| No. 499 | August 2006 |
In This Issue
Welcome to Students and Faculty
Helpful Hints for Freshmen Law Students
Law Librarians Convene in St. Louis
Recent Acquisitions
New Lab Computers & Equipment
Welcome to New Evening Desk Attendant
Attention First-Year Law Students
Web Sites for Legal Eyes
Looking for a Job?
A Special “Thank You”
Professors in Print
Vocabulary Word of the Day
Sell Your Old Laptop on eBay
Occasional Publications of the Bounds Law Library
By Laurel R. Clapp,
Law Librarian and Professor of Law
lrclapp@samford.edu
On behalf of the Law Library staff, I want to welcome first year students, transfer students, and the students from the Norwich Law School of the University of East Anglia. We welcome back second and third year students and faculty members. We wish everyone a successful and productive year.
Beginning the law school experience can be intimidating for anyone; getting a legal education may be your toughest act yet. A big part of your first year in law school will be studying and researching in the Law Library.
Here are some tips on making life simpler when visiting the Law Library:
1. Your Samford I.D. card is your ticket into the Law Library. You must show it to the Circulation Desk Attendant in order to enter the library. You must present it to check out books and folders placed on reserve by your professors.
2. You will also need your Samford I.D. card (with money programmed on it) to use the Law Library’s photocopiers. They do NOT accept cash.
3. The bookstore sells numerous study aids that vary in usefulness and are also quite expensive. Before deciding to buy, you might want to check out the study aids available on reserve at the Circulation Desk. The Guide to Study Aids, which has been distributed to all first-year law students and is available on the web at:
http://lawlib.samford.edu/pubs/studyaid2006.html, is an excellent resource for determining what student aids are available for check out from the Reserve section. These items on Reserve are almost always the latest edition and are available for use in the library for three hours at a time. (They may also be checked out overnight three hours before the library's closing).
4. We request that you shelve all books that you use from the First Floor and in the law periodical collection shelved on the Lower Level. Over the years, there have been many first-year students unable to finish their assignments, victimized by thoughtless classmates who refuse to take the time to reshelve needed materials.
5. Cellular telephones should not be used in the Law Library. If you bring one into the reading rooms you must put it on vibration mode. When you receive or place a call, you must go to a photocopy room or outside the Law Library.
6. Conference room keys are available for three hour check out at the Circulation Desk by student study groups. We urge students carrying on discussions within the library to use conference rooms in order to avoid disturbing other patrons.
7. Four laptops are available for law student check out at the Circulation Desk. The check out period is three hours and they are for in-library use only.
8. With the exception of Saturday, librarians are generally available most hours that the library is open. Do not feel embarrassed to ask a librarian for help finding materials. Often, freshmen law students believe that they are the "only student" who cannot find needed materials; in most cases, many students cannot locate these resources, but they do not want to admit it to their classmates. At the same time, do not hesitate to let your Caruthers Fellow from LLR know when you do not understand an assignment.
9. Ignoring Law Library book due dates can empty your pocket of change. Fines at the Law Library are as follows:
$1.00 per day per book for non-reserve items;
$1.00 per HOUR per item for reserve materials.
10. Food and drinks (including water bottles) are not permitted in the Law Library. For a quick refreshment break, use the law school student lounge.
11. The Law Library reading rooms should be used for research and study purposes; they should not become a meeting point for law student social groups. The noise problem is one which is being constantly brought to the attention of the library staff by law students. Please consider classmates who, for various reasons, cannot study at home. This library is their only refuge for quiet study. Please reserve the library facilities for your research and study needs only.
The American Association of Law Libraries held its annual meeting in St. Louis, Missouri in July and the participants from the Beeson Law Library were Becky Clapp, Law Librarian and Professor of Law, and Ed Craig, Reference Librarian. The Association celebrated its centennial anniversary, having been founded in 1906. Meetings attended, which spanned over four days, covered topics such as developing foreign law collections, new developments in scholarly publishing, law firm librarians’ perceptions of law student research skills, dealing with occupational hazards in law libraries, library disaster plans, librarian ethics, trends in legal education and law practice, and specialty search engines. A good time was had by all.
(Each title listed is shelved on Reserve.)
Bonfield, Lloyd. AMERICAN LAW AND THE AMERICAN LEGAL SYSTEM IN A NUTSHELL. KF386/.B59.
