Locating the Law Handbook for Non-Librarians

I love a freebie that comes from good stock. The Southern California Association of Law Libraries has a new edition of the Locating the Laws Handbook. If you are interesting in working in a law library or need to find a law source quickly this might be the publication you have been seeking in the stacks.

5th Edition of Locating the Law, A Handbook for Non-Law Librarians

There is much goodness to be found here. Chapter 3 has a guide to conducting a legal information search and interview techniques. This is a section of the handbook that talks about the legal information interview:

Regardless of how the question is phrased, the user is ultimately asking what law or laws apply to his or her situation. Your first task, as in any reference interview, is to analyze the information provided in order to identify the relevant facts and to weed out the irrelevant. To determine the relevant facts, you will usually need to ask additional questions. At this point, it is appropriate to briefly address concerns about the unauthorized practice of law.

Librarians conducting a reference interview should not be afraid to ask questions of someone seeking legal information. Asking questions in order to make recommendations about appropriate legal resources to consult does not constitute giving legal advice. 

The handbook is a Adobe PDF document. You can view by chapter or you can download the entire handbook and read it on your computer or with you favorite tablet or e-reader.

You definitely want this on your virtual resource shelf.

Los Angeles Archives Bazaar, Saturday, October 22, 2011

Date: Mon, 10 Oct 2011 03:26:27 +0100 (BST)
Subject: [calix] Los Angeles Archives Bazaar, Saturday, October 22, 2011

The 6th-Annual Los Angeles Archives Bazaar http://www.laassubject.org/index.php/archives_bazaar

Saturday, October 22, 2011
9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.
Doheny Memorial Library
USC University Park Campus

Los Angeles history comes alive at the 6th-annual Los Angeles Archives Bazaar. Organized by L.A. as Subject and presented by the USC Libraries, the annual event celebrates the diversity of Southern California’s history. For scholarly researchers, journalists, history buffs, and those simply interested in exploring the stories of Los Angeles, discovery awaits everyone at the Archives Bazaar. This event is free and open to the public.

The Archives Bazaar draws its
strength from the breadth and variety of its participants’ collections.
Large institutions such as the Autry National Center of the American West and the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County will be represented at the bazaar along with smaller organizations and private collections whose materials fill the gaps left in the city’s official history. Other participating organizations include the ONE National Gay and Lesbian Archives, the California African American Museum, El Pueblo de Los Angeles Historical Monument, and the Japanese American National Museum. In all, more than 80 archives are represented.


PROGRAMMING HIGHLIGHTS

EDUCATIONAL SESSIONS

RESEARCHING L.A. 101
Ever wondered how to get started with your Los Angeles research—or research in general? This presentation will provide a detailed overview of how and where to start, including basic research tips useful for anyone working with primary and secondary source material. Topics will include researching from home, visiting archives, the ins and outs of reading rooms, and more.

ON THE RECORD: GETTING STARTED
WITH ORAL HISTORY
This workshop—presented by Natalie M. Fousekis, Director of the Center for Oral and Public History at Cal State Fullerton—will introduce attendees to the process of conducting oral history interviews. Subjects to be covered include preparing for interviews, proper recording equipment, transcription, and the kind of paperwork needed for depositing the results in an archive.

HISTORYPIN: PULLING PHOTOGRAPHY INTO THE FOURTH DIMENSION Launched in 2010, Historypin is an online database of more than 30,000 historical photographs from museums, historical societies, newspapers, and individuals. Founder Nick Stanhope will introduce the website and show how combining digital tools like Google Street View with vintage photos results in a four-dimensional mosaic, where historic scenes and user-submitted anecdotes overlay contemporary streetscapes.


DOCUMENTARY FILM SCREENINGS

41ST & CENTRAL: THE UNTOLD STORY OF
THE L.A. BLACK PANTHERS
Using exclusive interviews with former Black Panther Party members along with archival footage, 41st & Central follows the Southern California Chapter of the Black Panther Party for Self Defense from its Black Power beginnings through to its controversial end. The film explores the Black Panther ethos, its conflict with the LAPD, and the events that shaped the complicated and often contradictory legacy of the L.A. chapter.

