InfoBrief

HathiTrust, Digital Repository of Nation's Great Research Libraries

2012-01-17T11:31:00.001-05:00

Now that the Google Books project is at a stand-still in adding full text books to the web, there is a group that continues the work of digitizing university library collections: HathiTrust. In light of Judge Chin’s rejection last year of the Google Books Amended Settlement Agreement, Authors Guild et al. v. Google, HathiTrust maintains its commitment to long-term digital preservation of library collections curated by generations of librarians at great research libraries around the world.

HathiTrust, the digital repository for the nation’s great research libraries, reached a major milestone this month, exceeding 10 million volumes in its digital collections. More than 2.7 million of these volumes are in the public domain, with viewing and downloading options available online. Major players include Cornell, Harvard, Yale, Duke, University of Michigan, and the University of California libraries. Cornell has contributed about 400,000 items to the digital collections.

You can search the 10 million plus volumes by keyword (e.g.: presidential AND campaign), by catalog record (e.g.: feminist jurisprudence), or through the unique collections compiled by users (e.g.: japan). Many items will be accessible instantly online. Ask the library for interlibrary loan of any items you identify that are not available in full text through HathiTrust. As always, we are happy to assist!

Pat Court

Associate Law Librarian

pat.court@cornell.edu

New Law Books at Cornell

2012-01-09T13:07:00.001-05:00

The latest list of New Books is available on the Law Library web site. Click here to view the entire list. It includes all new books at the Law Library as well as law-related books at other libraries on campus. Here are a few titles of interest:

Restorative justice realities: empirical research in a European context / Inge Vanfraechem, Ivo Aertsen, Jolien Willemsens (eds.) -- The Hague : Eleven International Pub., 2010. – 283 p.

KJC9430 .R47 2010 -- Law Library (Myron Taylor Hall)

Judiciaries in comparative perspective / edited by H.P. Lee. -- Cambridge, UK ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2011. -- lvi, 567 p.

K2146 .J834 2011 -- Law Library (Myron Taylor Hall)

Vulnerable populations and transformative law teaching: a critical reader / Society of American Law Teachers and Golden Gate University School of Law. -- Durham, N.C. : Carolina Academic Press, c2011. -- 405 p.

KF336 .V85 2011 -- Law Library (Myron Taylor Hall)

Five chiefs: a Supreme Court memoir / John Paul Stevens. -- New York ; London : Little, Brown, 2011. -- 292 p.

KF8745.S78 S74 2011 -- Law Library (Myron Taylor Hall)

You can click on the underlined title to go to the online catalog entry for that book. And then click on “Long View” near the top of that screen for more information, usually chapter titles and authors, and subject headings.

If you would like to have any of these or other books checked out to you, please contact me or your librarian liaison.

Pat Court

Associate Law Librarian

pat.court@cornell.edu

Bloomberg Law

2011-12-09T12:24:00.001-05:00

I’m sure you know the extensive financial services on the web from Bloomberg. But do you know about Bloomberg Law, which is positioning itself to be a direct competitor to Westlaw and Lexis? Bloomberg Law (BL) integrates comprehensive legal content, company and market information, and proprietary news all in one place. One of the features that many of us are finding especially useful is access to PACER, with full text dockets from the federal courts, as well as a courier service for a fee for documents not accessible in PACER. BL also has a legal citator system, BCite, which is invaluable for comprehensive research. Cornell law students have BL passwords, and you can, too.

Our BL rep, Pamela Haahr, will be here this Thursday morning, December 15, and is setting appointments to meet with faculty who want to get started with Bloomberg Law. Contact her directly at oribe@bloomberg.net to make an appointment and request a BL password. Even if you are satisfied with Westlaw or Lexis for your own research, Bloomberg Law is worth experiencing in the world of legal information.

Pat Court

Associate Law Librarian

New Law Books at Cornell, Nov 16-30

2011-12-05T16:01:00.001-05:00

The New Books List for November 16-30 is now available on the Law Library web site. Click here to view the entire list. It includes all new books at the Law Library as well as law-related books all across campus. Here are a few titles of interest:

Courtwatchers : eyewitness accounts in Supreme Court history / Clare Cushman. -- Lanham, Md. : Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, c2011.

KF8742 .C875x 2011 -- Law Library

Sink or swim: the first decade -- John Marshall takes charge: establishing power -- Justice by Shay, stagecoach, steamboat, train: riding circuit -- Wives, children . . . husbands: supporting roles -- Yes, Mr. president: appointment and confirmation -- Learning the ropes: a rookie arrives -- Inside the courtroom: views of the bench -- Silver tongues and quill pens: oral argument -- Nine justices, one bench: building consensus -- (Not so) good behavior: discord and feuds -- A peek inside chambers: clerk stories -- "Welcome to the chain gang": managing the workload -- Timing it right: stepping down.

Making of international criminal justice: a view from the bench: selected speeches / Theodor Meron. -- Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, c2011.

KZ7235 .M47 2011 -- Law Library

Humanitarian law and human rights law : evolving bodies of law -- The rise of international criminal tribunals -- International crimes and jurisprudence of international courts -- Responsibility and the role of the judge

Compliance and compromise : the jurisprudence of gender pay equity / by Cher Weixia Chen. -- Leiden ; Boston : Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 2011.

K1772 .C48x 2011 -- Law Library

Gender pay equity and the international instruments -- Legislative compliance -- the process of "internalization" -- Judicial compliance -- the process of "interpretation" -- The process of "interaction”

If you would like to have any of these or other books checked out to you, please contact me or your librarian liaison.

Pat Court

Associate Law Librarian

pat.court@cornell.edu

Faculty/Pet Matching Contest -- We have a Winner!

2011-12-02T14:15:00.001-05:00

Many thanks to all of the faculty members who participated in the Faculty/Pet Matching Contest! The Law Library received a total of thirteen pet photos from eleven faculty members. The pictures were featured in a Reading Room display case, and clues were posted to Facebook and Twitter throughout the month of November.

Of the many entries, only three students matched every pet correctly, and from this pool, the winning name was drawn. Please congratulate Chris Engler, 2L, when you see him around and about, who won an Amazon gift card.

Amy Emerson

Head of Access Services & Foreign & Int'l Law Specialist

aae25@cornell.edu

New Law Books at Cornell, Nov 1-15

2011-11-23T13:10:00.001-05:00

The New Books List for November 1-15 is now available on the Law Library web site. Click here to view the entire list. It includes all new books at the Law Library as well as law-related books all across campus. Here are a few titles of interest:

The challenge of originalism : theories of constitutional interpretation / edited by Grant Huscroft, Bradley W. Miller. -- Cambridge ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2011.

K3165 .C428x 2011 – Law Library

Imagining legality : where law meets popular culture / edited by Austin Sarat. -- Tuscaloosa : University of Alabama Press, 2011.

PN1995.9.J8 I53x 2011 – Law Library

The body of John Merryman : Abraham Lincoln and the suspension of habeas corpus / Brian McGinty. -- Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, 2011.

KF223.M48 M38x 2011 – Law Library

Animal laws of India / Maneka Gandhi, Ozair Husain, Raj Panjwani. -- New Delhi, India : Universal Law Publishing Co.Pvt. Ltd., 2011.

KNS1533 .A28 2011 – Law Library

If you would like to have any of these or other books checked out to you, please contact me or your librarian liaison.

Pat Court

Associate Law Librarian

pat.court@cornell.edu

Faculty Scholarship Exhibit Case

2011-11-14T15:53:00.001-05:00

The display case located outside classrooms 276 and 277 is now a permanent exhibit space showcasing recent faculty scholarship. Please stop by to view materials written by your colleagues, including books, book chapters, and articles. Please note that items will be temporarily rotated out of the case when they are requested by library patrons for circulation purposes.

When viewing the materials, please also consider whether you’ve sent PDF copies of all of your articles to your library liaison for inclusion in the library’s online repository at http://scholarship.law.cornell.edu/.

Amy Emerson

Head of Access Services & Foreign & Int'l Law Specialist

aae25@cornell.edu

New Law Books at Cornell, October 16-31

2011-11-04T11:33:00.001-04:00

The New Books List for October 16-31 is now available on the Law Library web site. Click here to view the entire list. It includes all new books at the Law Library as well as law-related books all across campus. Here are a couple titles of interest:

Rethinking law as process : creativity, novelty, change / James MacLean. -- Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon ; New York : Routledge, c2012

K213 .M33x 2012 -- Law Library (Myron Taylor Hall)

Locating the problem in law : the conjoined twins case, Re A -- Justifying legal decisions in hard cases : different approaches -- Alfred North Whitehead’s philosophy of organism -- Lessons from organisation theory -- Towards a process reconstrual of ’the middle’ -- Two ways of thinking : two types of knowledge -- Michael Polanyi’s ’tacit knowledge’ -- Legal institutional knowledge -- The judge as institutional actor and decision-maker -- Legal contexts as practices -- Chaos and complexity -- Closing the gap : narrative and the law -- Law’s institutional becoming : creativity, novelty, change -- Law as process : legal decision-making as an actual occasion in concrescence.

First thing we do, let's deregulate all the lawyers / Clifford Winston, Robert W. Crandall, Vikram Maheshri. -- Washington, D.C. : Brookings Institution Press, c2011.

KF306 .W48x 2011 -- Law Library (Myron Taylor Hall)

The market for lawyers -- Evidence of earnings premiums in the legal profession -- Sources of lawyers’ earnings premiums -- Welfare costs -- The case for deregulating entry into the legal profession -- Toward policy reform.

If you would like to have either of these or any other books on the list checked out to you, please contact me or your librarian liaison.

Pat

Pat Court

Associate Law Librarian

InfoBrief: GPO Access now Archive Only

2011-11-03T12:13:00.001-04:00

To Cornell Law Faculty:

GPO Access is dead! Long live FDsys!

Tomorrow, the U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO) draws one step closer to shutting down GPO Access, the free public access web site of full-text, official Federal information and finding aids. Once the Friday editions of daily updated content (e.g., Federal Register, Congressional Record) have been uploaded, GPO will cease updating GPO Access in terms of both database content and HTML pages. Friday, November 4, will mark the start of the archive only phase of GPO Access and new content will only be loaded to FDsys. During this phase, GPO Access will remain publicly accessible as a reference archive.

In order to make the switchover from GPO Access to FDsys as seamless as possible for users, GPO is in the process of creating one-to-one redirects from GPO Access content to the FDsys equivalent. This will ensure that bookmarks, Web links, URLs in print publications, and other GPO Access references point to valid Web resources. Once this has been completed, GPO Access will be taken offline. A date has not yet been established for the final shutdown of GPO Access; however, it is slated for fiscal year 2012.

If you would like assistance accessing federal documents through FDsys,please contact me or your librarian liaison. Information above supplied by GPO.

Pat

Pat Court

Associate Law Librarian

pat.court@cornell.edu

New Law Books at Cornell

2011-10-21T11:29:00.001-04:00

The New Books List for October 1-15 is now available on the Law Library web site. Click here to view the entire list. It includes all new books at the Law Library as well as law-related books all across campus. Here are a couple titles of interest:

From crisis to crisis : the global financial system and regulatory failure / Ross P. Buckley, Douglas W. Arner. -- Alphen aan den Rijn : Kluwer Law International ; Frederick, c2011.

K1066 .B83 2011 -- Law Library (Myron Taylor Hall)

Regulating the international movement of women : from protection to control / edited by Sharron A. FitzGerald. -- Oxon ; New York : Routledge, 2011.

K3275 .R438x 2011 -- Law Library (Myron Taylor Hall)

If you would like to have either of these or any other books on the list checked out to you, please contact me or your librarian liaison.

Pat Court

Associate Law Librarian

Federal Court Opinions in FDsys

2011-10-19T13:20:00.001-04:00

Access to federal court opinions, free on the web from the federal government, is on its way. Through FDsys, the Federal Digital System, the U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO) and the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts (AOUSC) have put up the first opinions as a test. Initial testing is with three courts:

United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit;

United States District Court District of Rhode Island; and

United States Bankruptcy Court Southern District of Florida.

The secure transfer of files to GPO from the AOUSC’s Case Management/Electronic Case Filing system (CM/ECF, which feeds PACER) maintains the chain of custody, This allows GPO to authenticate the files with digital signatures.

Pat Court

Associate Law Librarian

New Books, September 16-30

2011-10-06T14:56:00.001-04:00

The New Books List for September 16-30 is now available on the Law Library web site. Click here to view the entire list. It includes all new books at the Law Library as well as law-related books all across campus.

Here are a couple of titles of interest:

1. Why the law is so perverse / Leo Katz. -- Chicago ; London : University of Chicago Press, c2011. -- xi, 239 p. ; 24 cm.

K290 .K38x 2011 -- Law Library (Myron Taylor Hall)

Why does the law spurn win-win transactions? -- Things we can’t consent to, though no one knows why -- A parable -- Lessons -- The social choice connection -- Why is the law so full of loopholes? -- The irresistible wrong answer -- What is wrong with the irresistible answer? -- The voting analogy -- Turning the analogy into an identity -- Intentional fouls -- Why is the law so either/or? -- The proverbial rigidity of the law -- Line drawing as a matter of life and death -- Why don’t we punish all we condemn? -- The undercriminalization problem -- Multicriterial ranking and the undercriminalization problem.

2. Property and the law in energy and natural resources / edited by Aileen McHarg ... [et al.]. -- Oxford ; New York, N.Y. : Oxford University Press, 2010. -- xviii, 478 p. ; 24 cm.

K3478 .P76x 2010 -- Law Library (Myron Taylor Hall)

Contents include: Property and the law in energy and natural resources / Aileen McHarg ... [et al.] -- Different views of the cathedral : the literature on property law theory / Jonnette Watson Hamilton and Nigel Bankes -- Public and private rights to natural resources and differences in their protection / Anita Rønne -- Restrictions on foreign investment in the energy sector for national security reasons : the case of Japan / Kazuhiro Nakatani -- The significance of property rights in biotic sequestration of carbon / Al Lucas -- Community based property rights regimes and resource conservation in India’s forests / Lavanya Rajamani.

If you would like to have either of these or any other books on the list checked out to you, please contact me or your librarian liaison. And if you have suggestions for new books, do let us know!

Pat Court

Associate Law Librarian

pat.court@cornell.edu

Electronic Casebooks

2011-09-26T08:34:00.003-04:00

Electronic textbooks have not completely taken over yet in legal education, but more casebooks and textbooks for law courses are now available as e-books. West, Lexis, Aspen, and other publishers are offering digital casebooks to you and your students. Click here to view the entire infographic, represented below, with sections on It’s Already Happening; The iPad of Today: Hinting at the Textbook of Tomorrow; and What Will the Textbook of the Future Look Like?

Pat Court

Associate Law Librarian

New Books List, September 1-15

2011-09-22T16:25:00.003-04:00

InfoBrief is a current awareness service for the Cornell Law School faculty from the Law Library, sent to you weekly or as news may warrant. This is the first message of the academic year, letting you know that the New Books List for September 1-15 is now available on the library’s web page. Click here to view the entire list. The list is posted twice a month and includes all the new books at the Law Library, as well as the law-related books added at the other libraries on campus. We will send you a quick InfoBrief message as soon as each list is posted.

A couple titles of interest:

The political uncommons : the cross-cultural logic of the global commons / Kathryn Milun. -- Farnham, Surrey, England ; Burlington, VT : Ashgate, c2011. -- 231 p. : ill., maps ; 24 cm.

K3585 .M55x 2011 -- Law Library (Myron Taylor Hall). View selected chapters.

The European Court of Human Rights between law and politics / edited by Jonas Christoffersen and Mikael Rask Madsen. -- Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2011. -- xiv, 236 p. : ill. ; 25 cm.

KJC5138 .E918x 2011 -- Law Library (Myron Taylor Hall). View selected chapters.

For details about using the New Books List, see InfoBrief of August 28, 2010. Please contact your liaison librarian to request any of the new books be sent to you. We love getting books into your hands!

Pat Court

Associate Law Librarian

pat.court@cornell.edu

Government Documents Online

2011-07-11T13:33:00.004-04:00

To Cornell Law Faculty:

Cornell Law Library is an official depository for federal government documents, many of which are produced electronically these days. From the recent list of new documents, here are a few that may be of interest:

Can we sue our way to prosperity?: litigation’s effect on America’s global competitiveness : hearing before the Subcommittee on the Constitution of the Committee on the Judiciary, House of Representatives, May 24, 2011

http://purl.fdlp.gov/GPO/gpo9538

National strategy for counterterrorism, Executive Office of the President, June 2011

http://purl.fdlp.gov/GPO/gpo9627

Failed state 2030: Nigeria : a case study, February 2011

http://purl.fdlp.gov/GPO/gpo9564

Nigeria’s pernicious drivers of ethno-religious conflict, by Chris Kwaja. Africa Center for Strategic Studies, 2011

http://purl.fdlp.gov/GPO/gpo9658

USA PATRIOT Act: dispelling the myths: hearing before the Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security of the Committee on the Judiciary, House of Representatives, May 11, 2011

http://purl.fdlp.gov/GPO/gpo9632

To find more federal government documents, search the Catalog of U.S. Government Publications or the Cornell Library Catalog. Please contact me or your librarian liaison with any questions.

