E-Repository

It was just one year ago that the law librarians met with you over a faculty luncheon to discuss Scholarship@Cornell Law, the e-repository that contains articles written by our law faculty, students, and visitors.  In the past year, there have been 84,560 full text downloads from the repository, a number that may surprise you.  The number that surprises and delights me is this one: 

 

243,910 full text downloads since the repository started in 2003!

 

These downloads often are by researchers who do not rely on SSRN for articles.  Our repository is discoverable by search engines like Google and Bing, so lawyers, scholars, students, and others around the world looking for legal information will find your articles in this repository. 

 

If you ever find that we lack one of your recent articles in the repository, please let me know so we can be sure to add it.  You and I both will enjoy seeing those numbers rise and having Cornell Law School’s scholarship spread broadly.

 

Pat Court

Associate Law Librarian

pat.court@cornell.edu  

 

Lexis for Microsoft Office

Lexis® for Microsoft® Office is now available, enabling you to research and write at the same time within your Microsoft® Word document with just one click.  Some of the key features of Lexis® for Microsoft® Office for Faculty include:

 

Enhanced Grading Experience:

Lexis for Microsoft Office helps you validate the citations in your students’ documents without ever leaving them by adding Shepard’s Signal™ indicators and links for each cite. With just one click, Lexis for Microsoft Office adds Shepard’s Signal indicators and direct links to the citations in the document. You can also create a list of all the citations in the document for even quicker review.

 

Streamline Your Scholarly Writing:

Lexis for Microsoft Office allows you to quickly find more cases, briefs, motions, and pleadings while you are performing scholarly research or reviewing documents. With one click, you can perform a search of Lexis materials (cases, statutes & analytical material) in addition to searching the open web (Google, Bing and Lexis Web) without having to leave the document.

 

To download Lexis® for Microsoft® Office you can follow this link. If you have questions about using Lexis® for Microsoft® Office or the download process, please contact your Library Liaison.

 

Pat Court

Associate Law Librarian

pat.court@cornell.edu  

 

Law Library Prize for Exemplary Student Research

To recognize excellence in research by our law students, the Law Library is inaugurating the Cornell Law Library Prize for Exemplary Student Research.  Librarian judges will be looking for sophistication, originality, or unusual depth or breadth in the use of research materials; exceptional innovation in research strategy; and skillful synthesis of research results.  Papers must be at least 10 pages, written June 2010-May 2011, by current 2L, 3L, or LL.M. students.  Acceptable papers may include, but are not limited to, papers written for a class or a journal note, but not work product from employment.  First prize is $500; second prize is $250, awarded  May 13, 2011, and will have the opportunity to be published in Scholarship@Cornell Law, our digital repository of law faculty and student publications.

 

You are encouraged to invite your students to submit their papers to this research competition.  If you find a well-researched paper as you are grading this semester, please let the students know about this new prize and encourage them to apply.  Applications are to include a one page abstract (500 words or less) summarizing the research process involved, the lessons learned from that research process, the original purpose for which the paper was written, and the professor for whom the paper was written, if applicable.

 

Let me know if you have questions about this new Prize for Exemplary Student Research.  We look forward to having many papers from which to choose!              

                                                        

Pat Court

Associate Law Librarian

pat.court@cornell.edu  

 

e-Book Guides to Technology

If you are using tech tools like BlackBerry or an iPad, or working with the Microsoft 2010 upgrade, you may be wishing for some handy guides.  Cornell has many e-books that you can find with a Guided Keyword Search in the online catalog.  Just search a phrase like “ipod touch” or “office 2010” and you’ll find lots of guides.  Most all of them will be e-books that you can link to directly from the catalog.  Here are some examples:

 

Click Here for link to Blackberry for Work

 

Click Here for link to Microsoft Word 2010 Step by Step

 

Click Here for link to iPad: The Missing Manual

 

Click Here for link to Easy Microsoft Windows 7

 

Your librarian liaison will be happy to assist with these in any way.  Just let us know!

 

Pat Court

Associate Law Librarian

pat.court@cornell.edu  

 

 

Roubini Global Economics

Cornell has joined the Roubini Global Economics' University Program to provide faculty and students with access to what The Economist magazine dubbed "the world's most important economic website." This provides you with RGE's rich and timely research and analysis and unique understanding of the modern global economy.  RGE provides insight into macroeconomic developments along with citations and readings which act as pathways for scholars, policymakers and future business leaders who need to pursue their ideas to the next level.  Features include:

 

• Critical Issues: Identifies key questions essential to the research process, seeking out viewpoints beyond the consensus
• Economic Research/RGE Analysis: Deep-dive analysis into factors driving global finance developed internally by a team of 40+ economists
• EconoMonitors: Blog posts by Nouriel Roubini, RGE Analysts and an outside network of top independent contributors in global economics
• Daily Digest: Timely coverage of developments that are shaping global markets right now
• RGE Partner Content: Reports and white papers sourced from leading economic think tanks and world-recognized economic organizations.

At the Roubini website you will be invited to register for a personal account.  From off campus, access Roubini using the library catalog link - http://resolver.library.cornell.edu/misc/7060771.  Hat tip to Donald Schnedeker, Librarian at Cornell School of Hotel Administration, for this information.

 

Pat Court

Associate Law Librarian

pat.court@cornell.edu

 

 

David Lyons

For those of you who remember David Lyons, Professor Emeritus of Cornell Law School, you may like to know that he was honored with a conference on March 12-13 this year at Boston University, where he still teaches law and philosophy.  The presentations can be read in “Rights, Equality, and Justice: A Conference Inspired by the Moral and Legal Theory of David Lyons,”  90 Boston University Law Review 1667 (2010). 

 

“David B. Lyons is one of the most preeminent moral and legal philosophers of our time. He is a Law Alumni Scholar and Professor of Law and Philosophy at Boston University, where he has taught since 1995. Previously, he was a distinguished faculty member of Cornell University from 1964 to 1995. Not only has Professor Lyons published a number of significant books and journal articles in moral, political, and legal theory, he also puts his theories of justice and morality into practice. He has been involved with civil rights and anti-war activities since the 1940s and is currently involved with human rights organizations including the BU Faculty for a Humane Foreign Policy and the BU Inter-Faculty Human Rights Consortium.”       ~~ from the Editor’s Foreword

 

Pat Court

Associate Law Librarian

pat.court@cornell.edu

 

 

 

PassKey for easy access off campus to licensed e-resources

The library has a new way for you to connect to licensed electronic resources when you are off campus.  It’s called CUL PassKey, and here’s how it works –          

You’re working at home and come across a link to a recent article in, for example, the Journal of Empirical Legal Studies.  You could open the library catalog, search for Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, and then follow the link to the journal.  But there is a simpler way:  the CUL PassKey bookmarklet.  With PassKey installed on the bookmarks toolbar in your browser, all you have to do when looking at a licensed resource from off campus is click on the PassKey icon on your bookmark.  You will be prompted for your netid and password, and then will be reconnected to the full text of the desired content.

You will find PassKey and instructions for installing and using it here.  Hat tip to Peter Hirtle at CUL for this info.

 

Pat Court

Associate Law Librarian

pgc1@cornell.edu

 

 

FDsys, the new federal digital system

U.S. Code, Federal Register, Congressional hearings, House and Senate committee reports – the federal government is improving electronic access to these and many other materials.  The new system is FDsys, which provides much easier searching than the first generation of GPOAccess.   This news from the Government Printing Office:

“The sunset of GPO Access is planned for the end of 2010. At this time, FDsys will assume the role as GPO's electronic system of record. Migration of all content from GPO Access to FDsys will be complete by October 2010, and the two systems will run in parallel through the end of the year.

 

“FDsys is a system that allows Federal content creators to easily create and submit content that can be preserved, authenticated, managed, and delivered upon request. As opposed to just being a content repository, it is a system that will continually be updated with new Federal content collections, and these collections will need to be refreshed and migrated over time.”

 

You will notice that many of the documents have a blue banner at the top, showing that the document is official.  Try the “Advanced Search” link from the middle of the FDsys homepage for the most specific searching.  If you had bookmarked GPOAccess, it’s time now to revise that and link to FDsys.  Please contact me or your librarian liaison if you’d like to learn more about FDsys.

Pat Court

Associate Law Librarian

pgc1@cornell.edu

 

Cornell Library Goes Mobile

In a move designed to make online information more accessible to library patrons, Cornell University Library (CUL) recently launched CULite, a new mobile interface for the library’s website. The Law Library is grateful to the mobile team that designed this feature for the benefit of all libraries on the Cornell campus, including ours.

Two alternatives are available to users: a device independent mobile site (http://library.cornell.edu/m) or an iPhone/iPod Touch app (http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/cu-library/id354721654?mt=8&ign-mpt=uo%3D6) available free from iTunes. Both options allow users to search the Classic Catalog, check individual Library hours, locate contact information for each Library, submit a question to an individual reference desk, and more. Check out the promotional video on YouTube. Your research just became a little easier.

Amy Emerson
Research Attorney and Lecturer in Law
aae25@cornell.edu

Digitizing the Laws of the World

At the recent International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA) meeting in Gothenburg, Sweden, access to information was reaffirmed as a basic human right. Many countries now provide online access to legal information such as statutes, codes, regulations, court decisions, and international agreements.

The big question is whether the digital version of this information is official like the print version, and whether the digital version has been authenticated through a secure server or digital signature to ensure that the content has not been altered.
Another issue that has emerged is the fragility and obsolescence of the digital medium and the need for preservation and long-term access, particularly for born-digital legal information which has no paper equivalent.

Why does it matter? In an environment where online sources are replacing official print versions of legal information, citizens need to be able to trust the “official word of the law.” More information at http://www.ifla.org/files/hq/papers/ifla76/96-germain-en.pdf, and in French at http://ifla2010ulaval.wordpress.com/2010/08/12/seance-1-sur-les-bibliotheques-de-droit-et-les-publications-officielles-ou-gouvernementales/.

Claire M. Germain
Law Librarian and Professor of Law
cmg13@cornell.edu

Research Fellows

Research Fellows are second and third year law students who are trained in legal research by the law librarians to assist with your research projects.  They work for the library and provide you another option for your projects. 

You are encouraged to contact Jean Callihan, Head of Research Services, or your liaison about any research projects.  The Research Fellows can supplement your own Research Assistants or assist your liaison.

Let us know how we can help you.  Research Fellows are eager to get to work!

Pat Court

Associate Law Librarian

pgc1@cornell.edu

 

Olin Library Stacks Not All Open

If you, your Administrative Assistant, or your Research Assistants are headed up to Olin Library for library materials, the trip may not be instantly rewarding.  Olin is in the midst of a Fire Safety Improvements Project, which means various floors of the library and certain collections will not be accessible.

For specifics on the status of collections at Olin, check their schedule online, as well as the latest updates.

In the closed areas, the materials are still available but library staff will have to get them for you.  They will retrieve materials once a day, Mondays through Fridays, after 2:00 pm.  No weekend retrievals.

To avoid a wasted trip, remember that many books can be sent to you here at the Law Library from Olin (and other libraries on campus).  When you find the item in the online catalog, click “Requests” at the top of the screen and complete the information, selecting LAW as the library to which you want it sent.  And as always, you can request that the Law Library staff get the materials for you.

Pardon the dust while safety improvements are underway!

Pat Court

Associate Law Librarian

pgc1@cornell.edu

 

 

 

BNA Password & Alerts

If you access BNA materials from home or on the road, you’ll need to know that the password has changed.  And if you are not accessing BNA materials, consider this your personal invitation to sign up for the BNA Alerts that will let you know when the latest information in your field is added to the BNA web.

 

First, for the password:  I will send an e-mail to the faculty today with the new password.  Since this blog posting is up on the web where anyone could find it, we don’t want to give away the store by including it here.

 

You remember BNA, the Bureau of National Affairs publisher of U.S. Law Week that you used in paper way back when.  It’s all on the web now.  You can link from the Law Library home page or bookmark the entry page for Cornell Law School.  From your office, you do not need a password to get in.

 

Sign up for e-mail summaries of any BNA news service or any BNA reference library.  Choose from over 100 products, including  Labor Relations Reporter,  Corporate Law Daily, ABA/BNA Lawyers' Manual on Professional Conduct, Computer Technology Law Report, Criminal Law Reporter, Securities Regulation & Law Report, and International Trade Reporter.  Of course, you can read and research in all of these materials at any time.

 

Feel free to contact me or your librarian liaison to learn more about BNA resources and for assistance in setting up your Alerts.  It’s one of the best ways to stay up with the Supreme Court Today!

 

Pat Court

Associate Law Librarian

pgc1@cornell.edu  

 

Using the New Books List

A list of new books at Cornell Law Library is posted on our web site twice a month.  I wanted to point out a few features of our New Books List, which is always linked from our home page, which will help you use the list to its fullest.

When looking at the web page with the New Books List, you can click on the book title in red, to go to the Cornell Library Catalog.  There you will see more information about the book, sometimes the Table of Contents or a Summary.  From there you can also request holds, recalls, and delivery from another library.

When you click on the image of the book cover, you go to its record on Amazon.com, where you can read reviews and purchase the book if you’d like.

Our list of new books also includes books about legal topics that are added at other libraries on campus, usually at Olin, Industrial and Labor Relations, Management, or Kroch Asia libraries.  The titles are found throughout the list, which is arranged by subject call number.

If you want to see what other new books have been added by libraries all across campus, you can click on Search and Browse New Books at Cornell University Library, a link found at the top left of each of our New Books List.  Select from broad topics such as political science, technology, history, and social sciences.

Feel free to contact your librarian liaison if you would like any of these books checked out and delivered to your office.   We love to get books into your hands!

Pat Court

Associate Law Librarian

pgc1@cornell.edu

 

Renewing Cornell Library Books

Welcome to the 2010-2011 academic year at Cornell Law School! This InfoBrief comes to you about once a week from the Law Library, with information on services and resources of particular use to you.

If you check out library books at Cornell, you will want to know there is a new campus policy that limits your check-out period to one year, instead of the indefinite ”forever” loans of the last several years. However, because the Law Library wants to be sure you have the materials you need, we will automatically renew your Cornell library books at the end of each summer for another year so you can keep them, as needed.

You are, of course, welcome to return any books as you finish using them. And, remember that you will receive computerized e-mails alerting you when you have overdue books, items recalled by another researcher, and similar messages. Be sure to follow up on those, and ask us if you need any assistance.

You can get further information on borrowing materials at Cornell libraries here. Or contact me or your librarian liaison with any questions about using the library.

Best wishes for a very successful year!

Pat Court
Associate Law Librarian
pgc1@cornell.edu

InfoBrief: Library Open House Thursday 11-1

You are invited to an Open House for the Rare Book Room hosted by the Cornell Law Library this Thursday, March 11 from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.

The Rare Book Room is located on the eastern end of the Reading Room (on the Law Library’s third floor). Please join us for an introduction to some of the most treasured items from our collection, including the Donovan Nuremberg Trials Collection, the Scottsboro Trials Collection, and our collection of Liberian Law.

Light refreshments will be served.

Amy Emerson

Research Attorney

aae25@cornell.edu

InfoBrief: WestlawNext lunch program on Monday

Please join us this Monday, March 1, at noon for a preview of WestlawNext.  Our Westlaw account manager, Mike Winn, will be here to show us what is coming with the new Westlaw.  You will also receive a password so you can work in the new system, months before law students will have it (next fall, at the earliest).  Lunch will be served, so please RSVP to me by this Thursday, February 25.

 

Many blog posts, articles, etc. have been written about WestlawNext.  Here are a few that can give you the latest:

 

Greg Lambert writes “WestlawNext - A Study in Applying Knowledge Management & Crowdsourcing” on 3 Geeks and a Law Blog

 

Bob Ambrogi’s LawSites gives “A First Look at WestlawNext”

 

Video Discussion of WestlawNext

 

What happens to Boolean searching?  Do you still have to select a database to search in?  Exactly what is the structure and nature of the new search engine?  Please join us and find out!

 

Pat Court

InfoBrief: TradeLawGuide for WTO law

 

To Cornell Law Faculty:

The World Trade Organization (WTO) regulates trade between 153 member nations and provides a framework for the settlement of trade disputes between nations. The Cornell Law Library has recently acquired a subscription to TradeLawGuide, providing students and faculty with enhanced access to WTO law.

Use TradeLawGuide to search WTO agreements, instruments, jurisprudence, and Dispute Settlement Body (DSB) minutes. TradeLawGuide includes article and jurisprudence citators that allow you to update WTO law, and a Subject Navigator tool that indexes materials by subject. Training videos are available here.

Access TradeLawGuide from either the Trade Law or the International Law subject pages of our Online Legal Resources list, or search the library’s catalog for “TradeLawGuide.”

For more information on WTO law, check out this research guide or these articles by Jack Barceló.

Iantha Haight

Research Attorney

imh24@cornell.edu

InfoBrief: electronic library books

Cornell Library makes available thousands of electronic books on topics large and small.  Just search the online catalog for "NetLibrary" to browse; or add a title or keyword to search more specifically.  There are many electronic titles about law, such as:
 
Playing It Safe: How the Supreme Court Sidesteps Hard Cases
Facing the Limits of the Law
Preferences and Procedure: European Union Legislative Decision-Making
Constitutionalism & Legal Reasoning: A New Paradigm for the Concept of Law
Outsourcing to India: A Legal Handbook
 
The February eBook of the Month is The Procrastinator's Guide to Getting Things Done.  Author and cognitive-behavioral therapy expert Monica Ramirez Basco peppers the book with easy-to-relate-to examples from "recovering procrastinators"­including herself. Inviting quizzes, exercises, and practical suggestions help you (well, maybe not YOU, perhaps someone you know?):

• Understand why you procrastinate.
• Start with small changes that lead to big improvements.
• Outsmart your own delaying tactics.
• Counteract self-doubt and perfectionism.
• Build crucial skills for getting things done today.

