The Goodson Blogson

Congratulations to our newest graduates! If you plan to remain in the Triangle area this summer for bar exam study, please note the following information about Duke Law building access, library services, and access to electronic resources. More details can be found on the library’s page Services for Law Alumni . Building Access : Although your law student IDs (which provide 24-hour access to the Law School and Law Library) are deactivated shortly after graduation, you are eligible for a free alumni card from the DukeCard Office . E-mail your alumni card number to the Law School's Building Manager, Catherine Hall , in order to activate 24-hour access for the summer. The access will continue until August 15. If you are leaving the Triangle area, and hope to visit another law library for regular bar exam study, be aware that many private law schools require a letter of introduction from your "home" institution in order to grant access. Chec...

The end of the semester brings some important changes to the Goodson Law Library’s access and service hours. Please note this information for reading/examination period and beyond: Library Services Effective Monday 4/16, the Reference Services desk will be open from Monday to Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. The Circulation/Reserve desk and the Academic Technologies Help Desk will continue evening and weekend service hours until the end of the examination period. Beginning on Friday, May 4 , all three library service desks will operate under summer hours (Monday to Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.), and will resume evening and weekend service at the start of the Fall 2012 semester. Library Access To ensure that adequate quiet study space is available for law students, use of the Goodson Law Library for study purposes during the Law School’s reading/exam period (Tuesday 4/17 to Friday 5/4) is limited to current Duke Law students, faculty and staff. University students, faculty and staf...

[updated 4/13/2012 with new LexisNexis info] Summer might seem like a faraway dream, well beyond the looming threat of finals. But before you know it, exams and papers will be a distant memory and summer jobs will be starting. Beginning in June, many commonly-used legal research resources restrict student access over the summer, to help avoid the use of nonprofit educational passwords at paid summer employment. However, exceptions can sometimes be made for academic purposes over the summer. Here’s your guide to summer database access. LexisNexis will offer a limited menu of career-related resources from June 1 to August 1. [ Update 4/13/2012: LexisNexis will also offer summer extensions to the "classic" LexisNexis interface on an opt-in basis at http://lawschool.lexis.com , beginning in late April. ] Your Lexis Advance password, however, can be used for summer course preparation and assignments, research associated with Moot Court or law journals, research for pursuing a ...

Today marks the kickoff of National Library Week , an annual celebration first sponsored by the American Library Association in 1958. Libraries across the country will sponsor special events and programs this week in order to promote the use of their resources and services, and the Goodson Law Library is no exception. On Monday, April 9, the Goodson Law Library is proud to present a free lunchtime event in Room 3037 with alumni author Duncan Maysilles . The 1979 graduate of Duke Law School (and current litigator at King & Spalding in Atlanta), will discuss his recent book Ducktown Smoke: The Fight over One of the South’s Greatest Environmental Disasters . The book provides a fascinating historical account of the seminal air pollution case Georgia v. Tennessee Copper Co. , which was decided by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1907. The event begins at 12:15 p.m., and is co-sponsored by the student Environmental Law Society. Maysilles’ book resides in our Alumni Authors collection, a secti...

Reference Librarian Kelly Leong highlights changes to PACER’s fee structure, and some alternatives for federal court docket searching. Effective April 1 (no fooling), PACER ’s page-view charge has increased to 10 cents, from 8 cents. This is the first time the fee for access to the federal courts’ docket information and filings has increased since 2005. The fees, in general, fund the costs of operating PACER and the increase will be used for maintenance and improving access, according to a statement published by PACER on September 13, 2011. From the statement issued by the Judicial Conference (the judicial body which oversees PACER), it does not appear that the current individual document cap of $2.40 will be raised. The user billing exemption has also been raised from $10 to $15 per quarter, meaning that if you are a casual user of PACER, this rise in charges should not affect your use or bottom-line. However, threats of higher bills remind us that there are other resources availa...