The Goodson Blogson

Death Index, Be Not Proud

2012-01-23T08:32:00.005-05:00

It has been said (by several people, according to the editor of the Yale Book of Quotations) that nothing is certain but death and taxes. But someone has to keep track of such inevitabilities, and for death in the United States, that’s the Social Security Administration. Their ominously-named Death Master File may not be perfect (the Scripps Howard News Service investigative report Grave Mistakes estimated that more than 1,000 names per month are erroneously added), but the records are invaluable for the confirmation of birth and death dates as well as the prevention of identity theft and insurance fraud, among other purposes.

Unfortunately, the public version of the Death Master File has also been misused in some of the same activities that it was intended to prevent. The Public DMF, more commonly known as the Social Security Death Index (SSDI), was created in 1980 as the result of a federal court order from a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit. It was made available to the public as a subscription service through a partnership with the National Technical Information Service (NTIS), which sells subscriptions and updates to third parties, including for free at the popular genealogy research site Ancestry.com as well as premium legal research services like LexisNexis (Public Records > Find a Person > Social Security Death Master) and Westlaw (database short name: DEATH). Following some high-profile incidents of tax fraud using the Social Security numbers of the recently deceased, even the plaintiff in the original FOIA lawsuit has since spoken publicly about restricting access to the sensitive information contained in the SSDI.

In November 2011, the Social Security Administration amended its policies regarding access to “protected state records,” or “death records we receive through our contracts with the States.” The Death Master File FAQ on SSA's website points out that their death reports are received from a variety of sources, including “family members, funeral homes, hospitals, States, Federal agencies, postal authorities and financial institutions.” Although the change affects only the state government records, the Administration estimates that the average number of deaths disclosed in the public DMF will be cut by almost one-third going forward. In addition, the Administration plans to remove more than 4 million historic records which fall into the "protected state records" category.

In response, last month Ancestry.com moved its formerly-free version of the SSDI behind a paywall (although initial searches and preliminary result lists are still free). Other providers (including LexisNexis and Westlaw) have also scrambled to make their users aware of the new policies. This change to the SSDI serves as a valuable reminder for researchers to always check the "scope note" for information about coverage in a particular database, since contents may change unexpectedly. On LexisNexis and Westlaw, these can be found by clicking the "i" icons next to a database name. For help deciphering database coverage, or for assistance with researching public records, be sure to Ask a Librarian.

Secrets of a Successful Semester

2012-01-17T10:30:00.004-05:00

It's only a few weeks into the new semester, but maybe you’re already feeling confused by a tricky legal concept or a hard-to-parse holding. Don’t ignore it until you’re making your final-exam outlines - take a look at some study aids! Before you drop a fortune on flash cards and commercial outlines, visit the Goodson Law Library for some of the most popular study aids around:

Examples and Explanations Series: Titles in this series are written by law professors who give a narrative overview of the key concepts and rules for a particular subject, followed by "examples" (hypothetical questions) and “explanations” of the answers. Search the catalog for title keywords "examples and explanations" to retrieve a list of all available titles. Current editions are available on Reserve, with older editions available for longer checkout in the Stacks. (Did a classmate beat you to the title you needed? Note that many of these titles are also available in “Preview” mode on Google Books.)
Hornbooks: These one-volume books are written especially for law students and summarize specific areas of law in a narrative form. Most hornbooks are available in two editions: Practitioner's and Student's. The practitioner's edition usually contains additional chapters which discuss practical issues, such as preparing for trial. The library usually has the current edition of both versions in the Reserves collection; previous editions are available in the Stacks.
Mastering... Series: These slim volumes provide a basic overview of a specific area of law, with minimal footnotes. They are available on most law school course subjects, shelved in the Stacks alongside other works on the topic, and their locations can be found in the catalog with a title keyword search for “mastering [subject]”.
Nutshell Series: These pocket-sized books contain a comprehensive outline of a specific subject, usually written by a noted authority. Nutshells provide a big-picture look at the law and avoid in-depth analysis. They contain fewer footnotes and references than hornbooks, but generally give greater coverage of a subject than commercial study outlines. The most current Nutshells are in the Reserves collection.
Q&A series: Books in this series provide a review of legal subjects using a multiple-choice and short-answer question format. The library owns selected titles, particularly in subject areas where multiple-choice exams are commonplace. To locate available titles, conduct a title keyword search for "questions and answers and [subject]". (A similar multiple-choice approach is taken in the Glannon Guides, which are also available in the library’s collection for selected subjects.)
Understanding... Series: Published by LexisNexis on a variety of legal topics, this series can be found with a title keyword search of the catalog for "understanding [subject]". The Understanding series contain an overview of an area of law, with footnotes to primary sources for further reading.

For those who prefer a more interactive approach to studying, don’t forget about CALI lessons – the Center for Computer-Assisted Legal Instruction offers online tutorials on more than 800 legal topics. You can pick up a CALI CD at the library service desk, or request a registration code for the online versions from the Reference Desk or online with your NetID. Beginning this semester, students are able to save their progress in online lessons in order to resume them later. See the CALI FAQ for details, or Ask a Librarian to recommend study aids for your topic.

New Year, New Databases

2012-01-05T10:31:00.002-05:00

A new year always brings new changes, and 2012 is no exception. This year, there’s a Presidential election, and (some say) maybe even the end of the world. But before that Mayan calendar runs out, we can enjoy some small-scale changes closer to home: the New Year will ring in the return of the library's evening and weekend services (on Sunday, January 8), and also an extension to Standard Loan borrowing periods for Duke Law students, other Duke graduate students, and non-Law Duke faculty/staff.

The new year also often brings changes to the library's electronic subscriptions, as newly acquired content is added to databases and the full-text of titles from expired licenses are removed. (This generally happens behind the scenes, but if you encounter outdated links to e-resources which no longer work correctly, be sure to report them to library staff for investigation.) One database making some big additions for 2012 is NC Live, or North Carolina Libraries for Virtual Education. NC Live is an online service which provides a large collection of electronic databases to state residents through their local libraries. Many of Duke University's online databases are provided by this service; you may notice a "Brought to You by NC Live" logo when logging in to certain resources.

As the site announced in mid-December, NC Live has added several new services and upgraded a few existing ones with additional full-text content. One especially useful addition at the Goodson Law Library is the Legal Information Reference Center, an e-book collection of popular law titles from Nolo Press and other legal self-help publishers, many of which are featured in the library’s research guide for non-lawyers. Individual book titles should be linked in the Duke Libraries catalog, but users can also browse the list directly by logging in with their NetID here.

Perhaps the best news of all for many Goodson Blogson readers – since NC Live is a statewide program, these resources are available to users beyond Duke University. If you don't have a current Duke NetID and password, visit NC Live directly to select your library affiliation; you may need to enter your library card number or other method of authentication (consult your local library staff for assistance).

As always, for help with navigating the library's electronic resources, be sure to Ask a Librarian.

Foreign Country "Cheat Sheets"

2011-12-22T14:09:00.002-05:00

With the Goodson Law Library preparing for upcoming Christmas and New Year holiday closures (see Hours & Directions for info), it’s a good time to reflect on holidays around the world. As globalization has made transnational business the new normal, lawyers must be aware of cultural differences which can impact scheduling and travel plans; these details aren’t always readily apparent from travel guidebooks or simple web searching.

Most international travelers are already familiar with the Background Notes and travel information provided by the U.S. State Department, including security threats and travel warnings. But a lesser-known series from the federal government can also be invaluable to travelers and those who do business on a global scale.

The Commerce Department’s U.S. Commercial Service publishes and updates Country Commercial Guides, which are intended for use by U.S. companies doing business in a particular country. Chapter 8, “Business Travel,” always contains a section “Local Time, Business Hours and Holidays,” which provides useful information about the typical work week (including the usual lunch hour), important national holidays, and other invaluable insights. While Biglaw associates may be toiling away in their Manhattan offices on Friday the 23rd, they shouldn’t bother scheduling a conference call to Tokyo – it’s the Emperor’s Birthday. Qatar would also be out of the question – Friday, as “the Muslim holy day, is a day of rest for all sectors.” Country Commercial Guides are available free on the web through the Market Research Library, and can be searched by country or browsed by Report Type.

Incidentally, if international travel is in your future, remember that the Duke University Libraries maintain a subscription to Byki, a flashcard-based foreign-language instructional system for more than 70 languages, from Afrikaans to Zulu. Safe travels to our readers over the holiday season, and best wishes for 2012.

Get the Gift of Forgotten Green

2011-12-12T15:09:00.003-05:00

December can be full of unexpected surprises – a holiday card from a long-lost friend, a sudden snow day from work or school, or a fabulous gift from your wish list. But for a quick moment of pure unmitigated cheer, a seasonal favorite has to be pulling out your heavy coat in anticipation of another dreary winter, and finding some long-forgotten cash in the pocket.

But wouldn’t it be even better if that crumpled-up $20 bill was a check for $1,500? The Internal Revenue Service recently announced that more than $150 million in federal tax refunds have gone undelivered this year, usually due to outdated mailing addresses. If you’re one of the 99,123 taxpayers who is still waiting for a refund check, visit the IRS status lookup page Where’s My Refund? You’ll need to provide your Social Security Number, filing status and the exact amount of the refund. With the average unclaimed refund totaling $1,547, the site is certainly worth a visit.

The IRS isn’t the only place which may be holding on to your unclaimed money, though. The federal portal USA.gov contains a page of pointers for locating unclaimed money from failed banks, HUD, employer pension funds, and old savings bonds. There’s also a link to equivalent state government websites via Unclaimed.org, which can link you to utility and security deposits from past addresses, old bank accounts, and other unclaimed property. Each state will provide a search feature, as well as instructions for how to claim your money.

Finally, December is a great time to grab any or all of your three free annual credit reports for 2011, which are provided at AnnualCreditReport.com. This site was created by the three major credit reporting agencies – TransUnion, Experian, and EquiFax – after a 2003 amendment to the Fair Credit Reporting Act mandated that consumers must be able to receive a copy of their credit report from each agency at no charge once per year (15 U.S.C. 1681j). (Afraid you'll mistakenly end up at one of the commercial websites which claim to offer free credit reports, but actually sign you up for expensive credit-monitoring services? Use the link through the Federal Trade Commission’s website to be sure.)

For help with finding more consumer protection resources online or in the library, be sure to Ask a Librarian.

Poping Ain't Easy

2011-12-07T11:03:00.003-05:00

Last week, German newspapers reported that Pope Benedict XVI had been sued by an anonymous citizen for “repeatedly violat[ing] German seatbelt laws during a visit to Freiburg in September.” Allegedly armed with YouTube videos of the Catholic leader recklessly standing “for more than an hour” in his famous Popemobile, the suit requests the maximum fine of 2,500 euros for repeated violations of the misdemeanor. Lowering The Bar investigated further and discovered that even if the Pope did neglect to buckle up in the bulletproof Plexiglas cabin of his armored Mercedes-Benz, diplomatic immunity provides yet another layer of papal protection from an overzealous Verkehrspolizist. (Though he should be more careful in the future - the 5-ton Popemobile can accelerate from 0 to 60 mph in a respectable six seconds, and can achieve a top speed of 160 mph.)

With the German attorney outright admitting that the suit was really intended to raise public awareness of the country’s seatbelt laws, the Vatican’s legal department was free to focus on offensive rather than defensive strategies. In November, threats of legal action convinced fashion company Benetton to pull an advertisement which depicted the Pope in a doctored kiss with Egyptian imam Ahmed Mohamed el-Tayeb. The Vatican has indicated that it will continue to pursue legal avenues, even after the company's voluntary removal of the ads featuring the Pope.

But in this particular case, the Vatican may wish to adopt the more laissez-faire attitude of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez (who shrugged off his own Benetton-created lip-lock with President Barack Obama yesterday in a press conference), because they may have a far more serious legal situation on the horizon. In mid-September, a group called Survivors Network for those Abused by Priests (SNAP) petitioned the International Criminal Court in The Hague, requesting that an investigation be opened for crimes against humanity by the Pope and several high-ranking Catholic cardinals, stemming from the worldwide clergy sex abuse scandals from the early 1980s to the present day. (The complaint, and thousands of pages of supporting documentation, can be read at http://ccrjustice.org/ICCVaticanProsecution.) Most ICC-watchers think it’s unlikely that the Prosecutor will decide that the complaint falls within the court’s jurisdiction (NY Times). SNAP provides a FAQ sheet on its website, addressing this and other questions about the filing.

ICC jurisdiction can be triggered by a State Party’s referral, by the UN Security Council or by the Prosecutor acting of his own volition (proprio motu). It is rare for the ICC Prosecutor to invoke his proprio motu power; the first such instance since the Court’s creation in 2002 did not occur until late 2009. Article 15 of the Rome Statute (PDF) does not specify a time frame for the Prosecutor’s determination whether to proceed proprio motu, so it remains to be seen whether the ICC will open a formal investigation into the SNAP complaint. But if you'd like to learn more about the inner workings of the ICC in the meantime, consult the resources in our International Criminal Law research guide, or Ask a Librarian.

150 Years of "Foreign Relations of the United States"

2011-11-30T11:48:00.000-05:00

This weekend marks the sesquicentennial of the U.S. State Department publication Foreign Relations of the United States (FRUS). The “thorough, accurate, and reliable documentary record of major United States foreign policy decisions and significant United States diplomatic activity” (22 U.S.C. 4351) has undergone many changes since its debut on December 3, 1861, when it mostly reprinted correspondence between State Department officials on then-current matters of foreign policy. Beginning in 1925, FRUS took on more of a historical perspective, covering events which occurred decades prior, and scholarly analysis began to appear alongside the correspondence.

The publication of FRUS is now mandated by the United States Code, although the State Department has a little trouble meeting the 1991 requirement that a FRUS volume should appear “not more than 30 years after the events recorded” (the latest volume, published in 2011, concerns 1973’s Arab-Israeli conflict).

FRUS is available in the Goodson Law Library at the call number Documents S 1.1 (Level 1), and volumes spanning events from 1945-1976 are available free online via the State Department website or from 1861-1960 via the University of Wisconsin. Members of the Duke University community can also access the complete set in PDF via HeinOnline’s Foreign Relations of the United States library, which also includes a number of historical e-books about foreign policy and diplomacy.

Learn more about the last 150 years of Foreign Relations of the United States at the State Department’s website, or Ask a Librarian for help locating the volumes in the library.

AAA Digest of Motor Laws Online

2011-11-22T17:18:00.003-05:00

Driving to Grandma’s house for Thanksgiving dinner? There’s no better time to check out the AAA Digest of Motor Laws, a free compilation of state laws related to motor vehicle ownership and operation. The source is browseable by individual state, as well as by category: Is your window tint too dark for a neighboring state’s comfort? Do you need to put away that radar detector when you cross state lines? And even though you know you shouldn’t, can you legally use a cell phone or send a text message behind the wheel, wherever you may roam?

The American Automobile Association added this long-running 50-state survey of vehicle laws to its website this summer (once upon a time, we received print editions in the libraries), and plans to expand the online service in the future with Canadian law and also comparative search tools. Note that the site links to undated summaries of the relevant state law, rather than the text of the actual statutes: to confirm the accuracy of the information, start at Cornell’s State Legal Links to access primary sources of law for each state (such as North Carolina’s online General Statutes).

For more help with locating 50-state surveys on other research topics, check out the Subject Compilations of State Laws (in print or in HeinOnline) or Ask a Librarian. No matter where your travels take you, the Goodson Blogson wishes all its readers a safe and happy Thanksgiving break.

Nixon Grand Jury Investigation Records Unsealed

2011-11-11T08:10:00.005-05:00

Yesterday afternoon, the Government Printing Office and the National Archives and Records Administration announced the public release of President Richard Nixon's Watergate grand jury testimony. Federal grand jury proceedings typically remain secret, but last September historian Stanley Kutler petitioned the U.S. District Court in D.C. for the Nixon transcripts’ release, citing their substantial research value. On July 29, Chief Judge Royce Lamberth granted the petition, agreeing with Kutler in his 15-page order that “[t]here is no question that the requested records are of great historical importance…[disclosure] would likely enhance the existing historical record, foster further scholarly discussion, and improve the public’s understanding of a significant historical event.”

The grand jury records have been reviewed and some information has been redacted from the public release in order to protect the privacy of certain named individuals. Still, even a redacted release is undeniably valuable for researchers, and may mark the beginning of increased public access to federal grand jury proceedings of similar historical importance. As the Blog of Legal Times reported last month, Attorney General Eric Holder recently recommended a change to Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 6(e), which if adopted would clarify the procedures for releasing historical grand jury proceedings. Under the model described in Holder’s letter to Advisory Committee Chair Judge Reena Raggi, proceedings could be eligible for public release after 30 years with a court order, and after 75 years such records would be available through regular archival access procedures.

Only time will tell if this proposed approach to grand jury proceedings becomes the norm (though you can learn more about the F.R. Crim. P. revision process in our Court Rules research guide and track this suggestion’s progress on the U.S. Courts’ Federal Rulemaking page). In the meantime, the newly-available Nixon Grand Jury Records are posted online via the Government Printing Office's FDsys. As always, Ask a Librarian for help with locating our many resources on Richard Nixon, the Watergate era, or court records.

Holiday Gifts for Lawyers & Law Students

2011-11-10T14:02:00.003-05:00

Around this time of year, the Goodson Blogson features links to unique sources of holiday gifts for lawyers and law students (see 2009 and 2010). Though many of these sites have appeared in our past roundups, their selections of merchandise often change from year to year, and are worth a second (or third) look this holiday season.

Many D.C.-area government attractions maintain online gift shops with a wide range of law- and government-themed gifts, which can be perfect presents or stocking-stuffers to the lawyers and law students in your life:

The Supreme Court Historical Society Gift Shop includes its latest entry in their annual holiday ornament series, Court-themed greeting cards, and a variety of office doodads like bookends, scale of justice clocks, and decorative statues.
The U.S. Capitol Historical Society Gift Shop also offers holiday ornaments, in addition to stationery, framed posters and artwork, and (for some reason) decorative baseballs. (Note to our students: be on the lookout for one of their fabulous puzzles in the library reading room during exam period, after the success of our spring 2011 study break puzzle).
The National Archives E-store features a number of unique items made of “authentic government red tape," posters and prints of founding documents, and even a coffee mug featuring the iconic photo of Elvis Presley’s meeting at the White House with Duke Law’s own Richard Nixon (you can also get it on a t-shirt).
Some of the more unusual items in the White House Historical Association Gift Shop include needlework kits, cocktail napkins, and scarves inspired by the décor of various rooms. There’s also the usual holiday ornament assortment, and prints, posters, and stationery.

More general sources for law-themed gifts include The Billable Hour, which continues to offer its “Survival Kits” for students and new associates in addition to office accessories, board games, and DVDs of the cartoon-lawyer classic Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law. For Counsel is another online site devoted to law-themed gifts, although the featured gifts can sometimes be found elsewhere online with a little research (such as the 4th Amendment-themed doormat, which is available for about five dollars less at Target.com). Attorney and blogger Reid Trautz also offers an annual Holiday Gift Guide: watch for his 2011 entry later this month for more great gift suggestions. If procrastination is your typical approach to holiday shopping, keep in mind that Friday, December 16 is Free Shipping Day for more than a thousand online retailers.

Finally, if you find yourself on the receiving end of an odd and useless law-themed gift this year, (a) don't blame The Goodson Blogson, and (b) remember: it's the thought that counts.

Oh Là Là! Recueil des Cours Online

2011-11-02T13:31:00.004-04:00

The Goodson Law Library now provides campus-wide electronic access to the complete set of the Recueil des Cours (Collected Courses of the Hague Academy) through HeinOnline. Previously, Duke users needed to consult the print set in the library’s Periodicals collection and had electronic access to only a small subset of the publication (1923-1937) through the Gallica Periodicals database.

The Hague Academy is a major research center for the study and teaching of international law, and its “Collected Courses” (Recueil des Cours) are drawn from its famous summer class series. Top international law scholars visit the academy to deliver lectures on public and private international law topics, which are then published in a volume of the Recueil des Cours. Each volume contains the courses for that year, in the language in which they were delivered (generally, either French or English). To locate Collected Courses on a particular topic, the individual courses are indexed in the Index to Foreign Legal Periodicals, and in a browseable and searchable bibliography on the Peace Palace website. The full text of the collection may also be searched within HeinOnline.

The Hein library includes the complete full text of the Recueil des Cours from 1923 forward in PDF, indexes from 1967 forward, and a separate collection of “Law Books of the Academy,” many of which reprint the materials from separate academy workshops. See the full list of library contents on Hein’s website or browse the collection yourself in HeinOnline.

For more resources to aid your international law research, consult the library’s Foreign & International Law Research Guides or Ask a Librarian.

Expanded Access to Federal Court Opinions

2011-10-26T19:05:00.002-04:00

In the spirit of Open Access Week, (see more about Open Access at Duke), Reference Librarian Kelly Leong highlights the collaborative efforts of the U.S. Government Printing Office and Administrative Office of the United States Courts in piloting a program to offer free electronic access to federal court opinions.

FDsys, the GPO’s collection of electronic materials, currently offers a plethora of free authenticated content, including the U.S. Code, Federal Register, and numerous congressional documents. As announced earlier this month, FDsys now also offers the United States Courts Opinions – Beta collection, providing free electronic access to federal court opinions. The current Beta version offers the authenticated opinions from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, the U.S. District Court of Rhode Island, U.S. Bankruptcy Court - Southern District of New York and U.S. Bankruptcy Court - Southern District of Florida. The collection is set to expand to twelve courts, and then to “more than thirty,” although there is no information of which courts are slated to join and when.

The advanced searching features available elsewhere on FDsys are also available for this new collection, including common fields such as party name, case number, and court type. Similar to PACER (the federal judiciary’s repository of court filings, which requires a password and charges per page viewed), users can also search the FDsys collection by “nature of suit” code. The availability of opinions date as far back as 2001 for the Eighth Circuit, but the collection is not yet complete even for the selected pilot courts. Opinions are provided in PDF; the “More” link provides access to metadata and “Document in Context,” a notable and interesting feature associated with the collection is the ability to locate other opinions within the same case. If the Eighth Circuit has previously ruled on an issue within the same case, it will be linked to the opinion under this page.

Most importantly, the GPO is seeking feedback on this new collection. Share your thoughts with GPO, and Ask a Librarian for help with locating other court opinions.

