PowerNotes Research Organization Tool Now Available

The Law School community now has institutional access to PowerNotes, a research organization and outlining tool that uses a browser extension to capture, organize, and track sources from other databases and websites. Current Law School community members may sign up under an institutional account allowing unlimited projects with their Duke.edu email address. (Anyone may sign up for a free individual account that includes the creation of one project.)

PowerNotes provides a helpful "Quick Start" guide to using its system. Users must install a browser extension for Chrome (also works with Microsoft Edge) or Firefox, and create an account with the system. The browser extension allows researchers to capture highlighted text on a website and add it to a project outline with notes. Outlines can be easily organized and also exported into various formats, including Microsoft Word and Excel or Google Docs and Sheets.

PowerNotes can be used with free websites as well as subscription databases like Westlaw, Lexis, Bloomberg, and HeinOnline (which includes a guide to using PowerNotes with Hein libraries on its help pages). Tutorials on various aspects of using the system are available at the PowerNotes website. 

Duke University users have access to other research and reference management tools, such as the citation managers EndNote and RefWorks (both available for free download through OIT’s Software page). Each of these tools works a bit differently, as PowerNotes describes on its own comparison document. Researchers may wish to experiment with these tools as well as alternatives like Zotero and Mendeley in order to determine the research and reference management processes that work the best for their preferences. The Duke University Libraries offer a comparison chart to these citation management tools that can help sort through the differences. In the end, the "best" research organization system is the one that works the best for your personal preferences!

Summer Reading

With the 2021 Law School Convocation now behind us, it's time to put summer plans in action. Whether that involves bar exam preparation, a summer associate job, or a fun post-vaccination trip or two, you may want to unwind with a good book occasionally. But with free time at a premium, how can you find a title that you’ll be sure to enjoy?

E-book enthusiasts can filter the Duke Libraries Catalog to items "Available Online," or use the separate E-Books Search to locate titles available via Duke. This page also links to the Duke Libraries' eBook FAQ, which provides guidance on using the various electronic publishers' platforms, such as OverDrive, ProQuest, and EBSCO.

If you're looking for specific suggestions on what to read next, try NoveList Plus. This database provides reading recommendations and reviews, and is available to current Duke University students, faculty and staff members. (Recent alumni who have a public library card in North Carolina may also access this database via the NC Live consortium.) Enter search keywords to identify some promising leads, or type the title of a recent favorite to find "read-alike" suggestions based on either the specific title or the author.

The website GoodReads offers similar reading suggestions and book lists, with added social features for members, such as the ability to share reviews and recommendations with a friend list. The site includes the annual "GoodReads Choice Awards," which can connect you to recommended titles in various categories.

Of course, personal recommendations are also a good way to find new titles to read. Here are a few titles that research librarians at the Goodson Law Library have either personally recommended or are looking forward to reading this summer, along with links to print, ebook, or audiobook access via Duke:

• Klara and the Sun: A Novel by Kazuo Ishiguro (available in ebook and print)
• Pappyland: A Story of Family, Fine Bourbon, and the Things that Last by Wright Thompson (available in ebook, print, and audiobook)
• While Justice Sleeps: A Novel by Stacey Abrams (available in print)
• The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America, by Richard Rothstein (available in ebook and print)
• Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo (available in print and audiobook)

We hope these resources will help you find your perfect summer reading list! For help with searching the libraries’ catalog or using the NoveList database, be sure to Ask a Librarian.

Date Calculator Tools & Rules

In law practice (and life), sometimes you'll need to calculate a future date, especially for filing deadlines. While it may seem like a quick and simple task, any miscalculation could result in at least an embarrassing conversation, if not more severe consequences like a barred claim or even formal discipline. Some law practice management systems have this feature built in (like Thomson Reuters Firm Central Deadline Assistant), but others do not (for example, Clio's help page notes that while this feature is not yet available, users can request it). What should you do if your employer doesn't have such a tool built into its practice management system? As it turns out, there are a lot of options.

On social media last week, Chicago attorney Brad Romance went viral for his "Next Level Lawyer Pro Tip" video of the future date calculation feature in Microsoft Outlook Calendar, in which users can type "today+45" (or any other number) in the date field of an event to determine the date that many days into the future. The Court Deadlines website describes this process in more detail with screenshots in a post from 2018.

Microsoft's help pages also note that the built-in Windows Calculator includes a date calculation feature, by clicking on the navigation button in the top left corner. Select "Date calculation" from the menu of options (which includes a number of other calculator and converter tools that you may be more accustomed to web-searching) in order to calculate the date x days in the future.

In replies to Romance's Twitter tip, other lawyers chimed in with their own recommended approaches to date calculation. Many voted for the website timeanddate.com, a popular calculation and conversion web resource; Clio recommends its users try this site on its help page about date calculation. Other attorneys admitted that they still calculate the dates by counting on a paper calendar, whether as their primary method or as a backup to electronic calculation; still more expressed eternal gratitude to their firm paralegals who already knew the Outlook calendaring trick.

Other replies flagged the important considerations of excluding official holidays, or whether the needed calculations should count calendar days or business days. It's critical to know the specific applicable rules for computing time (such as Rule 6 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, or more specific instructions in local rules or court orders). Since non-legal calculator tools will not account for those additional specifications, a free legal deadline tool like Casefleet's Legal Deadline Calculator may also be a useful bookmark. This site includes options to include or exclude the "trigger" date, clarify whether to count calendar days or only weekdays, and determine how to handle rolling over in the event the future date falls on a weekend or holiday.

In short, lawyers have many tools at their disposal to calculate future dates with confidence. For more tips on handy features within Microsoft Office products, check out Lawyerist's overview of Microsoft Office for Lawyers, which includes an in-depth review of Microsoft Word for Lawyers.