Each month, the librarians of the Law Library will be highlighting a particular website or resource that we think might be of interest in an e-mail to the faculty. We are repeating the information here as a “running archive” of this information. The list below lists the non-academic sites.
Open Congress/Open Government
via http://www.opencongress.org/ and http://opengovernment.org/
The movie All The President’s Men famously advises to “follow the money.” Open Congress facilitates that undertaking for Congress. Open Government has started with several of the states and is working on adding more. These sites are also extremely useful for following issues of interest and tracking bills. Both of these sites are sponsored by the Sunlight Foundation. [January 2013]
Polling the Nations
via http://poll.orspub.com/
If you need reliable data to support a statement about public opinion on economic, social or political policy issues, here or abroad, Polling the Nations is an outstanding resource. This Axinn Library database includes public opinion survey data from the United States as a whole, from individual states and cities, and from more than 100 other countries. Coverage is from 1986 to the present, updated weekly. With Polling the Nations, you can locate survey results on issues and individual questions from the most reputable polling organizations, such as CBS and ABC News, the Pew Research Center, Gallup, Roper and a wide range of others from academia, the media and special interest organizations. The database is searchable by topic, keyword, geographic area, date and source organization. Remote access will require a network login. [February 2013]
The Oyez Project
via http://www.oyez.org/
“The Oyez Project at Chicago-Kent is a multimedia archive devoted to the Supreme Court of the United States and its work. It aims to be a complete and authoritative source for all audio recorded in the Court since the installation of a recording system in October 1955. The Project also provides authoritative information on all justices and offers a virtual reality tour of portions of the Supreme Court building, including the chambers of some of the justices.” The project’s most exciting archival efforts include its audio files. In the About section of the website it is noted that “[t]he audio archive contains 110+ million words in 9000+ hours of audio synchronized to the sentence level.” There are even mobile apps on the website, and the About page includes links to the apps and a description of them under the heading “Oyez Apps.” “We have created two separate apps for smart devices (iPhone, iPad, Android phones) that extend the use of Oyez content. PocketJustice focuses on the Court’s constitutional jurisprudence, giving users case abstracts, opinions, and audio from their devices. OyezToday concentrates on the Court’s current activities with swift delivery of abstracts, opinions, and audio. Both apps enable easy clip creation. Just flip, tap, listen, clip and share. It’s that simple. And both apps come in free versions.” Go to a deeper level of research on groundbreaking decisions from our highest court with The Oyez Project. [March 2013]
Open States
via http://openstates.org/
The Sunlight Foundation launched a site with searchable legislative data for all 50 states, D.C. and Puerto Rico. Open States is the only comprehensive database of activities from all state capitals that makes it easy to find your state lawmaker, review their votes, search for legislation, track bills and much more. [April 2013]
Internet History Sourcebook Project — Medieval Legal History
via http://www.fordham.edu/Halsall/sbook-law.asp
This site, hosted by Fordham University, gathers references to online primary sources for historical documents, including the law. The “Medieval Legal History” page, in particular, provides links to primary sources in Roman, English, Germanic, Jewish and Islamic law, among others. From the page devoted to the law of the Salian Franks, for instance, one learns that “if any person have wished to strike another with a poisoned arrow, and the arrow have glanced aside, and it shall be proved on him: he shall be sentenced to 2,500 denars, which make 63 shillings.” [May 2013]
States Perform
via http://www.statesperform.org/Default.aspx
States Perform is an initiative of the Council of State Governments that provides users with access to interactive, customizable and up-to-date comparative performance measurement data for 50 states in six key areas: fiscal and economic, public safety and justice, energy and environment, transportation, health and human services, and education. Compare performance across a few or all states, profile one state, view trends over time, and customize your results with graphs and maps. [June 2013]
A fantastic, free, well-respected security tool for keeping track of the myriad of passwords required for websites. LastPass is also quite easy to install and use. For a $12 annual fee you can access your LastPass database on your cell phone and tablet. [January 2013]
The Atlantic Cities, sister site of the well-known magazine, The Atlantic, “explores the most innovative ideas and pressing issues facing today’s global cities and neighborhoods.” With sections focusing on topics from jobs and economy to lifestyle, and from technology to design, this site brings readers the latest in news, data and trends from urban centers in the U.S and around the world. The site is free and is searchable by keyword, by city and by features such as “Urban Wonk,” Videos and Rankings. [February 2013]
As many people become more concerned about search engines and what they do with an individual’s searching history and other personal information, there are search engines available that explicitly state their mission to keep an individual’s search information private. DuckDuckGo is one search engine that promises to do exactly that. It promises to keep no individual information and to protect its users’ privacy. DuckDuckGo’s motto is at the left bottom of its search screen, and it says simply this: “We believe in better search and not tracking.” Find out more about this search engine and the way it differs from other search engines at http://donttrack.us/. [March 2013]
Each month, curators, museum directors, historians and educators from some of the world’s most renowned cultural institutions reveal the hidden stories behind particular works, examine the curation process and provide insights into particular masterpieces or artists. [April 2013]
ESE uses a beta version of Google Custom Search Engine to search more than 23,000 economics websites and utilizes yolink to mine results and retrieve actionable, keyword-rich content. Results can be saved to Google Docs, bookmarked or shared via major social networks. Each site is certified by RFE, which is run by economists from RePec Author Services and EDIRC. [April 2013]
Fallacy-a-Day posts podcasts covering the different logical fallacies that so often appear in conversation and argument. The podcasts offer a quick and fun way to review common fallacies and dodges in logic and reasoning. Although the site appears to be on hiatus, there is an ample archive of fallacies to explore. [May 2013]
The World Database of Happiness is an archive of research findings on subjective enjoyment of life. It brings together findings that are scattered throughout many studies and provides a basis for synthetic work. [June 2013]
