Legal Research

New resource on Internet Law & Thomas Jefferson

Posted on January 29, 2009
The Jeffersonian Ideal and the Internet About David Post's In Search of Jefferson's Moose: Notes on the State of Cyberspace (Oxford UP, Jan. 2009), Larry Lessig writes "reading this beautifully written and extraordinarily diverse work today is what it must have been like to know or read Jefferson then...

Open Access to Legal Ed Materials

Posted on January 29, 2009
This week there was an interesting development in open-access to legal educational materials. The Legal Education Commons, http://w.cali.org/lec, a source of open-access, full-text teaching materials for law school courses, was launched on January 26 by the Center for Computer-Assisted Legal Instruction (CALI) and Harvard?s Berkman Center for Internet & Society...

University Libraries Receive Prestigious Award

Posted on January 29, 2009
January 29, 2009 University Libraries Receive Prestigious "Excellence in Academic Libraries" Award The University of Minnesota Libraries have received the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) 2009 Excellence in Academic Libraries Award...

New UN Legal Resources

Posted on January 27, 2009
New United Nations Legal Research Tools From a UN Pulse Post: The UN Office of Legal Affairs, Codification Division has launched several new online resources: + Official Records of Diplomatic Conferences; + A new portal for all legal publications; + UN Legal Publications Global Search; and + RSS feed for the Audiovisual Library of International Law...

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Upcoming Workshop on Scholarship Ownership

Posted on January 26, 2009
Who Owns Your Scholarship? Copyright, Publication Agreements, and Good Policy What: A Workshop for Authors and Creators of Academic Works Who: Kenneth Crews, Director of the Copyright Advisory Office, Columbia University When: 2:30-4:30 p.m., Monday, February 16, 2009 Where: Great Hall, Coffman Memorial Union Free to University of Minnesota community; satisfies Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR) educational requirements...

Two New Online Exhibits

Posted on January 24, 2009
Taking Liberties [iTunes, Real Player, Macromedia Flash Player] http://www.bl.uk/takingliberties Britain has a rich and divergent set of traditions when it comes to freedoms and rights, and this highly interactive and well-designed online exhibit lets users explore some of the events, issues, and debates involved with such matters...

Moot Court Competition Collections on HeinOnline

Posted on January 22, 2009
Jessup and Moot Court competition collections on HeinOnline Among HeinOnline?s outstanding collection of databases, there are two that law students might find particularly interesting. The databases are the National Moot Court Competition and the Philip C...

Uniform Bar Exam Coming Soon?

Posted on January 21, 2009
The UBE Source: Virtual Library Cat's Eye View The National Law Journal reports that the bar examiners in up to 19 states are considering incrementally implementing a Uniform Bar Exam. The uniform bar exam would consist of three components, all developed by the National Conference of Bar Examiners: the MBE; the Multistate Performance Test; and the Multistate Essay Examination...

Welcome to Spring Semester!

Posted on January 20, 2009
Just a quick reminder: The Law Library has resumed regular academic year hours today. Here are the hours the Library and Reference Office are open: Monday to Thursday : Library is open 8 am to 10 pm Reference Office is open 9 am to 8 pm Friday: Library is open 8 am to 6 pm Reference Office is open 9 am to 5 pm Saturday: Library is open 9 am to 6 pm Reference Office is open 11 am to 5 pm Sunday: Library is open Noon to 6 pm Reference Office is open 1 to 5 pm Exceptions will be posted on the Law Library's website, blog, and around the Library...

Good News on the Reading Front

Posted on January 17, 2009
The National Endowment for the Arts released their report ?Reading on the Rise? on 12 January documenting that for the first time in 25 years, more Americans are reading. According to the demographic breakdown, young adults show the biggest increase and fiction is the largest growing market in adult readers...

Meet "Obama's People"

Posted on January 17, 2009
Introducing "Obama's People" Source: The Virtual Library Cat's Eye View blog Inauguration Day is almost here. Along with a new president, a whole new group of powerful cabinet members, lawmakers, White House staff and presidential advisers will be making their mark on the news and the direction of the country...

Unusual Bookmarks

Posted on January 16, 2009
From the NYTimes Paper Cuts blog comes this amusing story about unusual items left in books: A few weeks ago in the Book Review, Henry Alford wrote about strange things found stashed (and smashed) inside books, from money and photographs to baby?s teeth, insect corpses and pieces of superannuated bacon...

In The News: MN Court of Appeals Sets Aside AT&T Penalties

Posted on January 15, 2009
In an opinion issued on Tuesday, a panel of the Minnesota Court of Appeals set aside the assessment of penalties against a major telecommunications firm, AT&T. Among the issues in the case was whether the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission maintained the authority to penalize misconduct by a regulated party after the sunset date of the Commission?s penalty statute, but as to conduct which occurred before the statute expired...

2009 Statistical Abstract now available

Posted on January 13, 2009
Statistical Abstract of the United States, 2009 edition Source: Free Government Info blog The 2009 edition of the Statistical Abstract of the United States is now available from two sites: The 2009 Statistical Abstract. PDF and Excel Statistical Abstract of the United States, 2006-2009...

Are Record-keeping Laws Keeping Up?

Posted on January 13, 2009
Are Federal Record-keeping Laws Out of Step With Modern Communications? Source: Free Government Info blog All the President's IMs: Are Federal Record-keeping Laws Out of Step With Modern Communications?, by MICHAEL C. DORF, FindLaw, Jan. 12, 2009. Dorf argues that our federal record-keeping laws are out of step with the ways in which people now communicate...

