Legal Research

The Harvard Civil Rights-Civil

Posted on November 20, 2009
The Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review is publishing a new online supplement that will provide information on recent significant legislation and cases, articles that discuss policy proposals as they relate to current local and national civil rights issues, and...

Latest Sentencing Guidelines Manual Available (For Free)

Posted on November 19, 2009
The United States Sentencing Commission has released its 2009 Federal Sentencing Guidelines Manual. It's available free of charge on the Commission's website in HTML and Adobe formats for viewing, downloading and printing. The LRC hasn't yet received the print format,...

Using Foreign and International Law in the U.S. Supreme Court

Posted on November 18, 2009
Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in two companion cases regarding whether it is cruel and unusual punishment within the meaning of the Eighth Amendment to sentence a juvenile to life in prison without the possibility of...

Can the destruction of the world be too far behind? Google takes on case law!

Posted on November 17, 2009
I?m sure many of you saw that Google enabled case law searching through its Google Scholar interface today. More info here! How this evolves will be very interesting to watch. Can Google become a credible competitor to Westlaw/Lexis? Who is...

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Wait, how did you do that?

Posted on November 16, 2009
Have you ever spent too much time trying to explain a website or excel function via chat? Wish that you could just show them what you are talking about? The Jing Project is an excellent solution. Jing is a free...

Just what are you going to do with those naked pictures of me?

Posted on November 13, 2009
No, it's not Carrie Prejean asking. Not unless she happens to be getting on a plane at an airport participating in Homeland Security's Whole Body Imaging Program. Those devices--slated to replace metal detectors at airports nationwide--capture detailed naked images of...

Event with John Prendergast, IPJ Scholar-in-Residence

Posted on November 11, 2009
Where: Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace & Justice Theater When: 6:30 pm - 8:00 pm Cost: Admission is free of charge Activist and author John Prendergastreturns to USD as a Joan B. Kroc Peace Scholar in Residence Nov. 8-21....

Connect to the LRC on the Go!

Posted on November 09, 2009
It's been a few weeks now since USD has "gone mobile" with their new iphone/ipod app. It has some pretty cool features like a GPS-enabled campus map and live Torrero scores. It also gives you access to both library catalogs....

Estate Tax Breaks Riding into the Sunset?

Posted on November 06, 2009
The big estate tax breaks of 2001 are due to sunset in 2010. That's just for rich people, right? Think again. Heirs of small business owners or even small farmers might be shocked at the market value of "the back...

The History of International Law in the Supreme Court

Posted on November 04, 2009
This Friday and Saturday (Nov. 6 & 7), the Santa Clara University School of Law will host a conference on The History of International Law in the Supreme Court. The first day of the conference will focus on the history...

Sounds like a good law to me . . .

Posted on October 30, 2009
What do Rod Blagojevich, former Enron CEO Jeff Skilling, former Illinois Governor George Ryan, former Alaska Rep. Bruce Weyhrauch, and former newspaper magnate Conrad Black have in common? They're all former, powerful, big-wigs? Yes, but that's too obvious...

Register now for Greening Borders: Cooperation, Security, and Diplomacy

Posted on October 28, 2009
The USD School of Peace Studies will host a three-day, binational working conference (November 18-20) to address controversies and enhance cooperation related to binational water use and management, development and growth, and public health. Student registration is $50...

WEST Makes Some of Its Most Popular Law Books Available Via Kindle

Posted on October 26, 2009
We knew the day was coming when the legal publishing world caught on to the popularity of e-book readers. ?Making Your Case? from Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia tops the list of books produced for the company?s first digital distribution...

LIVING LIBRARY A GREAT SUCCESS!

Posted on October 23, 2009
On October 21st the LRC hosted the Living Library and it was a big thumbs up from all who participated. The Legal Research Center invited students, staff, and faculty to challenge their preconceptions during the event. A Living Book is...

United Nations Day on Sat. Oct. 24th

Posted on October 21, 2009
United Nations Day celebrates the entry into force of the United Nations Charter on October 24th, 1945. The Charter designates that the United Nations "shall be devoted to making known to the peoples of the world the aims and achievements...

Report: Death Penalty is a "Wasteful Government Program"

Posted on October 21, 2009
The Death Penalty Information Center has released a report which concludes that, "[S]tates are wasting hundreds of millions of dollars on the death penalty, draining state budgets during the economic crisis and diverting funds from more effective anti-violence programs...

