Cleveland Law Library Weblog

Google Scholar Adds Free Access to Federal and State Legal Opinions

Better late than never, here is our trumpet blast on the newest Google product that will allow free access to full text legal opinions from U.S. federal and state district, appellate and supreme courts using Google Scholar.  It appears that results from all 50 states are available back to 1950, and it boasts an interesting feature that shows how the case was cited. The "How cited" tab appears to try and mimic a Shepard's or Keycite report listing other cases and law reviews that mention or quote the case at issue. Typical advanced Google search techniques still work, and you can search by case name or legal topic. At inception, Google Scholar was a way to find scholarly literature, but not necessarily legal articles. That has all changed becasue Google Scholar also includes bibliographic information from about 50% of Heinonline's current journals. Click here to read Google's summary of this new product.

The U.S. Constitution is Now an iPhone/iPod Touch App

The Legal Current reports that the U.S. Constitution is now available as an iPhone/iPod Touch application created by West Publishing Company.  An article from the St. Paul Pioneer Press indicates that West has been publishing a pocket Constitution since Chief Justice Burger asked West to do it in the 1980's.  Click here to watch a YouTube video about the new app. from West's Director of New Product Development.

Cuyahoga County Courthouse Closed for Furloughs

The Cuyahoga County Courthouse will be closed longer than usual over the Labor Day holiday weekend. Due to financial problems in Cuyahoga County, most of the offices, departements, agencies and courts are participating in voluntary employee furloughs, which will close the Courthouse an extra day on Tuesday, September 8, 2009. The Law Library's Board voted to voluntarily participate in the furloughs so the Law Library will be closed starting at 5:00 p.m. today and will not re-open until Wednesday, September 9th at 8:30 a.m. We hope that you will not be inconvenienced during the long weekend, and we will be ready to help you with your legal research and reference needs next Wednesday.

Are Court Briefs Protected by Copyright Law? One Lawyer Thinks So

A California lawyer named Ed Conner claims that a brief he filed in theCalifornia Supreme Court is protected by copyright law. According to the Law Librarian Blog, the Court gave Conner's 143 page brief to LexisNexis to include in its brief database. In response, Mr. Conner wrote a lengthy letter explaining why his brief, although in the public domain, was still protected by copyright. In addition to discussing public access, court options for sending briefs to both LexisNexis and Westlaw, and royalties, the letter lays the groundwork for a possible class action lawsuit for copyright infringement. The letter makes for interesting reading.

Cleveland Law Library Awarded Grant to Create Online Tutorials

Our Library, the Cleveland Law Library, has been awarded a grant to create online tutorials for our members and site visitors. The Law Library will receive its funding from the Attorney Outreach Grant Program of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio. We plan to purchase Camtasia Studio to combine screen recording with audio narration to create a series of online instructional programs, starting with a guide to the features and functionality of our online catalog. Once we create our programs, we will post them to our website, thus making them available 24x7 for simultaneous viewing and listening.

Cleveland Law Library Will Continue to Provide Chat Reference

Thanks to the State Library of Ohio, the Cleveland Law Library will be able to continue to provide legal chat reference service to our members, CLEVNET library patrons, and public patrons in contiguous counties through a state-wide service called KnowItNow24x7. The Cleveland Law Library has been staffing KIN's law queue since 2001, when KIN started, and the State Library has provided funding for this initiative every year. On June 1, 2009, the State Library of Ohio announced that it has awarded KnowItNow24x7 continuing LSTA funding for 2009-2010 in the amount of $554,366. The State Library has indicated that KIN is the busiest statewide virtual reference service in the United States.

Black's Law Dictionary Now Available on iPhones and iPods

Thomson Reuters has just created its fist application for iPhones and iPods:  Black's Law Dictionary. If you need a definition on the go from this authoritative resource for English or Latin terms or other legal lingo, you can find over 43,000 written definitions, with about 7,000 audio pronunciations (like Webster's online), available right on your iPhone or iPod. Access of course requires a subscription to Westlaw.

Follow Us on Twitter

The Law Library now has a Twitter feed. You can follow us at clevelandlawlib and see who we are following for news and information about happenings at the law library and the local legal community.

Cleveland Law Library Blog in Top 50 Law Librarian Blogs

The Cleveland Law Library's Blog has made it onto a list of the top 50 blogs in the country for law librarians. To our credit, we are identified as a "Legal Researchg Blog," along with blogs maintained by our sister county law libraries in Cincinnati and Canton and the OSU Moritz Law Library blog. If you are not already a subscriber to our Blog, we provide an easy way to join on the right side of our screen so that you can aggregate our posts along with all of your other news.

ABA Creates Blog with Info. from ABA Books and Authors

The American Bar Association has launched a new blog called the Book Briefs Blog where the ABA will will post "excerpts, articles and interviews from ABA books and authors." The blog will also allow authors to make guest posts and provide special offers to ABA book readers. Some of the most recent posts include "Addressing Global Climate Change "and "Simplifying Legal Technology Decisions for Solos and Small Firms."