Legal Research

ABA May Support Greater Law School Transparency

Posted on October 21, 2010
ABA President Steve Zack recently told a gathering of law school deans and professors that the organization is considering a proposal that would require accredited law schools to disclose cost and employment statistics to all accepted law school applicants...

Regulating the Legal Industry - International Perspectives

Posted on October 20, 2010
Think that the large number of U.S. law school graduates are making the job market too tough for young attorneys? Apparently other countries have problems with regulating the legal profession that make similar issues in the U.S. seem paltry. In India, there are over 1,000 law schools...

Law Library of Congress: Congressional Hearings

Posted on October 19, 2010
The Law Library of Congress contains approximately 75,000 volumes of printed Congressional Hearings."As part of the Law Library?s transition to the digital future, a collaborative pilot project was undertaken with Google, Inc., to digitize the entire collection and make it freely available to Congress and the world...

MetaLib

Posted on October 18, 2010
MetaLib is a federated search engine that searches multiple U.S. Federal government databases, retrieving reports, articles, and citations while providing direct links to selected resources available online. You can search in a variety of information resources, such as catalogs, reference databases, digital repositories, or subject-based Web gateways...

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Rule of Law Index

Posted on October 16, 2010
The World Justice Project, following "three years of intensive development, testing, and vetting--including interviewing 35,000 people and over 900 experts in 35 countries," released its first annual WJP Rule of Law Index on October 14. The Index provides detailed information on ten dimensions of the rule of law--from open government and fundamental freedoms to the absence of corruption--in countries representing every region of the world...

My turn

Posted on October 15, 2010
Usually I convey to you important, interesting, useful or fun tidbits of information and maybe even an insight once in a while. Today is my day to ask information from you. I know you all text. Would you use a service by which you could text a question to a Reference librarian? And, would you be willing to share your cell number so that we could set up this service?Inquiring felines want to know...

A Trend? Rising Civil Rights Complaints In Education

Posted on October 14, 2010
According to this article, the Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights received nearly 7,000 complaints this fiscal year, an eleven percent increase over the previous year, and the largest increase in at least ten years. A random spike, or a burgeoning trend? Read the article to learn more...

CooCoo

Posted on October 13, 2010
This post has absolutely nothing to do with legal research, law school, or the practice of law. However it is indispensable information for many people who work or go to school at Hofstra.LIRR train schedules are available via text message. To receive a text message that includes the schedule for the next five trains, send a text message to 266266 with the name of the departure station and the arrival station (i...

Petition to Decision: the Supreme Court and 42 U.S.C. § 1983

Posted on October 12, 2010
If you are looking for a comprehensive digital archive of all the available papers of the Supreme Court justices relating to selected civil rights cases, you're in luck. David Achtenberg of the University of Missouri?Kansas City School of Law, just launched the Petition to Decision website...

Columbus Day

Posted on October 11, 2010
Columbus Day did not become a Federal holiday until 1937 although some localities have honored the day since the 18th Century. Observance of the day is meant to honor Columbus' achievements, but in recent years the day has become controversial. Columbus did know that the world is round, but it was thought that only the Atlantic lay between Europe, Africa and Asia (old world)...

New Library Website Tour

Posted on October 09, 2010
Do you need some guidance on where to find articles, how to use the online catalog, or how to locate past exams? Could you use a quick refresher on finding resources for term papers or how to use Journal Finder or WorldCat? That's easy--just take the guided webcast tour of the Library's website...

Research web tutorials

Posted on October 08, 2010
Many of you are in the middle of researching for your papers. If you need a research refresher, check out our Research Instruction Webcasts off of the Library's homepage. You will find a link to a Paper Writing web cast - which will show you useful databases and techniques for your research...

Supreme Court Pinch-Hitters?

Posted on October 07, 2010
What do you think about the idea of having substitute Supreme Court justices during instances of recusals? Cornell Law School professor Michael C. Dorf discusses the issue here.Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

Blawgs: Still Around, Still Useful

Posted on October 06, 2010
Perennial legal technology commentator Robert Ambrogi had a recent article in Law Technology News declaring that, although the universe of legal commentary and analysis is full of abandoned or useless legal blogs (or "blawgs"), there are also a number of excellent legal blogs out there, and, like it or not, legal blogs have become a very important source for legal news and analysis...

