Fans of the legislative process have a new favorite Web site to frequent. C-SPAN has made digital copies of every program it has broadcast since 1987 available online. This video collection, totaling more than 160,000 hours, is searchable and is indexed by subject, person name, congressional committee, and several other fields. In addition to its coverage of Congressional activity, C-SPAN also broadcasts original programs, such as Booknotes, and America and the Courts. These programs are included as well, and the entire collection is available at no cost for education, research, review or home viewing purposes.

A large number of bar associations provide a benefit to members that gives them access to legal research services as part of annual association dues. For people wanting to compare these benefits across the United States, there's now an online map and matrix of related benefits from bar associations.

Here's a static version of the map, which you can also find here: Don't Know What Free Legal Resources Your State Bar Provides You? Here's a Map!

This map is from the 3 Geeks and a Law Blog site, where they strongly suggest that lawyers should "check out your bar association and see what they have to offer". The site's underlying data comes from a more detailed matrix of bar benefits that describes such benefits as mentor and ethics resources.

Legal research bar benefit services are provided by companies like Fastcase, Casemaker, Loislaw and Versuslaw. These services tend to provide more options than free sources such as Cornell's Legal Information Institute or Google Scholar Legal Opinions and Journals. At the same time, they don't provide the feature set of premium services such as Lexis or Westlaw. One thing to note: coverage may vary from bar-to-bar.

Back in December, two Georgetown law librarians gave a presentation focused on options for integrating low-cost legal research alternatives in private law firms. Part of this program suggested leveraging existing bar benefits. Materials from that event are online here:

• Evaluating Alternatives to Lexis and Westlaw: Handout
• Evaluating Alternatives to Lexis and Westlaw: Slides

The ABA Journal released it's third annual listing of their top 100 blogs for the legal professional. Unlike past years, the journal editors asked for reader input and as a result there are 40 completely new blogs not included in past issues.

The blogs are categorized by news, business of law, legal tech and more. One area of interest might be the section on career which features some blogs offering interesting perspectives of the legal profession and its changing environment.

As in past years, readers can vote for their favorite blog during the month of December.

The Cornell e-Rulemaking Initiative is previewing its new Regulation Room at http://www.regulationroom.org/.  Regulation Room utilizes collaborative tools and other innovative features to "increase and enhance public engagement during the administrative rulemaking process."

From November 12th - 22nd, Regulation Room is running a test commenting period on a proposed National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) rule on new tires.  Note that this is only a test, however, as the NHTSA is no longer accepting public comments on the proposed rule.

The Regulation Room is moderated by Cornell Law School students under the close supervision of Law School faculty and the Industrial & Labor Relations (ILR) School's Scheinman Institute on Conflict Resolution.  It is hosted by Cornell's Legal Information Institute (LII).

For more information, see the "About" and "FAQ" sections of the Regulation Room website.

Through Google Scholar's advanced search page, it is now possible to limit your search to case law and law journals available on the web. This includes law journal articles contained in select subscription databases. It is also possible to search journal articles and legal opinions combined, just federal case law, or just case law from a state of your choosing. The Internet for Lawyers web site has more information.

While this is an exciting and useful development, it is important to remember that not all law journals or case law is searchable through this interface at this time.

To be able to access journal articles in subscription databases when you are off campus, be sure to edit your Google Scholar Preferences to add Library Links for "Georgetown University Law Library."

In a recent decision issued by the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Georgia, a reporter's use of Twitter during a trial was prohibited according to Rule 53 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure. The reporter for the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer requested permission to issue tweets throughout the court proceedings of a criminal case, but the court found that this constituted "broadcasting" which is not allowed under the current rule.

West announced yesterday that 29 of its most popular law book titles are now available for the Kindle eBook reader. Titles include Guerilla Tactics for Getting the Legal Job of Your Dreams, Contracts in a Nutshell, and Justice Scalia's Making Your Case: The Art of Persuading Judges. A complete list is available from their press release.

In a proposed settlement for a class action suit, Facebook has agreed to shut down its Beacon marketing system. The agreement is before the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California: Lane v. Facebook Inc., N.D. Cal., No. 5:08-cv-3845, 9/18/09).

Beacon is a controversial Facebook system that monitors a users purchases on certain online venders and then publishes that information on the user's news feeds, read by the user's Facebook friends.

Facebook aslo proposes creating a $9.5 million settlement fund, partially to pay damages. Part of the of the fund would launch a privacy foundation to fund and sponsor programs designed to educate users, regulators, and enterprises regarding critical issues relating to protection of identity and personal information online through user control, and to protect users from online threats.

Read more about the case through the library's subscription to BNA Privacy Law Watch.

Full text of the Motion for Preliminary Approval of Class Action Settlement Agreement is available at http://0-op.bna.com.gull.georgetown.edu/pl.nsf/r?Open=dapn-7w6jg2.

Full text of the proposed Stipulation and Agreement is available at http://0-op.bna.com.gull.georgetown.edu/pl.nsf/r?Open=dapn-7w6jjb.

IMS ExpertServices posted an online list of 10 mistakes that lawyers and judges made while using online social networks.

Highlights of the list include a lawyer who asked for a continuance because of a death in the family but had posted Facebook status updates about going partying.

Another highlight was from a judge who friended a lawyer trying a case in his court. The lawyer posted a status during the litigation that "I have a wise judge."  Opposing counsel moved for a new trial and the judge removed himself from the case and granted the new trial. The state's Judicial Standards Commission issued a public reprimand for violating the prohibition against a judge engaging in ex parte communications.

This week the Sacramento Bee reported that a California judge ruled that a litigant may learn the identity of a person who posts an anonymous comment on a blog.

In the case Calvin Chang, a police officer for the University of California in Davis filed suit against UC, claiming discrimination and breach of a settlement agreement in a prior lawsuit. David Greenwald, who operates a blog called The People's Vanguard of Davis, wrote about the suit and people commented. Chang believes that one anonymous comment was written by a 'managing agents' of the university and contained information that would violate the agreement of the prior settlement agreement.

The California judge ruled that Chang can hire a third-party to investigate whether the author of the comment was a manging agent. If it was the court would allow Chang to request that Google, the Vanguard's former host, provide him with the anonymous poster's e-mail addresses and log-in information.

The Sacramento Bee also reported that the judge ruled that the First Amendment generally protects anonymous speech, but online anonymity may be breached. "When vigorous criticism descends into defamation, constitutional protection is no longer available."

Read more about the case in the Chronicle of Higher Education, provide through the library's subscription.