Many librarians – and now attorneys too, spend time looking at weblogs or blogs – otherwise known as web based journals. These journals help you keep up with general news and opinions. There is a group of them on the web now that address legal issues, subjects and general legal news. They are usually set up by lawyers, law professors, law librarians or others who study or practice law. These types of blogs are becoming known as blawgs – to indicate their law related subject matter.

You can monitor blogs or blawgs a number of ways. First, you can simply visit them on a regular basis using your web browser and a list of bookmarks or favorites. Or, you can set up a RSS Reader (RSS is Really Simple Syndication), which will monitor the web sites and feeds.  It will let you know when your blogs and news sites have new content. The one I use is called Bloglines. You can find it at www.bloglines.com. It is easy to set up and it is free. You simply need an email address and a password. Bloglines will suggest Feeds and blogs for you or you can look for them yourself and then add them to your list.

To find interesting ones start at the following web site: http://blawg.org/
This is a directory of legal weblogs – not a blog itself. It is easy to find blawgs here. The web site includes an introduction to help you set up a blog yourself and also explains more about the RSS Readers you can use to keep up with others blogs. To find legal related blawgs you can simply pick from the most popular ones – there is a list of them organized by subject.  The web site directory includes the RSS link – an orange button with the letters RSS or XML that looks like this.        Simply choose the button, copy the URL that appears and paste it into your RSS Reader. You can also search the Blawg Directory by the legal subject. For instance, if you search on contract law you will find the ContractsProfBlog – an academic blog maintained as part of the Association of American Law Schools (AALS) Section on Contract Law. This is one of the many law professor blogs that are available.

You can search the Law Professor Blogs directly at: http://www.lawprofessorblogs.com/
This site has law related blogs from contract law to tax law to criminal law – you name it and there is probably a weblog maintained by a law professor in your area of specialty.

There are many good blawgs that help you keep up with technology, case law, discovery and more. One of the newest is the site maintained by Preston, Gates & Ellis on electronic discovery. You will find this one at http://www.ediscoverylaw.com/.

Another interesting site for technology law – still haven’t decided what I really think about this one yet – is http://www.denniskennedy.com/blog/.

My favorite law librarian site is still Genie Tyburski’s Virtual Chase web site. She has a blog you can subscribe to at her site. Go to http://www.virtualchase.com/tvcalert/index.html and look for her RSS/XML News Feed near the bottom of the page. Genie’s site includes some of the best Legal Research guides for attorneys.

If you want a web site that keeps up with legal news – go to the Jurist site at http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/paperchase/. This is a breaking legal news site maintained by a professor at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law and is a good one-stop site for legal news. You can subscribe to the news feed – or even syndicate the headlines to add to your own web site or blog.

Three sites that appear to be the product of one attorney, Jerry Lawson, http://www.elawyerblog.org/; http://netlawblog.com/ and http://www.fedlawyerguy.org/
each have a slightly different focus – and link to other blawgs that might be of interest.

Setting up your own legal weblog is easier than ever. However, if you just want to monitor what others are saying, get yourself a RSSReader and start monitoring the blawg of your choice. Despite the fact that this is the April Fool issue of the Bar Bulletin, blawgs are not for fools, but rather for those attorneys who want to keep up with the law in a quick and easy way. The King County Law Library will be hosting a lunch break discussion on Keeping Up with RSS on April 21st. Feel free to come and join us to find out more. Call us at 206-296-0940 to register for the session.