The Goodson Blogson

This week, we welcome our new JD and LLM students to the Law School! As mentioned in the library orientation sessions, the Goodson Law Library provides access to a number of print and electronic resources that are designed to help you succeed. Some key highlights for our newest students: CALI Lessons : The Center for Computer-Assisted Legal Instruction partners with law schools to provide access to high-quality online tutorials (called CALI Lessons ) and other tools to support legal education and access to justice (including open-access textbooks and classroom tools for law school instructors). Access to CALI lessons and other portions of the site require individual registration; students may access the Duke Law registration code by logging in to the link at the Academic Technologies software page or asking at the service desk. West Academic Library Study Aids includes electronic versions of many popular study aid series, including Concepts and Insights, Hornbooks, Nutshells, and ...

With the 2021 Law School Convocation now behind us, it's time to put summer plans in action. Whether that involves bar exam preparation, a summer associate job, or a fun post-vaccination trip or two, you may want to unwind with a good book occasionally. But with free time at a premium, how can you find a title that you’ll be sure to enjoy? E-book enthusiasts can filter the Duke Libraries Catalog to items "Available Online," or use the separate E-Books Search to locate titles available via Duke. This page also links to the Duke Libraries' eBook FAQ , which provides guidance on using the various electronic publishers' platforms, such as OverDrive, ProQuest, and EBSCO. If you're looking for specific suggestions on what to read next, try NoveList Plus . This database provides reading recommendations and reviews, and is available to current Duke University students, faculty and staff members. (Recent alumni who have a public library card in North Carolina may a...

Today would have been the library's ninth annual National Library Week Alumni Author event, with featured speaker Randolph J. May (B.A. 1968/J.D. 1971) of the Free State Foundation. While the global coronavirus pandemic has indefinitely postponed our planned event with May to discuss his new book (with co-author Seth Cooper), Modernizing Copyright Law for the Digital Age: Constitutional Foundations for Reform , we still wanted to recognize May, as well as to celebrate our many Duke Law alumni who have published books on a wide variety of topics, both legal and non-legal. Books by Duke Law School alumni are marked in the Duke Libraries Catalog with the collection name "Alumni Authors." The items are still shelved by their Library of Congress call number, rather than in a separately-located collection, to aid the discovery of works on a particular topic. You can view recordings of our eight past Alumni Author event speakers on the National Library Week at the Goodson ...

Whether you're continuing at Duke Law next year or graduating this May, your access to legal research services like Westlaw , Lexis Advance , and Bloomberg Law will change. All Students Many of the temporary resources for textbooks and eBooks listed on the Library's Working Remotely site will expire at different times this summer. Lexis Digital Library (textbooks, treatises, study aids): May 24 Wolters Kluwer textbooks via VitalSource : May 25 West Academic textbooks: June 1 Wolters Kluwer online study aids : June 30 Online Bluebook codes: 60 days from registration Continuing Students For rising 2Ls and 3Ls, your Law School research access generally continues uninterrupted over the summer. Lexis Advance and Bloomberg Law both allow student usage over the summer for educational as well as for commercial purposes. (However, check with your employer before using your Law School accounts for paid work – many employers prefer that summer associates avoid using th...

This weekend would have marked the 23rd Annual Full Frame Documentary Film Festival in Durham, a world-renowned celebration of nonfiction filmmaking. Although this year's festival was canceled due to the global coronavirus pandemic, the festival website continues to provide information about the selected 2020 feature-length and short films that would have been a part of this year's festival . Festival organizers have also shared a list of past Garrett Scott Documentary Development Grant Award winners (a prize that brings first-time documentary filmmakers to the festival) with information about where their films can now be streamed. Current members of the Duke University community have access to a number of resources for streaming documentary films, beyond your own consumer subscriptions to platforms like Netflix and Hulu. If you'd like to host your own documentary film festival this weekend, here are some options available with a NetID, featuring some favorite titles fr...

