2010 RIPS National Legal Research Teach-In Kit Available

The Research Instruction and Patron Services SIS is proud to announce the release of the 18th Annual National Legal Research Teach-In Kit. Each year in conjunction with National Library Week, RIPS creates a Teach-In Kit containing fresh materials for use in your institution's promotional and instructional activities. This year’s kit includes legislative history materials (some of which are in Spanish—a first for the kit), a primary and secondary source matching game, a human rights presentation and guide, online tutorials, syllabi, various research assignments, and many other wonderful materials.

The 2010 Teach-In Kit is available at:
http://www.aallnet.org/sis/ripssis/TeachIn/2010/index.html

An overview of the kit as well as kits from previous years are available now at:
http://www.aallnet.org/sis/ripssis/TeachIn/teach_in.html

Thanks to all this year's contributors, as well as the Teach-In Kit Committee: Gail Partin, David Lehmann, Laura Ax-Fultz, and Shawn Nevers.

Call for Nominations AALL New Product Award - Deadline Feb. 1, 2010

Call for Nominations! AALL New Product Award


Have you discovered any great new library products this past year? If so, let us know! It is time to nominate these products for AALL’s New Product Award.

The New Product Award honors a new and innovative commercial legal information product that enhances or improves existing law library services and/or procedures. New products may include, but are not limited to, printed material, computer hardware and/or software, or other products or devices that aid or improve access to legal information, the legal research process, or procedures for technical processing of library materials. Any product that has been re-introduced in a new format or with substantial changes is also available. A new product is one that has been in the library-related marketplace for two years or less.

All AALL members are encouraged to think about the exciting new information products being used in their libraries and to send us their nominations for this award. Recipients of the New Product Award need not hold membership in AALL. Nominations for this award may be made by any AALL member and by vendors nominating their own products.

To Submit a Nomination for the 2010 Award

Nomination forms can be found on the CRIV website under the New Product Award tab or at http://www.aallnet.org/committee/criv/news/newproductform.pdf. The deadline for receipt of submissions is February 1, 2010.


Librarian Nominations
If you are a librarian nominating a product, please give as much information about the product as possible. The New Product Awards Subcommittee will contact the publisher of the product for any further information required.


Vendor/Publisher Nominations
If you are a vendor or publisher nominating a hardcopy product, please submit the form along with a sample product, if available. If you are nominating a Web-based or online product, please submit the form with all necessary contact information, including URL(s) and temporary login and password information.

For hardcopy products, brochures, and/or any other materials, we recommend that you send eight copies for the New Product Award Subcommittee and the AALL Awards Committee.

Please send completed forms and documents to:

Michelle Cosby
Reference Librarian
University of Kentucky College of Law Library
620 S. Limestone Street
Lexington, KY 40506-0048
859-257-1578 (Office)
859-323-4906 (Fax)
Mcosb2@email.uky.edu


The deadline for submissions is February 1, 2010.

Help AALL and SNELLA Save Connecticut Courthouse Libraries

Help AALL and SNELLA Save Connecticut Courthouse Libraries

Help get the word out. Although only Connecticut residents can sign, it will help to get the word out so members can contact friends and family they know in CT. Thanks.

AALL has been working closely with the Southern New England Law Librarians Association (SNELLA), to oppose the announced closure of six of the 15 courthouse libraries in Connecticut. They are jointly sponsoring online petitions to save the courthouse libraries in Bridgeport, Hartford, Litchfield, Milford, and Norwich. The sixth library, at the Willimantic Courthouse, is not staffed and its small collection will likely be moved to the local public university. Each petition includes a compelling statement by a leader of the local bar association, whose members stand ready to join forces with us. Attorneys and pro se litigants will be deprived of local access to current and historic legal materials, as well as the knowledge and expertise of professional librarians, if we do not stop these proposed closures.

The petitions are open to all residents of Connecticut, so please help spread the word so that our efforts are successful in quickly getting as many signatures as possible to keep these public law libraries open and staffed.

