Anurag Acharya, Chief Engineer of Google Scholar,  will be the guest on this week’s edition of BlogTalkRadio’s “The Law Librarian.”  The discussion will focus on  Google Scholar’s new Legal Opinions and Journals product.
Co-hosts Richard Leiter, Marcia Dority Baker, Greg Lambert, and Roger Skallbeck will discuss the development of Google SLOJ and Google’s plans for their future foray into legal research. They welcome in advance any questions or suggestions for topics to talk about with Mr Acharya.
The show will air this Friday, December 4, at 3:00 PM Eastern Time.  Listen live at http://blogtalkradio.com/thelawlibrarian, where you can listen, call in with questions or comments and join the discussion in the chat room.

Westlaw has heard from many in the law school community about the Lexis ASPIRE program (blogged last week) and will be launching its own plan for those soon-to-be law school graduates impacted by start date deferrals and similar circumstances.  The program will be called YourLegalCareer dot com and the website will bring together a number of useful Westlaw resources including links to free CLE courses through WestLegalEd Center, a discount subscription to Attorney Jobs, and options to request a free password for pro bono or other work.  It is expected to be up and running by the end of May, so stay tuned.

A recent post from the rips-sis listserv points to a recently published article entitled “The Virtual Tax Library: A Comparison of  Five Electronic Tax Research Platforms” by Katherine Pratt, Jennifer Kowal & Daniel Martin of Loyola Law School in Los Angeles (8 Fla. Tax Rev. 931, 2008).  The article studies and compares the tax research platforms of BNA, CCH, RIA Checkpoint, Lexis and Westlaw.  It also provides a comprehensive listing of many free tax information sources online, including government sites, tax scholarship sites, policy organization sites, and blogs.  The article is available on Westlaw:  The Virtual Tax Library: A Comparison of Five Electronic Tax Research Platforms.  An earlier edition is posted on SSRN and has the virtue of including all screenshots and Appendixes A and B which are tables comparing the 5 platforms (the Westlaw version doesn’t include the visuals).