RUBEN SALAZAR: MAN IN THE MIDDLE
Currently
in production, Man in the Middle recounts the life and mysterious death of Rubén Salazar, a prominent twentieth-century Mexican-American journalist. Director Phillip Rodriguez will present a twenty-minute trailer from this work-in-progress and discuss the process of bringing to screen the story of Salazar’s transformation from a mainstream, middle-of-the-road reporter to a supporter and primary chronicler of the radical Chicano movement.


PANEL DISCUSSIONS

READY FOR ITS CLOSE-UP: L.A. IN THE MOVIES As the epicenter of the filmmaking industry, Southern California has been the backdrop for countless movies and television shows. Film historian John Bengston and documentarian Jon Wilkman will discuss how decades of filming have shaped popular perceptions of the city and turned parts of Los Angeles—even those that no longer exist—into iconic landmarks recognized around the world.

LALO GUERRERO: THE FATHER OF CHICANO MUSIC Born in 1916, Lalo Guerrero developed an early love for music, learning at age nine to play the guitar—an instrument that rarely left his side over the next eight decades. In performing everywhere from concert halls to classrooms, neighbors’ homes to the White House, Guerrero became internationally recognized as the “Father of Chicano Music.” His son Dan will share stories and clips of Lalo singing about the struggles and triumphs of his Mexican-American heroes.

WEST COAST/WEST WING: THE NIXON AND REAGAN PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARIES While the seat of American political power is 3,000 miles away in Washington, D.C., one only has to navigate our local freeways to visit the libraries of two prominent twentieth-century U.S. presidents. Supervisory Archivists Gregory Cumming (Nixon Library) and Mike Duggan (Reagan Library) will discuss some of the unique materials that link their collections to Southern California.
Reposted from CALIX post by Michael Palmer, MLIS Claremont, California

Karen Gersten-Sternheim Memorial Scholarship

Dear members of the MLIS community:
The SLA Southern California Chapter Scholarship Committee is pleased to announce that we are now accepting applications for the 2011 Karen Gersten-Sternheim Memorial Scholarship. Please help us spread the word among MLIS students currently taking courses who are permanent residents of California and Nevada.
The Scholarship
The Karen Gersten-Sternheim Memorial Scholarship consists of a one-time award in the amount of $3,000. The Scholarship was created in 1993 to honor the memory of Karen Sternheim, a UCLA librarian and a member of the Special Libraries Association, Southern California Chapter (SLA-SCC).

Eligibility Guidelines 1. Applicants must be members of SLA and members of the SLA Southern California Chapter. [SLA membership information may be found online at: www.sla.org/content/membership/joinsla/index.cfm

2. Applicants must demonstrate an interest in a career in special libraries, and must be taking classes in a master's degree program in library and information studies at an ALA accredited library school per: www.ala.org/ala/educationcareers/education/accreditedprograms/index.cfm
3. There is no geographic restriction on the school in which the applicant is enrolled. However, applicants must be permanent residents of California or Nevada, and must submit a photocopy of their valid California or Nevada's driver's license, identification card or voter registration card.
Deadline for Consideration The deadline to apply is June 30, 2011.
The Chapter Scholarship Committee must receive an MLIS student’s completed and properly-formatted application containing all requested information no later than this date in order to be eligible for consideration.

How to Apply
For complete information on the criteria, guidelines, required information, and application instructions, please refer to the Karen Gersten-Sternheim Memorial Scholarship webpage on the SLA-SCC website, found at this URL:
http://www.slascc.org/web_pages/student_programs_section/sternheim_scholarship.html

We wish to thank the professional members of our community for helping us to get out the word among currently-enrolled MLIS students! Best regards, SLA-SCC Scholarship Committee Rita Costello, Chair Emi Bevacqua, Committee Member Keith Gurtzweiler, Committee Member Jay Springer, Committee Member Norah Xiao, Committee Member

C-Span Video Library Now Online

Hi folks, it has been awhile but I finally scrounge up a spare minute or two. This is a great discovery and I'm breaking my vow of silence to share it with you. C-Span records the activities of the U.S. House and Senate. There are three C-Span channels that have interview programs, discussions and special features when Congress is not in session.

I just found out that C-Span has placed almost their entire archive online. You can now visit the C-Span Video Library.

160,000 hours and 23 years of video documentation. We now have an accessible video historical record of what was said in the U.S. House and Senate.

