The Goodson Blogson

Beginning Tuesday, September 2, representatives from LexisNexis & Westlaw will be offering training sessions in the Fite Room (level 2 of the Library) for LLMs as part of the LARWINT class. LLMs should sign up for one Lexis session & one Westlaw session. LEXISNEXIS Tuesday, September 2 : 10:00-10:45, 11:00-11:45 and 1:30-2:15 Wednesday, September 3: 11:00-11:45 and 1:00-1:45 Fri day, September 5: 10:00-10:45, 11:00-11:45 and 12:15-1 :00 Wednesday, September 10: 12:15-1:00 Sign up in the Law Library at the Reference Desk in the Lexis notebook. If you have any questions about Lexis training, contact stephanie.okeefe@lexisnexis.com WESTLAW Thursday, September 4 : 9:00-9:45 and 10:00-10:45 Monday, September 8 : 9:00-9:45 and 10:00-10:45 Thursday, September 11 : 9-9:45 and 11-11:45 Friday, September 12 : 1:00-1:45 and 2:00-2:45 Sign up in the Law Library at the Reference Desk in the Westlaw notebook or online by following this link: http://lawschool.westlaw.com/Cale...

The start of a new school year brings the frequently-asked question: When do I receive my Lexis and Westlaw passwords? LexisNexis and Westlaw are the leading electronic legal research services used in modern law practice. Individual passwords to both are provided free of charge to members of the Duke Law community. However, the distribution of passwords takes place at different times for different groups within Duke Law: LLM students will receive Lexis and Westlaw passwords on their first day of LARWINT class. New JD students will receive Lexis and Westlaw passwords on the first day of the research portion of LARW, during the week of September 8. Law School faculty and staff may receive Lexis and Westlaw passwords at any time, although new hires must be confirmed with the Dean’s office before passwords can be issued. Inquire at the Reference Desk ( ref@law.duke.edu or 613-7121). Please note that the terms of the library’s contract with Lexis and Westlaw require that academic pa...

Even before the renovated Law Library had reopened, Duke’s nine student-edited journals had already begun the process of cite-checking their selected articles. A number of electronic resources make this job easier, and should be useful to cite-checkers as well as any other legal researchers. Cardiff Index to Legal Abbreviations : There are several abbreviation dictionaries available in the Law Library’s Reference Collection, but this site (from the University of Cardiff in Wales) can be accessed anywhere at any time. Search by title or by abbreviation to decipher those mysterious citations--always the first step to locating an item. Finding Legal Materials in PDF : This research guide was created in response to the library’s renovation, since 95% of the print collection was moved into inaccessible off-site storage. It remains a useful guide to locating the full text of many common legal materials, including primary (cases, statutes, legislative history materials) and secondary (law re...

The Law Library is scheduled to reopen on Friday, August 22 . As we transition to the new building, the service desk telephones in the Law Library Annex have been transferred to the new library service desk. During LEAD Week, library staff may be reached via telephone or email during regular summer library hours: Monday-Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Service desks in the Library Annex and the renovated library will not be staffed during LEAD Week, although help is available remotely. For reference assistance, please call (919) 613-7121 or email ref@law.duke.edu . Reference librarians will monitor email and voicemail throughout the day; please be patient for a response as we prepare to reopen our spectacular new library!

Did you suffer through Facebook withdrawal at your summer associate job? Law firms who block popular social-networking sites in an effort to decrease employee distractions may need to revisit this policy soon, as some familiar legal sites begin to incorporate social components. Fresh from an announcement last month that its powerful legal directory Martindale.com will now feature contact information from professional networking juggernaut LinkedIn as part of its search results, parent company LexisNexis is also testing a separate service called Martindale-Hubbell Connected . Similar to LinkedIn, with a focus on the legal community, Martindale-Hubbell Connected has the potential to increase an attorney’s visibility and professional network exponentially. Read a review from an early visitor , and register to test this beta service yourself . Additionally, the research system Casemaker (an alternative to Lexis and Westlaw which is included in the membership of 28 selected state b...

The August 3 New York Times reported the release of a new web site, CriminalSearches.com . The free site (supported by advertising) compiles criminal record databases from all 50 states and several thousand counties. The site allows an informal "background check" of individual names, as well as a sex-offender search by neighborhoods. The original version of the site, in late July, included a controversial "Neighborhood Watch" section, compiling results for all known offenders--down to traffic violations-- living near a specific address; this has since been revised to include only registered sex offenders. (Durham city residents can generate a similar "neighborhood watch" map-- albeit only for reported incidents of specific crimes, not for addresses of offenders-- at the Durham Crime Mapper .) CriminalSearches.com represents a growing trend of making public records even more freely accessible online, raising concerns from privacy advocates. In the past,...