Law school is no doubt a difficult task. Finding a desirable position once you are out of law school can be just as tough. Here are a few recent articles found in the Law Library for consideration when creating a strategy for the job search:

Jim Dunlap, Different Strokes for Your J.D., National Jurist, Jan. 2002, at 23. Author discusses various alternative careers for the law graduate.

Jim Dunlap, Uncle Sam May Want You, National Jurist, Jan. 2002, at 20. Article discusses legal job options with the government.

Donna Gerson, Jobs: Control Your Job Interviews Before They Control You, Student Lawyer, Mar. 2002, at 5. Author gives advice on preparing for the job interview as well as discussing situations that may arise during the interview itself.

Donna Gerson, Jobs: Don't Become a Casualty of Casual Days at the Office, Student Lawyer, Feb. 2001, at 6. Some specific rules of dress for the job interview.

Donna Gerson, Jobs: Resources Abound if You're Interested in an Out-of-Town Search for a Job, Student Lawyer, Jan. 2002, at 5. Article provides advice and information in searching for a legal position outside your locale.

Donna Gerson, Jobs: Stuck in a Rut? Here's Advice to Get You Back in Full Swing, Student Lawyer, Oct. 2001, at 5. Dealing with procrastination and staying on track for your job hunt.

Donna Gerson, Jobs: What Can You Do if an Interviewer Throws You an Illegal Question?, Student Lawyer, Dec. 2000, at 10.

Donna Gerson, Jobs: Your Manners Are As Important As Your Skills and Experience, Student Lawyer, Dec. 2001, at 4. Article discusses the importance of behaving politely to everyone and covers specific rules of conduct for the interview.

Donna Gerson, Making Career Services Work for You, Student Lawyer, Sept. 2001, at 27. Discussion of what a law school career services office does and how students can get the most out of those services.

Jonathan S. Greene, Coping: Never Pass Up an Opportunity to Have Lunch with a Lawyer, Student Lawyer, Dec. 2001, at 14. Despite feelings that it may be a waste of time, a lunch invitation with an attorney can lead to future benefits.

David C. James, Heeding Interview Tips Can Help You Surpass Candidates with Better Résumés, Student Lawyer, Feb. 2002, at 5. Hiring attorney in city attorney's office gives advice and interviewer's perspective to potential law job candidates.

David C. James, Jobs: Make a Case for Yourself with a Great Cover Letter, Student Lawyer, Sept. 2001, at 8. Hiring attorney gives his top 10 considerations when crafting a cover letter.

David C. James, Jobs: On-the-Job Success Rests with Attitude as Much as Skills, Student Lawyer, May 2001, at 6. Discussion of developing attitudes for becoming a good employee.

David C. James, Jobs: Submit Your Best Writing Sample when You Apply for a Position, Student Lawyer, Mar. 2001, at 4. Article highlights considerations in choosing a writing sample when applying for a legal position.

David C. James, Jobs: The Choices You Make Will Affect the Job You Can Land, Student Lawyer, Jan. 2001, at 8. Some important considerations when pursuing legal employment are highlighted.

David C. James, Jobs: Your References Are Worth a Lot if You Use Them the Correct Way, Student Lawyer, Nov. 2001, at 4. A discussion on choosing references, and how to use those references that you have chosen.

Rebecca Luczycki, Employment: You Can't Rely on On-Campus Interviews, National Jurist, Oct. 2001, at 29. Article discusses job hunting techniques outside of on-campus interviews.

Kimm Alayne Walton, Beat the Experience Rap, National Jurist, Apr. 2001, at 29. Author discusses how to respond to questions concerning job experience when you have none.

Kimm Alayne Walton, Job Tips: The Grade Escape, National Jurist, Mar. 2001, at 30. Handling questions about mediocre or poor grades when searching for a legal position.

The Langum Project for Historical Literature has awarded Professor Elizabeth Urban Alexander its annual prize in legal historical/legal biography for 2001 for her work Notorious Woman: The Celebrated Case of Myra Clark Gaines. This award is given to the best university press book in legal history or legal biography published in the preceding year. The award is sponsored jointly by the Friends of the Birmingham Public Library and the Langum Project. The awards ceremony was held Saturday, March 9, 2002 at the Birmingham Public Library. Professor Alexander is visiting Assistant Professor of History and Interdisciplinary Studies at Texas Wesleyan University. A copy of this book can be found at both the Law Library and the Main Library - KF759/.C57/A43/2001.

STATISTICAL ABSTRACT OF THE UNITED STATES. HA202/2001.

Scanners have become popular additions to many computer labs, offices, and homes. Their ability to scan documents into your computer allows you to manipulate data more easily and cheaply. The Law Library has two scanners in the Lower Level Lab for law students to use, and they can provide some assistance with your data needs. However, scanning a document has its limitations, and it is worthwhile to discuss those limitations.

Scanning allows you to type into the data, save it for later, or make your own revisions to the document without having to type it from the beginning. However, scanning is not ideal for all document types, or even most document types, and it is not a solution for those who want to quickly download a document onto a disk. In the lab, after scanning your document, the scanner software will prompt you to save. When you save your document, you are saving it via a word processing application such as WordPerfect. Sometimes, when the software does not recognize your font, it will interpolate what it thinks you meant to say. Therefore, when you pull your document up from the floppy, it may not look the way you wanted it to.

The more formatting your document contains (i.e., fonts, tables, columns, etc.), the more problematic scanning will be for you. There is no way to predict what the scanner is going to see. You may type "cat," but the scanner may see "fat" or "bat", or even "?-at." Almost all documents have to be "cleaned up" after they have been scanned and saved, and heavily formatted documents require more clean up. Differences in fonts will not normally be recognized--all text will emerge from the scanning process as plain as vanilla.