--Kelly Leong, Reference Librarian

"As a Matter of Law, The House Is Haunted"

2011-10-19T20:28:00.002-04:00

This month’s issue of the New York State Bar Association Journal features a fun cover story on “the law of Halloween.” Buffalo attorney Daniel B. Moar unearths a collection of devilishly funny Halloween-themed court opinions from across the United States, which run the gamut from personal injuries sustained by flammable costumes, to emotional distress claims arising from haunted-house attractions, to “the constitutional right to insult your neighbors with tombstone displays.” The article is provided as a free sample online to non-subscribers at the Journal website. If you’re pressed for time but are curious about this blog entry’s title, it is a quote from one of the featured cases: Stambovsky v Ackley, 169 A.D.2d 254 (full text via Google Scholar).

North Carolina isn’t featured in Moar’s round-up, but this month has already seen some Halloween decorations cause a bit of emotional distress across the state. In early October, a Salisbury farmer who decorated his lawn with a mangled pair of legs pinned underneath a tractor prompted a 911 call from a concerned motorist. Later that week, another Halloween home decoration caused an emergency call in Charlotte, this time a realistic-looking dummy clinging to a roof gutter. No legal action has been taken in either case, and the Goodson Blogson certainly hopes it stays that way.

For help with locating the cases cited in Moar’s article, or anything else related to researching Halloween and the law, be sure to Ask a Librarian. We'll even be open on Halloween night!

Introducing the Doswell Collection

2011-10-10T09:25:00.003-04:00

In April 2011, the Goodson Law Library received a generous donation from John Simpson of Charlotte, North Carolina: a collection of books and memorabilia related to the Nuremberg Nazi war crime trials, named in honor of his uncle, Marshall Doswell. The J. Marshall Doswell, Jr. Nuremberg Trials Collection was unveiled on July 29 at a gathering in the library’s Riddick Rare Book & Special Collections Room, which featured remarks from Mr. Simpson and Mr. Doswell (pictured at right), as well as Duke Law Professors Paul Carrington and Madeline Morris.

For the next few weeks, you can view a selection of The J. Marshall Doswell, Jr. Nuremberg Trials Collection in the window of the Riddick Room. The display includes books and media about the Nuremberg trials, photographs of the July 29 event, and memorabilia such as a commemorative medal and a shoulder patch worn by U.S. forces who served at Nuremberg during the trials.

The Doswell Collection items are being added to the Duke Libraries’ online catalog. Additional works about this important time period in world history and international criminal law can be found with a subject heading search for “Nuremberg Trial of Major German War Criminals, Nuremberg, Germany, 1945-1946” and “Nuremberg War Crime Trials, Nuremberg, Germany, 1946-1949”. For assistance with locating these materials, be sure to Ask a Librarian.

Easier Access to Leadership Library Yellow Books

2011-09-30T10:08:00.003-04:00

It’s probably happened to you: maybe you’re searching the libraries’ online catalog. Maybe you’re browsing one of our excellent research guides. Maybe you’re skimming our list of Legal Databases & Links. Wherever you may be looking, once in a while you’ll see an ominous-looking note like “Password is required; see reference desk for assistance.”

It’s hardly the end of the world to have to stop and ask for the password (we’re actually very friendly), but these little hurdles can be especially problematic for late-night and weekend researchers. While the library tries to provide easy NetID-based login to its electronic resources, not every database allows us that option, and some have restrictions (such as a limit on access to only current Law School students, faculty and staff) which require a little oversight by staff.

One frequent password request at the Goodson Law Library reference desk has always been The Leadership Library, which is featured in our guides to Directories of Courts & Judges and Directories of Lawyers. The Leadership Library publishes the “Yellow Book” series of directories for government and corporate entities, like Judicial Yellow Book, Congressional Yellow Book, and Law Firms Yellow Book. Although the library also has print copies of these titles in the Reference Collection, the pace at which contact information changes along with the ability to search across the entire directory made the electronic versions particularly useful.

We’re pleased to announce that Duke University now has campus-wide, NetID-based access to The Leadership Library. Users can search the directories, browse visual “maps” of organizations to locate particular people, and build exportable lists of search results. Our research guides are being updated to reflect the change. Although you no longer need to contact us for a separate password to this resource, feel free to Ask a Librarian for assistance using the Leadership Library online.

Who Was That Masked Man (In Handcuffs)?

2011-09-21T20:24:00.003-04:00

During the ongoing "occupation" of Wall Street by protestors, police have unearthed—and enforced—an obscure state law which prohibits loitering in a public place while wearing a mask or disguise. Yesterday's Wall Street Journal reported that, since the start of the protest on September 17, at least five of the demonstrators who have been arrested were issued a summons for violating the strange old statute, which has been on the books since 1845.

The protest has roots with the online collective Anonymous, whose members often don Britain's iconic Guy Fawkes mask (as seen in the 2006 film adaptation of the graphic novel V for Vendetta) during public demonstrations. (Notable past targets of the group include the Church of Scientology in 2008, and more recently the San Francisco BART system, in response to transit officials' jamming of subway cell phone service to prevent a growing demonstration in the city.) But it wasn't only the Guy Fawkes impersonators who were corralled by the NYPD; the WSJ interviewed one protestor who was detained for wearing just a bandanna over his face.

So what does this state law say, exactly? Like most newspapers and popular media outlets, the WSJ doesn’t provide a Bluebook-ready citation. But the quoted language is enough to search the state code in either LexisNexis, Westlaw, or the free version at the NYS Legislature.

RESEARCH CHALLENGE: Can you track it down without peeking at the rest of this entry?

(We'll wait.)

OK, we’re back. If you took our test, we hope you found N.Y. Penal Law § 240.35, which states: "A person is guilty of loitering when he [...] [b]eing masked or in any manner disguised by unusual or unnatural attire or facial alteration, loiters, remains or congregates in a public place with other persons so masked or disguised, or knowingly permits or aids persons so masked or disguised to congregate in a public place; except that such conduct is not unlawful when it occurs in connection with a masquerade party or like entertainment if, when such entertainment is held in a city which has promulgated regulations in connection with such affairs, permission is first obtained from the police or other appropriate authorities.”

The WSJ article provides a bit of historical background on this little-known section of the New York penal code, which we sure hope won't ruin anybody's Halloween plans. If you read about interesting statutes or cases in the news and have trouble tracking down the original sources, be sure to Ask a Librarian for help.

Bwexis? Blexstlaw? Make Room for Bloomberg!

2011-09-14T17:16:00.003-04:00

LexisNexis and Westlaw have long battled for the hearts (and dollars) of legal researchers. The two premium legal information systems are so ubiquitous in law practice that many refer to the pair of market competitors with the single, Brangelina-esque nickname "Wexis." But beginning in 2004, the financial juggernaut Bloomberg began an expansion into the legal research market, albeit one limited to use on Bloomberg Professional's proprietary computer workstations (four of which are still available in Duke's Ford Library at the Fuqua School of Business and three more at the Perkins Library's Data/GIS Computer Cluster). In 2009, Bloomberg launched an alternative web-based legal research interface, Bloomberg Law, and has provided pilot access to selected law schools, including Duke. An ABA Journal cover story in February 2010 detailed the development of this version of Bloomberg Law, and the difficulties of breaking into a market so dominated by longtime competitors.

Over the summer, Bloomberg launched a new and improved web interface, and also moved to add secondary sources to its research arsenal with the addition of titles like Business Torts Litigation (2d ed.), and The M & A Process: A Practical Guide For The Business Lawyer. The company's recent $990 million purchase of BNA Publications, which publishes such key newsletters and current-awareness services as U.S. Law Week and Securities Regulation Law Report, also leaves industry experts speculating about where those will fit into the new system.

Only time will tell if Bloomberg Law will rise to the same level of ubiquity as "Wexis," not to mention how they might be worked into the legal-research portmanteau. But in the meantime, you can check out their system and make your own comparisons to Lexis and Westlaw: Bloomberg will visit Duke Law for table days on Tuesday, September 27 and Wednesday, September 28. Current Duke Law students, faculty and staff are eligible for free password access, and can sign up in advance of the visit by filling out the online registration form (Bloomberg will then email you a username and temporary password, which should be changed to something personalized and memorable).Representatives from Bloomberg will be available to answer questions about the new interface during the table days, and also to sign up interested members of the Duke Law community who didn't pre-register with the online form. In the meantime, you can learn more about Bloomberg Law by checking out the product guides on its About page.

Thunderstruck by Trial Transcripts

2011-09-08T13:51:00.003-04:00

The Goodson Blogson is a few years behind on its leisure reading, but just finished Erik Larson's Thunderstruck (2006), a fascinating nonfiction work which interweaves the notorious 1910 North London Cellar Murder case with Guglielmo Marconi's struggle to perfect his wireless telegraph (the technology which eventually led Scotland Yard investigators to ambush their suspects aboard a transatlantic steamer ship).

American doctor Hawley Harvey Crippen and his wife Cora, an aspiring singer, moved to England in 1900. A decade later, Cora disappeared from the quarreling couple's North London home; the doctor informed concerned friends that she had returned to America and later died of an illness. Unconvinced by Crippen's story (particularly since his young secretary, Ethel Le Neve, moved into the home almost immediately, and was frequently spotted around town wearing Cora's furs and jewelry), Cora's friends alerted the police, who eventually discovered human remains buried in the doctor's coal cellar. Thanks to Marconi's invention and an eagle-eyed ship captain, inspectors were able to intercept Crippen and Le Neve on the S.S. Montrose, as they sailed toward America. Both were tried for murder in London during the fall of 1910; Crippen was found guilty and later executed by hanging, while Le Neve was cleared of all charges.

Larson's work is carefully crafted from historical accounts: newspaper reports, letters and other personal papers, and court records. Historical works like these typically require authors to consult a large number of previously-published books (like The Trial of Hawley Harvey Crippen (1920)) and also travel to specialized archives in person to view manuscript collections. But what a difference a few years makes – transcripts from the North London Cellar Murder trials are now freely available to the public on Proceedings of the Old Bailey Online, a massive electronic archive of cases from London’s famed Central Criminal Court. The archive now spans a staggering 240 years, from 1674 to 1913, although Larson could not take advantage of it while researching Thunderstruck: the site launched in 2003 with the years 1714-1759, and gradually expanded its years of coverage until the project's completion in 2008, well after the book's publication.

The Old Bailey site is searchable by a number of options (party names, verdicts, time period, etc). Quick links to the North London Cellar Murder proceedings:

Hawley Harvey Crippen
Ethel Le Neve

The Old Bailey database has just been added to the library's research guide for Court Records & Briefs, in the "Trial Transcripts/Oral Arguments" section. For help locating transcripts in other trials, from any time period, be sure to check out the research guide, or Ask a Librarian.

Keeping Up with Law Journal Contents

2011-09-01T16:47:00.003-04:00

School is back in session, and the student journal editors are busily preparing new issues of their law reviews and journals. With literally thousands of law review articles being published every year, keeping up with the latest scholarship in a particular area can be a challenge.

Sadly, one of our favorite law-focused current awareness services closed up shop this summer: Washington & Lee’s Current Law Journal Content service stopped updating its database in May 2011. The site lives on as a searchable archive of more than 1,400 law journals' tables of contents from approximately 2000- April 2011, and remains linked on our Legal Databases and Links page as a helpful tool for finding articles. But those who used its handy tools for saving searches as email alerts and RSS feeds will need to look elsewhere from now on.

That leaves another long-time TOC service, the University of Washington's Current Index to Legal Periodicals (CILP) as an obvious choice. CILP indexes the latest tables of contents to almost 600 law journals (view list), and provides links to the full text of the article in LexisNexis, Westlaw and HeinOnline. The Duke community can view a weekly CILP TOC update (changed each Friday); Duke Law faculty may also contact the Reference Desk to sign up for the SmartCILP email service, which delivers tailored lists of the latest articles from a particular journal or on a particular topic of interest.

The Tarlton Law Library at the University of Texas maintains seven "current legal literature services," with free RSS feeds of the latest articles on the following topics: actual innocence/wrongful convictions, capital punishment, copyright, domestic violence, energy law, patent law and trademark law.

The Social Science Research Network (SSRN) also provides email alerts from "subject matter e-journals" on a variety of topics, which include working papers as well as forthcoming ("accepted") articles from law reviews and legal journals. Free registration is required, and some e-journals are listed as "fee-based" on the subscription list, but are free to Duke Law users through our "site license." For an overview of the subscription process, watch the brief instructional video online. Once you have registered with SSRN, current Law School students, faculty and staff can "join" Duke Law School's site license to the Legal Scholarship Network. Then you can sign up for the "fee-based" journal alerts as well as the free SSRN alerts.

You can also save a topical article search as an email alert in LexisNexis, Westlaw, and LegalTrac. Individual journals and journal publisher websites also offer table of contents alerts, although most sites require free registration.

For help creating an email alert for articles in a particular journal or on a particular subject, be sure to Ask a Librarian.

The United States of Emergency

2011-08-26T16:52:00.001-04:00

It’s been a wild week for weather around Duke Law. On Tuesday afternoon, the Southeast was rocked by a rare 5.8-magnitude earthquake, which rattled our library windows and library users alike, but caused no lasting problems in this area (although our nation’s capital, closer to the quake’s epicenter in Virginia, sustained some damage to national monuments). Now, North Carolina’s coast is bracing for a direct hit from Hurricane Irene, which is expected to make landfall on the Outer Banks today before heading toward New York City.

Currently, the effects of Irene here in the Research Triangle are expected to be comparatively minimal, although meteorologists predict a soaking rain on Saturday along with some high winds, which could cause flash flooding and power outages in the Durham area. Duke University is monitoring the situation carefully, and the Goodson Law Library will announce any emergency closures this weekend on our website. You can also sign up for Duke Alert emails and text messages at http://emergency.duke.edu, which will send an instant alert if the University invokes its Severe Weather Policy.

In the meantime, you’ve probably heard a lot about “state of emergency” declarations in the news, at both the state and federal levels of government. On Thursday morning, North Carolina Governor Bev Perdue issued a state of emergency for counties east of Interstate 95, and on Thursday evening, President Obama signed a federal state of emergency declaration for North Carolina. Why the double layer of emergency orders? In a word: money. The President’s state of emergency declaration authorizes the federal government to provide disaster relief and assistance to the state in question. For an overview of the process, check out the helpful background information in the Congressional Research Service report, FEMA’s Disaster Declaration Process: A Primer (May 18, 2011), available online at http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/homesec/RL34146.pdf.

To learn more about emergency management and disaster relief, visit the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). To access the treasure trove of research information in CRS reports, check out the CRS Reports section of our guide to Federal Legislative History, or Ask a Librarian.

What to Know About the New Semester

2011-08-16T10:42:00.003-04:00

Welcome to our new students, and welcome back to our returning students! The Fall 2011 semester is about to begin, and the Goodson Law Library is ready for the typical questions we hear around this time of year:

Are you ever open later than 5:00 p.m.? Yes! While the library is always "open" to Duke Law students (who enjoy 24-hour access with their DukeCards), the library service desk will resume evening and weekend hours on Sunday, August 21. See the Hours & Directions page for information. Staffing hours vary a bit across the three service points (Circulation/Reserve, Reference, and Computing Help), but generally the desk will be staffed until 9 p.m. on weeknights, 5:00 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays, and 6:00 or 9:00 p.m. on Sundays (depending on the service point).

Does the library have copies of my textbooks on Reserve? Maybe! Historically, the library's textbook collection has been the "luck of the draw;" we always buy extra copies of casebooks authored by our faculty, but other textbooks were less dependable presences in our collection. This year, we’re purchasing a copy of every 1L textbook and will place them on reserve, where they can be borrowed for 4 hours at a time, or overnight if borrowed with less than 4 hours before the Circulation/Reserve desk closes. 2L and 3L course textbooks may also be on reserve in some cases. To locate a particular title, search the Duke Libraries' online catalog and visit the Circulation/Reserve desk for assistance.

Where can I find course supplements and study aids? The library buys a number of popular law school study aid series, like Examples & Explanations, the "Understanding..." series, and Nutshells and Hornbooks. Check out our Law School Success handout for a list of the most common study aids in our collection, and consult the online catalog for their locations.

When do I get my LexisNexis and Westlaw passwords? It depends. New transfer/exchange students should have already received an email with their Duke Law registration codes for the popular legal research databases (check your Duke.edu account). New international LLM students will receive their passwords on the first day of their Legal Analysis, Research & Writing for International Students class, either August 22 or 23. New 1L students will receive passwords at the beginning of the research portion of their LARW class, either September 5 or 6. Contact the Reference Services desk if you have questions about your LexisNexis and Westlaw passwords.

Can I take a tour of the library? We'll be glad to show you around. Scheduled library tours will take place during the week of August 22. JD students can sign up at https://www.law.duke.edu/signup/jdtours/, and international LLM students can sign up at https://www.law.duke.edu/esignup/llmtours/. The 30- to 40-minute tours will meet at the library’s service desk, and will cover common questions from new students about library collections, printing and other technology, and study space.

How do I reserve a study room? The library's eight private study rooms can be reserved up to 72 hours in advance with a Law School NetID and password at http://www.law.duke.edu/lib/studyrooms. Note that during the first few weeks of classes, many (if not all) of the rooms may be reserved during the day for On-Campus Interviews (OCI).

Anything else? Talk to the library staff for assistance with other questions, or make an anonymous suggestion in our online Suggestion Box.

When Contracts Stop Being Polite, and Start Getting Real

2011-08-03T08:51:00.003-04:00

With the explosive growth of reality TV over the last decade, it’s increasingly likely that you already know someone who has participated in one of the many competitions or candid programming out there (in fact, a Duke Law 2L and Simpsons superfan put in a winning appearance on a 2009 Food Network Challenge). But for the rest of us, we can only speculate about life behind the scenes...that is, until Monday night. That’s when the Village Voice Runnin' Scared blog published a copy of MTV's standard participant contract for its long-running Real World series, and highlighted the blogger's favorite clauses in the 30-page document. Among the explicitly-assumed risks: you might die, and it's not the producers' responsibility. Your new roommates could assault you (sorry, engage in "non-consensual physical contact"), and you have only yourself to blame. And if the show completely misrepresents your life story, unjustly casting you as its major antagonist? Totally within their rights. Oh, and you’re also paying for your own long-distance calls on that miked house telephone.

Given these drawbacks, it's hard to imagine anyone willingly signing up for such a deal, but thousands of young adults still dream of being one of the "seven strangers, picked to live in a house" (if any intrepid law students still want to try before their 24th birthday, the show accepts applications online). In fact, many of the contract's clauses have appeared in response to events on past seasons, as outlined by the blog Jezebel. Avoiding potential liability is clearly a moving target for the makers of reality television.

Interested in researching more about the legal issues in reality TV production? Try a search of the Duke Libraries’ online catalog for subject heading for "Television--Law and legislation--United States" or "Artists’ contracts -- United States" to find titles like Hollywood Dealmaking: Negotiating Talent Agreements for Film, TV, and New Media, which provides a slightly less terrifying standard "Form of Reality Series Participant Agreement" as well as a chapter devoted to the genre. And as always, be sure to Ask a Librarian if you need assistance.

How Netflix Got "Borked"

2011-08-01T08:38:00.003-04:00

July was a rough month for Netflix, all things considered. First the film-subscription service announced a radical change to its pricing structure, which by September could hike some subscribers’ monthly payments by nearly 60 percent. The company’s July 12 blog post sparked enough bourgeois Internet outrage that FunnyOrDie.com created a parody “Relief Fund” with celebrity spokesman Jason Alexander.

Then came the corporation’s July 25 quarterly letter to its shareholders (PDF), which described plans for a “Facebook integration” tool which will soon launch in Canada and Latin America. But what’s the holdup in Netflix’s home country? The shareholder report explains:

At this point, we plan to launch this initiative only in Canada and Latin America, as the VPPA (Video Privacy Protection Act) discourages us from launching our Facebook integration domestically. Under the VPPA, it is ambiguous when and how a user can give permission for his or her video viewing data to be shared. A bipartisan group of lawmakers has introduced a simple clarification, HR2471, which says when and how a user can give such permission. We’re hoping HR2471 passes, enabling us to offer our Facebook integration to our U.S. subscribers who desire it.

Suddenly, the mainstream media was re-examining a long-forgotten privacy law from 1988, and legislative history was a hot topic of discussion. So what is the VPPA? The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) maintains a helpful backgrounder, which explains the law’s unlikely origin in a Supreme Court nomination hearing: while the Senate considered President Reagan’s unsuccessful nomination of then-D.C. Circuit Court Judge Robert Bork, a local paper obtained and published the judge’s video rental records (reprinted at author Michael Dolan’s website). The Washington City Paper found nothing scandalous in Bork’s video rentals (aside from the sheer number, which prompted Dolan to quip that “if anything, Robert Bork ought to be nominated for Supreme Couch Potato”), but Congress responded with Public Law 100-618, which prohibits the disclosure of a consumer’s video rental or sales records without “informed, written consent of the consumer given at the time the disclosure is sought” (view 18 U.S.C. 2710 at the new U.S. Code beta site).

Certainly, the 1988 Congress did not anticipate the possibility of Internet-based DVD rentals and streaming services, and if Netflix were a web-only service, it is likely that the VPPA would not apply (as Inside Facebook points out, the web-only Hulu was able to successfully launch a Facebook app without concern). Netflix’s letter to shareholders notes a pending bill in the House of Representatives, H.R. 2471 (bill tracking report), which would enable sites like Netflix to obtain ongoing consumer consent to records disclosure on an opt-in basis, rather than requiring consent each and every time a disclosure is sought.

Certainly, Congress has had its hands a bit full with debt ceiling negotations in the weeks since H.R. 2471 was introduced, so only time will tell if the VPPA amendment will pave the way for a Facebook-Netflix union in the USA. But if you’d like to research the history of the VPPA, or track the pending bill’s progress, check out the resources listed in our Federal Legislative History research guide or Ask a Librarian.

The Hardest Bar Exam in the World?

2011-07-22T17:01:00.003-04:00

With July bar exams right around the corner, a weekend of panic is perfectly normal. We hope you’ve kept up with your study program, and consulted our additional tips for bar exam success from earlier this month. But if you just can’t shake that sense of dread, here are some fun (or maybe not-so-fun) facts about bar exams in other jurisdictions to help put things into perspective.

