Category Archives: Sarah Steers

January Link Round-Up

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 43rdContinue reading “January Link Round-Up”

Green Revolution in libraries?

If asked how libraries – public or academic – contribute to society, every librarian likely has a mental list available at the ready: libraries stimulate our children; libraries provide valuable public services, like resume-building or ESL classes; libraries bring people together, by hosting poetry readings or ex-pat societies or after-school clubs; libraries, by the natureContinue reading “Green Revolution in libraries?”

December Link Roundup

CRS – The Vacancies Act: A Legal Overview This CRS report first describes how the Vacancies Act operates and outlines its scope, identifying when the Vacancies Act applies to a given office, how it is enforced, and which offices are exempt from its provisions. It also discusses who may serve as an acting officer andContinue reading “December Link Roundup”

Detecting Fake News

The American Association of Law Libraries provides a down’n’dirty description of what a law librarian does, not the least of which is “… researching, analyzing, and evaluating the quality, accuracy, and validity of sources.” In a world where it seems like even people who should know better are screaming #fakenews, it seems fairly intuitive thatContinue reading “Detecting Fake News”

Link Roundup – November

Select Demographic and Other Characteristics of Recent U.S. Circuit and District Court Nominees This document provides information related to select demographic and other characteristics of U.S. circuit and district court nominees whose nominations were submitted to the Senate by President Trump prior to August 1, 2017 (of the 26 total nominations submitted). The stats areContinue reading “Link Roundup – November”

Will Bots Disrupt the Legal System?

Think the practice of law is insulated from economic disruption by artificial intelligence?  Check out the DoNotPay chatbot and – gulp! – think again. A few years ago, a teenager in London racked up over 30 parking tickets. Rather than simply pay the tickets, Joshua Browder sat down, hammered out some programming code, and invented what manyContinue reading “Will Bots Disrupt the Legal System?”

Link Roundup – October

Bulk Downloads of Congressional Data Now Available At the ProPublica Data Store, users can download information on all of the bills introduced during each Congressional session in a single file. Twice a day, ProPublica generates this zip file containing metadata for every bill introduced in the current congress, including the sponsors and cosponsors the bill,Continue reading “Link Roundup – October”

OCLC and Wikipedia Content

Like most WPLLA members, I remember a world before Wikipedia – a world before a web-based encyclopedia with articles on every conceivable subject, updated in real time, by hyper-focused lay experts devoted to their niche obsessions. As Wikipedia grew in popularity, it quickly became the first stop on a research expedition (or even just theContinue reading “OCLC and Wikipedia Content”