Pat Court

pat.court@cornell.edu

Prize Winners for Exemplary Student Research

2011-05-20T13:26:00.001-04:00

The 2011 Winners of the new Cornell Law Library Prize for Exemplary Student Research are:

First Place: Improving Drinking Water Provision under Increasing Global and Regional Economic Integration, by William Garthwaite, awarded $500
Second Place: Law on the Books vs. Law in Action: Under-Enforcement of Morocco's Reformed 2004 Family Law, the Moudawana, by Annie Eisenberg, awarded $250

The Law Library inaugurated this research prize to recognize excellence in research by our law students. A review panel comprised of Research Attorneys Jean Callihan, Pat Court, Amy Emerson, Iantha Haight and Matthew Morrison selected the winners from among 18 well-crafted applications, each of which demonstrated exceptional research and original thought. Their final decision was based upon the following criteria:

Sophistication, originality, or unusual depth or breadth in the use of research materials, including, but not limited to, print resources, electronic search engines and databases, primary and secondary legal resources, interdisciplinary resources, and empirical resources
Exceptional innovation in research strategy, including the ability to locate, select, and evaluate research materials with discretion
Skillful synthesis of research results into a comprehensive scholarly analysis

Criteria for acceptable papers include, but are not limited to, papers written for a class or a journal note, but not work product from employment. In addition to receiving a monetary award, the winners are also invited to publish their papers in Scholarship@Cornell Law, the Law Library’s digital repository, and to feature their papers in Reading Room displays during the next academic year.

Funding for the Cornell Law Library Prize for Exemplary Student Research is provided by an endowment given to the Law Library by Barbara Cantwell in honor of her late husband, Robert Cantwell, a 1956 graduate of Cornell Law School. I know you join us in congratulating these rising 3Ls who are our inaugural prize winners!

Pat Court

Interim Law Library Director

Shutdown of the Federal Government - Causes, Processes, & Effects

2011-04-07T11:07:00.001-04:00

The Congressional Research Service recently published a 10-page CRS Report for Congress on Shutdown of the Federal Government: Causes, Processes, and Effects. If Congress does not pass a budget today, the information in that report will be particularly important.

Clinton T. Brass, Analyst in Government Organization and Management, author of the report, explains that “OMB documents and guidance from previous funding gaps and shutdowns may provide insights into current and future practices. OPM has recommended on a website that agencies use OMB guidelines to determine ‘excepted’ positions (i.e., those not subject to furlough) and provided retyped copies of previous OMB bulletins and memoranda for reference.” Those guidelines are all cited in footnote 19 of the report. Please contact me or your librarian liaison if you’d like to see the text of any of those OMB memoranda or bulletins.

Pat Court

Associate Law Librarian

pat.court@cornell.edu

CHECKPOINT for Tax Research

2011-03-31T16:51:00.004-04:00

Yes, it’s almost Tax Day. It happens to be Monday, April 18, this year because Emancipation Day is Saturday, April 16, and therefore celebrated in Washington, D.C. with a day off on Friday, April 15. If this three-day reprieve is not enough, you can check out the IRS's website on how to get an extension for filing your taxes.

And to help you with your taxes or other research around federal tax, I just wanted to let you know that the Law Library makes available CHECKPOINT, a comprehensive tax research database that you may find to be an easy spot to find various laws, regulations, IRS publications, court decisions, journal articles, financial calculators, and much more. It is also available to law students if you want to assign a look at tax information or have a tax angle in your scholarship assigned to a research assistant. To access Checkpoint, start from our list of Online Legal Resources, click on Tax in the left column, then click on RIA Checkpoint. Take a look at our quick guide to get started using Checkpoint.

As always, you are encouraged to contact me or your librarian liaison with any questions about tax research or using Checkpoint.

Pat Court

Associate Law Librarian

pat.court@cornell.edu

Google Books Settlement Rejected

2011-03-29T09:30:00.002-04:00

Last Tuesday Judge Denny Chin refused to grant the plaintiffs' motion for final approval of the Google Books Amended Settlement Agreement ("ASA"), finding that the ASA is not fair, adequate, or reasonable. The opinion is available here, and worth the quick read. Judge Chin, in analyzing whether the agreement met the requirements of Federal Rules of Civil Procedure 23(e), applied the factors articulated in City of Detroit v. Grinnell Corp., 495 F.2d 448 (2d Cir. 1974). He found that most of the Grinnell factors favored approval, i.e.:

litigation has been complex, expensive, and lengthy
the case has been pending since 2005
the outcome of the case, were it to go to trial, is in substantial doubt
maintaining the class throughout the litigation is risky

One factor however, weighed substantially against approving the settlement: the many negative reactions of class members, which Judge Chin summarized as follows:

Adequacy of class notice. Judge Chin rejected this objection.
Adequacy of class representation. Judge Chin found there to be an issue regarding the existence of competing interests between class members.
Scope of relief under Rule 23. The judge found that the scope of the settlement goes beyond permissible bounds in several respects. First, the settlement reshapes copyright law related to orphan works and affects international copyright law, which are matters more properly determined by Congress. Second, the settlement goes far beyond the boundaries of the complaint, which was limited to the scanning and display of "snippets" by giving Google the ability to digitize and sell copies of millions of books, including books still protected by copyright. Third, the interests of some class members have not been adequately represented, such as academic authors who may prefer free access to their copyrighted books and the copyright holders to orphan works, who have a conflict of interest with Google. Fourth, the agreement violates copyright law by requiring copyright holders to take affirmative action to prevent the scanning of their books. Fifth, the settlement grants Google a monopoly over orphan books and increased Google's position in the search market. Sixth, some objectors have concerns that consumers will lose privacy in their reading habits to Google, but Judge Chin rejected this concern due to Google's safeguards. Seventh and lastly, despite the removal of certain foreign works from the ASA, foreign copyright holders continue to object that the settlement will affect their works and violate the international copyright law.

So what's next? In closing, Judge Chin informed the parties that he may approve the settlement if it were changed to an "opt-in" agreement from an "opt-out" agreement. This option is extremely unattractive to Google because it significantly decreases Google's ability to exploit the books it has digitized so far.

So what is next? A status conference is scheduled for April 25. Google has not yet publicly responded to the court's decision. Settlement does not seem very likely. An "opt-in" settlement agreement accomplishes very little for Google because Google can, and already has, continue to make private agreements with publishers and authors. Many of us hope that Google will approach Congress to pass copyright reform, such as this legislation that stalled out in Congress in 2008.

While Congress is the appropriate forum for addressing the issue--and not a far-reaching agreement between corporations and private parties--Congress is notorious for leaving the crafting of copyright legislation to large, wealthy, corporate copyright holders. The voices of libraries, the public, and people who make use of public domain materials are typically ignored. So although I have been hoping for the settlement to be rejected so that Congress can tackle the problem, there are some serious barriers to the creation of legislation that does not favor corporate interests. Google will propose legislation very similar to the ASA, except the Registry will be government run and the ability to exploit orphan works will be opened up to other entities. Companies like Amazon and Microsoft will not like this because Google has a head start on commercializing orphan works. Congress will ignore provisions meant to assist libraries in digitizing their collections or helping patrons gain access to orphan and out-of-print works.

Is there any way to make arguments in support of a robust public domain palatable to Congress?

Iantha Haight

Research Attorney and Lecturer in Law

imh24@cornell.edu

China Legal Knowledge Database

2011-03-04T14:27:00.002-05:00

If you are interested in law from China, you are encouraged to try out China Legal Knowledge Database. This is the only content officially sanctioned by the People’s Republic of China, and the most extensively used by Chinese attorneys. CLKD features more than two million records from secondary resources back to 1994—law reviews, journal and newspaper articles, dissertations/theses, and conference proceedings—plus statutes from as early as 1949, and cases from 1979. In addition, laws at both the national and local level are added within days of enactment.

Use it on the web at:

an English interface: http://clkd.cnki.net/

a traditional Chinese interface: http://law1.cnki.net

simplified Chinese interface: http://chinalaw.cnki.net

Any of those interfaces lets you easily change over to another.

They planned to give us IP-authenticated access, but I find you need to sign in with:

Username: cornelllaw

Password: cornellclkd

Although the journal articles themselves are in Chinese, it has English keywords, abstracts, article titles, journal titles, and authors, which are all searchable and viewable. The trial runs through April 8, 2011. Please let me know if you try it out and what you think, to help the library makes its decision to subscribe or not.

Xie xie,

Pat Court

Associate Law Librarian

HeinOnline Webinars Rescheduled

2011-03-01T11:13:00.005-05:00

The webinars on HeinOnline Searching have been rescheduled for this week on Thursday, March 3, at 10am & 2pm.

It’s not too late; you can still register for one of these sessions, below.

Upcoming Webinar:

HeinOnline Searching 101

The Basic Fundamentals

This webinar has been rescheduled for this week:
Thursday, March 3, 2011
10:00am to 10:45am EST
2:00pm to 2:45pm EST

This webinar will focus on basic search techniques and searching options in
HeinOnline. Below is a short snapshot of what we will cover during the session:

• Title Lookup Search

• Understanding the electronic table of contents and how it can help you
formulate a search

• Reviewing Field & Advanced Search Forms

• How to use facets to narrow search results

• Review of basic Boolean operators (AND, OR)

• Review of proximity and wildcard searching

Original InfoBrief announcement on February 15, 2011

Pat Court

Associate Law Librarian

Submitting Articles to Law Reviews

2011-02-25T10:19:00.002-05:00

Handy in one location is “Information for Submitting Articles to Law Reviews & Journals,” fully updated in February 2011 by Nancy Levit and Allen Rostron, law professors at UMKC. This SSRN document contains information about submitting articles to 202 law reviews and journals, including the methods for submitting an article, any special formatting requirements, how to contact them to request an expedited review, and how to contact them to withdraw an article from consideration. Also included is a chart of US News ratings of the law schools and William and Lee law review rankings.

Pat Court

Associate Law Librarian

Center for Research Libraries

2011-02-22T16:06:00.002-05:00

We can make available to you some esoteric legal research materials through Cornell’s membership in the Center for Research Libraries (CRL), an international consortium of university, college, and independent research libraries. CRL, headquartered in Chicago, acquires and preserves newspapers, journals, documents, archives, and other traditional and digital resources from a global network of sources. Most of the materials acquired are from outside the United States, and many are from the emerging regions of the world: Africa, the Middle East, Southeast Asia, South Asia, and Latin America. Cornell faculty, students, and other researchers have liberal access to these rich source materials through interlibrary loan and electronic delivery.

To identify materials that may be of interest to you:

· Search the CRL online catalog

· Browse the CRL digital collections (including Chinese Pamphlets and African newspapers)

· Use a CRL topic guide (including Law, Human Rights, Labor, France, US History)

· Consult with Member Liaison and Outreach Services Director for research assistance

The extensive collection has these monographs, and many more:

Violence against women in North East India: an enquiry

Human rights in Egypt

Empirical studies in corporate finance, taxation and investment

Pleasurable pastimes: seven essays, including judgement awarding capital punishment

Learn more about CRL and their incomparable collections from your liaison or at the CRL web site.

Pat Court

Associate Law Librarian

HeinOnline Webinar

2011-02-15T08:35:00.004-05:00

HeinOnline has earned its place as a comprehensive legal research tool. You probably use it for finding pdfs of journal articles when you have the citation. Over the last few years, it has developed its searching capabilities to be a first choice for searching journal articles. Hein is offering a webinar on Thursday, February 24, at 10:00 am and at 2:00 pm on search techniques for HeinOnline. Sign up at the links below, and you can learn – right at your desk top -- more strategies for improving your searches.

Upcoming Webinar:

HeinOnline Searching 101

The Basic Fundamentals

This webinar will be held:
Thursday, February 24, 2011
10:00am to 10:45am EST
2:00pm to 2:45pm EST

This webinar will focus on basic search techniques and searching options
in HeinOnline. Below is a snapshot of what we will cover during the session:

• Title Lookup Search

• Understanding the electronic table of contents and how it can help you
formulate a search

• Reviewing Field & Advanced Search Forms

• How to use facets to narrow search results

• Review of basic Boolean operators (AND, OR)

• Review of proximity and wildcard searching

Pat Court

Associate Law Librarian

Title 51 of the U.S. Code

2011-02-09T10:54:00.002-05:00

Some things we just KNOW – the sky is blue, ALL of the Supreme Court decisions are officially published in U.S. Reports, and that the U.S. Code has 50 titles. But no longer. While we were busy winding down the semester and grading exams and papers, Congress added Title 51 to the U.S. Code. Title 51 is National and Commercial Space Programs, the compilation of general laws regarding space programs, which rearranges sections from titles 15, 42, and 49. It was signed by President Barack Obama on December 18, 2010, creating Public Law 111-314, 124 Stat. 3443 (H.R. 3237). You can access Title 51 on Lexis but not yet on Westlaw.

In fact, plans are underway for the next new titles:

Title 52: Voting and Elections

Title 53: Small Business

Title 54: National Park System

Title 55: Environment

And they are working on reorganization of Title 35, Patents, Trademarks and other Intellectual Property and Title 41, Public Contracts.

Just wanted to make sure that if you discuss the U.S. Code in your classes or writings, that you are aware of the new Title 51!

Plus ça change…

Pat Court

Associate Law Librarian

Survey on our Federal Depository

2011-02-04T12:01:00.003-05:00

Cornell Law Library is a Federal Depository Library, officially designated to have U.S. federal documents and information for you, the university, and the community. Primarily, we receive the law-related materials, such as U.S. Reports, the official U.S. Code, the Code of Federal Regulations, Congressional documents, the federal budget, and much more. We are obligated to organize and help you use the materials, in print and on the web, which come to us at no charge.

The Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP) is conducting a web survey this month to learn what you think of the value of the program. The survey is at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/HSLCRRB and is available until February 28, 2011. At the conclusion of the survey, we will receive a report with aggregated responses and comments from our Law Library users, which will be used to help us determine the value of the FDLP here and to facilitate the development of outcomes-based performance measures.

If we are doing our jobs well, the federal documents are a seamless part of the Cornell Law Library collection and services. Our aim is to integrate the federal documents with all the other materials in the library. I encourage you to complete the web survey and let us know how we are doing!

Pat Court

Associate Law Librarian

pat.court@cornell.edu

Borrow Direct

2011-02-02T16:22:00.002-05:00

One of the fastest ways that you can borrow a library book that is not in the Cornell University Library collection is to use Borrow Direct. Even faster than traditional Interlibrary Loan, you can send your request for a loan directly to one of the participating libraries, and within four days you should have the book in hand!

The original participants are Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Princeton, and Penn. And now, we have gained access to 25 million more volumes as Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have joined Borrow Direct. This will increase the number of volumes available from more than 45 million to almost 70 million. This is a popular service among Cornell researchers, who made more than 21,000 requests to Borrow Direct in 2010.

When you search for a book in the Cornell Library Catalog, you will see the suggestion to try Borrow Direct when the book is checked out to someone else, or if it is on Reference and not available to be checked out, or is not owned by Cornell. Just click on Borrow Direct from that screen, and follow the directions from there.

Here’s the fine print: Materials are available within four working days of the request and can be borrowed for six weeks, with the option for another six-week renewal. The borrowed items are subject to recall by the owning libraries and are subject to the same overdue fines as Cornell-owned books.

Try it out and see how fast and easy Borrow Direct can be! Feel free to contact me or your librarian liaison with any questions.

Pat Court

Associate Law Library

pat.court@cornell.edu

Financial Crisis Inquiry Report

2011-01-27T14:31:00.003-05:00

Now Available: The Financial Crisis Inquiry Report, published by the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, investigating the causes of the financial and economic crisis of 2007-2010.

On May 20, 2009, President Obama signed into law an Act that established the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission to "examine the causes, domestic and global, of the current financial and economic crisis in the United States." During the course of its investigation, the ten person bipartisan committee reviewed millions of pages of documents, interviewed more than 700 witnesses, and held 19 days of public hearings in New York, Washington, D.C., and communities across the country that were hit hard by the crisis.

The final report presents the Commission's findings and conclusions and also contains 126 pages of dissenting views. The Commission terminates sixty days following the release of its final report.

Cornell Law Library will have a print copy soon of the 662 page report. Right now, you can read it on the web at http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/GPO-FCIC/pdf/GPO-FCIC.pdf. Let me know if you’d like to see the print version when it arrives.

