Legal Research

Open-Plan Offices Net Less Productivity

Posted on April 07, 2009
Working in "cubicle city"? New studies suggest you might not be working at the highest level of productivity due to noise, distractions, and bad office layout. Research was reported in Journal of Facilities Management, available in full-text through University Libraries...

This Week's Highlighted Acquisitions

Posted on April 07, 2009
The emerging practice of the International Criminal Court / edited by Carsten Stahn and Goran Sluiter ; with a foreword by Adriaan Bos. Leiden ; Boston : Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 2009. Call number: KZ6311 .E364 2009 Publisher?s Description: The International Criminal Court is at a crossroads...

New Guide to Online Legal Research

Posted on April 06, 2009
Beyond LexisNexis & Westlaw: UCLA's New Guide to Online Legal Research UCLA has just released a new Beyond LexisNexis & Westlaw guide. It describes a wide range of online legal research resources and covers primary law, government resources, research guides, reference sources, forms, and legal news...

Bar Admissions Requirements

Posted on April 03, 2009
Bar Admission Requirements in All States The National Conference of Bar Examiners and the ABA publish a book titled "Comprehensive guide to bar admission requirements". It's in the Reference Collection in our library at call number KF302.A15 C66. Ask for it at the Reference Office, or, if you would rather read a PDF version, you can do that here...

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Law Library Celebrates Baseball!

Posted on April 03, 2009
Law Library = Twins Territory Monday, April 6th, 12:15 - 1:15 Celebrate Opening Day! Drop by the Library and enjoy hot dogs, popcorn, ice cream and drawings for Twins tickets, caps & t-shirts. The Library gratefully acknowledges the Law Council's support of this event, and gifts from the class of 2008...

LOC embraces Social Networking

Posted on April 02, 2009
The iLibrary of iCongress As essential printed content is increasingly available on-line through Google Books, Open Library, and other digitization projects, the Library of Congress has announced initiatives to upload more of other forms of media as well...

New Acquisitions in March 2009

Posted on April 01, 2009
Here is the list of new titles the Law Library acquired in March 2009. The list is on the Library's home page. March Acquisitions In addition, here are several highlighted titles of particular interest: Sunstein, Cass R. A Constitution of many minds : why the founding document doesn?t mean what it meant before...

E-Discovery Search Techniques

Posted on March 31, 2009
TREC Legal Track Making Progress on E-Discovery Searching The work of the Legal Track of the Text Retrieval Conference (TREC Legal Track) is improving search techniques for electronic discovery, according to Jason Krause?s article, ?In Search of the Perfect Search,? ABA Journal, April 2009...

Future of Legal Information--New Blog

Posted on March 30, 2009
Blog Considers Future of Legal Information Source: Robert Ambrogi's LawSites If you don't know what is meant by "legal informatics," I suggest this quote as an oversimplified definition: "Everywhere, more and more courts, legislatures, and agencies are putting information on the Internet in more and better ways using improved technologies...

RAQ: Recently Asked Questions

Posted on March 30, 2009
In this occasional feature, we highlight recently asked questions and brief answers from the Law Library reference desk. Q: Where could I find information on the history of medical malpractice in the US? A: The Making of American Law, Trials contains one report of a medical malpractice trial...

End of Print Law Reviews?

Posted on March 30, 2009
Law Librarian Group Calls for Ending Publication of Law Reviews in Print Format Print publication of law reviews is back in the news. Paul Lomio recently reported on Legal Research Plus that the Durham Statement on Open Access to Legal Scholarship calls for all law schools to stop publishing their law reviews in print format and to rely instead on creating definitive versions of their journals in digital formats and making the law review articles readily accessible in online respositories by using a standard set of metadata to catalog each one...

Environmental Law & Policy Blog

Posted on March 27, 2009
Legal Planet is an environmental law and policy blog launched by UC Berkeley and UCLA in January. This collaborative effort highlights the efforts of the following Centers: Center for Law, Energy and the Environment (Berkeley Law) Climate and Energy Policy Institute (Berkeley Law) Emmett Center on Climate Change and the Environment (UCLA Law) Environmental Law Center (UCLA Law) Global Commons Project (Berkeley Law) Richard S...

RAQ: Recently Asked Questions

Posted on March 26, 2009
In this occasional feature, we highlight recently asked questions and brief answers from the Law Library reference desk. Q: What is legislative history and why is it used? A: Legislative history consists of the records generated by a legislature as it develops legislation...

Student Writing Competition Announcement

Posted on March 25, 2009
26th ANNUAL SMITH-BABCOCK-WILLIAM STUDENT WRITING COMPETITION The Planning & Law Division of the American Planning Association is pleased to announce its 26th Annual Smith-Babcock-Williams Student Writing Competition. The winning entry in the competition will be awarded a prize of $2,500 and will be submitted for publication in The Urban Lawyer, the law journal of the American Bar Association's Section of State & Local Government Law...

Creative Writing on the Bench

Posted on March 24, 2009
The Judge as an Author/The Author as a Judge Ryan Witte's The Judge as an Author/The Author as a Judge [SSRN] starts with the premise that an appointment to the federal bench is a life-long publishing deal. Recognizing that some judges stay faithful to the rigidous framework of judicial opinion writing, some don't -- some judges summon their inner novelist or poet to add life to the pages of the print and online reporting system...

