Meet Meg Butler, Editor of the Subject Compilations of State Laws database on HeinOnline.

For four decades Cheryl Nyberg, former law librarian, skillfully edited this award-winning product, recently passing the torch to Meg.

Meg will discuss her law library experience and background, Nyberg's mentoring, and her new role at HeinOnline. She will also give a short tour of the database.

"This database has revolutionized historical state subject searching as the most comprehensive source for identifying thousands of articles, books, government documents, looseleaf services, court opinions, and the Internet sites that compare state laws across 3500+ subjects. It offers users quick access to over 28,000 bibliographic records, many with extensive annotations. Notably, the annotations link to more than 14,000 articles and documents on HeinOnline, while others connect to case law or external websites. Additionally, users can access current and past volumes in the series and other related works linking to 800+ full-text documents within HeinOnline."

https://libguides.heinonline.org/subject-compilations-of-state-laws

Bio

Margaret (Meg) Butler is Law Librarian Professor and Associate Director for Public Services at Georgia State University College of Law Library. She teaches both introductory and specialized legal research courses. An active member in the Association of American Law Libraries, her publications include annotated bibliographies on a variety of subjects. She has also worked in legal publishing for over 20 years.

Date: Wednesday, March 27th

Time: 12:00 pm Central Time - 1:00 pm Central Time

Place: Online via Zoom

Zoom information to be announced.

If you have any questions you would like to ask Meg, please send them to me by EOD Monday, March 18th.

 Texas Business Courts

Byron Egan, partner at Jackson Walker and author of Egan on Entities: Corporations, Partnerships and Limited Liability Companies in Texas,  presented to DALL members the development of the Texas Business Courts which are coming to Texas in September 2024.

The link to Mr. Egan’s bio, a brief article by him summarizing the Texas Business Courts legislation, and the Zoom location are below. A summary article by him about the legislation is linked below.

Mr. Egan’s bio: Byron F. Egan - Dallas Corporate & Securities Attorney - Jackson Walker (jw.com)

Mr. Egan’s summary of the legislation: Understanding the New Texas Business Court - Jackson Walker (jw.com)

Yet, there are other state business courts...

According to the National Center for State Courts, in the last 4 years, the 4 states that have created statewide business courts are:

1.The Georgia State-wide Business Court ( created by constitutional amendment in 2018; implementing legislation adopted in 2019 );

2. Wyoming Chancery Court (created by statute in 2019; effective date of December 1, 2021);

3. Utah Business and Chancery Court (enacted 2023 , the effective date/stand-up date is October 2024);and

4.Texas Business Court (enacted in 2023, the effective date/stand-up date for the court is September 2024). HB 19 created the Texas Business Court.

Delaware’s Court of Chancery, established in 1792 and often cited as the first business court in the U.S., does hear other case types. By 2020, 25 states had this type of specialized court.

2023 PLLIP-SIS Summit in Boston!

The Private Librarians and Information Professionals SIS of AALL invites you to attend the 2023 PLLIP Summit on Saturday, July 15, in Boston.  Librarians from all library types are welcome to join us for Navigating the Here and Now.

More than three years after a minuscule organism triggered massive upheaval in our lives, we’ve adapted to new settings, resources, and communication methods.  But are we thriving?  This year’s Summit will focus on developing “soft” and practical skills in our hybrid environment and explore ways to perform to our potential in our new digital reality.

 

The day will offer a mix of librarian panels, professional presentations, discussions and networking.  Breakfast and lunch is included with registration.  Click on the link below for more information.

 

2023 PLLIP Summit

2023 PLLIP Summit Agenda

2023 PLLIP Summit Speaker Bios

Countdown to PLLIP Summit

DALL-E-2 is an image generator Chatbot

Another Chatbot from openai.com is an image generator named DALL-E-2, which is no relationship to Dallnet.org.

Online registration is free, and offers inspirational examples.

Attached are three examples, limited by your imagination, but created from your text. I encourage you to try this out. 

If you assemble these machine drawings into a book, can you claim copyright?

 

Let the races begin with AI Chatbots – This is just the beginning

Almost everyone has heard about OpenAI, the artificial intelligence company, and its premier tool ChatGPT. The Dallas Association of Law Librarians will host a virtual program on February 23^rd at noon Central Time. Arthur Weiss of AWARE will be the guest speaker. He will discuss the potential benefits and applications of ChatGPT for librarians and attorneys. This new application has the potential to revolutionize the way research is done. Explore his posts about his experiments with ChatGPT:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/arthuraweiss/recent-activity/shares/?locale=fr_FR

Register for the DALL virtual program here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeq6l6VXhcfRHJCVWo3ti_uM24CASNPZOr3U1RHNHhFHLzoFg/viewform

But how many have heard of the other OpenAI tools, such as DALL-E-2 and Whisper?

DALL-E-2 creates original images or art from text descriptions. https://openai.com/dall-e-2/ You can create interesting images with a free registration. This tool provides a lot of visual fun.