Patriot Act's Got Competition

Posted on October 16, 2009
The ACLU, predictably, thinks the original Patriot Act is "disastrous." It endorses S.1686, The Judicious Use of Surveillance Tools in Counterterrorism Efforts (JUSTICE) Act, introduced by Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI) and seven other senators. Say the senators, "[It] would fix...

bing vs. Google

Posted on October 16, 2009
Can't choose default search engine? Want to compare Bing & Google results? Just put your query in the search box and press Enter. You'll see results from both engines side by side. Search provider for Internet Explorer 7/8 and Firefox...

Crimes Against People with Disabilities--New Statistical Report

Posted on October 15, 2009
Have you wondered how people with disabilities fare as victims of nonfatal violent crime? Do perpetrators see them as easy targets resulting in greater victimization? Or do the cold hearts of the perps thaw enough to leave them alone? Now...

U.S. Supreme Court soon to hear Somalia human rights case

Posted on October 14, 2009
At the start of its new Term this month, the U.S. Supreme Court announced that it will hear arguments in Case No. 08-1555, Samantar v. Yousuf. The justices agreed to review a ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for...

IRS Takes Hard Line: No Tax Deduction for Burning Down the House

Posted on October 09, 2009
What better way is there to train someone how to fight a fire, then sending them into a burning house--under controlled circumstances, mind you--to do just that? Experiencing the (almost) real thing is certainly better than reading about a meth...

Check out what's new at the International Criminal Court

Posted on October 07, 2009
The International Criminal Court (ICC) recently launched the ICC Weekly Update containing detailed happenings of the past week and "case-related judicial work of the Court." PDF versions of current and back issues are available here.

OPEN MEMO RESEARCH SKILLS CLASS TODAY!

Posted on October 07, 2009
Today at noon in LRC classroom 132 the reference librarians will host a skills review for 1Ls nervous about researching the issues in their open memo. Come check it out!

Department of Homeland Security assistant secretary Alan Bersin speaks at USD

Posted on September 30, 2009
On September 11th, 2009, Mr. Bersin visited the Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice to speak on issues concerning the U.S.-Mexico border. Bersin focused his talk on the importance of working from both sides of the border to...

Net Neutrality: FCC Chair Advocates for New Regulations to Keep It That Way

Posted on September 24, 2009
If you heard or read his speech on Monday, his goals are lofty: to "allow anyone to contribute and innovate without permisssion," to continue to push decision making and intelligence "to the edge of the network," where no single entity...

International Day of Peace Celebration

Posted on September 22, 2009
When: TODAY! 12:15-2:15pm Where: Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace & Justice, Garden of the Sky Plaza In commemoration of the United Nations International Day of Peace, the IPJ invites all USD students, faculty, and staff, as well as the...

Nursing Student Legislation Training Today!

Posted on September 21, 2009
One of my very favorite tasks each semester is introducing legal research to the nursing students. They have a required course in health legislation and policy, so I get to show them how to find current bills winding their way...

HATE CRIME AWARENESS WEEK 2009

Posted on September 21, 2009
Seeing as the LRC was the target of some rotten hate crimes last year, it is important to note and support Hate Crimes Awareness Week on our campus. The more public voices there are to denounce this kind of searing...

New Diversity Initiative to Challenge Biases

Posted on September 17, 2009
The LRC, in partnership with Copley Library, the United Front Multicultural Center and Athletic Department, is presenting a unique social dialogue event called The Living Library. For two days in October the libraries will offer readers the opportunity to check...

FBI Releases Latest Annual Crime Statistics

Posted on September 17, 2009
It's that time of year again. The FBI has released its latest annual compilation of crime statistics, Crime in the United States, 2008. Good news! The number of violent crimes have dropped for the second consecutive year, while property crimes...

Twitter may not be catching on...but LinkedIn is!

Posted on September 17, 2009
There is no doubt about it ? if you are a law student and do not have a vibrant, comprehensive, and frequently-updated profile on LinkedIn, you are missing an essential tool in your job hunting, professional networking, and personal branding...

UN General Assembly 64th session

Posted on September 16, 2009
The United Nations opened the 64th session of the General Assemblyearlier this week. Leaders of the United Nations gathered on September 15th to open for the General Assembly, and General Debate will begin on the October 23rd and last until...

Twitter not catching on in the legal community

Posted on September 14, 2009
Despite predictions that Twitter would become a popular social media tools for attorneys, only 6% use it: http://legalblogwatch.typepad.com/legal_blog_watch/2009/09/only-a-small-percentage-of-lawyers-use-twitter.html

Redactions Redacted?

