| GPO Completes Digitization of Historical Congressional Record 1873-1890 | The U.S. Government Publishing Office (GPO) partnered with the Library of Congress to complete the digitization of all historical issues of the Congressional Record; this update completes the period from 1873-1890. It is available on GPO govinfo(https://www.govinfo.gov/app/collection/crecb_gpo/_crecb). This release covers the debates and proceedings of the 43rd through the 51st Congresses and includes issues like the Battle of Little Bighorn (Custer’s Last Stand), the Sherman Anti-Trust Act, and the Morrill Land-Grant Colleges Act.
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| The State of Law Library eBooks 2017-18 Part Three: What Law Libraries are Doing | Review this blog post to understand the new hybrid model at NYLI and how utilizing aggregators and individual publisher platforms as well as subscription models and patron-driven acquisitions will create the largest and most comprehensive eBook collection of any membership law library in the US.
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| Introduction to the Legislative Process in the U.S. Congress | The report, linked by beSpacific, “introduces the main steps through which a bill (or other item of business) may travel in the legislative process—from introduction to committee and floor consideration to possible presidential consideration.” It seeks to describe not only these traditional steps, but also the various “complications and variations” that can arise during the process as well.
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| Supreme Court Opinion on Election Map | WPLLA member Joel Fishman sent a link to a .pdf of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania’s official Opinion of the gerrymandering / election map issue. The Court held “that the Congressional Redistricting Act of 2011 clearly, plainly and palpably violates the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania” and struck it down as unconstitutional. It gave the Pennsylvania General Assembly until February 9, 2018 to develop a new plan for the Governor’s consideration.
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| The Best Laptop Stands and Ergonomic Desk Accessories, According to Chiropractors and Physical Therapists
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Because “stress on the low back, shoulders, and neck and can lead to low back pain,” check out this article to find ergonomic accessories to lessen the blow! |
| The Survey of American Lawyers at Major Law Firms: View of the Law Firm Library | The study presents data from a representative sample of 225 lawyers at more than 100 major law firms. Interesting takeaways include:
“Men in the sample were slightly more likely than women to ask for help from a law librarian: 66.67% of men sampled and 61.9% of women had asked for help from law library personnel in the past year.”
“More than twice as high a percentage of associates than partners wanted to hire additional librarians for the law firm library.” “Legal research accounted for 15.65% of the overall work time of the lawyers in the sample.”
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| New 508 requirements now live | The federal government’s new Section 508 standards took effect in January 2018, requiring compliance from agencies, and any state or locality that accepts federal funding, to ensure their digital services are accessible to people with physical, sensory or cognitive disabilities. As part of the Federal Acquisition Regulation, the guidelines are aimed at helping seeing- and hearing-impaired users’ access information on government websites, apps and other digital media. The revised rules include fewer compliance exemptions for hardware and software. This means a broader range of technologies and more states and localities are likely to be affected by the requirements.
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| Search Tips by Category – Congress.gov | Click the link posted at beSpacific to review search tips provided by experts and congress.gov.
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| WPLLA member Cindy Cicco forwarded an email detailing the Thomson Reuters/CRIV Biannual Call, which occurred on 12/19/2017. The call’s description explains why Thomson Reuters changed Federal Practice & Procedure v.30B from an interim edition to a permanent bound volume.
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| BLUEBOOK ODDITIES: 10 UNLIKELY CITATIONS | Take a peek at this blog post if you need a chuckle: ten arcane formatting rules from The Bluebook!
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| The legal difference between sexual misconduct, assault, and harassment, explained | This timely article examines the new social awareness around sex and power, and attempts to define the different types of transgressions discussed in the news.
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| Discover 20,771,524 images, texts, videos, and sounds from across the US | The Digital Public Library of America dropped a new “beta” site to explore its content, and includes a focus on tools, resources, and info to better serve its users.
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| New Congress.gov Search Box, Search Form, and Streamlined Header | New enhancements for http://www.congress.gov are up and running – review the full list of improvements!
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| Updated: Legalweek New York 2018: What’s hot and what’s not | News and updates from bloggers at the 2018 Legalweek New York, including chats with vendors and law firms about what to expect in the legal world this calendar year.
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Western Pennsylvania Law Library Association 