Each month we nominate library student workers for Employee of the Month. I thought you might like to know that your classmates are working hard for your benefit, and they are the absolute best of the best!

May gave us the outstanding Kyle Olson, June was all about Jake Beers, and Ken Yu owned July.  All three were library stalwarts throughout the long hot summer, and we couldn't have run as smoothly without them.

Hats off to these great employees and when you have a chance, give them some thanks for doing such good work for all of us — and all of you.

Milburn Line has been selected as the new executive director of the Joan B. Kroc Institute of Peace & Justice (IPJ) at the University of San Diego’s Joan B. Kroc School of Peace Studies.  Mr. Line has worked in the field of human rights for more than 15 years on a number of international missions and projects, including in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Colombia, Guatemala, Africa.  His duties at the IPJ will include working in conjunction with the School of Peace Studies to put the School and the Institute on an international platform to foster peace and justice world-wide.

For a roundtable discussion of whether or not John Yoo, a tenured profesor at UC, Berkeley should be fired for his role in producing Justice Department memos that allegedly justified the torture of terror suspects, check out this article from the NY Times: http://roomfordebate.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/20/torture-and-academic-freedom/

Today is the first day of classes.  It is exciting to see all the new and returning students pursuing their studies with such purpose and vigor…or dragging themselves into the library with glazed-over eyes and shell shocked surprise.

The faculty look perky too.  A summer of rest and relaxation…writing that inspirational article on the latent design defects that warrant strict liability for the new iPOD touch. 

But whatever your physical or mental state, we welcome you to the library and wish you well in your pursuit of knowledge, wisdom, and the best grades you can snag. For faculty, our wish for you is that you stay one step ahead of these bright minds and manage to keep your focus and drive throughout the semester.

Good luck!

Check out techcrunch about the free speech and copyright debate that is unlikely to cool down any time soon.

Sometime last week Flickr took down a photoshopped image of President Obama that makes him look like the Heath Ledger (Joker) character from The Dark Knight. The image was created and uploaded to Flickr by 20 year old college student Firas Alkhateeb while “bored over winter school break.” It was also later altered yet again by someone else and used to create anti-obama posters that went up in Los Angeles.

What a mess of legal issues.  Flickr counsel says they had to remove the image pursuant to a DMCA takedown notice [check out the FAQs].  But what about all the funny satirical photoshopped images of Bush, et al.? Were they ever removed like this?  Don't bet on it.

Courtport, LLC, a legal research and technology company, on Tuesday announced the launch of FreeCourtDockets.com, which enables anyone to retrieve full court dockets from any U.S. district civil, criminal, or bankruptcy court, as well as from the U.S. Supreme Court, the U.S. Court of Claims, and the U.S. Court of International Trade.  At this time access is granted by invitation only, and anyone can apply for an invitation on the site.

The 2009 World Humanitarian Day will be observed on August 19^th as designated by General Assembly Resolution A/RES/63/139.

The purpose of World Humanitarian Day is to increase public awareness about humanitarian assistance activities worldwide, the importance of international cooperation in this regard, as well as to honor all humanitarian and United Nations and associated personnel who have worked in the promotion of the humanitarian cause and those who have lost their lives in the cause of duty.   More information on World Humanitarian Day including Q & A and a 60 second public service announcement can be found here.  You can find materials on humanitarian law in the Legal Research Center at KZ 6454 through KZ 6471.

In Jones v. Harris Associates, the Supreme Court will decide whether or not mutual fund investors can recover for excessive fees collected by fund advisors.  To see briefs and other documents for this case, go to: http://www.scotuswiki.com/index.php?title=Jones%2C_et_al.%2C_v._Harris_Associates

The iPhone is getting more and more fans as a college-textbook reader.  The Wired Campus reports that one of the new publishers involved in theis project is Elsevier (Lexis's parent co), so law textbooks may be in the offing.  While the idea of looking at snippets of cases on a small screen may not be appealing, the app has a zoom and scroll feature that makes it easier than you might think.  You still can't make notes in the margins, though.

Google announced today that it will let authors use Google Books to distribute works that they have published under Creative Commons licenses. Readers will be able to download the copyrighted books and share them with other Google Books users as long as they comply with the authors' decisions on how the material can be used. (There are six different Creative Commons licenses, which let authors require, among other things, that their books can be repurposed only with attribution or only for non-commercial use.) 

Many firms no longer let young associates bill their hours to clients at high rates. Instead, they're treated as apprentices.

This provocative article by Michael Orey is from Business Week. 

Drinker Biddle & Reath, which has 12 offices in the U.S., announced in May that, instead of deferring start dates for new attorneys, as many firms have done because of the recession, it will put new grads in a six-month apprenticeship—at reduced pay and billing rates.

This can only highlight the value of having good research and writing skills, and experience in the practice of law.

Recommended reading!