New Frontiers for Google Maps

Have you tried the latest new advances with Google Maps? In the U.S., Canada, and U.K. and Japan, Google Local and Maps have now been integrated into a service known as Google Local. If you have a saved location in Google Local, you will see a map of that place when you begin a search, and will be able to use the satellite view and the hybrid map/satellite photo of the location when viewing local search results. Making online geographical information even more powerful is another brand new service called Placeopedia. Placeopedia will provide a link from a Google map of a place directly to its entry in Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia edited by volunteers. While using this innovative combination of text and map information, there are two limitations to keep in mind--not all place name entries in Wikipedia have been included at this early stage; and zooming in to the street level of a place, or anything beyond a wide geographical area, depends on whether the Google map provides such detail. More information about Placeopedia can be found in an article by Chris Sherman, "Mapping Places in Wikipedia" (Search Engine Watch, October 13, 2005).

Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

On Electrical Outlets and Arks

Since my last prowl, progress has been made on activating the new outlets. The outlets around the perimeter of the Reading Room (the talking area where the Reference Librarians answer your questions) are now active. The only outlets not yet active are taped and should be active soon.

After all this rain, I for one am ready to find a virtual library cat partner and head for an Ark. Unfortunately, this deluge has caused some leaks within the Library. If you see any leaks with no bins to catch the water, please let someone at the front desk of the Library know ASAP!! Thanks.

Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

Miers-Bush Correspondence

For those who are as curious as this cat to find all information relating to our newest Supreme Court nominee, even much more informal correspondence, here is a link to The Smoking Gun. You will find copies of personal correspondence exchanged between then-Governor Bush and Harriet Miers from 1995-2000. The Bush-Miers letters were among more than 2,000 pages of documents released this week by the Texas State Library and Archives Commission.

Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

Electrical Outlets

The University has finished installing electrical outlets on the main floor of the library. We hope these make it easier to use your laptops.

HOWEVER, the outlets located around the outside of the Reading Room, while installed, are not working yet. We have been told that they will be taped up (so it's obvious they aren't yet working) soon as to avoid confusion. Of course, the Plant department will be hooking them up as soon as possible anyway.


Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

Washington Post's Mensa Invitational

I saw this on a blog and think it is humorous. We don't have to be serious all the time :-)

The Washington Post's ‘Mensa Invitational' once again asked readers to take any word from the dictionary - alter it by adding, subtracting, or changing one letter - and supply a new definition.

An example: Inoculatte: To take coffee intravenously when you are running late. Or,

Decafalon (n.): The grueling event of getting through the day consuming only things that are good for you.

FYI, this is a fictional contest, but google the title and you will see that the list is clearly being spread thru the Internet.

Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

Law Related Blogs

There has been "an explosion of online blogs by, for and about lawyers", according to Jonathan D. Glater in his New York Times article of 10/7/05 titled Open Arguments, Endlessly. Many lawyers, law professors and law students are authoring their own blogs. Scott Turow, the author of One L and many legal novels, offers his insights into the reasons for this and also says that "One L' today would be a blog".

Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

DocuTicker

DocuTicker bills itself as "a daily update of news reports from government agencies, ngo's, think tanks, and other groups." In other words, this resource reports on the plethora of reports produced by various government and government interested groups. This is a great place for research or to just check out what your tax dollars are being used to study. Subscribing to the RSS feed is an easy way to scan report titles for items of interest.

Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

Miers...She Wrote

As a law student, Supreme Court Justice nominee Harriet Miers wrote a casenote for her school’s law journal, for which she was Comments Editor. You can link to it (under Journal Articles: Other Articles) from Southern Methodist University Law Library's helpful list of her articles, court briefs, and other writings. WESTLAW provides access to the full-text of Meirs’ appellate briefs and court documents, as well as case decisions from her legal career and a professional profile, with one search. Select the “Profiler” database (PROFILER-WLD) from the Welcome screen, and do a “First and Last Name” template search. Click on the “1” next to the resulting document.

Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

Supreme Happenings

The U.S. Supreme Court has been front page news. To stay absolutely current on happenings in the Supreme Court, while you are at the Law School, check out Supreme Court Today . You can, for example, find out the questions presented in the assisted-suicide case argued two days ago. This is part of BNA's U.S. Law Week, which is a useful resource not only for what is going on in all of the federal courts (and some hot topics in the state courts), but a great way to come up with an interesting paper topic.

To access U.S. Law Week, you can also click on the link from the Law Library's Research Databases page. You have to be at the Law School to access any of these databases.


Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

From the Suggestion Box

Suggestion 1 : Please get staplers for the computer lab.

Reply 1 : Based on past history, we've found that the distance between library staff and the staplers is directly correlated to the amount of damage to or disappearance of the staplers. However, since we had received multiple requests for these last year, we did try to reintroduce the stapler to the lab environment. Consistent with history, those staplers were quickly damaged or taken. Since this experiment was conducted relatively recently, at this point, the library staplers will remain at the circulation desk.

Suggestion 2 : Please tell me the new chairs are being donated and not just thrown away.

Reply 2 : We're trying!! But it's more difficult to give away chairs than you would think. Over the last week, we've contacted the Salvation Army, Goodwill, St. Martha's Charities, the Hempstead School District, and several other charities. Currently, we still have a few outstanding offers out there, but ultimately, our donating the chairs depends on finding a willing recipient. If you have any ideas, feel free to let us know!

Suggestion 3 : We would really prefer rolling chairs in the lab.

Reply 3: Never fear! We actually will be rearranging some chairs in the library early next week, so that rolling ones will be up in the lab (and stationary ones will be placed in study rooms).

Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat