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If you're a regular reader of the Bloggy Notion, you are well aware of all the photos and news about the ongoing library renovation. Well, the time has finally come and we are very excited to begin moving back to our newly renovated home in 200 McAllister. There will be lots of changes between May 20th - August 6th but you can check here for more details in the coming days.
One of the major differences in searching on Westlaw and Lexis is the default search. If you type in res ispa loquitor in Westlaw, the default connector is OR: you are searching for any document that has res or ipsa or loquitor. Well, that will bring up a lot of irrelevant documents so you need to put the phrase in quotation marks.
On Lexis the default is +2 or within 2 words. So you will pull up all of the documents that have res within 2 words of ipsa within 2 words of loquitor, giving you more focused results. You must put quotation marks around your words to get results with the exact phrase, but at least +2 is more like the default search on all the major web search engines you are used to using: AND.
Westlaw has just added a feature that allows you to change their default. Your basic default search would then be the same on both Lexis and Westlaw.
Just click Preferences, in the upper right corner of the screen, then click the Search link in the left frame. Under the Terms & Connectors heading, notice the Space Connector option. You can set the spaces.
Remember, though: if you want an exact phrase, use quotation marks. This is epecially important for phrases like "employment at will" where employment within 2 words of will could get many variations: employment that will, employment status will, employment contract will...You get the idea.
Today's panel, NUTS & BOLTS OF JUDICIAL CLERKSHIP INTERVIEWS (Wednesday, April 25, 12:40-1:30 pm in Rm. F) features tips on clerkship interviews and the overall clerkship application process, but how do you find out about the judges themselves?
Two great resources are the Almanac of the Federal Judiciary and the Daily Journal's Judicial Profiles.
The Almanac of the Federal Judiciary Vol. I Profiles and Evaluations of All Judges of the U.S. District Courts contains detailed biographical information including publications, professional associations, academic honors, noteworthy rulings, media coverage and lawyers' evaluations. This volume lists judges on the U. S. Tax Court, U. S. Claims Court, Court of International Trade, Court of Military Appeals, Bankruptcy Judges and U. S. Magistrates.
Vol. II Profiles and Evaluations of All Judges of the US Circuit Courts and the U. S. Supreme Court covers the same categories of information as found in Vol. I. Additionally, Vol. II provides introductory material to each circuit and the Supreme Court. Both volumes of the Almanac of the Federal Judiciary are available at the Circulation Desk. (Hint: vol. 1 District is red, and vol. 2 Circuit is blue.)
The Judicial Profiles comprise 13 volumes of biographical information of judges in all California state and federal courts. Often humorous or anecdotal, these biographies first appeared as columns in the L. A. Daily Journal. Profiles contain personal information as well as records of education and service. These volumes are available behind the Reference Desk.
For more resources on judicial information, here is the Hastings Library Judicial Directories Research Guide.
The Circulation Desk
The Reference Desk
For the entire time the Library has been in temporary quarters, work within the Technical Services Department of the Library has continued. This means that new books, journals, microfiche and reporter volumes have been selected, ordered, received and catalogued. Since we didn't have much extra space in the First Floor Library and since there also wasn't any room in our temporary storage, the new acquisitions had to go somewhere - hence a new location was created called NMSTK for New Materials Stacks.
Now, we have to start coordinating our move back into the soon-to-be completed Library and the books will need to be moved from the First Floor Library, from the Gold Reading Room, from temporary storage at 50 UN Plaza, and from the New Materials Stacks. This may be confusing for our Library users and the Reference staff is committed to helping you find the books you need.
Basically, materials with call numbers A-G and L-Z are in the First Floor Library and call numbers H-KZ and P-PZ must be requested from storage. Please ask for assistance at the Reference Desk.
If you are doing California legislative history research, you'll want to check the Governor's Chaptered Bill File. When the governor signs a bill into law, the bill is filed with the Secretary of State and chronologically "chaptered." For each bill that is chaptered, a file is created containing the documents the governor's office received regarding that bill.
Hastings Law Library has all of the available film, from 1943 - 1995. The files typically contain, at a minimum, the enrolled bill report and a letter from the bill's sponsor. In addition, there are files from bills vetoed by a governor; these files include the governor's veto statement. For more information on California legislative history, see the Hastings Research Guide: Compiling a California Legislative History.
The shelving for books in the renovated library is currently being installed. In order to do this, they have to bolt the frame and brace through the carpeting to the concrete below. Once those are in, the book shelves get attached to the uprights. So far, uprights are installed on half of the 6th floor. The next stage which is to install the shelves will take place in the next week or two.
On the 5th floor, the shelving layout is in progress. Various codes control the spacing and methods of securing the shelving so that's where careful measuring and planning come in to play.
Meanwhile in our temporary offices, temp workers have been hired to help us with the move. Stay Tuned!
C-SPAN is a private, non-profit company, created in 1979 by the cable television industry as a public service. Their mission is to "provide public access to the political process. C-SPAN receives no government funding; operations are funded by fees paid by cable and satellite affiliates who carry C-SPAN programming." So even though it's not strictly a .gov site, it's great for research.
C-SPAN supports initiatives that encourage greater public access to the court, including opening the court to electronic media. Access their Cameras In the Court Page here.
