USA.gov 2.0 Tools

The Resource Shelf, a daily newsletter of interest to information professionals, educators and journalists, recently posted an entry about US Government 2.0 tools on yhe site at USA.gov which lists the following USA.gov 2.0 Tools:

• Gov Gab Blog – Gov Gab's six bloggers share tips and information from the federal government to help you make life a little simpler.
• Government News – Get the latest RSS feeds from across the federal government.
• Reference and General Government Gadgets – Breaking government news, GovGab blog...
• RSS Feeds from USA.gov and the Federal Citizen Information Center – Subscribe to RSS feeds from USA.gov and the Federal Citizen Information Center.
• USA.gov E-mail Subscriptions – Receive an e-mail notification any time one of your favorite USA.gov pages is updated.
• USA.gov on Twitter – Follow us on Twitter to stay up to date on the latest official government news and information.
• USA.gov Tutorials – Get help finding government information and services online.
• USA.gov Word Cloud – See the 75 most popular words on USA.gov.
• Videos from USA.gov – Watch videos from USA.gov with our accessible video player.
• Web Chat – Live personal assistance now available weekdays from 8:00 AM until 8:00 PM Eastern Time

Also listed are Government-Wide 2.0 Tools:

• Blogs from the U.S. Government – Read blogs from various U.S. government sources.
• Government Gadget Gallery – Explore gadgets from across the government.
• Government Photos and Images – A large collection of photos and images made available by the U.S. government
• Government RSS Library – Library of RSS feeds from across the government
• Podcasts from the U.S. Government – Listen to podcasts from across the government.
• State Photo and Multimedia Galleries – Find photos from the U.S. states.
• Videos from the U.S. Government – Links to public domain videos that may be used and reproduced without permission or fee
• Virtual Tours from the U.S. Government – View virtual tours created by federal government agencies.
  

Jefferson vs. the Patent Trolls

Just in time to celebrate the 266th anniversary of the birth of Thomas Jefferson on April 13, 1743 in Albemarle County in the Virginia Colony, the BLS Library has added to its collection Jefferson vs. the Patent Trolls: a Populist Vision of Intellectual Property Rights by Jeffrey H. Matsuura (Call # KF2979 .M34 2008). This small, aesthetically pleasing 154 page volume published by the University of Virginia Press deals with a subject matter that is very important today: intellectual property, a hot topic in today’s world that Jefferson thought of 200 years ago.

The book examines Jefferson’s perspective on the topic from the perspective of a practitioner, a world class scientist and inventor and the first Commissioner of Patents in his capacity as the nation’s first Secretary of State. Jefferson, who is best known as one of the Founding Fathers and the third President of the early republic, was active as an inventor who tinkered with the latest technical advances of his day, improving on the creations of other inventors. Jefferson s philosophy regarding intellectual property placed an emphasis on the practical benefits for people most in need. He favored encouraging widespread participation in the knowledge networks of his time.

His inquisitive nature and focus on practical applications made him an active mechanical tinkerer. He worked on improving agricultural devices like the plow. He also developed labor-saving devices like the polygraph, a device that enabled a writer to make multiple copies of a document at the same time. Jefferson was curious about a wide range of innovative devices. One of the most interesting is the wheel cipher, a cryptographic device for encrypting and decrypting messages for use in official US government communications. Like so many of Jefferson’s devices, the wheel cipher was a refinement on the work of several previous inventors. Jefferson never pursued commercial development of this device demonstrating his general lack of interest in commercialization of his inventive efforts.

Laptops in the Classroom

The debate about the use of laptops in class by students has been going on for some time now. Earlier this year, the National Law Journal had an article Survey Favors Clickety-Clack of Laptops in Class reporting on a national study from Indiana University that found that law school students who used their laptops in class were highly engaged in classroom activities. Despite this, many law professors remain skeptical about the benefits of laptops in the classroom. Last month, the Chronicle of Higher Education posted an article Students Stop Surfing After Being Shown How In-Class Laptop Use Lowers Test Scores. So the debate goes on without any clear resolution.

