INTERNET LEGAL RESEARCH WEEKLY
October 7, 2001
Tom MighellWelcome to Issue #43 of the Internet Legal Research Weekly, a newsletter that delivers relevant and timely legal research information, and other fun stuff, to your inbox every Sunday. If you like what you read, please forward this newsletter to anyone you think might be interested, and encourage him or her to do the same! To subscribe, all you have to do is send an e-mail to ilrw-subscribe@topica.com. It’s free!
And away we go…..
News Update
A New Look for Google
Google, my favorite search engine (as you all know), has added new features to its home page. Now there are tabs and new file types.Learn More About the Search Engines
Gary Price has a great article in this month’s edition of Searcher, with questions, answers, and issues about Internet search engines.
Searching the Internet
While I’m writing this week’s issue, I’m also watching the Texas-Oklahoma football game (Texas is losing right now, so I’m not happy). But it’s a good time to write about sports law, so my good friend and law librarian Sharon McClelland put together a set of links to help you with your sports law questions.
As with so many areas of law, a great place to start is the Legal Information Institute at Cornell Law School. There you can get a general overview of sports law, federal and state statutes and regulations on the subject, and some links to general sports law sites. The ABA also has some good resources on sports law. First up is the Forum on Entertainment and Sports Industries. Interestingly, there are plenty of links here to information about entertainment law, but none about sports law. There IS information on how to join the forum, receive regular e-mails, and get sports law publications. The Entertainment and Sports Lawyer offers an index of articles on sports and entertainment law, as well as a selection of articles online. Unfortunately, the Articles area is “under construction” – hopefully they will have some up soon.
As you might imagine, universities are a great source of sports information, and several law schools have journals devoted to sports law. The Sports and Entertainment Law Journal at Villanova Law School offers a great collection of articles dating back to 1994. There’s also a page called Links, but instead it has a list of sports law publications – misleading but helpful nonetheless. Tulane’s Sports Lawyer’s Journal doesn’t have any articles online, but you can browse the abstracts dating back to 1995. The Marquette Sports Law Journal also offers just an index.
One non-academic site that seems to have some great information is Mark’s Sportslaw News. There you can find recent articles, court opinions, jargon and history. This site was created by a sports law professor at Fordham Law School (named Mark, if you didn’t already know), but I can’t tell if he is serious about maintaining the site. Some parts of the site seem to be regularly updated, but one link has been “under construction” for nearly a year and a half. Still, it has more sports law information than many of the other sports law sites.
Finally, a couple of links to actual sports sites. Many sites dealing with sports also have sections that deal with the legal aspects of the game. The NCAA Online offers significant sections on rules, eligibility, enforcement, and reinstatement. The U.S. Swimming page also offers information on legal issues like drug control. Finally, if you’re interested in the statistical side of sports, head over to Statistics in Sports presented by the American Statistical Association. Lots of links there to sports data, journals on sports, and recently published articles on sports statistics.
Do you know of any sports law websites worth mentioning? Drop me a line at tmighell@swbell.net and I’ll feature it in an upcoming issue!
Help Desk
In this space, I want to provide tips and tricks to make your web searching experience easier. A tip for you this week:Want to make sure your computer is running at peak performance? Check out PC Pit Stop, at http://www.pcpitstop.com. The program scans your computer, runs some tests, and then tells you areas in which your computer needs improvement. This is a great utility – give it a try!
This area is for you: if you have questions about search engines, websites, or using your computer in general, send me an e-mail and I’ll feature your question in an upcoming issue! (I promise I won’t use your real name…..)
Legally Relevant – Sites on the Internet
Justice Research and Statistics Association
JRSA provides a clearinghouse of current information on state criminal justice research and conducts research on nationwide problems such as domestic violence data collection. There are links here to each state’s statistical analysis center, information on the Association’s current projects, publications to read (many of them free), and a great set of links and resources on criminal justice. You can also search the InfoBase of State Activities and Research, or ISAR, to find state reports on crime. This is a valuable site for the criminal justice researcher.LLRX.com Research Guide
Edited by Sabrina Pacifici and Cindy Chick, LLRX is a terrific site for the latest on legal research on the Internet. One feature of LLRX is Zimmerman’s Research Guide, by Andrew Zimmerman. The front page of the guide is deceptively uncluttered. You can search for a topic by keyword, browse the alphabetic index, or view all the subjects. The Guide itself is essentially a huge encyclopedia of legal information, from A.M. Best to Zoning. Clicking on “Superfund” took me to a brief description of the environmental regulations involved, with links to relevant sites. Zimmerman describes the site as a work in progress, which might explain the unevenness of the coverage – for example, there are 6 Subject links to Ohio information, but only one to most of the other states (though those single links do contain multiple links to similar information). This is a great legal reference tool for lawyers and librarians alike.Portal B ($$)
Portal B advertises itself as “the world’s first integrated business information portal.” I couldn’t browse the site unless I registered, but I was able to take the tour, which showed me a search form that allowed you to enter business-related keywords and narrow your search based on the form of corporation, industry, subject, or geography. Similar to Google, the search results will also include information found in .PDF files; you can also download table information to a spreadsheet. There are also premium databases and specialty directories available. If you want more information, you have to send them an e-mail or subscribe. The potential is great – but I don’t know if it lives up to its promise.EEO News: Workplace Law Radio
This is a great idea. The folks at EEO News present periodic Internet Radio shows on employment law. Sign up for the e-mail service to be notified in advance of upcoming shows. There’s a list on the page of past shows; unfortunately, I wasn’t able to access the shows themselves. The page for each past show has some good resources and information on the topic presented, but the link to listen to the show only played whatever was playing live at the time, not the past show. I would imagine the shows themselves are worth a listen – some of the topics seem pretty interesting. Make sure you have RealPlayer before you tune in.The Heart: An Online Exploration
This site is presented by the Franklin Institute Science Museum in Philadelphia. It looks like it’s geared primarily to students, but I would imagine this is a great tutorial for anyone in the workings of the heart. Read information about the heart and heart-healthy menus, view movies and animations describing how the heart works, and see other online resources on the subject. An educational site.
The useful site this week is the whichbook.net. You can specify the types of books you like on a sliding scale (Happy or Sad? Expected or Unpredictable? Conventional or Weird?), and the Book Forager suggests books to you based on your preferences.
How long ‘til your soul gets it right? Find out how many lifetimes you have left to live at the Karmometer.
I leave this one for last, because your appetite may be gone once you see this site. It’s the Top 10 Ugliest Couches in America. And boy, are they ugly.
Well, that’s it for Issue #43– I hope you liked it! If you did, pass this along to anyone you think might be interested, and encourage him or her to subscribe. Also, feel free to drop me an e-mail any time if you have questions, or if you have websites or other topics you want included in a future issue.
Tom Mighell
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