Pat Court
Associate Law Librarian
pat.court@cornell.edu

E-Repository

2010-12-03T11:57:00.001-05:00

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

2010-11-29T15:35:00.001-05:00

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

2010-11-18T14:35:00.002-05:00

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

2010-11-12T09:15:00.002-05:00

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

2010-11-09T11:23:00.002-05:00

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

2010-11-05T14:19:00.004-04:00

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

2010-10-08T15:15:00.002-04:00

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

2010-10-01T08:55:00.003-04:00

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

2010-09-20T11:14:00.003-04:00

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

2010-09-15T12:58:00.003-04:00

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

2010-09-09T14:38:00.002-04:00

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

2010-09-03T17:07:00.003-04:00

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

2010-08-31T08:14:00.002-04:00

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

2010-08-28T14:59:00.006-04:00

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

2010-08-23T11:47:00.003-04:00

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

2010-03-10T07:10:00.005-05:00

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

2010-02-22T14:20:00.002-05:00

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

2010-02-17T15:48:00.003-05:00

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

2010-02-01T14:32:00.005-05:00

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

2010-01-25T08:31:00.002-05:00

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

2010-01-20T07:49:00.002-05:00

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

2010-01-14T10:02:00.004-05:00

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

2010-01-05T15:05:00.006-05:00

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

InfoBrief: Holding Your Copyright in Articles

2009-12-18T13:59:00.010-05:00

The librarians talked about open access and the importance of holding on to copyright for your articles, at the faculty workshop earlier this month. Placing your articles in the Scholarship@Cornell Law repository relies on your holding the copyright. An article has just appeared in SSRN on "Examining Law Journal Publication Agreements for Copyright Transfers and Self-Archiving Rights," at http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1508044.

The study examines 78 law journal publication agreements and finds that a minority of journals ask authors to transfer copyright. Most journals also permit author to self-archive articles with some conditions. The study recommends journals make their agreements publicly available and use licenses instead of copyright transfers. [from the abstract]

The article is to be published May 2010 in Law Library Journal. Contact your liaison or me if you would like a copy of the paper.

Happy Holidays,

Pat Court
Associate Law Librarian
pgc1@cornell.edu

InfoBrief: Books by Upcoming Speakers

2009-11-03T15:03:00.006-05:00

The Law Library has just added two new books that correlate with upcoming lectures at the Law School.

This Friday, November 6, Martha Nussbaum, Ernst Freund Distinguished Service Professor of Law and Ethics at University of Chicago Law School, will present the Stevens Lecture at 12:15 pm in Room G90 on the topic "Same-Sex Marriage and Constitutional Law: Beyond the Politics of Disgust." Just added to the library collection is Moral Argument, Religion, and Same-Sex Marriage: Advancing the Public Good, edited by Gordon A. Babst, Emily R. Gill, and Jason Pierceson, KF 3133 .C65 P47. A 1999 book by Nussbaum that touches on some of those same themes is Sex & Social Justice, HQ 1150 .N87, also available as an electronic book through the online catalog.

Marshall Phelps, JD '69, will present a talk on "Strategic Innovation and the Role of Intellectual Property Rights" on Wednesday, November 11, at 12:20 pm in the MacDonald Moot Court Room. His recent book is Burning the Ships: Intellectual Property and the Transformation of Microsoft, now on reserve in the library, available for 3-day checkout through November. Phelps is currently Corporate Vice President for Intellectual Policy and Strategy at Microsoft and will be signing copies of his book in the Foyer after the lecture.

If you would like to see any of these books, please contact me or your liaison. See you at the lectures!

Best,

Pat Court
Associate Law Librarian
pgc1@cornell.edu

InfoBrief: Research Beyond Lexis, Westlaw, and Google

2009-09-21T11:52:00.004-04:00

One of the special services offered by your librarian liaison is research instruction for your students in the classroom. If your students are writing major papers in your course, now is a good time to introduce them to the legal resources they need in order to research and write that paper. We regularly teach research in courses on immigration, human rights, legal narratives, corporate governance, feminist jurisprudence, and many more.

Contact your liaison today and set up a time to talk about what materials your students need to learn more about. The librarian will have some new ideas for you, too, with the many electronic resources to which we subscribe. The research instruction can be supplemented with links made on your course Blackboard site.

We are eager to help your students at the point of need and to make sure they can research beyond Lexis, Westlaw, and Google.

Best,

Pat Court
Associate Law Librarian
pgc1@cornell.edu

InfoBrief: Library Liaisons

2009-09-02T09:50:00.005-04:00

The Law Library has as its highest priority the support of your scholarship and classroom teaching. A Research Attorney, with a J.D. and an advanced degree in information science, is assigned to be your liaison for any information questions and projects you have. This is a special library service for tenured and tenure-track faculty at Cornell Law School. Click here for the list, to see who your liaison is.

Your liaison will work with you on any of your information needs for your research and scholarship. For courses where students write major papers, your liaison will offer to present a workshop for the class on the resources and strategies needed to do the research. We can train your research assistants and your administrative assistant, helping them to retrieve information for you. We will also help you keep up-to-date with a variety of current awareness tools that can automatically bring you the latest news, blogs, articles, books, and more in your field.

Other faculty, clinics, projects, and offices in the Law School work with specific Research Attorneys who provide Outreach Services. That list for this fall will be distributed soon.

Look for your liaison to be in contact with you soon. Let us know how we can help you. Best wishes for a productive academic year!

Pat Court
Associate Law Librarian
pgc1@cornell.edu

InfoBrief: Demon to Darling new book

2009-07-13T11:34:00.004-04:00

To Cornell Law Faculty --

For the oenophiles on the faculty, a new book from the University of California Press –

From Demon to Darling: A Legal History of Wine in America

By Richard Mendelson, Director of the Program on Wine Law and Policy at the University of California at Berkeley, and wine specialist at Dickensen, Peatman & Fogarty in Napa, California

With foreword by Margrit Biever Mondavi

From his conclusion: "In the end, wine – demon or darling – represents a battle for the hearts and minds of American consumers."

This book is currently on the New Book Truck in the Faculty Lounge. If someone else borrows it before you get there, drop me a note and we will put you on the list to get it next.

Salut!

Pat Court
Associate Law Librarian
pgc1@cornell.edu

InfoBrief: Chinese Law Databases

2009-07-06T10:03:00.004-04:00

With China as an ever-growing force in the world, the Law Library wants to enable Cornell researchers to find the text of Chinese laws and regulations in English. You are encouraged to try out the two services we are previewing this month.

        Westlaw China at http://en.westlawchina.com/

         LawInfoChina at http://www.lawinfochina.com/ in English

        And its counterpart: ChinaLawInfo at http://vip.chinalawinfo.com/    in Chinese

As a civil law country, China relies heavily on laws and regulations, and that is what is available on these services in English. Because most users around the world are looking at China through a business lens, these services have a strong focus on corporate law, finance, arbitration, patent law, and the like. If you can read Mandarin, you will be glad to know that both services have caselaw and journal articles, as well as laws and regulations, in Chinese.

Please contact me or your library liaison with your thoughts about the China databases, how they will be beneficial to you and your students, and which one you would prefer to use. The Law Library would like to subscribe to one of the databases by the time school begins in August. Let me know if I can provide a closer look or further information on the China law databases.

Xie xie,

Pat Court
Associate Law Librarian
pgc1@cornell.edu

InfoBrief: Document Delivery to You

2009-07-01T10:40:00.004-04:00

Document delivery of legal information, articles, books, and more has been brought to you for many years through the service of Nancy Moore in the Law Library. With recent retirements, we have bid a fond farewell to Nancy. But the document delivery service will not stop with her departure.

I am happy to introduce to you Kathy Hartman (keh7, 5-5750) who is stepping in to provide the services you have come to rely on. Kathy has been on the Law Library staff for 24 years and has been working with document delivery for 8 years. She is assisted by library staff members Jane Drumheller and Carol Clune, to bring you Interlibrary Loan from libraries around the world, Library-to-Library delivery of books on campus, Borrow Direct rapid service from seven major eastern U.S. universities, and specialized deliveries when you've all but given up.

You can contact Kathy and the rest of the Document Delivery staff at law-ils@cornell.edu with your document requests, or contact your librarian liaison with any questions.

Pat Court
Associate Law Librarian

pgc1@cornell.edu

InfoBrief: New Westlaw Sign-on

2009-06-24T11:34:00.003-04:00

Westlaw will soon require you to sign on with their OnePass system – they will no longer allow sign-ons with the password you may have had for decades! Your old Westlaw password with 6-7 numerals followed by 4 letters will no longer work, as of September 30, 2009. Starting now, when you access Westlaw through the law school version, you will begin to see reminders that you need to have a OnePass Username and Password that you select for yourself. Updated security requirements are the reason for the change to the OnePass system.

When you sign on to Westlaw, click on the link to LEARN MORE and create or update your OnePass account. And if you have already set up your OnePass account and just need a reminder of the username and/or password, click on "Forgot your password?" at sign-on. If you regularly access Westlaw through the attorneys' web site at westlaw.com, you can find the law school page with information on how to set up your OnePass account at http://lawschool.westlaw.com.

For assistance in determining your current Westlaw password or to set up your OnePass account, please contact me or your own library liaison.