You can obtain the full text and context of what a Senator or Representative said, not just the sound bites that you might have heard on the news.

From the About C-Span Video Library page:

Programs are indexed by subject, speaker names, titles, affiliations, sponsors, committees, categories, formats, policy groups, keywords, and location. The congressional sessions and committee hearings are indexed by person with full-text. The video collection can be searched through the online Video Library.

It gets better. There is a caption transcript of what was said on the floor. You can also read the Congressional Record version of the remarks.

And for those of you who like to share but wish to keep it on the ethical side of the fence I have something for you too. There is a section of C-Span called Congressional Chronicles. In this section you can share the video link, embed the videos on your web site or blog. The videos in this specific section are in the Public Domain.

Other videos outside of the Congressional Chronicles pages may have other copyright or other restrictions.

So if you have a need to prove that so-and-so said whatzit and they were standing on the floor of the House or Senate you can present the ocular proof.

History buffs are fanning themselves in joy.

Ohio University Libraries - The Business Blog

I do try to keep my other interests and avocations off of the PCC Libtech blog but sometimes my life has other plans. While looking for video blogs I discovered another librarian who uses video in his site, Library Voice.com.

Chad Boeninger and writes about how technology in libraries can and should be of service to the patrons.


Chad is also in charge at the Ohio University Library Business blog where he locates content and material to help students and faculty make sense of these financially constraining times.

One of the challenges that Chad has to face is working with reduced acquisition fund budget. He has to cut books and subscriptions in order to slash $85,000+ out of the budget.



For those of you who have taken Library 101, Library 103 and Library 104 this is the working example of not only weeding materials but also facing the fact that you no longer own a current copy of the information; it is online in a subscription based system.

That may work when the library system can pay the vendor subscription fees but if money get tight you not only loose current information but access to past history and materials as well.

It is a tough balance. In a prior video, Chad goes step by step on the reasons for canceling certain materials and invites the faculty for input.

This is a good opportunity to get insight on an academic library and real world decisions that have to be be made. As I go deeper into the blog there are screencasts that explain research skills, consumer trends, the current marketplace and those things that would support the goals of the library.

I hope that by visiting these sites it will give context to the impact that budget cuts have on libraries and patrons. It is also a good place to get an insight on how to be of technological service to staff and patron.

Ohio State University Cartoon Library and Museum

I do like cartoons. I like libraries. In a perfect world there would be a cartoon library. Fortunately, even in an imperfect world there is a cartoon library. The Ohio State University Cartoon Library and Museum has been in existence since 1977.


According the the About Us page its mission is to:

...develop a comprehensive research collection documenting American printed cartoon art, to organize the materials, and to provide access to these resources.
The scope of the collection includes:

• editorial cartoons
• comic strips
• comic books
• graphic novels
• sports cartoons
• magazine cartoons

There is a database to locate a certain artist or work:
You can search by creator, type of publication, type of market, the name of the cartoon or the format that the cartoon or graphic novel was published. Not all comics are represented but you do get to search for some of the early work in the topic.

You can view some of the collection online in galleries and albums:


This is a great example of a specialized library and a library/museum partnerships.

At Your Local Library

It's been awhile since I've posted "At Your Local Library" I realized the other day. How time flies by when you're busy. Hopefully, I can make time to go to some of these that I haven't had a chance to experience just yet.

Jack London Exhibit

If you haven't yet had a chance to check out the Jack London exhibit by Devon Struther in the Centennial Room that was in conjunction with the recent The Big Read at the Pasadena Central Library, I recommend taking some time out to do so. You'll get a chance to view an intimate glimpse into the life and career of Jack London through photos, newspaper articles and more. The exhibit will continue to run till the end of November.

Bus Tours Round 'n Round Historic Filipinotown

Ever wondered what is Filipino about Historic Filipinotown? The Filipino American Library (FAL) answers this question in its free Bus Tours of Historic Filipinotown this coming Saturday, November 22 at FAL. On the bus tour, a guide narrates and points out the importance of sites, events, and individuals in and around Historic Filipinotown to give a historical overview of Filipinos in Los Angeles.

Four 1.5-hour tours will begin at 10:00am, 12:00pm, 2:00pm, and 4:00pm.

To reserve a seat, please contact filamlibrary@sbcglobal.net or 213-382-0488. While the tours are free, space is limited and they usually fill up in advance.

