I was pretty darn excited to see that Westlaw has announced WestCheck.com, due out April 2004.
Just think, no longer will we have to evaluate and install Westcheck upgrades. We'll be able to do EVERYTHING on the web. If there's an update, it will automatically be made in one place, Eagan. Technology departments all over the country will be jumping for joy. Or at least, they should be!
I opened a new email account a couple of months back in preparation for closing down my old one because of the large volume of spam it collects. Within a couple of days I'd received several spam messages on my new, never used email address. Obviously the address wasn't harvested from listservs, web sites, or chat rooms, or any indiscretion on my part. So how did the spammers get it?
Michael Angeles sees many reasons to use weblogs for KM, and he details those reasons, plus much more, in his recent presentation, "Supporting Enterprise Knowledge Management with Weblogs: A Weblog Services Roadmap", given at the recent Computers in Libraries conference.
http://lawlibtech.com/archives/000324.htmlI've posted several entries about RSS resources and tools. This week I thought I'd define RSS for those of you who aren't familiar with it. I have a LOT of information on RSS to share with you, so I'll start with the basics, then continue posting on RSS tools and content.
I could tell you that RSS is an xml format for syndication of current web content. I could also tell you that it stands for Rich Site Summary OR RDF Site Summary OR Really Simple Syndication. But none of that really means much to most people. So let's discuss what RSS will do for you.
Did you know that you can search cataloging information on over 120 million books on RedLightGreen from RLG at no charge? Then you're one up on me, because I didn't until I read this entry from Librarian in Black. This is a great tool to use to confirm the existence of a particular book, and to learn which libraries in your area own it.
There are only a few authors that I watch carefully, purchasing every new book they write. Now I can monitor new releases by subscribing to Amazon RSS feeds for authors, keywords or categories. Genie Tyburski provides some welcome detail on how to set up keyword and author RSS feeds.
I'm afraid it's true, I rarely use another search engine. Yes, I know I should, I've heard all the search engine experts say so. Reliable statistics and studies demonstrate how little overlap there is in search results between the major search engines. Many even believe that Google results are becoming less relevant. But there, at the top of my browser, sits the Google toolbar, calling to me, beckoning, so easy, so satisfying.
There may be a cure, the "Mother of All Toolbars," called Groowe. Mary Ellen Bates reviews this new search toolbar, which is actually 17 toolbars in one, in her "Tip of the Month" for March.
Most law firm libraries have relatively small collections, often too small for a full subscription to OCLC to be economical. If your library falls in that category, but you'd like to be able to download OCLC catalog records for your online catalog, you may be interested in this item from Catalogablog, OCLC for Smaller Libraries.
Law firm libraries frequently deliver newsletters and current awareness information via email. The information contained in these materials is specifically requested by attorneys, and tends to be quite important to their practice.
But as the number of email newsletters grows it can add to an inbox cluttered with a large volume of legitimate emails, as well as the inevitable spam. So valuable information may go unread.
Ozmosys, a content aggregator, can provide web content, subscription newsletters and selected results from third-party products like Lexis Trackers and Westlaw's Intraclips all in one email. The same content can be presented in a firm's intranet or portal.
