Public and academic librarians may be called on to gather information regarding legal matters. Keeping up with blogs and websites intended for librarians can alleviate anxiety when answering those tough questions. Below are descriptions of a few helpful resources you might want to bookmark for future reference.
Law Librarian Blog: http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/law_librarian_blog/
Edited by , County Law Library Director (Butler County Law Library) &
Reference Librarian and Lecturer in Law (DePaul University Law Library)
This blog is edited by an extensive list of law librarians and covers a variety of topics related to current events, topics, and trends in law libraries including job openings throughout the country. Regularly updated and maintained, this blog is the place to go for librarian opinions regarding current court cases and/or decisions, well known people in the law community, and even issues in international law. With postings nearly everyday, the weekly archive located on the right hand side of the page is helpful when searching for a specific event or case that was relevant at a particular time.
LibraryLaw Blog: http://blog.librarylaw.com/librarylaw/
Edited by Mary Minow, J.D., A.M.L.S. & Peter Hirtle, M.A., M.L.S.
Updated semi-regularly, checking this blog approximately once a month should be enough. While they are infrequent, the posts are well-written and deal with hot button issues like pornography, loaning ebook readers, copyright, and occasional book reviews. Articles are contributed by lawyers and librarians and comments from readers keep the conversation relevant and interesting. The format of the blog is very basic with a list of categories, a word cloud containing keywords, and an archive by the posting date. This blog is great if you don't have time to check a blog daily and can help keep you in the loop on important topics.
SCOTUSblog: http://www.scotusblog.com/
Sponsored by the private, law research firm, Bloomberg Law.
More of a website than a blog, this is written by a variety of reporters and law students, and is presented in an excellent format with quality searching tools. While the authors are varied, biographies of each one are listed giving their credentials for contributing to the blog. One excellent feature on the website is a tab called Plain English that essentially "translates" what happened that week. If you don't have time to hassle with the legalese, check Plain English for the simplest explanation. Along the right hand side are several features like the court calendar, recently decided cases, community discussions on the cases, and a very brief explanation of what happened in court that week. For the most current information on Supreme Court cases, this website is the place to go!
More of a website than a blog, this is written by a variety of reporters and law students, and is presented in an excellent format with quality searching tools. While the authors are varied, biographies of each one are listed giving their credentials for contributing to the blog. One excellent feature on the website is a tab called Plain English that essentially "translates" what happened that week. If you don't have time to hassle with the legalese, check Plain English for the simplest explanation. Along the right hand side are several features like the court calendar, recently decided cases, community discussions on the cases, and a very brief explanation of what happened in court that week. For the most current information on Supreme Court cases, this website is the place to go!
The Avalon Project: http://avalon.law.yale.edu/default.asp
Created by Yale Law School's Lillian Goldman Law Library
This is a fascinating website related to law, history, and diplomacy including ancient and medieval documents up through the 21st century. Intended to digitize historical legal documents across a range of topics, this website offers everything from the Twelve Tables (450 B.C.) to the Magna Carta (1215) to the Agreement Rescue of Astronauts left in space (1968), the content is thorough and compelling. The website itself is very basic with a single keyword search tool, but the content is unparalleled in its diversity and coverage. Complex documents contain definitions of outdated words as well as index of phrases within the document.This page might be particularly helpful for reference questions regarding ancient documents or people interested in how laws have changed over time. No opinions or explanations are written regarding any of the material; it is quite simply a unique gathering of legal documents throughout history.
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