National Native American Heritage Month

Interested in learning more about Native American heritage and culture? Then head down to one of the branches of the L. A. County libraries. There's quite a few events happening this month but I'm just listing a sample of what you can find.

At South El Monte Library on Thursday, Nov. 20th at 6:30pm, one can watch Rodney Howard, one of the premier Native American dancers on the West Coast, as he performs dances, songs, and stories from tribes across North America.

On Saturday, Nov. 22nd from 1-4pm at the American Indian Resource Center in the Huntington Park Library will be hosting a screening of selected short films in partnership with LA Skins Fest.

Burbank Library exhibits for November

Are you a die-hard Nancy Drew fan? Or a movie buff? Then head down to Burbank Central Library, where items from the summer Nancy Drew movie and memorabilia from "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" from Warner Bros are on display.

At the Buena Vista Library branch, one can find WORLD WAR II memorabila and uniforms which currently fill the display case that come mainly from the estates of Burbank residents, and one is from a soldier who served here in an anti-aircraft unit protecting Lockheed.

Calisphere and California Cultures

Calisphere is a project of the California Digital Library. It's mission is to provide public online access to some of the collections from the University of California Libraries, Museums and contributing public library systems.


The California Cultures website is especially interesting. This gives a visitor the ability to find out information about African American, Asian, Hispanic and Native American cultures.

I decided to explore the Asian American section. There are a number of pathways I could follow such as the Gold Rush Era with an historical overview of the time.


I also was able to view photographs, advertisements and some of the anti-immigration publications of the time. Depending on the amount of documentation available you can find out the source of the photo, the context and related keyword searches to help you access even more information.

Where available there are letters, political cartoons, oral histories and diaries and other materials to aid in researching a topic such as the Transcontinental Railroad.

You could spend hours reading and catching up with the good and the bad of California's history. And you will learn a lot about how different ethnic groups shaped that history.

Health Information Island - A Trip Via Second Life

This is a silent video on how health information is being displayed in Second Life.



I don't have much to say about this. I get a little misty when I see vapors of the future start to emerge.

Robin M. Dixon - Collection Development Video

Many of the federal government libraries are being closed or downsized. Libraries such as the Environmental Protection Agency, Federal Emergency Management Agency and the National Aeronautic and Space Administration (NASA) libraries.

Many of the libraries are being permanently closed or converted from physical libraries to electronic/virtual libraries.

In this video, Ms. Dixon of the NASA Goddard Library gives a talk about how she used OCLC Collection Analysis to prove that the Goddard Library has a unique collection. She also touches upon the need for interlibrary loans among the other NASA libraries, the needs of her patrons, (Scientists) for actual physical books and a bit about the process the Goddard Library used to handle a libraries worse case scenario.

Note to Firefox and Alternative browser users - this is a streamed video presentation that does not run in the Firefox browner. I had to switch to Microsoft Internet Explorer.

Special Library Association

There are a variety of libraries that serve special collections. These are known as "Special Libraries"

This particular association focuses on the need of member that work in academic, corporate and governmental library professionals. I'm getting the sense reading through the website they make it clear that they are really focusing on Information professionals.

In today marketplace that is not just restricted to librarians but to those individuals that use information as a method of supporting the goals of the company that employ them.

For example, News Librarians use all of the skills of research and information gathering but those skills are using to support the newspaper, magazine or broadcast news industry.

There is also the Transportation division of that focuses on transportation issues. This will include air, land, water, rail mass transit and a host of other information research.

The SLA is a membership organization that provide job and career information, research and networking opportunities to the membership.

Dave Hook - The Industrial Librarian

There are all kind of librarians. Dave Hook is a librarian working in the Canadian aerospace industry. His blog is located at http://davehook.blogspot.com

Dave certainly writes about special libraries and library specific topics. He also has an interest in Canadian genealogy. This works out because well, he is Canadian. Dave is very good a spotting and explaining trends on the library horizon.

He also had a post for library technology blogs, both for IT and Library Support Staff.

There was one that looked promising, http://librarysupporter.blogspot.com but unfortunately has since been put on hiatus. Meaning the odds are slim to none it will be started up again. Not to say there isn't any value in the blog. I plan to troll through the long blog roll to come up with more goodies.