Best,

Pat Court

Associate Law Librarian
pgc1@cornell.edu

InfoBrief: Legislative and Regulatory Impact Reports

2009-06-17T15:53:00.005-04:00

Tracking the amendments and proposed changes to laws and regulations is made easier on Lexis with their Legislative Impact and Regulatory Impact reports. In association with Potomac Publishing, Lexis offers real-time analysis of how proposed legislation and rulemaking impact existing law, and supplies data in a logical tabular form.

Impacts on the law are listed in three parts: amendments your law made to existing legislation; subsequent amendments to your law since enactment; and amendments to your law in bills from the current Congress. You can search by number or name for impact reports in the Lexis database: Legislative Impact and Regulatory Impact, which is listed under federal and state jurisdiction sources. Or from the initial Lexis search screen, select the Tab: Find a Source, and enter in Option 1 box: legislative impact.

This can pull together your ongoing research in federal or state issues, and can be valuable to your students who are writing papers based on a statute or regulatory scheme. You can even set up an Impact Alert to notify you when there are any changes to the report. For assistance in using Legislative Impact and Regulatory Impact reports, you are welcome to contact me or your own library liaison.

Best,

Pat Court
Associate Law Librarian
pgc1@cornell.edu

InfoBrief: Sotomayor web site from Law Library of Congress

2009-06-08T12:53:00.003-04:00

The Law Library of Congress has launched a new resource on Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor http://www.loc.gov/law/find/sotomayor.php. The site contains information on articles and books by Sotomayor, Congressional documents, cases, and web resources. This is an excellent resource, which is updated as more information becomes available.

And InfoBrief is now produced by a different law librarian. Julie Jones, who inaugurated this service, has left Cornell for the University of Connecticut. I am now coordinating Faculty Services in the Law Library. I will be sending you regular, concise InfoBriefs and welcome your feedback.

Best,

Pat Court
Associate Law Librarian
pgc1@cornell.edu

InfoBrief: Coalition of Law Reviews Launch Legal Web Magazine for Public

2009-04-21T16:43:00.001-04:00

From today's press release:

A consortium of America's most influential law reviews today launched The Legal Workshop ( www.legalworkshop.org), a free, online magazine featuring articles based on legal scholarship published in the print editions of seven participating law reviews: Stanford Law Review, New York University Law Review, Cornell Law Review, Duke Law Journal, Georgetown Law Journal, Northwestern Law Review, and University of Chicago Law Review.

The Legal Workshop features short, plain-English articles about legal issues and ideas, written by an author whose related, full-length work of scholarship is forthcoming in one of the participating law reviews. But The Legal Workshop does not house a collection of abstracts. Instead, it offers an engaging alternative to traditional academic articles that run 30,000 words with footnotes, enabling scholars to present their well-formulated opinions and their research to a wider audience. In addition to making legal ideas understandable, The Legal Workshop seeks to house the best of legal scholarship in one placemaking it easier for readers to find the best writing about all areas of law. ...

Read the entire announcement here.

Book Truck in Faculty Lounge

2009-02-17T10:36:00.000-05:00

Dear Colleagues,

A new truck is coming to the Faculty Lounge this morning, with a NEW POLICY. If you would like to borrow books from the "New Books" truck in the Faculty Lounge, please kindly sign out the book from the Print List (alphabetical order). Many thanks for your cooperation, so that we can keep track of the books in our collection.

Also, you may also want to peruse the list of new legal and law-related books, which comes out every other week, and which shows legal and law-related books in ALL campus libraries. http://library2.lawschool.cornell.edu/newbooks/ Please feel free to contact us if you want a particular book checked out to you.
[Read on if you want more info: Book titles link to their catalog record where you can determine if the book is available on the shelf or already checked out, or click on �long view� to see the subject headings and table of contents. Book cover images link to Amazon.com where you can get more information about the book and read professional and user reviews.]

Thanks,

--Claire

Claire M. Germain
Edward Cornell Law Librarian & Professor of Law
Director, Dual Degree Programs, Paris & Berlin
Cornell Law School
365 Myron Taylor Hall
Ithaca, NY 14853
Tel. (607) 255 5857
Fax (607) 255 1357

InfoBrief: Database Access during Winter Break

2008-12-12T11:01:00.001-05:00

Wondering whether you'll still have access to all your favorite databases while you're away on break?
The answer is YES!

Whether it's HeinOnline, Sociological Abstracts, or EconLit, you need only access the database via the Cornell University Library catalog using these three steps:

1. Search for the name of the journal or database you want as the title (e.g. Cornell Law Review, or HeinOnline).
2. Select the search result that is a "Networked Resource" (which simply indicates it is an online resource, as opposed to print).
3. Then click on the link provided.

You will be prompted to verify your Cornell status using your id and password, the same you use when logging into Blackboard. Then you will gain access to the database.

FYI, there is a shortcut link to HeinOnline on the Law Library web site homepage under Quick Reference.

Want a personal walk-through of the process? Contact your liaison and they'll be happy to demonstrate.

Cheers,
Julie

InfoBrief: Westlaw Printer Pilot

2008-12-12T10:20:00.001-05:00

Greetings everyone,

Based on the feedback we received, Westlaw will be leaving the faculty printer in the computer lab for your use through the spring semester on a trial basis. You may choose to follow Barbara Holden-Smith's lead and try using this printer for the cost savings it brings to the law school. Click here for previously posted instructions on using the Westlaw and Lexis faculty printers.

We'll let you know later next year whether it will remain a permanent fixture in the computer lab.

Please let your library liaison know if you have any questions.

Best,
Julie

InfoBrief: Westlaw Faculty Printers, Take 2

2008-12-03T10:18:00.001-05:00

Thanks to everyone who has responded so quickly. Based on the information we've received, I think some further information is in order.

Both Westlaw and Lexis have dedicated faculty printers, located on the third floor in the computer lab (room 375). When you print from Westlaw, choose the Westlaw Faculty Lab Printer. Printing from Lexis, select the Faculty printer. The administrative assistants know where they are located and can help retrieve printed documents, but your liaison can also show you were it is and how to print to it. Just ask us!

The primarily benefit of using these printers instead of your office printer is financial. They are maintained and supported by Westlaw and Lexis. They provide the paper, the toner, and the maintenance. Obviously, there are cost savings to the law school by using these printers instead of your office printer.

A secondary benefit is convenience. You can print to these stations wherever and whenever you are, and they will be printed, waiting for you, when you return to school.

Let me or your liaison know if you have any further questions, and please continue to submit your comments.

Many thanks,
Julie

InfoBrief: Possible Removal of Westlaw Faculty Printer

2008-12-03T09:14:00.001-05:00

Greetings all,

We have been notified by our Westlaw rep, Mike Winn, that faculty print jobs using the dedicated Westlaw printer are significantly down. Over the last few years, usage has dropped considerably. Westlaw is looking to remove low use/no use printers and the Cornell faculty printer is now on that list.

Do you, Cornell law faculty, still want this printer available to you? If there is still a need, Mike reports that he can leave it installed for another semester as a trial period. Please let me or your library liaison know.

Thanks for your help with this.

Cheers,
Julie

InfoBrief: Holiday Shopping Edition

2008-11-24T09:27:00.001-05:00

Greetings all,

Reports are in that Black Friday is coming early this year and some retailers are already dropping prices. To help with your gift selections, here are the latest shopping tips from Consumer Reports.

Wishing everyone a lovely Thanksgiving with friends and families.

Best,
Julie

Please reply to this email if you experience any troubles with the links.

Where to buy:

Buying Clothes Online
Buying Electronics

What to buy:

Audio Equipment
Blu-Ray and DVD Players
Camcorders
Computers
Digital Cameras
Digital Picture Frames
GPS Navigators
LCD and Plasma TVs
Luxury SUVs
Printers
Wine

How to send:

Shipping (scroll down to read article after opening pdf)

InfoBrief: New Law Books Update

2008-11-19T10:06:00.001-05:00

Greetings all,

This is a friendly reminder that new books at the law library, and law related books at other Cornell University libraries, are posted to our web site twice a month. Peruse the list to keep current on new scholarship in your subject specialty. You can also sign up to receive an RSS feed notice whenever the page is updated. If you need assistance with or have questions about RSS feeds, please contact your library liaison.

This month, for some light holiday reading, you might be interested in Drowning in the Desert: A JAG's Search for Justice in Iraq, by Vivian H. Gembara. Read more about it from the author's site, and on Amazon.

Request this, or any book, from your library liaison.

Cheers,
Julie

InfoBrief: LIFE images available on Google

2008-11-18T15:17:00.001-05:00

Greetings all,

This may or may not help you with your scholarship and teaching, but is certainly interesting. Google and TIME have teamed up to make historic TIME photographs available through Google Image Search. They are searchable (of course), and browsable by decade (1860s - 1970s), people, places, events, sports, and culture.

