The Goodson Blogson

The Law Library's annual Research Refresher brown-bag series will begin on Monday, March 31! Bring your lunch to Room 4172 from 12:15-1:15 on the following dates to review everything you've forgotten from LARW, and learn new ways to impress your bosses this summer. As an added bonus, dessert and drinks will be provided. Monday 3/31 : Cases & Court Documents (Lauren Collins) Tuesday 4/1: Regulations & Administrative Materials (Melanie Dunshee) Friday 4/4 : Statutes & Legislative History (Jennifer Behrens) Monday 4/7 : “You Want Me to Research WHAT ?!”: Getting Background & Keeping Current (Jennifer Behrens) Tuesday 4/8 : Life After Rewards Points: Free & Cheap Legal Research (Jennifer Behrens) Thursday 4/10 : Putting it All Together: Taking a Work Assignment from Start to Finish (Katherine Topulos) Friday 4/11 : Business Law Boot Camp (Laura Scott; register at http://www.law.duke.edu/edtech/signup/ ) *Note : Business Law Boot Camp is a sp...

By now, veterans of the Law Library renovation already know that they can borrow those pesky "Unavailable" Law Library materials in person at any of the nearby university libraries from the Triangle Research Libraries Network (TRLN), by bringing along a DukeCard. But now there's an easy way to tell at a glance whether the item you want is available on the shelves at UNC-Chapel Hill, North Carolina Central University, or North Carolina State University. SearchTRLN combines the library catalogs from all four TRLN schools into one simple-to-use interface. You can even submit an interlibrary loan request directly from the search results! Items which are available at TRLN libraries should generally arrive within 2 business days. In May, the Duke University Libraries expect to unveil a customized local version of the SearchTRLN interface, with additional features and functionality for the Duke community. In the meantime, the SearchTRLN mega-catalog is available for a test...

Recently, the Duke police have reported the presence of a laptop thief on campus. He is described as a tall male, carrying a FedEx box. If he sees an unattended laptop, he puts it in the FedEx box, then walks away. At least two or three laptop thefts have been reported around campus. Please take precautions to secure your laptop and other valuables while working in the Law Library. While every reasonable effort is made to protect the security of library visitors, library staff are unable to "watch" your unattended belongings. Report any suspicious activity to library staff or the campus police .

Before you head to that summer job, brush up on those research skills at the Law Library's annual Research Refresher brown-bag series! This year's schedule will help you review everything you've forgotten from LARW, and will also introduce some new, practice-oriented research topics in order to help you stand out in the crowd at work. All classes will take place in Room 4172 from 12:15-1:15 p.m .* Dessert and drinks will be provided; attendees are encouraged to bring a lunch. Monday 3/31 : Cases & Court Documents (Lauren Collins) Tuesday 4/1: Regulations & Administrative Materials (Melanie Dunshee) Friday 4/4 : Statutes & Legislative History (Jennifer Behrens) Monday 4/7 : “You Want Me to Research WHAT ?!”: Getting Background & Keeping Current (Jennifer Behrens) Tuesday 4/8 : Life After Rewards Points: Free & Cheap Legal Research (Jennifer Behrens) Thursday 4/10 : Putting it All Together: Taking a Work Assignment from Start to Finish (Kather...

As you may already know, the Law Library maintains a username and password for PACER (Public Access to Court Electronic Records, http://pacer.psc.uscourts.gov/ ), which is available for use by current members of the Law School community. PACER provides online access to U.S. District, Bankruptcy, and Appellate court records and docket information, with many documents available in PDF. The major disadvantage of PACER is its pay-per-view charging system, which costs searchers $0.08/page. This can add up quickly! One solution is to first review the free docket information available on Justia's Federal District Court Filings & Dockets page ( http://dockets.justia.com/ ) to identify exactly which documents are desired before logging in to PACER. In addition, a good amount of PACER's content is available to Law School users on Westlaw ; available document PDFs will be linked at the bottom of the associated case. However, a recent initiative by public.resource.org o...