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Welcome to Issue #117 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 visit Inter Alia and fill out the subscription form -- it's free!

Thanks for your input on the HTML vs. Text versions of the newsletter! In general, the majority of you prefer to read HTML, but there are a few of you who either can't read the HTML properly or would prefer to receive it in text. Therefore, starting today the Internet Legal Research Weekly offers its newsletter in TWO (count 'em, two) versions -- HTML AND Text!! All of you are already subscribed to the HTML version -- if you would rather change over to Text, just let me know and I'll get you switched. Thanks!

June's search engine developments
Greg Notess reports on new developments with the major search engine in June's Search Engine Update.

Free = Music to a researcher's ears
Given your druthers, you'd rather conduct your Internet research for free, right? I thought so. Unfortunately, the trend is in the opposite direction nowadays, with more content providers beginning to charge for their online offerings. A few publishers don't like this, and a group in the UK has a plan to offer medical research for free online. In the U.S., the Public Library of Science is leading a similar charge, but this time through an amendment to copyright law.

Viva Vivisimo!
This week SearchDay featured a nice review of my favorite metasearch tool, Vivisimo. One of the great features of Vivisimo that I don't mention often is the advanced search page, which allows you to select specific search engines or sites for your query. That way, you can focus your search on only a few sites, which can go a long way to narrow your results.

Paying $$ for Old News
Finding current news online is easier than ever nowadays; with sites like Google News, NewsNow, and RocketInfo, you can find literally hundreds of articles on any news story that's currently "hot." When the news turns old, however, it becomes harder to find. That's because, after a period of time, most news sources place their articles in "archives," and charge a fee for entry to these collections. Larry Krumenaker discusses The Top 100 Newspaper Archives (Or Lack Thereof) in this month's Searcher.

Go Way Back -- Instantly!
I'm way behind in reporting this, but one of my favorite sites, the Wayback Machine, now features a toolbar link that allows you to instantly access the pages of the archive site. Just drag the link to your toolbar; the next time you want to see an earlier version of a website you're visiting, just click the Wayback link, and you'll be taken directly to a list of archived pages for that site.

Taming your Inbox
Dennis Kennedy has a terrific article for the Missouri Bar Association on effective e-mail management. It's chock full of great information for anyone who uses e-mail, not just lawyers.

Archiving on a cache basis
Sometimes when you're searching, the site you're looking for just isn't available -- either it's down for repairs, Internet traffic is particularly heavy, or the site has ceased operations altogether. That's where the Google cache comes in handy. You can view the most recent version of the page in a "snapshot" format that has been captured by Google on its last crawl of the site. Not quite as useful as the Wayback Machine, but still a great feature. Now the Google cache is coming under fire, and some say it was only a matter of time. Lawyers and website owners argue that the cache could subject Google to copyright violations, for providing access to registration-only information and other copyrighted material.

Blawgs of the Week
Time again to visit those law-related weblogs that caught my eye this week. First up is my friend Tom Mayo's HealthLawBlog. Tom is a professor at SMU Law School who knows a heck of a lot about the subject of health law, so keep coming back as he gets the blog up and running. Next is Charterschoolaw.com, a blog devoted to the specialized topic of charter school law. EDC Legal Advantage is maintained by George Dearing of Executive Development Corporation, a new service that aims to "connect the individual lawyer to the world of information through a personally customized, single interface that selects and delivers the pertinent information necessary to service clients." And Pennsylvania attorney Janell Greiner, author of the previously-mentioned BenefitsBlog, has launched another weblog, ERISAblog. Janell, where do you find the time to run two weblogs??

Researching the Beehive State

We haven't visited the legal resources of one of our fifty states recently, so what say we do that this week? Next up is Idaho; although not as exotic as our last state, Hawaii, the Gem State is certainly no slouch when it comes to online legal resources. Here's where to find those research diamonds in the rough.

As always, we begin with the executive branch, and the official state website, Access Idaho. From the home page you can access a wealth of information, including links to education, government, health and safety, laws and rules, tourism and transportation, and employment information. There are also a number of online services here; they are divided up into Business, Citizen, and Government Employee services. You can: run the business wizard to see the regulatory requirements of operating a business in Iowa; obtain corporate documents; reserve campsites; purchase licenses; search the offender database; and much more. A listing of Idaho's governmental agencies can be found at the Agency Index.

Compared to the state website, Idaho's legislative online presence is rather plain. The Idaho State Legislature provides legislative information for the 2003 session, including bills, a session calendar, and committee assignments. There are also links to legislators and publications relating to legislative matters. Access to Idaho's Statutes can be accomplished through one of several pages; browse the table of contents, or search by keyword or phrase.

