Presidents past

With so much talk about who will be our next President, I found it useful to look at presidents in the past. You can now see the presidential papers and much more at the U.S. Presidential Library available on HeinOnline.



Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

FRASER

With the Federal Reserve Bank frequently in the news of late, FRASER might be of interest to readers of this blog.

FRASER--The Federal Reserve Archival System for Economic Research--is a project by the Research Division of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis to expand its mission to provide economic information and data to researchers who are interested in the United States’ economy. Here, you will find links to scanned images of historical economic statistical publications, releases, and other documents, including recent economic indicators.

Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crimes

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crimes (UNODC) is an agency of the United Nations established to assist Member States with issues concerning illicit drugs and international crime. UNODC’s online legislation legal library provides full text of drug control laws and regulations adopted by countries in support of international drug control treaties. It includes legislation adopted since 1948.



Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

Predicting Sucess at Big Law

While GPA and school rank are important, a recent study concludes they are not the best predictors of success at large law firms. The study conducted by consultants from Kerma Partners and Redwood reviewed 1,300 associates at a top 25 law firm in order to identify attributes of the "outstanding" performers. It is a proprietary study so not all of the attributes are released but it is still interesting reading. The ABA provides remarks on the study.

Hat tip to Law Librarian blog.



Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

Arts and Letters Daily

I've always been an erudite feline and I do like to read up on literature, history, art and philosophy. But, as you can imagine, the life of a law library virtual cat can get hectic! That is why I read Arts and Letters Daily. Created by the Chronicle of Higher Education, Arts and Letters Daily finds and links to interesting articles, book reviews and essays on the internet. It is updated daily and summaries of the articles are displayed at the top of each page--this makes it easy to scan and decide what I'm interested in reading without having to click into each article.

Recently, Arts and Letters Daily has linked to: a review of Paul Theroux's latest book from The New Statesman; an article on the "newspaper of the future" from the American Journalism Review; and an article from Slate about Emily Dickinson's secret lover. Happy reading!


Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

CiteGenie

CiteGenie is a Firefox add-on that creates real Bluebook pinpoint citations from material you highlight in Westlaw. Normally, these kinds of features and applications aren't reliable, but CiteGenie received a good review here, so it may actually be worth trying.

(Of course, it should go without saying that if you never learn how to create citations, that will eventually be a problem for you.)


Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

Adoption History Project

For those studying or researching family law issues, the Adoption History Project web site, created by University of Oregon history professor Ellen Herman, is a unique window into American adoption history and a wide range of issues and controversies that have defined the field. Along with a timeline, a bibliography, and a document archives describing and excerpting landmark studies and reports, the site offers and excellent "topics" page with overviews and citations to full-text primary documents on each topic. This is a great place to start exploring adoption law topics in social and historical perspective.



Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

Tax plan calculator

Joe the plumber may want to check Newsday's Tax Calculator which calculates for different income levels what the change in taxes would be under the competing tax plans of Senators Obama and McCain. According to Newsday's reports on Joe's income, he might be surprised.

Check the calculator to see how you would do. I did.


Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

Fact-Checking The Third Presidential Debate

Like the first two presidential debates, the third debate generated controversial and factually debatable claims from both candidates. Here are a couple of examples.

Barack Obama claimed that all of John McCain's campaign advertisements have been negative:

"And 100 percent, John, of your ads – 100 percent of them have been negative."

According to Factcheck.org, however, this was almost, but not quite, true for a period of only one week, and it is not true for the remainder of the campaign.

John McCain stated that " "We have to stop sending $700 billion a year to countries that don't like us very much", a reference to U.S. spending on oil imports.

According to an Associated Press news story, however, "the United States spent $246 billion in 2007 for all imported crude oil, a majority of it coming from friendly nations including neighboring Canada and Mexico. [...] A majority of the refined products come from refineries in such friendly countries as the Netherlands, Canada, the United Kingdom, Trinidad-Tobago and the Virgin Islands".

For other perspectives on the factual accuracy of statements made by both presidential candidates during the debates, see such sites as The Fact-Checker and PolitiFact.com.



Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

Kluwer Law Journal Library

Kluwer Law Journal Library is now available on HeinOnline. The Library provides access to:

· Business Law Review
· Common Market Law Review
· European Business Law Review
· European Foreign Affairs Review
· European Public Law
· European Review of Private Law
· International Journal of Comparative
. Labour Law & Industrial Relations
· Journal of International Arbitration
· Journal of World Trade
· Legal Issues of Economic Integration
· World Competition
· European Environmental Law Review

For more information about these publications click here.



Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat