureau known as the Bureau of Home Economics. Founded in 1923, the principal aim of this bureau was to aid the American housewife in managing her household.

One helpful publication was designed to improve the fit of one’s clothing. See for yourself, here, and note the quite interesting thumbnail history of human body measurement, or anthropometry.

Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

Are You Social Reading?

"The term “social reading” can mean different things depending on its context. Social reading can be the kind of work that happens in a literature class where a group of participants all read the same novel (or short story or poem or play) at roughly the same pace and work together .... It could also mean the kind of reading that happens for book groups ....“social reading” has recently also taken on a technological turn as more and more people embrace e-reading technologies: Kindles, Nooks, iPads and iPhones, ...

"Social Kindling,” [is] Amazon’s practice of sharing your highlighted passages and/or annotations with other users. ... even if you do not decide to share ... reading on a Kindle is inevitably a social experience because the default setting on most of the devices is to have “Popular Highlights” enabled. This feature is not unlike buying a used book that has been highlighted by a previous reader–the difference is that instead of a single reader, your e-book will have highlights from hundreds maybe thousands of other readers." Read more here.

Social Reading.  Try it this summer!

Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

Schumpeter Blog Talks Business

Are you interested in business, management, finance and entrepreneurship?  Or do you need to get up to speed on the global corporate picture for that summer job?  A good place for well-chosen and succinct posts covering corporate and business news and trends is Schumpeter, the business and management blog of The Economist.  Named after Joseph Schumpeter, an influential economist praised at its launch as a "champion of innovation and entrepreneurship," the Schumpeter blog offers intelligent takes on major corporate giants, on company finance, failures, and public relations, and on technology, hot products, and industry-related issues of the day.  All posts are written by Economist correspondents from around the world, providing an on-the-scene as well as a global perspective on developments.  Non-subscribers to The Economist can register to view up to six articles per week.

Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

Unusual U.S. Government Publications, Part Seven: Lasagna???

It's not what you might think, actually. Learn more here.

Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat