Tuesday, July 29, 2008
"Cuil" Competes for Search Engine Crown
Cuil displays your search results in a 2- or 3-column layout, with brief summaries below each item. An "explore by category" box and navigation tabs help to narrow your results (ever "Google" someone with a generic name, or someone who shares their name with a celebrity?).
The next time you have to search the web, experiment by comparing your results in both Google and Cuil. To assess your results in other major search engines, the site Thumbshots.com will provide side-by-side comparisons of the top hits for a search term in selected search engines, but it unfortunately does not yet include Cuil.
Of course, Cuil and Google are far from the only competitors in this field. To locate lesser-known or specialized search engines, check out the directories at SearchEngineGuide.com and the Yahoo! Search Engine Directory. The recent College@Home posting on "100 Useful Niche Search Engines You've Never Heard Of" may also provide you with some interesting alternatives for your web searches.
Friday, July 11, 2008
Ease Your Bar Exam Anxiety
- Darrow-Kleinhaus, S. The Bar Exam in a Nutshell (2003). [On Reserve]
- Friedland, S. The Essential Rules for Bar Exam Success (2008). KF303 .F75 2008
- Walton, K. Strategies & Tactics for the MBE: Multistate Bar Exam (2003). [On Reserve]
Good luck to all of our bar exam-takers in these last few weeks before the big day(s).
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
New Look for the Library Catalog
The new catalog interface includes many features and functions:
- single-click search refinement (limit your results by library, format, and more)
- book cover image displays (where available)
- the ability to save searches as persistent bookmarks
- the ability to save/view searches as dynamically updated RSS feeds
Please keep in mind this rule of thumb when looking at Law Library materials in the "new" catalog:
- If the "Locations" line says "Law Library Annex"-- the item should be available on the shelf (unless it is checked out to another borrower, which will be clearly indicated); disregard the "Unavailable" message for Law Library Annex items.
- If the "Locations" line says just "Law Library"-- the item is most likely in inaccessible storage for the remainder of the renovation (unless it is checked out to another borrower, and is thus subject to a recall or hold request).
As always, talk to a Law Library staff member if you are unsure of the status of a particular title in the new catalog. We are happy to help.
Monday, July 7, 2008
The Dish on Durham
As previously noted in this blog, dining options on the Duke campus are a bit more limited over the summer (see Duke Dining summer 2008 schedule at http://dining.duke.edu/pdfs/wwte.summerhours.2008.pdf). Fortunately, our summer starters and Bar/Bri attendees are not doomed to starve!
Thursday, July 3, 2008
Who Owns Legislative History?
In March 2008, the blogosphere raised concerns about the exclusive terms of the contract with Westlaw's parent company, Thomson West (now Thomson Reuters). The histories were compiled by the U.S. Government Accountability Office, the "investigative arm of Congress." Because most federal government publications are considered to be in the public domain, government watchdogs expressed concern over the exclusive and commercial nature of the digitization contract, when GAO could have pursued digitization partnerships with universities or nonprofit organizations in order to make these legislative histories more widely--and freely-- available.
Carl Malamud, the founder of public.resource.org (previously discussed in this blog for its "Recycle Your PACER Documents" initiative), launched a Freedom of Information Act campaign to make the GAO histories freely available for digitization by the Internet Archive or other such organizations (follow his FOIA paper trail here). Although the initial response was discouraging, last week GAO released 10 DVDs of legislative histories to Malamud. More than 600,000 PDF files are included in this release-- the product of an abandoned in-house digitization attempt by GAO, prior to the Westlaw contract.
The initial release has been posted at http://public.resource.org/gao.gov/index.html. However, Malamud has not stopped there. He's currently petitioning GAO to allow public.resource.org or the Internet Archive to scan the same materials which were provided to Westlaw, and plans to ask Congress for funding to make the same materials publicly available.
The excellent Free Government Information blog has been tracking the story (see all stories tagged "GAO"). Add the free GAO materials to your legislative history research repertoire and stay tuned for further developments in the story.
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
Library Closed for July 4th Weekend
Over the holiday weekend, current members of the Law School community will retain 24-hour building access with a valid DukeCard.