Law X.0

Fordham IPLJ Launches News Blog

The Fordham Intellectual Property, Media & Entertainment Law Journal (IPLJ) launched a web blog featuring short articles from IPLJ staff members written on topical IP, media, and entertainment law issues. Check it out. [JH]

Thanks to YouTube, Professors Are Finding New Audiences

Interesting article from the Chronicle: "Professors are the new YouTube stars: Video-sharing Web sites take scholars and their ideas out from behind ivy-covered walls and into the media mainstream."  [RJ]

2007 Gold Mouse Report: Lessons from the Best Web Sites on Capitol Hill

From the press release:

"A new report from the Congressional Management Foundation (CMF) on congressional Web sites says the overall quality “continues to be disappointing,” with more than 40% of congressional Web sites earning a substandard or failing grade. The report also contains recognition and praise for the best Web sites on Capitol Hill with the announcement of the winners of the 2007 Gold, Silver, and Bronze Mouse Awards. 

"The good news is that 19 more offices won awards in 2007 than did in 2006, including 16 freshmen Members.  The bad news is that there were 20 more D's and F's," said Beverly Bell, Executive Director of CMF, a non-profit, non-partisan organization founded 30 years ago to promote a more effective Congress.  "We were glad to see good sites getting better, but discouraged to see the bad getting worse."

Funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation, The 2007 Gold Mouse Report: Lessons from the Best Web Sites on Capitol Hill evaluated 618 congressional Web sites, including those of all Senate and House Members and Delegates, committees (both majority and minority sites) and official leadership sites.  Providing invaluable assistance for the 2007 report were research partners from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, the University of California-Riverside, and Ohio State University."

[RJ]

Law Prof as Toolmaker

A Law Librarian Blog interview with PreCYdent's Thomas A. Smith (San Diego) on the development and status of this new legal research search engine was published today. Smith is asking for feedback on PreCYdent. [JH]

Is the Google Generation a Myth?

Yes, according to Information Behaviour of the Researcher of the Future (pdf), a new report commissioned by JISC and the British Library.

From the press release:

[The report] counters the common assumption that the ‘Google Generation’ – young people born or brought up in the Internet age – is the most adept at using the web. The report by the CIBER research team at University College London claims that, although young people demonstrate an ease and familiarity with computers, they rely on the most basic search tools and do not possess the critical and analytical skills to asses the information that they find on the web. The report Information Behaviour of the Researcher of the Future also shows that research-behaviour traits that are commonly associated with younger users – impatience in search and navigation, and zero tolerance for any delay in satisfying their information needs – are now the norm for all age-groups, from younger pupils and undergraduates through to professors.

{Emphasis added]

[JH]

Should You Be Using DSpace?

DSpace is a centralized, electronic repository for the massive amounts of intellectual property created by research institutions. It can be used for a variety of digital archiving needs -- from institutional repositories to learning object repositories or electronic records management, and more.

Law schools tend to look to SSRN and bePress for their digial archiving needs but both are limited to scholarly text-based works in ADA non-complaint PDF formats and both leave much to be desired in metadata practices. DSpace can be used for all digital formats and may be either a viable alternative to SSRN and beSpace or an opportunity to create a more comprehensive institutional repository.

The DSpace engine is an open-source storage and retrieval system that individual repositories can customize and extend. Before attempting to reinvent the wheel, DSpace is worth checking out. It's well beyond the early adapter stage.

DSpace Home | FAQ | Project Wiki | The DSpace Architecture (pdf)

Jointly developed by HP and the MIT Libraries beginning in 2002, the DSpace project is now supported by the aptly named DSpace Foundation. According to DSpace, there are currently 261 DSpace instances registered on ROAR (Registry of Open Access Repositories). That's 26% of the 968 repositories registered on ROAR. See Who's Using DSpace. [JH]