The Idaho Judiciary has a big, wide home page -- it is not well-designed, and the disappearing submenus make it very difficult to navigate. And it apparently hasn't been around very long, because the opinions offered online go back to December of 2002. Nevertheless, you can search or browse Supreme Court and Appellate Court opinions as well as court rules and forms, review judicial rosters, and get information on judicial administration, court assistance, the media, and other issues. Idaho has six separate "district courts," and from the home page you can access all of them, including the First, Second, Third (Under Construction at this time), Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth. Idaho's Federal Courts are all accessed from one page, the U.S. Courts for the District of Idaho, and the state is part of the Ninth Circuit.

Finally, let's take a look at several online resources that might be of use to those researching Idaho legal issues. A local court reporting service has made the Idaho Civil Jury Instructions available online; I'm not sure if they are current, but if so they sure are useful. If you need to search for offenders who are currently under Idaho's jurisdiction, check out the Idaho Department of Corrections. For researchers both in and outside of Idaho, the Idaho State Law Library has a decent collection of links on Idaho legal resources, plus online access to the library's catalog. And speaking of libraries, the law library at the University of Idaho School of Law has a set of (adequate) research links. And someone known only as "JWright" has a page of Legal Resources for Idaho Attorneys -- it ain't fancy, but it looks pretty comprehensive. Last but not least, the Idaho Bar Association (which appears to have the same web designer as the state home page) has a terrific amount of resources for Idaho attorneys, or those wanting to learn more about them.

Do you have an Idaho Internet resource I have missed? If so, drop me a line and I'll try to mention it in an upcoming issue!

You may have noticed the phrase "Requires Flash to view" on some of the websites you visit. What is Flash? It's software that web designers use to create simple animations. It's not imperative that you use Flash, but having it on your computer can greatly enhance your surfing experience. Just head over to the Macromedia Flash site. It's free and easy to install. You'll be glad you did.

Do you have a question about searching the Internet or your computer in general? Drop me an e-mail at tom(at)inter-alia(dot)net – I’ll post your question (don’t worry, I won’t use your real name) and try to get an answer for you!

Library of Congress Authorities
A useful site for my library science subscribers, the Library of Congress makes available free of charge the authority headings for Subject, Name, Title and Name/Title combinations of books in the LOC network. You can enter search terms and browse the results, or download the entire collection in MARC format (librarians, you know what that is) for use by a local library. These records enable librarians to provide uniform access to materials in library catalogs and provide clear identification of authors and subject headings.

Reference Guide to the Geneva Conventions
From the Society of Professional Journalists comes this great site on the Geneva Conventions, those rules applying to conduct during times of war. Here you'll find the full text of the Geneva Conventions and their history, but the best link takes you to the Quick Index, which allows you to see specific rules in alphabetical order. There are also some useful links to online resources, as well as a listing of publications to learn more about the subject.

Search-SEC
This site is designed as a tool for the self-directed investor, legal and financial professional, and it essentially provides another access to EDGAR filings by publicly-traded companies. In that respect, it's not much different from other EDGAR sites you'll see -- just enter a ticket symbol and you'll get a
long listing of filings for that particular company. It's a clean design, and best of all, it's free.

Alliance for Digital Progress
The ADP is "a broad-based group of companies, associations, consumer organizations, and public interest groups. ADP strongly supports the protection of all forms of digital content." It strongly opposes laws forcing the private sector to design, deploy, or use technology to protect entertainment content in digital form. There's not much to the site except for a few fact sheets on the specific issues and some other resources on the recording industry and government matters, but it gives a good overview of the organization.

LawPeriscope
Law firm websites are a huge untapped resource of legal information. LawPeriscope aims to help you find this information, and offers a search engine that helps you to locate alerts, newsletters, client memoranda, articles, seminars, case summaries, attorney biographies, practice area descriptions and other information from the 300 largest law firms in the United States. A quick search of "Sarbanes-Oxley" retrieved 308 articles and alerts. This is a wonderful resource that not many people know about.

Want to send a message to the dearly departed? With Afterlife Telegrams, you can. Just pay $5 per word, and terminally ill volunteers will deliver your message when they cross over.

Running around like a chicken with your head cut off? Want to put your best foot forward? Check out Idiomsite.com to learn what those and other idioms mean.

Well, that’s it for Issue #117 – 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.

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Questions? New websites? Just want to talk? Send me an e-mail at tom(at)inter-alia(dot)net.