LexLibris

Need to quickly to check the meaning of a legal abbreviation? Point your browser to the Cardiff Index to Legal Abbreviations.

Simply type the abbreviation into the box, click "search", and the Index will offer you the following information: The preferred abbreviation, any alternative abbreviations, the full title that the abbreviation represents, and the jurisdiction of the country of the publication. Perhaps best of all, the Cardiff Index of Legal Abbreviations covers the legal publications of all countries, so it is very useful for deciphering foreign abbreviations.

Source: Virtual Library Cat

Posted by University of Minnesota Law Library at 09:59 AM | Permalink

The US State Department has started a blog, Dipnote (jargon for a diplomatic note—“a formal communication between an ambassador and a minister of the host government or another ambassador.” They hope it “will provide you with a window into the work of the people responsible for our foreign policy, and will give you a chance to be active participants in a community focused on some of the great issues of our world today. With Dipnote we are going to take you behind the scenes at the State Department and bring you closer to the personalities of the Department. We are going to try and break through some of the jargon and talk about how we operate around the world.”

Articles on Dipnote include: The Question of the Week: Who Should be Allowed To Possess Nuclear Technology? UNGA (United Nations General Assembly) 101, Protecting Diplomats at UNGA: The Inside Story, Direct from the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi (India), August in the Big Easy (New Orleans, Louisiana, USA), and an impressive Blog Roll.

It is probably worth checking out this blog just to get information on some the blogs the State Department follows.

URL: http://blogs.state.gov/index.php/P5/

Source: OPL Plus Blog

Posted by University of Minnesota Law Library at 09:26 AM | Permalink

The law library has added a new research guide titled, “Researching Labor & Employment Law” to the web site. The direct link is:
http://www.law.umn.edu/library/tools/pathfinders/labor.html

You can find over 40 research guides and pathfinders in the directory at http://www.law.umn.edu/library/tools/pathfinders/pathfinders.html

Posted by University of Minnesota Law Library at 01:45 PM | Permalink

The Feminist Law Professors blog has some useful tips for research assistants in their Sept.12 post:
http://feministlawprofs.law.sc.edu/?p=2289

Here's a really good one:
14. Get to know the law librarians. They’re smart, knowledgeable and have heard most requests before. They can do a whole lot more than just help you with Westlaw problems or point you toward the F.Supp. Often the librarians have been working with certain professors for years, and they know what the professor means when she asks an RA to do x or y.

Thanks to Connie Lenz for the head's up.

Posted by University of Minnesota Law Library at 09:01 AM | Permalink

Effective Monday September 24, the northeast stairwell in the library (nearest the service/freight elevator) will become an emergency exit only.

Library users can still access floors 2-4 through the southeast stairwell or the inner stairwell near the center of the library, as well as the internal library elevator on the west end.

Any library users attempting to leave the library through the northeast stairwell will trigger a brief but loud alarm that will be recorded in Central Security. More importantly, users pushing through the alarmed door will not be able to get back into the library because the door will lock behind them.

Any questions about this change should be directed to Paula Seeger (seege030@umn.edu), Circulation Librarian.

Thank you for your patience and cooperation with this change.

Posted by University of Minnesota Law Library at 11:35 AM | Permalink

Paula Seeger has been at the Law Library for just over a year, as its Circulation Librarian. She supervises the circulation and reserves department, coordinates library security and facilities, and administers the law library blog.

Paula’s favorite aspect of her job is the variety of tasks, and the chance to help grateful students. She also enjoys interacting with our student employees, especially those for whom this is their first job.

In addition to her M.A. in library science, Paula has an M.A. in Theology & the Arts, and four tattoos. (She recently published an article on librarians and tattoos.) Paula likes intellectual debate and critical thinking, along with baseball (Go Brewers!). If able to choose a superpower, she’d opt for flying, or stopping time.

Posted by University of Minnesota Law Library at 10:32 AM | Permalink

“LawLink is the first online network exclusively for licensed attorneys.” As of mid-September 2007, there were over 1500 members. It is free and you can put up announcements, personals, job openings, and even a brochure.

