Women's History CyberMuseum

Women's History Month is a great time to become familiar with the CyberMuseum of the National Women's History Museum (NWHM). The Museum, a nonprofit and nonpartisan institution "dedicated to preserving, interpreting, and celebrating the diverse historic contributions" of American women, created the CyberMuseum as a platform for its collection of online exhibits while awaiting a permanent home in Washington, D.C., a milestone that will require Congressional legislation. The CyberExhibits here feature history and resources for key topics in women's history and rights, including voting, reform movements and pioneering women legislators.


Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

Afraid about that first research assignment at your new job?

Whether you will be a summer associate/intern or starting your career, you want to hit the ground running. So, if you are concerned about that first research assignment, we can help.

Next week, the Library kicks off our Top 10 Things You Should Know series. We start with our feature panel of law firm librarians who will discuss and answer your questions about Cost Efficient Research and Law Practice survival tips. This will take place next Wednesday, March 11 at 11:10am - 12:30 (or as long as you can stay) in Room 206.

It will also be podcast for those who cannot make it. No need to sign up.

The series will continue during the week of March 16 with the following workshops:

1. "Civics 101: What Every New Lawyer Should Know, But Doesn't"
2. "Where do I start? Getting Background with Secondary Sources."
3. "Location, Location, Location: Where to find Cases, Statutes and Regulations"
4. "Putting it all Together"

I am the PR department, so any suggestions you may have on how to publicize these would be VERY welcome!!!



Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

Pew Research Center for the People & the Press

You have seen citations on this very blog to various studies in which the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press has been involved. Perhaps it would be of interest to introduce more fully the Pew Center, itself.

According to its Web site,"the Pew Research Center is an independent, non-partisan public opinion research organization that studies attitudes toward politics, the press and public policy issues. The Center conducts regular monthly polls on politics and major policy issues as well as the News Interest Index, a weekly survey aimed at gauging the public's interest in and reaction to major news events. Shorter commentaries are produced on a regular basis addressing the issues of the day from a public opinion perspective. In addition, the Center periodically fields major surveys on the news media, social issues and international affairs".



Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

The President's Budget Proposal

Some describe President Barack Obama's 3.6 trillion dollar budget as a "historic investment in critical economic priorities," while others take issue with a variety of its tax provisions. You decide. Click here to view the plan.



Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

Department of Justice Releases Nine Office of Legal Counsel Memoranda and Opinions

From the press release: The Department of Justice released two previously undisclosed Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) memoranda and seven previously undisclosed opinions.

The two memoranda memorialized that certain legal propositions in ten OLC opinions issued between 2001 and 2003 no longer reflected the views of OLC and "should not be treated as authoritative for any purpose." They further explained that some of the underlying opinions had been withdrawn or superseded and that "caution should be exercised" by the executive branch "before relying in other respects" on the other opinions that had not been superseded or withdrawn.

In light of the legitimate and substantial public interest in many of the questions raised in those opinions and in the evolution of OLC’s views on those questions, the Department has released the six of those underlying opinions from 2001-2003 that are not classified and that had not previously been disclosed.

The opinions and memoranda are available here.

Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

USA.gov 2.0

USA.gov has made this handy on-stop shopping site to help you find and subscribe to federal government RSS feeds, tweets, podcasts, and videos.



Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

Financial Services Fact Book

Reputable, essential, unique--Financial Services Fact Book 2009 is an online book for the times. With the current economic downturn, the "financial services industry," an umbrella term that includes banking, mortgages, insurance, securities, consumer finance, and related services, is at center stage. Financial Services Fact Book 2009, jointly produced by the Insurance Information Institute (III) and the Financial Services Roundtable (FSR), provides recent commentary along with comparative statistics and attractive graphs and charts covering all categories of the financial services industry for the period 2003-2007. This is a user friendly resource for reliable background and data about an important law-related sector of the economy. Bookmark the web page, or link from LEXICAT, the library catalog.



Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

Coming in March . . .

With February coming to a close, watch this space and your email for the Top 10 workshops from the Library. These workshops are designed to help you brush up your research skills as you head out for your summer or permanent job.

Our first workshop - on Wednesday, March 11 - will feature two law firm librarians who will lead a discussion and answer your questions on cost efficient research and offer some law firm survival tips.



Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

Catalog Of U.S. Government Publications

The Catalog of U.S. Government Publications is a finding tool for federal publications. It includes descriptive records for historical and current publications, and provides direct links to those that are available online. Users may search by authoring agency, title, and subject, as well as by general keyword. There is also an advanced search option.



Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

Searching the Deep Web

The phenomenon of the "invisible Web" or "deep Web" is not new, yet information remains hidden from search engine crawlers. Alex Wright discusses recent attempts to capture this data in Exploring a 'Deep Web' That Google Can't Grasp.




Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat