You have already searched the library’s online catalog for a needed source, with no luck. Interlibrary loan may or may not be an option at this point, but you would really like to get your hands on the book today or tomorrow (not likely with ILL). While other local libraries’ online catalogs through the Internet would be an option, you realize that this would be a very time consuming ordeal to search, one-by-one. The best option, which few researchers contemplate, is searching on OCLC FirstSearch’s service called WorldCat. While researching on the Samford campus (or through the Samford portal), you would first go to the homepage of Samford University Library at http://library.samford.edu. From the resulting screen, you should click on “Articles and More.” This next screen should list the alphabet, from which you would click on “W.” You would then click on “Worldcat” and be sent to an initial command screen for that service. At this point, you would have the opportunity to enter information into any of the available fields: keyword, author, title, ISBN number or year of publication.

In entering data in the fields for searching, please keep the following in mind:

1. If you have the ISBN number (a 10 digit number identifying a specific edition of a book) for what you are looking for, you may enter this in the appropriate field without entering any other data and click on “search.”

2. Keyword searches (using the keyword field) typically include words from the author’s name, and from the title of the work. When entering author names, it is preferable to enter more than a common last name; as an example, if an author’s last name was Smith, it would be best to also include the last name of a co-author or Smith’s first name. You may also mix in pertinent words from the title of the work with author names.

3. Usually, restricting the search using the date field is not necessary. Many times, date of publication information in citations is technically incorrect and completing the date field with such data will eliminate your chances of pulling up the correct bibliographic entry. On the other hand, if using title and author information yields plentiful results, you may want to consider adding information in the date field to “weed out” unneeded entries.

After finding a bibliographic entry for the needed text, you can then click on “Libraries Worldwide.” At that point, you will be able to view a list of libraries in Alabama (and worldwide) who have cataloged the book. At this point, you can determine which libraries include the book in their collection. This database does not, however, indicate whether the item is on the shelves of that library. Before driving to a library owning a needed book, it is well worth the effort to call that institution to determine checkout and entrance policies. Any questions about using Worldcat or finding contact information for a particular library, please contact a Reference Librarian at 726-2714.

1. Be sure your computer is up-to-date with Windows updates (http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com).

2. Activate a Firewall.

3. Use Virus protection – Samford provides free McAfee.

4. Install Spyware scanners and protection such as Ad-Aware, Spybot, and Microsoft AnitSpyware.

5. Get to know the signs of spyware: computer is slow, pop-ups, home page on the browser changes, a new browser toolbar appears that you didn’t install, and more frequent crashes.

6. Don’t open e-mail from someone you don’t know and be aware of phishing scams where an e-mail appears to be legitimate but is an attempt to steal personal information.

7. Be sure to backup your work – use a USB drive, CD, floppies, print it – just be sure anything important is backed up.

For help, please contact Grace Simms, Computer Services Librarian, at 726-2687 or at glsimms@samford.edu.

The Oxford English Dictionary has sent out an appeal for help in finding the earliest usage of every single word in the English language. Their BBC Wordhunt Appeal List contains fifty words that have a current definition and a date of the earliest evidence the dictionary currently has for that word or phrase. They are wanting their readers to find an earlierappearance of the word in a book, magazine, movie script - anything to help solve the recent word mysteries. The OED is also looking for new words that aren't yet in the OED, but should be.

The OED has a very long and interesting history. A paper was presented to the Philological Society of London in 1857 entitled On Some Deficiencies in Our English Dictionaries, written by Richard Chenevix Trench.

The next year, the Society passed a resolution, as a result of Trench's papers, to compile a complete New English Dictionary. The first edition was completed in 1928, published in ten volumes with the title A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles. First copies were presented to King George V and to Calvin Coolidge, President of the United States. Supplements to the first edition were published prior to the publication of the twenty volume, second and current edition, published in 1989. The launch of the OED Online version began on March 14, 2000, and the current online version is available to authorized Samford users through the Samford University Library homepage, The Reference Shelf : Dictionaries and Thesauri.

The Law Library has recently begun subscriptions to the following journals:

Ave Maria Law Review

Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution

NAELA Journal

Also, the following journals have changed titles:

Catholic Lawyer is now Journal of Catholic Legal Studies.

Harvard Women’s Law Journal is now Harvard Journal of Law and Gender.

Public Land and Resources Law Digest is now Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Foundation Journal.

These can be found in the Periodical section on the Lower Level.

Source: Seven Rules For a Tidy Inbox, Posted Online at http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/Careers/10/12/tidy.inbox(October 12, 2005).

Thanksgiving hours will be posted on the kiosk outside the Law Library and on the Law Library Hours web site.

Continuing a list started in last month’s issue of Check It Out, the following legal treatises may provide good starting points for research in the subjects listed. Unless otherwise specified, the books are on the Second Floor shelved in call number order. Be sure to look for pocket-parts, supplements, or the latest edition. To find additional treatises, search the online library catalog (http://library.samford.edu/gateway01/english) by title, author, subject, keywords, and more. Ask a reference librarian for help if needed.

Administrative Law

Mezines, Basil J. ADMINISTRATIVE LAW. KF5402/.M4.

Admiralty and Maritime Law

BENEDICT ON ADMIRALTY. 7th ed., rev. KF1104/.B4.

Civil Rights

Nahmod, Sheldon H. CIVIL RIGHTS AND CIVIL LIBERTIES LITIGATION : THE LAW OF SECTION 1983. 4th ed. KF4749/.N34/1997.

Education Law

Rapp, James A. EDUCATION LAW. KF4119/.R36.

