The Goodson Blogson

As the spring 2019 exam period approaches, the Goodson Law Library has implemented some important changes based on user feedback, in order to improve your experience. Restricted Access in Effect During the Law School's Reading & Examination period (April 19 – May 3) , access to the Goodson Law Library for study purposes is restricted to current Law School students, faculty and staff. Others who need to access the library for research purposes may visit the library when service desk staff are on duty (Monday - Friday, 8:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.; contact the Circulation/Reserve Desk for assistance during staffed evenings and weekends). Quiet Study in the Library During the reading & examination period, the entire library (including the Reading Room on Level 3) will be converted to quiet space . Excessive noise and inadequate quiet space were the top themes in our Spring 2019 student survey. Please be quiet in the library and take all phone calls outside. New Seating, Ta...

While Duke Law students, faculty and staff have long enjoyed 24-hour access to both the Law School and Law Library, the Duke Law community didn't have a 24-hour service desk…until now. A Self-Checkout Station is now available at the Circulation/Reserve desk. If you need to check out a Law Library item after hours – or just feel like bypassing a line during the day – bring your items to the iPad kiosk at the service desk. Follow the instructions on the touch screen to log in with your NetID and password, use the camera to take photos of the item barcodes, and verify that the system has logged you out when you are finished. Need to borrow items even faster? With the Duke Self-Checkout smartphone app , you can borrow Standard Loan library items right at the shelf. MeeScan Duke Self-Checkout apps for iPhone and Android devices are available at the App Store and on Google Play . Note that this station offers checkout service only – to return items for check-in after hours, use th...

The start of summer always brings changes to the Law Library – most notably, access and service desk hours (now weekdays 8:00 am – 5:00 pm until the start of fall classes in August). But some important additional changes are taking place this summer, with accompanying moves to library collections and equipment. The library's former Document Production Room on level 3 will be transformed into a new classroom and meeting space this summer. As a result, ePrint station 3A has moved to the end of the library service desk, along with one overhead scanner. The other overhead scanner, and color printer/photocopier device have moved to the Microforms Room on Level 1, where additional ePrint stations and a Lexis printer are already available. The document feed scanner/outbound fax device is temporarily located outside of the library entrance, next to printer 3C (it is expected to move back into the library Reading Room later this summer). Changes are also coming to the four library al...

Whether you're heading to a summer job or graduating this May, your access to legal research services like Westlaw , Lexis Advance , and Bloomberg Law will change. Continuing Students For rising 2Ls and 3Ls, your Law School access generally continues uninterrupted over the summer. Lexis Advance and Bloomberg Law both allow student usage over the summer for educational as well as for commercial purposes . (However, check with your employer before using your Law School accounts for paid work – many employers prefer that summer associates avoid using their school accounts for researching firm matters.) Westlaw restricts students' summer access to Westlaw, Practical Law and other Thomson Reuters products to non-commercial research purposes only . The eligible categories for summer access include: Summer Coursework Research Assistant Assignments Law Review or Journal Research Moot Court Research Non-Profit Work Clinical Work Externship Sponsored by the S...

With final exams on the horizon, we wanted to review some important library information and resources to help you through the end of the semester. 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 (Friday, December 18), 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. Getting Technical If you will use your laptop to take an exam, make sure you have ...

It may be hard to believe now, but in just a few weeks your final exams and papers will be a distant memory as you begin your summer job. Starting in May, many commonly-used legal research resources restrict student access over the summer , to help avoid the use of nonprofit educational passwords at paid summer employment. However, each service treats summer access a little bit differently, and there may be further variations for continuing vs. graduating students. Here’s your guide to summer database access. Bloomberg Law accounts are valid between school terms and for 6 months after you graduate. Your Law School Bloomberg account may be used for both academic and employment-related purposes, including full access to federal court filings from PACER (see our research guide ). If you do not already have a Bloomberg Law account, you may Request A Law School Account with your Duke email address. LexisNexis will provide unlimited access this summer to Lexis Advance , its next-genera...

As the holidays approach, users may find themselves wanting help at a time when the Goodson Law Library is closed. Our Hours & Directions page explains our library entrance and staffing hours over the winter break. The Duke Law community will retain its 24-hour building access with a current DukeCard, but what if you have a research question when library staff are not available? Here are some time-saving strategies. Library research guides are available for more than 30 topics. They present a mix of print materials, free Internet sites and subscription-based online resources, aimed at helping researchers get started with recommended resources. Some of our most popular guides are Federal Legislative History , North Carolina Practice , Legal Research on the Web , and Foreign & Comparative Law . If your topic isn't listed in our research guides, try a quick search of Cornell Law School's Legal Research Engine , a custom Google search of law school and other legal rese...

