Top Law Schools for 2008

You can check out U.S. News & World Report's 2008 Best Law Schools here.

1926-1991 Bluebooks Online in PDF Format!

I think this is great! You can view the 1st - 15th editions at Et Seq. (Harvard Law School Library Blog) here.

Ultimate Irish Traditional Music Reference Book

Anyone who is familiar with Irish traditional music, knows that O'Neill's Music of Ireland is a "must have." The book of 1,850 tunes was originally published in 1903 by Captain Francis "Frank" O'Neill with the assistance of a group of trad musicians he gathered together as members of the Chicago/Irish Music Club. The book is divided into the following tune types:

• Airs-Songs
• O'Carolan's Composition (referring to the blind, baroque Irish harp player, Turlough O'Carolan - A.K.A Toirdhealbhach Ó Cearbhalláin)
• Double Jigs
• Slip Jigs
• Reels
• Hornpipes
• Long Dances
• Marches and Misc.

Are you ready for the really interesting part of this post? Well, here it is. There is a free, online version of O'Neill's.

Now, since Mel Bay is distributing a print copy for publisher Daniel Michael Collins/Rock Chapel Press, a division of Shanachie Entertainment, it makes you wonder about copyright issues. However, I'm sitting here looking at the print copy, and while it says you can't reproduce any part of "this publication" without permission of the publisher, there is no actual copyright on it. The online version is not a reproduction of the Shanachie publication (which is identical to the original 1903 version). Each tune in the online version has been individually transcribed (multiple people did the transcribing). Additionally, the online version contains over 2,000 scores, while, as I mentioned, the original has 1,850. I conducted a few searches in the copyright catalog (1978-present) and I don't see O'Neill's listed. So, it doesn't appear to be copyrighted, but I don't have a definitive answer and I am no copyright expert. If you know the answer, please do tell!

OK, I can tell you want me to shut up and give you the the link. The 25 MB (listed as 22 MB) PDF version of O'Neill's online is located here (scroll to the bottom of the page). Don't say I never gave you anything....

Feed of the Week

The Consumerist is this weeks featured feed. Their tag line is "Shoppers Bite Back." The Consumerist is published by Gawker Media who also brought you (among other things) Wonkette and Lifehacker.

To put it in the words of The Consumerist editors, they're "biased towards the consumer and favor bad company stories over happy customer tales." Editor Ben Popken adds,

"Everywhere we turn, companies are pulling back from the value they offered when you signed the contract and handed over your payment, and leaving fees and restrictions in their wake."

Can you relate? The Consumerist not only makes consumers cheer, it will make you laugh too. Here's the feed: http://feeds.gawker.com/consumerist/full

Dancing In and Out of the Jungle

Jim Milles who blogs at Out of the Jungle (OOTJ), Buffalo Wings and Toasted Ravioli, and with me over at law.librarians, invited me to post at OOTJ. I felt quite honored and a little intimidated since I felt like I had to be on my best behavior.

I just published out my first OOTJ post. It actually feels like home over there since, for years, we used the same Blogger template. In fact, it's a little confusing! Earlier this year I finally changed my banner, so I don't feel too much like OOTJ's evil twin.

I've subscribed to Out of the Jungle since I first heard about them. If you don't, you should. Here's the feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/outofthejungle

Resources for Legal Self-Help Programs & Self-Represented Litigants

Selfhelpsupport.org is a site that serves as a network for practitioners of self-help programs. Membership is free and allows access to their Library, Newsletter, Network of Pro Se Practitioners, 3 e-mail groups, and training resources.

While it is not geared toward self-represented litigants, themselves, it does offer a list of resources (which includes LawHelp.org) for them. No membership is needed to access the list of online Resources for Self-Represented Litigants.

Rules for Judicial-Conduct and Judicial-Disability Proceedings Approved

In January I mentioned that the Draft Rules for Judicial-Conduct and Judicial-Disability Proceedings would be considered by the Judicial Conference of the United States on March 11, 2008. The rules were approved and will become effective 30 days after promulgation (April 10). According to the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts' press release, they are:

" the first-ever binding, nationwide set of rules for handling conduct and disability complaints against federal judges"

Your Online Reputation

There are two great articles (hot off the virtual presses) that deal with building a quality online reputation:

1. "Who Do You Think You Are?" by Stem Legal principal/founder, and Vancouver Law Librarian Blog author, Steve Matthews. It focuses specifically on attorneys' online reputations and lawyer branding. You can get to the article via Steve's Law Firm Web Strategy Blog post on Stem.
2. The second is the Mashable! post, Ten Tactics That Could Save Your Online Reputation by Andy Beal, CEO of the online reputation monitoring tool Trackur.

Oh, and I just noticed that Steve has a combined feed for all of his blogs. It's the Big Steve Feed! I just switched over. Now I only monitor 517 feeds.

