Thursday, October 30, 2008

Election Law Resources

As the presidential election draws closer you might want to check out OCU Law Reference Librarian Karen Kalnin's Election Law Research Guide.

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Law Library Listing of All Journals

If you are trying to determine if the Law Library has access to a journal in print, microform, or electronic format there is now one place for you to look. The A-Z List of Journals lists out all journals we have in any format. It includes journals in LexisNexis, Westlaw and other databases. It even includes links directly to the journals in these database.

The list organizes the journals alphabetically or you can search the list of the title of a journal. With the content of legal databases changing constantly this is one resource that does a good job of pulling everything together for you in one convenient location.

You can access the list by clicking the link above or from our databases page.

Sunday, October 26, 2008

Social Bookmarking in HeinOnline

Some think of social indexing as social tagging or social bookmarking in which you bookmark your favorite websites, popular blog posts, or news alerts. HeinOnline is now looking at social indexing from a scholarly perspective, bringing to you for the first time in a digital environment the concept of viewing most cited law review articles. For example, when you run a search for "Right to Privacy" across the titles in the Law Journal Library in HeinOnline, you will be able to determine how many times each result has been "cited by" other scholarly law review articles in HeinOnline. This allows you to view articles that have had a heavy influence or high impact on the subject you are searching. From here, you can then view the law review articles that cited this article to further your research in the given subject area. This research approach is easy, using simple links available in HeinOnline. Future enhancements in the Law Journal Library will allow you to sort your results based on the number of times the articles are cited, thus bringing the most cited articles to the top of your search results list. Additionally, HeinOnline makes it easy to cross-reference other documents by linking citations if the material is available in HeinOnline. Take a look at this brief demonstration to see how powerful these features are and how they bring together research material in HeinOnline!

Saturday, October 25, 2008

MPRE Preparation


The MPRE will be administered on November 8, 2008. MPRE preparation and professional responsibility study aids and materials are currently on display in the library.

Thursday, October 23, 2008

New Book on Electronic Evidence

Electronic Evidence: Law and Practice explores the range of problems encountered with electronic communications from discovery to trial, and offers practical solutions to both existing and potential problems. It examines (1) the new discovery rules and how they relate to past practices, and (2) fundamental evidentiary issues governing the admissibility of electronic evidence. Particular emphasis is given to the unique problems evolving around the way in which parties are asserting the attorney-client privilege and judges are applying it to e-mail communications.

This book is on order and when it arrives will be available at OCU Law Library Call # KF 8947.R53.

Monday, October 20, 2008

Database Trial - The Making of Modern Law

The Law Library has a one month trial of The Making of Modern Law. By digitizing the primary documents contained within Primary Source Microfilm's Nineteenth Century Legal Treatises and Twentieth Century Legal Treatises collections and adding the power of full-text searching, The Making of Modern Law brings nearly 10 million pages of legal history from America and Britain to researchers around the world in a matter of minutes. This archive — from one of the most important periods of legal development — is the world's most comprehensive full-text collection of Anglo-American legal treatises anywhere. It allows for full text searching of more than 21,000 works from casebooks, local practice manuals, form books, works for lay readers, pamphlets, letters, speeches and more — all separated into 99 subject areas.

You can access it from on or off campus by clicking here or from the Law Library's databases page.

Give it a try and take just a minute to let us know what you think about this database. It is very expensive and we value your input into our decision on purchasing this resource. You can send us an email reply here.

CiteGenie - Cut and Paste Bluebook Formatted Cites from Westlaw

Give CiteGenie a try. It is a new extension for Firefox that claims to create Bluebook formatted pinpoint citations when copying from Westlaw.

Sunday, October 19, 2008

Help Finding a Topic to Write About - ACS Research Link

ACS ResearchLink is an innovative on-line resource for the legal community. The project leverages previously untapped resources to generate and share new ideas about important legal issues, while engaging the next generation of lawyers in addressing vital law and policy issues that will shape the future of our country.

