Play nice.  Become friends.  Be good communicators. The National Center for State Courts and the Harvard Kennedy School of Government recently published a paper, “Keeping Courts Funded: Recommendations on How Courts Can Avoid the Budget Axe“, explaining how state courts can better advocate for funding by approaching the budgetary process proactively, effectively, and humbly. [Oh my!]  …

  It’s Friday and time for another edition of Straaaaange Cases!   For reasons made obvious in this report but which will not be repeated here, a judge in Racine, Wisconsin recently reviewed the case of a young man in a library who was definitely not doing any research.    The judge set bond for…

A fascinating story in the New York Times reports that while it s generally thought that bad news is more popular in traditional media, “if it bleeds, it leads,” the opposite is the case in social media:  more social media reports involve the excitement people want to share about good news, wonderful discoveries, or advances…

What peeves me about libraries is all the rules that reduce people to five-year-old kid status — who wants to be treated like that? A world of shaming and blaming and tisking and tasking.  “I see that giant 2 liter bottle of Coke that you are hiding under your coat — now hand it over!”…

It’s Friday and time for another edition of  Straaaange cases:   A lawyer who barked like a dog at a witness during a deposition has been fined $8,500 for misconduct and harassment. Apparently, the lawyer started barking like a dog when a witness was asked about some letters at issue in the case, and “behaved…

International Women’s Day has been observed since in the early 1900’s, a turbulent time in the world when there was a combined boom in population, industrial technology, and the urgent fight for individual rights.   In 2013, women are still fighting for equality and paying dearly for challenging the status quo.   There is the…

If you were at the Witkin Awards this year you had quite a treat:  a tribute to legends of the bar, as well as an awesome outpouring of love and feeling for the late Hugh Friedman, the courageous Bob Trentacosta, the legendary Bob Steiner, and the unbelievably gracious and generous Matt Hervey. The display cases…

JohnnyZ is the shorthand nickname of Johnny Really Rotten Zero, the slightly crazed alter ego of a mild mannered law librarian somewhere in Southern California.  His formal name — J.R.R. Zero — is what he uses for his serious publications, but Johnny is informal for the On Tap! blog.  You may also see him referred…

Last week, Baja’s Association of Craft Breweries (ACABC) announced the date for the Baja Beer Fest first Edition in Ensenada — March 23rd! As last year, the festival will tour around Baja to promote the its craft beer industry. According to the Cervezas Artisanales Mexicanas (CeArMex) — your one stop blog for your beer and brewery…

On Thursdays, On Tap posts feature contests that get you thinking and learning, and the pay off can be any number of quality prizes from our goodies grab bag.   Today’s puzzle:  find the hotspots. What is a hotspot?  One example: it’s one of those clever blurbs that you see when your mouse hovers over a…