The ABA’s Comprehensive Guide to Bar Admission Requirements (Reference KF302 .Z9 C65 2011) is chock-full of statistics about the bar exams in other states and U.S. territories, and it just might reassure you that the grass is greener than you think. Take, for example, the length of exams, which is compared in Chart 6 on page 23. California has long been famous for its grueling 3-day bar exam, but did you know that Mississippi and Palau also triple the fun? Nine other states also use a two-and-a-half day format, which might as well be three for those souls who must hole up in a hotel. Suddenly that 2-day format isn’t looking so bad (or 1.5-day, if you are heading to Wyoming or Nebraska).

The cost of examination application fees is also covered in Chart 7 of the ABA Guide. Duke Law students who plan to remain in North Carolina are unfortunately near the top of the first-time test-taker expense list at $700, but are edged out by Alaska ($800) and Massachusetts ($815).

Passage rates can be found in the ABA/LSAC Official Guide to ABA Approved Law Schools (Ref KF273 .A86 2011). A country-wide “Career Placement and Bar Passage Chart” uses 2008 exam data to compare state overall passage rates: while California’s 3-day marathon is undeniably difficult, with an overall 78% passage rate throughout the state, the dubious award for toughest exam in the continental U.S. surely goes to Louisiana, whose civil law influence probably plays a part in the nationwide low 67% passage rate.

The alphabetical entries for each law school further break down passage statistics for an individual school. Our grads should be happy to hear that Duke generally scores 5 to 8 percentage points higher than the state’s average, and has a bar passage average of 93% overall. If you’d like to calculate the odds yourself, this guide is also available online.

“But what about that other 7%?” asks the truly nervous Duke Law grad. OK, we’ll need to travel internationally to help ease your troubled mind. As the ABA Journal recently reported, some law schools in Japan reported a zero percent passage rate in 2010. The overall passage rate in the country last year? A dismal 25%. Who’s worried about a measly 7% now?

Finally, while Japan’s bar exam is indisputably tough, nothing beats the passage rate (or lack thereof) from fellow Pacific Ocean island Guam. This tiny U.S. territory doesn’t attract a lot of bar-takers each year, but as the Official Results from July 2006 suggest, they just might have administered the hardest bar exam in the world.

Good luck to all of our recent graduates who will sit for a bar exam next week, in whatever jurisdiction you’ve chosen. (But hopefully not Guam.)

Test-Drive Two New Legislative Research Databases

2011-07-13T11:37:00.003-04:00

“Try before you buy” isn’t just good advice for car shopping – the Duke University Libraries share that motto when purchasing shiny new research toys, too. The Duke community has always been able to test-drive Trial Databases at http://library.duke.edu/apps/dbtrials/, but this summer offers two trials which are particularly interesting to the Duke Law community, since both can help a great deal with federal legislative research.

First, there’s the U.S. Congressional Serial Set, 1981-1994. The Serial Set is an essential resource for legislative history research, as it reprints House and Senate committee reports and other congressional documents. The Duke University Libraries already subscribe to the online serial set from 1817-1980, and the additional years featured in this trial could help fill gaps in our online access through other sources to congressional reports and documents (outlined in our Federal Legislative History research guide). This trial of 1981-1994 runs through August 6. If you have a legislative history research need this summer, be sure to try it out and leave your comments for the purchasing committee at http://library.duke.edu/apps/dbtrials/trial/2721/.

The University Libraries have also set up a trial with CQ First Street. First Street aggregates legislative and policymaking data (lobbyist disclosures, congressional staff directory information and biographies, legislative information from THOMAS, and Federal Election Commission disclosures) into nifty visualizations, which make it easy to identify relationships between members of Congress, federal staff, lobbyists, and PACs. (We don’t see Stephen Colbert’s recently-approved Super PAC yet, but we’re sure it’s coming soon.) This trial ends on August 12, and comments left at http://library.duke.edu/apps/dbtrials/trial/2731/ will be considered in the libraries’ decision whether to purchase a subscription.

If you have questions about using these databases, or about legislative research generally, be sure to Ask a Librarian.

Beating the Bar Exam

2011-07-05T08:34:00.003-04:00

With the bar exam now less than three weeks away, the Goodson Law Library staff have noticed an increase in questions about additional study resources. In our online catalog, try a subject keyword search for “Bar examinations—United States—Study guides”. This will retrieve some helpful resources for any state’s bar exam, including a 2010 edition of Strategies & Tactics for the MBE (Reserves KF303 .W345 2010) and other titles like The Essential Rules for Bar Exam Success (KF303 .F75 2008).

If you have a hole in your bar exam study outlines from a particularly confusing area of law, check out Part III of our Law School Success guide for an overview of popular law school study aids. Many of these series, like Examples & Explanations and the West Hornbooks, can be found on Reserve. (Tip: Although Reserve Collection items are loaned in 4-hour blocks, arrive at the Circulation/Reserve desk less than 4 hours before our 5:00 p.m. summer closing time to borrow a Reserve Collection item overnight. Arrive less than 4 hours before 5:00 p.m. on a Friday, and you can borrow a Reserve book until we reopen the following Monday morning.)

If you’re interested in seeing past exams from North Carolina, start at the NC Board of Law Examiners site. This site offers past exams from 2005-2007 free for download, for those who would like a peek at the structure of state-specific essay questions. (Even older essay questions are available in the library at the call number KFN7476 .N671, but the latest exam available in print is 2003.) The Young Lawyers Division of the North Carolina Bar Association has also prepared a brief guide to Drafting a Bar Exam Essay Answer (Reserves KFN7476.Z9 D73 2004), with tips and tricks for NC test takers. An updated (2009) version of this pamphlet is available in PDF at http://younglawyers.ncbar.org/media/300925/09draftingexamanswer.pdf.

To view older bar examinations from 31 other states, consult our collection of past exams in the Microforms Room on Level 1 of the library (cabinet # 35, top drawer). Available dates vary by state, although many of the most popular bar exam destinations for Duke Law students (like California and New York) have sent us past exams dating up to February 2010. To see which years are available for a particular state, search the Duke Libraries catalog for the subject heading bar examinations [state]; e.g. bar examinations Maryland; then look for the catalog result labeled “[microfiche]”.

Note that many states also make past exams available for free on their bar exam websites, such as New York’s page of Past Exam Questions, which may be more up-to-date than our microfiche collection. Visit http://www.ncbex.org/bar-admissions/offices/ to locate the Board of Law Examiners site for your state.

Good luck to all of our July 2011 exam-takers!

Getting the Goods on Judges and Courts

2011-06-27T17:46:00.004-04:00

Need to know some details about a state or federal judge? The Goodson Law Library just added another place to look, with a new subscription to the online version of The American Bench. While the library has always kept the latest copy of this directory in the Reference Collection (and will continue to do so), the online version allows searches by judge name or by court/jurisdiction. Although the Goodson Law Library has a number of other judicial directories available in print and online formats, The American Bench is unique for its inclusion of more extensive biographies of state court judges. (The website also reproduces the print version’s helpful maps of state and federal judicial districts, which are posted in PDF.) Available information varies by judge, but generally entries provide basic biography (such as education and date of appointment) as well as contact information for the judge’s chambers. Occasionally, the entries also include professional affiliations and activities, links to external websites, and a photo of the judge.

If you’re researching a current federal judge, though, you might want to go beyond the basics with a second directory, The Almanac of the Federal Judiciary (Reserve KF8700 .A19 A4 & Westlaw’s AFJ database). Like The American Bench, the Almanac includes basic biographical information about federal judges. But it goes one step further with its “Lawyers’ Comments” section. The comments are culled from attorneys who have appeared before an individual judge, and candidly discuss topics like the judge’s courtroom demeanor and attitude toward certain types of cases. Just for fun, visit the online version in Westlaw and try keyword searches for comments like "terrible" and "awful" to see how detailed these entries can get!

Note that the online versions for both of these directories include the most current listings only; the online entries are not archived as judges leave the bench. Likewise, the print version of the Almanac of the Federal Judiciary is a loose-leaf binder set, and pages are not archived as they are removed. However, past editions of The American Bench (back to 1977) can be found in the library’s Superseded Reference collection on Level 1.

For more information on tracking down the facts about state and federal judges, check out the library’s research guide to Directories of Courts and Judges and/or Ask a Librarian.

The Value of a Dollar (and a Beard)

2011-06-16T08:45:00.003-04:00

From time to time, we all feel ripped off. Whether it’s a sleazy car salesman selling you a lemon, or furniture on Craigslist which turns out to be scratched and reeking of smoke, or the online date who hasn’t updated his profile picture since 1999, everyone can relate to being so angered by a raw deal that you just want to forcibly remove the scammer’s facial hair and make him eat it.

Wait...maybe we can’t all relate to that last part. But that’s exactly what happened last November to Harvey Westmoreland, a Kentucky man who just wanted to sell his lawnmower to neighbors Troy Holt and James Hill. But when their negotiations broke down, an intoxicated Holt and Hill held Westmoreland and his brother at knifepoint, then cut off Westmoreland’s beard and force-fed it to him. The unusual story made headlines around the country, and before he “knowed” it [sic], Westmoreland’s grammatically-challenged video interview with a local news station became a top hit on YouTube (as did the dance remix).

Both of Westmoreland’s attackers pleaded guilty, and each were sentenced to several years of probation. But Holt now faces the possibility of jail time for failing to also pay Westmoreland court-ordered restitution. Next Tuesday, a judge will determine whether to revoke Holt’s probation over the snub. What’s the going rate for a lost beard these days, you ask? The Anderson County Circuit Court priced Westmoreland’s ordeal at $570.

It may seem strange to assign a dollar value to facial hair (or the pain and suffering of eating it), but courts and juries must often calculate the value of unusual things: trademarked phrases, missing limbs, and even law degrees. While the Goodson Blogson isn’t sure how this Kentucky court decided on $570, it does know some resources where you can find guidance on valuing other injuries: jury verdict reporters and valuation handbooks.

A popular choice is the book series What’s it Worth? (KF1257 .H3 & online in LexisNexis). This series is sorted into chapters by injury type, and provides brief case summaries along with jury award or settlement amounts. A number of other damage valuation handbooks, like Personal Injury Verdict Reviews, are not available in print by the Goodson Law Library, but can be searched in LexisNexis and Westlaw. On Lexis, follow the link on the Legal tab to “Expert Analysis, Jury Verdicts and Settlements” to view available databases. In Westlaw’s directory, follow the path: Litigation > Jury Verdicts, Settlements & Judgments.

Jury verdicts and settlements are also often reported in legal news sources, such as the New York Law Journal (available online via the library) and other American Legal Media (ALM) publications, which recently moved their full text from Westlaw to LexisNexis (although the library maintains separate web-based passwords to selected ALM titles, which are described in the online catalog records for each).

To learn more about researching jury verdicts and settlement amounts, visit that section of our Court Records and Briefs research guide, or Ask a Librarian.

Ferris Bueller's Day in Court

2011-06-14T08:17:00.001-04:00

Over the weekend, the John Hughes class-cutting classic Ferris Bueller’s Day Off turned 25. An intern at the blog Jezebel marked the anniversary of the film’s release like a typical first-year law student whose thought process has been overtaken by legalese: by compiling a video identifying the various laws broken by Ferris throughout the course of the film.

The compilation was partly inspired by a running list from 2009 at the Metafilter discussion board, which came complete with citations to the Illinois Compiled Statutes. But to play the advanced version of this home game, you’d need to determine what the laws in question actually said back in 1986. In particular, relevant statutes about computer tampering (shown in the video as Ferris revises his school attendance record before the principal’s incredulous eyes) likely changed a great deal between the film’s release and today.

How could you accomplish this impossible-sounding task, for this or any other research which requires knowing what a code section said at a particular date in time? You might be tempted to start with the current code, find a relevant section, and then use the history notes to work backwards by reviewing the chronological session laws and piecing together the changes over time. But unless you love jigsaw puzzles, this approach can be tedious and time-consuming, especially if you are dealing with a code section which has been repeatedly amended with minor changes by a long list of session laws.

So, is there a better way? Of course there is. Superseded codes to the rescue! Superseded codes provide a historical snapshot of what the laws in force said on a particular date. Many libraries, including the Goodson Law Library, preserve outdated versions of state and federal codes for their research value. In the Goodson Law Library, print versions of superseded codes can be found on Level 1 (map), organized alphabetically by state. (That floor also boasts a spare set of superseded state codes on microfiche.)

You can also find some superseded state codes on LexisNexis and Westlaw, although the available years will vary by jurisdiction. On Lexis, each state’s listing includes a “Legislative Archive;” for Illinois, the path “Legal > States Legal - U.S. > Illinois > Find Statutes, Regulations, Administrative Materials & Court Rules > By Statutes & Regulations > Legislative Archive” offers a list of databases for IL state codes, but only back to 1992. On Westlaw, browse the Directory for a particular state’s folder and look for a “Historical Statutes” option under Statutes & Legislation: in this case, “U.S. State Materials > Other U.S. States > Illinois > Statutes & Legislative Materials > Illinois Historical Statutes Annotated” dates back a little earlier (to 1988), but still not back to Ferris’s day. (You should also be aware that the superseded versions of codes on these services require you to search for your sections – there is no table of contents browse feature here.)

If your desired year isn’t available on Westlaw or Lexis, you might need to consult a print volume in the library. But don’t you want to confirm that we have the right years before you trek down to Level 1 and crank those compact shelves? Searching the online catalog for these superseded codes can be a bit tricky, as there’s a separate record for every time the titles changed even slightly. Table 1 of the Bluebook can assist with the former titles of codes for each U.S. state.

If you’re still interested in Ferris Bueller’s potential liability, you might peruse the Smith-Hurd Illinois Annotated Statutes from the 1980s, which are indeed available on Level 1. If you’re interested in researching other superseded code sections, feel free to Ask a Librarian for help.

Super-Injunction: It's, Like, One Louder than a Regular Injunction

2011-06-02T17:59:00.003-04:00

From political love children to movie star arrests, who doesn’t love a bit of trashy celebrity gossip? As it turns out, many British celebrities, who can spend upwards of £20,000-50,000 to squash would-be scandals with a super-injunction, an exceptionally strict UK gag order which keeps the requestor completely anonymous and prevents the British media from publishing details about either the salacious story...or the existence of the gag order itself.

Earlier last month, an anonymous Twitter user attracted more than 100,000 followers by leaking information about alleged scandals which had been smothered by a super-injunction. Following coverage on celeb-watch blogs like Gawker, that Twitter handle fizzled out almost as quickly as it appeared. But by the end of May, a new username seemed to take its place, and then quieted just as quickly as its list of gossip-hungry followers grew. The popularity of these two accounts illustrated the challenges of maintaining an anonymous legal remedy in the Internet age, and raised some fascinating legal questions (e.g., was every British Twitter user who “re-tweeted” the offending accusations technically in contempt of court?).

Super-injunctions are a curious phenomenon to American readers, who are accustomed to more public legal proceedings than are the norm in the United Kingdom. But the popularity of these Twitter exposés demonstrates that many British citizens find the remedy to be excessive, too. In 2010, the UK judiciary convened a Committee on Super-Injunctions to examine use of the remedy from 2005-2011 and provide recommendations on future use of anonymous court orders. The committee’s May 2011 Final Report gives valuable background on the use of super-injunctions as well as their less-strict cousin, the anonymised injunction.

If all of this has left you curious to learn more about the super-injunction or the UK’s legal system more generally, check out the resources in our research guide on English Law. The Goodson Law Library owns a number of relevant treatises, which can be located by using the subject heading feature in the Duke Libraries Catalog (for example, privacy, right of—great britain). As always, if you have questions about researching this or any other legal topic, be sure to Ask a Librarian.

A Moon Rock and a Hard Place

2011-05-24T09:12:00.006-04:00

Though some spent last week preparing for their last days on Earth, one California woman was more preoccupied with the moon. This weekend brought news of a NASA sting operation after the unidentified woman offered a “moon rock” for sale on eBay. Undercover NASA agents met the would-be seller in an area Denny’s and offered to buy the lunar treasure for $1.7 million, then detained her for questioning and seized the rock.

So is it a question of fraud? Could be, if the rock turns out to be phony. But the woman could also face legal trouble even if the rock is authentic. As it turns out, astronauts who visited the moon during various NASA missions in the 1960s and 1970s did collect a number of rock samples, some of which were given in commemorative plaques as “goodwill” gifts to 135 foreign governments and the 50 U.S. states by Presidents Nixon and Ford. As the London Times explained in 2004, those samples are legally considered the cultural property of the recipient government, and other samples located in the U.S. are classified as national treasure under NASA Policy Directive 7100.10D (since renumbered as NPD 7100.10E).

Over the last four decades, many of the goodwill gifts have made their way to the black market, and some have also made their way to the courts: check out the descriptively-named case of U.S. v. One Lucite Ball Containing Lunar Material, 252 F.Supp.2d 1367 (S.D. Fla. 2003), involving a similar lunar pebble which had been gifted to the government of Honduras and was later smuggled into the United States. (NASA’s 2003 annual report assures us that the ill-gotten treasure was eventually returned to its rightful place in Honduras; see the news and a photo on page 17. Curious to know where all those other chunks of the moon are now? The website CollectSPACE maintains a table of known locations around the world. Many of the goodwill rocks have fascinating stories, including North Carolina’s own, which lived “in a desk drawer” at the state Department of Commerce before finding its way to storage at Raleigh’s Museum of Natural Sciences, where it is scheduled to be displayed when the museum’s new Nature Research Center is completed.)

Only time will tell if the California pebble-peddler had a genuine lunar sample or a very expensive fake. In the meantime, you can learn more about the laws and regulations governing galactic travel in several places. Space-related legislation was recently codified into the new Title 51 of the United States Code (see earlier Blogson post); it’s currently incorporated in the unofficial versions on LexisNexis and Westlaw and the annual bound Supplement IV to the official USC. NASA regulations can be found in Title 14 of the Code of Federal Regulations, including 14 C.F.R. 1217.106 (2010), which reassures astronauts that they won’t need to fill out any pesky customs declarations for artifacts which are brought back from space. And the library has a number of books on space law, which can be found in our online catalog with a subject heading search.

For help finding more materials online or in the library about this fascinating field, be sure to Ask a Librarian.

Library Services for the Class of 2011

2011-05-16T10:19:00.003-04:00

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.

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.

Borrowing privileges for Law Library materials generally expire very shortly after graduation, although exceptions can be made for recent graduates who remain in the Triangle area for bar exam study. Please speak with a Circulation Desk staff member to borrow Law Library materials. (Note that we are unable to offer interlibrary loan services to recent graduates.)

For fuller borrowing privileges across all Duke campus libraries, alumni may purchase a Campus Borrower's Card from the Perkins Library at the discounted price of $75/year. See http://library.duke.edu/services/borrow/privileges.html for more information.

LexisNexis and Westlaw passwords can be extended over the summer for the purposes of bar study. To extend your passwords, log into the sites and look for the link on the welcome screen.

Other library databases (such as HeinOnline and LegalTrac) require a current NetID and password for off-campus access. Off-campus access to subscription databases will expire at the same time as library borrowing privileges. The Duke University Libraries offer remote access to selected databases (including Academic Search Premier and ABI/Inform) to registered members of the Duke Alumni Association. See details at http://library.duke.edu/services/alumni_donors.html. However, alumni may also use Law Library and campus library databases on-site at the library’s public computer workstations.

For help with post-graduation technology issues (printing, wireless network, email, network file storage), check out the Academic Technologies page for End-of-Year Information: Graduating Class 2011.

The Goodson Law Library congratulates the class of 2011, and we look forward to hearing about your many achievements in the future.

Summertime: What to Know Before You Go

2011-05-03T09:30:00.003-04:00

Hitting the road after exams? Tie up a few loose ends in the library before you leave the area! Wherever the summer months may take you, follow our simple steps to ensure a hassle-free transition. (Class of 2011, be on the lookout for a separate post within the next few days which will address special issues related to graduation, such as how to obtain 24-hour building access if you plan to remain in the Triangle for bar exam study.)

Check your library account: Log in to the libraries’ My Account site with your NetID and password, and double-check your outstanding loans, hold/recall requests, and any fees or fines which have been incurred. Be sure to return any remaining items before you leave the area, and speak with the Circulation/Reserve desk in the event of a discrepancy (such as a book that you’re sure you already returned, or a fine for a study room key).

Clean out your study carrel: We’re sure that all of our students respect the fact that library study carrels are shared space, and always try to take their belongings with them to make space for the next person. But we also know that final exams can cause a bit more “hoarding” and “camping” behavior than is the norm. Please look over your usual study spaces to ensure that you haven’t left behind any library materials or personal items. Library staff will clear all carrel spaces after May 20; remaining books will be checked in and re-shelved, and personal items will be taken to the lost & found. (If you will be at Duke over the summer and would like to store library materials in a carrel after May 20, be sure that they are clearly flagged with a carrel checkout slip; speak with the Circulation/Reserve desk for assistance.)

Extend your LexisNexis and Westlaw passwords: If you missed our post in March about Summer Access to LexisNexis and Westlaw, now’s the time to extend those Law School passwords for academic purposes. Please read the sites’ definitions of “academic purposes” carefully – they do not include use at a for-profit law firm! If you don’t meet the exceptions to extend your passwords for the summer, your LexisNexis and Westlaw accounts will reduce to a very limited number of employment-related databases on June 1, and will resume full access in August.

Ask for a “letter of introduction” to any private law libraries you plan to use. If you plan to haunt a law school library in your summer city (for bar study or any other purpose), check out their access policies online before you leave Durham. Many private law schools require a letter of introduction from a law student’s “home” library before they will grant access. If you need such a letter, speak with the Reference Services desk.

Note our new service hours: If you forget any of the items on this list before leaving town, we’re here to help – but during different hours. Effective Friday, May 6, the library entrance and service desk will move to summer hours, Monday to Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Evening and weekend services will resume at the start of the fall 2011 semester.

We wish all of our students a safe and happy summer, and look forward to hearing about your adventures when you return in Fall 2011.