URL: http://www.lawlink.com/

SOURCE: OPL Plus Blog

Posted by University of Minnesota Law Library at 08:53 AM | Permalink

The Law Library of Congress is pleased to announce the release of its newly designed web site (http://www.loc.gov/law). The web site includes information on a range of legal issues and research topics as well as our services and logistics of using the Reading Room. In addition to established products such as the Global Legal Information Network (GLIN), Guide to Law Online and the Global Legal Monitor, new Law Library products are available as well. Highlights include:

Congressional Hearings Project: Full-text access to selected historical Congressional committee hearings on a variety of topics.
http://www.loc.gov/law/find/hearings.html

Foreign and International Law Guides: Provides a starting point for researching foreign, international, and comparative law with analysis and references to official printed and online resources.
http://www.loc.gov/law/help/foreign.html

Pakistan: Crisis in the Judiciary
Find information and analysis of the suspension and subsequent reinstatement of the Chief Justice of Pakistan.
http://www.loc.gov/law/help/pakistan-justice.html

We hope you will explore what we have to offer and look forward to presenting new information and products via this web site in the future.

Emily Carr
Public Services Division
Law Library of Congress
Comments/Questions: http://www.loc.gov/law/contact/

Posted by University of Minnesota Law Library at 05:12 PM | Permalink

UPDATE: Beginning this week, the NYTimes will stop charging for access to TimesSelect content. See these two links for more information:

http://www.law.wisc.edu/blogs/wisblawg/2007/09/new_york_times_content_now_fre.html

http://www.nytimes.com/ref/membercenter/lettertoreaders.html (registration required?)

*********
While this information was released a while ago, you may not have heard much about it:

http://www.nytimes.com/products/timesselect/overview.html

TimesSelect from the New York Times gives access to selected pieces of the NYTimes to University students and faculty. Learn more about it at the links above and below.

http://www.nytimes.com/products/timesselect/whatis.html

Posted by University of Minnesota Law Library at 08:44 AM | Permalink

Vicente (Vic) Garces has worked at the law library since 1996. His primary areas of responsibilities include reference, web site administration, collection development (mostly selection but also electronic resources management), and legal research instruction. Vic is the point person for coordinating Westlaw and Lexis access for the law school, and finds that the most enjoyable part of his job comes from the personal satisfaction he gets from a job well done.

Vic says, "I’d like to have lunch in the Kitchen Stadium with the one and only Chairman Kaga of the Iron Chef (Food Network). We would have a 7 course meal prepared by the 7 Iron Chefs, aka Iron Men of Cooking. Their culinary creativity knows no bounds." Vic coaches his son (baseball & football) & daughter (softball), and keeps up with current events, especially politics. He also enjoys getting out to hear live music when he can.

Posted by University of Minnesota Law Library at 09:19 AM | Permalink

The Law Library now subscribes to Oceana’s Constitutions of the Countries of the World, Dependencies & Territories, and United States online.

This resource provides full-text, English language translations of the current and historical constitutions of 192 nations, and 144 territories and dependencies. Coverage of the U.S. includes the national constitution, the constitutions of all 50 states and U.S. territories/dependencies. Entries include scholarly commentary and analysis.

Campus-wide access is available at http://www.lib.umn.edu/get/oceana

Posted by University of Minnesota Law Library at 03:56 PM | Permalink

Advice for IL's from Wall Street Journal:
An Open Thread available at http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2007/08/31/advice-for-one-ls-an-open-thread. Started Friday, August 31, 2007.

Spring 2008 Georgetown Course Based on "24"
JD and LLM students will be taking a course this spring entitled The Law of "24," which is based on the TV series. The course description, available at http://www.law.georgetown.edu/curriculum/tab_courses.cfm?Status=Course&Detail=1534, states "This course provides a detailed understanding of a very wide-range of U.S. domestic and international legal issues concerning counterterrorism in the context of the utilitarian and sometimes desperate responses to terrorism raised by the plot of 24."

See "The Law According to Jack Bauer" at slate.com, http://www.slate.com/id/2173564/nav/fix/ for their take.
Students must complete a 25 page paper!

Reference Cafe is "a space for reference librarians (Georgetown Univ Law Library) to share new developments in law librarianship, Law Center and Law Library news." http://refcafe.blogspot.com/

Posted by University of Minnesota Law Library at 08:20 AM | Permalink

Celebrating Constitution Day

The University of Minnesota Law School, on behalf of the entire University of Minnesota system, will present a free program commemorating the U.S. Constitution on Monday, September 17, from 12:15 to 1:15 p.m. in Rooms 25 and 50 Mondale Hall, on the Twin Cities campus in Minneapolis.

Topics will include examinations of juvenile sentencing; executive privilege, including current controversies and underlying constitutional arguments; and the limits of the constitutional law of equality. For the complete schedule, visit the Law School.

Source: U of M eNews

Posted by University of Minnesota Law Library at 08:54 AM | Permalink

To combat gang violence, the city of Albuquerque, New Mexico, is considering a proposal to set up a online registry of people convicted of gang-related crimes. Modeled after the now ubiquitous sex offender registries, this gang violence registry would include offender data such as convictions, legal names, aliases, birth dates, and places of employment. Read more at the link below.