Posted on September 10, 2009
You'll be amazed to see the difference in the amount of information redacted in the very same 2004 report issued by two different administrations, only about one year apart. The 2004 report is Special Review of the CIA's Office of...

USD Trans-border Institute Event: A Vision for US-Mexico Border Security

Posted on September 09, 2009
Date: Friday, September 11, 2009 Location: Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace & JusticeTheatre Time: 2:00 pm - 3:45 pm Mr. Alan Bersin, Assistant Secretary for International Affairs for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, will share his vision of...

Ever read a living book? Here's your chance...

Posted on September 06, 2009
A new diversity project called The Living Library is coming here in October! Copley Library, the Legal Research Center, and the United Front/Multicultural Center are sponsoring the event to promote dialogue, reduce prejudices and encourage understanding of others: visitors to...

iAWFUL: Internet Advocates' Watchlist for Ugly Laws

Posted on September 04, 2009
This new website employs a "continually updated" Top Ten List which tracks "the Worst Internet Laws in America." The NetChoice Initiative website iAWFUL states, "Reckless and misguided laws, often originating at the state level, threaten to undermine the foundation of...

IPJ Peacebuilding in Guatemala

Posted on September 02, 2009
Event: Reweaving the Social Fabric in Post-Conflict Guatemala Date: Thursday, Sept. 3, 2009 Time: 12:15pm-1:45pm Location: Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice, Room C During the Summer of 2009 USD sent a team to Quiché ? the area...

CONGRATS TO OUR OUTSTANDING STUDENT EMPLOYEES!

Posted on August 31, 2009
Each month we nominate library student workers for Employee of the Month. I thought you might like to know that your classmates are working hard for your benefit, and they are the absolute best of the best! May gave us...

USD's Institute of Peace & Justice Names International Peacebuilder as New Executive Director

Posted on August 27, 2009
Milburn Line has been selected as the new executive director of the Joan B. Kroc Institute of Peace & Justice (IPJ) at the University of San Diego?s Joan B. Kroc School of Peace Studies. Mr. Line has worked in the...

WELCOME STUDENTS & FACULTY!

Posted on August 24, 2009
Today is the first day of classes. It is exciting to see all the new and returning students pursuing their studies with such purpose and vigor...or dragging themselves into the library with glazed-over eyes and shell shocked surprise. The faculty...

Torture and academic freedom

Posted on August 24, 2009
For a roundtable discussion of whether or not John Yoo, a tenured profesor at UC, Berkeley should be fired for his role in producing Justice Department memos that allegedly justified the torture of terror suspects, check out this article from...

Flickr v. Free Speech. Where Is Their Courage?

Posted on August 21, 2009
Check out techcrunch about the free speech and copyright debate that is unlikely to cool down any time soon. Sometime last week Flickr took down a photoshopped image of President Obama that makes him look like the Heath Ledger (Joker)...

Free Pacer Dockets for All

Posted on August 20, 2009
Courtport, LLC, a legal research and technology company, on Tuesday announced the launch of FreeCourtDockets.com, which enables anyone to retrieve full court dockets from any U.S. district civil, criminal, or bankruptcy court, as well as from the U.S...

World Humanitarian Day 2009

Posted on August 19, 2009
The 2009 World Humanitarian Day will be observed on August 19th as designated by General Assembly Resolution A/RES/63/139. The purpose of World Humanitarian Day is to increase public awareness about humanitarian assistance activities worldwide, the importance of international cooperation in...

Supreme Court will hear case on executive compensation in the fall

Posted on August 17, 2009
In Jones v. Harris Associates, the Supreme Court will decide whether or not mutual fund investors can recover for excessive fees collected by fund advisors. To see briefs and other documents for this case, go to: http://www.scotuswiki.com/index.php?title=Jones%2C_et_al...

Brave New [Book] World: iPhone Textbook Apps & G-Book Downloads

Posted on August 14, 2009
The iPhone is getting more and more fans as a college-textbook reader. The Wired Campus reports that one of the new publishers involved in theis project is Elsevier (Lexis's parent co), so law textbooks may be in the offing. While...

For Junior Lawyers, the Gravy Train Is Slowing

Posted on August 14, 2009
Many firms no longer let young associates bill their hours to clients at high rates. Instead, they're treated as apprentices. This provocative article by Michael Orey is from Business Week. Drinker Biddle & Reath, which has 12 offices in the...

U.S. Attorney Firings Documents Released

Posted on August 13, 2009
The House Judiciary Committee on August 11 released interview transcripts of Karl Rove and Harriet Miers on the U.S. Attorney firings, as well as over 5,400 pages of e-mails on the subject from the Bush White House and Republican National...

