Back to School stress bogging you down...Check out the CSU Rec Center.

Weeks of Welcome are from August 27th through September 9th-This is your opportunity to check out what the Rec Center has to offer. Classes are FREE during this period also. You must present your valid CSU ID to enter. The Rec Center presents various programs and activities throughout the semeter, be sure to check their site and see what's happening on your campus.

Washington and Lee's Current Law Journal Contents can now store your searches and run them weekly against tables of contents that were added during that week. The new search results will be emailed to you.

To use this free service, go to the Current Law Journal Contents site, and click on "Create profile". Searches use AND, OR, NOT, * as a wildcard and "" for phrases. "And" is implied as a connector. Field searching is available for au=author,ti=title, jo=journal, ab=abstract. The default is to search author/title/abstracts. Not many articles in the database have abstracts. For more search syntax hints, click on explanation at the top of the page. CLJC covers 1336 law journals.

A similar free service is Findlaw Abstracts Subscriptions. The Findlaw service does not save searches, but you can select topics of interest and receive notification of new articles on those topics.

Thanks to John Doyle of Washington & Lee Law School for the tip.

A recent article offers tips for using dictionaries for statutory interpretation. The article points out that in some circumstances, judges will employ dictionaries in order to determine the plain meaning of a statute. This use of dictionaries can be instead of, or in addition to, examining legislative history. U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia often uses dictionaries for statutory interpretation.

Metzmeier suggests several rules for using dictionaries to interpret statutes. First, several respected unabridged dictionaries should be consulted. Second, the dictionary should be one published near the same point in time that the statutory language was enacted. Third, specialized dictionaries should be consulted to obtain definitions of terms used by a particular profession.

The article is: Metzmeier, Kurt X., "You Can Look it Up: The Use of Dictionaries in Interpreting Statutes" . Louisville Bar Briefs, pp. 14-15, July 2007 Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1005653

United States Attorney General Alberto Gonzales resigned on Friday, amid controversy over the firings of U.S. Attorneys. Gonzales was also criticized for the poor handling of FBI terrorism investigations. Solicitor General Paul Clement will be acting attorney general until a replacement is found. Prospects for the new attorney general include Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff, former deputy attorney general Larry Thompson; former solicitor Ted Olson, and former FBI director Louis Freeh. Hopefuls also include current or former colleagues of senators charged with the confirmation, as they may face an easier nomination process. See: Apuzzo, Matt, US Attorney General Gonzales Resigns, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Aug. 27, 2007; Attorney General Gonzales Resigns Amid Pressure Over Prosecutor Firings, Wall Street Journal, Aug. 27, 2007.

The U.S. Attorney General is appointed by the President and the nomination is confirmed by the Senate. 28 U.S.C. Section 503.

More articles: President Bush Discussses Resignation of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales President's Press Release, Aug. 27, 2007; Myers, Steven Lee; Shenon, Philip Embattled Attorney General Resigns New York Times, Aug .27, 2007; Schneider, Howard, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales ResignsWashington Post, Aug. 27, 2007.

ACS ResearchLink strives to bring together students looking for research topics and public interest attorneys needing legal research and analysis. The Topics Search Page contains a database of real-world legal questions submitted by attorneys. When a student finds a topic of interest, they can apply to work on that topic with help from the attorney, if the student has a supervising professor. The resulting paper may be published on ACS ResearchLink. ACS ResearchLink was launched by the American Constitution Society. ACS ResearchLink is a great way for students to find paper topics of real world interest, increase the chance of getting published, develop relationships with practitioners and perform work in the public interest.

The Internet is an excellent source to find legal information for free, although it lacks some of the content, organization, reliability and search mechanisms of for-fee legal databases. A recent article details how attorneys can better use Google to find legal information on the web. Rich, Tracey R., How Lawyers Can Improve Search Results , National Law Journal, July 25, 2007. Tips in the article include:

• Using Google Advanced Search to create boolean "and"/"or" searches.
• Using Google Advanced Search to search for terms in a specific web site.
• Using specialized databases, such as Google U.S. Government, Google News or Google Patent Search.
• Identifying the owner of a web site by using InterNic's Whois. Identifying the owner will help determine the site's reliability.
• Determining web site reliability by finding out who links to that web site. Google Advanced Search will identify sites that link to a particular web site.

For more information, see the library's resource guide on Web Searching. For more information on legal resources available on the Internet, see Internet Legal Resources.

On behalf of myself and the Law Library staff, I would like to welcome new students and faculty to the Cleveland Marshall College of Law. We are also very pleased to see returning students and faculty. Please stop in and say hello to our friendly and knowledgable Information Services staff. They can answer any questions you may have about our services. For information on available Library services, take a look at our Faculty Services Page , Instructional Support Page or Student Services Page.