Here's the link: http://images.google.com/hosted/life

Cheers,
Julie

InfoBrief: Plum Book Supplement

2008-11-14T13:44:00.001-05:00

As a follow-up to yesterday, The New York Times reports today on details for would be applicants to Obama's administration. Click here for a PDF of the seven page, sixty-three question job application that covers publications, blog posts, speeches, testimony, and essentially any findable record of what you've said in any format for the duration of your adult life.

It ends with a nice catch-all safety net:

Please provide any other information, including information about other members of your family, that could suggest a conflict of interest or be a possible source of embarrassment to you, your family, or the President-Elect.

Indeed. Hat tip to Alfred Brophy.

InfoBrief: US Plum Book Released

2008-11-13T12:53:00.000-05:00

The Plum Book is ready! The 2008 edition of the United States Government Policy and Supporting Positions, commonly known as the Plum Book, is now available from the U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO). It is being eagerly devoured by attorneys, academics, and others who would like a job in the new administration.

Prepared after each presidential election, the Plum Book provides comprehensive information on thousands of federal civil service leadership and support positions in the legislative and executive branches of the federal government jobs that may be subject to noncompetitive appointment, nationwide.

Just out of interest, click here to see the positions and salaries for the Department of Justice positions.

This information is provided by GPO. For additional information, feel free to contact Pat Court, our government documents specialist, or your librarian liaison. And yes, the cover of the actual book is plum colored.

**************************
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Julie M. Jones, JD, MLIS
Research Attorney and Lecturer in Law
Cornell Law Library
340B Myron Taylor Hall
Ithaca, New York 14853
607.255.5858

InfoBrief: BNA Updates

2008-10-24T13:41:00.001-04:00

Greetings all,

BNA is updating and improving their user interface, effective this week. A brochure detailing the changes has been placed in each of your boxes.

BNA is an excellent resource for quality current awareness updates, with many publications to choose from. View a complete list of available titles arranged by subject here, and an alphabetical list of titles here. Many provide automatic email updates.

For assistance setting up email updates, or to answer any questions, please feel free to contact your library liaison.

Cheers,
Julie

**************************
InfoBrief is archived at http://infobrief.blogspot.com/
To unsubscribe from InfoBrief, reply to this message with "unsubscribe" in the subject or body

Julie M. Jones, JD, MLIS
Head of Information Services and Lecturer in Law
Cornell Law Library
340B Myron Taylor Hall
Ithaca, New York 14853
607.255.5858

InfoBrief: Bloomberg Training

2008-07-01T14:32:00.001-04:00

Dear Faculty,

Our Bloomberg Representative, Ken Sanchez, is at the law school tomorrow, July 2. He is available to provide a personal demo of the system to any who are interested. As we've previously announced, Bloomberg has rolled out a new product called Bloomberg Law or "B-Law." See the B-Law web page here: http://about.bloomberg.com/professional/law.html

One of the best features of B-Law is the ability to obtain court dockets and filings with relative ease. Of course, the full package of news and business resources, which are included with B-Law, are fantastic.

Sessions with the rep run from 30-60 minutes. If you would like to schedule one, let Matt Morrison know , or contact your liaison.

Cheers,
Julie

**************************
InfoBrief is archived at http://infobrief.blogspot.com/
To unsubscribe from InfoBrief, reply to this message with "unsubscribe" in the subject or body

Julie M. Jones, JD, MLIS
Head of Information Services and Lecturer in Law
Cornell Law Library
340B Myron Taylor Hall
Ithaca, New York 14853
607.255.5858

InfoBrief: 2008 Law Review Submission Policies

2008-06-17T13:40:00.001-04:00

Greetings all,

Before the substance of this email, we wanted to let everyone know that most of our email accounts in the library are down and have been down since Sunday, with no indication from CIT when they will be up again. We can send email, but not receive it. We're working on creating a work-around to access our email. In the meantime, please call us if you need any assistance.

Nancy Levitt and Allen Rostron of UMKC have recently posted on SSRN their white paper, Information for Submitting Articles to Law Reviews & Journals. Available here: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1019029

Abstract:

This document contains information about submitting articles to law reviews and journals, including the methods for submitting an article, any special formatting requirements, how to contact them to request an expedited review, and how to contact them to withdraw an article from consideration. It covers about 188 law reviews.

Michael H. Hoffheimer of U Miss also produces a Directory of Law Reviews. While current only through 2005, it does include charts for specialty journals not covered in Levitt & Rostron's article. Available here: http://www.lexisnexis.com/lawschool/prodev/lawreview/default.asp

Of course, if you need journal ranking information, go to the Washington & Lee web site: http://lawlib.wlu.edu/LJ/index.aspx

We hope this helps with your summer scholarship. Please feel free to contact your library liaison with any research questions or to train your research assistant for any particular project.

Cheers,
Julie

**************************
InfoBrief is archived at http://infobrief.blogspot.com/
To unsubscribe from InfoBrief, reply to this message with "unsubscribe" in the subject or body

Julie M. Jones, JD, MLIS
Head of Information Services and Lecturer in Law
Cornell Law Library
340B Myron Taylor Hall
Ithaca, New York 14853
607.255.5858

InfoBrief: Open Access at Harvard Law School

2008-05-08T12:13:00.001-04:00

Greetings everyone,

Many of you will probably be familiar with Harvard Law School's announcement yesterday regarding their unanimous vote to provide open access to all their scholarly articles. From the press release:

In a move that will disseminate faculty research and scholarship as broadly as possible, the Harvard Law School faculty unanimously voted last week to make each faculty member�s scholarly articles available online for free, making HLS the first law school to commit to open access [emphasis added].

This statement is not quite correct. Duke has made its journals freely available on the web since 1997 and has hosted an open access repository of its faculty's school since December 2005. There are likely other law schools that have open access policies as well. Which begs the question: Does Cornell Law School need an open access commitment?

Cheers,
Julie

InfoBrief: Orientation for Summer Research Assistants

2008-04-23T10:30:00.001-04:00

Greetings all,

The Law Library is currently planning the annual Research Orientation for faculty summer research assistants. This year, the session will be on Wednesday, May 28, from 10 11 a.m. in Room 276.

It would be most helpful if each faculty member could provide the following to their Library Liaison:

1) the name(s) of your RA(s); and
2) the topic each will be researching.

The Library can then contact the RAs to inform them of the orientation, as well as let each of them know how to get help if they cannot make the session. As well, feel free to encourage your RA to attend so that we can prepare them for a successful summer.

If you have questions about the orientation, please contact Matt Morrison.

Cheers,
Julie

InfoBrief: HeinOnline Journals now included in Google Scholar

2008-04-21T10:14:00.001-04:00

Greetings all,

The world now has easier access to your scholarship. HeinOnline 's vast collection of legal journals is now included in Google Scholar. You can easily find both your work, and interdisciplinary citations to your work.

How does it work? Go to Google Scholar and search for your name, an article title, or keywords common to your subject specialty. If the article is available in HeinOnline, it will be included in the search results, like the example below.

When you click on the title link to open the article in Google Scholar, you will see the HeinOnline logo on the right sidebar with a link that says "Subscribers Access." When you click on the access link, you will be taken directly to that article in HeinOnline if you're using your Cornell Law School computer.

Using your law school computer, this process should be seamless. Since our HeinOnline account does not include individual passwords, using Google Scholar from non-law school computers, you'll need to access HeinOnline from the Cornell Law Library web site or the Cornell University Library Catalog.

NOTE: The "Cited by [#]" seems to be consistently incorrect, typically under counting the actual number of citations to a work. Hopefully, Google Scholar will improve that feature soon.

Cheers,
Julie

InfoBrief: New Books April 1-15

2008-04-17T08:41:00.000-04:00

Greetings all,

New books acquired between April 1-15 at the law library and law related books at Cornell libraries are now posted on our web site.

If you see a book that you'd like routed to your office, please contact Nancy Moore at law-ils@cornell.edu or your library liaison.

Cheers,
Julie

**************************
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To unsubscribe from InfoBrief, reply to this message with "unsubscribe" in the subject or body

Julie M. Jones, JD, MLIS
Research Attorney and Lecturer in Law
Cornell Law Library
340B Myron Taylor Hall
Ithaca, New York 14853
607.255.5858

InfoBrief: Spring Cleaning for Library Books

2008-04-10T15:56:00.001-04:00

Do you have library books that you no longer need cluttering your office? Or is your time with us soon over?

If you would like to return your library books from the Law Library or any other library please contact Nancy Moore, and she will arrange to pickup the books for you.

