By Elisabeth McKechnie and Susan Llano
Elisabeth McKechnie is a Reference Librarian at the
UC Davis School of Law Mabie Law Library.
She can be reached at .

Susan Llano is a Reference Librarian at the
UC Davis School of LawMabie Law Library.
She can be reached at .

“The Codex is Dead, Long Live the Codex,” by Wayne Bivens-Tatum, Academic Librarian, November 15, 2011, available at http://blogs.princeton.edu/librarian/
The death of the book has been much predicted with the advent of e-books and Kindles. The article’s author discusses why, in his opinion, the e-book will never fully replace print, both for ease of use and convenience.

“Undocumented Search Operators in Google,” by MG, Law Librarian Blog, December 5, 2011, available at: http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/law_librarian_blog
Having myself been frustrated by the lack of a proximity search operator in Google, I now shout for joy to find out about the AROUND operator, as well as other undocumented Google search operators. The blog article discusses them and points the user to http://www.googleguide.com/advanced_operators.html where the rest of them are listed. Talk about a joyous holiday gift for those of us who use Google daily!

“Finance and the Economy: Occupy Wall Street in Historical Perspective,” by Mark Jickling and Sean Hoskins, Congressional Research Service Report, R42081, November 14, 2011, available at http://fpc.state.gov/documents/organization/178216.pdf.
This timely CRS Report gives the background to the Occupy Wall Street Movement. The report attempts to answer the question “Why occupy Wall Street?” while also summarizing views of finance in U.S. history and give an overview of recent economic research. The authors claim, “research summarized in this report may represent the beginning of a revaluation of the role of finance in the economy…”

“We’re Still in Love with Books,” by William Pannapacker, Chronicle of Higher Education, December 4, 2011, available at http://chronicle.com/article/Were-Still-in-Love-With-Books/129971/.
This article details the author’s long relationship with books and how it has evolved over the years. Even though the availability of material on the internet may have contributed to the decline of small bookstores, the internet also provided bibliophiles an opportunity to make targeted searches for books and “…instead of searching through obscure book barns on the back roads of New Hampshire, you could locate exactly the book you wanted and receive it in the mail within a week.” The article also lists and describes the author’s favorite “books about books” such as “Books: A Living History” published in 2011.