The Goodson Blogson

Spring break is just around the corner! Beginning Saturday, March 8, the Law Library will operate under reduced staffing hours : Saturday & Sunday, Mar. 8-9: CLOSED Monday - Friday, Mar. 10-14 : 8:00 am - 5:00 pm Saturday Mar. 15: CLOSED Sunday Mar. 16: Regular hours resume During the break, members of the Duke Law Community will retain the usual 24-hour access to the Law School and Law Library with a current DukeCard. Best wishes for a safe and productive spring break.

For more than 80 years, The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation has been the leading style manual for law schools. Now, the authors of the Bluebook (which include the law review associations at Columbia, Harvard, Yale, and the University of Pennsylvania) have unveiled The Bluebook Online ( http://www.legalbluebook.com/Public/Tour.aspx ) , a service which allows subscribers to read, search and annotate the current edition of the Bluebook from the Web. Prices start at $25 for a one-year subscription; students can purchase up to a 3-year subscription at http://www.legalbluebook.com/Purchase/Products.aspx . The Law Library is currently investigating ways to incorporate The Bluebook Online into its database subscriptions. If you have tried The Bluebook Online, or have comments after viewing the video tours at http://www.legalbluebook.com/Public/Tour.aspx , please give us your feedback. (Print devotees need not worry - the old-fashioned paper Bluebook isn't going away anytime ...

Last week, the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office ( http://www.uspto.gov ) unveiled a complete digital archive of its Manual of Patent Examining Procedure (MPEP), at http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/pac/mpep/old/index.htm . The archive includes PDF copies of all editions and revisions since the debut of the Manual in 1948. Previously, editions of MPEP prior to 1995 were available from USPTO only on microform, and had to be requested from the agency or accessed in person at the USPTO Public Search Facility. Duke University users have online access to archives of MPEP via HeinOnline 's Manual of Patent Examining Procedure Library ( http://library.duke.edu/metasearch/db/id/DUK00693 ), although not all revisions are yet available there. (The HeinOnline library also does not include the "original" 1948 edition of MPEP, which precedes the "original" Nov. 1949 1st edition which begins the Hein collection.) For more information about researching patent law, check out t...

Attending the PILF Auction & Gala on Saturday, February 23? Be sure to place your bid on the Law Library's Spring Semester Survival Kit, a gift basket packed full of goodies (both practical and frivolous) to help you get through to the last week of exams. The basket includes: Constitutional Law: Examples & Explanations (Individual Rights) Constitutional Law: Examples & Explanations (National Power & Federalism) Understanding Constitutional Law (donated by LexisNexis) Summer Associate’s Guide to a Permanent Job Offer (donated by LexisNexis) Voucher for 2,000 Westlaw Rewards Points (donated by Westlaw) Portable Scrabble (Hasbro vintage edition) Duke photocopier card loaded with $10.00 Red Bull 4-pack Folger’s Coffee Singles 50 pairs of earplugs Package of highlighters Candy assortment Microwave popcorn Campbell ’s Chunky Soup bowls (2) Easy Mac & Cheese (2) Plastic silverware (144-pack) U.S. ...

Thinking about writing a note for law review? Or for one of the many legal paper competitions out there? Selecting a topic is the first step toward a successful publication, and is often the most difficult. Even choosing to rework an old seminar paper is no guarantee, as the topic still must pass the dreaded “preemption check”: that is, has anyone published on the same or a similar topic? How can you tell? Here are some tips to make the process easier. 1. Take advantage of research references . Remember that Shepard’s and KeyCite can tell you more than whether a case or statute is still “good law”: they’ll also provide references to law review and periodical articles related to a specific case or code section. 2. Dig into law review databases. Supplement your findings from Shepard’s/KeyCite with a search in some sources for law review articles in full text, such as Lexis’s U.S. Journals & Law Reviews, Combined and Westlaw’s Journals & Law Reviews (JLR) databases...