Tag Archives: Technology

Spring 2019

Microsoft Office Tips and Tools

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Since one of my hats is tech trainer in our legal writing classes, sharing how to use Microsoft Word effectively as a lawyer, I look forward to what I learn at the ABA TechShow each year about new features of Microsoft Office.

Often I’m able to from the folks who are most familiar with the legal applications of this core software. Ben Schorr, a Senior Content Developer for Microsoft, spoke at one session I attended and was called on to answer questions as an audience member at others. He recommends the Office for Lawyers Facebook group as a great way to learn new tips, best practices, and more. 

If you attended this show – sessions and/or Expo Hall, please feel free to share your own favorites tips or tools in the comments! Continue reading Microsoft Office Tips and Tools →

Spring 2019

What is Legal Technological Competency?

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Several of the sessions I attended at the ABA TechShow worked to define what technological competency is in the legal field (including law schools) or how it’s approached in law firms, including “Tech Competencies: Past, Present & Future”  to “Can Technology Competency Help You Get a Job?”

Other sessions in the Academic Track, “Law School Tech Training on a Shoestring” (presented by Joe Mitzenmacher and Debbie Ginsberg) and the “Technology in Law Schools: A Single Course or Curriculum Integration?”  looked at the work librarians are doing to create “legaltech” training programs for law students within the law school curriculum.

Most of all, I was encouraged to see this topic brought enthusiastic speakers and audiences from a range of backgrounds, not just law school librarians but everyone from firm hiring managers to new law students. The presentations were excellent, but so was the ongoing context provided during the Q&A, so I’ve included my live tweets here that to illustrate this broader conversation at the TechShow.

Continue reading What is Legal Technological Competency? →

2019 Issues, Winter 2019

Visual Literacy & Fake News

We’ve all heard the saying “A picture is worth a thousand words.” Have you ever taken a moment to ask why?

If pictures affect us differently than text, how can we use the power of pictures to enhance our communication? On the other hand, how can we make sure we aren’t being manipulated?

Librarians are experts in managing information, but visual information is viewed, interpreted, accessed, and stored very differently than textual information. Still, though we may need other tools or resources to find and review images, I believe our analytical skills and frameworks are just as relevant to evaluating the value of images as information.

Continue reading Visual Literacy & Fake News →

Summer 2018

Conference Review: CALIcon 2018

From June 7-8, 2018, thanks to the generosity of the CALL Grants and Chapter Awards Committee, I attended CALIcon 18 at American University Washington College of Law, in Washington, D.C.

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In addition to attending several excellent sessions presented by librarians, IT professionals, and law professors, I also presented a session of my own, entitled “How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bot.” In this column, I will highlight a few observations and experiences from my time at the conference. Continue reading Conference Review: CALIcon 2018 →

Spring 2018

ABA Techshow Review

I recently attended the ABA Techshow in Chicago.  Not only was this my first Techshow, it was my first non-library specific conference as a librarian, and it provided me with a view from the other side of the legal profession, i.e. practicing as opposed to academia. Fortunately, this was also the first year the show had an official Academic Track, which consisted of five sessions over two days. During this time, I not only attended all five (and the keynote by Professor Daniel Katz from Chicago-Kent), but also several other sessions on data security, as well as spoke with many of the vendors. Continue reading ABA Techshow Review →

Fall 2017

Sixty Tech Tips at MAALL Joint Meeting

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Modeled on the 60 tips in 60 minutes presentations we’ve attended at the end of the annual ABA TechShow each year, Debbie Ginsberg and I created a round-up of our favorite websites, tips, apps, browser extensions and more.

We hope you find helpful tips for your work below, whether they match your routine tasks  or an new project in an area that’s new to you–from accessibility to graphic design to Microsoft Office and social media, we covered a wide range of topics.

Want to browse quickly? Here’s the full list of tips, organized by topic with links! Continue reading Sixty Tech Tips at MAALL Joint Meeting →

Spring 2017

Looking Back on the CALL Website

It may be hard to believe, but CALL has had a website for over 20 years. In honor of CALL’s 70th anniversary here are a few notable events in the evolution of CALL’s web presence, drawn from the CALL Bulletin and minutes of the CALL executive board.  Thanks to the Internet Archive, we even have a few screenshots of what earlier pages looked like. I hope you will enjoy this look back at how the CALL website evolved. Continue reading Looking Back on the CALL Website →

Spring 2017

The Law Library on the Cusp of the Digital Age

Ed. note: This story originally ran on the University of Chicago Library website. Special thanks to the author for allowing us to reprint it here.

There’s a hand drawn map of the law library’s second floor Reading Room that harkens back to a barely digital age—a time when card catalogs and bound volumes of Shepard’s Citations took center stage and the latest technology included a dedicated Lexis machine with a dial-up modem and a clunky comcat (computerized catalog) terminal that couldn’t even search whole words. It appears to have been created some eight or nine years before the library was expanded, renovated, and renamed in honor of Dino D’Angelo, ’44, in 1987.

Hand drawn map of the D'Angelo reading room Continue reading The Law Library on the Cusp of the Digital Age →

Summer 2016

TechBuzz: Report on #CALIcon16 in Atlanta

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What’s the buzz?  After a hiatus, Heidi Kuehl, Lyonette Louis-Jacques, and Therese Clarke Arado are excited to be returning to the regular column scene with the re-emergence of the CALL Bulletin TechBuzz column.  The return of the column brings you a wonderful re-cap of the CALI Conference for Law School Computing by guest columnist Margaret Schilt, Associate Law Librarian for User Services, D’Angelo Law Library, University of Chicago Law School. 

Future columns will cover numerous topics of interest to law librarians, including artificial intelligence, Westlaw answers, CARA, a look at past TechBuzz topics to see if the technology or service has stood the test of time, and much more. The responses to the CALL membership survey indicated an interest in more technology related topics.  Please feel free to contact one of us with ideas you would like to see covered in the column:  Heidi Kuehl, Lyonette Louis-Jacques, and Therese Clarke Arado. Continue reading TechBuzz: Report on #CALIcon16 in Atlanta →