USD Event Calendar: Border Policy Roundtable

Posted on August 12, 2009
On Friday, August 14th, Congressman Bob-Filner (D-CA) and other prominent members of the community will participate in a border policy roundtable at the University of San Diego. The event will focus on binational and policy issues important to the San...

OpenRegs.com Gets Competition from the Feds

Posted on August 06, 2009
We blogged in June about OpenRegs.com's user-friendly enhancements. Well, the Feds aren't taking it sitting down. "The eRulemaking Program has launched a significant upgrade to the Web site that provides one-stop, public access to information related to current and forthcoming...

U.S. to Sign U.N. Disability Convention

Posted on August 05, 2009
U.S. President Barack Obama announced last week that he had instructed Susan Rice, the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, to signthe U.N. Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Parties to the Convention are required to promote, protect,...

9th Circuit reinstates the National Forest Service's road-building ban

Posted on August 05, 2009
The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals struck down a Bush administration policy that attempted to exempt large swaths of land from the Clinton-era Roadless Area Conservation Rule. Click here to read the full decision.

PLAY BALL!

Posted on August 04, 2009
From the RIPS Law Librarian blog: While browsing our new book truck, I came across the next book in the ABA series of ?little books of.? This one is The Little White Book of Baseball Law [by our own Professor...

Cash for Clunkers

Posted on July 30, 2009
Visit the official government website to determine eligibility requirements for the CAR Allowance Rebate System (CARS). Easily find the underlying statutes and regs by clicking the "Official Information" tab, and the EPA's fuel economy ratings with the "Fueleconomy...

Iceland moves towards EU membership

Posted on July 29, 2009
Iceland has moved a step closer to membership in the European Union after parliament approved a controversial measure to apply for membership by a narrow margin of 33 votes to 28 with two abstentions. The European Union (EU) accepted Iceland's...

110 Countries Are Now Parties to the International Criminal Court

Posted on July 22, 2009
The Czech Republic is the latest country to join the International Criminal Court. The government of the Czech Republic deposited its instrument of ratification to the Rome Statute yesterday. When the statute enters into force on October 1, 2009, the...

Law Class Uses Wiki as Its Textbook

Posted on July 21, 2009
Law professors struggle with how they can use technology in their classes and teaching. Some professors have banned laptops, saying they can just be a distraction. But in California, one group began teaching law courses using Second Life. When University...

Judge Sonia Sotomayor: Analysis of Selected Opinions

Posted on July 16, 2009
During the current confirmation hearings, are you more interested in being knowledgeable about Judge Sonia Sotomayor's written opinions than in the brouhaha over her off-the-cuff remarks? But taking the time to wade through them is not an option? If so,...

Scholars Archive Guantanamo Bay Records

Posted on July 15, 2009
New York University?s Tamiment Library and Seton Hall University's Center for Policy and Research are working together on a project to document, preserve, and make accessible the legal records and the human stories of the Guantanamo Bay Detention Camp...

National Archives releases materials relating to Sonia Sotomayor

Posted on July 13, 2009
Announcement from the National Archives website: The National Archives Office of Records Services, the William J. Clinton Library, and the George H.W. Bush Library will release records relating to Judge Sonia Sotomayor. The Clinton Library is releasing 5,032 pages of...

Library of Congress Has Added A New Book: Facebook

Posted on July 13, 2009
And here it is. Check out the Library of Congress blog post for details.

CFR Now Online Back to 1938

Posted on July 09, 2009
Anybody doing historical research in the Code of Federal Regulations knows what it's like to dig around in drawers of microfiche. Sure, Westlaw has it back to 1984, and Lexis to 1981. But you're clerking, you need to unearth the...

OAS Suspends Membership of Honduras

Posted on July 08, 2009
On July 5, 2009, the Organization of American States (OAS) invoked Article 21 of the Inter-American Democratic Charter, suspending Honduras from active participation in the hemispheric body. The Organization of American States is an international organization, headquartered in Washington, D...

Meebo a reference librarian

Posted on July 07, 2009
Check out chat reference, available on our homepage. Currently a librarian will be available M-F 1-5, but soon we'll be available to chat with you whenever the reference desk is open. Ask a question, or just say hi!

Legal Research Center Welcomes New Director

Posted on July 07, 2009
A big welcome to Professor Karl Gruben, the new LRC Director and Associate Dean for Information Services. He began work July 1st and has enjoyed the relaxing summertime environment here at the LRC: NOT! The day before Karl arrived, a...