For the Record

2011-04-25T09:56:00.002-04:00

During the contentious debates in Congress over a plan to slash federal funding for Planned Parenthood, Senator John Kyl of Arizona erroneously stated on April 8 that “well over 90%” of the organization’s activity was related to abortion. After constituents and the media complained that the real figure was actually closer to 3% (CNN video), Kyl’s office claimed that the exaggerated number stated on the floor of Congress was “not intended to be a factual statement.” This odd retraction inspired much merriment by late-night comedian Stephen Colbert, who launched a humorous Twitter campaign of non-factual statements about Senator Kyl.

This week’s Time magazine reports that Kyl’s now-infamous 90% figure has been edited from the Congressional Record, the daily transcript of debates and remarks from the floor of Congress. Indeed, the April 8 issue of the Congressional Record now records Kyl as saying: “If you want an abortion you go to Planned Parenthood and that is what Planned Parenthood does.” (PDF page S2289).

But wait. Isn’t the Congressional Record supposed to be the, well, "record" of everything that happens on the floor of Congress? Yes and no. The Library of Congress explains the process on its “About” page: “Members are allowed to edit the transcript of their floor remarks before publication in the daily record or the permanent record.” This situation certainly makes one wonder what choice legislative words may have been lost to history before the age of the 24-hour news cycle.

For more information about the Congressional Record and other congressional publications, check out our research guide to Federal Legislative History.

Library Access & Services During Reading/Exam Period

2011-04-18T15:39:00.003-04:00

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 4/18, 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. Effective Friday, May 6, 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 2011 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 4/19 to Friday 5/6) is limited to current Duke Law students, faculty and staff. University students, faculty and staff who require access to the Law Library for research purposes are welcome to use the library when reference staff are on duty, and should contact the Circulation/Reserve desk for assistance when library doors are locked (weekdays after 5:00 p.m. and on weekends).

Additional study space is available to all in the Star Commons (levels 3 and 4), the Blue Lounge (level 2) and classrooms as available.

Good luck to our readers on final examinations-- be sure to check out our previous post, The ABCs of Final Exams, for some helpful tips on successful studying!

The ABCs of Final Exams

2011-04-11T10:15:00.000-04:00

With only a week left until the end of spring classes, final exams are lurking right around the corner (see tentative schedule). No need to panic, though – there’s still plenty of time to prepare with our ABCs.

Assemble those outlines. Can’t decipher your own shorthand in your class notes from January? Have you read one tricky section of the casebook four times and still don’t understand the court’s holding? Fill in those gaps with some popular law study aids, on Reserve behind the library service desk. Some favorites include: Examples & Explanations (also available in large previews at Google Books); the Hornbook and Nutshell series from West; the Understanding series from LexisNexis, and the pocket-sized Mastering texts.
Bring past exams to light. Your professor may opt to post sample exams on the course’s Blackboard site. Please note that the library no longer maintains a collection of old exams in print or online formats; our collection in the Law Archives dates from 1935-2001, and was replaced by the online approach in place today. While the Harvard Law Library’s recent digitization of its past exams may prove interesting to legal historians, we’re doubtful that our own historical exam collection will be very useful to panicking students. If your professor has declined to provide examples of old exams on Blackboard, instead try tactic #3…
Consult law exam study guides. You may not have an old exam from your specific professor, but you can still check out some general guides to preparing for law school exams, which give study tips and strategies for writing the most successful answers. Titles like Law School Exams: Preparing and Writing to Win and Mastering the Law School Exam : A Practical Blueprint for Preparing and Taking Law School Exams can be found in the libraries’ catalog with a subject search for “Law examinations—United States”.
Double-check your Electronic Bluebook settings. You’ve probably downloaded EBB in preparation for previous semesters’ exams. The Spring 2011 version is the same as Fall 2010’s, so there’s no need to reinstall. But even if you used this version EBB successfully in the past, it couldn’t hurt to re-read the setup instructions and take a test run before your first exam this spring to ensure there are no errors or other unexpected surprises. Contact the Academic Technologies Help Desk for questions about downloading or using EBB, and make sure you know what to do if you have a problem during an exam.

As always, Ask a Librarian for help accessing these recommended titles, or for any other exam-related questions.

Absolute Corruption, Absolutely Incredible

2011-04-07T14:12:00.002-04:00

The April 4 issue of The New Yorker features the unbelievable but true story of a murder in Guatemala City. To summarize without spoiling the many twists in this intriguing tale, author David Grann describes how attorney and law school dean Rodrigo Rosenberg’s relationship with a client’s daughter set off a chain reaction of tragic events which ultimately almost dismantled the country’s government.

As investigators unraveled the mystery, a shadow of suspicion fell on the Casa Presidencial (Guatemala’s equivalent of the White House). Prior to his death, Rosenberg filmed an eighteen-minute video in which he accused the country’s President, First Lady, and other government officials of a massive conspiracy and a series of murders – including, he predicted, his own (see part 1 on YouTube with English subtitles). The video sparked outrage across the country when it was aired by the national media, and an independent investigation was launched by the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (known by its Spanish acronym, CICIG).

While there are many law-related facets to this story which merit consideration, perhaps the most striking is the backdrop of corruption and violence. With a murder rate nearly quadrupling Mexico’s, and an appalling three percent of murders actually solved by police, assassinations are commonplace on Guatemala streets. (For background on the country’s violent history, the article references Francisco Goldman’s 2007 book The Art of Political Murder, which is available at the Perkins/Bostock library.) In addition to rampant violence, the country’s political scene is marred by abuses of power and questionable ethics. (Example: “To circumvent the Constitution, which bars the relatives of a President from succeeding him, the [President and First Lady] recently filed for divorce, in the hope that she can run in an election, in September.”)

Sadly, Guatemala is not alone in this state of violence and corruption. Transparency International publishes the Global Corruption Report, an annual survey on the state of corruption around the world. The group also publishes individual country studies on an irregular basis; the latest for Guatemala is dated 2007. There are a number of books in the Duke University Libraries on the subject of global governmental corruption as well; to locate them, search for the subject keywords “political corruption” in the online catalog.

To learn more about researching political corruption (in a particular country or worldwide), be sure to Ask a Librarian. The New Yorker issue is available in our Leisure Reading collection on level 3 of the library, and online through a variety of Duke databases, as well as currently for free at the New Yorker website.

Sign of the (New York) Times

2011-03-27T15:19:00.002-04:00

Tomorrow morning, the New York Times begins its “digital subscription” plan. As the paper first announced to readers on March 18, online readers who do not already receive home delivery of the paper will be restricted to viewing 20 free articles per month. Readers who exceed that limit will be prompted to sign up for a paid “digital subscription,” whose regular prices range from $15-$35 per month (an unspecified special introductory rate will be offered starting March 28).

Here at Goodson Blogson HQ, we expect an increase in questions related to accessing this formerly-free Times content by users who have hit their monthly limits. Please note that we do not have a library-wide password to NYTimes.com, although the site’s FAQ indicates that “Libraries will eventually be covered under group accounts, which we are working to make available in the coming months.” Until that option is available, though, the Duke University Libraries do have e-journal access to the Times through a number of databases, which can be accessed by the “GetIt@Duke” button in the online catalog record. (For law students, LexisNexis and Westlaw also offer the full text of the New York Times.)

The gadget blog Gizmodo also highlights a loophole to the new policy in its article How To Keep Reading the New York Times for Free: articles linked via social media sites and blogs will not count toward the 20-article limit. As Gizmodo points out, since the Times itself features more than 250 Twitter accounts, it should not be difficult to find a link to the story you’d like to read.

This new site restriction also does not apply to home delivery subscribers, who receive unlimited access to the online content at NYTimes.com. Rather than sign up for the digital-only subscription, Duke students and faculty may wish to take advantage of the Education Rate, which offers a whopping 50% discount off the newsstand price and includes complete access to online content (for example, the Sunday-only delivery option is a mere $15.00 per month -- the same rate as the cheapest online-only subscription plan).

For questions about accessing the Times or any other online journal, be sure to Ask a Librarian.

Summer Access to LexisNexis and Westlaw

2011-03-23T18:27:00.002-04:00

Making a checklist for summer vacation? Whether your plans include bathing-suit shopping or BarBri classes, be sure to extend your Law School LexisNexis and Westlaw passwords if you’ll require access over the summer. After June 1, educational passwords which are not extended will be restricted to a limited list of career and employment databases until the beginning of August.

Extending passwords is as simple as clicking a link, but you must meet one of the exceptions for academic use. Here’s your guide to summer access extensions.

LexisNexis

Lexis passwords can be extended for academic purposes over the summer at the Law School welcome screen. “Academic purposes” are defined as:

Summer course preparation and assignments
Research associated with Moot Court, Law Review, or Law Journal
Research associated with pursuing a grant or scholarship
Service as a paid or unpaid research assistant to a professor
An internship, externship or clinic position for school credit or graduation requirement
Study for the bar exam
Research skill improvement for educational purposes

Westlaw

Summer access to Westlaw can be requested at http://lawschool.westlaw.com/registration/SummerExtension.aspx. Westlaw’s list of exceptions includes:

Summer law school classes
Law Review and Journal work
Project for a professor
Moot Court
Unpaid non-profit public interest internship/externship or pro bono work required for graduation

Both LexisNexis and Westlaw note that “Academic purposes” do not include research conducted for a law firm, corporation, or other entity (other than a professor or law school) that is paying the student to conduct research, or that is passing along the cost of research to a third party. These are deemed “commercial purposes.” Be sure to read the exceptions carefully and ensure that you qualify for summer access.

Note that law students have summer access to other legal research alternatives, including CasemakerX (an educational version of the research resource which is offered through a number of state bar associations, including North Carolina) and LoisLaw (which is heavily used in New York practice thanks to its affiliation with the NYS Bar Association). If you have questions about extending your Lexis and Westlaw access, or about registering for these low-cost research alternatives, be sure to Ask a Librarian.

Prepare for Practice with our Research Refreshers

2011-03-18T12:40:00.003-04:00

Legal research, it must be said, is a lot like kung fu. While everyday law practice offers sadly few opportunities to administer a roundhouse kick, both martial arts and legal research are complex subjects which require a lifetime of study and discipline before you can call yourself a master. Unfortunately, your average legal employer isn’t willing to wait that long -- a 2007 Thomson West white paper on Research Skills for Lawyers and Law Students described the perceived gap between what is learned in law school and what is needed for law practice, saying that “partners agree that associates are almost completely incapable of book research, unfamiliar with print resources, over-reliant on electronic resources, and arrive on the law firm scene with uneven skills and research capabilities.”

But don’t despair that your skills might not yet measure up to your future boss’s expectations. Instead, mark your calendars for the week of March 21-25, because like the ancient Shaolin monks of yore, the Goodson Blogson has friends who can teach you some sweet research moves.

The weeklong extravaganza will begin with “Prepare to Practice” cost-effective online research sessions from our new Westlaw representative Denise Stewart (Monday 3/21 and Tuesday 3/22) and our longtime LexisNexis representative Jim O’Leary (Wednesday 3/23 and Thursday 3/24). Sign up in advance for these Prepare to Practice sessions by logging in to the training calendars on LexisNexis and Westlaw.

Then on Friday 3/25, a team of Duke Law research instructors will offer a half-day Research Refresher workshop series, reviewing some of the trickiest basics from LARW and adding some advanced topics and resources which are commonly encountered in law practice. The day's agenda:

9:00 a.m.: "You Want Me To Research WHAT?!": Getting Background & Keeping Costs Down (Jennifer Behrens)
10:00 a.m.: Researching Regulations & Administrative Materials (Melanie Dunshee)
11:00 a.m.: Researching Statutes & Legislative History (Marguerite Most)
12:00 p.m. : Putting it All Together: Taking a Research Assignment from Start to Finish (Jane Bahnson)

You can plan to spend the day and see every session, or come only to those workshop topics which interest you the most. All sessions will take place in the Fite Room (Level 2 of the Library).

Rank and File

2011-03-15T10:04:00.003-04:00

Late last night, U.S. News & World Report released its annual law school rankings for 2012 online. The popular rankings weigh accredited US law schools by such factors as GPA and LSAT scores, employment and bar passage rates, and “reputation scores” from surveys of judges, lawyers, and law school deans (see methodology). (Should you feel validated by such arbitrary computations, let’s get this part out of the way now: Duke Law landed at #11 in the overall scores, and #8 on a supplemental new list of law schools ranked by law firms.) The site offers numerical rankings for the first three “tiers” of accredited law schools, and an unranked alphabetical list of the remaining 53. (In previous years, only the top 100 schools were given a numerical rank.) U.S. News & World Report also offers interesting breakdowns by specialty, including ranks for legal writing, clinical practice, trial advocacy, and other specialized area of practice.

U.S. News & World Report began these graduate school rankings in 1990, printing the lists and analysis in the March issue of the magazine. More than two decades later, the rankings have grown into a cottage industry: first released online (with, of course, a “premium” option to view fuller data); excerpted in the magazine, and finally published separately as a guidebook to graduate school programs (due in early April this year, undoubtedly to prevent leaks by unscrupulous bookstore employees). The list is hotly anticipated, highly quoted, and often criticized (particularly for creating a culture of system-gaming by schools, and for encouraging prospective students to overvalue “prestige” when selecting a law school). But the rankings can also have legitimate research purposes, particularly when compared over time. If you’d like to analyze changes to these rankings, though, you’ll need to do some legwork: the Goodson Law Library has the current issues of U.S. News & World Report in its Leisure Reading collection, but the separate rankings guidebooks are kept in the Perkins Library and the University Archives. Here’s a shortcut to the catalog records:

America’s Best Graduate Schools (2003-present)
Best Graduate Schools (1998-2002)
Note the “Details” tab, which explains: “Developed from a special report published annually, 1990- in a March issue of: U.S. news & world report; substantial excerpts continue to be published in a March issue of the magazine, 1998- ”
U.S. News & World Report (1990-1997 March issues; excerpts continue from 1998-present)

Rankings are big business, and U.S. News isn’t the only one trying to make sense of all this law school data. The Princeton Review publishes an annual guidebook to The Best…Law Schools, which the Goodson Law Library keeps on Reserve for the most current issue (some data are also provided online). The Thomas M. Cooley Law School in Michigan also publishes an annual report, Judging the Law Schools, which has drawn some criticism for a methodology which consistently places its home institution near the top of the list. University of Chicago Professor Brian Leiter computes Leiter’s Law School Rankings, presenting different views of ABA and US News data in reports like “Top Producers of Law School Teachers” and “Supreme Court Clerkship Placement.” The National Jurist magazine for law students (which you can find each month on the rack across from the Blue Lounge) frequently crunches numbers to publish lists like “Best Value Law Schools,” “Best Public Interest Law Schools,” and even “Best Law School Libraries” (we were #19 in March 2010). And the list goes on—which should tell you something about the potential usefulness of these numbers. But if you’re obsessed with reading rankings and would like help finding more, be sure to Ask a Librarian.

"Will the Last Federal Employee Please Turn Off the Lights?"

2011-03-10T15:50:00.002-05:00

Last week, President Obama signed Public Law 112-4, a temporary spending measure which will keep the federal government fully operational until Friday, March 18. And then…what? Politicians are buzzing about an impending federal government shutdown, which could indefinitely shutter national parks and monuments, suspend the processing of passport applications, and furlough countless federal workers in “non-essential” positions. If you were too young to recall the last large-scale federal shutdown in late 1995 and early 1996, brush up on the procedure in this recently-updated Congressional Research Service report, Shutdown of the Federal Government: Causes, Processes, and Effects (Feb. 2011) (available with Duke NetID via LexisNexis Congressional, or free at http://www.govexec.com/pdfs/022511rb1.pdf).

Yesterday, the U.S. Senate rejected two spending proposals which would have extended federal operations to the end of this fiscal year, September 30, 2011. The clock is now ticking for a compromise which will avoid a repeat of the 1995-1996 shutdown. For helpful commentary and analysis on the government’s progress toward averting a shutdown, check out the CQ Electronic Library’s publication CQ Weekly. The Washington Post’s Congress section is another good place to stay current with the latest congressional activities. And if you’d like a glimpse into the future, the Obama administration’s proposed Fiscal Year 2012 budget (which would begin on October 1, 2011 if approved by Congress) is posted online at the White House website.

Even if the federal shutdown happens, at least we’ll be in better shape than Belgium, which in mid-February surpassed Iraq to take the dubious record of longest time without a central government (250 days then, and counting). Former Prime Minister Yves Leterme, who resigned in April 2010, has remained on as “caretaker” prime minister after elections in June 2010 failed to produce a clear majority result for the next government; negotiations have deadlocked ever since.

For help with federal budget research, or any other congressional matter, be sure to Ask a Librarian.

Rules of the Road

2011-03-02T08:30:00.004-05:00

An early episode of the Comedy Central mockumentary series Reno 911! depicted its inept law enforcement crew competing in a twisted scavenger hunt, where points were awarded for arresting unusual criminals: e.g., 10 points would be awarded for a perp who measured more than 6’5” in height; another 5 points for an arrestee with an animal tattoo; and 15 points to the officer who nabbed the most attractive prostitute by night’s end. But what seemed like a far-fetched and morbidly funny hypothetical scenario in 2003 became sadly real yesterday, when the L.A. Times published an internal police memo which outlined a "baseball game" for traffic violations.

The Bell (CA) Police Department Baseball Game (annotated memo) created a progressive scoring system for parking and moving violations, from "singles" (recovering a stolen vehicle, writing 6 parking tickets), to "doubles" (misdemeanor arrests, citations for illegal parking in a handicapped spot), to "triples" (a 30-day impound, an arrest with no bail), to the "home run" of making a felony arrest based on an officer’s observation. A note at the bottom of the memo stated that the game was operated "on the honor system" with non-performers "sent to minor league rehab stint." The document surfaced during a U.S. Justice Department investigation of civil rights violations in Bell due to the local police department’s “aggressive towing of cars.” As the L.A. Times explained:

Part of the investigation focuses on claims by some officers that the department had quotas for issuing tickets and impounding cars, which they said was done to raise revenue for the city. Some officers said they were reprimanded when they did not meet goals.

Police officers interviewed by the Times suggested that the "baseball game" was actually a joke circulated by a few individual officers, and that supervisors "squashed" the game once the memo was discovered. But the document doesn’t do much to help Bell’s reputation as a center of public corruption; the city rose to national prominence last summer with the arrest of eight city officials who appropriated municipal funds for personal loans, and also drew disproportionately large salaries for the relatively low-income city (city manager Robert Rizzo was paid nearly $800,000 a year – nearly 3 times the salary of the manager of Santa Monica, which in turn is nearly 3 times the size of Bell). For more information, see the L.A. Times' complete coverage of the Bell city scandals.

What does all of this mean for the average Goodson Blogson reader? Well, it is perhaps most useful as a reminder to brush up on your local vehicle and traffic laws. While your local police department is probably (hopefully!) not engaged in scavenger hunt arrest sprees or “fantasy baseball” ticket-writing games, it’s easy to earn a ticket without realizing it. Pop quiz for North Carolina readers: do you know how far you should park from an intersection? Or when you must yield the right-of-way? Wherever you live, your state legislature has likely placed a copy of its code online; access state statutes through the National Conference of State Legislatures’ State Legislative Websites Directory.

If the damage is already done, and you’re currently fighting a traffic ticket, you may want to check out Duke’s copy of the Nolo Press e-book Beat Your Ticket: Go to Court & Win (5th ed. 2007). An earlier 2005 edition of this title is also available in print at the Goodson Law Library, at the call number Reference Collection KF2231.Z9 B76 2005.

Drive safely!

Support for Startups

2011-03-01T11:21:00.003-05:00

Whether you’re formally pursuing Duke’s LL.M in Law & Entrepreneurship or just casually kicking around a business idea with friends, you might already be incubating the next Facebook, the latest local hot-spot restaurant, or a community-enriching nonprofit (such as Durham’s Coalition to Unchain Dogs). But turning a business idea into reality is a complex process, and few people possess both the business and legal acumen to go it alone. While the Goodson Law Library staff cannot provide legal advice on starting a business, the Goodson Blogson can point you to some helpful resources to get your idea beyond the brainstorming phase.

Unsurprisingly, the Ford Library at the Fuqua School of Business houses the majority of Duke's print resources on starting a business (like the recent Technology Ventures: From Idea to Enterprise), but the Duke University community also has access to a number of relevant e-books, such as The Small Business Start-Up Kit (2004) and Legal Guide for Starting & Running a Small Business (2008). You can access these titles and others like them with a search of the Duke University Libraries catalog for subject keywords like "small business" and "new business enterprises," or general keywords like "starting business."

Additional information can be found on the web. The U.S. Small Business Administration provides free guidance to would-be entrepreneurs; its Starting & Managing a Business section offers practical tips from writing a business plan, to estimating startup costs, to effective marketing. More locally, the North Carolina Small Business and Technology Development Center works in partnership with the federal SBA to provide resources and services to in-state business owners, including a number of free publications on topics like financing opportunities and intellectual property issues.

For local entrepreneurs with a well-formed concept, Durham’s Startup Stampede might be just the support you need to get your idea off the ground. The project, sponsored by the city and county governments, the local Chamber of Commerce, and other local organizations, will offer fifteen startups free high-tech office space downtown for 60 days, as well as access to small-business experts for consultation and advice. Applications are due by Friday, March 11, and the final fifteen will be notified by March 18. Will Duke Law be represented in the stampede? We sure hope so!

Sushi Law, and What It Teaches Us

2011-02-22T11:57:00.004-05:00

Over the weekend, the news media reported on a sushi-related discrimination lawsuit currently working its way through the Los Angeles County trial court system. David Martin visited a southern California sushi house and ordered its all-you-can-eat buffet for $28. But when restaurateur Jay Oh noticed leftover nuggets of rice on Martin’s plate, he argued that Martin should be charged the higher price for sashimi (raw fish without rice) than for nigiri (raw fish served atop a hand-packed wad of vinegared rice). Since sashimi is traditionally priced higher than nigiri, the restaurant’s policy for the sushi buffet requires diners to clean their plates completely in order to receive the next round of food. Martin responded with a lawsuit, alleging that A Ca-Shi Restaurant’s requirement that patrons consume the sushi rice along with the fish in order to qualify for the all-you-can-eat price constituted discrimination against diabetics like him.

Though several news sources picked up this story (including the ABA Journal), virtually all quoted their sources as an L.A. Times op-ed rather than the lawsuit filing itself. While it’s common for the popular media to omit key details like case names, docket numbers, and sometimes even the court where suit was filed, this can be a frustrating situation for legal eagles who want to use their research skills to track down and read the original documents. If you’re curious to see Martin’s complaint, or obtain other information about the case, where do you go from here?

