About Law Dawg Blawg

Things have been quiet here at the Law Dawg Blawg. The students inspire many of our entries, so we tend to post more when school is in session. With most of the students gone for the summer and no research classes to teach, we have had less to post. But the students will be back soon, and so will we. As we prepare to begin another school year, we present some background information on our blog.

The Law Dawg Blawg is brought to you by the law librarians at Southern Illinois University. We decided to start this blog primarily as a way to share research tips, library announcements, news, and links to interesting articles, web sites, and blogs with other members of the SIU Law School community. We also hope it will be of interest to alumni and other members of the legal and library communities.

First, we should explain the name. A weblog, or blog for short, is like an online journal. It is frequently updated with short items of interest to the bloggers. Blawg is a term used to describe a law-related blog. Dawg comes from the fact that the mascot of Southern Illinois University at Carbondale is the Saluki, a breed of dog. And Law, because our intended audience is the law school community.

Salukis were the royal dog of Egypt and are believed to be the oldest known distinct breed of dog. Southern Illinois has long been referred to as “Little Egypt.” According to Baker Brownell in The Other Illinois, “Although the legend probably was invented after the fact, it is persistent. There was a drought in the northern counties (of Illinois) in the early 1800's . . . the wheat fields dried up, the streams died in their beds. But in southern Illinois rain fell and there were good crops, and from the north came people seeking corn and wheat as to Egypt of old. Thus, the name ‘Egypt.’” See also Tales and Songs of Southern Illinois by Charles Neely. For more information on the Saluki breed, see what the American Kennel Club has to say; for a more extensive discussion of SIUC's mascot, see What the Hell is a Saluki?

We have a Feedburner feed for those wishing to subscribe using a blog aggregator or news reader such as Bloglines. After you sign up for a free Bloglines account at http://www.bloglines.com and log in, right click on the Feedburner link in this paragraph or toward the top of the sidebar and choose “Copy Shortcut” from the menu that pops up. In Bloglines, click on the “My Feeds” tab in the left frame, then click on “Add” right below the tab. Right click in the “Blog or Feed URL” box in the right frame, choose “Paste” from the menu that pops up, then click the “Subscribe” button. On the next screen choose the options you want and click “Subscribe” again. That's all there is to it.

Law Dawg Blawg readers also have the option of subscribing via email. You can find the subscriptions form in the sidebar to the right, below the Site/RSS Feeds options. To receive one email for each day that we post something new – sent out in the early morning hours of the next day – enter your email address in the box and click on the Subscribe button below it.

For more subscription options, click on Subscribing to RSS Feeds in this paragraph or toward the top of the sidebar.

To avoid the problem of comment spam, we have made this a moderated blawg. If you want to suggest something for inclusion or want to comment on this blawg, e-mail us at llibweb@siu.edu. For more information about our law library, visit the Southern Illinois University School of Law Library site.