The Procrastinator's Guide to Getting Things Done will be available to Cornell Law Library users February 1-28. If you have already established a NetLibrary account, visit http://www.netLibrary.org and log in.  If you do not have a NetLibrary account, you can create a free account from your office computer.  Please contact your librarian liaison or me for more information about NetLibrary and other full-text eBooks available to you.
 
Happy e-Reading!
 
Pat Court
Associate Law Librarian
pgc1@cornell.edu

InfoBrief: Statistical Workshops

If you or your students are doing empirical research this year, you will want to know about the free workshops that Cornell has to offer.  Schedules are now available on the web:

CISER , the Cornell Institute for Social and Economic Research, offers hands-on workshops, designed for faculty, staff, and students doing social science research.  Topics include SPSS, SAS, R, Stata, and Atlas.ti.

CSCU, the Cornell Statistical Consulting Unit, conducts workshops that emphasize the application of statistical methods, rather than statistical theory. 

These workshops are offered free of charge to members of the Cornell community and most are held at the Stone Lab in Mann Library. 

Pat Court
Associate Law Librarian
pgc1@cornell.edu
 

InfoBrief: Westlaw's new COBALT

Online legal research steps up to the 21st century with the soon-to-be unveiled COBALT from Westlaw.  The Thomson-Reuter group has a new platform for the "new generation of users with higher expectations," which they say is the "next evolution in legal research." A recent posting on Law Librarian Blog has a lot of details on what is expected from COBALT.  It seems Boolean logic is out, and we can expect "confidence, productivity, and intuitive" in the new platform.  See their video teaser.
 
Will we have a choice of old or new platform?  Will we pay more?  How will results be presented?  All questions yet to be answered.  Your librarian liaison will be with you every step of the way as COBALT rolls out this semester.  We'll keep you posted.
 
Pat Court
Associate Law Librarian
pgc1@cornell.edu
 

InfoBrief: ChinaLawInfo

Now available to all law faculty and students is ChinaLawInfo, the major online legal database in English for Chinese law.  In fact, you can access the materials in both English (InfoLawChina) and Chinese (ChinaLawInfo).  The Chinese language database is more extensive than the English, but they continue to translate and add materials to InfoLawChina.  For a fee, ChinaLawInfo also offers translation services from Chinese into English for anything you may need.
 
Laws and regulations are the most important sources of law in China.  The database includes all laws adopted by the National People's Congress (NPC) and the NPC Standing Committee from 1949 to the present; administrative regulations promulgated by the State Council from 1949 to the present; and most of the important administrative rules or orders promulgated or approved by the agencies under the State Council and leading  independent agencies. 
 
Court decisions do not carry the same precedential value there as in the U.S. but many are included.  All cases in the database are translated from official sources. The great majority of them come from the Gazette of the Supreme People's Court, and all of them are translated by translators of ChinaLawInfo.
 
This database allows you to search or browse the table of contents of 44 leading Chinese law journals and also official gazettes in Chinese and in some cases in both English and Chinese.  Full text articles are available for only two journals, and generally include only abstracts in English.
 
We are glad to be able to bring this new web resource to researchers here at the Law School.  For assistance in using these materials, please contact your librarian liaison or me. 
 
Xie xie,
 
Pat Court
Associate Law Librarian
pgc1@cornell.edu
 

InfoBrief: Teacher's Manuals

As you prepare for Spring Semester courses, you may want to take a look at the Teacher's Manual that accompanies your casebook.  Here's a quick list of how you can find them:

Aspen
Call for complimentary copy at 800-950-5259

Carolina Academic Press
Find title at http://www.cap-press.com/books/subject/7  and click on Request Comp. Copy at end of book description
Or call for complimentary copy at 919 489-7486

Foundation
PressDownload from Law School Exchange (http://exchange.westlaw.com )

LexisNexis
Download Teacher�s Manual Updates and online supplements from http://www.lexisnexis.com/lawschool/class/publications/
Or call for complimentary copy at 800-533-1646

Oxford University Press
Request at http://www.oup.com/us/corporate/requestExamCopy/?view=usa
Or call for complimentary copy at 800-280-0280

West
Call for complimentary copy at 800-313-9378
Or download from Law School Exchange (http://exchange.westlaw.com )
 
Let us know how the Law Library can assist you with your classes this semester!

Pat Court
Associate Law Librarian
pgc1@cornell.edu