Source: Government Innovators Network at Harvard University blog

Posted by University of Minnesota Law Library at 05:25 PM | Permalink

The first schoolteacher to become First Lady, Abigail Powers Fillmore (1798-1853) had a passion for literature. Educated at home by her mother, she read all of the books in her fathers’ library, and began to teach school at the age of 16, while continuing to go to school. After her marriage to Millard Fillmore, she continued to teach school, the first First Lady to have a job outside of her home.

Books were an important focus of Abigail’s life, and she founded the first circulating library in Sempronius, New York. Her husband often purchased books for her when he was traveling, and in the years of their marriage they collected over 4,000 books.

As First Lady, Fillmore was dismayed to find that there were no books in the White House, and she got Congress to appropriate $2,000 to purchase several hundred books. Shakespeare, Dickens, Thackeray, Burns, travel books, biographies, histories, law books, religious works and other novels were chosen.

An 1842 ankle injury had lasting effects on Abigail’s life and she limited her activities as First Lady during her husband’s abbreviated term of office (he succeeded to the Presidency with the death of Zachary Taylor). Standing during the snowy inauguration of President Franklin Pierce on March 4, 1853, she grew ill soon after, and died of pneumonia on March 30th.

Source: The World Almanac blog

Posted by University of Minnesota Law Library at 07:59 AM | Permalink

Public Talk: What Does 'America' Mean Today?

What: Public Talk: What Does 'America' Mean Today?
Who: Lewis H. Lapham
Where: Willey Hall Auditorium, University of Minnesota
When: October 4, 2007, 7 p.m.
Cost: Free and open to the public. Advance tickets required: 612-624-1528 or jfbell@umn.edu

As part of the 500th anniversary celebration of the James Ford Bell Library's Waldseemüller gores globe, acclaimed writer and scholar Lewis Lapham discusses how the meaning of 'America' has changed in the half-millennium since the word first appeared on Waldseemüller's map.

Lapham is editor of the new Lapham's Quarterly, host of the radio program "The World in Time," longtime editor and now national correspondent and contributor to Harper's magazine, and author of several books, including Theater of War. A dessert reception will follow.

This event is co-sponsored by the Friends of the University of Minnesota Libraries.

Exhibit: The Map that Named America: 1507—2007

What: Exhibit: The Map that Named America: 1507—2007
Where: T.R. Anderson Gallery, James Ford Bell Library, Wilson Library, University of Minnesota
When: October 1—December 31, 2007, Monday—Wednesday, Friday, 8:30 a.m.—4:30 p.m.; Thursday, 8:30 a.m.—8 p.m.
Cost: Free and open to the public

A public exhibit of rare, original documents related to early travel, including the James Ford Bell Library’s original 1507 Waldseemüller gores globe, the first map to include the word “America.” 2007 is the 500th birthday of the Waldseemüller globe, created by German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller and printed from an engraved woodblock to depict newly-discovered lands in the western Atlantic. The map’s details were drawn from sailors’ charts and other documents, including the popular account of explorer Amerigo Vespucci. It was purchased in 1954 by Minnesota industrialist James Ford Bell and is now part of the collection of the University of Minnesota’s James Ford Bell Library. The exhibit also includes an original version of the Cosmographiae Introductio (the 1509 book printed to explain and accompany the Waldseemuller map), original 16th century manuals and texts on navigation, and other period documents.

This event is cosponsored by the Friends of the University of Minnesota Libraries and the Associates of the James Ford Bell Library.

Event/Lecture: From the Presidential Archives

What: From the Presidential Archives: The Story of Private Polling and its Implications for American Democracy
Who: A talk with professor Lawrence Jacobs
Where: 4th Floor Gallery, Wilson Library, University of Minnesota
When: September 17, 2007, 5:30 p.m.
Cost: Free and open to the public

Professor Lawrence Jacobs presents a talk in celebration of the 100th anniversary of the University of Minnesota's Government Publications Library's official federal depository status.

Access to White House records is being narrowed as more types of communications, including e-mail, are not being saved or are being removed by the White House from public viewing. The hidden story of presidential private polling illustrates the importance of maintaining robust access to presidential communications and decisions. Presidents since John F. Kennedy have developed an extensive polling operation but have used it in surprising ways.

This event is cosponsored by the Friends of the University of Minnesota Libraries, the Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs, the Minnesota Journalism Center, the Center for Urban and Regional Affairs, and the departments of history and political science.