This Week's Highlighted Acquisitions

Posted on March 23, 2009
McDonald, Avril, Jann K. Kleffner, and Brigit Toebes, eds. Depleted uranium weapons and international law : a precautionary approach. The Hague : T.M.C. Asser Press ; West Nyack, NY : Cambridge University Press [distributor], c2008. Call number: KZ6385 ...

Legal Research Brownbags March 24-26

Posted on March 19, 2009
Are you prepared for that first legal research assignment from your employer? Think you should know this stuff, but don?t? Do you get queasy at the thought of legal research? Grow confident in your research skills to impress current and future employers! Plan to attend these FREE basic legal research brownbag sessions March 24-26: Tuesday March 24; 12:15-1 pm in Room 475 Mary Rumsey will present: Street-Smart Research --Avoid scary Westlaw/Lexis bills, 4 keys to good online searching, Toolkit for efficient searching Wednesday March 25; 12:15-1 pm in Room 475 George Jackson will present: Administrative Law Research --What?s the CFR? What?s the FR? Working with Rules & Regulations Thursday March 26; 12:15-1 pm in Room 475 Vic Garces will present: Treatises and Legal Encyclopedias --Learn how to research smarter with secondary sources, legal encyclopedias, and treatises *No RSVP needed; attend 1, 2, or all 3!

Law School and Law Library Twitter Feeds

Posted on March 18, 2009
"Rex Gradeless" at Social Media Law Student has identified some law schools and academic law libraries that are using Twitter feeds to communicate with students. Mr. Gradeless reports that the feeds are used to inform students about snow delays, on campus events, website updates, and student accomplishments...

This Week's Highlighted Acquisitions

Posted on March 17, 2009
Chiu, Iris H.-Y. Regulatory convergence in EU securities regulation. Alphen Aan Den Rijn : Wolters Kluwer ; Frederick, MD : Sold and distributed in North, Central and South America by Aspen Pub., 2008. Call number: KJE2247 .C45 2008 Publisher?s Description: This outstanding book offers a new approach to the legal issues raised by the drive for convergence in securities regulation...

Proposed Changes for Civil Trials

Posted on March 15, 2009
Changes Proposed for Civil Trials Source: The Virtual Library Cat's Eye View blog In their final report issued this week, a task force of prominent plaintiffs' attorneys and defense attorneys from the American College of Trial Lawyers agreed on something...

This Week's Highlighted Acquisitions

Posted on March 13, 2009
Burton, Steven J. Elements of contract interpretation. Oxford ; New York, N.Y. : Oxford University Press, c2009. Call number: KF801 .B874 2009 Publisher?s Description: Unclear contracts are common, and a large number of litigated cases in the U.S...

New resources from LLRX.com

Posted on March 13, 2009
Here are selected new resources from LLRX.com: Guide to International Refugee Law Resources on the Web This updated research guide by Elisa Mason directs readers to some of the key texts and resources available on the Web that can help shed light on, and provide a context for, many of the issues currently being deliberated in the refugee law arena...

Business Law Concentration Added to Law School

Posted on March 13, 2009
The U of MN Law School has added a business law concentration to its degree programs. For more information, see http://www.law.umn.edu/current/concentrations_businesslaw.html In addition, this initiative on Business and Public Policy has recently been announced by the Brookings Initiative: Brookings Institution: Initiative on Business and Public Policy [pdf] http://www...

Law Library Spring Break Hours, March 14-22

Posted on March 12, 2009
Please take note that the Law Library service hours will change over spring break (March 14-22). The Law Library will be CLOSED Sat-Sun March 14-15 and Friday March 20-Sunday March 22. UMN Law students will still have 24/7 access to the library through their UCard, but the circ desk and reference office will not be staffed on those days...

10 Websites for Book Lovers

Posted on March 11, 2009
At this point most everyone has heard of LibraryThing, the most popular social cataloging website online, and perhaps even of the Amazon-owned Shelfari, but here are a few websites for book lovers that you may not have heard about. Read the whole post at iLibrarian...

WWII Poster Project Wins Award

Posted on March 11, 2009
World War II Poster Project wins 2009 ACRL IS Innovation Award March 10, 2009 CHICAGO ? The Bucknell University World War II Poster Project, developed by Abby Clobridge, librarian and digital initiatives group leader, and David Willson Del Testa, assistant professor of history, at Bucknell University, is the recipient of the 2009 Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) Instruction Section (IS) Innovation Award...

ABA Official Wins Library Award

Posted on March 11, 2009
American Library Association announces winner of annual James Madison Award Ceremony to be held during Freedom of Information Day at Newseum March 6, 2009 WASHINGTON, D.C. ? The American Library Association (ALA) today announces that the winner of the annual James Madison Award is Thomas M...

Researching U.S. Bankruptcy Law

Posted on March 10, 2009
Rob Richards, LLB contributing editor, has published "Cost-Effective Research in U.S. Bankruptcy Law" in the Spring issue of PLL Perspectives at 7. (updated web version (March 7, 2009)). The article provides suggestions for quick and inexpensive ways to locate relevant U...

New Option for Free Case Law

Posted on March 09, 2009
Here is a new product from Versuslaw. It?s another option for online access to free case law. http://mn.findacase.com See description here: http://www.findacase.com/company/facnetAbout.aspx Source: Government Relations committee, MN Assn of Law Libraries

Selected Resources from Scout Report

Posted on March 09, 2009
Children's Rights: International and National Laws and Practices [pdf] http://www.loc.gov/law/help/child-rights/index.php In the 20th century, the children's rights movement came into full flower as both the League of Nations and later the United Nations declared that children need safeguards and protections separate from those of adults...

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