In times like this, our Court Records & Briefs research guide can help you get started. The “Specific Document Types” section points to sources for tracking down lawsuit information in both federal and state courts. You’ll need to pinpoint the correct jurisdiction based on information provided in the article, which can be tricky at the state level if you’re unfamiliar with the county boundaries in that state. Fortunately, the news articles in this case specifically named the Los Angeles County Court, saving you a painstaking step of searching county boundary maps online.

Using the tips in the research guide, you’ll discover that California trial-level civil court filings are available to the Law School community through LexisNexis ( Legal > States Legal - U.S. > California > Search Court Records, Briefs and Filings > Find Filings > Civil & Criminal Court Filings and Regulatory Actions > Civil & Criminal Filings - Selected States > California > CA Superior Court Civil Case Index - Los Angeles County) and Westlaw (CA-FILINGS database). Unfortunately, the Martin documents do not appear in any search result. The Lexis and Westlaw court filing databases often have gaps in coverage (for state-level databases, entire counties may be missing; for county-level databases, the update schedule might be irregular); you should always check the “Information” button (an icon containing the letter “i” next to the database name) to determine the contents of a particular database.

If Lexis and/or Westlaw can’t help you, your next stop should be the website of the court itself, to look for online document search systems or the court clerk’s office contact information. Los Angeles County Court offers an online service to search party names across its civil courts; unfortunately, it is fee-based and requires registration. Some detective work in the free online Civil Calendar, based on the information provided by the news articles, does provide the docket number in the case, and also tells us that a hearing in the case of Martin v. A Ca-Shi Sushi, No. 10E06168, is scheduled for the Los Angeles County Van Nuys East courthouse on Friday, February 25 at 1:30 p.m. Pacific time. (Interestingly, the calendar data also tells us that this case was filed nearly a year ago, on May 20, 2010 – though it didn’t seem to make a splash in the news until the L.A. Times picked up the story last Thursday.)

While you still don’t have Martin’s complaint in hand, you now have enough information to obtain it from the court clerk for a modest fee. The Court Records & Briefs research guide can help you track down documents from any newsworthy case you may be interested in reading. If you need assistance with navigating the various options for obtaining court filings, be sure to Ask a Librarian.

FYI on TOAs and TOCs

2011-02-15T17:47:00.006-05:00

Some things never change. In spring 2009, the Goodson Blogson came to the rescue of frustrated Duke Law 1Ls with a post about formatting tables of contents and tables of authorities, just in time to turn in their LARW appellate briefs. And while those lucky students are now set to graduate in May (hopefully expert in the art of table-generation), the same questions have recurred every subsequent spring with each new crop of 1Ls. Since new versions of popular word-processing programs have debuted since our last post (some dramatically changing the instructions for generating these tables), it's high time for an update.

Tables of contents and tables of authorities were most likely not required in undergraduate writing projects, so they can be entirely new ground for many first-year law students. Don’t fall into the trap of creating these tables from scratch— most word-processing programs can generate them automatically. Since instructions will vary depending on what product you are using (and in some cases, what version of the product), here are updated "how-to" links from some of the most popular word-processing programs: Microsoft Word (both PC and Mac versions), OpenOffice, and WordPerfect.

Program	Table of Contents	Table of Authorities
Word 2011 (for Mac)	TOC	Index
Word 2010	TOC	TOA
Word 2007	TOC	TOA
Word 2003	TOC	TOA
OpenOffice	TOC	TOA (unofficial user tip)
WordPerfect	TOC	TOA

Do you have a favorite formatting tip for new legal writers? Or do you use a word-processing program that we didn’t cover? Let us know in the comments section.

Time for Taxes? Not Just Yet...

2011-02-11T16:04:00.002-05:00

If you’re like most people, you probably have your W-2s and other financial paperwork in a stack at home, but that’s as far as you’ve gotten on your income tax preparation. In fact, the Internal Revenue Service has even requested that some people not file their 2010 returns until mid-February, so its processors have time to prepare for changes made by 2010’s tax law overhaul. It looks like 2011 will be an especially good year for tax procrastinators: the little-known Washington, D.C. holiday of Emancipation Day (CNN story) will be observed on the usual tax deadline of April 15, pushing back the dreaded day an extra weekend to Monday, April 18 instead.

However, most taxpayers can file 2010 returns as soon as they are ready, and just need to find the time and energy to tackle their taxes. Although the Goodson Law Library staff is not able to answer substantive tax-related questions (such as “what forms do I need to file?” or help with interpreting the form instructions), the Goodson Blogson is happy to point you to some starting places.

Before you pay for a professional tax preparation service, consider whether you qualify for the IRS FreeFile program. This service links qualifying taxpayers to free electronic federal tax preparation service (state tax preparation may also be available in some cases). Note that your adjusted gross income must be $58,000 or less in order to take advantage of the FreeFile program.

You might also qualify for assistance from VITA (Volunteer Income Tax Assistance), a program in which trained volunteers assist with preparation for low- to moderate-income taxpayers, as well as senior citizens. Duke Law’s VITA chapter has posted their schedule for spring 2011; please note that advance appointments are required at some sites. For readers outside the Durham area, the IRS maintains a list of VITA sites around the country.

If you don’t qualify for free assistance, or would prefer to tackle your own taxes, you might consider trying a software program or online filing service like TurboTax or H&R Block at Home. Earlier this month, Consumer Reports provided some helpful tips to help evaluate which option is right for you.

If your taxes turn out to be too complicated, you might need to hire a professional. The IRS has tips for choosing a tax professional as well as instructions for filing complaints against any bad apples out there.

Good luck—and for the perpetual procrastinators, there’s always an automatic extension (but don’t get too excited – it’s an extension to file, not an extension to pay what you are estimated to owe!).

Food Fight: Area Food Trucks v. City Hall

2011-02-03T10:31:00.004-05:00

Duke Law and food trucks go together like radishes on a taco (and if that simile is puzzling, you’ve never had a real taco). After all, the Law School’s Epicurean Society founded Carpe Durham, the local food blog which frequently reviews new trucks and recently released a beta map tracking current truck locations via Twitter. In 2009, two students enrolled in Entertainment Law used our Student Media Workshop to assist in the preparation of their class project: a short film called Tacomentary: The Durham Taco Story, which featured interviews with local truck vendors. And though they’ve mostly shifted to late-night hours parking on West Campus, the OnlyBurger truck used to be a common lunchtime choice for Law School students and staff.

So it’s no surprise that the Goodson Blogson was interested to read yesterday’s Bull City Rising article, discussing current food truck legal controversies in the Triangle. Food truck vendors are subject to a dizzying number of local ordinances, administrative regulations, and permit restrictions, many of which were written before the recent spike in truck popularity (in just the last few years, our local options for “truck fare” have expanded from tacos and ice cream to burgers, hot dogs, pizza, Indian food, Korean BBQ, crepes, cupcakes, and even sausage). Staying on the right side of local laws can be so difficult that even JD holders might have trouble, as one law school grad who operates a Philadelphia cupcake truck learned last year.

Many local vendors are requesting that government officials review and revise their current rules to create a more level playing field for food trucks. As the article notes, Durham is considered to have more permissive food truck regulations than elsewhere in the Triangle (the Independent Weekly reported last November on the legal battles faced in Raleigh by the operator of a pizza truck). But even within Durham, food truck operators can easily run afoul of regulations, like when a local hot dog truck owner was informed of a clash between his temporary-use permit and his planned parking space.

So what’s a friendly neighborhood food vendor (or food truck aficionado) to do? The Goodson Blogson covered researching local ordinances last June, and many of the tips there will turn up zoning ordinances and possibly permit information which are relevant to mobile food businesses. Just like brick & mortar restaurants, food trucks are subject to health inspections by county health departments; Durham County provides a link to an online search form (you can limit "type" to "3 - Mobile Food" to review all food truck inspections); other county departments can be accessed on this statewide list). The local news sources which are cited in the June 2010 blog post are also a great source to track current developments on City Councils, as the vendors’ appeals are considered and ordinances are revised. If you’re interested to learn more about sources for local ordinances and local news, be sure to Ask a Librarian.

When Law Meets Medicine

2011-02-01T12:30:00.001-05:00

Encouraging news continues to be published about U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords, the intended target of the January 8 assassination attempt at a Safeway supermarket in Tuscon, Arizona. Giffords was critically injured in the attack, along with thirteen bystanders. Six other victims were killed, including U.S. District Court Judge John Roll (FJC biography) and nine-year-old Christina Green, who had come to the Representative’s “Congress on Your Corner” event to learn more about the political process. (Read NY Times profiles of the victims here). The alleged shooter, 22-year-old Jared Lee Loughner, faces several federal charges related to the attempted murder of Rep. Giffords and the murders of a Giffords staffer and Judge Roll (read the federal filing); state charges are in the works for the deaths and injuries of the other victims.

Amazingly, Rep. Giffords survived the shooting, despite receiving a gunshot wound to the head at point-blank range. Barely a week after the attack, one of her neurosurgeons expressed “100 percent” certainty that the Congresswoman will recover, an astonishing confidence given the nature of her injuries. Her condition was recently upgraded to “good,” and she was transferred to a rehabilitation center in Houston last week to begin several weeks of physical therapy.

Thanks to the frequent news conferences and articles about the Representative’s progress, many have learned a great deal about neurosurgery and brain injuries over the last few weeks. The Giffords case is a reminder that while most legal researchers don’t typically have formal training in medicine, they sometimes have a need to learn more about diagnoses, injuries, and medical terminology. A number of resources are available to help legal researchers understand complex medical issues.

The Goodson Law Library’s reference collection includes a few medical texts, like Stedman’s Medical Dictionary, the DSM-IV-TR (the current handbook of psychiatric disorders), and the Physicians’ Desk Reference (PDR) (a handbook of prescription drug labeling information, including details about side effects). Duke researchers also have access to a number of books, e-books, and journals through the Medical Center Library, whose “Resources by Topic” page includes subject guides which should probably be consulted early in the research process.

However, Law School researchers have access to a few other sources, which are intended specifically for use by legal professionals. LexisNexis offers The Attorney’s Dictionary of Medicine, a dictionary for lawyers which defines nearly 60,000 medical terms. This title and other basic medical texts (like the DSM-IV and the PDR) can be found under the Legal tab by following the path: Reference > Medical. Another major medical work for attorneys, Lawyers’ Medical Cyclopedia, can be found under the path: Area of Law - By Topic > Health Care > Find Health Care Analytical Sources > Matthew Bender(R). This sprawling multi-volume set is searchable and browseable, and includes practical guidance by doctors on basic anatomy (with detailed charts), specific types of injuries and diseases, and topics like “Medicolegal Aspects of Sports” (chapter 9) or “Trial of a Personal Injury Case” (chapter 13).

Westlaw also contains a number of medical reference works, which can be found in the Directory under the path: Directories, Reference > Medical References. Titles include Stedman’s Medical Dictionary, the PDR, numerous physician and expert witness directories, and Attorneys Medical Deskbook 4th (MEDDESK), a handy reference for attorneys with thoughtful advice on topics like calculating damages, understanding certain injuries or diseases, and reading an autopsy report. Author Dan J. Tennenhouse holds a JD and an MD, which allows him to “bridge the gap” between legal research and medical knowledge.

For help finding more sources at the intersection of medicine and law, be sure to Ask a Librarian.

Parental Advisory

2011-01-30T16:03:00.002-05:00

If you feel guilty about not calling Mom and Dad enough, be glad you don’t live in China-- where the Civil Affairs Ministry has proposed a new law which would allow lonely parents to sue their adult children if they fail to visit regularly. Today’s New York Times has the full story on the proposal, which is intended to promote closer families and also prevent elder neglect and abuse. (Some provinces in China already have similar local ordinances; the article describes one mother who sued her adult daughters for neglect and received a judgment of monthly “parental support” from each woman.)

Chinese academics and officials who were interviewed by the Times express doubt that this measure will actually be adopted at the next annual session of the National People’s Congress in March. But the proposal has raised public awareness of a growing social concern about China’s elderly-- within the next 40 years, a full 25% of the country’s population will be over the age of 65. The expanding elderly population has brought with it a tragic rise in suicide rates among older people and increased concerns about abuse by “kenlao zu” (“people who nibble on their elders”).

Like China, the United States faces a growing elderly population, as the post-World War II “baby boomers” move steadily into retirement age over the next decade. As the American population ages, undoubtedly we’ll see a corresponding growth in “elder law,” the legal specialization which focuses on issues affecting the elderly. Elder law is a diverse field of legal practice, covering everything from estate planning; health care decision-making; managing supplemental income like Social Security, Medicare/Medicaid, veterans’ benefits and disability payments; to dealing with cases of elder abuse and neglect, whether by nursing homes, family members, or others.

To learn more about the practice of elder law, try a keyword search of the Duke Libraries catalog for “elder law”, or a subject heading search for "Older people -- Legal status, laws, etc. -- United States". You’ll find recent introductory titles like last year’s Elder Law in a Nutshell and Mastering Elder Law. As always, Ask a Librarian for further help locating information on this-- or any other-- research topic.

The Bluebook and Beyond

2011-01-26T20:15:00.002-05:00

Not a Bluebook fan? You’re in distinguished company. As Above the Law reported earlier today, Judge Richard A. Posner of the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals has just published a humorous “review” of the new 19th edition of The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation. “The Bluebook Blues” is available on the Yale Law Journal website, and appears in the new Winter 2010 issue (which will arrive in print at the library soon).

Posner’s disdain for the Bluebook has been well-documented since at least 1986, when he published an even more scathing critique in the Chicago Law Review, featuring a list of the nineteen most obnoxious “anti-lessons” in writing which Posner believed the Bluebook rules reinforced (#1: overuse of passive voice; #10: “Always be stuffy, boring”). Noting that the Bluebook has more than doubled in page length since his last review, Posner now describes it as a “monstrous growth, remote from the functional need for legal citation forms, that serves obscure needs of the legal culture and its student subculture.”

Posner’s 1986 article served to introduce the legal academy to a competing citation manual, which had been drafted and published by the staff of the University of Chicago Law Review. The “Maroon Book”, according to Posner, was a comparative “breath of fresh air; may it swiftly conquer the world of legal publishing.” Unfortunately (for Posner), the Maroon Book failed to gain traction in the legal writing community, although it’s still used by the law journals at the University of Chicago (which posted a free 20th anniversary edition online last fall).

It looks like Posner has abandoned hope for more widespread Maroon Book adoption over the last 25 years – the appendix to the Yale Law Journal piece reprints a internal style manual for the judge’s clerks, whose introduction assures new hires that Posner “doesn’t follow the Bluebook, the Maroon Book, the Chicago Manual of Style, or any other style book, and doesn’t want you to get hung up worrying about citation form.” But unless you’re definitely headed to the Windy City for summer or post-graduate employment, you’ll probably require some Bluebook brushing-up. Remember that the library has multiple copies on Reserve for your convenience, along with several useful help guides which have been updated to incorporate changes from the 2010 edition:

Also, as the Goodson Blogson previously reported in September, some online sources do attempt to create Bluebook citations automatically, including the “Copy (with Reference)” feature on the popular WestlawNext interface. While these sources don’t create 100% perfect citations (especially for short-form cites), they can be useful for helping a novice user view the general format of a particular cite.

As always, if you need help with navigating the Bluebook or locating sources to improve your legal citation skills, don’t hesitate to Ask a Librarian.

Expanded Access to "Examples & Explanations"

2011-01-14T14:36:00.003-05:00

The Examples & Explanations (E&E) book series are popular law school study aids, and it’s easy to see why: written by law professors, these books give a narrative overview of the key concepts and rules for a particular legal subject, followed by “examples” (hypothetical questions) and “explanations” of the answers. The Goodson Law Library purchases every title in this series (full list), and previously kept them on Level 2, organized by call number. Although normally items in the stacks loan out for 4 weeks at a time, borrowers of E&E books frequently found their due dates cut short by recall/hold requests from other eager readers, making access to the titles a frustrating experience for everybody.

To ensure access to as many readers as possible, the Goodson Law Library has now placed the most current edition of every Examples & Explanations title on Reserve, where they can be borrowed for 4 hours at a time (or overnight if borrowed with less than four hours before the Circulation/Reserve desk closes). We’re also in the process of ordering additional Reserve copies of E&E titles on the subjects of 1L classes, due to the series’ overwhelming popularity with new law students. As new editions are published, the previous editions will be moved from Reserve to the stacks on Level 2, organized by call number, so the older editions are available for lengthier (if slightly outdated) borrowing.

But that’s not all! As the John Marshall Law Library blog first reported last semester, Aspen Publishers has made large sections of this series available for free on Google Books. Although the complete full text of each book is not provided, and the “Limited Preview” will occasionally skip over a page or two, the Google Books preview does allow you to search within a particular book to locate relevant pages, and maybe even skim through the sections you’re most interested in (for example, searching for “consideration” in the Contracts title) . So if someone has already snagged the library’s copy of an E&E title, this online preview might tide you over until the book is returned.

For help locating E&E titles, or for recommendations of similar law school study aids, be sure to Ask a Librarian.

Finding the Law of Foreign Countries

2011-01-11T12:02:00.003-05:00

If it’s true that, as the saying goes, “All politics is local,” it may be equally true that “All law is global.” These days, multinational corporations are keeping abreast of business law developments in every country they call home. American law professors are asked to provide feedback to the drafters of a proposed constitution in Kenya. And more than once, the U.S. Supreme Court has famously looked to court decisions from other countries when considering its domestic jurisprudence on the death penalty and other topics (download a history of such citations from 1789-2005 for free at SSRN).

At this rate, even a lawyer who never leaves the USA in his or her lifetime will need to research foreign and/or comparative law at some point. Fortunately (and unsurprisingly), the use and study of foreign legal materials grew increasingly more popular at the same time that the Internet began to make them easier to locate. While there are still major challenges to accessing foreign law—not every country has the technological infrastructure (or political stability) to maintain legal repositories, and researchers who can’t read the native language will face additional barriers – a number of sources are available, and access to legal materials from other countries continues to widen.

The library’s newly-updated Research Guide to Foreign & Comparative Law contains an entire section of resources devoted to locating legal materials from foreign countries. While many require a current Duke NetID for off-campus access, there are also some great free resources like the University of Texas Foreign Law Translations for selected court opinions; The Rise of Modern Constitutionalism, 1776 - 1849 for historical constitutions; and the Law Library of Congress’s Global Legal Information Network for access to legislation. Duke scholars enjoy a wider variety of online resources, such as two options for constitutions in translation (Constitutions of the Countries & Territories of the World and HeinOnline's World Constitutions Illustrated), the Commercial Laws of the World series online in RIA Checkpoint, and several sources for court decisions.

Still, most foreign law research projects should involve a trip to the Goodson Law Library -- one of the best available online resources, Foreign Law Guide, requires even current Duke Law students to access its wealth of information on law sources from a computer which is physically connected to the Law School network, such as the library workstations. And while anyone can browse the International Encyclopaedia of Laws website to identify whether a particular volume contains discussion of the country you’re researching (such as the “Commercial and Economic Law” monograph’s section on Brazil), you’d need to access the full text in print at the Law Library.

For help with researching the law of a foreign country, be sure to Ask a Librarian.

A New Look for the Libraries' Catalog

2011-01-04T09:30:00.000-05:00

If you use the Goodson Law Library’s homepage “Catalog Search” box, you may soon notice a slight difference in the look and feel of your search results. Starting January 5, the Goodson Law Library will change its default catalog search from the “Classic” to the “Basic” view. Links will be updated on the library homepage, as well as in all research guides and other instructional materials.

The new catalog interface contains the same inventory (the collections of all the Duke University Libraries), but with a few changes to the search methodology. Results are displayed by relevance, rather than the traditional reverse-chronological order (making it much easier to search for periodical items, like magazines and newspapers, where the “date” listed in the catalog record is the first year of publication; the reverse-chronological display often pushes these items very low on a search result list). Faceted browsing allows you to further narrow your search results based on certain limits, like subject matter, format, language, and/or owning library. (For those who prefer to set search limits up-front, an Advanced Search screen is also available.)

The new “Basic Catalog” offers a number of useful features which are not available in the “Classic” interface:

Permalinks for individual titles in the catalog make it easy to return to a search result, or email the link to a particular title.
RSS Feeds are available for any search, via the orange RSS icon next to your total number of search results. If you use an RSS reader (such as Google Reader), you can subscribe to a feed and receive automatic updates when new search results are added.
“Where Is This?” links provide quick access to location maps for most search results, making it easy to figure out where a particular title can be found in the library.
Book cover images and Google Book Previews, where available, help you assess the potential usefulness of a search result.

The Duke Libraries have a helpful comparison chart of other features in both the new catalog and the “classic” catalog.

Of course, the “new” catalog may not look so new to everyone – it actually debuted on the Duke University Libraries homepage way back in the summer of 2008, but some issues related to the Law Library’s 2007-2008 renovation put a hold on our adoption of the new interface at the time. Because it’s been in use on the Duke University Libraries page for so long, it’s likely that may of our users have already encountered it while searching for library materials. But if the new catalog leaves you in need of assistance, be sure to Ask a Librarian.

Did Santa Bring You Stolen Art?

2010-12-22T12:53:00.002-05:00

We don’t mean to be a Debbie Downer this holiday season, but thefts of artwork and cultural property are part of a billion-dollar black market. Collectors of art and antiques should protect their own treasures from theft, as well as educate themselves to prevent unknowingly acquiring stolen pieces from unscrupulous dealers.

The FBI makes it easy with a searchable National Stolen Art File, launched in late November as part of the Bureau’s website redesign. The database includes information on stolen artwork and cultural property which is valued at more than $2,000. Also worth a look is the FBI’s general Art Theft page, which includes resources to report thefts, advice for protecting against losses, and the Bureau’s fascinating list of “Top Ten Art Crimes.”

The FBI is not the only organization which is concerned with stolen art. INTERPOL also maintains a resource page about art theft, although their database requires approved registration in order to perform advanced searches (access to recently-reported thefts is freely available).

The recovery of stolen works is just one facet of what is known as "art law." To learn more about the unique legal issues related to art and cultural property, search the Duke Libraries’ catalog for the subject keywords "Law and Art – United States" and "Artists – Legal status, laws, etc. – United States," or Ask a Librarian.

