http://www.wislawjournal.com/type.cfm/Bev%20Butula The latest News updates for Bev Butula from WLJ en-us Copyright 2008, Wisconsin Law Journal. http://www.wislawjournal.com/article.cfm/2008/09/08/Home-School-State-Laws The Home School Legal Defense Association maintains a nice page on their website summarizing the various state home schooling laws. Mon, 08 Sep 2008 09:25:14 CDT http://www.wislawjournal.com/article.cfm/2008/09/01/Ever-Changing-Internet--Same-Evaluation .I was reviewing articles I had written years back and came upon one that I had written for Midwest Paralegal’s KeyNotes back in early 2000.  Yep, over eight years ago.  It was about evaluating web sites – my favorite topic.  I found it interesting that the Internet has changed so much over the last eight years, but the majority of my article still held true. Mon, 01 Sep 2008 09:35:31 CDT http://www.wislawjournal.com/article.cfm/2008/09/01/Google-Suggest-will-be-Default Google announced that their “Suggest” product will now be incorporated into your searches. Have you noticed it yet when you search? (As of this writing, it is working in Classic Google, but not on my iGoogle page). Google Suggest is sort of like auto-fill. Mon, 01 Sep 2008 09:03:22 CDT http://www.wislawjournal.com/article.cfm/2008/08/25/EDGAR-database-to-become-IDEA The SEC announced that they will be replacing the EDGAR database with a new system called IDEA. Mon, 25 Aug 2008 09:29:40 CDT http://www.wislawjournal.com/article.cfm/2008/08/18/Bureau-of-Justice-Statistics The Department of Justice maintains a statistics page worth looking at.  The page has statistical reports on crime, prosecution, corrections, law enforcement, sentencing, criminal records, and others.  Many of the pages include graphs and annual reports.  A topic’s initial page offers key data with links to more detailed reports.  Each topic also includes a listing of relevant publications summarizing data collected. Mon, 18 Aug 2008 09:51:02 CDT http://www.wislawjournal.com/article.cfm/2008/08/18/Law-Reviews-Online The University of Southern California’s law library has a nice little listing of law reviews that are available online.    The index provides the name of the review (with an active link), a brief summary discussing its subject matter, and a code notation explaining what information is available.    These notations include F for full-text, A for abstracts, T for table of contents, and S for subscription information.   They also clearly indicate when the site was last updated. Mon, 18 Aug 2008 08:57:25 CDT http://www.wislawjournal.com/article.cfm/2008/08/11/Wish-you-could-find-their-800-number Occasionally, it can be a challenge to locate a company’s toll free number. I thought I would share a couple of Web sites that might help you find that information. Mon, 11 Aug 2008 09:46:59 CDT http://www.wislawjournal.com/article.cfm/2008/08/04/National-Conference-of-State-Legislatures The National Conference of State Legislatures is a “bipartisan organization that serves the legislators and staffs of the nation's 50 states, its commonwealths and territories.”  Their website also provides researchers with a tremendous amount of information on state and federal issues.  I recommend making a stop at this site when looking for legislative summaries, reports, 50 state surveys, etc.  The NCSL site addresses a significant number of topics including criminal justice, labor, environmental issues, education, commerce, etc. Mon, 04 Aug 2008 09:53:50 CDT http://www.wislawjournal.com/article.cfm/2008/08/04/Do-you-use-Adobe-Acrobat I can’t imagine too many of us go a day without using Adobe Acrobat.  I wanted to mention a blog that you may find useful – Acrobat for Legal Professionals.  Rick Borstein, a Business Development Manager at Adobe, is the author. Mon, 04 Aug 2008 09:11:37 CDT http://www.wislawjournal.com/article.cfm/2008/07/28/Stanford-Copyright--Fair-Use-Center Questions on fair use?   Need guidance regarding the permission process?   Interested in monitoring cases and legislation dealing with copyright and fair use?   Well, the Stanford University Libraries and Academic Information Resources, along with their sponsors, maintain a site that can assist with your questions.   The collection of resources found at the Copyright & Fair Use Center is tremendous.   Mon, 28 Jul 2008 10:56:29 CDT http://www.wislawjournal.com/article.cfm/2008/07/28/Searchmecom So many search engines, so little time.  I realize I just posted on Sputtr last week, but I couldnt pass up sharing information on another interesting search engine.  Mary Ellen Bates of Bates Information Services has a terrific review of Searchme.com.     If you are a visual person, you might really enjoy this engine.   Others, however, might find the navigation a bit hard to get used to. Mon, 28 Jul 2008 10:22:44 CDT http://www.wislawjournal.com/article.cfm/2008/07/21/Nursing-Home-Information The Medicare website provides an interesting tool entitled “Nursing Home Compare.” The purpose is to “provide detailed information about the past performance of every Medicare and Medicaid certified nursing home in the country.” The site allows the researcher to query by geographical location, proximity or by specific nursing home. Mon, 21 Jul 2008 11:12:00 CDT http://www.wislawjournal.com/article.cfm/2008/07/21/Safer-Cars I have often emphasized the importance of using more than one search engine when conducting research. Well, how about the ability to pick from a variety of engines from a single location? Check out Sputtr. First off, I have to say that the design is pretty cool. The page contains a search box and icons of numerous popular engines (e.g. Google news, Ask, IMDB, Technorati, Amazon). Just put in your search terms and make your “selection.” Mon, 21 Jul 2008 09:10:39 CDT http://www.wislawjournal.com/article.cfm/2008/07/14/Martindale-Hubbell-Law-Digest-Online The Martindale Law Digest is an extremely useful tool for obtaining information for various jurisdictions.   