Legal Research

Google Instant & Legal Search

Posted on December 06, 2010
What does Google instant mean for legal search? This is a question that Steve Matthews pondered recently. He has written and made available some of the issues that he thinks are important. As we have learned in so many online innovations - other activities as well - we do our best to make a service better but then there are the results that just were not anticipated...

Treaty Citations -- Sometimes They Don't Exist as Expected

Posted on December 05, 2010
A recent opinion article in The New York Times describes how we can expect the United States to rely more on treaty-like agreements than on actual treaties in the future. In such agreements, the U.S. agrees to try wholeheartedly to pass legislation that achieves the goals of the agreement, rather than signing a treaty and sending it to the Senate for ratification, because treaty ratification requires 67 votes in the Senate and legislation only requires 60 votes (with the modern-day filibuster)...

Heavenly Escapes

Posted on December 04, 2010
Yes, you can escape to a galaxy far, far away, where law school exams are not the center of the universe. Take a few minutes to relax and be inspired by the breathtaking space photos at two of my favorite web sites. The National Space Science Data Photo Gallery features views of the planets, galaxies and comets, all collected from NASA space missions...

Study Location Strategies

Posted on December 03, 2010
Our Library's design is rather convoluted, having evolved over time, but it presents you with some excellent studying alternatives. For example, for those of you who like it as quiet as possible, go to the Lower Level stacks area. There are no offices, restrooms or other potential noise generators...

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EU Launches Antitrust Probe Into Google

Posted on December 02, 2010
According to this Associated Press story, European Union regulators are looking into ?whether Google Inc. has been manipulating its search results to stifle competition, funnel more traffic to its own services and protect its global stranglehold of the online search market?...

Helpful Tips During Exam Period

Posted on November 30, 2010
Knowing where to find helpful study guides, the archived exam, and study room policies may prove helpful when preparing for final exams. Click here to access helpful study guides. Most current study guides are located in our Reserve collection and can be charged out for three hour periods...

Law school clinics and academic freedom

Posted on November 29, 2010
The current issue of Academe Online ("Kneecapping" Academic Freedom) highlights increasing attacks on law school clinics. Clinics are an important opportunity for students to receive hands on legal experience, but clinics may be challenged when they represent clients opposed to corporate or legislative interests...

European Library

Posted on November 22, 2010
The European Library is a free resource that permits you to search resources of the 48 national libraries of Europe. Quality and reliability are guaranteed; although, resources are not translated. Many of the resources are digital.A bonus are the exhibitions the European Library makes available...

Cyber Crime Resources

Posted on November 20, 2010
Anyone interested in internet law, including computer crime, should be aware of several online resources for collecting, compiling, and utilizing information on cyber crime complaints. The Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), a partnership between the FBI the National White Collar Crime Center, has logged over two million consumer complaints of internet fraud, scams, identity theft, and other crimes on its web site since it began operations in 2000...

Planning for Turkey day

Posted on November 19, 2010
As you might imagine, we felines (even the virtual ones) are quite fond of the day you humans set aside to eat birds. (We just wonder why it is only once per year). Although we cats tend to be more spontaneous in our bird eating, we can respect your need to plan and to take time off to celebrate...

Facebook Can Legally Terminate Users' Accounts

Posted on November 18, 2010
Are you curious as to the circumstances under which your Facebook or other online social networking account might be legally terminated? This article should help to satisfy that curiosity.Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

Bill Jackets Online

Posted on November 17, 2010
An update to this post from two years ago: bill jackets through 2008 are now available online. (Bill jackets contain the most important legislative history documents for New York statutes.)Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

Federal Trade Commission Business Center

Posted on November 16, 2010
The Federal Trade Commission has a new Business Center at Business.ftc.gov. The Business Center provides legal resources for particular industries and "plain-language guidance about advertising, credit, telemarketing, privacy, and other topics." Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

From the NYT: Nazis were given "safe haven" in U.S.

Posted on November 15, 2010
The New York Times reports today that they obtained the full text of a DOJ report detailing Nazis admitted into the U.S. The report is an important and fascinating historical work that shows government complicity in hiding Nazis as well as those who worked to identify and bring them to justice...

Changes for Exam Archive, HeinOnline

Posted on November 13, 2010
There are some recent changes in how you access two favorite Library resources, the Exam Archive and HeinOnline. Now, when you click on the "Exam Archive" link under Resources on the Law Library's main page, you will be taken directly to the Hofstra portal to log in, and then immediately to the law exam course page, without having to use an additional password...

