Just bitchin'

Even in libraries, which I celebrate as being pink, the male voice is heard more clearly than the womens’ voices. How often have I sat in a group of library directors and watched as a woman makes a point. It passes without comment. And just a minute or two later, a man says the EXACT SAME THING, and lots of agreement is voiced. What is this? A translation service?!?

There seems to be this continuing disparity where the voices, either real time voices, or written, e-mailed, whatever, of women are just not being heard. It’s an amazing thing to watch. And I’ll bet readers of OOTJ, male and female, have seen this happen.

I don’t think it’s a conscious thing. But I’m getting really tired of it, dammit. If a woman says something bold or critical, even now, in 2007, it comes off as butch or bitchy. A man saying the same thing sounds bold and critical. What is this? Are we still living under a double standard?

I guess we are.

Sheee-it.

User burden -- starting a discussion?

Earlier this week, I gave a lecture to students in a judicial clerking seminar, emphasizing how to do a New York state legislative history. At the close of the seminar, Judge Weston-Patterson asked the students to comment on the lecture, asking if they used books in their research. None of them were familiar with the notes and decisions in the annotated codes, except for one student who had interned with a labor law firm. She said that working with the books left her less anxious than searching on-line. Indexes and outlines helped her think through a topic. This was an insightful comment. Another student said he found books intimidating and actually wanted more guidance into using the books.

I left the lecture very hopeful on the role of books in law. I was surprised that a law student would find books intimidating.

The experience also brought up the whole idea of user burden. If you are going to use on-line services, you need to buy auxiliary tools (computer, cables, plugs, electricity), purchase an on-line serive, and then learn alternative formats (folio, pdf, ascii, browsers, e-mail). Then you have to learn search languages. Electronic publishing requires the user to purchase the interface. A book is a more self-sufficient technology.

Now that is just for the computer. What would also bear discussion is how much law is hidden. At my reference desk, I get questions from people being evicted from public housing. Administrative law and law judges opinions are not well published. User burden: finding that stuff out. Blogging law--how many disgrunted employees who blogged and then got fired knew about duty of loyalty to employer? It is in the Restatements.

I wonder how much user burden is tied into de-regulation of government. This fleeting thought has potential.

What is a library?

Libraries these days have a lot of different dimensions – they function in different ways for different patrons, and at different times for the same users. I love the idea of libraries dimensions. Terry Pratchett, one of my all time favorite writers, features libraries and librarians in a number of his books, positing L space, a special folding of time and space wherever too many books are in close proximity. My idea of library dimensions is not quite as magical or entertaining as Pratchett’s, but it is the same general idea.

Libraries today function, as they always have, as a repository of books and other materials. Librarians select titles, whether for print books and journals or for online databases. Once selected, the library must acquire the resource, either buying it or licensing it. And once acquired, the library is also responsible for keeping the material and (usually) making it available on an fair basis to users. We make up circulation rules and track who has what for how long. We have to make sure the physical space is dry, clean, pest-free to keep print materials safe. We also have to make sure the database is working, surge-protectors are in place and users understand how to use these resources. So, in one major dimension, libraries select, acquire and preserve information

As always, there are various specialized tools to locate what you want in that mass of stuff. In the earliest libraries, in ancient Greece and Rome, the materials were scrolls and the finding tools were librarian memory, occasionally lists on the end of “shelves” and tags on the scrolls. Today, we have online catalogs that are searchable in a number of ways. You can search by keyword, by Library of Congress subject heading, by call number, by title or author. Having found a title, you can virtually browse up or down from it in the online catalog, check whether it (should) be on the shelf or is checked out, and place a hold on the item or request it (if you’re a faculty member). There are other finding tools as well – indexes, digests, databases that can be searched. In this dimension, libraries help people find the information that has been gathered and preserved. This ranges from cataloging and labeling to reference work.

