Periodical and Journal Articles ONLINE

Twice today I've shown 3Ls who thought they had to use interlibrary loan to get journal articles, how to find them quickly and easily online. It was a "gee whiz" moment for both of these chaps, but it's really nothing new at the law library. Here's how to find journals and periodicals that the library has either online, in paper or microform:

• From ANY library web page, roll your mouse over the word RESEARCH
  
• Select either JOURNALS or SERIALS SOLUTION (it's the same place)
• Click on the first letter of the journal or periodical title and then search the page for it
• If there is a link to Pierce Law Holdings, then we own this title and you can go downstairs and retrieve it, provided we have the issue you need.
• If it is available electronically, click on the electronic link and follow the directions. You will usually be taken to a search screen where you will have to enter the article title.
  
• If you are not physically in the library, you may need to have the barcode from your Pierce Law ID available to logon to the proxy server for access.

Happy hunting! If this blog entry helped you, tell a friend!

http://www.library.piercelaw.edu/LWP-New/Research/journals/journals.cfm

Creative Commons License Search

Yahoo! now offers a Creative Commons search engine. "Copyright applies fully and automatically to any work - a photograph, a song, a web page, an article, pretty much any form of expression - the moment it is created. This means that if you want to copy and re-use a creative work you find online, you usually have to ask the author's permission."

Although "all rights reserved" protection is beneficial to many creative works, what about those who want you to use their work freely without permission? "A Creative Commons license does not mean giving up your copyright. It means offering some of your rights to any taker, and only on certain conditions.... There are a total of eleven Creative Commons licenses to choose from." [From the Creative Commons site.]

The search engine offer the options to "Find content I can use for commercial purposes" or "Find content I can modify, adapt, or build upon."

http://search.yahoo.com/cc

Need to Find an Event Venue?

I don't know why I like this site so much. I never plan events for any group larger than my family, but that doesn't mean you don't plan large events. Librarians exist to serve their patrons (don't we?), so I decided to go "off road" with this entry (meaning it's not really related to legal anything). Eventective (like "event" and "detective" put together) allows you to search for space near and airport or in a particular city and/or state. Input what type of space you need -- conference, classroom, theater, etc. or leave it no preference. The "no preference" selection gave me more results.

Once you get results, you can sort them by zip code, distance, city-state, state-city or alphabetically. You can refine your search and even save your search criteria (requires registration), which gives you more options. Results also have a link to MapQuest maps and to the facility if it has a website. Very nice. Now, I just have to find an event to plan!

http://www.eventective.com/search/searchs.aspx

PubSub

In the online edition of the Wall Street Journal, today's freebie, New Web Watching Tools Pique Interest of Investors by Scott Patterson and Worth Civils talks about persistent searches conducted online by PubSub and others. What makes PubSub worthwhile is you don't have to launch a news reader/aggregator and it scours blog feeds for content that matches your keywords. In addition, you don't even have to sign up for the service. You merely bookmark the feed URL and return to it to see if any content has been gathered.

PubSub also has a downloadable sidebar for Firefox and IE browsers so you wouldn't have to go to the bookmark to see new content. If you read blogs and want to find new content from blogs you don't know yet, this is a magnificent tool. Plus, it's FREE.

http://www.pubsub.com/

Supporting Human Rights and Democracy

The U.S. State Department released "Supporting Human Rights and Democracy: The U.S. Record 2004 - 2005" report. This third annual report to Congress on actions taken by the U.S. Government to encourage respect for human rights. The report is available in both PDF and HTML versions. Released March 28, 2005

http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/shrd/2004/