The global response to the spread of novel coronavirus (COVID-19) has been swift and drastic, with most universities and other public spaces closing temporarily in an effort to "flatten the curve" of new infections. For information on Duke University's response, check https://coronavirus.duke.edu/ ; the Law School information page can be found at https://law.duke.edu/about/coronavirus-response . Experts agree that "social distancing," which encourages people to self-isolate as much as possible at home, is key to preventing further transmission. While schools transition to online learning and many workers shift to remote employment, that leaves the question of how to spend free time in an age when most restaurants and non-essential services are shuttered for the foreseeable future. Here are some resources to brighten your time at home. Read a good book: Current members of the Duke University community can access thousands of e-books via the Duke Libraries Ca...

Last week, Duke Today published the fall installment of its Guide to Duke Author Books Series . The roundup of recent faculty book publications features several new titles by Duke Law faculty, including: Joseph Blocher and Darrell A.H. Miller: The Positive Second Amendment: Rights, Regulation, and the Future of Heller ( watch video introduction ) Allen Buchanan: Institutionalizing the Just War Charles T. Clotfelter: Big-Time Sports in American Universities , 2d ed. Brandon L. Garrett, co-author: The Death Penalty Laurence R. Helfer, co-editor: International Court Authority Jack Knight, editor: Immigration, Emigration, and Migration The Goodson Law Library has print or online access to these and hundreds of other publications by Duke Law faculty. The display case at the library entrance features book publications and article offprints from roughly the last two years; additional print copies of faculty books can be found in the library stacks. To locate call numbers and avail...

The following guest post was written by Rachel Gordon , Head of Access and Collection Services. You probably know by now that the Law Library keeps copies of Law School textbooks on Reserve, but did you know that we have other items as well? We have many current study aids , including selected subjects in the Examples and Explanations , Questions and Answers , Nutshell , Glannon Guides , Understanding , and Mastering series. For more information on available study aids, see the Law School Success guide, linked in the JD and LLM orientation packets. We also have selected dictionaries, multiple copies of The Bluebook , popular legal movies and TV shows on DVD, and various Mac laptop chargers. New to the Reserve Collection this year are calculators , noise-cancelling headphones , and (coming soon) bookstands . Reserve items are available on a first-come, first-served basis and can be checked out for up to four hours, or overnight if checked out within four hours of closing. (Aft...

The ABA Journal 's cover story this August updates its 2008 list of The 25 Greatest Legal Movies . The 2018 update expands the scope of the original list. More recent examples of award-winning courtroom dramas are here (such as Loving and Marshall ), but the list also includes films whose subject matter intersects with the law (such as the investigative journalists in 2017's Spotlight ) and legal documentaries (such as this summer's breakout hit RBG ). The 2018 list also makes a bit more room for laughs: 2001's law school comedy Legally Blonde has been added to the 2018 best-of list, and 1992's hilarious My Cousin Vinny retains its place on the list. An additional 25 Honorable Mentions are featured in the 2018 update as well. See the original 2008 list gallery and the 2018 update . The Goodson Law Library has many of the original 25 films, as well as the new updates, in its Legal DVD collection on level 3. DVDs may be borrowed for 3-day loans; just bring...

The start of summer always brings changes to the Law Library – most notably, access and service desk hours (now weekdays 8:00 am – 5:00 pm until the start of fall classes in August). But some important additional changes are taking place this summer, with accompanying moves to library collections and equipment. The library's former Document Production Room on level 3 will be transformed into a new classroom and meeting space this summer. As a result, ePrint station 3A has moved to the end of the library service desk, along with one overhead scanner. The other overhead scanner, and color printer/photocopier device have moved to the Microforms Room on Level 1, where additional ePrint stations and a Lexis printer are already available. The document feed scanner/outbound fax device is temporarily located outside of the library entrance, next to printer 3C (it is expected to move back into the library Reading Room later this summer). Changes are also coming to the four library al...