In addition to C-SPAN's tv and radio schedules, you can look at their Firing U.S. Attorneys webpage. Or check out C-SPAN's livestreams, podcasts and the video library. The video index lists the following areas: Congress, Defense/Security, Domestic/Social, Economy/Fiscal, International, Judiciary/Courts, Media/Press, Politics/Elections, Science/Technology, State/Local, White House/Executive and each index entry includes the title, date, location, summary, and length of the video. See Cal Ripken, Jr. talk about his book in the DOMESTIC/SOCIAL section. Watch Sarah Cohen & Gilbert Gaul, investigative reporters at the Washington Post, talk about their series, "Harvesting Cash," on waste and abuse in federal farm subsidy programs in the MEDIA/PRESS section of the video library.
The Thurgood Marshall Law Library has created an online collection of Congressional Research Service Reports in the subject areas of Health Law & Policy and Homeland Security/Terrorism.
The Congressional Research Service (CRS) works exclusively for members and committees of the United States Congress. An arm of the Library of Congress, the agency is renowned for its non-partisanship and its in-depth analysis of issues. Search other CRS Reports through the Hastings Law Libary Subscription Database page.
The Muni Fast Pass was invented by a former UC Hastings student, Ken Schmier. Mr. Schmier, who graduated from Hastings in 1974, is also the inventor of NextBus Information Systems.
The CCH Business and Finance™ database is great source for many areas of business and finance research. For example, you can use it to find the fulltext (and explanations) of Federal Securities regulations, or read up on the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Or to locate a sample policy statement and procedure on bank compliance, or a treatise on advertising, marketing or intellectual property issues.
You can use it to research state racketeering laws, or to find a FTC ruling. Perhaps your boss asked you to gather everything you can about product liability litigation. Or maybe you’re looking for the latest developments in national and international corporate law for your note topic.
Log into CCH Business and Finance™ from the Library’s Subscription Database page (by clicking on the Research Databases button) and enter your email address for customization purposes. Click on the ENTER button in the blue bar below the symbol of the key.
The page opens into the Main Menu where you can scroll down to read the latest news or begin your seach by entering a citation in the search box at the top. You can also choose one of the tabs across the top: Securities; Exchanges and SROs; Corporate Governance; International Business; Banking; Trade Regulation; Products/Liability & Safety; Government Contracts; IP/IT; Federal Energy Guidelines; or Transportation Law to access the materials in a specific subject area.
If you need assistance using this or any of our subscription databases, please ask for help at the Reference Desk. Asking questions is a very lawyer-ly thing to do.
Students looking for free tax preparation assistance should take note that the IRS, in cooperation with several private tax software companies, can help you out. The Free File program is a free federal tax preparation and electronic filing program for eligible taxpayers developed through a partnership between the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and the Free File Alliance LLC, a group of private sector tax software companies. Free File allows taxpayers with an Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) of $52,000 or less in 2006 to e-file their federal tax returns for free. Some of these programs also offer free or low cost State filing as well. To check out Free File go to: http://www.irs.gov/app/freeFile/jsp/index.jsp?ck
To use Free file you will need to choose the online software that fits your needs best. Here are some reviews of the Free file programs to help you choose:
About.com -- http://taxtime.about.com/od/preparingfiling/tp/freefile.htm
CNET -- http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-6536_7-6430905-1.html
MacWorld -- http://www.macworld.com/news/2007/02/27/onlinetax/index.php
PCWorld -- http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,129203/article.html
Good luck and happy filing!
True of False.. can you ask a Hastings reference librarian a research question anytime via the Internet?
It's true.
Just click on the image in the middle of the library home page that says Ask a Librarian - Click Here of E-mail Reference. This service is provided by the reference librarians at Hastings and is only available to Hastings students, staff and faculty. Questions submitted via e-mail are reviewed and answered daily, Monday through Friday.
CCH is best known for its tax and business law information. The Hastings Law Library subscribes to online versions of a number of CCH publications. You can access the CCH Internet Tax Research NetWork™ by going to the Library’s homepage, clicking on Subscription Databases (under Legal Research) and clicking on the ENTER button in the blue bar.
Once there, you can search any and all CCH tax publications by citation, keyword, or Internal Revenue Code section. What's great about this service is that the search results bring items from all the different publications together in one list. That means you don’t have to go to a separate volume for current awareness info (such as Federal Tax Day or Federal Tax Weekly), it’s right there as part of your search result list.
Another advantage to the online version is that it contains CCH’s state materials (eg. California Tax Analysis) which are no longer published in paper.
In addition to the IRS documents with editorial explanations back to 1978, you will also find financial, estate, and gift tax publications, and tax forms.
Have you ever lost the electronic key to your car? Replacing one is expensive and inconvenient, but a new law will make this easier for new vehicles after January 1, 2008.
California Senate Bill 1542 was introduced on February 23, 2006 and approved by the Governor seven months later.
To track the history of this bill or any other California bill through the legislature, visit http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/, the official site for California legislative information maintained by the Legislative Counsel. There is bill information back to 1993, indexed by the Assembly or Senate, and browseable by bill number or by author.
Once you find the bill, you can check its status and history, and, as is the case in the example above, see if it has been passed, or "chaptered." To search chaptered bills, start here and enter the year (2006) and the chapter number (433) which is noted on the history or status page.
To find where it's been codified, look for the sentence "An act to add Section 9954 to the Vehicle Code, relating to vehicles" and find that section in the law itself.
There, you may not even realize it, but you just did a mini-version of a California legislative history.
Search the U.S. Government Recall website for unsafe, hazardous, and defective products. Search for or see a list of recently recalled food, medicine, cosmetics, motor vehicles, environmental products, boats & boating safety, meat & poultry products, and other consumer products.
For information on recent pet food recalls, click on Recent Recalls, and look in the Food, Medicine, Cosmetics section. There is a press release from the U.S. Food & Drug Administration regarding Del Monte Pet Products.