BNA Tax Portfolios Now Online

Posted on July 02, 2009
Tax researchers can rejoice now that the LRC has purchased online access to BNA's Tax Management Portfolios for U.S. Income, Foreign Income and for Estates, Gifts & Trusts. Links are being added to the LRC website to facilitate remote access,...

Human Rights Advocate Harold H. Koh Confirmed by the United States

Posted on July 01, 2009
On June 25, 2009, Harold H. Koh, Dean of the Yale Law School, was confirmed by the U.S. Senate for the position of Legal Adviser to Secretary of State Hilary Clinton by a vote of 62-35. The Legal Advisor is...

Supreme Court issues decision in reverse discrimination case

Posted on June 29, 2009
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled today in favor of white firefighters claiming reverse discrimination against the city of New Haven. The 5-4 decision reverses the Second Circuit Court of Appeal opinion heard by Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor and two...

Happy Birthday to the Barcode!

Posted on June 26, 2009
Gizmodo reports that on today's date in the early 1970s, a small supermarket in Troy, Ohio became the testing ground for the world's first commercial bar code scanner. The story says that at 8:01 am, Sharon Buchanan scanned a 10-pack...

New Federal Regulation Tracking Site

Posted on June 25, 2009
OpenRegs.com is an user-friendly regulatory portal with the stated goal, "to make the proposed and final regulations published in the Federal Register easy to find and discuss, so that citizens can become better informed and more involved in the regulatory...

Ex-minister gets 30 years in Rwanda genocide

Posted on June 24, 2009
On Monday the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda sentenced former Rwandan interior minister Callixte Kalimanzira to 30 years imprisonment for his role in the death of thousands of Tutsi refugees in country's 1994 genocide. The 1994 genocide was led by...

Google's Street View includes USD!

Posted on June 22, 2009
Google Maps' "Street View" feature provides closeup photos--taken from cars--of buildings around the world. Now through the genius of high technology--mounting a camera on a bicycle, for example --campuses are within Google's reach. Today eSchool Newsreports that that pedal-powered vehicles...

Instant message a reference librarian!

Posted on June 15, 2009
We started using Meebo last semester and it works pretty well. The only problem is that we get busy helping people and forget to look at the screen to see if an IM has popped up! Sometimes we get a...

Back Taxes Got You Stymied?

Posted on June 12, 2009
Ok. So you (or your client) were so caught up in the events of the turn of the century, that you forgot to file your 1999 federal income taxes. And the party's long over now, as the IRS has collared...

lonely in the library

Posted on May 27, 2009
It's always this way at the end of May. Another class has graduated. Most everyone is off doing their summer thang. The library is empty. A trickle of bar studiers is starting to come by now and then, but not...

Woo hooooo! LRC is open until 2 am!

Posted on April 28, 2009
During finals, the LRC is extending its hours on a trial basis. As of tonight, the LRC will be open from 7 am - 2 am until May 14th. We have hired some very nice people who happen to like...

COKE MACHINE GETS KICKED INTO CALIFORNIA COPYROOM

Posted on April 01, 2009
It was one of those Twilight Zone moments when you aren't quite sure if the question or the questioner are offbase. "Where did the coke machine go?" asked the distinguished law student. Me: "Huh? Isn't it over in the corner?"...

COKE MACHINE BREAKS NEW GROUND IN THE LRC

Posted on March 17, 2009
Thanks to lobbying from the administration of SBA President Marshall Skaletsky, the LRC has a new coke machine on the east side of the Information Services room, around the corner from the Electronic Services office. For the directionally challenged, go...

What is going on in the LRC?

Posted on March 13, 2009
OK, so the news reports haven't been that great lately -- not about the economy, and not about the bias motivated incidents here. We have put up some signs that state: The LRC is a Hate Speech Free Zone. It...

BarackBerry for a hi-tech US president

Posted on January 29, 2009
I just loved the catchy title of this one, out of The Times of India. According to sources, "the device will be equipped with a superencryption package, the exclusive Sectera Edge, made by General Dynamics, which can encode top secret...

It's time for a break!

Posted on December 23, 2008
Finals are over, the holidays are here, and the library is dead. Not that we aren't still breathing, mind you, but there is a stillness in the stacks, a hush in the halls, a quiet in the quietude. Over intersession...

US NEWS: Best Career in 2009!

Posted on December 19, 2008
It's official! The people at US News and World Report who know about these things have named librarianship as one of the best careers to have in 2009. All the good things that we do are mentioned: helping people dig...

SPEND HALLOWEEN WITH THE LIBRARY GHOSTS...