Other Supreme Courts Around The World

Posted on November 11, 2010
The United States Supreme Court is always in the news, it seems. Sometimes, though, it is interesting to see what other Supreme Courts of the world are doing. For instance, this news story mentions that the Supreme Court of South Korea recently upheld an appellate court decision that sentenced a defendant to a two-years? suspended sentence for possessing instrumental music with song titles that praise neighboring enemy North Korea...

Dodd-Frank Legislative History Webpage

Posted on November 10, 2010
Two years ago we mentioned that the Legislative Sourcebook on the website of the Law Librarians' Society of Washington, D.C. is a great source of compiled legislative histories (where someone has already compiled the legislative history documents, or at least a list of them, so that you don't have to)...

Library of Congress: Current Legal Topics

Posted on November 09, 2010
The Library of Congress' Current Legal Topics is a guide that provides legal commentary and recommended resources on issues and events with legal significance. Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

Law in Popular Culture

Posted on November 06, 2010
If you are looking for resources on how lawyers have been reflected in the popular culture (novels, feature films, comics, humor, television, and more), a good place to begin is with the Law in Popular Culture Collection at the Tarlton Law Library at the University of Texas at Austin...

NY Bar Exam

Posted on November 05, 2010
It is that time for the takers of the July 20101 N.Y. Bar Exam. Cross your paws for all of your friends out there who graduated and took the exam.And yes, if you are a 3L or 4L, it is something you will need to start to think about. The New York Board of Law Examiners page is the place to start...

Political Free Speech And Telephone Service Outages

Posted on November 04, 2010
It seems that telephone service providers sometimes encounter difficulties in routing all of the automated political solicitations that tend to mushroom, come election time. Read more about Comcast?s service outages, caused by the automated dialers, here...

Blekko

Posted on November 03, 2010
Search engines that are not Google do still exist. Some of them are even being started today. Blekko, which launched this week, has been getting a lot of press. (An NY Times article is here; a ComputerWorld article is here.)This search engine is a bit of a throwback, in that it relies largely on human-edited search results...

Google Books: More Than a Page Rank

Posted on November 02, 2010
I was prowling the Law Librarian's blog and came across a post about "an article on The Atlantic web site that offers a bit on insight into how Google creates a result set for searches in Google Books."

Reminder: Tomorrow (Tues. Nov. 2nd) is Election Day

Posted on November 01, 2010
Just a reminder to vote tomorrow (Tuesday, November 2nd). Mid-terms are important and if you have heard even a little political news, you are aware that control of Congress may shift. Sites that may be of interest to you:New York State Board of Elections: Official state site to inform citizens of New York State...

Academic OneFile

Posted on October 30, 2010
Just in time for paper writing, Hofstra has a new multi-disciplinary articles database: Academic OneFile. A premier source for full-text, peer-reviewed articles from the world's leading journals, Academic OneFile offers especially strong coverage of science and technology, health and medicine, economics, business and literature...

Black Cat Day

Posted on October 29, 2010
Sunday is Black Cat Day. (You humans, for some undecipherable reason, call it "Halloween". Go figure.)So being a virtual Law Library Black Cat (yes, virtual cats can have a color), I decided to stalk the Web for laws on Halloween. I have to give it to you humans (which is rare for a feline to admit), even if you cannot get the name straight, one of you did put together Weirdest Halloween laws in the country ...

Visual History of the Supreme Court

Posted on October 28, 2010
Timeplots.com has created a beautiful poster/webpage which diagrams the history of the U.S. Supreme Court, including all of its justices, who appointed them, when they served, and landmark decisions. It is viewable here. A snapshot of part of it is below...

Library of Congress: Guide to Law Online

Posted on October 26, 2010
The Guide to Law Online, prepared by the Law Library of Congress Public Services Division, is an annotated guide to sources of information on government and law available online. It includes selected links to useful and reliable sites for legal information...

Justis: new to Law Library's online resources

Posted on October 25, 2010
Hofstra Law Library is pleased to announce that we now subscribe to Justis: it is the online legal library of UK, EU and Irish law dating from 1163 to the present day. If you are engaged in European Union legal research, this database is for you. It has complete information (full text) and a strong / flexible search interface...

Just the Facts

Posted on October 22, 2010
With just over a week to go in what can safely be described as a contentious election, this is a good time to think about facts. Exactly how accurate are the claims of politicians and political advertising?There are a number of good web sites to help answer this question...

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