[blindlaw] The Blue Book

[Tim Elder]

Hi Jim,
 I'm a first year at the University of California Hastings College of the
law in San Francisco.  I've had good luck with the accuracy of scanning the
blue book. That being said I haven't really had a chance to really test it
on a deep level yet.   So far, the biggest problem is gaining access to the
organizational elements of the book.  The book is very difficult to navigate
around.  So far I've been able to dodge really intensive independent
citation work but I'm entering the school's journal writing competition at
the end of the semester.  I'm sure I could do the work by using the
electronic version I have scanned but not with the time intensive schedule I
have to negotiate.  As others have mentioned onlist, Cornell's website has a
few resources for accessing Blue book citation.  These resources have
sometimes been helpful but sometimes not.  I've convinced the Disability
Resource program at Hastings to hire a reader who is extremely familiar with
the Blue book layout to help assist me in my Journal writing competition.  I
would love to be able to access the Blue book independently in a way that
was comparable to those who have access to all the visual ways that the book
is organized.  

If I had a voice in the publishing of the Blue book I would have a few
suggestions.  It would be great to see the book available in some sort of
online version where both sighted and blind users could benefit from digital
html cross reference links.  I'd love to see Westlaw or Lexus Nexus
incorporate an electronic version of the Blue book into their current
service.  Maybe that's too much to ask but it seems like a win win for both
companies.   

-----Original Message-----
From: blindlaw-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:blindlaw-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of McCarthy, Jim
Sent: Wednesday, April 04, 2007 8:08 AM
To: NFBnet Blind Law Mailing List
Subject: [blindlaw] The Blue Book

I received some recent inquiry about the Blue Book in other words, the
citations bible for many law students and an essential companion of anyone
who participates in law review or other law journals during the period of
law school.  When I was in law school, admittedly fifteen years ago, the
Blue Book was available on tape from Recordings for the Blind and Dyslexic.
I always thought that this was not the most desirable medium to convey its
information though the RFB&D readers did a conscientious job of illustrating
the citations examples.  My understanding is that today RFB&D still makes
the Blue Book available.
It is now in DAISY format but they still only utilize the audio function and
not digital text.  This means that although technology has improved a lot,
younger students are still listening to explanations of citation examples
rather than having the ability to look at them in Braille or using a screen
reader for review.  This though I think the latter two options would make
them easier to understand.  Apparently, Bookshare has a scanned version of
the bluebook but they admit it is full of errors, so I am told.

This all has me wondering a couple of things.  I want to hear from list
members who were on Law Review or other law journals.  I would like to know
how you managed the cite checking required of you in these activities.  This
would include swapping tasks for a task easier to perform, using a reader
for the Bluebook citation reviews or whatever other methods you devised.  I
also wonder if anyone avoided these activities because of their access
difficulty, perceived or actual?  You can respond to me off list if you
would feel more comfortable.  My intention is not to challenge anyone's
competence as a blind person or the like.  Instead, I think those of us who
are lawyers, and those of us on our way to being lawyers should work toward
making this essential publication usable in today's electronic digital
environment and I think that having stories will help me play a part in that
process.  Your stories are most appreciated.  My email address is
jmccarthynfb at earthlink.net.  Thanks Jim McCarthy
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