InnocenceRecord.org

Posted on October 05, 2010
The Innocence Project and Winston & Strawn LLP launched InnocenceRecord.org, an online-line searchable database of the court records and other data of the cases of those who have been wrongfully convicted and later exonerated through DNA evidence...

Email & litigation

Posted on October 04, 2010
While most of you probably text rather than use email, in business and law email is still used for communication. This article "5 Tips to Keep Loose E-mails from Sinking Litigation" is a good reminder to take care with the content of your emails especially work email...

Now, For Some Real World Advice...

Posted on October 02, 2010
"What Would You Tell a Law Student Before They Enter the 'Real World'?" That was the question posed by this week's Elephant Post on Three Geeks and a Law Blog. Answers were solicited from practitioner experts, all speaking from their various law practice perspectives: client service; human resources; small firm and solo; information technology; business and career development; and (of course) library...

Past Facebook And MySpace Postings Are Discoverable?

Posted on September 30, 2010
When it comes to the courts, your privacy settings on your social networking sites may not matter. Find out why here.Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

Tweeter + Brief = Twief?

Posted on September 30, 2010
A little birdie told me that a brief cites a tweet from a law professor! Kudos Legal Writing Prof Blog for the post.Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

Banned Book Week: Sept. 25th - Oct. 2nd

Posted on September 27, 2010
Banned Books Week (BBW) is an annual event celebrating the freedom to read and the importance of the First Amendment. Held during the last week of September, Banned Books Week highlights the benefits of free and open access to information while drawing attention to the harms of censorship by spotlighting actual or attempted bannings of books across the United States...

Cambridge Journals Online

Posted on September 25, 2010
It's paper writing time, and many of you will soon be looking for some great scholarly articles on legal and interdisciplinary topics. Don't overlook Cambridge Journals Online, a multidisciplinary collection of articles from 236 authoritative journals in political science, law, history, economics, and the sciences...

Don't forget Research Guides

Posted on September 24, 2010
For those of you doing any kind of research (1Ls - memos for Legal Writing, 2Ls, 3Ls and 4Ls - papers and notes), make sure to check out our online Research Guides . Some of these are pdfs of handouts, others are web-based research guides. The topics range from Recommended Treatises and to Forms for drafting, Tax, Family and International Law research...

New Health Care Law Begins To Take Effect

Posted on September 23, 2010
The nation?s new health care law is now six months old, the date at which it becomes operative and begins to deliver its promised benefits and protections. Read a brief but informative FAQ on the law here. Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

Gmail Chat

Posted on September 22, 2010
Students, were you aware that you can ask reference questions via Gmail Chat (or Gchat, Google Chat, or whatever else you might call it)? You can. However, since this service is only available to the Hofstra Law School community, you will have to call or visit the library to get the library's contact information for Gmail Chat...

A Belated Happy International Talk Like A Pirate Day!

Posted on September 21, 2010
September 19th was International Talk Like A Pirate Day! The Law Library of Congress has digitized its collection of pre-1923 piracy trials. This historical collection of piracy trials is critical for understanding how the various nations of the world handled piracy issues before the year 1900...

Google Instant

Posted on September 20, 2010
Recently released "Google Instant" shows results as you type. You can see search results as you type and adapt search terms as needed. To access just click on search settings, scroll down screen and select for google instant and save your preferences...

Journal Finder

Posted on September 18, 2010
Lately, I've noticed the Reference Librarians helping lots of students find articles online. Students often have questions about using Journal Finder. You can link to Journal Finder either from the Hofstra University website or from the Law Library website's main page, under Research...

Advanced tips for Lexis and Westlaw

Posted on September 17, 2010
Do you know that you can use Shepards and KeyCite on Lexis and Westlaw to find cases and articles on a particular topic? How about limiting your search by doing a search within a search using Focus or Locate? Both of these tools can help with writing research papers and memoranda of law for your classes...

Being A Faculty Research Assistant

Posted on September 16, 2010
A 2007 article in Student Lawyer, available here from the Social Science Research Network (SSRN), describes the advantages of becoming a faculty research assistant. Also included is good advice about obtaining such a position, as well as how to excel in the job once you have obtained it...

New Enhancements to THOMAS

Posted on September 14, 2010
The Library of Congress announced new enhancements to THOMAS. Building upon the enhancements made earlier in the year, the latest enhancements add a mobile-friendly homepage, integrate features from the Library of Congress and Law Library of Congress websites into THOMAS, and add a new portal to state legislature websites...

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