CMLawLibraryBlog

You may save money by finding used law school text books online. The Four L Blog mentions Amazon.com, Ebay, Ebay's Half.com and AbeBooks, and recommends using the book's ISBN number to order, as it is a unique identifier for the book. Some of our staff used Amazon and Half.com to buy law school books. (These services did not exist when I was in law school!) Be sure to allow enough time for shipping, so you can get the books in time to prepare for the first day of classes. For first-day assignments, and the book titles required for each class, with ISBN numbers see First Assignments/Book Lists on the law school's webpage.

The library does not buy a copy of every text book, but we may have copies of some textbooks. Most likely those copies were donated by a student. If our library does not have the book, you may be able to get a copy via Ohiolink. Just check Scholar, the library catalog. Using the advanced search, click on the "other" tab to search by ISBN number. (You can search for title too, but you may not retrieve the most current version of the book required by the professor. If you use an older version, you will have to supplement it with the case opinions added to the new edition).

If CSU does not have the book, hit the Ohiolink button, and see if you can order the book from another Ohiolink institution. Ohiolink books take at least 3 days to arrive. See Circulation Policies and Services for loan periods and the number of times you can renew a book.

Want the scoop on diversity in the legal workplace? Vault’s Guide to Law Firm Diversity Programs surveys over 190 law firms nationwide on their demographic profile covering minorities, women, and gays and lesbians. Other questions address part-time/flex-time policies, diversity initiatives, attorneys with disabilities, recruiting methods and more. Baker Hostetler, Jones Day, Littler Mendelson, Porter Wright, Squire Sanders, Thompson Hine, and Vorys are some of the firms with Ohio offices included in the Guide.

Hoping to avoid billable hours? A third edition book from the ABA Law Practice Management Section might help you do that. Winning Alternatives to the Billable Hour: Strategies That Work suggests ways to sidestep the billable hour by using value billing, fixed fees, transaction plans and other strategies.

Check out these four new additions to the popular Understanding series from LexisNexis. All copies will be available in Law Reserve – ask for them at the Information Services desk.

• Understanding Administrative Law (5^th edition)
• Understanding Capital Punishment Law (2^nd edition)
• Understanding Environmental Law (2^nd edition)
• Understanding Securities Law (4^th edition)

Are noisy neighbors driving you nuts? Does your neighbor’s cherry tree hanging just a little too far onto your property? Did you neighbor just put up a ten-foot-high fence? How about your neighbor’s less-than-judicious use of the pooper-scooper?

The 6^th edition of Neighbor Law: Fences, Trees, Boundaries & Noise by attorneys Cora Jordan and Emily Doskow may have the answers. It’s from the publishers at Nolo, who specialize in plain-English legal information for the general public. The book is available on the Atrium level at KF639 .Z9 J67 2008.

There is now an RSS feed linked from Scholar showing newly acquired materials in both the CSU Main Library and the C-M Law Library. If you are interested in new books and materials on a particular subject, you can create your own customized feed via Yahoo Pipes or Feedrinse. For example, see this custom feed I created with Yahoo Pipes that will look for materials with "(international and law or legal) or European Union" in the title. You can easily subscribe to the feed by clicking on "more options". I made a similar feed with Feedrinse. In my opinion,Yahoo Pipes is more flexible, but Feedrinse is easier to use.

If you want help setting up an RSS Reader or a custom feed, just contact the library staff.

Thanks to Jessica Matthewson for pointing out the catalog RSS feed.

You know we want to you come visit us at the Library, even once you’ve graduated. And with your Alumni Borrower’s Card [online application], you can still check out the Law Library materials that you’ve come to know so well over your time in law school. On our services for alumni page, you’ll find more useful stuff like guides for career resources, legal publishers, professionalism, and CLE materials. The Library also offers a computer room for alumni use. Hope to see you back soon!

Two discrimination-related titles that have just landed on the new book cart are Anna Kirkland’s Fat Rights: Dilemmas of Difference and Personhood and John Parry’s Disability Discrimination Law, Evidence and Testimony.

Fat Rights addresses how weight might fit into the traditional civil rights structure, while Disability Discrimination serves as a reference manual on the law of mental and physical disabilities. Both titles are available on the Atrium.