Cammack, Mark E. ADVANCED CRIMINAL PROCEDURE IN A NUTSHELL. 2nd ed. KF9619/.C36/2006.
Darbyshire, Penny. ENGLISH LEGAL SYSTEM IN A NUTSHELL. 6th ed. KD662/.D37/2004.
Glicksman, Robert L. MODERN PUBLIC LAND LAW IN A NUTSHELL. 3rd ed. KF5605/.G58/2006.
Rohwer, Claude D. CONTRACTS IN A NUTSHELL. 6th ed. KF801/.Z9/S3/2006.
This summer, the Westlaw Lab computers were replaced with new Dell Optiplex GX620s. All nine computers are equipped with flat-screened monitors and DVD burning capabilities. Software included: Word, WordPerfect, Internet Explorer, Firefox, Adobe Acrobat, iTunes, and much more.
DVD/TV players are available for check out. They may be used in classrooms or in Law Library conference rooms. Please ask for more information at the Circulation Desk. A Logitech QuickCam is also available for student use.
Please remember to bring floppies, CDs, or a USB drive with you when working in the labs as it isn’t possible to save any work to the lab computer hard drives.
Please contact Grace Simms at glsimms@samford.edu or at 726-2687 for help with computer problems or questions.
Joshua (Josh) Bearden joined the staff on April 19, 2006, in the position of Part-time Desk Attendant. He is working the Monday, Wednesday, and Friday night schedule.
Josh has a B.A. degree in history from Samford University and a master's degree in history from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. He worked all of his four years at Samford as a student assistant in the Financial Aid office. He also worked for a couple of years as a research assistant for Dr. Ginger Frost in the history department.
A special WELCOME to Josh!
For a handy overview of selected Law Library resources, check out the Boot Camp Library Guide at:
http://lawlib.samford.edu/reference/bootcampguide.html.
For free legal information on the Internet, consider the following selected web sites:
The SAC/CCH Awards Network (SCAN)
Use this Internet tool to search and retrieve actual copies of securities arbitration awards from forums including NASD, NYSE, PCX, AAA, NFA, CBOE, AMEX, MSRB, and PHLX. The database contains more than forty thousand arbitration awards from1989 to date. Through the cooperation of NASD, the Securities Arbitration Commentator, Inc. (SAC), and publisher CCH, the basic SCAN network is free. For a fee, CCH offers enhanced commercial products but researchers can get to a free version through the NASD portal. From the NASD home page, follow the link at the top of the page for “Arbitration & Mediation” then choose “Get Arbitration Awards.”
Electronic Discovery Law
The Document Analysis Technology Group of Preston, Gates & Ellis in Seattle publishes this web blog on electronic discovery. One outstanding feature is a searchable database with citations to hundreds of cases involving e-discovery issues. The blog includes notices of conferences, CLE programs, and other current events. Also, look for information on federal rules, news items, articles, and other resources of interest.
Law Librarians’ Society of Washington, D.C.: Legislative Source Book
http://www.llsdc.org/sourcebook
The Legislative Research Special Interest Section of this organization offers a wealth of high quality, free information. Scan the table of contents for links to useful directories, research guides, tables, and more. In particular, law students or lawyers trying to decipher federal legislative intent will appreciate these two items:
Federal Legislative History Research: A Practitioner's Guide to Compiling the Documents and Sifting for Legislative Intent by Richard McKinney and Ellen Sweet
Legislative Histories of Selected U.S. Laws in Electronic Format
The research guide explains how to find existing histories, and how to compile histories if none exist. The second item links to full text documents of existing legislative histories for selected laws. Presently, the site covers twenty-six federal laws ranging from the Antidumping Act of 1921 to the USA Patriot Act of 2001. The histories are largely from federal agency libraries, especially the Department of Commerce (DoC) Law Library. To view DoC documents, turn off the pop-up blocker function on your browser, and make sure your computer has Adobe Reader software version 6.0 or higher.
Second year law students looking for employment close to home should consider the Law Library. The Law Library currently has positions at the Circulation Desk. Contact Ed Craig at 726-2714 or elcraig@samford.edu for further information.