If you are scanning applications or forms with several different tables, or if you are scanning spreadsheets, expect some of your columns and the information they contain to merge with one another. You can minimize it by zoning your page. After you click "get pages," instead of clicking "recognize," click on the yellow highlighter icon in the toolbar. Highlight all the groups in your document. If you have two columns, highlight the first column all the way down the page, and then highlight the second. The scanner software now sees two separate "zones," and will be more likely to keep the text in those zones together. Your finished project will be more similar to your original if you zone your pages instead of clicking "recognize" and leaving it up to the scanner. Nonetheless, watch out. You will still have to clean up your document after it is saved.

Documents that are very old, stained, or crumpled are not good candidates for scanning. The scanner software is inclined to see the variations on the paper, be they due to age, spills, or crumpling, as text. This will require more clean up and is seldom worth the effort.

You should also beware of trying to scan many pages of the same document as a single entity. Scanning requires a lot of physical effort for the computer, and after trying to scan a single, large document for a while, it may decide to go on strike so it can rest a bit. Remember to save each page separately, and after scanning about five or ten pages in one document, start a new document and continue to save your original as a series of documents. If the computer does freeze while you are attempting to scan a large document, "Repent, Reflect, and Reboot," and you should be able to start again with no problem. As you can see, scanners are poor instruments for copyright violations!

Remember that not all texts are good candidates for scanning, and remember that scanning and cleaning up a document takes time. You should not try to scan a text you need for a class thirty minutes before class starts. Give yourself a margin for error. If possible, you should avoid scanning the following types of documents:

Documents that have many different kinds of script (Times New Roman, Unicode Universal, and Courier work best);

Documents that are stained from age or spills;

Documents that are torn;

Applications and other forms with several tables and columns;

Extremely large documents.

If you need to be able to type into a form, and you still want to use a computer (after all, who wants to lug out the old typewriter?), ask the generator of that form if it's available on PDF. You'll have a much crisper copy than scanning can provide.

Remember to save your work onto a floppy disk, Zip disk, or CD-R (A CD burner is available at the Circulation Desk for checkout). If you save it onto the hard drive, it will be wiped out when extraneous files are deleted from the c:\ drive. There are guides in the Lower Level Lab for using the scanners, and you should consult these for extra information. In the meantime, remember that, while useful, scanning is not a practical means of preserving every document.

Researchers looking for city ordinances might try Municipal Code Corporation's Web site at: www.municode.com. The publisher offers access to selected municipal codes from cities across the country. Follow the link under "Free Resources" for "Online Codes." Right now, the site has codes for eleven Alabama cities:

Brewton

Decatur

Gulf Shores

Guntersville

Irondale

Mobile

Mountain Brook

Muscle Shoals

Pleasant Grove

Tuscaloosa

Valley

Both the "frame" and "no-frame" versions have an expandable table of contents and a keyword search option. The publisher even allows simultaneous searching of multiple city codes.

For links to more city and county codes (presently excluding Alabama), visit Seattle Public Library's Municipal Codes Online at www.spl.org/selectedsites/municode.html.

The Law Library has printed copies of the city ordinances listed below. Each are shelved in the Reference area.

Code of Ordinances : City of Homewood, Alabama (KFX1511/.H65/1988)

The Code of Ordinances, City of Pelham, Alabama (KFX2116/.A35/1988)

The Code of the City of Montgomery, Alabama, 1980 (KFX1907/.M6/1980)

The Code of the City of Mountain Brook, Alabama (KFX1909/.M6/1973)

The General Code of the City of Birmingham, Alabama (KFX1128/.B5/1980)

The Municipal Code of Bessemer, Alabama (KFX1124/.A35/1973)

Municipal Code of the City of Hoover, Alabama. (KFX1511/.H68/1984)

Large PDFs will often freeze while spooling. When printing a large PDF, choose to print the document in segments rather than all at once. In Adobe Acrobat, choose File, Print, and look for Print Range. Please notice the radio buttons under Print Range. The option to choose is Pages From. Try printing five or ten pages at a time rather than the entire PDF.

Remember to save your documents to a disk. Any documents saved to a lab computer's hard drive will be deleted. Save your work frequently to a disk as the computer may freeze and it is often difficult to retrieve a document after the program has crashed. Be sure to take a look at the Law Library Computer Services Usage Policy lawlib.samford.edu/labs/usagepolicy.pdf to familiarize yourself with user responsibilities.

Fifteenth-Century Book Found in Farmhouse, at www.cnn.com (Mar. 3, 2002).

Supreme Court of the United States, Chief Justice's 2001 Year-End Report on the Federal Judiciary, at www.supremecourtus.gov/publicinfo/year-end/2001year-endreport.html (Jan. 1, 2002).

Alabama - www.alabar.org

Florida - www.barexam.org/florida

Georgia - www.state.ga.us/courts/supreme

Mississippi - www.mssc.state.ms.us

Tennessee - www.state.tn.us/lawexaminers

Issues of the Student Lawyer can be found in the Periodical Collection on the Lower Level, Row 032.

Professionalism of Lawyers and Judges, at professionalism.law.sc.edu.

This website is a project of the Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough Center on Professionalism. The Center is at the University of South Carolina School of Law. Focusing on broad ethical standards, the site aims to improve the character, competence, and conduct of lawyers and judges. The editors describe many books, articles, reports, and videos on how to handle cases professionally. Also, find descriptions of noteworthy programs at selected law schools and other resources on legal professionalism.