Some changes have occurred in the Law Library since last year. We have three new librarians on board: Amy Burchfield, Faculty Services Librarian; Kevin Garewal, Acquisitions Librarian; and Sue Altmeyer, Electronic Services Librarian. The Library has also purchased new monitors for our computer lab and expanded our electronic resource collection. In particular, many BNA research databases will be available starting September 1, 2007. Check out our Electronic Resources Page to find out what will be accessible.

Once again, we look forward to serving your research and instructional needs in the upcoming year. Best wishes to everyone for a rewarding and productive year!

The library has acquired three new databases as part of our HeinOnline subscription:

• Session Laws
• U.S.Congressional Documents,
• and World Trials

The databases consist of full-text searchable pdf files. All of these databases are available on campus as well as remotely with a CSU ID and PIN:

Session Laws: Session laws (newly passed laws in uncodified format) for Australia, Canada, the U.S. and the fifty states. Coverage for the 50 states, Canada and Australia is generally 2000 to 2005 or 2006. For U.S. federal session laws, the database contains the Statutes at Large from 1789 to 2004.

U.S.Congressional Documents.: Contains the Congressional Record (1873-1880, 1996-2003), and older debate material, such as Annals of the Congress and Register of Debates. Also contains Statutes at Large (1789-2004), American State Papers and Journals of the Continental Congress.

World Trials: Includes transcripts and court documents of famous trials worldwide, as well as monographs discussing famous trials. The collection currently includes only a portion of the Cornell University World Trials Collection, but eventually the database will contain thousands of items.

Want to find out about the current cases everyone is talking about? Try subscribing to U.S. Law Week via email!

U.S. Law Week is a well known and respected current awareness service which keeps attorneys up-to-date in every area of law. Law Week contains summaries of groundbreaking federal and state cases as well as articles on important nondecisional legal developments. The Supreme Court Today component of Law Week tracks every U.S. Supreme Court case from filing to disposition. The text of the U.S. Supreme Court decision, along with analysis, is quickly provided.

Law Week arranges cases by topic, so it is easy to keep up in areas of law that are of interest to you. Additionally, the U.S. Law Week database allows full text searching of issues back to 1997, and also has a topical index. The database is available on campus, as well as remotely.

Faculty, students and staff of the Cleveland Marshall College of Law can now receive U.S. Law Week via e-mail. To sign up for e-mail delivery:

1. Connect to BNA’s Law School Professional Information Center – E-Mail Preferences page .
2. Click on "BNA news services".
3. Enter your Cleveland-Marshall College of Law E-Mail Address, then click on Submit.
4. Enter your First Name and Last Name, and, if desired, additional contact information, then click on Submit.
5. At the next page, select HTML as your E-mail format, select "U.S. Law Week" and/or "Supreme Court Today", then click on Submit.

The library's new subscription to Heinonline's Foreign and International Law Databases enables electronic searching over multiple titles previously available only in print. The titles are in pdf format, and may be printed or downloaded. Here is what is currently available:

Yearbooks - Yearbooks contain articles of current interest concerning the law of a foreign country and/or international law from a specific country's perspective. Yearbooks may discuss cases, legislation and treaties, and may even contain the text of new legislation.

Periodicals - including the Proceedings of the American Society of International Law (1907-2005)

US Law Digests on International Law - (through 1980. 1989-current available on the State Dept's web page.) The Digests, published by the U.S. State Department, provide current information on the views and practice of the U.S. Government in the arena of international law. Before 1973, the digests contained a comprehensive subject analysis. After 1973, the digests discuss only current international legal events.

International Tribunals/Judicial Decisions: Includes decisions from the Hague Permanent Court of International Justice and Reports of International Arbitral Awards.

Heinonline will periodically add new titles to this collection.

On Sunday, August 19^th TEAM CSU LAW will participate in the American Heart Association's HeartWalk. This is the first year we have a team participating. If you are interested in joining our team or in supporting us in this worthy cause, please check out our team web page, Team CSU Law . We appreciate your support!

Governor Strickland on Aug. 2nd issued a new directive establishing "The University System of Ohio." For further information, see his press release , the Directive itself (from the Gongwer site), the Aug. 2nd Gongwer article, and the new University System of Ohio website. This is a change for the environment of higher education in Ohio. More collaborative efforts are anticipated as a 10-year plan is developed by the Chancellor of the Ohio Board of Regents, Eric D. Fingerhut. As indicated in the Gongwer article, the plan is not intended to change university governance, but will be a "shared plan," to establish systemwide goals and a schedule for meeting those goals.

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