Monday, January 25, 2010

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
 

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

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
 

Thursday, January 14, 2010

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
 

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

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