A new display in the Riddick Room case features material from the library's most recent archival acquisition, the Little Rascals Daycare Case Papers . The collection concerns seven people who were falsely accused of sexually abusing dozens of children at a daycare in Edenton, North Carolina in the late 1980s. The case is one example of the preoccupation with perceived abuse taking place at daycares and preschools in the 1980s and 1990s. Often, these cases also involved allegations of Satanism or devil worship. Like the Little Rascals case, most of these daycare abuse accusations turned out to be false. Riddick Room display of Little Rascals Daycare Case Papers; curated by Lee Cloninger & Cas Laskowski The Little Rascals Daycare material primarily concerns State v. Kelly , the trial of Robert "Bob" Kelly, the husband of the daycare's manager, Betsy Kelly. Both were members of the "Edenton Seven." Only two of the seven ever went to trial. Altho...

Since 1861, federal publications have been issued by the U.S. GPO . Originally known as the Government Printing Office, GPO was renamed the Government Publishing Office in 2014 to reflect the increase in digital publication. The new book Keeping America Informed, The U.S. Government Publishing Office: A Legacy of Service to the Nation, 1861-2016 tells the story of GPO's evolution from massive printing-press operation to modern digital and print publisher, illustrated with beautiful photographs from GPO's history. A copy of Keeping America Informed is available in the Goodson Law Library's Documents collection on level 1. (A free digital edition is also available from – where else? – GPO.) From Keeping America Informed : "The Monotype keyboard section in 1915. 'The biggest battery of composing machines in the world,' according to the Monotype Co." In addition to printing and digitizing millions of pages of government information every year, GPO i...

Summer is traditionally Hollywood blockbuster season, and even the ABA Journal is getting in on the fun. This month's cover story includes a colorful round-up of The Six Types of Lawyer Movies , illustrated with "trading cards" for each category. The six types, and a famous example of each, include: The Crusading Lawyer ( To Kill a Mockingbird 's Atticus Finch) The Heroic Lawyer (Jimmy Stewart's character in Anatomy of a Murder ) The Obtuse Lawyer (John Travolta's character in A Civil Action ) The Disillusioned Lawyer (George Clooney as the titular Michael Clayton ) The Vengeful Lawyer (the legal team in Runaway Jury ) Buffoons in Law (Vinny Gambino in My Cousin Vinny ) The online version of the story also includes a quiz to determine Which Movie Lawyer are You? You'll need to answer a few questions to ID your Hollywood alter ego; the results also list a few other recommended movie titles in your genre. While the Goodson Law Library doesn...

With Reunion Weekend fast approaching, the Goodson Law Library is proud to highlight Law School Alumni Authors. Level 3 of the library contains a special Alumni Authors collection ( view map ); works in this collection will have a Location note in the Duke University Libraries catalog . If you have a tip about an existing or upcoming alumni publication which is not yet featured in our collection, let the library know in our online Suggestion Box . The Goodson Law Library is also proud to sponsor an annual Alumni Author event, in observance of National Library Week. On Thursday, April 14, Jacinda Townsend (Class of '95) will discuss her acclaimed novel, Saint Monkey . This year's event is co-sponsored by the Black Law Students Association and the Women Law Students Association. Previous Alumni Author events can be found in the Duke Law video archive: 2015: Zephyr Teachout (Class of '99): Corruption in America: From Benjamin Franklin's Snuff Box to Citizens U...

Part II of “Remembering the Nuremberg Trials” by Reference Librarian Marguerite Most (see part I) introduces several documents which predated World War II and were cited by the victor allies to support the legitimacy of the trials, and continues with an introduction to the significance of the trials for international criminal law today.  Following the unconditional surrender of Germany in 1945 and the signing of the London Charter, the Nuremberg trials (formally known as the International Military Tribunal (IMT)) opened. The trials established a framework for what is now commonly understood to be " international criminal law ." But for nearly the entire seventy years since the Nuremberg trials ended in October 1946, lawyers and historians have discussed the repercussions of the trials as legal and historical precedent. Here is how Amnesty International explains the legacy. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum explains the significance of the trials here . Some le...

