I have written several times on this blog about open access journals, and I have re-posted some of the wickedly funny cartoons served up daily by Piled Higher and Deeper (PhD). Open access journals are the focus of PhD’s cartoon yesterday (it’s too big to repost here, but click through and enjoy – then come back here for the rest of this post!) (update: I’m not the only one who has used this cartoon as a jumping off point to discuss the future of online scientific publications – Lukas Ahrenberg does too). In one of those rare cases of serendipity which the universe’s roll of the dice can throw up, Quinn Norton has an excellent introductory piece on open access in yesterday’s Irish Times; here are some extracts (with added links):

Open Access leads the way in promoting academic research

WIRED : Scholars are embracing the internet to bypass publishers and speed the process of research

… In the mid-1990s Peter Suber, a research professor of philosophy at Earlham College in the US, got on the internet and learned how to make web pages. Like many in academia, he decided to post his papers. He was delighted with the response. “I was just playing with a new tool (html) and started receiving correspondences from philosophers,” he says. “I wrote for impact, and I was finally getting impact.”

He and others began to see the web as a way to bypass the publishers and speed the process of research. … The idea became the Open Access movement. A meeting in 2002 produced the Budapest Open Access Initiative, which defined Open Access as “Free availability on the public internet . . . without financial, legal, or technical barriers other than those inseparable from gaining access to the internet itself.” Read the rest of this entry »

On Slaw, Michael Lines lauds a presentation by Paul Holdengraber, Director of the Public Education Program at the New York Public Library:

Yesterday’s Keynote was probably one of the best talks on any topic I have ever heard. Inspiring, elevating, and hilarious, Paul Holdengraber delivered a wonderful message about reading, conversation, and libraries that has to be seen to be appreciated. Have a look at it here …

It’s wonderful, a rousing and triumphant vindication of libraries everywhere (even though the server seems to be picky about whether it will let you view it). Unfortunately, the powers that be don’t seem to see libraries in these terms. Rachel Cooke – journalist with the Observer and Guardian – has been blogging and writing about luddite UK policy relating to libraries:

If those of us who love books, and libraries, and believe they are a vital, beautiful and cherishable part of our cultural and social heritage, take our eye off the ball now, we will regret it. We must make a fuss, and we must name and shame those who are set on destruction.

Her colleague John Cooke is similarly concerned. There do not seem to be similar threats here, but let’s see what next Tuesday’s budget brings.

The title of this post is a famous quotation from Thomas Jefferson (left); and it’s apt for the coming week (here’s an equivalent week earlier in the life of this blog).

The week of 2 March to 8 March is Library Ireland Week (though Cork libraries are also running a year-long focus on reading: the Year of the Constant Reader). Then, next Thursday, 5 March, is World Book Day, with lots of events in Ireland for the day. And for the weekend, from Friday 7 March until Sunday 9 March, book-lovers have a choice between the Dublin Book Festival – with strong participation from Children’s Books Ireland – and the Ennis Book Club Festival.

Chomh maith, beidh Seachtain na Gaeilge ar siúl idir an 2ú Márta agus an 17ú Márta; agus cé go mbeidh se ar siúl ar feadh níos mó ná coicís, beidh a lán le deánamh!

The Oxford Standard for Citation Of Legal Authorities (OSCOLA) is fast establishing itself as the UK’s standard system of legal citation. It is at present undergoing revision, and the Editors welcome comments and suggestions by email before the end of the month.

It is important to disclose sources (not least to avoid charges of plagiarism), in as complete a fashion as will allow a reader to find the source easily. Systematic citation methods allow for accurate, comprehensive and consistent citation of references such as cases, statutes, books, articles, and so on; and, in the legal context, they will also provide valuable information about a case, such as when it was decided, the level of decision, and so on. There are many possible citation systems, of which Harvard maintains a very useful list of paper-based resources.

However, one citation system stands out, and this is one situation where you really can judge a book by its cover: the Standard System of American Legal Citation is universally called The Bluebook, because of the colour (or, I suppose, the color) of its cover (pictured right; see its wikipedia page). It was first published in 1926 (pdf); it is now in its eighteenth edition; and Peter Martin’s online Introduction to Basic Legal Citation (Cornell Legal Information Institute) is based on it. I’m not a fan: it is clumsy and overly pedantic, premised as it is on the formalist Langellian conceit that there can be a rule for every possible citation occasion. Worse than that, quite frankly, it simply looks ugly on the page. Hence, though it is the dominant US standard, I’m glad that even there it is not entirely without criticism or competition. In particular, there is the long-standing University of Chicago Manual of Legal Citation, which – maintaining the colo(u)r theme – is called the Maroon Book and on which theUniversity of Chicago Law Review has based its house-style; and the Association of Legal Writing Directors have produced a very accessible Citation Manual.