Franchising

Glickman, Gladys. FRANCHISING. KF2023/.A6/G5.

Health Care Law

TREATISE ON HEALTH CARE LAW. KF3821/.T74.

Immigration

Gallagher, Anna M. IMMIGRATION LAW SERVICE. 2nd ed. KF4815/.I47/2004.

Steel, Richard D. STEEL ON IMMIGRATION LAW. 2nd ed. KF4819/.S73/1992.

Intellectual Property

Adelman, Martin J. PATENT LAW PERSPECTIVES. 2nd ed. KF3110/.P37/1983.

Goldstein, Paul. GOLDSTEIN ON COPYRIGHT. 3rd ed. KF2979/.G63/2005.

Jager, Melvin F. TRADE SECRETS LAW. KF3197/.J34.

Lindey, Alexander. LINDEY ON ENTERTAINMENT, PUBLISHING, AND THE ARTS : AGREEMENTS AND THE LAW. 2nd ed. KF2992/.L5/1980.

Milgrim, Roger M. MILGRIM ON TRADE SECRETS. KF3197.A6/M5/1996.

Moy, R. Carl. MOY'S WALKER ON PATENTS. 4th ed. KF3114/.D44/2003.

Nimmer, Melville B. NIMMER ON COPYRIGHT; A TREATISE ON THE LAW OF LITERARY, MUSICAL AND ARTISTIC PROPERTY, AND THE PROTECTION OF IDEAS. KF2991.5/.N5.

Medical Malpractice

Louisell, David W. MEDICAL MALPRACTICE. KF2905.3/.L68.

Municipal Law

Matthews, Thomas Alexander. MUNICIPAL ORDINANCES; TEXT AND FORMS. 2nd ed. KF5313/.M342.

McQuillin, Eugene. THE LAW OF MUNICIPAL CORPORATIONS. 3rd ed. KF5305/.M3.

Natural Resources

Williams, Howard R. OIL AND GAS LAW. KF1846.5/.W5.

Premises Liability

Landau, Norman J. and Martin, Edward C., et. al. PREMISES LIABILITY. KF1325/.P3/L35.

Zoning

ANDERSON'S AMERICAN LAW OF ZONING. 4th ed. KF5698/.A76/1996.

Rathkopf, Arden H. RATHKOPF'S THE LAW OF ZONING AND PLANNING. KF5692/.R3.

Williams, Norman. AMERICAN LAND PLANNING LAW ... 2003 rev. ed. KF5698/.W54/2003.

Yokley, E. C. ZONING LAW AND PRACTICE. 4th ed. KF5698/.Y63/1978.

Laptop batteries don’t last nearly as long as the manufacturers state. From personal experience, I have been lucky to get one year of usage before the battery needs to be replaced. Below are a few tips to help keep the battery going for as long as possible.

1. If you don’t have wireless access or are not going to use available wireless access, disable the wireless card.

2. Reduce the brightness of your laptop’s LCD screen as much as possible. To see Power Options, click on Start and then select Control Panel.

3. Choose Hibernate or Standby rather than turning off the laptop. Use Standby if the laptop only needs to be off for a few minutes or a few hours. Use Hibernate if the laptop needs to be off for a longer period of time.

4. Be sure no unnecessary programs are running at Startup. Click on Start and then Run. Type msconfig in the Run Box. Press Enter and then click on the Startup Tab. This will allow you to see what is starting when the computer first starts. Be very careful when choosing what to remove from Startup as there are certain items that should not be removed.

5. Consider purchasing a backup battery.

For battery help, contact Grace Simms, Computer Services Librarian, at 726-2687 or at glsimms@samford.edu.

Often, the most persuasive lawyer or prolific judge is a master wordsmith. For a fascinating and totally different perspective on the craft of legal writing, peruse Volume 29, Issue no. 1 (2005) of The Legal Studies Forum. Find the journal shelved alphabetically with periodicals on the Lower Level of the Law Library. The entire issue is devoted to poems, essays and stories written by lawyers or drawn from the language of the law.

Cumberland’s own Robert Boliek, instructor in Lawyering Skills and Legal Reasoning, is a major contributor. Look for a collection of his poems at pages 369 through 390, including "Meditations on a Book of Hours" and a short story titled "Elegy." Previously, such literary magazines as The Formalist, The MacGuffin, Troubadour and others have published works by this talented lawyer/poet.

For another interesting Alabama connection, read the poems of Hank Lazer beginning at page 1. These poems incorporate actual statutory language from sections of Michie's Alabama Code 1975 (1985 ed. and replacement volumes).

Volume 29, Issue no. 1 of The Legal Studies Forum also includes a tribute to Charles Reznikoff, a lawyer who crafted prose poems drawn directly from the facts of cases reported in West's National Reporter System. Appendix 2, starting at page 86, cites many of the cases Reznikoff used in his poems. In a testimony to Reznikoff, Benjamin Watson stated, "Every law library in America contains the identical mountain of raw material which Reznikoff taught himself to mine and refine. His work shows all of us who use those libraries something new about the significance of the relics we handle." 29 The Legal Studies Forum 84 (2005). For more information on Charles Reznikoff, see the article "Point-Blank Verse" by David Skeel in the September/October 2005 issue of Legal Affairs, at www.legalaffairs.org.

This is the last issue of CHECK IT OUT for this semester. Three issues will be published during the Spring Semester beginning in January 2006. If you have any ideas or suggestions as to ways we can improve, contact Becky Hutto via e-mail at rmhutto@samford.edu.We look forward to the Spring Semester and new issues of the newsletter.