Posted by University of Minnesota Law Library at 07:42 AM | Permalink

Ed Gale is a Library Assistant III and has worked at the law library since 1978. There's little he doesn't know about the library! Ed supervises the collection, watching for shelving problems, training student stacks workers, and calculating growth and shifting. In fact, Ed's favorite part of his job is measuring for moving the collection.

In his free time, Ed enjoys coin collecting. He would have liked to have lunch with Albert Einstein if he had the chance. The library is lucky to have Ed around!

Posted by University of Minnesota Law Library at 08:43 AM | Permalink

Legal Portraits Online http://www.law.harvard.edu/library/collections/special/online-collections/portraits/

The Harvard Law School Library has quite an impressive collection of legal art and visual materials, and as of late, they have been working to digitize these works and place them online for the web-browsing public. The collection includes images of jurists, political figures, legal thinkers, and lawyers that date from the Middle Ages all the way up to the late twentieth century. As the website notes, the collection is quite strong in its coverage of eighteenth and nineteenth century British and American lawyers, including such luminaries as Jeremy Bentham and John Marshall.

Visitors can search the collection at their leisure, and they can also look at the online exhibition titled "The Legal Portrait Project Online", if they wish to do so. [KMG]

Source: The Scout Report August 31, 2007
Volume 14, Number 33
Copyright Internet Scout Project, 1994-2007.
The Internet Scout Project (http://scout.wisc.edu/), located in the Computer Sciences Department of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, provides information about the Internet to the U.S. research and education community under a grant from the National Science Foundation, number NCR-9712163.

Posted by University of Minnesota Law Library at 11:36 AM | Permalink

The Law Library is pleased to announce the availability of three new digital resources:

Making of Modern Law: Trials, 1600 – 1926: http://www.lib.umn.edu/cgi-bin/mml_trials
This historical collection provides full text access to trial accounts, transcripts, briefs, arguments, and documents covering a vast range of trials from America, the British Empire and the world. This resource brings together over 10,000 titles held by the Harvard and Yale law libraries and the Library of the Bar of the City of New York. Full text searching capability allows researchers to explore these materials in ways that were not possible with print format.

HeinOnline’s U.S. Congressional Documents Collection: http://www.heinonline.org/HOL/Index?collection=congrec&set_as_cursor=clear

This new HeinOnline collection includes the complete Annals of Congress, Register of Debates, Congressional Globe, Journals of the Continental Congress, and American State Papers. Portions of the Congressional Record are now available, and Hein intends to have the complete Congressional Record available by mid-2008.

HeinOnline’s American Law Institute Library: http://www.heinonline.org/HOL/Index?collection=ali&set_as_cursor=clear

The initial release of the ALI library includes a digital version of the ALI Guide, Annual Reports, Proceedings of Annual Meetings, the ALI Reporter, the UCC, archival material from the Statement of Essential Human Rights, the Model Penal Code, and Restatement, Second, Torts. In the coming months, Hein will continue adding content to create a complete ALI collection.

Each of these collections is available campus-wide and via remote access.

Posted by University of Minnesota Law Library at 12:21 PM | Permalink

Here is the list of new titles the law library acquired in August 2007. The list is also on the library's home page.

August Acquisitions

Posted by University of Minnesota Law Library at 10:26 AM | Permalink

Foreign, Comparative & International Law Librarian Mary Rumsey just completed and uploaded a new guide on the Law Library's homepage: Writing Resources for Law Students.

It’s intended for all involved in legal writing. It should be helpful to law journal editors and staff; legal writing instructors and students, moot court teams, and seminar students.

Other resources in this section include Choosing a Topic for your Journal Article, Frequently-Cited Treaties and Other International Instruments, and a Guide for Journal Source-Finders.

Posted by University of Minnesota Law Library at 11:36 AM | Permalink

Suzanne Thorpe is Associate Director for Faculty, Research, and Instructional Services at the Law Library. She has worked at the library since 1987, directing the staff in delivering reference, circulation and interlibrary loan services to the law library’s patrons. A significant portion of her job involves assisting law school faculty members with their research. She also participates in legal research instruction and collection development. The most enjoyable part of her job is being able to help find needed information, (She adds: "It’s tough when I have to admit I can’t find it") and being challenged by the ever increasing amount of information there is to find.

Suzanne loves spending time in Scandinavia, as well as gardening, cooking, reading, and water aerobics. She is currently owned by two sweet kitties (see photos: Sonja (a tortie/tabbie) and Mia (black & white)), and has also been adopted by a neighbor cat named Schmitty (smoke colored and looking lion-esque above). "He waits for me on my doorstep every day, even in the rain." Suzanne's personal motto is: "Be dependable and do a great job."

Posted by University of Minnesota Law Library at 10:13 AM | Permalink