Overview of the Development of U.S. Congressional Committees

An Overview of the Development of U.S. Congressional Committees has been significantly revised (originally featured in two parts in Law Library Lights back in 2004) and just added to LLSDC's Legislative Source Book.

This 21 (PDF) page document was written by Michael Welsh, Senior Legislative Librarian at Pillsbury LLP with assistance from Ellen Sweet, Legislative Reference Specialist, Tax Division, U.S. Department of Justice, and Rick McKinney, Assistant Law Librarian, Federal Reserve Board Law Library. Related to this, is McKinney's new Standing Committees of Congress: 1789 to Present.

LinkedIn Groups Searchable This Friday!

Finally, the "groups" at LinkedIn will be searchable. For far too long, there has been a message on LinkedIn that says,

"The groups directory is not currently open. We are working on creating a searchable directory for all groups. If there are groups you wish to join, you may click on the group logo from the profile of a group member and request to join."

However, I just received an e-mail that says,

Dear Abbie,

On Friday, July 11th, we are pleased to announce that LinkedIn will launch a searchable Group Directory.

To ensure users can find and join your group, please review and update the description and settings for your group: Law Librarians

Sincerely,
The LinkedIn team

Foreign Exchange Rates

I was just checking foreign exchange rates and noticed that none of the converters show the same rate. I checked the Euro versus the U.S. Dollar at xe.com, Yahoo! Finance, CNNMoney, and Oanda.

I finally went to the daily foreign exchange rates online from the U.S. Federal Reserve (H.10 Release). Here's what you get from that release:

"The H.10 release contains daily rates of exchange of major currencies against the U.S. dollar. The data are noon buying rates in New York for cable transfers payable in the listed currencies.

The rates have been certified by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York for customs purposes as required by section 522 of the amended Tariff Act of 1930."

You don't need a converter. The math couldn't be simpler.

Feed of the Week: Adventurous Women Blog

Finally, someone in my family has joined me on the blogosphere. I thought this day would never come, but it has...in the form of adventure. My sister, Michaelle, has started the Adventurous Women Blog. In her own words,

"This blog is for those of us with even a little bit of adventure in our souls."

How cool! She has divided posts into "less adventurous" and "more adventurous." Michaelle only started her blog on June 5th, but has already covered the topics of:

• Starting Your Own Adventure Club
• Following Roz Savage as She Rows Across the Atlantic
• White Water Rafting
• Water Tubing

Based on what she told me, she has several more exciting posts planned for the days ahead - including an interview. Considering she has about 10 times the energy I have (I've only gone on one of her adventures. I'm sure you won't be surprised to know that it was a haunted adventure....), I think we can expect lots of great stuff! Here's the feed:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/AdventurousWomenBlog

Welcome to the blogosphere Michaelle!

Join the Law Librarians Group!

I have just set up a Law Librarians group at LinkedIn. If you are a law librarian with a LinkedIn profile, all you have to do is click on this link to join. You'll also get this nifty logo on your profile. It's just another chance to network with your peers.

Feed of the Week: FriendFeed

So many of us are all over the Internet these days. We're using Twitter, Jaiku, Pownce, StumbleUpon, Flickr, LinkedIn, LibraryThing, mag.nolia, Digg, last.fm, and the list goes on. How can you keep track of it all?

FriendFeed is one good possibility. You can combine all of these (and more) into one feed. Sometimes it's hard to find the time to update AbsTracked, so I might Twitter links (Twinks) instead. I'm still out there. I'm still communicating, but not in this one location. So, if you want one feed that will grab my Twinks, any time I post to OOTJ, law.librarians, or any other place I might start posting, you can just subscribe to my friendfeed. Here it is:
http://friendfeed.com/abstracked

Law Libraries and Librarians Social Network

In case you haven't heard (but it looks like an awful lot of you have), Jim Milles is at it again. He has set up a new social network site for Law Libraries and Librarians on Ning. If you don't yet have a Web presence, now's your chance. You can post questions, comments, or even photos. It's a chance to network with people who do what you do...across the globe.

You don't need a picture, a Web site, or a blog. You don't need to Tweet. You just sign up and play around. Before long, you will probably have a picture, or a Web site... Well, you get the idea. Go play!

Law Library Stuff?

He's been hinting for a while now, but in Steven Cohen's latest post, he more than hinted that there is a big change afoot for his Library Stuff blog. He wrote:

"I’m in a similar boat for my blog. I need to move on too. Starting tomorrow, the main content for LS will be different. I’m going to concentrate on what I know best: Law libraries, marketing the law library, and related issues. I hope you like it."

Of course we'll like it! Bring it on Steven. And welcome to the blawgosphere.