| Exclusive First Look: Ravel Law’s Integration with Lexis Advance | Ravel’s data visualization technology and data analytics are on track to be fully integrated into Lexis Advance and other Lexis products by the first quarter of 2018.
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| Executive Orders Disposition Tables Index | Via a beSpacific link, executive orders issued since 1994 are available as a single bulk download and as a bulk download by President. Users can also browse by President and year.
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| Lexis Re-imagines the Shepard’s Citator with Ravel Analytics: Adds 500,000 New Cases, 6 Million Images | Review this blog post for a list of the ways Lexis is integrating Ravel Law into its platform, including enhanced Shepards citations, simplified search visualizations, and case law images from “Free the Law” archives (stemming from a 2015 collaboration between Harvard Law School and Ravel Law). Additional analytic tools will be integrated throughout 2018.
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| Supreme Court Won’t Let Pennsylvania GOP Delay Drawing New Congressional Map | After the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that the state’s congressional map gave Republicans a political advantage such that it violated the state’s constitution, Republicans appealed the state court’s ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court. Its argument rested on the theory that the U.S. Constitution only granted legislatures, not state courts, the power to draw congressional districts. The appeal went before Justice Samuel Alito, who oversees the 3rd Circuit; Alito denied the request on Monday, February 5, without referring it to the whole court.
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| The Best Ergonomic Keyboards and Mouses to Prevent Wrist Pain | Cut carpal tunnel syndrome off at the pass by integrating these ergonomic computer accessories into your work station!
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| Need some free images for your academic work / poster / presentation / website? Look no further | A librarian from the University of York compiled the best sites for high quality, free public domain images.
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| Recommended Web Resources: Freely Available Digital Collections Of Presidential Documents | Links provided in this article list freely available digital collections of presidential documents.
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| A Librarian By Any Other Name… | In a 3 Geeks and a Law Blog post forwarded by email from WPLLA member Joel Fishman, the author muses about the change in the official titles of law librarians. See this link for more.
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| CRS – Resolutions to Censure the President: Procedure and History | This beSpacific link takes you to a CRS post discussing resolutions to censure the President for abuse of power, ethics violations, or other behavior.
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| Descriptive Metadata for Web Archiving | The OCLC’s Web Archiving Metadata Working Group (“WAM”) has developed three publications that cover recommendations to help institutions improve the consistency and efficiency of their metadata practices, a literature review of user needs, and a review of web harvesting tools.
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| FDsys to retire | From our very own University of Pittsburgh School of Law librarians: a post listing the retirement date of Fdsys (sometime in December 2018); govinfo will formally take its place.
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| CRS – Statutory Interpretation: General Principles and Recent Trends | According to the CRS article: The Supreme Court “follows the principle that a statute be read as a harmonious whole whenever reasonable, with separate parts being interpreted within their broader statutory context. Still, the meaning of statutory language is not always evident. To help clarify uncertainty, judges have developed various interpretive tools in the form of canons of construction.” Review the link for more details on the SCOTUS intrepretive tools.
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| 16 Apps and Tools to Keep You Productive and Sane | A fun read with suggestions for “work-related apps and tools” and “personal apps and tools.”
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| ABA resolution supporting work and funding of Library of Congress | Both the ABA’s Proposed Resolution and Report and its Final Resolution are linked in this beSpacific post. The ABA “urges Congress to approve appropriations necessary to enable the Library of Congress to adequately staff, maintain, modernize, and enhance its services, collections, facilities, digital projects and outreach efforts.”
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| Free to Use and Reuse: Making Public Domain and Rights-Clear Content Easier to Find | The Library of Congress acknowledges the challenges of letting the public “know about all of the content available at loc.gov” and letting the public know what it can do with that information. It is working to improve the visibility of public domain and rights-clear content.
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| GPO – Comments on Draft Legislation to Amend Title 44 USC | beSpacific links to a recent LLRX blog post, informing readers of potential new (and “worrisome”) changes to government publications; it also links to the comments the GPO sent to the Committee on House Aministration on January 31, 2018.
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| 3 Ways to Be a More Effective Ambivert | The greatest advantages of being an ambivert is the ability to exhibit the strengths of an introvert and strengths of an extrovert at the appropriate times. This article developed tips to help ambiverts maximize their strengths and minimize their weaknesses.
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| GPO Issues Digital Release of Federal Register for the 1960s | The U.S. Government Publishing Office (“GPO”) and the National Archives’ Office of the Federal Register (“OFR”) released historic issues of the Federal Register from 1960-1969 in digital format. These issues include a Proclamation by President Johnson for November 27, 2963 to be a national day of mourning following the assination of President Kennedy.
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| More Historical Statutes at Large Available Online | The individual statutes for congresses 68 through 81 are now available on the Law Library of Congress website.
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| Where Old, Unreadable Documents Go to Be Understood | Linda Watson and her company, Transcription Services, specializes in transcribing historical documents that prove unreadable to the average viewer.
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| Leonard Silverstein, Founder Of The BNA Tax Management Portfolio Series, Dies At 96 | Linked from The Washington Post: “Leonard L. Silverstein, a Washington lawyer and arts patron who started a series of prominent tax-law guidebooks and became a member of the city’s cultural and fundraising firmament, died Feb. 14 at his home in Bethesda, Md. He was 96.”
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| An email forwarded by Joel Fishman (and linked at “My legal tech invention: the Magic Money Machine“), the 3 Geeks and a Law Blog presents a funny and thought-provoking post about change in the legal profession – complete with charming anecdotes full of humanity.
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| GPO Handouts from ALA’s Midwinter Meeting | Information on a variety of Federal Depository Library Program topics and related handouts are now available on FDLP.gov.
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| OCLC introduces Syndeo, a suite of services designed to facilitate national and regional library collaboration | Syndeo (a flexible suite of services specifically designed to facilitate national and regional library collaboration) supports OCLC cooperative cataloging, resource sharing, and library management services necessary to run individual institutions along with the technology and infrastructure required of a national library.
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| U.S. Reports is the ONLY Official Edition of U.S. Supreme Court Opinions | PDFs of the official U.S. Reports are available at the Library of Congress (LOC) website.
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| Latest Congress.gov Search Tip, Enhancements, and Most-Viewed Bills | Congress.gov homepage recently received a new search form for the House Communications Collection. Click through for the latest search tips, site enhancements, and a list of the most-viewed bills.
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| New LibGuide – Prices and Wages by Decade | The University of Missouri Library has added LibGuide on Prices and Wages by Decade. It points to government publications listing retail prices for common items or “necessities of life.”
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| New on LLRX – The Library – An Indispensable Resource for the Entire Law Firm | Diana Koppang writes that small and midsize law firms are benefiting from a range of agile, expert, value added services increasingly provided by Library team members – in collaboration with colleagues in Conflicts, Finance and Marketing.
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Western Pennsylvania Law Library Association 