This Friday, May 9, 2008, Cleveland Marshall College of Law will host “Improve Your Bottom Line: Attract, Retain and Promote Women and Minority Lawyers” from 11:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. The program features nationally renowned speakers, some of whom are from the UC Hastings Center for WorkLife Law. The program will benefit both partners and associates who would like to learn the best practices for promoting work-life balance. The cost is $100 for Cleveland Metro Bar Members, $125 for nonmembers, for 4.75 hours of CLE credit.

Click here to access the brochure and here to register.

You may also want to take a look at these lists of resources the library has available on work-life balance and recruiting/retaining minorities and women attorneys.

You may have seen today's Plain Dealer article about the appeal of a $800,000 wrongful death verdict, for the death of a 71-year-old mentally retarded woman. How do attorneys come up with a damages figure to present to the jury or to propose a settlement to opposing counsel?

Books such as the Economic Foundations of Injury and Death Damages (2005), KF1260.A75 E26 2005 and Trying the Wrongful Death Case in Ohio: Strategies in Preparation and Valuation, KFO539.D43 B4 2002, explain how wrongful death damages might be computed. Another interesting resource is JVR Personal Injury Valuation Handbooks, KF1256.A8 P477 ,which contains wrongful death figures based on age. Need to know how much a broken arm or cervical strain is worth? JVR also has tables of figures for various bodily injuries, corresponding to the amount of medical expenses. Of course, you can always search a database of jury verdicts, such as those available on Lexis, Westlaw and Casemaker (available on the public access workstations). Ask the librarians about these and other sources for computing damages in personal injury cases.

Have you ever had to trace the legislative history of a federal law? Ever wonder if there was an easier way to do it? Well, there is a resource called the U.S. Serial Set that has been digitized by Lexis and Readex to help with the researching process. The Lexis Serial Set covers 1789-1969, while Readex covers 1819-1940 (they are currently updating their materials to the year 1980.) The Serial Set contains Committee Reports, House and Senate Documents and Journals and other publications.

The Lexis advanced search option allows you to search a number of resources at once including: Committee Prints (1830-current), CRS Reports (1916-2003), Hearings (1824- current), House and Senate Documents (1970-2003) & Committee Reports (1819-current), Legislative Histories (1969-current), Serial Set, and Serial Set Maps. Lexis markets each of these components individually for purchase.

The Readex databases includes: America’s Historical Newspapers, American State Papers 1789-1838, House and Senate Journals 1789-1817, Senate Executive Journals 1789-1866, US Serial Set, Serial Set Maps.

If you are interested in trying these materials just click on the links below. (However, there is no remote or wireless access for these materials at this time.)

The Law Library is currently evaluating both resources. If you have any comments or questions please feel free to contact me at kevin.garewal@law.csuohio.edu. If you would like to take a short survey, which would help us evaluate the sources please click here.

Readex Serial Set


Lexis Serial Set (click on advanced search at the top and select the search options you would like to try.)

Graduation is a time for celebration and hopefully all of you will remember your time at Cleveland Marshall as a great experience. I'm sure the first question you are asking is, by golly jeez will I still be able to use the Law Library? Well of course you can! As an alumni you can fill out a form for, now get ready for it, an alumni card. Don’t like social interaction? Then here is the link for the online form. The alumni card functions pretty much the same way as your CSU ID. You can still check out books and use Ohio Link. Another benefit is the use of the alumni room which has a computer accessible to the internet and attached printer. You can access Lexis or Westlaw, but only if you have your own subscription. Alumni also have many other services available to them, but I'm still bummed about Borowski blowing another save against the Red Sox last night, so click here for everything else you need to know.

JSTOR Scholarly Journal Archive launched a new interface incorporating lots of new features. From the basic search, you can select a discipline to search within. The advanced search now has a proximity search, so one can search words within 5, 10 or 25 words of each other. There is also a search within results feature. For more on the new interface, see Recorded Webinar and the JSTOR Sandbox.

Thanks to LexLibris.

B.N.A.'s U.S. Law Week has released its quarterly chart showing splits of opinion among the federal appeals courts. The latest chart includes splits noted in U.S.L.W. news stories appearing during the first quarter of 2008. There are lots of issues - everything from banning the sale of sexual devices to accommodation of employees' religious beliefs.