In addition to the petitions, on December 23, AALL and SNELLA sent joint letters to Connecticut's Governor Rell and to the leadership of the Appropriations Committee strongly opposing the decision, which was announced by Judge Barbara M. Quinn, chief court administrator. The closures became necessary, according to Quinn, after the executive branch cut $12.9 million from the budget for the judicial branch.

LibGuides

Here at the University of Kentucky, I am a member of the LibGuides Working Group. Since I am a member of the group, I thought I should actually create a LibGuide. My group had a training session last week that I attended. It was a mixture of group teaching and one on one training, and I have to say, I think I like LibGuides.

Creating a LibGuide was similar to creating a Wiki. LibGuides allows you to set up as many or as few tabs as you like. You can also create a tab that will link directly to a web page. Adding links isn't too hard, either.

LibGuides allows you to add tags to allow for easier searching. Additionally, LibGuides allows you to keep statistics, which is good for knowing how often your patrons access your guide.

LibGuides also has features like adding the picture of a book, adding video, and adding chat options.

The other nice thing is that it gives some uniformity to research guides across the library system.

I'm not sure how many Law Libraries are currently using LibGuides, but if you or your campus subscribe to this product, transfer a few of your existing guides over and see if this helps you reach your patrons.

Links of Interest
University of Kentucky LibGuides

My LibGuide - Using Citation Tools: With Emphasis on the Bluebook

Examples of LibGuides from Springshare

LibGuides Community

Boston College - LibGuides for Guide Authors

Tips for PowerPoint Presentations

I was reading the Legal Writing Prof Blog today and it had a link to an article from the Business Writing Blog on presentations. The article is called Presentations: Less is More, and it was published on August 9, 2009. The article is a quick read and gives 9 tips to help you reach your audience while giving a PowerPoint Presentation.

LexisNexis Congressional Wiki

One of my all time favorite products for legislative history research is LexisNexis Congressional. I was on there today and discovered that they have a Congressional page as part of their LexisNexis Wiki for Higher Education.

The page has a welcome message that explains its purpose as well as the following information:
Congressional Interdisciplinary Guides - This page explains the interdisciplinary aspects of Congressional and also links to guides in several subject areas such as Sociology and Social Work and Natural Sciences.

Congressional Downloads and Articles Index - This page links to articles that discuss congressional content and also has links to guides that give a sampling of Congressional content. There are also links to Area of Law guides, User-Created Guides, Videos, White Papers, and General Resources.

Congressional Topical Research Handouts - This page can be a good starting place for research. It links to articles such as Black History Month, Charles Darwin, Abraham Lincoln, and going Green.

Using LexisNexis Congressional - If you need an explanation of what Congressional is and/or tips on how to use Congressional, this is the page for you. The page covers content and frequently asked questions. It also links to the Congressional Downloads page.

Congressional Reference Information - this page links to articles that help explain how a bill becomes a law. However, if you are a visual learner, the page also has the Schoolhouse Rock video that explains it. This page links to other useful information as well, such as a glossary of terms for Congressional.

To see the Congressional page for your self go to http://wiki.lexisnexis.com/academic/index.php?title=Congressional.

To see the LexisNexis Wiki for Higher Education go to http://wiki.lexisnexis.com/academic/index.php?title=Main_Page.

Twitter in the Library and the Classroom

I joined Twitter a few months ago. I have around 200 "tweets." Yes, I know. Active Twitter users are calling me pathetic as they read this. However, I remember someone tweeting about teaching law faculty about Twitter. I thought that was interesting, but moved on with my day. On Monday, we had a faculty retreat and a professor came and talked to us and he told us that twitter is his preferred means of communication and he encourages students to use it and other web 2.0 technologies while in his class.

Okay, now I am thinking - how can you use Twitter in the classroom or in the library? Is it really a good idea? So, I did what any self-respecting librarian does. I googled "Twitter in the cl-" before I could finish Twitter in the classroom came up as an option.