For years, the Digest consisted of hardbound volumes within your Martindale set. As time progressed, they moved to a CD version.   Well, now it is even easier to use the Digests, because they have been incorporated into the Martindale.com site.   Mon, 14 Jul 2008 09:03:45 CDT http://www.wislawjournal.com/article.cfm/2008/07/07/MetaGlossary I am always looking for new websites that can help me be more efficient and effective at work. Over at Alt Search Engines, there is a review of a new online dictionary called MetaGlossary. Mon, 07 Jul 2008 10:12:20 CDT http://www.wislawjournal.com/article.cfm/2008/07/07/Books-within-a-series I am currently on vacation in Idaho, so this post is going to be about something I enjoy --- reading. (Big surprise for a librarian)  My husband is an avid fly fisherman and I, well, sit at the campsite and read.   I can easily go through 6 or 7 books during one vacation.  Mon, 07 Jul 2008 09:21:14 CDT http://www.wislawjournal.com/article.cfm/2008/06/30/Executive-Office Don’t forget to check the White House website for news and documentation from the Executive Office.  The “Current News” section not only includes relevant stories, but can also provide audio, video, and supporting documents.  Remember to look for related “Press Briefings.” Mon, 30 Jun 2008 09:36:14 CDT http://www.wislawjournal.com/article.cfm/2008/06/30/Two-stops-for-drug-information Looking for drug information?  There are several good sites out there. One you might want to check is PDRHealth.  PDRHealth describes itself as a “consumer Web portal of the Physicians’ Desk Reference (PDR®), which has provided trusted and authoritative drug and clinical information to physicians for over 60 years. The PDRhealth site offers consumer-friendly explanations of disease states and conditions as well as the safe and effective use of prescription and non-prescription drugs as well as herbal medicines.”   Mon, 30 Jun 2008 09:28:03 CDT http://www.wislawjournal.com/article.cfm/2008/06/23/Dont-forget-to-evaluate We spend time investigating many things in our lives, but often times we do not investigate the source of our online information.  The Web is comprised of thousands of quality sites, providing invaluable data, research and guidance.  Unfortunately, it also contains inaccurate, unverified and fabricated information.  If we are researching something for work or personal use, shouldn’t we investigate the source?  Mon, 23 Jun 2008 12:45:23 CDT http://www.wislawjournal.com/article.cfm/2008/06/16/Dig-up-defunct-government-websites-at-CyberCemetery Looking for documents from a defunct government agency? You might dig it up at the CyberCemetery. Mon, 16 Jun 2008 09:52:10 CDT http://www.wislawjournal.com/article.cfm/2008/06/16/50-State-Surveys Over at the Law Librarian Blog and the Adjunct Law Prof Blog, are two great posts about the Open Government Guide. The guide is described as “a complete compendium of information on every state’s open records and open meetings laws.” I used it a couple times already in some recent research. Mon, 16 Jun 2008 09:11:58 CDT http://www.wislawjournal.com/article.cfm/2008/06/09/Create-maps-tables-charts The Reinvestment Fund has developed a new site called PolicyMap.com. This mapping website defines itself as “an innovative geographic information system which allows you to easily create custom maps, tables, and charts.” Mon, 09 Jun 2008 09:20:35 CDT http://www.wislawjournal.com/article.cfm/2008/06/09/Banking-Dictionaries UBS, the financial entity, has a nice banking dictionary on their website. It is currently in the 2007 edition. It contains over 2400 terms and is a very simple interface. It is one of the most comprehensive that I have seen online. Just choose a letter from the navigation list on the left side of the page. Mon, 09 Jun 2008 07:11:51 CDT http://www.wislawjournal.com/article.cfm/2008/06/02/Legal-Citation There are some noteworthy online resources for free legal citation information.   The first is the Introduction to Basic Legal Citation part of Cornell’s Legal Information Institute.   According to the summary page, “it was most recently revised in May 2007 to reflect changes appearing in the third edition of the ALWD Citation Manual, published in 2006. It is also keyed to the most recent edition of The Bluebook, published in 2005.” Mon, 02 Jun 2008 07:52:18 CDT http://www.wislawjournal.com/article.cfm/2008/05/26/Tracking-down-wildlife-disease-information Environmental attorneys and those interested in wildlife might benefit from this news.  Earlier this month, the Wildlife Disease Information Node (WDIN), released the Global Wildlife Disease News Map .  WDIN (a collaboration of UW-Madison, the National Wildlife Health Center, and the National Biological Information Infrastructure) is a network of online resources and services, which provide data and links to information on wildlife disease, such as chronic wasting disease or West Nile... Mon, 26 May 2008 12:46:33 CDT