Professor Belle Stoddard presented an overview of Cumberland's Lawyering and Legal Reasoning program at the Spring Meeting of the Law Libraries Association of Alabama on May 19, 2006. The meeting, held at Lightfoot, Franklin & White, L.L.C. in Birmingham, featured a panel discussion on Teaching Legal Research at Law Schools. Other panelists covered methods of teaching research at the University of Alabama School of Law and Jones School of Law. Four librarians from Cumberland attended the meeting: Becky Clapp, Becky Hutto, Ed Craig, and Brenda Jones. Thanks to Professor Stoddard for an excellent, informative presentation on Cumberland's approach to legal research training.
Professor Brannon P. Denning was a contributor to the new 2nd ed. of The Oxford Companion to the Supreme Court of the United States. The two cases discussed by Professor Denning are Crosby v. National Foreign Trade Council (page 238) and Norfolk Southern Railway Co. v. Shanklin (pages 695-696). The book is shelved in the treatise section - KF8742/.A35/O93/2005.
Here is a new word for today ... maybe a word to remember the entire semester!
Lethologica - not being able to come up with the word you need; a forgetfulness of words.
Source: WordWeb Online, http://www.wordwebonline.com (August 23, 2006).
There are several options for disposing of old laptops or desktops. Each time I purchase a new personal laptop or desktop, I list the one to be replaced on eBay. This summer, I sold several students' laptops on eBay. All of the laptops needed new motherboards – a potentially expensive part. Personal data was removed from the hard drives and each laptop was listed for repair or for parts. All were well-used, several years old, and still sold for an average of $270. It’s a terrific way to help pay for a new laptop.
To get an idea of the laptop’s value – search eBay for similar items. If you’re a registered user, you may also run a completed auctions search. This type of search allows you to see the values for ended auctions during the past month – not just live auctions. It’s important to include a good picture in the auction as well as a detailed description – if there are scuffs, cracks, etc. – say so.
If you need help listing a laptop on eBay, contact Grace Simms at 726-2687 or by e-mail at glsimms@samford.edu.
The Bounds Law Library at the University of Alabama School of Law publishes a series of scholarly papers. Many are written or edited by two members of the UA library staff: Paul M. Pruitt, Jr., Assistant Law Librarian, Collection Development & Special Collections, and David I. Durham, Archivist. To date, the series consists of five publications. Look for the book by call numbers and location. In the list below, books designated Law-Treatises are on the second floor of the Law Library. Those designated SU are in the Samford University Library in the circulating or special collections area.
Pruitt, Paul and Durham, David. A GUIDE TO THE HOWELL THOMAS HEFLIN COLLECTION. KF8745/.H44/G85/2001/Law-Treatises.
Keyes, Wade. Edited by Pruitt, Paul and Durham, David. WADE KEYES' INTRODUCTORY LECTURE TO THE MONTGOMERY LAW SCHOOL : LEGAL EDUCATION IN MID-NINETEENTH CENTURY ALABAMA. KF363/.K4/D87/2001x/SU-Circulation and S.C. Alabama.
Croom, Cicero Stephens. Edited by Pruitt, Paul and Durham, David. THE PRIVATE LIFE OF A NEW SOUTH LAWYER: STEPHENS CROOM'S 1875-1876 JOURNAL. KF363/.C7/C76/2002/Law-Treatises ; SU-Circulation and S.C. Alabama.
Andrews, Carol Rice, Pruitt, Paul and Durham, David. GILDED AGE LEGAL ETHICS : ESSAYS ON THOMAS GOODE JONES' 1887 CODE AND THE REGULATION OF THE PROFESSION. KFA76.5/.A2/A753/2003/Law-Treatises ; SU-Circulation and S.C. Alabama.
Pruitt, Paul and Durham, David. Contributions by Freyer, Tony and Dixon, Timothy. COMMONPLACE BOOKS OF LAW : A SELECTION OF LAW-RELATED NOTEBOOKS FROM THE SEVENTEENTH TO THE MID-TWENTIETH CENTURY. K160/.P78/2005/Law-Treatises.
The CHECK IT OUT is published three times a semester. The editorial staff works hard on articles that are of interest to both law students and law professors. We welcome new ideas and hope that you take the time to critique each issue. Let us know if there is a specific subject that you would like for us to discuss. Send your ideas and/or comments to: Becky Hutto via e-mail at rmhutto@samford.edu.
Reference Librarian
elcraig@samford.edu
Computer Services Librarian
glsimms@samford.edu
Reference Librarian
bljones@samford.edu
Computer Services Librarian
glsimms@samford.edu
Reference Librarian
bljones@samford.edu