The Goodson Blogson

2023 marks the 100th anniversary of The American Law Institute (ALI) , whose mission is "to clarify, modernize, and improve the law" through its highly respected publications and projects . While the Restatements of the Law are likely the ALI's best-known publications (due to their frequent citation and endorsement by courts, which can "adopt the Restatement view" of a particular topic), the ALI has also developed important codifications like the Model Penal Code and the Uniform Commercial Code , among other publications, studies, and projects. The Goodson Law Library is joining the celebration of the ALI Centennial with an exhibit on Level 3 of the Library. From Monday, March 20 through the end of spring semester classes, visit the main floor of the library and the Riddick Rare Books and Special Collections Room (accessible on weekdays from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm) to learn more about the history of the ALI and of Duke Law faculty contributions to their semin...

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 ...

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...

You may have seen the Duke Law Tech Hub on the third floor of the Law Library. The Tech Hub is a space to engage with and learn about different legal technology and tools. From virtual reality to analytics to design thinking, the Hub has a little bit of everything. Wait. What is design thinking, you ask? In short, design thinking is a problem-solving methodology for innovation . Rooted in engineering, design thinking has permeated education, business, and legal practice. More and more law firms are looking into how design thinking can help make their practice more efficient, while others adopted it long ago. With the growing popularity and curiosity around design thinking, the Tech Hub is hosting a lunch panel on Design Thinking and the Law this Monday, Oct 29th, with two leaders in the field: Camillo Sassano, IBM Design Principal & Kevin L Schultz, IBM Hardware Design Lead. IBM has been implementing design thinking into their business model for over a decade and did resear...

Even the most responsible library users can find themselves incurring the occasional late fee. Maybe you just needed one more day to finish that recalled book, or you were traveling, or the item was buried under a pile of other stuff. However that fine got there, if your Duke Libraries account shows an unpaid balance in the Fines/Credits/Fees section, we have some good news for you. From Wednesday, October 10 through Friday, October 26, every library on East and West Campus at Duke University will accept "Food for Fines" to benefit the Food Bank of Central and Eastern NC . Each unopened, unexpired, non-perishable food item (or household good) donated will remove $1 from your library fines (up to a $25 maximum per account). You can bring the items to any campus library during the food drive – no need to travel to the specific library that charged the fine. The chart below details the most-needed food and household items for the Food Bank: Food Drive Most Needed Items...

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...

On Friday, December 4, the Duke University Libraries' Visualization Friday Forum series will host a lunchtime talk by medical illustrator and artist Jennifer McCormick , who creates courtroom exhibits designed to explain complex medical concepts to juries. (Sample case studies are available on her website, Art for Law & Medicine .) The event is co-sponsored by Duke Law School's Academic Technologies department and the Trent Center for Bioethics, Humanities & History of Medicine . The Power of Intention in Art and Medicine Jennifer McCormick • Art for Law & Medicine Friday, December 4, 2015 | 12-1pm Duke Hospital Lecture Hall 2003 ( map ) Lunch will be provided Additional details: Data and Visualization Services blog . Medical evidence can be difficult to comprehend for jurors and attorneys alike. In addition to valuable demonstrative evidence by illustrators like Ms. McCormick, a number of resources are available to aid litigators who are handling a c...

This guest post was authored by Marguerite Most , Reference Librarian and Senior Lecturing Fellow. The library's National Library Week speaker for 2015 is Zephyr Teachout , Duke Law '99. Teachout, an Associate Professor at Fordham Law School, will talk about her latest book Corruption in America: From Benjamin Franklin's Snuffbox to Citizens United on Tuesday, March 24 in room 3041 . This event is co-sponsored by the Duke Program in Public Law , the student branch of the American Constitution Society , and the Goodson Law Library . The event is open to the public. In 2014, when Teachout sought the Democratic Party nomination for Governor of New York against incumbent Andrew Cuomo, she captured over 34% of the primary vote in a campaign with a central focus on anti-government corruption. Teachout supports public financing of elections and limits on corporate donors, and explores these issues, as well as the abuse of political power and the history of campaign finance ...

At the end of each spring semester, law students often have questions about translating their academic research experiences into real-world work environments. On Monday, March 31 at 12:15 pm , join Goodson Law Library staff and research instructors in Room 4047 for a Legal Research Refresher: What to Know Before You Go . Part of the 2L Summer Success Series sponsored by the Career & Professional Development Center, this session will offer tips and tricks to get background in unfamiliar legal topics, use low-cost research database alternatives, and conduct business and transactional law-related research at your summer jobs. Lunch and a "swag bag" will be provided to attendees on a first-come, first-served basis, so arrive early! A common question as students prepare for summer employment is the availability of online research services. Some access to educational databases, like Westlaw and Lexis.com, will be restricted over the summer unless users qualify for an extensi...