Mario Day Redux

It has come to my attention that the South Florida Sun-Sentinel believes that Mario Day is a day to honor Super Mario. This is blatant commercialization of Chicago Mario's day ; ). Let's set the record straight. Chicago Mario claimed this day. End of story.

I'm Sorry Marios

I'm sorry for two reasons:

1. Not getting my Mario Day post up this morning.
2. The reason I didn't get my Mario Day post up this morning.

This is what I had planned on posting this morning:

"I first wrote about Mario Day in 2005. I stopped posting for most of 2006 and half of 2007, but did manage to sneak in a mention of Mario Day on July 10, 2007. It would seem I'm a bit of a Mario Day fanatic (proof can be found by searching for "Mario Day" on Google (We're number 1! Hey! We're number 1!). C'mon! There are worse things....

Anyway, I started thinking about Mario Day and how Mario thought Mar10 looked liked Mario and it occurred to me that Mar10 does not look like Mario. It looks like Marlo. Why the Marlos of the world have not stood up against this, I can't fathom. Marlos?! Well, I think we need to resolve this controversy. I have added a poll on the right side of this blog [didn't happen, read on]. You can vote for Marlo or Mario...."

That was the planned post. As I mentioned, the poll's not there. For some reason, the "Mario" and "Marlo" choices showed up in the exact same color as the background they were located on. That's a Blogger problem and though I desperately searched for a way around it, there wasn't one. The text of the widget does not appear in the HTML. Well, I could have changed the color of the right nav box, but no. No, I take that as a sign that Mario Day must go on. So, unless I hear from any Marlos, I will not seek out a Blogger poll alternative.

So, Marios, I'm sorry I tried to start a revolution against you. It's your day. Live it up!

Oh, and thanks for the e-mails again Mario Day fans! Happy Mario Day to all of you too!

Feed of the Week: DVICE

When I first started AbsTracked, I used to have a Feed Link Of The Day. And I gave it the fabulous acronym of FLOTD. Brilliant. Later, it became Feed Link Of the Week. At least FLOW was a better acronym.

Well, I've decided to go back to featuring a feed each week. This time however, no acronym. It will just be Feed of the Week.

The first featured feed is for DVICE. DVICE is an off-shoot of the SciFi Channel. Unlike SciFi, the items featured in DVICE are real. Amazingly real. The images alone are worth subscribing to, but DVICE also provides reviews and opinions about products. The products range from developing, award winning concepts to the latest high tech gadgets and inventions on (or about to come out on) the market. DVICE also offers contests to win gadgets and chances to get invites to test new beta sites. Here's the feed: http://dvice.com/rss.xml

Proposed Revisions to the Code of Conduct for U.S. Judges

The Committee on Codes of Conduct of the Judicial Conference of the United States is taking public comments (which must be received by April 14, 2008) on proposed revisions to the Code of Conduct for United States Judges.

For more information, see today's U.S. Courts News Release.

Why DC Area Residents Need to Go Out to Dinner on March 6th

If you live in the Washington, DC area, you should go out to dinner tomorrow night. Why? Because you deserve it, darn it! And so do others. Thanks to the efforts of Food & Friends:

"On Thursday, March 6th, 150 restaurants in the Washington metropolitan region will join together to raise awareness and funds for men, women and children facing HIV/AIDS, cancer and other life-challenging illnesses."

This is especially important since this Reuters article points out that:

"Washington, D.C., has the highest rate of AIDS in the United States, and more babies are born with the AIDS virus in Washington than in other U.S. cities...."

I'm not sure which restaurant I'll be visiting yet, but rest assured, I will be eating and spending for this great cause!

Feature-by-Feature Comparison of Office Live Workspace & Google Docs

Microsoft's Office Live Workspace is now available to the public in Beta. ReadWriteWeb has a feature-by-feature comparison of Office Live Workspace and Google Docs.

LII Introduces Two New Blogs

Thomas R. Bruce, the co-founder and director of the Legal Information Institute (LII) at the Cornell Law School, has a new blog that is currently — nameless for now —. He promises a copy of The Oxford Guide to United States Supreme Court Decisions (Paperback), edited by Kermit L. Hall (Hey guys, that's a value of $14.62!) to the person who comes up with the best name for his blog. The winner will be announced March 14th.
Here's the feed: http://blog.law.cornell.edu/tbruce/feed/.

The second blog is LII Announce which provides:

"Announcements, featured content, and the occasional bizarre legal information factoid from the LII."

That sounds good to me!
Here's the feed: http://blog.law.cornell.edu/feed/.

Irish-American Heritage Month, 2008

President Bush proclaimed March 2008 Irish-American Heritage Month.

The Library of Congress has an interesting site devoted to Irish immigrants in the U.S. The site includes a timeline, a flash-animated map showing the pattern of Irish immigration in the U.S., a game to see if you can identify Irish slang, and more.