A third dimension for academic libraries is as a teaching resource. We select books, indexes, and databases with a special eye toward their use in teaching students. We cooperate with faculty and especially legal research and writing teachers to make sure the material they will be teaching is in proper order, current and available at the time of the class and/or exercise. We also host tours and instruction sessions in the library itself. So, we give tours to all 1-L students and often either bring books/materials to class or bring classes into the library to show students how research is done. We will make handouts, reading lists and web-ographies for faculty and either come into their class or bring the students to the library for instruction on research to support the coursework. At Suffolk, we actually have a specialized classroom in the library. When the building was constructed, we added a seminar-size room surrounded by erstwhile study rooms. When classes are held, professors can have students use the study rooms for break-out sessions as they either brainstorm in small groups or practice skills such as client counseling or ADR.

A fourth dimension in academic libraries is their use as study space. In this function, libraries need to ensure quiet (well we try!) space without distractions. We reserve study rooms for groups. We referee arguments between students over the use of study rooms and study space. We also stock study aids.

A fifth dimension of all libraries is their use as a social center. Students meet in the library for shared tasks. They also meet friends and potential mates in the library. There seems to be, in fact, a mysteriously aphrodisiac effect to law books. I don’t know if other types of libraries have this issue, but something about sitting quietly reading law seems to lead many library users to sexual activities. We retro-fitted our study rooms with glass windows in the doors. Partly, this was a safety issue, but partly, it was because at closing time, our student workers interrupted more than one couple in flagrante delicto.

A sixth dimension is as a retreat. Students who feel pressured by faculty often feel they can relax with the librarians. We make a point of being friendly and welcoming. We don’t assign grades (at least most of us don’t), and we say, “There’s no such thing as a stupid question,” as if it were a mantra. I hung out in my law school library, and I am sure there are a lot of others who felt the same way. This is also why libraries keep sofas. Law students who don’t feel sexually aroused at reading case books may feel sleepy instead.

And the last dimension I can think of, is as a showcase. Libraries usually are made (at least partially) on a grand scale, with views, and/or large, impressive reading rooms. The library is used on tours for potential students and for recruiting faculty and deans as well. It is the incarnation of cultural and intellectual aspirations. The beautiful library is a symbol of the scholarly aspects of the organization.

So much of what we do every day fits into one or another of these dimensions. These are all different ways that the library as a place or resource serves the law school (or court, or government or firm). Whether we are dealing with leaks, buying books, negotiating licenses, answering reference questions, teaching students, cataloging or shelving, we are negotiating the library in its many dimensions. When we plan or work out shared use of space, we need to think of the library in all its varied dimensions – sure you can save space by using all compact shelving, or by ditching all the print, but what does shrinking the library to a database do to the other services the library provides? So librarians try to communicate to decision-makers the different levels or dimensions of library service – it’s not just about buying a book and putting it on the shelf. I don’t think it ever was.

Oyez! Play S.Ct. Baseball

I have long loved the Oyez website (link in the title), which offers such amazing features as audio files of Supreme Court oral arguments. I just ran across a totally fun little piece of Oyez that let's the user choose which baseball figure is most like each justice. From the Oyez home page, choose "browse justices" and select a justice. Besides a lengthy and entertaining bio of the justice, at the bottom, you'll be able to play Supreme Court baseball! Yay!

Slate essay on First Monday Post Thomas' Revelations

Follow the link in the title to this post to read the Slate essay by Dahlia Lithwick on her take this week on First Monday after a slew of news articles and blog postings about various justices. And of course, there is Justice Clarence Thomas' vivid autobiography which was published on October 1.


My Grandfather's Son: A Memoir, reviewed in the New York Times as "exceptionally vivid," characterizing his confirmation hearings (involving allegations of sexual harassment by Anita Hill) as a "high tech lynching." Anita Hill responded in the New York Times opinion page.

I guess the Court seems more colorful this year.

Bookmobiles

For many populations, the bookmobile is a lifeline--people who don't live near a library, people with physical handicaps that make it difficult for them to visit their local library, the elderly, people who can't afford to buy books or computers. Unfortunately, in many parts of the country, this lifeline is disappearing. Today's article in the Boston Globe describes the ancient bookmobile in Beverly, Massachusetts that is "now a ragged shadow of itself." There are only four bookmobiles still operating in Massachusetts, and across the country, "bookmobiles are increasingly seen as irrelevant, and have been retired one by one." There are only about 900 bookmobiles still operating in the United States. It really seems a shame!