Understanding the New Tax Law

2010-12-17T16:39:00.002-05:00

It's been hard to ignore the last few weeks of debate about the massive tax legislation working its way through Congress. A controversial “compromise” plan, engineered in part by the White House, passed the U.S. House of Representatives close to midnight on Thursday, December 16.

Just a few hours later, the major tax research databases were announcing the publication of updated commentary and analysis of the Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act (H.R. 4853 – THOMAS bill summary and text). Researchers at Duke Law have access to three premium tax resources: BNA’s Tax and Accounting Center, CCH IntelliConnect, and RIA Checkpoint. Since research in these services can be overwhelming to novice users, here are detailed roadmaps to their expert commentaries on the new tax law.

BNA Tax and Accounting Center: Follow the path Federal Tax > Tax Legislation > BNA Analysis of the Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act of 2010, passed by the House and Senate.

CCH IntelliConnect: Follow this path in the “Browse” menu: Federal Tax > Federal Tax Legislation > Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act of 2010: Law, Explanation & Analysis. Note that IntelliConnect requires a username and password, which can be created with your Duke email address.

RIA Checkpoint: The full text of RIA’s “Complete Analysis of the Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act of 2010, RIC Modernization, and Other Late 2010 Tax Provisions” is currently linked from the database home page, and is also searchable from the “Research” tab underneath “Legislation (Editorial Analysis and Source Material).”

Just sixteen hours after its passage in the House, the President signed the bill into public law, illustrating the value of these electronic services as sources for news and analysis on the latest developments in tax law. For more sources of information on federal tax, check out the library’s research guide or Ask a Librarian.

A New Congressional Staff Directory

2010-12-13T09:49:00.002-05:00

Earlier this year, we rounded up some Duke databases which can help identify Congressional staff members, and asked the question: “Do any free Internet sources stack up to CQ and the Yellow Book?”

Last week, a new online resource entered the fray when the Sunlight Foundation, a government transparency organization, released a beta directory of all employees from the U.S. House of Representatives. Sunlight's House Staff Directory contains data from the third quarter of 2009 to present. The data can be searched by staff title, political party, quarter and/or state, and results can be downloaded to a spreadsheet.

The Sunlight Foundation explains the development of the directory in its blog post. The staff information is drawn from the House Clerk’s office and the Statement of Disbursements (a quarterly breakdown of House expenditures). The makers caution that some data may be up to six months out of date, due to the distribution schedules of their source material. The new directory also does not include salary information, which is provided by another free source called Legistorm.

Sunlight calls its new directory a “work in progress,” and invites comments and suggestions for improvement. Take a look at the new directory as well as the resources from our earlier blog post, and see for yourself how they compare.

Human Rights Day 2010

2010-12-10T11:54:00.003-05:00

On this day in 1948, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The anniversary of this influential document has been observed around the world in subsequent years as Human Rights Day, including since 1949 in the United States by presidential proclamation. The UN’s Human Rights Day 2010 page profiles “human rights defenders” who are working to end discrimination from Mongolia, to Lesotho, to Chile. There is also a short quiz to test your historical human rights acumen.

More than 60 years after the declaration’s adoption, human rights violations remain a major international concern. Non-governmental organizations like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch publish reports on a variety of topical issues, and also provide access to news and commentary for particular countries and/or regions. Additional human rights NGOs around the world can be located through resources listed in the Perkins Library’s NGO research guide, including Associations Unlimited, a searchable online version of the Encyclopedia of Associations (which can also be found in print in the Law Library’s reference collection).

Information about the history and impact of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights can be found in the Duke Libraries Catalog with a search for the subject keywords "Universal Declaration of Human Rights". The library’s large collection of materials on human rights can be located with a subject keyword search for "human rights". You can further narrow your search results by a specific country (for example, “human rights – burma”). For further help with researching human rights law and history, be sure to Ask a Librarian.

32 Flavors. 57 Varieties. 51 Code Titles?

2010-12-07T12:17:00.003-05:00

Some numbers just seem destined to remain constant: 24 hours in a day; 212 degrees to boil water; and a 3.5 median in Law School seminar classes. For a long time, it seemed like the 50 titles to the U.S. Code was one of those dependable numbers too. The U.S.C. has had 50 titles since its first edition in 1926 (although their corresponding subjects have changed over time, and Title 34, Navy, has sat empty since its 1956 repeal).

But over the weekend, the Senate unanimously passed H.R. 3237, The Charles 'Pete' Conrad Astronomy Awards Act, which would create Title 51 of the U.S. Code, as a single place for laws on the subject of ‘National and Commercial Space Programs.’ The newly-enacted title would transfer existing code sections related to space from Title 15 (Commerce and Trade), Title 42 (Public Health and Welfare), and Title 49 (Transportation). The bill had passed the U.S. House of Representatives in January 2010, but languished without action in the Senate for months.

H.R. 3237 is an example of positive law codification, a tricky legal research concept which is best explained with a history lesson. The first U.S. Code was an attempt to arrange all of the laws in force (from the chronological U.S. Statutes at Large) by their subject matter. This editorial arrangement of the general and permanent laws in force was considered only “prima facie evidence” of the law (i.e., in the event of a typo or other textual discrepancy, the Statutes at Large text would control). Beginning in 1947, Congress enacted several U.S.C. titles into positive law, systematically revising a title and enacting it as a new statute (thus making the title itself into legal evidence of the law, rather than prima facie evidence). Currently (and until H.R. 3237 is signed by the President), 24 of the U.S.C.’s 50 titles have been enacted into positive law.

The Office of the Law Revision Counsel, the office within Congress which updates editorial changes to the U.S.C., has an information page about the Title 51 codification, as well as pages for its other proposed positive law codification projects, for subjects (like space programs) which don’t fit comfortably into the Code’s current topical structure. If all goes according to the Office’s plan, the U.S.C. could soon expand to 55 titles—although it still has a long way to go before it overtakes its predecessor, the Revised Statutes, which boasted 74 titles in its 1876 edition.

The Office of the Law Revision Counsel is also in the process of proposing positive law revisions to existing U.S.C. titles – another House bill, for the enactment of Title 41 (Public Contracts), also passed the Senate over the weekend, but amendments made in the Senate will need to be reconciled before that bill is sent to the President for signature.

Still unclear about the finer points of positive law codification? Feel free to Ask a Librarian!

A Costly Lesson in Parliamentary Procedure

2010-12-06T08:30:00.003-05:00

Parliamentary procedure tends not to be a very hot topic of discussion-- unless your organization follows Robert's Rules of Order, or there’s yet another fistfight on a legislative chamber floor. But without even a single punch thrown, the finer points of parliamentary procedure are currently making headlines in the U.S.

Last week, the Senate passed the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act, hailed as a landmark achievement by a lame-duck Congress. The bill would provide greater authority to the Food & Drug Administration to recall contaminated food, in addition to requiring more frequent inspections of production sources. Unfortunately for the bill’s sponsors, and much to the amusement of Jon Stewart at the tail end of this Daily Show clip, the bill hit a constitutional snag almost immediately after its passage.

As Roll Call reported, any revenue-raising legislative provision is required to originate in the U.S. House of Representatives, not the Senate. (To avoid the issue, the Senate could have located a dead House bill, stripped its unrelated provisions, and attached the food safety bill text, but failed to do so.) Now that the bill is making its way to the House, some members are expected to block the bill’s passage there through a process called “blue slipping.”

The food safety bill sponsors would have done well to review Riddick’s Senate Procedure, the bible of Senate parliamentary practice. Originally researched and written by former Senate Parliamentarian (and Duke alumnus) Dr. Floyd M. Riddick, the title is available in print at the Duke Libraries as well as online through the Government Printing Office’s FDsys site. Its "Revenue" chapter clearly explains the constitutional issues which took place here, and other sections discuss the finer points of subjects like attendance expectations, treaty practices, and even the history of a century-long ban on flowers in the Senate chamber.

Throughout his distinguished career, Dr. Riddick had an enormous influence on Senate procedure as well as on the Goodson Law Library. Dr. Riddick and his wife Marguerite were primary benefactors of the library, and their generosity is readily apparent in the Floyd M. and Marguerite F. Riddick Rare Book and Special Collections Room on Level 3. Displayed in the room are numerous photographs from Dr. Riddick's career, as well as some donated works from his personal collection on legislation and American government (many with personal inscriptions to Dr. Riddick from their authors, including most of the works by former president and Law School alumnus Richard Nixon). The Riddicks also established an endowment to support the library’s collection in the areas of legislative and parliamentary procedure. Although some of these items are kept in the Riddick Room, many are found in the library stacks by call number, with a bookplate identifying the Riddicks’ contribution.

For more information on congressional procedures, try a subject search in the Duke Libraries catalog for "Parliamentary practice—United States". To track the developments in the food safety bill, visit the THOMAS Bill Summary and Status page for S.510, or any of the bill tracking resources listed in this May 2009 post.

Exam-Time Excellence

2010-12-03T09:59:00.003-05:00

It's reading & examination period at the Law School, and that means our students are busily preparing outlines and reviewing class notes. As stress levels rise and preparation time grows short, the Goodson Blogson wants to review some of the most common questions at the service desk lately.

Library Access

As previously reported (both here and in certain other legal blogs of note), exam time brings a temporary change to the library’s access policy, most notably in the evening hours. From now until the end of exams (Saturday, December 18), access to the Goodson Law Library for study purposes will be limited to current Duke Law students, faculty and staff. Card-swipe access to the library entrance will be required after 5:00 p.m. on weekdays and all day on weekends.

Members of the Duke University community who require access to the library for research purposes should contact the library service desk for assistance. Additional study space is available to all throughout the building, in the Star Commons (Level 3 and 4), the Blue Lounge (Level 2), and Room 3041.

Getting Technical

If you plan to use your laptop to take an exam, make sure you have installed Electronic Bluebook (EBB) well ahead of time, and practice using it to ensure that your test goes smoothly! Detailed instructions are available on the Academic Technologies' Computing for Students page. If you encounter problems while downloading the software, talk to the Academic Technologies' Help Desk staff.

Reviewing Old Exams

A frequent question at the Reference Services desk during the reading and exam period is where to obtain copies of Law School exams from previous years. Past exams from your professors, where available, will be posted to your class Blackboard site. There is a common misconception that the library maintains an archive of exams as well. Although there is a print collection of past Law School exams in the library’s Archives collection (1935-2001), most of these are either from faculty who no longer teach at Duke or for faculty/course combinations which are no longer current for Fall 2010. The library has no post-2001 exams in paper or online formats.

What to Expect

If your professors have chosen not to place past exams on Blackboard, it may be helpful to review general law examination preparation guidebooks. These provide an overview of the most common formats for law school exams, and give strategies for studying and for writing successful answers. Often, these books also provide model exam questions and sample answers, along with explanations why a particular answer is more successful than others. Titles like Mastering the Law School Exam: A Practical Blueprint for Preparing and Taking Law School Exams can be found in the libraries’ catalog with a subject search for “Law examinations—United States”. A selected listing is provided in the “Exam Preparation” section of the library’s Law School Success handout, along with a helpful page of recommended "Study Guides & Aids."

Anything Else?

As always, the library staff are here to help. Visit the Service Desk on level 3 with any questions. Good luck on your exams!

A Meth House is Not a Home

2010-11-29T19:59:00.003-05:00

Today, CNN and the Consumerist blog reported the story of a Pennsylvania couple, Jenn Friberg and Ron Quigley, who were dismayed to discover that their new home had previously been a meth lab. Lingering drug residue made the new owners physically ill just days after moving in, and professional cleaning will cost the couple an additional $25,000 over their purchase price. Friberg and Quigley have started a blog, Our Meth House, to solicit donations for the cleanup, as well as to help raise awareness of the warning signs for other potential home-buyers.

Goodson Blogson readers who have survived the labor-intensive process of purchasing a home may be shocked to hear that no laws were broken by the inspectors or sellers who failed to disclose the property’s colorful history. Disclosure laws vary widely by state, and in Pennsylvania the burden is on the homeowner to request a “meth lab test” by the inspector and/or to conduct independent research on the property. Friberg and Quigley learned of their new home’s history from a neighbor, and subsequently discovered the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency’s National Clandestine Laboratory Register, which did list their property’s address. Unfortunately, the news came too late to prevent the purchase of their contaminated home.

What can a savvy legal researcher do to determine how Friberg and Quigley’s situation might compare to another state’s laws on the matter? 50-state surveys to the rescue! Multi-state surveys provide quick access to various jurisdictions’ statutes and/or regulations on a particular subject. Although there won’t always be a survey available on your specific research topic, it’s always worth a check before you attempt to compile the information yourself. Here are some approaches which could save you valuable research time down the road:

Researchers at Duke may want to start with HeinOnline’s Subject Compilations of State Laws database (the book version is also available in the library’s Reference Collection). This collection is searchable by keyword or browseable by topic, and indexes multi-state surveys from premium databases, footnotes and appendices to law review articles, and non-governmental organization websites. A keyword search for “methamphetamine” returned several results, including a Westlaw survey entitled “Cleanup, Remediation, or Demolition of Methamphetamine Houses” (dated 2006).

As seen above, the Subject Compilations will frequently point to surveys available on LexisNexis and Westlaw, but because of publication delays (the 2008-2009 volume was uploaded to Hein in June 2010), it can be useful to search these premium databases separately for more recent material. On Lexis, follow the path Legal > Legislation & Politics (or 50-State Multi-Jurisdictional Materials) > LexisNexis 50 State Surveys, Legislation & Regulations to search the survey text; on Westlaw, the database identifiers are SURVEYS for statutory materials, and REG-SURVEYS for regulatory comparisons. Note that these surveys are updated periodically by Lexis and Westlaw staff—that 2006 survey cited in the Subject Compilations was last revised in October 2009 (for Find by Citation: 0070 SURVEYS 9).

A quick web search can also be an effective research strategy for locating free 50-state surveys which may not yet be indexed by the Subject Compilations of State Laws (such as surveys from the National Conference of State Legislatures, or this 2010 student note from BYU on methamphetamine disclosure laws, which is freely available on the school’s repository). As with all Internet search results, though, smart researchers will want to independently verify their findings – because with free legal information, you often get what you pay for.

(For local readers, the Westlaw survey and BYU note both point to N.C. Gen. Stat. § 130A-284, which charges the state Commission for Public Health with rulemaking power to establish decontamination standards for former meth labs. North Carolina’s disclosure form includes a section on “environmental hazards” but does not specifically address meth labs.)

Have 50-state surveys ever saved you a research headache? Tell us your success stories in the comment section.

More Holiday Gifts for Lawyers (and Law Students)

2010-11-23T11:12:00.003-05:00

Last year, the Goodson Blogson rounded up some recommendations for law-themed holiday gifts. But our Dec. 11 post came a little late for many shoppers-- and besides, who wants to brave the mall when you need to study for final exams? This year, we’re beating the Black Friday crowds with our 2010 legally-minded gift guide.

The links from last year’s post still remain great sources for legal-themed holiday gifts. What budding constitutional law scholar could resist the wares at the Supreme Court Historical Society Gift Shop? This gift shop still boasts perennial favorites like the “Lawsuit!” board game and guest room soap with the Court’s seal (although the Goodson Blogson still wishes for a revival of the shop’s book-and-gavel salt & pepper shaker set, which hasn’t appeared on the site since 2008). Another site highlighted in our 2009 list, The Billable Hour, offers a similar mix of lighthearted games, “survival kit” care packages (including one just for law students), and practical law office accessories like briefcases and desk sets.

Last week, blogger Reid Trautz released his sixth annual Gift Guide for Lawyers. Today the ABA Journal highlighted holiday gifts from Trautz’s list as well as some other finds, including a cool coffee mug boasting 30 landmark SCOTUS cases (the names of the losing parties disappear when the mug is filled).

Perhaps you’d prefer a law-themed gift with a more local flavor. From Monday, November 29 through Wednesday, December 1, Duke Law’s Public Interest Law Foundation (PILF) will hold its “PILF Gear” sale over the lunch hour in the Star Commons. Purchases of the sale’s Duke Law-themed items (including shirts, hats, and bumper stickers) will help provide grants to law students who choose to work in unpaid nonprofit/public interest employment over the summer.

Speaking of local shopping, a group of retailers in Durham have launched Sustain-A-Bull, an initiative which encourages holiday shoppers to support the Bull City’s unique independent stores. Although the law-themed gifts may be few and far between here, many of these retailers are offering special discounts during the week of November 29 – December 5.

But if limited luggage space requires you to do most of your holiday shopping online instead of in person, be sure to first check for coupon codes at RetailMeNot and The Consumerist blog’s “Morning Deals” section. For the true procrastinators among you, check out the retailers who will participate in Free Shipping Day, which will again take place on Friday, December 17.

Do you have other recommendations for law-themed gifts? Let us know in the comments.

End-of-Semester Library Access & Services

2010-11-22T08:30:00.001-05:00

The end of fall semester classes will bring some changes to the Goodson Law Library’s access and service hours.

To ensure that adequate study space is available for law students during the reading and examination period, the library will implement a new access and use policy from December 2-18. During the reading and examination period, use of the Goodson Law Library will be restricted to the Duke Law community at all times (including when the entrance doors are unlocked). Exceptions will be made for other students who are currently enrolled in Law School classes, or researchers with a demonstrated need for use of the law collections. All others may be asked to leave. (Please contact the Reference Desk during normal business hours about access under the above exceptions, or assistance with researching legal materials.)

The Law School and library entrance doors will be locked (with card swipe access restricted to the law community) after 5:00 p.m. on weekdays, and on weekends from December 2-18. Law students are reminded to carry their DukeCards at all times, both to enter the building and to enter the library. Library doors will remain open during normal business hours to accommodate outside deliveries and the needs of law school staff and faculty to enter the library.

Reference services will be available from 8:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. until Thursday, December 2. Beginning Friday, December 3, reference services will be available Monday-Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Evening and weekend reference services will resume at the beginning of the spring 2011 semester.

Circulation/Reserve services and the Academic Technologies Help Desk will continue to be available on weekends and in the evenings during the reading and examination period. Effective the last day of exams (Friday, December 17), all library service points will change to intersession hours (Monday-Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.), and will resume evening/weekend service at the start of the spring 2011 semester.

Good luck to our students on final exams, and have a safe and happy winter break!

A Very TSA Thanksgiving

2010-11-15T17:51:00.003-05:00

With the busiest travel days of the year fast approaching, the news media has been focused on the latest developments at the Transportation Security Administration, which has overseen airport security since its creation in November 2001. After an attempted airplane bombing on Christmas Day 2009, TSA stepped up its deployment of Advanced Imaging Technology (AIT) machines, which are expected to eventually replace the traditional metal detectors at most airports. (A list of airports which are currently using the new screening technology is available on the TSA’s website.)

The new machines, which produce X-ray-like scans of passengers that are monitored by an officer at a remote location within the airport, stirred immediate controversy among civil-liberties groups for their detailed imagery (revealing everything from artificial joints and other medical devices to the outline of genitalia) and potential for misuse by staff. (Although TSA promises that travelers’ faces are obscured by the software and that the body scans are not stored, the machines are capable of saving and transmitting the images. Furthermore, at least two disciplinary incidents have been reported where security officers made disparaging remarks about the content of the body scans – one in Miami and one in London.)

In addition to the concerns about personal privacy, others have expressed reservation about potential health risks from radiation. While the TSA information page assures travelers that the new AIT machines provide a lower dose of radiation than cell phones (or two minutes of the flights for which passengers are being screened), some of the most frequent fliers – i.e., pilots – are unconvinced. Last week, the pilots’ unions from US Airways and American Airlines urged their members to opt out of the AIT screening, citing potential for serious health risks due to frequent exposure.

So what happens after a pilot-- or any other passenger-- “opts out” of the AIT screening? The secondary method of screening is usually a pat-down search, although the procedure has allegedly become more invasive since the deployment of the AITs. (For details, compare TSA’s official blog on new procedures with Jeffrey Goldberg’s humorous first-person account from The Atlantic).

For some, the choice between a full-body scan or a physical pat-down is a true dilemma—and one, it turns out, with potential legal consequences. Over the weekend, a California blogger described his experience with security at the San Diego airport, after he refused both the AIT scan and the pat-down, requesting instead to be screened through the traditional metal detectors. When TSA officers escorted him out of the security area and he obtained a refund for his ticket, the blogger was approached by a security supervisor who informed him that “once I start the screening in the secure area, I could not leave until it was completed,” threatening him with a civil suit and a $10,000 fine if he did not comply. On Monday, the TSA confirmed the blogger’s allegations in a statement, citing a 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling to support its contention that those who refuse to complete security screening could face civil penalties. (Although the news reports do not give more detailed case information, savvy legal researchers should be able to use the court’s quoted language to easily track down U.S. v. Aukai, 497 F.3d 955, 960-61 (9th Cir. 2007); text at Google Scholar.)

More developments are certainly coming, with a Senate committee hearing on TSA oversight scheduled for Wednesday, November 17. A grassroots effort to declare Wednesday, November 24 to be “National Opt-Out Day” will also raise public awareness of the new TSA policies and procedures.

To learn more about the history and activities of the TSA, check out the “Information About Agencies” section of our research guide to Federal Administrative Law. And if the current airport security measures give new meaning to “fear of flying” this holiday season, remember that current Duke Law students, faculty and staff will retain 24-hour building access over the library’s Thanksgiving closure.

Study Rooms Are Back Online

2010-11-08T09:42:00.003-05:00

In September and October, the library tested new reservation calendar software for its eight private study rooms. After making some improvements to the system based on user feedback, we are ready to relaunch the online reservation calendar. (For example, no longer will you need to puzzle over making a 210- or a 240-minute reservation – we’ve adjusted the time display based on the #1 complaint about the software.)

Law students may log in at http://www.law.duke.edu/lib/studyrooms with a NetID and password to reserve one of our study rooms up to 72 hours in advance. The link is accessible on the Law Library home page as well as the Library & Technology page.

If you experience access problems where the system does not recognize you as a law student, please submit a feedback form and include your NetID so that we can resolve the error. We welcome other comments and suggestions about improving the calendar software, as well. Although not every suggested change will be possible in the calendar software, library staff will definitely consider your input for making the reservation experience as smooth as possible.