Circuit splits can be a great source for paper topics. Keep this in mind for next year's papers and law review notes, or possibly for the Law Review 's and Journal of Law and Health's summer writing competition.

To find prior circuit split charts, click on "Search all Issues" and do a search for "circuit splits" and select "in headings only".

(Update: Be sure to read the comments to this post by Christine Stouffer, Library Director at Thompson Hine)

If you will be clerking this summer, you will want to look at the library's new guide: Getting Ready to Clerk: Resources and Tips for A Successful Summer Associate Research Experience.

You may also want to look at the following tips I gathered by speaking with local law firm librarians. Here is what the firm librarians want you to know:

1. "We have a lot of online services in addition to Lexis & Westlaw. Sometimes they can be a lot more cost-effective, especially when starting a project."

What you can do --- Take a look at Heinonline, BNA databases or RIA Checkpoint(tax) via the electronic resources page. Get a free student membership in the Ohio State Bar Association and get the Casemaker database for free. Look at the library's Internet Legal Research Guide or Legal Research Workstation to discover free Internet sources. Ask the firm librarian about available databases before starting a project.

2. "There is a lot of electronic information that can not be reached by Googling."

What you can do ..... Again, find out what databases the firm purchases. As far as information on the web, use search engines geared specifically to legal information such as Justia, FindLaw or Westlaw WebPlus (free for Westlaw subscribers). Find and bookmark sites that have relevant legal information, or are portals to legal information. Read The Invisible or Deep Web by U.C. Berkeley.

3. "Treatises and practice books can be a good starting place. Often students will want to hop on a case law database right away. These books collect the relevant cases and familiarize the researcher with the appropriate terms of art. While many of these books exist both online and in print, use the print versions if the firm has them."

What you can do ..... Take a look at law library research guides to discover the titles in particular areas. Ask the firm librarian what treatise/practice book they would recommend.

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Just in time for the start of serious studying –

Property: Examples and Explanations (3^rd edition) KF560 . B87 2008

Criminal Procedure II: From Bail to Jail (2^nd edition) KF9619.3 .S56 2008

There are two copies of each – in AO66 and in Reserve – and they’re currently on the book truck by my office. Enjoy.

Baseball is back, which brings more purpose to all of our lives. Well, maybe just mine. Why not take a seventh inning stretch and look at some of the interesting materials the law library has to offer involving our nation’s pastime. Legal Issues in Professional Baseball addresses topics ranging from doping to partnership bargaining. KF 3989 .A75 L44 2005 . Baseball is also the leader in upsetting its fan base with repeated labor strikes. Let’s turn that anger into knowledge with these fine resources: Labor and Capital in 19th Century Baseball GV 875 .A1 G45 2006,The Imperfect Diamond: A History of Baseball's Labor Wars GV 880.15 .L69 1991, and For It's One, Two, Three, Four Strikes You're Out at the Owners' Ball Game GV 880.15 .M35 2001. I recommend the last book mentioned as it details the 3 most recent work stoppages and due to its having a hilarious picture on page 188. (More)

Student Lawyer is an ABA-published magazine for law students that comes included with an annual membership in the ABA Law Student Division. It’s also available in the Library – most recent issues behind the Information Services Desk.

The magazine frequently runs articles on hot practice areas. If you’re curious about any of these areas, or just trying to decide on a future career focus, these articles might provide some insight.

Flipping through the last couple months of Student Lawyer, the hottest practice areas covered are:

• Real estate
• Animal law
• Elder law
• Biomedical/IP/health
• Pro bono
• Immigration
• Court jobs
• Labor and employment

Just in time for Spring...a recent addition to the C-M Law Library, The Little Green Book of Golf Law by John H. Minan. The book takes you through 19 holes of golf with a legal bent, such as golf course liability to a golfer and patent protection of the golf ball design to name a few.. You can find the book on our atrium level, KF 3989 .A7 M56 2007.
Thanks to Jon Elias for his input.

When writing your papers, don't forget about WestCheck and Shepard's Brief Suite. Both of these Shepardize or Keycite all of the cites in a document you upload.