Outside the US, there are few examples of adoption of these standards. Instead, various jurisdictions have developed their own styles. For example, Australia has the Australian Guide to Legal Citation published by the Melbourne University Law Review Association. And the bilingual English-French Canadian Guide to Uniform Legal Citation (6th ed, Carswell, Toronto, 2006) has been produced by the McGill Law Journal (pdf summary here; html summary here).

However, most of these guides continue to be available in print, and for a price (though The Bluebook is also available online by subscription). On Slaw, Gary Rodrigues has argued that there should be free and open online access to the McGill Guide (an argument which could with profit be applied to the others as well):

A Modest Proposal – The McGill Guide

… Like the Bluebook, the McGill Guide has the potential to provide the “systematic method by which members of the legal profession communicate” to one another in Canada. What is needed to achieve this result? One key element is easy access which could be provided if the McGill Guide was made available to judges, lawyers and law students on all of the online services in the country including CANLII, SOQUIJ, and every commercial legal publisher. … The widespread use of a single style guide will help to ensure that legal citations and references are complete and useful. By making the McGill Guide available virtually everywhere, the likelihood is greater that it will be used by an increasing number of members of the legal profession, especially if its use is reinforced in training programs for judges and lawyers. …

There are some general online citation standards, such as The Columbia Guide to Online Style, some of which have been applied in the legal context (see, in particular, Rodrigues’s Electronic Citations and Case Citators – Collaborative Outsourcing).

Not only does OSCOLA provide an elegant, coherent and consistent system of citation, but its great benefit is that is openly, fully and freely available online. There is as yet no standard Irish system of legal citation – what might, perhaps, be called a Green Book – though the style guide used by Round Hall publishers may provide a potential starting point. As a consequence, OSCOLA is what I recommend to anyone who is desperate enough to ask for my advice about citation style. It is an excellent venture, well worth supporting. Check it out; and if you have any comments about it, get them to the editors before the end of the month!

I love libraries – from the wonder that is the New York Public Library through the workaday necessity of my university’s very fine library to the welcome of the local lending library – so the following story in the Irish Times caught my eye:

At the library

Few State services provide greater customer satisfaction than the public library. Some 14 million people visited one last year, a rise of one-sixth in five years, according to a national survey of users [Report | Summary | Press Release (all pdfs)] commissioned by the Library Council. …

Ireland has a long tradition of support for public libraries. Legislative backing began with the Public Libraries Act in 1855. In the early 20th century, American philanthropist Andrew Carnegie provided finance for local authorities to build 80 libraries. In 1947, the government adopted the principle of state aid for public libraries [in the Public Libraries Act, 1947]. In the past decade government and local authorities have made a substantial financial investment to improve facilities. …

According to the press release (pdf):

Introducing the survey results, Norma McDermott, Director of the Library Council, paid tribute to library staff whose helpfulness scored a remarkable 97% satisfaction rate among library users. ‘Library managers and staff should be very proud of the service they provide’, remarked Mrs McDermott: ‘library staff are committed to giving excellent service to the public and their work is clearly appreciated by library users who have given them a huge vote of confidence’.

Well, this is certainly one library user who is happy to endorse that vote of confidence.

I like the Carnegie Foundation, not least for its founder’s support of Irish and Scottish libraries, one of which was my local library when I was growing up (and it features in the lovingly written and beautifully produced Brendan Grimes Irish Carnegie Libraries. A Catalogue and Architectural History (Irish Academic Press, Dublin, 1998), though its court wing is no longer up to the mark). However, there is much more to the Carnegie Foundation than that. As the homepage of its website puts it:

Founded by Andrew Carnegie in 1905 and chartered in 1906 by an act of Congress, The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching is an independent policy and research center with a primary mission “to do and perform all things necessary to encourage, uphold, and dignify the profession of the teacher and the cause of higher education.

One of its classic publications it its 1921 Bulletin Training for the Public Profession of the Law by Alfred Z. Reed. Now comes a wholly new report on Educating Lawyers: Preparation for the Profession of Law, the fruits of a two-year study of legal education in modern American and Canadian law schools Read the rest of this entry »

1 March (BBC | Wikipedia), and thus St David’s Day in Wales (perhaps, then an appropriate – or unfortunate – day for Welsh police to uncover a large illegal distillery in Cardiff), but it’s also: … Read the rest of this entry »

I learn from Michael Geist’s blog that in the New Yorker this week, Jeffrey Toobin has an excellent piece on the Google Books project and the litigation it has spawned. It is well informed, and balanced, both qualities which have been sadly lacking on all sides of the debates about the project. Of his several good points, three stand out; though one of them might not be true on this side of the Atlantic. Read the rest of this entry »