Upcoming Conference on Internet Privacy

Posted on January 13, 2009
January 26 Conference on Internet Privacy 7:45 a.m.-1:15 p.m., Humphrey Center The Center for Science, Technology, and Public Policy will host "Today's Online Privacy Challenges: Innovation and Liberty" on Monday, January 26, at the Humphrey Institute...

Food Safety Guide

Posted on January 12, 2009
Timely with the news of recent Salmonella outbreaks, the Government Accountability Office recently identified Food Safety as one of 13 urgent issues facing the next President and Congress. There appear to be three guides that should be of help in this area: Agriculture (University of Colorado at Boulder Government Publications Library, 2008) Food Supply (University of Colorado at Boulder, Government Publications Library, 2008) Government Documents on Agriculture (Bert Chapman, Purdue University, 1999) Last modified 1/29/2008 The UC Boulder guides on Agriculture and Food Supply have some overlap...

Selected Resources from Scout Project

Posted on January 09, 2009
Here are a few selected resources of interest from this week's Internet Scout Project: The Pew Center on the States: Trends to Watch http://www.pewcenteronthestates.org/trends.aspx Change is afoot in the United States, and the Pew Center on the States has created their "Trends to Watch" site for policymakers, public officials, and members of the public at large...

Stalking Case Could Expand Harassment Protections

Posted on January 08, 2009
Stalking Case Could Expand Harassment Protections Run Date: 01/08/09 By Rich Daly WeNews correspondent A case linking gender violence and workplace stalking is under Supreme Court review and could determine if stalking by a non-employee qualifies as sexual harassment...

Survey Gets Law-School Students' Thoughts on Laptops, Writing, and Ethics

Posted on January 07, 2009
Survey Gets Law-School Students' Thoughts on Laptops, Writing, and Ethics By STEVEN BUSHONG Chronicle of Higher Education Wed Jan 7, 2009 An excerpt: Law-school professors are fed up with students using laptop computers in class to surf to Facebook, eBay, everything but LexisNexis...

New Acquisitions in December 2008

Posted on January 06, 2009
Here is the list of new titles the Law Library acquired in December 2008. The list is on the library's home page. December Acquisitions

Organize Your Day Like Ben Franklin

Posted on January 04, 2009
Found this interesting and unique website about the daily routines of people. Here is Benjamin Franklin's day from Daily Routines: Source: CulturalOffering.com

Ten Useful Resources to Start the New Year

Posted on January 02, 2009
From HR Web Cafe comes ten useful resources for you to explore. Happy New Year! Photo by travelingwild via Flickr Quicken Online recently eliminated their $29.95 a year fee and the online version is now free. Users can consolidate and manage bank and credit card accounts, get bill reminders, view a 10-day forecast to project the impact of upcoming expenses, and even get text messages when they're overspending...

Law Library Staff Recommend...

Posted on December 31, 2008
An occasional feature, "Law Library Staff Recommend..." highlights books that Law Library staff members have read for enjoyment and now recommend that others consider for inclusion on their own reading lists. If you have any comments or questions about any of the titles presented in this feature, feel free to email lawlib@umn...

Amazon Launches Author Stores

Posted on December 30, 2008
Amazon Author Stores FAQ Question: What are Amazon Author Stores? Answer: Amazon Author Stores (beta) are new corners of our bookstore dedicated to offering customers a new way to browse and shop favorite authors, discover new books, and more. Today each Author Store includes a bibliography, and can include a biography, author photo, and discussion board...

Law School's Transformative plan receives $6 Million from Robina Foundation

Posted on December 30, 2008
James H. Binger ('41) MINNEAPOLIS / ST. PAUL (12/17/2008) -- The University of Minnesota Law School?s agenda for transforming legal education and research to address some of the greatest legal and social challenges of the 21st century has received significant support from a former student...

Preview of Grisham's New Legal Thriller

Posted on December 25, 2008
John Grisham's The Associate: EW Exclusive Excerpt The author's new legal thriller isn't in stores until late January '09, but over the next four weeks, you can read the first four chapters in advance at EW.com. EW.com's exclusive excerpt of John Grisham's The Associate began Dec 19 with Chapter 1...

Happy Holidays!

Posted on December 24, 2008
Happy Holidays from the University of Minnesota Law Library! Reminder: We are open today Dec. 24, but closed Dec. 25 and Dec 26. Some Holiday Links for Your Reading Enjoyment: Deck the Halls Many of the traditional holiday songs in English contain words or references that have changed in meaning or fallen out of common use...

Law Librarian?s Role in the Scholarly Enterprise

Posted on December 23, 2008
Video of the presentations at the conference The Law Librarian?s Role in the Scholarly Enterprise held on Friday, November 21, 2008 at the University of South Carolina School of Law is now available on the Web at: http://www.law.sc.edu/scholarly/ A list of the individual presentations: (links to the videos are at the above website) ? Part 1: Welcome - Walter F...

Legal Resources News Notes

Posted on December 22, 2008
Here are several recent new or updated legal resources of note: Cuddihy's Definitive Analysis of the Fourth Amendment The Fourth Amendment's protection against unreasonable search and seizure provides the bulwark for police regulation and many other government functions in the United States...

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