Shepard's Brief Suite also ensures the citations are in correct Bluebook format and constructs a Tables of Authorities. It checks quotations to make sure they conform to the actual opinion. You will need to download the Brief Suite software on your computer. More information on this product is available via the Lexis Law School page, click on download tools, then click on cite checking.

You do not need to download Lexis BriefCheck. BriefCheck will verify citations and quotes and runs Shepards, but does not check for Bluebook form or generate a Table of Authorities. Access it from the Lexis Law School page, click on download tools, then click on cite checking.

You do not need to download WestCheck, which will pull keycites and Westlaw tables of authorities for all the citations in your paper. There is a link to WestCheck on the Westlaw Law School page.

For more information, please see our Citation Checking Guide.

The Law Library has just received the Rigos Bar Review Series KF303.R54 2008 with two copies of the set, one in AO66 and the other in Reserve. The following topics are covered in the series:

Vol. 1: MBE Review: Contracts and UCC Art. 2, Torts, and Real Property and Future Interests
Vol. 2: MBE Review: Evidence, Con Law, and Crim Law and Crim Pro
Vol. 3: Multistate Essay Exam Review
Vol. 4: Multistate Performance Test (MPT) Review; and
Multistate Professional Responsibility Exam (MPRE) Review

Plus, we've got in the latest nutshell, Legal Writing Citation KF245 .T47 2008, which looks like it'll offer some serious Bluebook help.

Finally, if you have a minute to spare for casual reading, check out Clarence Thomas' book My Grandfather's Son: A Memoir or The Little Green Book of Golf Law.

As always, if you can't wait to get your hands on these materials, they may still be on a cart behind the Information Services Desk before making their way to their proper homes on the library shelves.

If you are filing an unfamiliar type of motion, or you are filing in a different jurisdiction, you may not be aware of all the procedural rules that apply. Westlaw KeyRules is a new database that lists the applicable rules for particular pleadings and motions in a given jurisdiction. See West Elert: KeyRules Both federal or state and local rules are listed. The database is also handy for a comparative study of court rules, as multiple jurisdictions can be searched at once.

Try it by going to the KEYRULES-ALL database, and click on Available Jurisdictions. Note that Ohio federal district courts and state common pleas courts for the larger Ohio counties are available. Select a jurisdiction, select a type of motion or pleading, and run the search.

Keyrules can be accessed under the Litigation tab, or by looking in the Directory under litigation. Thanks to Amy Wright of ZiefBrief., who astutely points out that KeyRules is the product of human editors, so you should double-check to be sure you are looking at all necessary rules.

No, the IRS is not only interested in dollar amounts. As noted in the March 11, 2008 U.S. Law Week (vol. 76, no. 34, p. 2539 (available to CSU users remotely with a Scholar PIN) the IRS has recently issued Governance and Related Topics – 501(c)(3) Organizations.

Given the IRS’s belief that “a well-governed charity is more likely to obey the tax laws, safeguard charitable assets, and serve charitable interests than one with poor or lax governance,” this document includes sections related to Mission, Organizational Documents, Governing Body, Governance and Management Policies, Financial Statements and Form 990 Reporting, and Transparency and Accountability. It replaces the Feb. 2007 Discussion Draft, and includes references to the new 2008 Form 990.

For a “Summary of Redesigned Form 990” including the various schedules, see Bruce R. Hopkins’ Nonprofit Counsel (Vol. 25, No. 3, p.3, March 2008 - available via OhioLINK’s Electronic Journal Center 2003-present.)

Additional information resources for nonprofits are listed in the Law Library’s Nonprofit Law Resource Guide.

Ohiolink will be unveiling a new homepage soon, making it easier for you to find the information resources you need. A search box on the homepage allows you to search for: (1) articles and books, (2) books only, (3) articles only, (4) digital videos, or (5) search the OhioLINK Web pages. There still will be direct links to specific resources on the homepage, such as Electronic Journal Center and the many other Ohiolink databases. The new look will debut next week. For a sneak peek, check out Ohiolink Homepage

Each year, the Princeton Review puts out the Best 170 Law Schools and the Library just got in the 2008 edition. Here’s a taste of what you’ll find out about us.

Academics

Academic Experience Rating 78
Profs interesting rating 75
Profs accessible rating 79
Hours of study per day 4.59

Academic Specialties

Civil procedure, commercial law,
Corporation securities law,
Criminal law, dispute resolution,
Environmental law, labor law,
Taxation, trial and appellate advocacy

Survey Says...