ACS ResearchLink collects legal research topics submitted by practitioners for law students to explore in faculty-supervised writing projects for academic credit. Topic authors will receive a copy of the resulting student papers, which ACS will also post in a searchable online library. By connecting law students and faculty with the research needs of public interest organizations and advocates, ACS ResearchLink will become an increasingly comprehensive and powerful engine for change, while also enhancing the relevance and influence of student academic scholarship.

Friday, October 17, 2008

Free Law Review Article Submission Resource

You may be aware of Expresso, a pay service that automates the law review article submission process. But you might not know about Northern Kentucky's free alternative to Expresso. Their website allows you to select journals you want to submit an article to and then creates an Outlook email message with all the addresses of the reviews in the BCC field. All you have to do is attach your article and cover letter and click send.

Monday, October 13, 2008

Turn Citations Into Links Using Jureeka

Jureeka! is a new Firefox add-on that looks for legal citations in ordinary web pages and turns them into hyperlinks that lead to a free version of the cited source. Register first at Jureeka and start using it.

Hat tip to WisBlawg.

Friday, October 10, 2008

Courts Citing Wikipedia

Wikipedia has been cited almost 300 times in American judicial opinions as of September, 2008. Courts cite Wikipedia for a wide range of purposes. Some citations are merely mundane references to everyday facts well known by the general public. In other opinions Wikipedia is cited as a basis for the court’s reasoning or to support a conclusion about an adjudicative fact at issue in the case. In a notable recent case, Badasa, v. Mukasey, 2008 WL 3981817 (8th. Cir. 2008), The Eighth Circuit remanded a Board of Immigration Appeals decision because it upheld a lower court’s finding based on information obtained from Wikipedia.

What impact will all of these references to Wikipedia have on the law of evidence, judicial ethics, the judicial role in the common law adversarial system, the de-legalization of American law, and the future of stare decisis? I am currently working on a law review article that attempts to answer these questions. I hope to have it published in 2009.

In the meantime check out Diane Murley's In Defense of Wikipedia where she explores some good uses of Wikipedia for legal research.

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Yom Kippur: No Classes But the Law Library is Open

There are no law school classes after 6 pm today or before 6 pm tomorrow. But the law library is open our regular hours.

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

The Oklahoman Archives Now Available

The Law Library is pleased to announce access for all OCU Law Students and Faculty to the complete full text archives of The Oklahoman back to 1901. You can access the archives from the Law Library's Databases Page from on and off campus.

Sunday, October 5, 2008

The Future of Libraries is .... Print Shops

The University of Michigan's Shapiro Library recently installed a machine that will print an inexpensive copy of works out of copyright. Read more from their press release:

The book machine, located in the Shapiro Library lobby on U-M's Central Campus, prints out-of-copyright books from the University's digitized collections. At a cost of about $10 per book, the service is available to researchers, students and the public.

The printing process begins with a reader selecting a digitized book from U-M's pre-1923 collection or from another online source, such as the Open Content Alliance. Most books printed prior to the early 1920s can be reprinted without seeking the permission from whomever holds the copyright. Then the file is downloaded to the Espresso Book Machine, where it is formatted, printed and perfect bound with a four-color cover.

A finished printed book takes 5-7 minutes, depending on the number of pages.
Click here to see the machine in action.

Hat tip to WisBlawg

Thursday, October 2, 2008

Listen to Podcast - Legal Side of Lehman Brothers Collapse

Click here to listen to this podcast.

"The largest bankruptcy case in U.S. history is playing out before us with the fall of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., creating chaos in the financial community. Join co-hosts and Law.com bloggers, J. Craig Williams and Bob Ambrogi, as they talk to the top legal experts, Attorney John D. Penn, Partner at the firm, Haynes and Boone, LLP and Attorney Victor Bass, Partner at the firm, Burns & Levinson LLP, about how lawyers will unravel the company’s assets, what will happen to stockholders and customers along with the impact of all that on the economy. Hear their take on the legal options and strategies being used in this unprecedented case."

Hat tip to Law Librarian Blog.