The Goodson Blogson

[ Note: The following guest post, by Reference Intern Kate Dickson, describes the library's new display on the history of impeachment.] The theme for this month's rare books display -- impeachment -- was inspired by journalist Howard Fields' recent donation of his papers to Duke's J. Michael Goodson Law Library. As a correspondent for UPI in the 1970s, Fields covered the Watergate scandal, focusing on the House Judiciary Committee's inquiry into the possible impeachment of President Richard Nixon. His book on the subject, High Crimes and Misdemeanors , is an account of the Committee's investigation, which concluded that Nixon had in fact committed impeachable offenses (though he ultimately resigned before he could be impeached). Fields' book, along with several excerpts from his papers, is currently on display in the rare books room. Impeachment has a long and interesting history in the United States, and is well represented in the Goodson Law Libra...

The latest content update to Lexis Advance , scheduled for release on February 17, will include full-text access to Law360 articles . Law360 is a popular current-awareness service which tracks litigation, legislation and corporate developments on a variety of subject areas. LexisNexis purchased the company back in 2012, but this is the first time that Law360 content has been available as part of a law school Lexis account. (For more information about the ten-year history of Law360, check out last summer's Dewey B Strategic blog post, The Improbable Rise of Law360 .) As seen on the Law360.com homepage, the service organizes its headlines into about 35 topical practice areas . On Law360.com, these areas are each a separate subscription. Readers can view only a brief introduction to articles which are outside their subscription areas. Law360 on Lexis Advance will include the full text of Law360 headlines, without the need to visit Law360.com; researchers will be able to access Law...

After several years of vacation at the University's off-site storage facility, the Goodson Law Library's print collection of records and briefs from the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals has returned to Level 1 of the library. The print collection includes briefs and other filings from federal cases which were appealed to the Fourth Circuit during the years 1891 to 1976. (Similar materials from 1983 to 1998 are available in the Microforms Room on Level 1; filings from 1998 to present can be found online via PACER , available to the Duke Law community through Bloomberg Law .) The Fourth Circuit hears appeals from federal cases which originated in North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, and Maryland. Records and briefs include the papers which were submitted to or generated by a court in a particular case, from the complaint (in a civil case) or the indictment (in a criminal case) to pleadings, motions, orders, transcripts of the trial, jury verdicts, and assoc...

We've written before about the problem of paywalls in online newspapers. Most newspapers allow free access to only a selected number of articles are available free online per month, and after that, visitors discover that the next article they wish to read requires a paid subscription to access. In October, we highlighted options for free access to major U.S. newspapers . Since that time, the Duke University Libraries have recently added another method for reading The New York Times online. As reported last week in the campus libraries' blog , researchers may use a Duke email address to sign up for a daily "pass" to read NYTimes.com. Although each pass lasts only 24 hours, there is no limit to the number of individual passes a user can receive. Researchers will need to register for a NYTimes.com account with a valid Duke email address, and can claim daily passes after that by visiting http://www.nytimes.com/pass . Passes will be sent to the Duke email address w...

The Duke University Libraries now have access to Ancestry Library Edition , the institutional subscription level for Ancestry.com . All members of the University community can now access the popular genealogy database via campus computers, or from off-campus with a NetID and password. This news comes right on the heels of a Library of Congress blog post encouraging readers to use the holiday season as an opportunity to begin tracing family histories. But if family trees don't interest you, there may still be hidden treasures in the Ancestry database. Genealogists have long known the value of legal research materials; for example, see Kurt X. Metzmeier's 2006 bar newsletter article History in the Law Library: Using Legal Materials to Explore the Past and Find Lawyers, Felons and Other Scoundrels in Your Family Tree , available on SSRN . With this campus-wide access to Ancestry, perhaps legal researchers will discover the value of genealogical materials in turn. Ancestry’s ...

Short titles, or " popular names ," are an easy way for politicians to make their proposed bills more memorable. These legislative nicknames can influence public perception of the law's purpose or effect. They can also make complicated legislation more easily digestible in media sound bites – and might even help strong-arm others into approving the proposed bill. For instance, what hapless lawmaker would dare vote against something called the "Abandoned Infants Assistance Act" in an election year? (Actually, we can't tell – the Congressional Record reported only a voice vote, rather than an individual roll call vote.) And would the law enforcement surveillance powers which were expanded after 9/11 have been debated more hotly before passage, had they not been draped in the red-white-and-blue moniker "Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism (USA PATRIOT) Act"? (More short titles...