Putting aside who is right and who is wrong in this debate, CALI has now posted a video describing two online tools (CALI Instapoll and Google Moderator) that instructors can use to help engage those in the classroom that are using laptops.

The video runs about 26 minutes and has some useful suggestions for intructors.

Library of Congress on YouTube

The Library of Congress Blog reports in today’s post, YouTube, and Now We Do Too that the Library of Congress has been working for several months on a project to post some of its collection of audiovisual materials (some 6 million films, broadcasts and sound recordings) on its own YouTube channel. The now public project has begun with 74 videos arranged in a series of playlists that are accessible on LC’s YouTube Channel.

This is just the beginning of a project where LC will keep uploading additional content. Besides posting on YouTube, LC will make all of the videos available at LOC.gov and on the American Memory Motion Picture & Television Reading Room.

As an example of one of the videos posted on YouTube, the LC Blog featured a 37 second video entitled Boxing Cats which was filmed around July 1894, in Edison's Black Maria studio. It may not help with legal research but it is something completely different.

GPO YouTube Channel

As part of its education program, the US Government Printing Office (GPO) now uses YouTube to further its mission of Keeping America Informed on the three branches of the Federal Government. For nearly 200 years, GPO has worked with libraries throughout the country to provide free, open and permanent access to the documents of our democracy through the Federal Depository Library Program. The public can visit any of the 1,250 Federal depository libraries throughout the country and access information on virtually any topic.

This five minute video “U.S. Government Printing Office: Working with Libraries” is one that GPO has posted on YouTube along with ten others. See the full list at GPO Printer's Videos.

LibGuides at BLS and Beyond

The Law Librarian Blog reports that UCLA has just released a new Beyond LexisNexis & Westlaw guide which describes a wide range of online legal research resources and covers primary law, government resources, research guides, reference sources, forms, and legal news. The LibGuides platform is so well organized and helpful that the BLS Library has implemented LibGuides to feature research by our librarians. Among the most popular of the BLS guides are:

• Treaty Research Guide by Jean Davis
• Administrative Law Research by Jean Davis
• Researching Statutes by Kathleen Darvil
• New York Civil Practice: Selected Resources by Kathleen Darvil
• New Jersey Legal Resources by Harold O'Grady
• Restatements of the Law: A How to Guide by Kathleen Darvil
• Guide to Pro Bono Projects by Jean Davis
• Resources for Teaching Law School Seminars by Jean Davis
  

Episode 040 - Conversation with Professor of Law Ben Trachtenberg

Episode 040 - Conversation with Professor of Law Ben Trachtenberg.mp3

This podcast is of a conversation with Professor Ben Trachtenberg, Visiting Assistant Professor of Law at BLS for the current academic year. The conversation is about his recent article, The Exception Swallowing the Hearsay Rule: Coconspirators, 'Coventurers', and the Confrontation Clause where he discusses his research into the history of the hearsay rule and the exception for statements of co-conspirators. In the article, Professor Trachtenberg argues against a revisionist view of the exception by some prosecutors who disclaim the need to show any wrongful goal whatsoever and argue that when proving the existence of a "conspiracy" to justify admission of evidence under the exception, they need show only that the declarant and the defendant were "coventurers" with a common purpose, not an illegal purpose. This Article contends that such a reading of the Exception is mistaken and undesirable.

In the fall, Prof. Trachtenberg taught Criminal Law and is teaching Environmental Law this spring. He joins BLS from Covington & Burling LLP, where he was a litigation associate. Prior to that, he clerked at the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit with the Hon. Jose A. Cabranes. He served as an articles editor of the Columbia Law Review and is the author of "State Sentencing Policy and New Prison Admissions," 38 U. Mich. J.L. Reform 479 (2005).