INTERNET LEGAL RESEARCH WEEKLY
September 9, 2007
Tom Mighell

Welcome to Issue #278 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!

News Update -- from the Inter Alia Weblog

No news this week -- just my usual:

Blawgs of the Week
A selection of some of the great law-related weblogs I covered this week on Inter Alia:

  • There aren't many paralegal weblogs around, which is surprising to me. One of them is the appropriately-titled A Paralegal's Blog, which is written by Christine Parizo, a registered paralegal who works for a solo practitioner in Western Massachusetts. She's providing news, views, and information, all from the paralegal perspective.
  • Blawgletter offers "Business trial law with a sense of humor." It's published by Barry Barnett of Susman Godfrey's Dallas office.
  • Here's another blog from the firm of Davis Wright & Tremaine -- the Broadcast Law Blog discusses all things about broadcasting. Topics include advertising, digital radio, the FCC, indecency, Internet radio, political broadcasting, and much more.
  • Here are two blogs from Dallas lawyer Scott Deatherage, of Thompson & Knight. The first is an interesting niche blogs for environmental lawyers: The New Carbon Cycle provides news and analysis of the rapidly evolving law and policy surrounding carbon trading and markets, climate change, and renewable energy.
  • This other blog from Scott is simply titled Law and the Environment, and it features commentary and insights on the complex and evolving legal, policy, and scientific issues relating to law and the environment.

Help Desk

Here's another tip for you Word users out there. One of the great features of Word is the ability to read and compare two documents simultaneously -- it's especially good if you want to compare the differences between two different versions of the same document (if you don't have a redlining program). Here's how to do it in both Word 2003 and 2007:

In Word 2003, open two documents. Choose one document, and then select the Window menu and choose Compare Side by Side with [other document]. That's it! By default, your scrolling is synchronized, so you can move through both documents at the same time. To turn it off, click the Synchronous Scrolling button on the Compare Side by Side toolbar.

In Word 2007 you have two choices. To use the same feature as above, open two documents, then click to the View ribbon and select View Side by Side. Right beneath it is the button for Synchronous Scrolling that you can toggle on and off.

If you want to review two versions of the same document, click to the Review ribbon, click on Compare, and select Compare Two Version of a Document. A dialog box will pop up so you can browse for the two versions. You can then specify how you want the changes labeled, then click OK to view the two versions.

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!

Legally Relevant – Sites on the Internet

Wound, Ostomy & Continence Nurses Society
Here's another association for a specific type of medical nurse. This organization is composed of over 4,000 nurse professionals who are experts in the care of patients with wound, ostomy, or continence problems. There's a Members Only place, but the non-member can find good information here, too -- although you may have to pay for it. The Publications link will get you to a journal, newsletters, best practice sheets, position papers, and other documents. There's an Education page, Quick Links to government, professional, and public websites, data on Advocacy and Policy, information for people with these medical problems, and a lot more.

Northwestern Colloquy
Northwestern University Law Review is using the weblog format to publish law review articles. Each post is really a mini-law review article, which you can read online or download as a PDF. Recent articles include "Is the 'Junk' DNA Designation Bunk?", "Why the Blight Distinction in Post-Kelo Reform does Matter," and "Massachusetts and EPA: Breaking New Ground on Issues other than Global Warming."

Copyright Advisory Network
The American Library Association provides this page for librarians to learn about copyright and get help when they have copyright troubles. There's a forum where people can ask questions and get help, as well as a blog on library copyright issues. You'll also find a great page of copyright resources, including articles and sites, books, cases, a "keeping current" page, lists, and organizations. Unfortunately, the blog hasn't been updated since April, and it doesn't look like the forums are visited very often -- that's a shame, because this could be a great resource on the subject.

CrossExam
CrossExam is a fully searchable database of expert witness depositions and trial transcripts. You can search by keyword or browse by case name, expert name, or expert type. Each deposition costs $150.00; alternatively, if you upload an expert transcript, you will receive credits that allow you to download another deposition for free. This site isn't as well populated with depositions as sites like IDEX or the Association for American Justice's database, but it's worth looking to see if your expert is listed here.

Digital Librarian: Business & Finance
This is just one page from the Digital Librarian website, which provides "a librarian's choice of the best of the Web." This page is devoted to Business & Finance links -- from Advertising to Trademarks, there are a lot of good links here. The page was last updated in April.

Finally, some fun and useful sites to start off your week:

The Maps Game is fun, but tough. Click Start, and then use Google Maps to find a city, landmark, or other item around the world.

Find a video from YouTube that you want to download to your computer? Check out ConvertTube, which will convert the YouTube video to MPG, MP3, Flash file, or other format (Warning: Be aware of digital copyright).

Well, that’s it for Issue #278 – 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

Subscription Information: If you want to keep on receiving issues of the Internet Legal Research Weekly, send me an e-mail at tom(at)inter-alia(dot)net, or visit Inter Alia and sign up there! If you no longer want to receive the newsletter, just click on the link at the bottom of this newsletter.

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

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