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A nine month staffing study by the National Center for State Courts points to disparities in court staffing throughout the Commonwealth. The Staffing Model Report can be found online at http://www.mass.gov/courts/staffingmodelreport.html. The Boston Globe has more.

The Boston Globe has an article on some new tools designed to turn the web into online collaboration space. It looks at JotSpot.com. JotSpot’s new web service is designed on a wiki platform to give users space online to collaborate. One cool feature is that all changes are archived so nothing can be lost. Another platform it touches on briefly is Bubbler. Bubbler allows many users to set up a blog-style page.
Source: The Boston Globe

The SJC just released a decision that upheld a default judgment against the Boston Globe for failing to reveal confidential sources after order by the trial judge. See Robert J. Ambrogi’s account of this decision on Media Law for more.

Joe Barker has updated his Best Search Tools Chart. This chart breaks down features of some of the top search engines, such as Google, AskJeeves, and Yahoo. He also breaks down the features of other online search tools such as Librarians Index to the Internet and Infomine.

Source: beSpacific

The new and improved SCOTUSblog is now hosted at www.scotusblog.com. SCOTUS brings us news and information about the cases before the supreme court.

Westlaw has added a database 50 States Surveys (STSURVEYS) derived from Richard Leiter’s National Survey of State Laws.

The Boston Public Library currently has an exhibit called Riot and the Rule of Law: The Boston Massacre, John Adams and the Trial of 1770. Focusing on John Adams’ role in defending British troops, it contains original manuscripts, rare books, maps and political cartoons related to the Boston Massacre and Adams’ defense of British troops who were indicted and tried for murder.

Blawgs Gerais is a new directory of foreign blawgs from countries such as the U.K, Australia, Portugal, Brazil, Spain, France, Italy and more.

source: Inter Alia

The Bound Congressional Record has recently become available on GPO Access. At present, only Volume 145 (1999, first session of the 106th Congress) is available).

source: beSpacific

The never-ending advancements in technology are impacting all aspects of law librarianship and law schools from staffing, to facilities, to faculty support, as well as classroom teaching. In the upcoming symposium, “The Future of Law Libraries,” these issues will be addressed by a panel of nine professionals in the fields of information technology and law librarianship. See our website for registration information and more details about the event: http://www.fcsl.edu/events/lawlibrarysymposium

Please note that the conference hotel, the Amelia Island Plantation, currently has no vacancies. However, Amelia Island is only 13 miles long and there are several hotels within a few miles of the Plantation. See the Chamber of Commerce for more details: http://www.aifby.com or http://hotels.accessamer.com/Amelia_Island/Hotels.html for a listing of area hotels.

We are accepting conference registrations until the end of February.

Maryellen O’Brien

Reference Librarian

Florida Coastal School of Law