Whisper is an automatic speech recognition system that creates transcription in multiple languages and translates several languages into English. https://openai.com/blog/whisper/

Several investors, such as Elon Musk and Microsoft have invested millions to develop these tools. In fact, Microsoft is incorporating ChatGPT into BING, while Google is creating a rival tool named BARD. This is a battle to watch.

Before ChatGPT, there was LawDroid

Tom Martin has developed LawDroid to automate several document routines. He has been developing for several years. Tom has two no-code products, CoPilot and Builder that also merit attention. https://lawdroid.com/

After the fanfare dies down, and the errors produced by Chatbots are corrected, many businesses will become more efficient as these tools mature.

To track information about Chatbots read the Verge, which seems to be the first to report about the functionalities of Chatbots https://theverge.com

 

 

 

RSVP to the 2022 DALL Kick-Off

September 15 @ 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm

There are two great programs for the 2022 DALL Kick-Off!

DVAP
Noon – 12:30 PM
Dallas Volunteer Attorney Program (DVAP) Michelle Aldean, DVAP Director Kristen Salas, DVAP Mentor Attorney. How volunteers can make a difference.

TRELLIS
12:30 PM – 1:00 PM
CEO Nicole Clark will discuss Trellis, a State Trial Court Research & Analytics solution via WebEx.  This platform offers state trial court records for legal research with analysis on judges, opposing counsel, verdicts, motions, dockets, and legal issues.  Discover how judges have ruled on similar motions, or gain insight on opposing counsel, prospects and clients.

Lunch will be served. When you register, be sure to select from the Velvet Taco.

Kevin Miles (DALL Past-President) Has a New Column in Spectrum

Congratulations to Kevin Miles on his new AALL Spectrum column: Practical Competitive Intelligence! Kevin begins his column by "Breaking Down the Basics."

https://www.aallnet.org/spectrum_article/practical-competitive-intelligence-breaking-down-the-basics/ (You may need to log in to access.)

DALL Resolution Endorses Enactment of UELMA in Texas

Once again, DALL's executive board formally adopted a resolution to support adoption of UELMA in Texas!

What is UELMA?
The Uniform Electronic Legal Materials Act ("UELMA") seeks to ensure that online official state legal material -- namely constitutions, session laws, codified laws, and regulations are unaltered, preserved, and permanently available to the public. UELMA offers an outcomes-based approach leaving it to the individual state enacting UELMA to decide how best to ensure the requirements of the statute are met.

This concept may already be familiar to some as the federal government has taken steps to ensure that federal government documents are authenticated. When accessing documents provided by the GPO, such as those available on Govinfo, the words "Authenticated U.S. Government Information" appear on the first page, and the certification provided by the Superintendent of Documents can be examined.

UELMA was drafted by the Uniform Law Commission and has wide support from the law community, including support by the American Association of Law Libraries, the American Bar Association, and many other regional and local law library associations.

For more information concerning UELMA visit AALL's website:  https://www.aallnet.org/advocacy/government-relations/state-issues/uelma-resources/

You may also wish to visit the Uniform Law Commission's website concerning UELMA. It features a helpful status map so you can identify where other states are in their process of enacting UELMA. According to the map, 20 states have adopted UELMA:
https://perma.cc/NCE7-VC8J

A bill for the passage of UELMA in Texas was filed in our current legislative session. You can see the bill here:
https://capitol.texas.gov/BillLookup/History.aspx?LegSess=86R&Bill=HB402

To assist in UELMA's passage, contact your Texas State Senator and State Representative and urge their support of UELMA in the next legislative session visit (or if you live in another state get in touch with your senator and representative):
https://wrm.capitol.texas.gov/home

SJSU School of Information offers a free Blockchain MOOC

As you know, a MOOC is a Massive Open Online Course. 

San Jose State University School of Information will be hosting a six-week MOOC, Blockchain and Decentralization for the Information Industry, March 11–April 21, 2019. Registration is free and requires a few hours a week of lecture.

No prior knowledge of Blockchain is required.

Learn the following from readings and online videos.

1.    Overview and history of Blockchain
2.     Standards, legalities, security
3.     Related Blockchain-like systems, decentralization
4.     Limits of the technology, ethical concerns, new types of proofs
5.     Use cases in public libraries, academic libraries, museums, archives
6.     Future directions

Jason Griffey is the instructor.

Texas Internet Service in Disaster Areas

Representative R.D. "Bobby" Guerra introduced H.B. 1426 on February 6, 2019 to amend Texas Government Code 418.194 to prevent reducing mobile Internet service in a disaster area.

Learn more about Representative Guerra and his current bills.

Track H.B. 1426.

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

AN ACT

relating to mobile Internet service access in an area subject to a declared state of disaster.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

SECTION 1.  Subchapter H, Chapter 418, Government Code, is amended by adding Section 418.194 to read as follows:

Sec. 418.194.  MOBILE INTERNET SERVICE IN AREA SUBJECT TO DISASTER DECLARATION.  (a)  In this section, "mobile Internet service provider" means a person who provides mobile Internet service to a wireless communication device as defined by Section 545.425, Transportation Code.

(b)  A mobile Internet service provider may not impair or degrade lawful mobile Internet service access in an area subject to a declared state of disaster under Section 418.014.

SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 2019.