In this two-part guest post, Reference Librarian Marguerite Most explores resources related to the current Riddick Room exhibit on the Nuremberg trials. Part I looks at the Nuremberg War Crime Trials (the International Military Tribunal), which occurred in 1945-1946 at the end of World War II. Part II, appearing later this week, is a brief introduction to the influence of the Tribunal on international law and the International Criminal Court, and a look back at several of the 18th and 19th century documents on which the legitimacy of the trials was built. The year was 1945 and the Second World War was over. On November 20, the Nuremberg Trials began. The trials were the first attempt to punish those responsible for the inhuman crimes committed by the German Nazi regime. The 70th anniversary year of the trials in 2015 was commemorated with numerous programs and in those seventy years historians and legal scholars have continued to examine their legacy. They are considered a landmark ...

This guest post was written by Marguerite Most , Reference Librarian and Senior Lecturing Fellow. "Men think 'tis a disgrace to change their mind… But there is not a greater piece of folly than not to give place to right reason." Samuel Sewall, January 1689. Source: Salem Witch Judge: The Life and Repentance of Samuel Sewall , a 2007 biography about Sewall in the Goodson Law Library collection. Scholars of colonial history will know the name Samuel Sewall . He was one of nine judges who presided over the 1692 witchcraft trials in Salem, and the only one to publicly acknowledge and accept blame for the harm and horror of the trials. Sewall is almost as well-known as the author of the first abolitionist tract in colonial America. Portrait of Samuel Sewall by Nathaniel Emmons (1728). Massachusetts Historical Society . In May 1692, Samuel Sewall was appointed by Massachusetts Governor William Phips to sit on the Court of Oyer and Terminer, a court created specific...

The North Carolina State Library has completed its digitization project of official North Carolina Supreme Court reports . Although additional search features will be released later, the collection is now available at http://digital.ncdcr.gov/cdm/search/collection/p16062coll14/order/title/ad/desc . The scanned volumes date back to volume 1 (decisions from 1778-1804) and conclude with the recent volume 365 (2011-2012). The State Library also continues to digitize the North Carolina Court of Appeals Reports , with the first 100 volumes already available. Although both the North Carolina Reports and North Carolina Court of Appeals Reports are available in the Goodson Law Library's collection as well as online sources like LLMC Digital , this additional free access is a welcome public service to legal researchers. In addition to centuries of case law , the reporters also include valuable biographical information about court justices, such as reprinted remarks from portrait dedicat...

[The following guest post was written by Goodson Law Library Reference Intern Aaron Kirschenfeld , who is completing a dual J.D. and Master's of Information Science at UNC-Chapel Hill in May.] The monumental changes in American law, let alone in society, brought about by the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and '60s are well known to many in the legal community and to our country as a whole. Cases like Katzenbach v. McClung , 379 U.S. 294 (1964) and Heart of Atlanta Motel, Inc. v. U.S. , 379 U.S. 241 (1964), and major federal legislation like the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 78 Stat. 241 , and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, 79 Stat. 437 , have left a lasting impression on the nation. But what about the significant legacy of legal reform in the years following the Civil War? A new display in the Goodson Law Library's Riddick Rare Book & Special Collections Room , located on Level 3, commemorates Black History Month with a gathering of materials related to 19th cent...

[ Note: The following guest post, by Reference Intern Kate Dickson, describes the library's new display on the history of impeachment.] The theme for this month's rare books display -- impeachment -- was inspired by journalist Howard Fields' recent donation of his papers to Duke's J. Michael Goodson Law Library. As a correspondent for UPI in the 1970s, Fields covered the Watergate scandal, focusing on the House Judiciary Committee's inquiry into the possible impeachment of President Richard Nixon. His book on the subject, High Crimes and Misdemeanors , is an account of the Committee's investigation, which concluded that Nixon had in fact committed impeachable offenses (though he ultimately resigned before he could be impeached). Fields' book, along with several excerpts from his papers, is currently on display in the rare books room. Impeachment has a long and interesting history in the United States, and is well represented in the Goodson Law Libra...