Diverse opinions accepted in classrooms
Great research resources
Great library staff [sniff!]

And much more. If you want to read all the details, the book will be in the Reserve Room KF266.H744 (ask at the Information Services Desk).

Yes, the law has its own vocabulary, and it takes a while for students to comfortably throw around terms that have one meaning in everyday English and a completely different one when expressing a legal concept. Facility comes with complete understanding and incorporation of the underlying issue, so that when you say “ripeness” you aren’t even thinking about fruit. Check out Definition of the Day, a new occasional feature of the Legal Information Institute’s Blog LII Announce, to enhance your vocabulary comprehension: see ripeness and assumption of the risk for example. References to primary authority and links to extended discussion in LII’s online encyclopedia Wex, provide additional opportunity to firm up your legal language skills.

Science works its way into a surprising number of legal cases, and lawyers aren’t always ready to handle some of the most basic scientific information. Eric Drogin’s new book Science for Lawyers K487 .S3 S255 2008 can help scientifically-challenged JDs tackle the fundamentals of ballistics, chemistry, computer forensics, engineering, genetics, medicine, physics, statistics, even linguistics and dentistry. Drogin promises that the book will be “[a] non-threatening, even absorbing, half-hour read on the train to work” that will “reacquaint counsel….with dimly recalled undergraduate survey topics often comprising a personal list of “reasons I didn’t go to medical school.””

So go ahead -- relish the fact that you chose law school over med school and grab this book when in [scientific] doubt.

Searching for recent CLE materials on ethics, office management, family law, estate planning or other topics? Try the library’s revised Ohio CLE page. Alumni can borrow these materials with an Alumni Borrower’s Card.

So you love tagging your books or bookmarks in LibraryThing or Del.icio.us and then using the tags to stumble across additional stuff that interests you? Well, now you’ll start to see LibraryThing tags in Scholar, the CSU library catalog.

To see an example, check out this record for Grisham’s The Firm, and have a look under Find Similar Items – that’s where the tags are congregating. Click on a tag - say, “thriller” – and you’ll see related tags as well as a list of other books tagged “thriller”.

SCHOLAR, the CSU Libraries electronic catalog, now allows you to save a search statement for future use - Preferred Searches. Having a Preferred Search can save time and typing when needing to conduct the same search over an extended period of time. To create a Preferred Search, you must first log onto your SCHOLAR account, with your name, CSU ID#, and PIN. Once logged in, click on SCHOLAR HOME in the top black navigation menu. At the SCHOLAR page, conduct your desired search. At the search results page, click on the grey "Save as preferred search" button. That's it! Remember to click on the red "Log Out" button at the end of your search session. To manage your Preferred Searches, log onto your SCHOLAR account, then click on the green "Preferred Searches" button. The system will display your Preferred Searches, as well as the options to search, email, or remove/clear them.

We start the new year with a new simpler and cleaner look for SCHOLAR, the online catalog of the CSU University and Law Libraries. We have also improved the functionality you need to find books and other library resources with an easy-to-use Advanced Search template. Check the search tips on the righthand side of the advanced search screen for additional information. You also can specify how your results are sorted. To check which titles you "have out", click on My Account at the top of the screen.

Looking for information on the environmental laws of Mexico, preferably in English? Or maybe you would like to find information on copyright laws in Germany? A great starting point for foreign law questions like these is Foreign Law Guide, an online bibliography by Reynolds & Flores. The database does not contain the full text of foreign laws, but rather, provides citations and web links. For each country, the database: (1) Lists the major legislative codifications, administrative regulations and court reports, and whether copies have been published in English. (2) Provides links to online sources, both free and for fee. (3) Lists legal subjects and citations to laws on that subject, as well as citations to secondary sources. (4) Briefly summarizes the country's legal system. This database is available both on campus and remotely with a CSU Id number and PIN.

Sometimes it's useful to try to different study method, instead of just limiting yourself to reading. Try listening to a course review on audio!

The Library collects many sets of course reviews on audio (cassette or cd) that can really help you get a leg up on studying for exams. Don't have an old-fashioned cassette player? You can check one out from the Library.

