Hello fair readers!

Yes, it is Friday night. I know. But I have to work all day tomorrow. So what am I doing with my time?

That’s right. Go ahead. Laugh.

But seriously, I have discovered, with a wee bit of help from friends and blogs, two uber cool and free legal research tools.

That’s right. FREE. A word that doesn’t commonly come joined with the words “legal” and “research” very often.

That’s because of these two culprits

for the most part. And not that those publishers are by any means evil…at least…I don’t think so. They just charge oodles of cash for access to legal information.

So, as you can see, I was pretty psyched when I found out about these free websites that are actually quite progressive and efficient.

The first, and probably my favourite of the two, is PreCYdent Search Engine.

So. Freaking. Cool.

You can search for opinions and statutes, and then you can rate them, tag them, create PreCYdent widgets, put a PreCYdent facebook application on your facebook page….and lots of super cool 2.0-ish tools that are usually just not connected with legal resources.

The second, also free and cool, resource is The Public Library of Law.

This has LOADS of great, easy to locate info. Case law, statues, regulations, court rules, and omg even legal forms. I’m about to pass out….seriously.

I highly recommend librarians, particularly in public libraries, check out these amazing resources. The will be great tools for members of the public to start off their legal research. They are easily searched and don’t have hidden fees…at least not that I have encountered. It’s refreshing to see the legal research world opening up to 2.0 concepts.

I have said this before, but I will always say it again…three cheers for progress!

Have a lovely weekend everyone.

Hello fair readers!

Today I stumbled upon a very cool thing while drinking my morning coffee and avoiding thinking about my demolished vehicle….

that’s right…broken beyond repair. But I digress….

The cool thing involves some geeky science people, very unlike the very large SUV that slammed into the side of my tiny, gas efficient vehicle. No, it involves a renowned school and some Science Professors at MIT.

and it also involves this article:

At 71, Physics Professor Is a Web Star

So this morning while I was drinking my morning coffee, I was doing the usual. Reading headlines from the New York Times Online and up pops the previously mentioned headline. Right away it caught my interest since I’ve always had a secret envy of people with Science backgrounds. Instead I choose the mighty path of a Lit major….mighty. That’s right.

Anyways, this article lead me straight to MIT’s new(ish) project of OpenCourseWare. This prostegious instituion is now offering course materials online, for free, including videos of lecturers and lecture notes. Not only could I have really used this in Undergrad (come on WMU! Catch up!) but how cool is this for the general public?

That’s right. It’s almost as cool as this picture of the Penny Arcade boys battling robots….which is just really really cool. But also means that in this really geeky, I-wish-I-had-taken-more-science-classes kind of way, it’s ridiculously awesome.

So check out OpenCourseWare, bringing high education to masses. And those of us who were too busy with musical theater in highschool to give AP Physics too much thought.

Sigh. Those were the days.

Have a lovely Wednesday fair readers. And watch out for speeding Jeeps. They just might ruin your car.

Hello fair readers!

Today I stumbled upon a library-centric article that is most interesting. Instead of reposting this lengthy piece here….let me summarize for you.

So the headline is as follows:

Libraries Shun Deals to Place Books on Web

And there is a nice little picture of people scanning books….

So the article goes on to say that several major libraries have refused to digitize their books with either Google or Microsoft. Instead they are turning to a non profit open access organization for digitization called Open Content Alliance. The major issues at stake for libraries like Boston Public Library and the Smithsonian are the restrictions placed by Google and Microsoft. If you have your collection scanned with either of these major organizations then you can only view the books through the corresponding search engines and databases. In contrast the non-profit will make the items viewable through all search venues.

So here’s a couple things about this article that made me stop and think “hmm”. First, if you digitize through Google or Microsoft, yes they have some definite restrictions. But they are also free. Yes that’s right. Free. Google, for example, actually pays to have the books scanned for you and then they don’t even profit off of the books. That seems to be morally acceptable to me.

In contrast the nonprofit charges around $30 a book.

Ouch.

For large libraries with literally millions of books in their collection, that could be a steep price to pay for open access.

And yet, the following quote is an important critical observation.

“Even though Google’s program could make millions of books available to hundreds of millions of Internet users for the first time, some libraries and researchers worry that if any one company comes to dominate the digital conversion of these works, it could exploit that dominance for commercial gain.”

Still look at the wording. “Make millions of books available to hundreds of millions of Internet users” Hundreds of millions.

Statements like that make think about what exactly we librarians are sacrificing to push forward the open access movement. Because if we are reaching less people and instead making our collections less accessible to users, isn’t that opposite to our mission and ethics?

Honestly I do not have the answer to these questions. But it certainly makes me wonder, is open access worth it? Or are librarians clinging to yet another dying tech movement that will move us backwards instead of forwards.

I would love to hear my peers opinions. And have a lovely Autumn-y Monday.