If you would like to see a list of what books you have checked out from the library or through interlibrary loan, you can simply ask her to send you the list.

Please let us know if you have any questions.

Best,
Julie

**********************
InfoBrief archives available at http://infobrief.blogspot.com/
To unsubscribe from InfoBrief, reply to this message with "unsubscribe" in the subject or body

Julie M. Jones, JD, MLIS
Research Attorney and Lecturer in Law
Cornell Law Library
340B Myron Taylor Hall
Ithaca, New York 14853
607.255.5858

InfoBrief subscription options

2008-04-03T08:17:00.000-04:00

Greetings everyone,

We hope you are finding InfoBrief, the new current awareness service
from the Law Library for the Cornell Law School faculty, to be a
useful service. If you have any questions or suggestions, please
feel free to contact me or Claire Germain. We have recently
implemented a separate listserv for this service. If you would like
to discontinue receiving InfoBrief, simply reply to this message with
"unsubscribe" in the subject or body of the email. You can always
resubscribe by contacting anyone at the library with your request.

Best,
Julie

InfoBrief is archived at http://infobrief.blogspot.com/

Julie M. Jones, JD, MLIS
Research Attorney and Lecturer in Law
Cornell Law Library
340B Myron Taylor Hall
Ithaca, New York 14853
607.255.5858

InfoBrief: New Books now on Library Web Site

2008-04-02T10:55:00.002-04:00

Greetings all,

The Law Library is pleased to announce its New Books web feature, a service designed to help Cornell law faculty keep on top of newly acquired books in law and related disciplines at all Cornell libraries. The list is arranged using the same Library of Congress classification system we use to arrange the books on the shelves. Within the K (comparative and international law) and KF (US law) categories, books are further broken into distinct legal subjects, such as contract law and civil procedure.

For each book in the list, we provide a brief description and a link to a fuller description in the library�s online catalog via the book title. When available, we provide an image of the book�s cover, which links to the book at Amazon.com.

If you see a book that you'd like routed to your office, please contact Nancy Moore at law-ils@cornell.edu or your library liaison.

We will continue to announce new books to you via InfoBrief twice a month as the web site is updated with new acquisitions. If you wish, you may also use the RSS buttons to subscribe to any major subject area.

We welcome your feedback on this exciting new service from the Law Library!

Cheers,
Julie

**********************
InfoBrief archives available at http://infobrief.blogspot.com/

Julie M. Jones, JD, MLIS
Research Attorney and Lecturer in Law
Cornell Law Library
340B Myron Taylor Hall
Ithaca, New York 14853
607.255.5858

InfoBrief: Update on Bloomberg Registration

2008-04-01T13:09:00.001-04:00

For anyone planning on registering for Bloomberg Law today, there's been a delay. Unfortunately, Valerie Boccadoro, our Bloomberg rep, ran into travel complications--her flight into Ithaca was cancelled. (We've all been there, haven't we?) So, Valerie will be here starting at 8:00 am tomorrow morning in the Foyer.

Many apologies from both myself and Valerie for this delay, but she will be available on campus tomorrow or Thursday. Again, you may request a separate appointment by emailing her directly at vboccadoro@bloomberg.net .

Thanks for your patience. Please let me know if you have any questions.

Best,
Julie

Julie M. Jones, JD, MLIS

Research Attorney and Lecturer in Law
Cornell Law Library
340B Myron Taylor Hall
Ithaca, New York 14853
607.255.5858

InfoBrief: Bloomberg Law has Arrived at CLS

2008-03-27T15:07:00.001-04:00

Greetings everyone,

Bloomberg is now offering free access to B-Law for all Cornell law professors and students. B-Law is a growing legal database, specializing in business related primary and secondary legal sources. From their web site:

Bloomberg Law is our legal, regulatory and compliance platform, offering a suite of news, data, analytics and research tools to the legal and compliance community. BLOOMBERG LAW is fully-integrated into the BLOOMBERG PROFESSIONAL service and tailored specifically for the needs of a modern law-firm, providing practitioners with indispensable resources for all their business-development, sector-intelligence, research, and information needs. BLOOMBERG LAW's news, data and analysis is delivered in user-friendly formats and features full-text database search and alert functionality, analytical reports, litigation-research tools, and competitive-intelligence profiles.

Registration is required and entails logging on with a �B-unit,� a finger-print recognition gadget you receive when opening your account. The Bloomberg representative, Valerie Boccadoro, will be registering interested members of the Cornell law community in the foyer during the mornings of April 1, 2, and 3. You can register there or ask that she stop by your office during one of those afternoons. If these dates conflict with your schedule, she is available for individual appointments at other times. If you are interested in scheduling an appointment, email Valerie at vboccadoro@bloomberg.net or contact Jean Callihan, our in-house Bloomberg coordinator, at jc374@cornell.edu.

Cheers,
Julie

InfoBrief: Research Fellows Available to Assist Faculty Research

2008-02-08T08:27:00.001-05:00

The law library has recently hired two Research Fellows to assist faculty with your research. This support is in addition to the services already provided by your library liaison.

The library Research Fellows are law students who, under library supervision, provide research assistance to Cornell faculty, including those who encounter additional research needs while their personal research assistant is occupied. Research fellows can:

Compile subject bibliographies
Create multi-state surveys
Complete literature searches used in updating texts and casebooks
Research historical materials
Fulfill other research needs that may arise

As always, your library liaison is available to train your personal research assistant for specific projects you may have.

Please direct any questions about or requests for this service to your library liaison.

Cheers,
Julie

*********************************
InfoBrief is available online @
http://infobrief.blogspot.com/

Julie M. Jones, JD, MLIS
Research Attorney and Lecturer in Law
Cornell Law Library
340B Myron Taylor Hall
Ithaca, New York 14853
607.255.5858

InfoBrief: Justin Wolfers

2008-02-05T15:22:00.000-05:00

Justin Wolfers will be the next presenter at the Faculty Workshop on Friday, February 8. His topic is "The Paradox of Declining Female Happiness." You can link to his article here.

Since he is not a law professor, he may not be known to some of you in the same way as many of our presenters, so you may like to look at his personal home page. His publications for the National Bureau of Economic Research are available on the web in full text, including probably his most well-known study: �Racial Discrimination Among NBA Referees.�

Cheers,
Julie

*********************************
InfoBrief is available online @
http://infobrief.blogspot.com/

Julie M. Jones, JD, MLIS
Research Attorney and Lecturer in Law
Cornell Law Library
340B Myron Taylor Hall
Ithaca, New York 14853
607.255.5858

InfoBrief: Podcasting for Law Professors

2008-02-01T08:54:00.001-05:00

Podcasting is one of the newest technologies available to help professors communicate more effectively with students. It allows the audio recording of classes to be made available online for future reference. It also allows the recording of class summaries or follow-up thoughts post-class.

Why podcast? If students know a class is being recorded, they tend to not take dictation on their computers during class, freeing up their minds for greater engagement with the material and class discussion, thus learning more. Some students need repetition. Others may mentally miss a portion of class due to stress or distractions.

To support law students and faculty, CALI has created ClassCaster which allows professors to record and post their classes on blogs for future listening by students. Of course, these blogs may be used for purposes other than podcasting, possibly as an alternative or supplement to TWEN or Blackboard. FAQs about ClassCaster are answered here.

More law school podcasting info is available online:

Professor Ken Kristl at Widener recently discussed the pedagogical power of podcasting here.
A discussion of potential resistance to law prof podcasing is here .
A description of ClassCaster which discusses pros and cons is available here.
Law student reactions to podcasting in the classroom is available here.

Please feel free to contact Cornell Law Library's CALI coordinator, Julie Jones, with any questions.

And I hope everyone is staying safe on the roads today!

Julie M. Jones, JD, MLIS
Research Attorney and Lecturer in Law
Cornell Law Library
340B Myron Taylor Hall
Ithaca, New York 14853
607.255.5858

New Faculty Service Launched by Cornell Law Library

2008-01-25T11:45:00.001-05:00

Cornell Law Library is pleased to announced our new information service dedicated to the law school faculty: InfoBrief.

In support of faculty scholarship and teaching, InfoBrief will provide:

Postings on services available at the law library
Notices on new law books and journals available at Cornell
Updates on legal databases to which we subscribe
Current news on broader legal information and law school issues
And more

For your convenience, all InfoBrief messages will be emailed directly to you and archived at this blog for future reference.

We hope this service directly benefits your research and pedagogy.

Please feel free to contact Julie Jones or your library liaison if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions.

Best,

Julie M. Jones, JD, MLIS
Research Attorney and Lecturer in Law
Cornell Law Library
340B Myron Taylor Hall
Ithaca, New York 14853
607.255.5858