1Ls, you might be interested in our audio sets for civ pro, contracts, property and torts. Upper level students, check out admin law, con law, crim pro, evidence, estates & trusts and family law.

You can get the full list of audio sets here, scroll down and see Sum & Substance Series and Law School Legends Series. You'll find links to call numbers in the Library. All audio sets are located in room AO66 and can be checked out for one week.

Personally, I couldn't have passed civ pro (not my favorite class as a 1L) without Miller's audio set.

“I knew I saw it somewhere.” Unfortunately, that’s not a valid Bluebook form. Even if you’ve documented the url where you found your information, you may discover that it’s no longer an active web page. Gregg R. Notess, at his web site Search Engine Showdown: The User’s Guide to Web Searching, provides a table describing how to find archived page from various services, with notes on the likely depth and content of the archives. See Finding Old Web pages for helpful hints, and bookmark it for future reference. The fluid character of the web guarantees you will need it.

Here are some sources for new Ohio cases, legislation and other legal developments. Keep in mind that you can create your own e-mail updates to online news websites by using Watchthatpage.com.. Watch That Page will send you an e-mail every time the website changes :

• If you like blogs and RSS feeds, try the Cleveland Law Library Blog, Ohio Supreme Court News and Ohio Supreme Court Opinion Summaries (new Ohio Supreme Court opinions).
• If it's new case opinions from all court levels you are looking for, try the classic Ohio State Bar Association Report. The OSBA Report is available online for OSBA members, and in print at the library. It is often called the "green book". The OSBA Report contains court rule changes, new bills introduced and new cases. Students can join the OSBA for free. See Law School Student Associate Membership page.
• The OSBA's homepage also contains the Legal E-Wire, a list of links to current news articles on Ohio and national law.

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There’s nothing like a good movie: film makes mere words tangible, so that the viewer truly experiences the story and arrives at a level of understanding touching all the senses. Do we ever say that about a brief or legal memorandum? One legal writing professor thinks we ought to strive for such impact: Elyse Pepper, in “The Case for 'Thinking Like a Filmmaker': Using Lars Von Trier's Dogville as a Model for Writing a Statement of Facts" (St. John's Legal Studies Research Paper No. 07-0083 Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1019524 October 2007, Journal of the Legal Writing Institute, forthcoming) posits that adopting film story telling techniques may help legal writers learn to construct powerful and persuasive fact statements.

Pepper’s students viewed and analyzed the film Dogville for the exercise in learning to tell the facts compellingly and from different points of view. If, upon reading the article, you would like to try her method with another film, you’ll likely find a suitable candidate in the Law Library’s Audio-Visual Collection Catalog.

You probably noticed that the law school and law library web page have a new look. Not only is the web site more visually appealing, navigation features have been added to make information easier to find. Note the links to main categories on the left, and subcategory links on the right.

You may be trying to find where some of your favorite sources have been relocated. For a brief list of where certain items have been relocated on the library's page, click the <More> link, below. If you have trouble finding other items, please do not hesitate to ask the library staff.

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Local fans glorying in the Indians’ success against the New York Yankees while trying to maintain focus on the study of law in this post-season can be grateful that the sport of baseball has provided much fodder for legal scholarship and judicial discourse. Just a few titles from the Library’s collection (Legal Issues in Professional Baseball , ed. by L. Kurlantzick, Academic Press, 2005; Legal Bases : Baseball and the Law , by R. Abrams, Temple University Press, 1998 ; Courting the Yankees : Legal Essays on the Bronx Bombers , ed. by E. Ward, Carolina Academic Press, 2003; Baseball and the American Legal Mind , ed. by S. Waller, N Cohen, P. Finkelman, Garland, 1995) ought to assure you that an obsession with the sport over the next few days (and weeks, we might hope) is perfectly consistent with pursuing a legal education.

Of course one should not lose sight of the fact that we are talking about a game: To relieve the tension of waiting for Borowski’s next pitch, how about trying your luck at a game of crosswords with a baseball theme: First, read the classic case of Flood v. Kuhn , 407 U.S. 258 (1972). All the puzzle answers are contained (or implied!) therein – then try the interactive puzzle (click on the boxes to reveal clues). Be patient, wait for your pitches, and you may not need the answer key.

