Bloggy Notion:

News of the Hastings Law Library

The Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) from 1938 through the 1983 edition is now available through HeinOnline's Federal Register library collection in .PDF.

Included in the announcement is this description of the CFR:
"The CFR is the codification of the general and permanent rules published in the Federal Register (also available in HeinOnline from its' inception in 1936) by the executive departments and agencies of the U.S. Federal Government. The CFR is divided into 50 titles that represent broad areas subject to U.S. Federal regulation."

Posted by Julie Horst at 09:17 AM | Permalink

Lots of students come in for research assistance and when we ask them what their strategy has been they respond, "Well, I searched Google." But sometimes Google isn't the best place to start, it all depends on what you're looking for. There are many documents besides legal ones on Westlaw and LexisNexis; both of their search engines are easier to use, they are more sophisticated, and they produce more honest results. If you need help with your LexisNexis research, Debbie is on campus hanging out in 1M everyday. If you'd like to schedule an appointment with her, login to LexisNexis, click the Myschool tab, scroll to the bottom of the page and choose a day/time.

Posted by Blogger at 10:48 AM | Permalink

All Spring 2006 exams the library has received have been posted on the Library exam webpage.

Posted by Charles Cotner at 02:40 PM | Permalink

In 1787 and 1788, an anonymous writer, Publius, urged the citzens of New York to ratify the proposed Constitution of the United States. There were 85 essays published in New York newspapers, and you can read all of them online, or search their full-text by going to the Avalon Project. The papers can also be read online at Thomas, a Library of Congress website for federal legislative information.

It wasn't until 1818 that Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison were identified in print as the authors of the Federalist Papers. As you can see from the Thomas site, there is still some dispute about the authorship of a few of the papers.

if you're looking for original intent, the Federalist Papers are important source documents.

Posted by Susan Nevelow Mart at 02:13 PM | Permalink

The new lighting on the 6th floor is up and boy, is it bright!
Here's what it looked like before:

Posted by Julie Horst at 09:24 AM | Permalink

The city and county of San Francisco has a law library for the public. It is located at 401 Van Ness Avenue on the 4th floor. Their collection consists of periodicals, statutes and digests from every state, complete regional reporters, and a wide variety of California secondary sources.

Posted by Julie Horst at 09:02 AM | Permalink

Manipulating census information can be difficult, but Social Explorer and Queens College CUNY have created a wonderful interactive web site, at www.socialexplorer.com. You choose your region and the characteristics you are interested in, in any of the census years from 2000 back to 1940, and a chart or map will be created for you. This information is useful for paper topics such as immigration (foreign born) or homelessness (poverty) either for the US or a particular state. New census information is being added all the time, and the goal is to provide access to the complete historical census information for the United States.

Posted by Susan Nevelow Mart at 10:17 AM | Permalink

Computer Assisted Legal Instruction (CALI) produces multiple-choice lessons in almost every subject area with answers and explanations. The lessons are available online or in CD format. Students can get their own free CALI CD at the reference desk and download the exercises to a laptop. Or students can get an authorization code from a reference librarian, which will allow online access to all of the CALI exercises at http://www.cali.org.

Posted by Julie Horst at 09:49 AM | Permalink

Want to the know if there is a toxic site near you? Check out the "Window on My Environment" from the Environmental Protection Agency at http://www.epa.gov/enviro/wme/

Put in your zip code and the site creates a map of your neighborhood which you can manipulate to show superfund sites, air monitoring sites, etc.

Posted by Julie Horst at 08:59 AM | Permalink

So far the 200 building renovation is moving along wonderfully. This will be the new
reading room (on the McAllister side of the 4th floor) with its glimpse of City Hall.

Posted by Julie Horst at 08:56 AM | Permalink

With the BILLIONS of webpages available on the Internet these days, how can students evaluate which are reputable and which probably shouldn't be used for research? Ask yourself these questions:
Authority -- Who is the person or entity entering the content of the webpage? Does the person or organization have relevant credentials ?
Objectivity -- Is the person or organization biased? Can you filter the information? There is a difference between knowing that the author of the website favors an expansive view of the Second Amendment, and knowing that the author of the website denies that the Holocaust happened?
Scope and Coverage -- Does the author properly cite information? Are web links evaluated? Did the author cite the source?
Accuracy and Reliability -- Is this entity responsible for the information a reliable source? Is it a university? The government? Is there contact information for the author?
Currency -- When was the last time the webpage was updated? Are the web links on the page still valid?

Let common sense be your guide. Ask yourself, do you want to rely on information from this web site? Would you put much faith, for example, in legal advice from this site?

Posted by Julie Horst at 10:13 AM | Permalink

Byrd, Sayward. Comment. Civil Rights and the "Twinkie" Tax: the 900-pound Gorilla in the War on Obesity. 65 La. L. Rev. 303-385 (2004).

Posted by Julie Horst at 10:10 AM | Permalink

The Library has started subscriptions to two databases, both from the ProQuest Company: ABI/INFORM surveys publications in business, finance, and economics and includes full text coverage for many of the nearly 1,800 journal, magazine and newspaper titles it indexes. PsychINFO® is an abstracting and indexing service published by the American Psychological Association. It covers publications from the psychology disciplines plus related articles from the fields of business, education, law, medicine, and social work. They are available on campus and remotely from the Subscription Databases page.

Posted by Julie Horst at 04:18 PM | Permalink

Do you like to keep up on the latest manufacturing defects? Worried about lettuce and spinach? The FDA has created a searchable archive of warnings, news and press releases. The FDA describes the scope of its regulatory coverage as being:

"responsible for regulating food (humans and animal), dietary supplements, drugs (human and animal), cosmetics, medical devices (human and animal) and radiation emitting devices (including non-medical devices), biologics, and blood products in the United States."

Posted by Susan Nevelow Mart at 09:42 AM | Permalink

That description was taken from A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens. The year was 1780. Congratulations to Susan and John for getting the answer right!! They both win a CALI CD (great for studying for exams).

If your sentencing research is more current in nature (as opposed to the French Revolution) start with The Law and Policy of Sentencing and Corrections in a Nutshell, a new addition to our collection by Lynn Branham shelved at KF9728.Z9 K7 2005 in the First Floor Library.

Posted by Julie Horst at 01:31 PM | Permalink

"What's coming on?"

"The Treason case."

"The quartering one, eh?"

"Ah!" returned the man, with a relish; "he'll be drawn on a hurdle to be half hanged, and then he'll be taken down and sliced before his own face, and then his inside will be taken out and burnt while he looks on, and then his head will be chopped off, and he'll be cut into quarters. That's the sentence."

"If he's found guilty, you mean to say?" Jerry added, by way of proviso.

"Oh! they'll find him guilty," said the other. "Don't you be afraid of that."

Posted by Julie Horst at 09:09 AM | Permalink

Looking for information on US Senate or House votes? The Washington Post hosts an impressive searchable database of every vote in the United States Congress since the 102nd Congress (1991).

This database is very easy to use and gives you access to congressional floor votes for bills and resolutions. You can track the voting histories of individual members of Congress and get notification of their current votes via RSS feed. The database includes biographical information and links to the full text of bills, public laws and legislative information at Thomas.

The database also allows you to see how congressional votes are distributed: By party | By state | By region | By boomer status | By gender | By astrological sign. BTW, we in the libary are eagerly awaiting to assist you with your note on Congress, baby boomers, and the zodiac. ;-)

Posted by Chuck Marcus at 02:32 PM | Permalink