CALI offers courthouses help with Pro Se Litigants

Click on the title to this post for a link to a Chicago Tribute story about how the folks at CALI have created a program based on the law student lessons we are all familiar with, that leads a self-represented litigant through questions that create a form for court, or a letter to a collection agency, or even a health care power of attorney. Cool! Way to go, CALI! If you go to their website, they call this program A2J, which stands for Access to Justice. The questions are a "guided interview." So far, courts in Illinois, California and Idaho are signed on. The Legal Services Corporation (the same folks who provide Legal Aid to indigents) helped underwrite this and another self-help program, Hot Docs, apparently in cooperation with Lexis/Nexis.

NYC toxics from 9/11 covered up, denied by authorities

Discover Magazine has an in-depth article about the toxics released by the 9/11 attacks. There are various court cases moving forward and shockingly little being done even now about either recognizing or treating the effects of exposure on folks across the NYC area. Click on the title to the post to read an article that makes me want to stop breathing and I'm in Boston! Yikes! The article includes excellent links to helpful resources.

New Yorker on Jena Six

The New Yorker reports on the Jena Six and the protests that finally effected the dropping of charges in all but one of the cases. Recall that after a student asked the high school principal for permission to sit beneath the "white" tree in the school yard, nooses appeared on the tree.

Jena’s recent noosemakers, identified as a trio of white students, were recommended for expulsion by the principal, who was evidently conscious of this history, but a white school superintendent imposed suspensions only, on the ground that the tree display was a prank. In the days leading up to that decision, fights had erupted between black and white students, and the local district attorney, Reed Walters, reportedly gave a speech in which he warned students, “With a stroke of my pen, I can make your lives disappear.”

Last December, at the school, a black student coldcocked a white student, Justin Barker, knocking him briefly unconscious; other black students allegedly kicked the victim while he lay on the ground. Barker was treated for cuts and bruises at a hospital and released a few hours later. The police arrested six black students, aged fourteen to eighteen, and Walters charged them with attempted second-degree murder and a conspiracy count; if convicted, they faced up to seventy-five years in prison.

Jena prosecutors started reducing the charges to aggravated second-degree battery and conspiracy. Still, last June an all-white jury convicted one of the defendants, Mychal Bell, who was sixteen years old at the time of the assault, of crimes that threatened him with up to twenty-two years in an adult state prison. Michael Baisden, a black syndicated radio talk-show host who normally specializes in romance and its perils, undertook an on-air protest, along with others, which spread across black radio and then to the Internet. In late September, thousands of demonstrators descended on Jena. Last Thursday, Bell, whose convictions had been thrown out, was released on bail, after ten months in jail; Reed Walters has agreed to retry him as a juvenile.

The author, Steve Coll, in an opinion piece, goes on to comment that black observers see the Jena miscarriage of justice as a microcosm of the larger miscarriage of justice in these United States where

The number of blacks in prison has quadrupled since 1980. There are many overlapping causes, among them severe automated federal sentencing rules; a passionate but badly managed “war on drugs” prosecuted most heavily in African-American neighborhoods; and deepening inequalities in personal income and access to education, whose effects fall hardest on urban teen-agers. One study estimates that, if recent trends continue, a third of the black males born in 2001 can expect to do time.

I am glad the mainstream media finally picked up the story (try searching the New York Times online for Jena Louisiana).

Government CrackDowns in the Internet Age

Click on the title to this post to read a brief discussion of how various websites and social networks are covering the government crackdown in Burma (Myanmar). There is the Democratic Voice of Burma, a website based in Norway. and a Facebook group supporting the Buddhist monks who are leading the protests in Burma. Witness.org is another website linking interested viewers to footage of the government crackdown and giving handy links to the UN Secretary General to register outrage and demand action. Human Rights Watch offers more links and info. And the AAAS (American Association for the Advancement of Science) has released satellite images that document the military junta's abuses.

It's harder to be a military dictatorship in the age of the Internet, as the Chinese government has found (for example, read this report from Human Rights Watch on the Internet in China).