Recent enhancements to LexisNexis include Fifty State Surveys, Cases in Brief, enhanced linking and searchable noise words.

1. Cases in Brief: Starting Jan. 1, 2008, Lexis will no longer contain ALRs. Lexis created Cases in Brief as a substitute. For selected current significant cases, Cases in Brief provides in-depth analysis of the case, subsequent developments and links to secondary sources and news. To look at an example of a Case in Brief, go to LexisNexis® 2006 us dist lexis 43146 Underneath the “disposition” section of this case, you will see a link for a Case in Brief. You may notice a dollar sign by the Case in Brief link, but law school Lexis accounts are not charged for this service. See Julie Webster-Matthews, LexisNexis Case in Brief: A Research Tool for Today and Beyond, LexisNexis Information Professional Update, Sept. 2007.

2. Fifty State Surveys: This new feature is a great time saver when researching the law in all or multiple states. The Fifty State Surveys provide charts of relevant statutes and regulations for each state on various issues. Go to Legal>States Legal-U.S.>Combined States>Find Statutes & Legislative Materials>LexisNexis 50 State Surveys, Legislation & Regulation. You will see a list of topics. There are dollar signs by the topics, but law school Lexis accounts will not be charged.

Another product, called JurisCharts, lists the answers (not just citations) to tax and insurance questions for the fifty states. JurisCharts are available via:

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Library Elf is a free service that can help you keep track of your library loans and holds. It's easy to register with Library Elf using your CSU Viking Card number and library PIN.

Once registered, you can receive email or RSS alerts before your library materials are due.

Library Elf also lets you register with more than one library -- this option is great for families or individuals with several library cards. For example, if you regularly check out materials from the C-M Law Library and from your local public library, Library Elf will help you keep track of all of your library materials in one convenient email or RSS alert. There's even an option for cellphone text message alerts for your library holds.

Give it a try for free.

Temple University law professor and blogger for the international law blog Opinio Juris, Duncan Hollis, recently posted [here] his recommendation to students starting their notes: check out the new book "Effective Lawyering: A Checklist Approach to Legal Writing & Oral Argument." Professor Hollis points out that the book is a "succinct and easy-to-read distillation of the various writing projects lawyers encounter, including a chapter on academic writing."

C-M Law students can find a circulating copy of the book in the Library in room AO66.

C-M students and faculty now have online access to many BNA publications, both on campus and off site. The library has purchased the BNA core plus package, which includes:

1. Extensive libraries with detailed subject analysis and annotations, primary source materials and current reports: Labor Relations Reporter/Labor and Employment Law Library (includes Americans with Disabilities Act Manual and Collective Bargaining Negotiations and Contracts ); ABA/BNA Lawyers' Manual on Professional Conduct ; U.S. Patents Quarterly/Intellectual Property Library

2. Current Reports, apprising readers of new cases, regulations, statutes and other developments: Antitrust and Trade Regulation Report, Bankruptcy Law Reporter, Criminal Law Reporter, Electronic Commerce & Law Report, Employment Discrimination Report, Environment Reporter - Current Reports, Family Law Reporter, Health Law Reporter, International Trade Reporter, Patent, Trademark & Copyright Journal , Securities Regulation and Law Reporter, U.S. Law Week, White Collar Crime Report . These databases usually contain issues dating back to 1996.

For remote access: Use the links in 1 & 2 above, link from Scholar, or use the Electronic Resources page. You will be asked for a CSU Id and PIN.

All of the above databases have email current awareness services you can sign up to receive. To sign up for e-mail delivery:

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Do you want to quickly access secondary sources explaining a particular Internal Revenue Code Section? Would you like to search primary and secondary federal tax source simultaneously? Maybe you want to find materials on sales tax exemptions for nonprofit organizations in several different states. Perhaps you just want to quickly retrieve a tax code section or tax case by citation. RIA Checkpoint can help you accomplish all those tasks and more!

Cleveland Marshall College of Law faculty and students have access to RIA Checkpoint, both on and off campus. For remote access, you will need a CSU ID and PIN.

*How to access: From the Library's Home Page , click on Electronic Resources, and scroll down to "RIA Checkpoint" OR from SCHOLAR do a title search for "RIA Checkpoint&q