What a winter! This semester has brought several days of class cancellations (and accompanying make-up days) due to inclement winter weather. Whether you adore the snowy season or prefer the comforts of the indoors, you can channel that love or loathing to create a snowflake for the first-ever Goodson Law Library Snowflake Contest ! Now through Tuesday, February 25 at 5:00 p.m., Duke Law School students, faculty and staff can create a cut-paper snowflake to be displayed behind the Goodson Law Library service desk. Submit your entry to the Circulation/Reserve desk to be added to the display. A panel of three Goodson Law Library staff members will award a lucky winner the prize of bragging rights and one dozen homemade snowflake cookies! Snowflake contest rules: Snowflakes must be submitted for display by Tuesday, Feb. 25 at 5:00 p.m . Snowflakes must be made of white paper (some scrap paper will be available at the Circulation Desk). No additional colors should be used for the...

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

Getting ready for your summer job? Law firms consistently cite research and writing ability among the most important traits in new associates. LARW provides the basic foundation, but real-world legal research can be vastly different from your experiences preparing a motion memo, appellate brief, or seminar paper. Are your research skills up to the challenge? On Thursday, March 22, at 12:15 p.m. , join research instructors Jane Bahnson , Marguerite Most and Kristina Alayan in Room 3037 for the Goodson Law Library’s “ Legal Research Refresher: What to Know Before You Go .” The lunchtime session, co-sponsored by the Career & Professional Development Center, will introduce students to current awareness and litigation tools that are commonly used in real-world law practice, demonstrate how to navigate local court rules and dockets, and highlight low-cost research database alternatives. As if the opportunity to hone your research skills wasn’t reward enough, the first 20 attendees wil...

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...

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 yo...

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 fo...

Last week, the Judicial Conference of the United States approved several steps to improve PACER , the federal courts’ system for P ublic A ccess to C ourt E lectronic R ecords. Among the highlights: While congressionally-mandated user fees will remain stable at $0.08 per page (capped at $2.40 per document), PACER users will not receive a bill until they accrue $10 in charges during a quarterly billing cycle (an upgrade from the previous fee waiver of $10 per year). With approval from the presiding judge, digital audio files of hearings may be downloadable through PACER for $2.40 each. Previously, these recordings had to be obtained through the individual court clerk’s office for $26.00. The Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts also recently announced an upgrade to PACER, with the debut of the new PACER Case Locator . This search service allows users to identify which court’s PACER database contains materials from a specified case, as well as create customized displays of federal...

The Goodson Blogson can't stop thinking about an absorbing New York Times Magazine article from earlier this month, China’s Cyberposse . The article describes popular online communities which mobilize to expose and publicly shame individuals who have committed various transgressions (such as adultery, animal cruelty, or government corruption). In some cases, the targets of a human-flesh search have lost their jobs; others now live in hiding, fearful of vigilante justice for their wrongdoings. Comparable online forums exist in the United States, although they are far less mainstream than their Chinese counterparts. Similar tactics can also be found on a milder scale in the U.S. on social networking websites (such as a Twitter feed in Alaska which posts the license plates of bad drivers or Don’t Date Him Girl , an online community which posts personal information about alleged cheaters or otherwise-lousy boyfriends). Those who have never attempted to track someone down online might ...

It's that time of year again! In 2008, the library assembled its first "survival kit" goodie basket for the annual PILF Auction , which raises funds to support Duke Law students who take unpaid employment in the non-profit/government sector. We had so much fun supporting this great cause that we did it again in 2009 . Now, it’s officially a Goodson Law Library tradition, and we’re once again contributing a great gift basket to this year’s PILF Auction on Saturday, February 20, 2010 at the Nasher Museum of Art . This year's basket theme is “ The Traveling Lawyer’s Survival Kit ,” and it’s intended to help law students make it to just about any destination: a distant moot court competition, a callback interview, or even just an exam period weekend camp-out in the library. Here are the highlights of this jam-packed basket: Trial practice/Oral Argument : Whether you’re a 1L dreading the first round of Hardt Cup or a 2L/3L traveling to a national competition, three books ...

Last year, the Goodson Law Library celebrated Open Access Day , the first-ever international celebration of the Open Access (OA) movement, which encourages the use of the Internet to freely distribute scholarship which is normally locked behind online subscription databases or published in costly print resources. Although the Open Access movement is rooted in the hard sciences, as a reaction to publicly-funded scientific research results being published in prohibitively expensive journals, the principles of Open Access have spread to other disciplines, including the social sciences. This year, the success of 2008’s Open Access Day has resulted in 2009’s Open Access Week (October 19-23) . Duke University will celebrate with several events, including a panel on Friday, October 23 about open access to health information around the world. For a complete listing of Duke events, see Open Access Week at Duke . For a fuller listing of events beyond Duke, check out http://www.openaccessweek.org...

The reference librarians are conducting their annual spring "Research Refresher" series until Friday, April 3. Each hour-long workshop tackles a different area of legal research, and is intended to help students make a smooth transition from law school to law practice. Slides, handouts, and audio from this week's refreshers are posted at http://www.law.duke.edu/lib/workshops/ . After you catch up on what you've missed, join us for the remaining refreshers! There are still several great topics to be covered in the series: business and company information; free and low-cost sources for legal research; health/medical research; immigration law resources; and tax law research . The final workshop in the series will discuss strategies for "Putting it All Together: Taking a Research Assignment from Start to Finish." Classes are conducted each weekday from 12:15p.m.-1:15p.m. in the library's Fite Training Room (level 2). View the full schedule and RSVP (optional...