Posted on October 31, 2008
On the Britannica Blog you can find a list of haunted libraries from different parts of the U.S. In California we have several mentions, among them: Alhambra, Ramona Convent Secondary School. Founded in 1889, this is one of the oldest...

More Student-Professor Chat Sessions Wanted

Posted on October 13, 2008
According to Wired Campus: When asked what kind of educational technology they wanted most, students?replete with iPods, laptops, and social-network pages on Facebook?say the thing they don?t have and wish for most is an online chat with their professors...

You are your email handle

Posted on October 06, 2008
Wired Campus says: Many students fire off e-mail messages to their professors without giving much thought to what they?re writing. Professors posting to a popular thread have shared e-mail messages riddled with grammatical errors, unreasonable demands, and silly or unbelievable...

Personal statements go Hollywood

Posted on September 25, 2008
Students applying to Michigan State University now have the option to send a personal statement to the university?s admissions office without ever typing a single word. According to Michigan State?s student newspaper, The State News, the university now lets prospective...

Interviewing for library director

Posted on September 24, 2008
I haven't been posting lately due to a lot of things, but mostly I have been in charge of a local professional association workshop that was held last Friday, and interviewing lots of candidates for LRC director. This is an...

USD Student Workers Inspire Federal Legislation

Posted on September 06, 2008
The reauthorization of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (H.R. 4137) is 1,158 pages long and took five years (and 14 short-term extensions) for Congress to hammer out before President Bush signed it into law on August 14, 2008. Buried...

Woman hauled off in cuffs for overdue fines

Posted on September 03, 2008
Heidi Dalibor of Wisconsin was arrested for not returning two overdue library books from her public library. All told, the sad chapter in her life cost Dalibor $201: $30 for the overdue books, and $171 for the fines. Incidentally, the...

First Day of classes! :-) First Laptop stolen :-(

Posted on August 25, 2008
The excitement of the beginning of a new school year was tempered today by the theft of a student's laptop from the reserve room. For those new to the LRC, the reserve room is the small room down the hallway...

entering the realm of the creepy treehouse

Posted on August 18, 2008
The Chron's Wired Campus talks about a growing number of professors who are experimenting with Facebook, Twitter, and other social-networking tools for their courses, but some students react in horror to an invitation to join a professor's personal network...

The future of TV...or its demise?

Posted on August 13, 2008
Interesting article in the Chron's Wired Campus today: TextMeTV, where some students sit on a couch and read text messages being sent in live from viewers, and posted on a box in the corner of the screen. Texters are encouraged...

Casemaker social network for law students

Posted on August 12, 2008
Check out the Casemaker social network to ?connect with other students ?find career opportunities ?use best practice tools CasemakerX is a free service to provide a network for law students and legal professionals that creates an information portal for self-promotion,...

Cuil - the world's biggest search engine!

Posted on August 11, 2008
At least that is what Cuil claims. According to Cuil, it searches more pages on the Web than anyone else? "three times as many as Google and ten times as many as Microsoft." Here's how: "Rather than rely on superficial...

Greener on-campus computing ideas?

Posted on August 01, 2008
Josh Fischman at the Chron's Wired newsbrief relays some campus fixes for computer energy hogs. Computer processors suck in huge amounts of electricity and give off a lot of heat. As Fischman writes, "What is an energy-conscious (and budget-conscious) CIO...

Google launches Wikipedia competitor

Posted on July 23, 2008
Google's Knol is now up and running! A knol is "a unit of knowledge" according to the page (i have to look that one up). Like Wiki, people can add their own knowledge pages. But these are signed by the...

digital age is destroying us by ruining our ability to concentrate

Posted on July 23, 2008
what? nothing new...but... oh yeah...this guy Brian Appleyard is ironically trying to concentrate on reading a book called Distracted: The Erosion of Attention and the Coming Dark Age by Maggie Jackson while thinking about all the distractions in life and...

California Bar Allows CLE For Virtual Program on Second Life

Posted on July 18, 2008
It happened here first! According to Legal Pad, Second Life (the virtual reality world) is now hosting a four-part speaker series -- sponsored by the Second Life Bar Association, of course! The first session about copyright and trademark infringement had...

New Copyright Protection Info-meter!

Posted on July 17, 2008
The American Library Association has come up with a digital slide rule that is designed to help figure out if a work is copyright protected. The numerous exceptions -- and the exceptions to the exceptons -- are shoe-horned in, so...

Google disses librarians -- hisses heard 'round the info-highway!

