The Goodson Blogson

One week into the U.S. federal government shutdown, federal workers have begun receiving their final paychecks from the period before the December 22 lapse in appropriations. Yesterday, Congress adjourned without much progress on a new spending agreement, and will reconvene on Monday, December 31. Hundreds of thousands of federal employees are either furloughed or working without pay for the duration of the shutdown, and many federal parks and other tourist attractions are closed until the shutdown ends. The Northwestern University Libraries' research guide to Government Shutdown 2.0 outlines the agencies that will continue working without pay (including the TSA and the Department of Justice's Special Counsel office), agencies that will reduce or cease operations during the shutdown (including the Internal Revenue Service and NASA). Individual federal agency websites generally display a banner for the duration of a shutdown, explaining what services continue to function a...

The Goodson Law Library recently subscribed to the Federal Portfolio of Tax Analysts , a leading source for tax-related news and commentary. Current members of the Duke University community may register a username and password with their Duke.edu email address to obtain access. Available publications include Tax Notes , Tax Notes Today , FATCA Expert , Exempt Organizations Expert , and Tax Practice Expert . Duke's subscription also includes access to the Federal Research Library tool, containing IRS documents, regulations and legislation. For quick access to research materials, use the Key Documents menu at the top of the screen. The Tax Topics menu allows quick access to stories on a particular subject. Tax Analyst publications were previously available to the Law community in Lexis Advance and the campus community in Nexis Uni . Although these publications are currently still available full-text within Lexis research platforms, Tax Analyst titles will be removed from Lexi...

'Tis the season to succeed on Law School exams! Check out these tips to make your examination period run smoothly. Library Access Exam time brings a temporary change to the library's access policy , most notably in the evening hours. From now until the end of exams (Monday, December 17), access to the Goodson Law Library for study purposes will be limited to current Duke Law students, faculty and staff. Card-swipe access to the library entrance will be required after 5:00 p.m. on weekdays and all day on weekends. Members of the Duke University community or general public who require access to the library for legal research purposes should contact the library service desk for assistance during reference service hours (Monday – Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.). Additional study space is available to all throughout the building, such as in the Star Commons. The Technicalities If you will use your laptop to take an exam, make sure you have installed Electronic Bluebook (EB...