Law Library

There is a reasonable man lurking in the library stacks...have you seen him?

CiteGenie is a new extension for the Firefox web browser that creates Bluebook formatted pinpoint citations from Westlaw.Read a review of CiteGenie and explaination of how to install the FireFox extension at Review of CiteGenie - Automatic Bluebook citations when using Westlaw.

The Christian Science Montior has announced that it will "become the first nationally circulated newspaper to replace its daily edition with its website". The Bluebook is adjusting to these new publication trends with Rule 18.2 providing guidance on how to cite to Internet publications.

Timothy Stoltzfus Jost, Krankes Gesundheitssystem, Bundeszentrale fur politische Bildung, October 10, 2008 available at bpb

The library is happy to announce the acquisition of BNA Online. This service provides electronic access to over one hundred of BNA's titles. The purchase of this service also permits access to the BNA titles via the Westlaw and Lexis interfaces as well as the BNA interface. For a complete list of the available titles, please go to the Law Library's research page available from the Law Library home page and click on BNA.

The Law Library has subscribed to E&E Publishing's web service, providing comprehensive, daily coverage of environmental and energy politics and policy. Includes articles, webcast video, and transcripts, presented under the titles: ClimateWire, Environment and energy daily, Onpoint, Greenwire, E&ENews PM, E&ETV news, Land letter, and E&E Special reports. It can be accessed via Annie, under any of the titles included above.

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. Three collections have been selectively compiled to provide users with a test experience:

* Census: U.S.
* Freedom of Information/Privacy
* Immigration

These selected Hearings, presented as Adobe Acrobat PDF files, are samples of a larger group that will be digitized and made available as a result of this project. Ultimately, both the Library and Google will provide full-text access to the larger group of Hearings.

Monday through Friday three of our librarians scan the headlines of the New York Times, Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal for items of interest to our faculty. Articles viewed as potentially interesting to a faculty member are forwarded via email.

In Class Lawyers Against Coke Get More Than $31.5 Million, Robin McDonald reports that U.S. District Court Judge Willis B. Hunt disallowed $93,960.67 for LexisNexis and Westlaw expenses in a $137.5 million class action securities fraud settlement. Judge Hunt explained, "This Court is of the opinion that charging separately for use of a research service is akin to charging for the use of a case law reporter. That is, the research service is a tool, much like a computer or a pen, and this Court considers the use of such a service part of a firm's overhead. ... Moreover, this Court is aware that many firms pay a flat rate to Lexis and Westlaw regardless of their usage, and class counsel cannot claim such flat rate payments as an out-of-pocket expense." Read more

Restating Restitution: The Restatement Process and Its Critics, 65 Wash. & Lee L.Rev. 933 (2008).