[In this guest post, Reference Intern Janeen Williams explores the legal history of the Thanksgiving holiday. Post title courtesy of Lee Cloninger .]  Currently, Thanksgiving falls on the fourth Thursday in November, but that has not always been the case. The tradition of the " Day of Thanks" began soon after the establishment of the United States. In 1789, in accordance with George Washington's proclamation , Thanksgiving was on Thursday, November 26; however, at this time the holiday was not annual. The holiday was not annually recognized until after Abraham Lincoln’s proclamation in 1863. In the mid-1900s, when states began to recognize Thanksgiving on different Thursdays, Congress decided to enact legislation that would create a fixed national date for the holiday. In 1941, President Roosevelt signed legislation establishing Thanksgiving as a national holiday that would occur on the fourth Thursday in November. Visit the National Archives website to see fede...

Welcome (or welcome back) to the Fall 2012 semester! Effective at 1:00 p.m. on Sunday, August 19, full evening and weekend library services have resumed. See our updated building access hours , and remember that you'll still need a current DukeCard to enter the Law School building after 5:00 p.m. and any time on weekends. Those just returning to Duke from a summer away will notice a few changes to the Goodson Law Library. In May, work began on a renovation project designed to create new spaces for eight of Duke Law's student-edited journals on Level 1 of the library. As part of this project, other study spaces throughout the library were also improved. While some work will continue into the fall semester (check the Renovation Updates page for details), here is your floor-by-floor guide to the changes so far. LEVEL 1 The most dramatic transformation can be seen at the back of Level 1, where the bank of study carrels was removed in July. (Don't worry - the carrels ha...

The end of the semester brings some important changes to the Goodson Law Library’s access and service hours. Please note this information for reading/examination period and beyond: Library Services Effective Monday 4/16, the Reference Services desk will be open from Monday to Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. The Circulation/Reserve desk and the Academic Technologies Help Desk will continue evening and weekend service hours until the end of the examination period. Beginning on Friday, May 4 , all three library service desks will operate under summer hours (Monday to Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.), and will resume evening and weekend service at the start of the Fall 2012 semester. Library Access To ensure that adequate quiet study space is available for law students, use of the Goodson Law Library for study purposes during the Law School’s reading/exam period (Tuesday 4/17 to Friday 5/4) is limited to current Duke Law students, faculty and staff. University students, faculty and staf...

A new year always brings new changes, and 2012 is no exception. This year, there’s a Presidential election, and (some say) maybe even the end of the world . But before that Mayan calendar runs out, we can enjoy some small-scale changes closer to home: the New Year will ring in the return of the library's evening and weekend services (on Sunday, January 8), and also an extension to Standard Loan borrowing periods for Duke Law students, other Duke graduate students, and non-Law Duke faculty/staff. The new year also often brings changes to the library's electronic subscriptions, as newly acquired content is added to databases and the full-text of titles from expired licenses are removed. (This generally happens behind the scenes, but if you encounter outdated links to e-resources which no longer work correctly, be sure to report them to library staff for investigation.) One database making some big additions for 2012 is NC Live, or North Carolina Libraries for Virtual Educatio...

With the Goodson Law Library preparing for upcoming Christmas and New Year holiday closures (see Hours & Directions for info), it’s a good time to reflect on holidays around the world. As globalization has made transnational business the new normal, lawyers must be aware of cultural differences which can impact scheduling and travel plans; these details aren’t always readily apparent from travel guidebooks or simple web searching. Most international travelers are already familiar with the Background Notes and travel information provided by the U.S. State Department, including security threats and travel warnings. But a lesser-known series from the federal government can also be invaluable to travelers and those who do business on a global scale. The Commerce Department’s U.S. Commercial Service publishes and updates Country Commercial Guides , which are intended for use by U.S. companies doing business in a particular country. Chapter 8, “Business Travel,” always contains a sect...

Driving to Grandma’s house for Thanksgiving dinner? There’s no better time to check out the AAA Digest of Motor Laws , a free compilation of state laws related to motor vehicle ownership and operation. The source is browseable by individual state, as well as by category: Is your window tint too dark for a neighboring state’s comfort? Do you need to put away that radar detector when you cross state lines? And even though you know you shouldn’t , can you legally use a cell phone or send a text message behind the wheel, wherever you may roam? The American Automobile Association added this long-running 50-state survey of vehicle laws to its website this summer (once upon a time, we received print editions in the libraries), and plans to expand the online service in the future with Canadian law and also comparative search tools. Note that the site links to undated summaries of the relevant state law, rather than the text of the actual statutes: to confirm the accuracy of the informati...