Posted on July 11, 2008
We poor librarians! We scour the earth for just the bit of information that someone needs to finish their paper/article/project/brief or whatever, and what do we get? A big fat ZERO. From Google, that is. Librarians have long complained about...

Where did all the newsprint go?

Posted on July 10, 2008
Interesting op piece in the LA Times online about how the clash of Old and New Media has opened up "a historical bonanza" of free information to readers. There is a back and forth between two news junkies about the...

Library borrower ends up behind bars!

Posted on July 09, 2008
According to a Yahoo article "a man accused of checking out hundreds of books and DVDs from libraries around the Denver area and then trying to sell them will be doing all his library borrowing from now on behind bars."...

The joy of browsing through old books...

Posted on July 07, 2008
What can I say? I am a librarian, so in addition to those nifty online information systems I still love books. Online bookseller AbeBooks.com recently asked its vendors about the strangest things they?ve found in used books. The list will...

Law schools suffer when they stand up to discrimination

Posted on June 30, 2008
From today's NYT -- Another fight over the military?s ?don?t ask, don?t tell? policy is being watched closely on the campus of the Vermont Law School, a small 600-student institution. The Vermont Law School is one of only two law...

'U.S. News' Prevents Law Schools From 'Gaming' its Rankings

Posted on June 30, 2008
According to today's Chron, U.S. News & World Report is considering changing how it computes its law-school rankings to prevent schools from ?gaming? the system by accepting students with lower LSATs and undergrad grades into their part-time programs...

Resisting Google

Posted on June 27, 2008
There is a small but growing movement out there. The one that can only be whispered about. Google has got too much power over us and our society! As Google?s influence grows, some scholars and programmers argue it has to...

FAREWELL...

Posted on June 23, 2008
After twenty years as the director of the Legal Research Center, Professor Nancy Carter has decided to step down and enter a period of semi-retirement. Over the years, Nancy helped lead the way toward a better library facility and a...

Why take 3 or 4 years to get a law degree when you can get it in 2?

Posted on June 20, 2008
Another law school has decided to offer a 2-year law degree. Northwestern University School of Law announced today that it will offer students a chance to earn a law degree in two years rather than three. This comes one month...

Hate Free San Diego Summit, Part II

Posted on June 16, 2008
The Summit was a real success. Many terrific speakers, including victims of hate violence who shared their disturbing stories. The main speaker was a director at the Southern Poverty Law Center who spoke about the struggle to combat hate speech...

Hate Free San Diego Summit at USD Today

Posted on June 12, 2008
Today, United For a Hate Free San Diego will host its first Hate Crimes Summit at the IPJ here at USD. The summit will feature keynote speaker Heidi Beirich, deputy director of the Southern Poverty Law Center's Intelligence Project. There...

LAPTOPS BANNED FROM LAW CLASSES

Posted on June 11, 2008
Enter any law class, or any classroom in a professional school today, and you will likely see rows and rows of open laptops and hear the hum of fingers striking keyboards. But some law professors have decided that they aren't...

WiFi in Libraries Blamed for Illnesses in Paris

Posted on June 04, 2008
In today's Wired Campus, Andrea L. Foster reports that four libraries in Paris have turned off their wireless connections "after staff members complained that electromagnetic radiation from the networks was the source of their health problems...". One library did so...

Crossing the pond...

Posted on June 03, 2008
Back from London to find the LRC in pretty good condition considering it is during a renovation project. The California/Tax Room is having the wall coverings renewed, and there is some noise and dust, but it is going at a...

Write-on competition ends tonight -- we're waiting!

Posted on May 16, 2008
Tonight between 6:30 and 8 pm the write-on assignments are due! We know you have been working really hard on perfecting them, so be sure not to run into a time crunch when it comes to printing or having to...

Blackboard expands outreach to Facebook

Posted on May 16, 2008
Blackboard's course management software has added a new application that will put it smack in the middle of most students' social lives -- Facebook. "Blackboard's strategy is to bring its services where the stuents already are and capitalize on Facebook's...

California Supreme Court Overturns Same-Sex Marriage Ban

Posted on May 15, 2008
Whatever your view on this issue, this is big legal news. You can read the decisions of a divided California Supreme Court here.

Student writers try to keep their stuff off the Web

Posted on May 14, 2008
An interesting tidbit from the Information Technology section of the Chronicle today about grad students at West Virginia University worrying about their work finding its way to the web. For now, they submit paper copies of their works. But next...

Your Laptop = Earthquake Sensor?

Posted on May 13, 2008
If you happen to own a Mac laptop, you can transform your computer into your own personal seismic station, according to Richard Monastersky in today's The Wired Campus. He writes that "a free program from SeisMac takes advantage of the...

