Tools of the Trade, part II

More times than I can count, I have landed on the doorstep of fellow law library websites, using a pathfinder or guide created for specialized research.  These types of guides will show up often in my list of favorite things, but I wanted to start of with a guide prepared by Documents Librarian Jennifer Bryan Morgan from the Indiana University School of Law Library. 

Tracking down pieces of legislative history at the state level can be a tricky path to follow.  Thankfully, many state and law school libraries have put together pathfinders in order to point out what documents are available at each stage of the process and where you can find them.  Jennifer’s guide, State Legislative History Research Guides on the Web, allows users to link to these guides online in 50-state, one-stop-shopping style.

A site worth bookmarking and one I have used on several occasions when approached by bewildered students needing to do comprehensive state legislative histories.

Costs and Software for an Institutional Digital Respository

A new book just arrived here in the law library (its catalog record is copied below).  A couple of callouts:

Costs:

“The organizations in the sample spent a mean of $ 78,802 to develop the repository, with costs ranging from essentially nothing to one half million dollars.  Median spending was $ 30,000. . . . Mean spending in the USA was less then elsewhere, perhaps reflecting the greater number of institutional initiators of digital repositories in the USA.”  p. 25.

Software:

A sixth of the libraries in the sample used Digital Commons sofware, and 28% of US-based repositories used this product. . . . 37.04% . . . used DSpace, including more than 83% of the developing countries . . . ” p. 26

 

Title: The international survey of institutional digital repositories.
Edition: 2008 ed.
Imprint: [New York] : Primary Research Group, c2007.
Physical Description: 127 p. ; 28 cm.
Note: Chiefly tables.
          Subject (LC): Institutional repositories–Statistics.
          Subject (LC): Digital libraries–Statistics.
          Subject (LC): Library surveys.
          Organization: Primary Research Group.
                  ISBN: 9781574400908
                  ISBN: 1574400908

CALL NUMBER                                           
ZA4081.86 .I58 2007

Finding Fundraising Around the Clock

The Sunlight Foundation’s SunSpots blog is a great resource.  Today, the blog featured a special election season database.   OpenSecrets.org has created a “granular look at fundraising” by Democratic candidates.   This database shows you how candidates fundraising measures up, day by day, week by week, month by month and quarter by quarter.   This is an amazing snapshot of fundraising and a free research tool, too.