GV903, and Other Mysterious Library Numbers

2010-11-04T14:32:00.003-04:00

Last night, the Duke Law Bowling League Fall 2010 tournament entered its semifinal round. GV903, a team comprised of staff members from the Goodson Law Library & Academic Technologies, was knocked out of contention for the BarBri Cup after an exciting Elite 8 match with defending champions Strike a Posner. The competition has been strong all season, and GV903 has enjoyed rolling against so many Duke Law students. But we were a bit concerned to hear the same question from virtually all of our opponents this season: “What does your team name mean?”

The answer, of course, can be found in the library! You may have noticed that most materials in the library are organized by the Library of Congress Classification Outline, where books are arranged not by their title or author name but by an alphanumeric code (known as a “call number”). These call numbers correspond to the subject matter of the book; as a result, books on similar topics are grouped together. In this classification system, GV903 is the beginning of the call number for any books about (what else?) bowling—and because the Library of Congress call numbers are used in most academic and research libraries, you could walk into any library which uses this system and find bowling books at GV903.

Shockingly, there’s not much to be found in the Duke University Libraries under the actual call number GV903 (although we’re sure the illustrations in this 1939 handbook must be unintentionally hilarious by now). But those search results are a good reminder that you can actually search call numbers in the online catalog, just like you would search for a title keyword or an author’s name. Since similar books are assigned the same call number, this can be a useful strategy if you have found one particularly relevant book, and want to see what other books are available which have been classified with the same call number.

The Duke Libraries catalog also allows you to Browse Call Numbers, although this can lead to an overwhelming number of results for some call numbers (such as KF, the classification for American law materials, which retrieves more than 55,000 results). The browse feature does work particularly well for quickly pulling up legal materials from non-U.S. jurisdictions (like the 17 titles classified under Law of Antarctica).

Library of Congress isn’t the only call number system out there. Public libraries tend to use the numeric Dewey Decimal system (where bowling books can be found at the call number 794.6). Even within the Duke libraries, you might encounter different styles like the Superintendent of Documents system (for federal government documents). If you have any questions about locating a call number or searching for materials on a particular subject, be sure to Ask a Librarian.

This lesson in library call number systems has been brought to you by the members of GV903:

Sean Chen, Digital Resources Librarian (captain)
Shyama Agrawal, Acquisitions Librarian
Kristina Alayan, Foreign & International Law Librarian
Jennifer Behrens, Reference Librarian
Karen Douglas, Head of Collection Services
Melanie Dunshee, Assistant Dean for Library Services
Kelly Leong, Reference Intern & Lecturing Fellow
Hiroki Nishiyama, User Analyst
(With special guest appearances throughout the season by staff spouses & significant others: Marvin Douglas, Chris Bobko, and Chris Reeves)

Good luck to the Final Four in next week’s championship rounds, and we’ll see you on the lanes next spring!

Blekko Takes Aim at the Google Goliath

2010-11-01T10:52:00.002-04:00

The web buzzed this morning with talk of Blekko, a new search engine which has just launched to the public after several months in private beta-testing. As The New York Times reported, Blekko aims to filter out spam-like sites which push unhelpful results to the top of other search engines. In some areas which Blekko editors consider especially vulnerable to spam results (health and medical information, recipes, cars, travel, song lyrics, finance and college searching), the results are automatically filtered. In other areas, Blekko’s “slashtag” search option allows users to quickly filter irrelevant results. (See a demonstration and comparison at Search Engine Land.)

Blekko is just the latest search engine competitor to debut in a Google-dominated market. So how will they fare? It’s hard to tell. Last year’s “new kid” Bing is still holding strong, thanks to aggressive advertising and financial support from its heavyweight parent company Microsoft. But for every Bing which captures a piece of the search engine market share, there are several smaller search engines which don’t: for example, 2008’s Cuil, which the Goodson Blogson reviewed upon its debut. Although hopes were high for Cuil due to its developers’ past employment at Google, the would-be competitor shut down in September of this year.

No matter what happens to Blekko, it’s worth remembering that there are a number of search options out there, and that each will give you slightly different results. Dogpile’s Search Engine Comparison allows you to view a cross-section of results for your search from the “Big 4” (Google, Yahoo, Bing, and Ask), while sites like SearchEngineWatch and Search Engine Land report on new developments from the major and minor engines out there.

For help finding the best place to start your search, be sure to Ask a Librarian.

Bewitched

2010-10-25T16:06:00.003-04:00

Witches always make the news in October, and 2010 is no exception. Recent market research indicates that pointy hats and brooms remain a top pick for Halloween costumes, for adults, kids and even pets. Witches have also infiltrated the mid-year elections, with Delaware Senate candidate Christine O’Donnell’s campaign commercial, designed to ensure nervous voters that her past admission of “dabbling in witchcraft” had been overhyped by the media. (See an alternate take on the campaign spot from Saturday Night Live.)

But witches (and/or suspected witches) have long been accustomed to notoriety. Researching witchcraft and the law is an intimidating prospect, with historical accounts of witch-hunting and witchcraft trials spanning several centuries in a number of different countries. But if you’re inspired to try some Halloween-themed research this month, check out these tricks.

Materials on witchcraft may be found in several locations at the Duke University Libraries. For example, a subject search in the Duke Libraries Catalog for "Trials (Witchcraft)" will return results from the Goodson Law Library as well as the Divinity School Library and Perkins/Bostock Library (but you can request delivery of titles from other libraries by clicking the delivery truck icon next to the title).

You can also limit your catalog search results to just those owned by the Goodson Law Library (as we’ve done with this sample Subject search for "Witchcraft"), but keep in mind that you may limit your results too severely. For example, Malleus Maleficarum (aka “The Hammer of Witches”), the notorious 15th-century guide to witches and witch hunting, is available in translation through the Perkins library and the Divinity School library, but not at Goodson Law.

To locate articles on the topic, you may also want to expand beyond law reviews and legal journals to the various History databases available from the Duke University Libraries – you can access Duke history databases through the subject list.

Got a question about researching witch trials, the history of witchcraft, or just using the Duke Libraries Catalog? Be sure to Ask a Librarian – we’ll even be around on Halloween.

Online Tools for Language Instruction

2010-10-13T14:29:00.002-04:00

As law study becomes increasingly global in nature, we are sometimes asked whether the Goodson Law Library offers any CDs, DVDs or other resources for learning a foreign language. While the Ford Library at the Fuqua School of Business contains a Language Instruction section with books and CDs, the Duke University Libraries are also investigating some online subscription-based language tools and could use your help in evaluating a possible purchase.

There are four databases under consideration, which will be evaluated in groups of two. Right now, trials of Byki and Mango are accessible to the Duke University community (with a NetID and password) until October 31. Take advantage of these free trials to brush up on your skills, and share your impressions with the library staff via the online comment form.

Byki offers more than 80 language modules, using an interactive flash-card style to teach vocabulary and pronunciation. English speakers can choose from a long list of languages, from Afrikaans to Zulu, while English-as-a-second-language modules are available for a variety of languages (including Mandarin Chinese, Russian, Portuguese, and Japanese).
Mango’s 48 language courses include 14 ESL options. Courses for each language are broken into three levels: Basic (for introductory conversation), Complete 1.0 (an intermediate stage) and Complete 2.0 (more advanced vocabulary and grammar). Each level is comprised of several lessons which focus on a particular topic (such as basic greetings, asking for assistance, or shopping vocabulary).

After the completion of the Byki and Mango trials, the libraries will also test the popular Rosetta Stone product and another language instruction database called Tell Me More. Bookmark the Duke Libraries’ Database Trials page to access the current language trials and to keep abreast of the next language instruction trials.

If you don’t have a current Duke NetID to access the trials, you may be interested in OpenCulture’s list of Free Foreign Language Lessons Online, with links to free podcasts for nearly 40 languages, including a collection for English as a second language.

Law on Lockdown: Building Codes

2010-10-11T14:32:00.003-04:00

This summer, the Goodson Blogson wrote about municipal codes, the county- and city-level laws which impact much of our daily lives. But even the valuable resources listed in that entry do not include some critical local legal materials: building codes and other industry standards. Property owners know the importance of keeping a home or business “up to code”: whether it’s electric wiring, plumbing, construction materials, or fire safety, there is a maze of administrative regulations and commercial industry publications which must be navigated.

"No problem," thinks the seasoned legal researcher, grabbing the North Carolina Administrative Code from the library shelf (or from the virtual shelf). But a search for the 'building code' returns only entries like this one:

All applicable volumes of The North Carolina State Building Code, which is incorporated by reference, including all subsequent amendments, may be purchased from the Department of Insurance Engineering Division located at 322 Chapanoke Road, Suite 200, Raleigh, North Carolina 27603 at a cost of three hundred eighty dollars ($380.00). - 10A N.C. Admin. Code 13G.0302

“What?!” thinks our thoroughly-confused researcher. “The state building code isn’t actually published inside the state Administrative Code? Well, I guess I can try to find it in the library...”

But despite the fact that these building and industry codes are given legal effect by states and/or municipalities, our intrepid researcher is far more likely to find them in an engineering library’s collection rather than at the law library. Indeed, Duke’s print copy of the North Carolina State Building Code resides in the Perkins/Bostock Library.

This scenario is common due to the way these codes and standards are published – rather than each government attempting to draft its own building code, state and/or local governments adopt or incorporate existing codes which have been created by the relevant industry’s association. The International Code Council is a major publisher of such material, including the International Building Code, the International Fire Code, and the International Plumbing Code. The ICC codes form the basis of many states’ own codes on these subjects. Other common industry publications which are used by states include the National Fire Protection Association’s Fire Code and standards from ANSI, the American National Standards Institute.

Generally, the administrative and/or statutory publications of a government will indicate which “industry codes” apply, and will also tell you which government entity administers the code in question (such as North Carolina’s Building Code Council). But it’s historically been trickier to locate the text of the codes themselves, unless you subscribed to a commercial database (like MADCAD or ICC’s own site, neither of which is available to Duke University), could travel in person to the administrative government agency to review its public copy, had a library nearby which purchased a print copy, or you were willing to pay hundreds of dollars for a personal copy.

However, there is a push for this information to be more publicly accessible. Public.Resource.Org has built a free, scanned collection of state and municipal safety codes, which is also mirrored at the Internet Archive. While researchers must still take care to note the currency of the scans, and research any later changes which may not be reflected, the collection is a welcome development in making these materials more generally available.

For more help with researching these types of materials, be sure to Ask a Librarian.

First Monday in October

2010-10-03T14:15:00.002-04:00

Monday, October 4 marks the start of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2010 term. It’s been nearly a century since the Judicial Code of 1911 designated the “first Monday in October” as the official commencement of the annual SCOTUS term (Pub. L. No. 61-475, § 230, 36 Stat. 1087, 1156); previously, the Court met for two terms each year.

Although oral arguments begin on the first Monday, the Court has actually been hard at work behind the scenes in the last few weeks, selecting petitions for review. The OT2010 argument calendars provide a preview of upcoming cases, including Schwarzenegger v. Entertainment Merchants Ass’n (challenging, on First Amendment grounds, a California state ban on the sale of violent video games to minors) and Snyder v. Phelps (an appeal from the Fourth Circuit’s reversal of punitive damages awarded to a father whose son’s funeral was picketed by the Westboro Baptist Church).

Some cases for this term have been granted review, but are not yet scheduled on the oral argument calendar. The Court’s Orders page lists the disposition of various petitions for certiorari. One case which has been granted cert but is not yet scheduled for argument is Stern v. Marshall, a probate law case which would never grab headlines for its legal subject matter. But Stern’s colorful cast of characters (the late model/reality show star Anna Nicole Smith, her long-deceased oil tycoon husband, and Smith’s former attorney and paramour Howard K. Stern, who recently stood trial in California for conspiring to provide Smith with prescription drugs) guarantee a high level of media attention; and it’s actually the case’s second trip to One First Street. The American Bar Association’s Preview of United States Supreme Court Cases includes copies of the briefs filed in scheduled and unscheduled OT2010 cases. SCOTUSblog is also an excellent source of case information.

What else is new around the highest Court in the land? Of course, there’s a new face on the bench with the August confirmation of Elena Kagan, formerly the dean of Harvard Law School. SCOTUS also unveiled a new website in the spring, which promises to improve the speed at which users can access Court information: yesterday, a press release announced that audio recordings of oral arguments will be posted to the website every Friday. Audio recordings have long been available on The OYEZ Project, but this speedy release on the Court’s official page is a welcome development.

On the lighter side of SCOTUS news: with the arrival of Justice Kagan, the Court now boasts a Justice from four of New York City’s five boroughs. Last month, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart went in search of a potential SCOTUS nominee from the last remaining borough, Staten Island, holding a "moot court" on the subject of same-sex marriage to test their subjects’ legal acumen. Could we see these pizza-scarfing justices at One First Street someday? Only time will tell.

Staten Island Supreme Court Justice

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart

Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c

www.thedailyshow.com

Daily Show Full Episodes

Political Humor

Rally to Restore Sanity

Implementing the Durham Statement (October 22 event)

2010-09-30T14:30:00.001-04:00

During the Goodson Law Library’s Dedication Week in November 2008, a meeting of prominent law library directors resulted in the Durham Statement on Open Access to Legal Scholarship, which urges law schools to cease print publication of law reviews in favor of free, permanent, online publication archives. On Friday, October 22, an all-day event at the Law School will discuss best practices for implementing this policy.

The workshop is co-sponsored by the Goodson Law Library, Duke’s Center for the Study of the Public Domain, and the Harvard Law School Library. Panels will address the traditional versus open access business model for law journals, how a move to open access affects copyright and author agreements, and technological concerns such as publishing platforms and archiving processes. The agenda, registration form, and housing information can be found at http://bit.ly/durhamOA.

Duke Law and our co-sponsors at Harvard Law have long been leaders in the Open Access movement for legal scholarship. The full text of Duke Law journals is provided free on our website back to 1997, and our Scholarship Repository provides a permanent online archive of Law School faculty publications and other scholarship produced at Duke Law. Harvard Law made international news in May 2008 with its unanimous faculty vote for an open access scholarship repository.

Friday’s Durham Statement event is just one part of the Open Access Week (October 18-24) celebration at Duke University. Other events include a Tuesday panel discussion of OA’s impact on researchers, and a Thursday panel with area publishers. For times and locations, see Open Access Week at Duke. For information about Open Access Week events elsewhere, visit the International Open Access Week page.

Reserve a Study Room Online

2010-09-26T18:30:00.001-04:00

Tired of checking the study room clipboard at the library service desk, only to find every room booked solid for the rest of the night? Well, now you can stake a claim to one of our eight private study rooms up to 72 hours ahead of time from your own computer. From Monday, September 27 until Friday, October 8, the Goodson Law Library will pilot-test an online reservation system.

To reserve a study room, visit the reservation link and log in with your NetID and password (note: study rooms are available only to Duke Law students). The reservation page displays the current availability of our eight room keys, and links to the calendar where rooms can be reserved (in four hour time blocks) up to three days in advance. Be sure to claim your room key promptly; your reservation may be forfeited if the key is not picked up within 15 minutes of the reservation start time.

Because this is a pilot program, please be sure to let us know what you think of the online sign-up experience. The reservation page links to a feedback form where you can submit comments to the library staff.

Tax Management Portfolios Now Available Online

2010-09-15T08:30:00.001-04:00

After years of maintaining nearly 400 different Tax Management Portfolio titles in print, the Goodson Law Library now has electronic access to the full text of the Tax Management Portfolios through BNA’s Tax and Accounting Libraries.

These slim spiral-bound Portfolios are heavily used by tax professionals, who rely on the news, commentary and analysis within to keep current with changes in tax law. A list on BNA’s site describes the various titles available in the five portfolio series (Accounting; U.S. income tax; Estates, Gifts, and Trusts, Foreign Income and State tax).

To browse or search the portfolios online, visit the BNA Publications database, which is available on the library’s Legal Databases & Links page. Our research guide to Federal Tax has been updated to add the new database, and the remainder of the guide will be updated in the weeks to come. The print portfolios, currently housed in the library’s Gann Tax Alcove, will shortly be moved to reflect the fact that new portfolios will not be received in print.
For assistance with using the online Tax Management Portfolios or other features of the BNA Tax and Accounting Libraries, be sure to Ask a Librarian.

Perfect Bluebook, Automatically?

2010-09-12T16:10:00.005-04:00

As 1Ls make progress on their open memo assignment and 2Ls/3Ls slog through cite-checking journal assignments, it seems like everyone could use a helping hand with The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation these days. The Goodson Law Library has some spare copies on Reserve for when you just need to confirm an abbreviation or a rule, and there is also an online version (paid subscription required) which offers full-text searching of the new 19th edition and the ability to save personal annotations for future tricky cites.

But what people really seem to want is a tool to convert citations automatically into proper Bluebook format. We’re often asked for advice on shortcuts to perfect legal citation: everything from “Can’t I just copy what it says on Lexis and Westlaw?” to “Is there a citation management software that will put footnotes together for me?” We’ve previously written about citation management tools such as EndNote and Zotero, which offer some support for Bluebook styles, but a survey of help forums will reveal frustration by users about errors in the output—perhaps unsurprising since both tools were originally designed for citation from style manuals in the sciences and the humanities, and Bluebook support came later.

CiteGenie, a Firefox add-on designed specifically for use in legal research, released a beta version this summer to favorable reviews from the legal community. The site FAQ clearly outlines what the system can and cannot do – for example, while you can copy text and references from LexisNexis, Westlaw, and WestlawNext in order to generate pinpoint citations in Bluebook format, CiteGenie cannot automatically detect subsequent cites where one would normally use the short form (e.g. “Nimmer, supra note 6”). So some user intervention and Bluebook knowledge would still be required.

LexisNexis and Westlaw citations for documents will generally give you enough information to compose a perfect Bluebook citation on your own, but as with the other tools listed here, sometimes a little editing is necessary (especially with party names and source title abbreviations). WestlawNext offers a service called “Copy with Reference” which does include Bluebook as one of its output styles. To test it, highlight the text you want to copy and paste the citation into your word-processing program. Experiments at Goodson Blogson HQ showed that the WestlawNext output was reasonably successful, although it uses the Bluepages style (for court documents and memoranda) rather than the law review style, so 2L and 3L students would need to convert a lot of underlining into italics and/or small caps. It also is unclear whether WestlawNext’s Bluebook style has been updated to reflect changes in the new 19th edition (for example, “County” was not abbreviated in one of our test cites, but it is a new abbreviation in Table 6 of the 19th edition).

In conclusion, there’s really no substitute for mastering at least the basic Bluebook citation rules on your own. Citation management software and browser add-ons can provide much-needed assistance to beginners, but only time and practice with the Bluebook would help you spot any inaccuracies or system limitations. Some popular Bluebook help guides (like Dworsky’s A User’s Guide to the Bluebook) are in the process of being updated to reflect the 19th edition changes – to find help guides and for other Bluebook queries, be sure to Ask a Librarian.

Pirates, Ahoy!

2010-09-07T16:30:00.001-04:00

They’re a little too early for International Talk Like a Pirate Day (Sunday, September 19), but last week the Library of Congress announced its new digitized collection of pre-1923 piracy trials. Spanning two centuries, this collection provides transcripts of historical pirate trials from around the world, from Captain Kidd to lesser-known buccaneers. This site joins HeinOnline’s Legal Classics Library and The Making of Modern Law: Trials on the list of good sources for historic trial transcripts (see library research guide to Court Records and Briefs for more info).

While it’s usually 18th-century pirates who capture our pop culture imagination in books like Treasure Island and films like the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, piracy remains a very real threat on today’s seas, especially in international waters off the Horn of Africa. The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Maritime Administration (MARAD) reported on August 2 that 18 vessels are currently being held by Somali pirates. MARAD’s Horn of Africa Piracy page contains a wealth of reports, news releases, and travel advisories on the subject of modern piracy, as well as links to international and intergovernmental organizations which monitor piracy and international security issues.

The Goodson Law Library also has a collection of books related to piracy and international law. Find them with a search of the online catalog for the subject keyword: piracy. Note that this search will also bring up books about the other kind of pirates (intellectual property) – you can use the “subject” filters on the left-hand side to further narrow your search to “Maritime Terrorism,” “Hijacking of Ships,” and even “Trials (Piracy)” – the last of which will retrieve more trial transcripts in the style of the Library of Congress collection.

For help with locating other materials on piracy or law of the sea, be sure to Ask a Librarian. For help with talking like a pirate before September 19, consult the online glossary at the official British headquarters of Talk Like a Pirate Day. Yarr!

Technology Corner: Changes to Printing & Computing

2010-08-24T15:28:00.003-04:00

This summer, the Academic Technologies department made some major improvements to printing and computing in the Goodson Law Library and the Law School. Here are the most important things to know:

ePRINT UPGRADE

Returning students should install the new ePrint software in order to print to the new system from laptops. It’s critical to uninstall the old software first. You can access the new ePrint drivers at http://www.law.duke.edu/computing/download/downloadlist with your NetID and password.

TWO TYPES OF PRINTERS

Have the printers been procreating? You may think so after seeing the Document Production Room on Level 3, where the library’s old black and white photocopiers have been replaced by two color multifunction devices. In addition to the dedicated LexisNexis and Westlaw printers, there are two ePrint printers and release stations (for black & white printing) and two Sharp multifunction devices (for color printing and photocopying). It’s important to know the difference, since black & white ePrint printers are always free to law students, while the multifunction devices will charge your Flex account.

To send jobs to the black & white ePrint stations, select ePrint-OIT as your printer. For law students, remember that ePrint-OIT is free within the Law School – although you start with a balance of $75.00, which does dwindle with use, you are not actually being charged, and the balance will automatically increase by $10.00 each time it reaches the $1.00 threshold. At the beginning of a new semester, law students have their balance reset to $75.00. The balance is intended only as a reminder of your usage.

To send jobs to the color devices, select ePrint-Color (Fee). These devices will charge your Flex account, $0.07 per page for black & white printouts/copies and $0.15/page for color printouts/copies.

LIBRARY PRINTING

Returning students may notice that the Reading Room has gotten a little quieter, now that printer 3C has moved just outside the library entrance (to the left of the staircase, near the “tabling” area). All twelve of the public computer stations on Level 3 now print to the ePrint system, as do the Level 2 carrel computers and the “lookup” stations on each floor. You can choose the ePrint-OIT option for black and white printing, or ePrint-Color (Fee) for color printouts. For ePrint-OIT black & white printing, you can then release jobs at any ePrint station within the Law School by swiping your DukeCard at the print station.

