Wisconsin Law Journal – WI Legal News & Resources Wisconsin Legal News & Resources

OneLook Dictionary is a website that searches numerous online dictionaries (both general and topical) at one time.

The website for the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System contains some very useful consumer credit information. The webpage is designed for the average consumer; however there are two items that may interest legal researchers as well.

I have spoken to several people who consider the Library of Congress Guide to Law Online, their one-stop shop.

Many of us have recently visited the Wisconsin Secretary of State's website to learn a bit more about the publication of new laws. However, have you ever noticed what other information is available from their website?

The mission of Department of Justice's Tax Division is to "enforce the nation's tax laws fully, fairly, and consistently, through both criminal and civil litigation, in order to promote voluntary compliance with the tax laws, maintain public confidence in the integrity of the tax system, and promote the sound development of the law." This includes their initiative to shut down fraudulent tax preparers and tax-fraud schemes.

Wisconsin has been using public domain citations since Jan. 1, 2000. In addition to the public domain citation, Wisconsin opinions are found in the official reporters published by West. The majority of states who have adopted the public domain citation format continue to publish the opinions in reporters.

The economic indicator is a monthly publication prepared for the Joint Economic Committee. It provides a variety of economic information including "information on gross domestic product, income, employment, production, business activity, prices, money, credit, security markets, Federal finance, and international statistics."

There is an excellent paper, written by librarian Wendy E. Moore of the University of Georgia School of Law, entitled "Fantastic Facts about the 50 states: Websites for State Legal Research" outlining a variety of online resources for state research.

The Garland's Digest is a free web-based index of "over 4,500 summaries of federal appellate court decisions from September 1996 to May 2009 and a searchable index of over 4,500 court decisions from September 1996 to date."

I have been hearing a lot about Read it Later. Basically, it allows you to read saved web pages when it is convenient, even if you do not have an internet connection. It works in Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome and on your favorite smartphone. ABA Site-tation has a nice step by step guide to using Read it Later.

I have previously written on the value of finding 50 state survey sites. As I mentioned in my post from June 2008, "[a]nyone who has had to compile one, knows the amount of work involved. So when I find one by a reliable source, I rejoice."

As a librarian, this week is a time for me to celebrate, educate and promote. Wisconsin has an amazing network of public and private libraries with knowledgeable and dedicated staff.

Back in 2008, I wrote a post about the Legislative Reference Bureau Library's Tap the Power bibliographies. The broad range of topics and resources are amazing. Their most recent release (April 2011) is definitely worth checking out.

LexisNexis just announced that beginning Monday more than 100 new titles will be released in e-book format.

Do you have a LinkedIn account? Do you post updates or stories of interest for your "connections" to read? Are you interested in news that your colleagues are reading? Well, earlier this month, LinkedIn announced the launch of LinkedIn Today.

This is Sunshine Week. The focus of the Sunshine Week initiative is to promote government transparency and freedom of information. Thanks to the folks over at INFOdocket, I learned about the recent launching of FOIA.gov by the U.S. Department of Justice. Per the news release, FOIA.gov “brings together all the FOIA data collected by the department on behalf of the ...

The Cardiff Index to Legal Abbreviations is one of those websites that you probably won't use everyday, but when you want a reliable online resource this might be worth checking out.

The John K. Maciver Institute for Public Policy announced the launching of WisconsinOpenGov.org. Per their website, it "provides you with one location for data on Wisconsin public employee salaries, benefits and labor contracts.

The Urban Land Institute is a 501(c)(3) research and education organization dealing with land use issues. Their policy and practice priority areas include: capital markets, housing, infrastructure, sustainability/climate change, place making/public realm, places of commerce, and development at the edge.

I was on the Wisconsin legislature page searching for some older bills when I noticed an announcement on the document search page. It states, "We have a new beta site for searching our documents.

I have written before about smart phone applications both in the Wisconsin Law Journal and for the State Bar of Wisconsin's Inside Track. However, the majority of the apps featured in those articles are for the iPhone. Many lawyers use Android mobile phones and so I thought I'd highlight a few Android apps. Please add any you have found useful.

The University of Minnesota hosts a website dedicated to human rights law.

Last week the City of Milwaukee Municipal Court announced that is was going live with their all-electronic court case management system.

The National Legal Resource Center is a great clearinghouse of information for research on aging and elder rights.

Google announced a great enhancement to their case search feature found in Google Scholar.

When I usually talk about gold or platinum, I am dropping jewelry hints to my husband.

I had to start out the year with a website that can be insightful and entertaining. The Book of Odds is a website that presents the probability things.

Did you know that both the University of Wisconsin’s law library and Marquette’s law library offer great legal research guides? While they are obviously written with their students in mind, these guides can be of great assistance when starting research in a new or unfamiliar area of law. Both websites offer tips and resources for a variety of areas. For ...

I love smartphones and the possibilities for the legal field. There are so many fun and useful apps out there. There are plenty of articles about apps for lawyers, including my State bar article.

The buzz on the blogosphere Friday was that Google has released yet another new feature. This new feature is the ability to select the "reading level" of your Google results.