AT LEAST IT'S SUNNY: Report says LA has the worst legal climate for business

Posted on April 25, 2008
A recent survey of corporate attorneys found that, "Delaware has the nation's best legal climate, while courts in West Virginia ranked at the bottom," reports legalNewsline.com. Nebraska, Maine, Indiana and Utah were also in the top-five states with favorable legal...

WI-FI OFF-ON-OFF-ON --STUDENTS RESTLESS

Posted on April 23, 2008
It was only a matter of time before people using the wi-fi at the law school and LRC began to rise up en masse to protest. The Circulation desk is being over-run with requests for ethernet cables (still an alternative,...

FINALS BRING RECORD NOISE TO LRC

Posted on April 23, 2008
Usually we are pretty lax about the decibel levels in the first floor Information Services area of the LRC. You know, the place where all the TA's hang out, groups like to gather, and couples discover love or break up,...

NOW PLAYING: National Library Week Displays

Posted on April 21, 2008
Before everything is removed for the next big thing in library display art, be sure to catch the following at the LRC: history of libraries display (near the microform reader-printers) and the changing image of librarians (outside the Reserve Room);....

Spring Break Is Officially Over

Posted on March 28, 2008
It is now Friday after spring break. At the beginning of the week we saw smiling, tan, sort-of relaxed students sauntering through the library. But not now. No, the glow from spring break is officially over now that all the...

Calif Supreme Court to Hear Marriage Cases

Posted on March 03, 2008
Tomorrow, Tuesday March 4, is a big day for those following the Marriage Cases. The Cal Supremes will be broadcast on live TV throughout the state for a longer-than-usual 3 hour oral argument. This should be quite a show. So...

Midyear Muddle

Posted on March 03, 2008
So the very worst month of the school year has thankfully passed us by with little incident. February -- usually bad weather and bad moods. Think hearts and flowers and chocolate. Now think about all those who don't have anyone...

It's a new year and a new beginning

Posted on January 10, 2008
January often brings us to our knees with humbling promises to be better at this or that, lose that holiday weight, to be kinder or more patient, to be more studious, or be better library patrons. Oops, did I say...

Finding Happiness in a Law Library

Posted on December 19, 2007
So, I know noisy things are not usually given to library types, and that is what makes this gift I got so cool: a musical tie! Those of you who have seen my library costume know that I am suited...

LRC Renovates!

Posted on December 17, 2007
During intersession we will continue our self-improvement regimen. Jog an extra mile, perhaps? Cut out cakes and cookies from our holiday nourishment? No, no, no -- we would never deprive ourselves like that! The improvements are all in the building....

FINALS BLUES

Posted on December 10, 2007
Not anyone's favorite time of the school term, the finals period brings with it a special kind of brain freeze and emotional death that one must experience to really appreciate. Guys no longer shave...tons of stubble and bad grooming choices...

Wet and wild: the final(s) ride

Posted on December 07, 2007
It's a rainy Friday during finals. It kind of fits the mood around the library. Lots of low profiles, sighs, and the smokers are rushing past the reference desk at a furious pace. The Circulation Desk is keeping busy handing...

COOL NEW TOOLS

Posted on December 03, 2007
As great new resources are added to the LRC collection, we will update you here. This post is about the Making of Modern Law (MOML). Originally derived from two essential reference collections for historical legal studies, the Nineteenth Century and....

Santa Ana Winds, and it's almost Turkey Day

Posted on November 13, 2007
Can you believe it -- almost time for the holidaze, and that means all you outlining crazies are buckled down for the long haul. The rest of you, what the heck, you've coasted this long with no worries, why start...

Firestorms throughout the county, deja vu all over again

Posted on October 22, 2007
At this writing the University is closed through Tuesday, and for good reason. Those USD community members who live in affected areas need to take care of their loved ones, their belongings, and themselves. Roads need to be available for...

The Incredible Shrinking (Relevance) of the Supreme Court

Posted on October 12, 2007
Interesting article from Time writer David Von Drehle about the "dwindling role" the SCOTUS plays in the lives of Americans since Chief Justice Roberts was confirmed. Amidst the 5-4 squabbles and pointless inflammatory rhetoric, Von Drehle sees Roberts as a...

To Lab or Not To Lab...that is the question!

Posted on October 09, 2007
Yet another study shows that computer labs are still in demand despite the prevalence of individual laptop users. And the survey says: use may even have gone up. Reasons given were "concern that their laptops might be stolen; because they...