The Goodson Blogson

The COVID-19 pandemic has had implications across multiple fields: health, education, politics, and law. It has also affected all of us, in some way, personally. As it touches on nearly every aspect of our lives, the amount of information related to the outbreak can be overwhelming. We are inundated with claims from news, social media, friends, colleagues, and more. Most concerning for many is finding resources on the outbreak and the virus that are reliable. In response, the Goodson Law Library's Faculty and Scholarly Services Librarian Wickliffe Shreve has created a new research guide on COVID-19 Resources , now available on the library website. The new guide covers sites dedicated to health, government, international, and legal resources on reactions to and studies of the pandemic. It also focuses on work on COVID-19 produced by the Duke community, in particular the Duke Law community. For law students, faculty, and members of the legal profession familiar with the major leg...

On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down its opinion in Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org Inc. , with a 5-4 majority ruling that the non-binding annotations in the Official Code of Georgia Annotated were not eligible for copyright protection under the government edicts doctrine. As the New York Times noted , the voting blocs were not the typical 5-4 ideological division: Chief Justice Roberts’s majority opinion was joined by Justices Sotomayor, Kagan, Gorsuch and Kavanaugh. Justice Thomas wrote one dissenting opinion, joined by Justice Alito in full and Justice Breyer in part. Justice Ginsburg authored a separate dissenting opinion, which was also joined by Justice Breyer. SCOTUSblog includes photo illustrations of vote alignment by both ideology and seniority , each demonstrating the unusual alliances in this case. The Code Revision Commission of Georgia had contracted with LEXIS to prepare the revisions; annotations were drafted by Lexis staff as a work-for-hire. Lexis sells h...

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...