It’s been a wild week for weather around Duke Law. On Tuesday afternoon, the Southeast was rocked by a rare 5.8-magnitude earthquake , which rattled our library windows and library users alike, but caused no lasting problems in this area (although our nation’s capital, closer to the quake’s epicenter in Virginia, sustained some damage to national monuments ). Now, North Carolina’s coast is bracing for a direct hit from Hurricane Irene , which is expected to make landfall on the Outer Banks today before heading toward New York City. Currently, the effects of Irene here in the Research Triangle are expected to be comparatively minimal, although meteorologists predict a soaking rain on Saturday along with some high winds, which could cause flash flooding and power outages in the Durham area. Duke University is monitoring the situation carefully, and the Goodson Law Library will announce any emergency closures this weekend on our website. You can also sign up for Duke Alert emails and ...

Welcome to our new students, and welcome back to our returning students! The Fall 2011 semester is about to begin, and the Goodson Law Library is ready for the typical questions we hear around this time of year: Are you ever open later than 5:00 p.m.? Yes! While the library is always "open" to Duke Law students (who enjoy 24-hour access with their DukeCards), the library service desk will resume evening and weekend hours on Sunday, August 21 . See the Hours & Directions page for information. Staffing hours vary a bit across the three service points (Circulation/Reserve, Reference, and Computing Help), but generally the desk will be staffed until 9 p.m. on weeknights, 5:00 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays, and 6:00 or 9:00 p.m. on Sundays (depending on the service point). Does the library have copies of my textbooks on Reserve? Maybe! Historically, the library's textbook collection has been the "luck of the draw;" we always buy extra copies of casebooks...

Hitting the road after exams? Tie up a few loose ends in the library before you leave the area! Wherever the summer months may take you, follow our simple steps to ensure a hassle-free transition. (Class of 2011, be on the lookout for a separate post within the next few days which will address special issues related to graduation, such as how to obtain 24-hour building access if you plan to remain in the Triangle for bar exam study.) Check your library account: Log in to the libraries’ My Account site with your NetID and password, and double-check your outstanding loans, hold/recall requests, and any fees or fines which have been incurred. Be sure to return any remaining items before you leave the area, and speak with the Circulation/Reserve desk in the event of a discrepancy (such as a book that you’re sure you already returned, or a fine for a study room key). Clean out your study carrel : We’re sure that all of our students respect the fact that library study carrels are shared s...

The end of the semester brings some important changes to the Goodson Law Library’s access and service hours. Please note this information for reading/examination period and beyond: Library Services Effective Monday 4/18, the Reference Services desk will be open from Monday to Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. The Circulation/Reserve desk and the Academic Technologies Help Desk will continue evening and weekend service hours until the end of the examination period. Effective Friday, May 6, all three library service desks will operate under summer hours (Monday to Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.), and will resume evening and weekend service at the start of the Fall 2011 semester. Library access To ensure that adequate quiet study space is available for law students, use of the Goodson Law Library for study purposes during the Law School’s reading/exam period (Tuesday 4/19 to Friday 5/6) is limited to current Duke Law students, faculty and staff. University students, faculty and staff who...

It's reading & examination period at the Law School, and that means our students are busily preparing outlines and reviewing class notes. As stress levels rise and preparation time grows short, the Goodson Blogson wants to review some of the most common questions at the service desk lately. Library Access As previously reported (both here and in certain other legal blogs of note), 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 (Saturday, December 18), 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 who require access to the library for research purposes should contact the library service desk for assistance. Additional study space is available to all throughout the bui...

The end of fall semester classes will bring some changes to the Goodson Law Library’s access and service hours. To ensure that adequate study space is available for law students during the reading and examination period, the library will implement a new access and use policy from December 2-18. During the reading and examination period, use of the Goodson Law Library will be restricted to the Duke Law community at all times (including when the entrance doors are unlocked). Exceptions will be made for other students who are currently enrolled in Law School classes, or researchers with a demonstrated need for use of the law collections. All others may be asked to leave. (Please contact the Reference Desk during normal business hours about access under the above exceptions, or assistance with researching legal materials.) The Law School and library entrance doors will be locked (with card swipe access restricted to the law community) after 5:00 p.m. on weekdays, and on weekends from D...

The new academic year brings some changes to the Goodson Law Library. Effective Sunday, August 22, evening and weekend services return to the library. During the fall semester, the library entrance will be unlocked (and the service desk will be staffed) at the following hours : Sunday 2:00 p.m.-6:00 p.m. Monday-Thursday 7:30 a.m. – 9:00 p.m. Friday 7:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. Saturday 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. Duke Law students, faculty and staff continue to enjoy 24-hour access to the Law School and library. Keep in mind that the outer doors of the Law School lock down automatically at 5:00 p.m. and over the weekends, so be sure to bring your DukeCard if you plan to visit after-hours. Returning students will notice some new faces at the service desk. Over the summer, the Reference Services department welcomed Foreign & International Law Librarian Kristina Alayan and Reference Librarian Jane Bahnson . You may also see more of Kelly Leong , who joined the library in the spring as a referen...