PRINTER LOCATIONS & STATUS

The library’s two multifunction devices/copiers are located in the Document Production Room (Room 3210), which also includes two black & white ePrint-OIT printers and swipe stations. There are two more ePrint-OIT printers and release stations located on each floor of the library (generally, one behind the center staircase and the other close to the back elevator), as well as two printers and release stations outside the library (3C, near the library entrance, and outside the Registrar’s office on Level 2). You can check the status of the various printers around the Law School at http://www.law.duke.edu/computing/printing/index.

GUEST ACCESS & TROUBLESHOOTING

If you do not have a DukeCard (or if you experience problems while using your DukeCard on the new system), please see the library service desk for assistance with the new printers and/or photocopiers.

Library Services for the Fall Semester

2010-08-17T10:39:00.003-04:00

The new academic year brings some changes to the Goodson Law Library. Effective Sunday, August 22, evening and weekend services return to the library. During the fall semester, the library entrance will be unlocked (and the service desk will be staffed) at the following hours:

Sunday	2:00 p.m.-6:00 p.m.
Monday-Thursday	7:30 a.m. – 9:00 p.m.
Friday	7:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Saturday	9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.

Duke Law students, faculty and staff continue to enjoy 24-hour access to the Law School and library. Keep in mind that the outer doors of the Law School lock down automatically at 5:00 p.m. and over the weekends, so be sure to bring your DukeCard if you plan to visit after-hours.

Returning students will notice some new faces at the service desk. Over the summer, the Reference Services department welcomed Foreign & International Law Librarian Kristina Alayan and Reference Librarian Jane Bahnson. You may also see more of Kelly Leong, who joined the library in the spring as a reference intern and will be co-teaching a section of LARW this year.

With the retirement this summer of our longtime night and weekend supervisor David Swearingen, you’ll also notice new faces at the Circulation/Reserve desk, as the daytime Collection Services staff will also share night and weekend duties. To learn more about what each member of the library staff does, visit our Staff Directory page.

We look forward to a great semester, and we welcome your input on ways to make the Goodson Law Library an even better place for our community. If you have comments or suggestions about the library, please visit our online Suggestion Box for a direct line to Assistant Dean for Library Services Melanie Dunshee, who will respond within 48 hours if you provide your email address (anonymous comments are also allowed). Your suggestion might even inspire one of our famous library videos, which are linked on the Suggestion Box page.

What's New with Lexis and Westlaw

2010-08-09T08:45:00.000-04:00

Returning law students should now have fully restored access to their LexisNexis and Westlaw accounts, which may have gone dormant over the summer (if you did not fit the criteria for a summer extension). Over the coming months, everyone will notice a few changes to both research systems: some dramatic and some gradual. Here are the highlights of each.

Westlaw launched its new WestlawNext interface in the spring, offering access to law firm subscribers and selected law school faculty. Effective August 16, Duke Law students are also able to access this new version of Westlaw—just log in to http://lawschool.westlaw.com and look for the link to “WestlawNext” at the top of the screen. (Don’t panic – a link to “classic” Westlaw is still available, too, and both systems will remain available to subscribers indefinitely.)

WestlawNext is a radical departure from the typical Westlaw search, where users must first select the appropriate database of content and then devise appropriate search terms. On WestlawNext, researchers do the reverse – enter search terms in the box, select a jurisdiction, and then filter results by document type, additional search keywords, and other limiting options. There are huge improvements to the display of search results and individual documents (for example, cleaner display of headnotes and footnotes, easy access to KeyCite reports at the top of a document, and useful links to “related content” which is generated by Westlaw from your search words).

The downside? WestlawNext is currently unable to print to the Law School’s dedicated Westlaw printers, meaning you’ll need to download documents and print on the Law School networked printers instead. (The upside of this extra step? You can review your print job before sending it to a printer, selecting only the pages you really need instead of accidentally printing 300 pages of case annotations!) Because WestlawNext is still in beta mode, users may also occasionally experience technical errors such as slowness. Finally, not all Westlaw content is yet migrated onto WestlawNext (particularly international law materials), although links are provided back to Westlaw.com for the missing materials and new items are added daily.

LexisNexis is also undergoing a big interface redesign, although the changes will be rolled out more gradually. Phase one included the release of Lexis for Microsoft Office, an add-on for Office 2007 and 2010 which incorporates LexisNexis research right into your Office programs’ “ribbon.” A split screen view allows you to quickly access the full text of cited cases, Shepardize your document’s authorities, and pull up background information on companies, people, or terminology mentioned in your text—without ever leaving your document screen.

The LexisNexis Total Research System will still look familiar—for now. Lexis is currently working behind the scenes on Lexis Advance, a major overhaul of the research system interface which should go live for Duke Law users in spring 2011. In the meantime, Lexis has added some new content to its familiar interface, including full access to docket and court filing content for academic subscribers, and expansion of its New & Business tab to include the content of selected blogs, Twitter accounts (including tweets from members of Congress), and news transcripts and videos.

New 1L and LLM students will receive their Lexis and Westlaw passwords from their LARW research instructors. New transfer students, and any continuing students who are having problems accessing Lexis or Westlaw, should see the Reference Services desk in the library for assistance.

"So...Where Do You Keep My Casebooks?"

2010-08-05T09:37:00.001-04:00

The start of the fall semester brings a flurry of activity to the Goodson Law Library, and one frequently-asked question deserves some particular attention from the Goodson Blogson: “Can’t I just borrow all my textbooks from the library?”

We admire the enterprising spirit of our law students, and we understand your dilemma: textbook costs have been rising steadily for years, and the average law school casebook can cost anywhere from $125 to $160. However, as a matter of policy, the library does not attempt to buy every single textbook which is used at Duke Law, for a few reasons: sure, we’re cost-conscious too about keeping up with hundreds of new titles and new editions every year. But more importantly, we’re concerned about equity of access. Providing one or two copies of a text to be used by 40-100 students causes some obvious problems with supply and demand; even for copies on reserve (which may be borrowed for 4 hours at one time, and overnight if borrowed less than 4 hours before the reserve desk closes), only a handful of people can use a single title in a day. It’s best to consider the library’s collection as a backup in case you forget your own textbook—and even then, a fellow student may have already beaten you to the book you need.

Of course, if you search for your book list in the Duke University Libraries’ catalog, you may still turn up a few matches. Some of these titles will be kept in the Reserve collection, such as the Legal Analysis, Research & Writing textbooks. For casebooks authored by Duke Law faculty, the catalog will usually show one copy in the General Collection (28-day checkout for students) and one archive copy in the Faculty Collection (1-day checkout; see the service desk for assistance with the locked shelving). If you’re the lucky first person to snag a particular casebook, beware: titles in the General Collection are subject to recall and hold requests, meaning that your classmates can cut your borrowing period short with a request for the same title (you’ll be guaranteed a grace period with the book, but it will be shorter than the usual 28-day checkout).

Better, then, to find cheap ways to purchase your own copies. The Duke Textbook Store in the Bryan Center occasionally has used copies for sale. There’s also the Duke Law Book Exchange on Facebook, a student-organized trading post for used textbooks. Be sure to check edition numbers against your current semester booklist, as textbooks are updated by the publisher frequently.

West, which publishes many popular law school texts, is now offering a casebook rental program, promising users a savings of almost 40% off the sticker price, as well as access to e-book versions while you wait for the print copy to ship. (And yes, according to their FAQ, you are allowed to highlight!)

For aural learners, there’s also AudioCaseFiles, currently available to users who register with their Duke email address. ACF offers MP3 recordings of the edited opinions from many law school casebooks, including a number from Duke Law’s fall book list. If you’re so inclined to listen to your Civ Pro reading while on the treadmill at the gym, this is the site for you.

For help locating a textbook (or any other title) in the library’s collection, be sure to Ask a Librarian.

New Rights with Copyright

2010-07-27T09:09:00.006-04:00

Today’s issue of the Federal Register contains a new final rule from the Copyright Office, “Exemption to Prohibition on Circumvention of Copyright Protection Systems for Access Control Technologies”(background and supplemental documents). The new rule outlines six situations which are now exempted from the Digital Millennium Copyright Act’s prohibition against “circumvention” of copyright law.

The news was welcomed by a wide audience, including smartphone users (it’s now considered “fair use” to “jailbreak” your iPhone; see analysis at Ars Technica), computer programmers (“good faith testing” of computer and video game security is no longer punishable), and e-book fans who require accessibility software (it’s OK to “crack” your e-book reader for the purpose of enabling read-aloud software, if the reader software or e-book title does not already offer this feature) (sorry e-book fans; this recommendation from the Librarian of Congress actually didn't make it into the final rule; perhaps the next triennial round of exemptions will include it).

But the most exciting news around Goodson Blogson HQ was the expansion of fair use rights as they relate to DVDs. Previous exemptions had allowed college/university professors to incorporate copyright-protected DVD clips in the classroom, but look who now can incorporate “short portions of motion pictures into new works for the purpose of criticism or comment [. . . with] reasonable grounds for believing that circumvention is necessary to fulfill the purpose of the use”:

Educational uses by college and university professors and by college and university film and media studies students;
Documentary filmmaking;
Noncommercial videos.

Will we see an upswing in documentary-making activity in the library’s Student Media Workshop? Will our Legal DVD collection be raided regularly? Will you bookmark every legal online movie source from our February 2010 roundup (and also MovieClips, a great search engine which we sadly forgot at the time)? We sure hope so.

These exemptions are set and re-evaluated by the Librarian of Congress every three years, so enjoy them while they last. (Records of the previous anticircumvention rulemaking are available at the Copyright Office website.)

Windows into War

2010-07-26T11:52:00.003-04:00

On Sunday, the government transparency site Wikileaks released 75,000 U.S. military reports concerning the ongoing war in Afghanistan. The Kabul War Diary archive includes reports from 2004-2010 and can be found at http://wardiary.wikileaks.org/ as raw data files. Prior to release on the web, the reports were also shared with the New York Times, Germany’s Der Spiegel, and the UK’s Guardian. These news outlets are in the process of analyzing and organizing the reports in order to make them more accessible. For example, the Guardian has prepared a spreadsheet timeline of “key incidents”, and has asked its readers to share mash-ups of the raw data on its website.

Wikileaks has not revealed the source for these reports (although a U.S. army private currently stands accused of the security breach). But as the New York Times observed in its Note to Readers, the U.S. government does not dispute any of the reports’ authenticity. Most of the reports were classified as “secret”, which the Times calls “a relatively low level of classification.” It’s actually the middle of three levels, between “confidential” and “top secret,” as defined in section 1.2 of Executive Order 13526 -- the distinction is the level of damage that the information “could be reasonably expected to cause” to national security (damage, serious damage, and exceptionally grave damage).

The White House (through National Security Adviser General James Jones) has condemned the release of these reports, saying that the disclosure “could put the lives of Americans and our partners at risk, and threaten our national security.” Wikileaks is currently withholding from publication another 15,000 reports which contain sensitive information about named individuals; redacted versions of these reports will be posted over the next few weeks.

The Wikileaks controversy comes almost four decades after the famous “Pentagon Papers” case, in which the New York Times (and later the Washington Post) published a previously top-secret Defense Department history of the Vietnam War. The Nixon administration ordered injunctions to cease the report’s publication, which the U.S. Supreme Court later found to be unconstitutional prior restraint on the press. To read more about this pre-Internet example of a classified leak, search the Duke Libraries Catalog for the subject keywords Pentagon Papers. To read more about national security law in general, try a subject search for national security law and legislation.

The Tale of the Snail

2010-07-16T15:58:00.002-04:00

Here at Goodson Blogson HQ, we love to learn more about the lives behind the law. We’ve previously written about Foundation Press’s popular “Law Stories” series, which explores notable U.S. cases in a historical and biographical context. There are a number of other books which sketch the “biography” of a particular case, like Wiegand and Wiegand’s Books on Trial: Red Scare in the Heartland or Garrett Epps’s To an Unknown God: Religious Freedom on Trial. Duke Law professor Tom Metzloff takes a more visual approach to the genre, with his Voices of American Law documentary project (formerly known as Distinctive Aspects of American Law), which features interviews with the major players of important Supreme Court cases.

It seems our friends across the pond have gotten into the law story spirit, judging by one of our latest acquisitions, The Snail and the Ginger Beer: The Singular Case of Donoghue v. Stevenson (KDC188 D66 C48 2010). Barrister Matthew Chapman recreates the history behind this seminal 1932 torts case, in which an unlucky shop assistant named May Donoghue was shocked to find the remains of a snail sealed inside her bottled drink. She brought suit against the manufacturer, and the subsequent House of Lords decision created an important expansion of the concept of duty. The case is well-known to UK lawyers and law students, and has even inspired a viral YouTube “Law Revue” style video, Snail in a Bottle (to the tune of the Police hit “Message in a Bottle”). Chapman’s account is comparatively low on singing, but is a welcome international addition to the “law story” genre.

Locating “law stories” in the Duke Libraries catalog can be tricky. The best approach is to search for the name of a particular case as a subject keyword; if you’re still stuck, remember to Ask a Librarian.

A Little More Bar Exam Help

2010-07-06T15:53:00.003-04:00

The Goodson Blogson does not wish to scare you, but there are just a few weeks left until the July bar exam. If you are one of the thousands who will sit for the exam at the end of this month, you may be interested in some additional study resources at the Goodson Law Library.

In our online catalog, try a subject keyword search for “Bar examinations—United States—Study guides”. This will retrieve some helpful resources for any bar exam, including an updated 2010 edition of Strategies & Tactics for the MBE (on Reserve) and other titles like The Essential Rules for Bar Exam Success (KF303 .F75 2008).

If you’re interested in seeing past exams from North Carolina, start at the NC Board of Law Examiners site. This site offers past exams from 2005-2007 free for download, for those who would like a peek at the structure of state-specific essay questions. (Even older essay questions are available in the library at the call number KFN7476 .N671, but the latest exam available in print is 2003.) The North Carolina Bar Association has also prepared a brief guide to Drafting a Bar Exam Essay Answer (KFN7476.Z9 D73 2004), with tips and tricks for NC test takers. An updated (2009) version of this pamphlet is available in PDF at http://younglawyers.ncbar.org/media/300925/09draftingexamanswer.pdf.

For bar examinations in other states, there is a collection of past exams in the Microforms Collection on Level 1 of the library (cabinet # 35, top drawer). Available dates vary by state, although many of the most popular bar exam destinations for Duke Law (such as California and New York) have received past exams up to July 2009. To see what years are available for a particular state, search the Duke Libraries catalog for the subject keywords bar examinations and [state]; e.g. bar examinations and Maryland. Note that many states also make past exams available for free on their bar exam websites, such as New York’s page of Past Exam Questions, which may be more up-to-date than our microfiche collection. Visit http://www.ncbex.org/bar-admissions/offices/ to locate the Board of Law Examiners site for your state.

Good luck to all of our July 2010 exam-takers!

Finding Historical Primary Sources

2010-06-29T12:53:00.003-04:00

If you’ve ever tried to trace a historical state code section back through its various amendments and re-numberings, or track down proceedings from early state or territorial constitutional conventions, then you already know the unique challenges involved. A good portion of these historical sources are available in the library’s print collection, but not every state’s collection is 100% complete, and many of the oldest materials are in fragile condition. Fortunately, these early primary source materials are becoming increasingly available online.

The Goodson Law Library has just purchased access to the Making of Modern Law database Primary Sources, 1620-1926, one such collection of early United States and American primary sources. It includes primary sources like early state and territorial codes and constitutional conventions, city charters, and even some historical law dictionaries and case digests. The Primary Sources database joins other “Making of Modern Law” products which are available through the Law Library, including Legal Treatises 1800-1926 and Trials 1600-1926; like these “sister” databases, the Primary Sources collection is searchable and browseable (searching just a particular state or territory is especially effective). The scans are high-quality and allow users to print or download custom PDF files of up to 50 pages at one time.

Similar historical primary sources can also be found in LLMC Digital’s state collections and in HeinOnline’s Legal Classics Library (browse the subject "State Law"). All of these databases are available for use by the Duke University community (with a NetID for off-campus access), and are linked from the library’s Legal Databases & Links page. For assistance with tracking down early primary sources of law, be sure to Ask a Librarian.

"The Bluebooks Are Coming!"

2010-06-21T09:25:00.004-04:00

Here at the Goodson Law Library, the summer’s biggest blockbuster has no explosions, car chases, or teenage vampires. Instead, we’re camping out for the new edition of The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Legal Citation (19th ed. 2010). The new edition was released in early June, and we expect our copies to arrive any day now. Once the books arrive and are processed by library staff, copies of the new Bluebook will be available to borrow from the library’s Reserve collection.

Maybe you aren’t as excited as we are about this, but there are certainly some readers who will be affected by any changes to the 18th edition’s rules—such as journal members or faculty research assistants. The Pace Law Library blog has already compiled a helpful PDF chart of new or updated rules in the 19th edition. For those who learned legal citation from previous editions of the Bluebook, the chart is thankfully short, with the majority of the changes focused on Rule 18 (governing citation of electronic materials).

If you just can’t wait until the library’s print copies arrive, the Bluebook website already allows subscribers to toggle between the 18th and 19th edition texts. (They also offer a variety of affordable subscription packages for either online-only access or combinations of a print copy plus electronic access.)

For questions about legal citation during this transition period, remember to Ask a Librarian.

Candid Camera, COPS Edition

2010-06-18T16:08:00.003-04:00

One of this week’s most-watched YouTube videos depicted a Seattle police officer punching a 19-year-old woman in the face. Bystanders recorded the tense confrontation, which began when Officer Ian Walsh stopped the woman and her 17-year-old friend to issue a citation for jaywalking. The younger woman angrily disputed the detainment and resisted Walsh’s repeated attempts to physically restrain her; when her older friend attempted to pull the 17-year-old away (shoving the officer in the process), Walsh responded with a quick punch that stunned the nearby crowd and ignited debate online about the appropriate use of force.

Although the general consensus on this particular video seems to be that putting one’s hands on a police officer tends to invite this sort of reaction, there have certainly been other police incidents caught on camera which have created more controversy about officers’ behavior, from the 1991 Rodney King beating in Los Angeles to another incident in Seattle earlier this year, where officers were recorded while kicking and making ethnic slurs to a robbery suspect (who was later exonerated). In recent years, the development of sophisticated cell phone cameras and the rise of video-sharing sites like YouTube have made it easy for everyday citizens to become amateur journalists; home videos of traffic stops, confrontations, and arrests abound on the web, and can ultimately be valuable evidence in proving or disproving allegations of police brutality.

No one disputes that police officers have one of the toughest jobs in the world, and that vocal onlookers can make an already stressful situation turn even more volatile. In some states, though, police who find themselves the stars of an impromptu documentary are now striking back -- with wiretapping charges. An Illinois man currently faces 4 to 15 years in prison for felony eavesdropping, stemming from the use of a voice recorder during a conversation on the street with police. Earlier this year, a Massachusetts bicyclist was also arrested for illegal wiretapping during a traffic stop (see his blog post about the incident). And in Maryland, a National Guard sergeant who posted video of his traffic stop on YouTube also faces a wiretapping charge. The American Civil Liberties Union is representing many of these defendants, and challenging such applications of eavesdropping laws in court. But until these cases are resolved—how would you know if your cell phone video recordings of police activity on the street could land you in legal hot water?

You might start with your state laws on wiretapping and/or eavesdropping, perhaps even comparing the language to the laws in states where would-be journalists have found themselves facing charges. State codes are available in print on level 3 of the library, and online through the websites of most state legislatures (links at State Legal Sources on the Web). But finding the right sections in codes can be tricky—a 50-state survey may be a better place to start, giving you a shortcut to the relevant code sections in each state. Law students have access to the 50-state survey databases in LexisNexis and Westlaw, which each offer a survey on electronic surveillance laws; a similar survey of electronic surveillance statutes is available for free from the National Conference of State Legislatures’ A-Z Issues list.

The ACLU’s downloadable pocket card "Know Your Rights" may also be handy in situations involving the police. Although the card does not specifically address photography of police activity, it does contain general tips for handling police stops—including some ("Don’t get into an argument...Don’t touch any police officer") that perhaps would have saved that Seattle teenager a bruised jaw and an assault charge. The ACLU website also offers news and updates on related cases in its "Technology & Liberty" section; for additional coverage of related stories, check out Miami blogger Carlos Miller’s Photography is Not a Crime.

Dude, Where's My Lexis? (Or Westlaw?)

2010-06-08T13:14:00.003-04:00

Rising 2Ls and 3Ls who did not request a summer extension to their Westlaw and/or LexisNexis passwords are starting to receive some unpleasant news when they try to log in. June 1 is generally the cutoff date for educational passwords which are not extended for academic or non-profit purposes. In some cases, access to the full range of research databases will be reduced to only employment-related sources; in other cases, users will see a message like “You have exceeded your monthly usage allotment” and be denied access to the research system.

Never fear! If you meet one of the many criteria for a summer password extension, it’s not too late to request one now. For either site, you will need to log in to the homepage with your existing account and simply look for information about summer extensions.

Westlaw: Log in to http://lawschool.westlaw.com and look for the graphic labeled “Need access to your Westlaw account this summer?”

LexisNexis: Log in to http://lawschool.lexis.com and the welcome screen should present a link to extend your password for the summer. (If this information is not readily displayed on your welcome screen, it should also be linked under “Manage My Account.”)

Please read the exceptions carefully to ensure that you qualify. Both Lexis and Westlaw allow summer extensions to students or recent graduates who work as research assistants, take summer classes, participate on law reviews or journals, or would like to use the services to aid in bar exam study. The services vary on their exceptions for summer internships (Westlaw allows an exception for an "unpaid internship with a nonprofit organization," while Lexis allows exceptions for an "internship or externship for school credit").

Remember that any commercial/for-profit research conducted on an educational password violates the terms of the extension, and may result in termination of access or collection of the research charges which would have been incurred on a commercial password. If you don’t meet one of the academic or non-profit exceptions to extend your educational subscription to Lexis or Westlaw, expect access to be fully restored for you at the beginning of August.

If you experience any problems when extending your passwords, or for questions related to your Westlaw or LexisNexis IDs, please Ask a Librarian.