I have the wonderful job of researching dozens (maybe hundreds?) of different legal rags everyday. There are definitely some good legal news resources out there, and we thought we’d let you share a few of your favorites with us. For example, I enjoy the Osmosys Legal Industry Monitor for generic legal news (plus it is FREE!!)
We have a number of contributions this week. If you didn’t contribute, but don’t see your favorite resource, go ahead and add it to the comments.
Since I’m having to post this from a conference, next week’s Elephant Post asks about “non-traditional” conference that you like. So, after you’ve bookmarked all these resources, go ahead and scroll to the bottom and contribute to the next post!
WSJ Professional alerts
Marilyn Bromley
Law librarian
I use it for CI by tracking our competitors, industries, markets and trends. The search interface is very unsophisticated, so I have to deal with lots of false hits, but when it finds something useful, in real-time, it makes me look good with my stakeholders!
Roadsync
Harold Goldner
Lawyer
Roadsync is one of only two Android applications that will enable users to sync Outlook tasks with their handsets. Since we are a TimeMatters shop, and my to-do list is integrated into contacts, cases, and other case-specific records, I sync from TM to Outlook twice daily (beginning and end of day). Roadsync enables me to keep most of that information with me on my Android phone.
Lexology
Karen Sawatzky
Law librarian
It’s organized, authoritative, well-written, and even includes a search box! What more do you need in a legal resource?! I’ve filtered it so I only receive info on areas of law my firm practises.
Google Reader
Catherine Deane
Law Librarian
With Google Reader, I can create RSS feeds of multiple news sources, and easily use either the Google Reader interface, or Google Reader Play to scan the headlines and abstracts for news articles from blogs, and other news sources. Then I can read in detail, or email to others relevant legal news.
My reader feed currently contains over 30 different sources that cover the topics of: Academic librarianship, law librarianship, law and the legal profession, legal news, news for law professors, news for law students, and general current awareness.
Some of the most useful sources are: Law Librarian Blog; beSpacific and Legal Theory Blog
But my new favourite is Library Stuff
Google Reader / Google Alerts
John Hafen
Lawyer
I subscribe to updates posted on numerous online news sources and blogs (including this one) through Google Reader. I also follow online news related to specific keywords through Google Reader via Google Alert feeds.
Contrary to popular belief, RSS is not dead!
Twitter
Megan Wiseman
Law Librarian
Twitter gets a bad rap some days. At the risk of beating a dead horse, however, I’d like to defend Twitter’s immense usefulness: Glancing up and down my Twitter feed is the first thing I do once I turn on my computer for the day; it’s the last thing I do before hitting the kill switch at night. …and no, I do not use it to advertise what I ate for lunch, or how crowded the bus was that morning.
It’s my up-to-the-minute news feed for out-of-the-way tidbits of information. I’ve not gotten into “”trending”” very much, but understand its usefulness … quite often, I don’t have anything particular I’m looking to know, I just want to know it all!! And Twitter does that for me. I recommend following these folks if you want to get a good river of information in the legal and library sectors flowing past your eyes: AmLawDaily, lawyerist, HotLawTopics, LexisNexis, lawdotcom, bobambrogi, ALA_TechSource, govloop, ALALibrary, aallnet, natlawreview. (At the time of this posting, all the listed sources had posted sometime in the past half hour.) I use it to spark conversation, get ideas, find resources, and general news. So lets all Tweet like the birdies Tweet!
Law 360
Nicole Snyder
Law Librarian
I use Law 360 because it allows me to quickly focus in on my firm, other firms and companies that are of interest to me.
Next Week’s Elephant Post:
What “Non-Traditional” Conference Do You Go To (Or Would Love To Go To) And Why?
I’m sitting here at the Ark Group Conference in New York (#ARKLIB) – because apparently, I’m the only Geek that knows how to compile all the Elephant Post contributions – and got to thinking about how much I enjoyed the high-level discussion we were having. So, I thought I’d make it into the next Elephant Post and see what other conferences are out there that may sit outside the mainstream.
Go ahead and fill out the form below, or email me, or DM me on Twitter if you have something you’d like to share with the rest of us.
See you back here next week!!