We know that libraries are using Twitter to announce new books and programs, but here are some other ways to use Twitter.

Reference Questions - Limiting someone to 140 characters could be good or bad
Discussion Forums - Patrons can have a public discussion on a topic
Twitter Polls - Find and graph opinions
Twiddeo - Share video with patrons

Potential Downsides
Searching
Archiving
Text Message Fees
Time Spent Staffing/Managing the Twitter Account

So, while I support Libraries being on Twitter, I am still uncertain about the benefit to using it in the classroom. Please leave your comments about your experiences with Twitter in libraries or in the classroom.

Links to Articles Consulted
Twitter in the Classroom
http://web20primer.wetpaint.com/page/Twitter+in+the+Classroom

Libraries on Twitter
http://p8g.tw/?aOI

50 ways to use Twitter in the College Classroom
http://www.onlinecolleges.net/2009/06/08/50-ways-to-use-twitter-in-the-college-classroom/

A Professor's Tips for using Twitter in the Classroom
http://chronicle.com/blogPost/A-Professor-s-Tips-for-Using/3643

Are Universities Wasting Their Time Communicating to Students via Twitter
http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/law_librarian_blog/2009/08/are-universities-wasting-their-time-communicating-to-students-via-twitter.html

How one Teacher uses Twitter in the Classroom
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/how_one_teacher_uses_twitter_in_the_classroom.php

25 Interesting Ways to Use Twitter in the Classroom
http://docs.google.com/present/view?id=dhn2vcv5_118cfb8msf8

Twitter for Academia
http://academhack.outsidethetext.com/home/2008/twitter-for-academia/

Westlaw Law School Exchange

One of the products that impressed me most this year was Westlaw's Law School Exchange. It seemed to address a lot of the gripes that I had about online text books, and it has some other useful features. This product is for passwords with faculty status.

West has divided its marketing of Law School Exchange into three categories: Share, Publish, and Collaborate.

Share
You can upload PDFs, Photos, PowerPoints, Word Documents and Mutlimedia files. This is a good way to share articles and syllabi with colleagues. You can easily share documents under the Materials tab.

Publish
This feature has the ability to integrate with TWEN and allows distribution of course materials. Don't forget to mindful of copyright! West Academic Publishing and Foundation Press materials are available. Text books can be viewed in a document viewer. This is the feature that I saw that impressed me. You could highlight portions of the text as well as annotate. From what I was told, this feature would come for a fee to students.

Collaborate
You can join groups and add colleagues. This allows you to reach beyond your school for guidance and provides networking opportunities.

Other things to note
There are tabs for Collections and Blogs that are in development. Also, the version I saw at AALL seems to be a bit different, so it took some getting use to. Additionally, you have to log in with your unique Westlaw password.


To join Law School Exchange go to http://exchange.westlaw.com/ and click on create an account. You will need your Westlaw password (the unique numeric-alpha password, not your custom password). Next, you select the areas you teach in, you also have the option of adding areas that you are interested in. You then must agree to the terms of use and then you can register.

Free Court Dockets Web Site

Today, I took a look at the Free Court Dockets site. To retrieve docket information (with the exception of US Supreme Court information), you have to request an invitation code from the site. (Click here if you would like to go through the process).

I did not request an invitation code, so I looked at one of the "Hot Docket" cases, GERONIMO v. OBAMA - 09cv00303. The first page, the case summary, gives you the standard plantiff and defendant information, as well as info on their attorneys.

The second page gives you docket information along with the date each document was filed/action taken.

You can download/print/save this information. You can also view when the docket was last updated by the site, and also refresh the docket information.

However, if you want to get a motion, for example, the site redirects you to Pacer, at least it does for the case that I looked at. It also warns that you must have a Pacer account and fees may be assessed.

This site is good if you need basic information, or you want to see the docket, but it appears that you will still need to use Pacer (or Westlaw or Lexis if you want to retrieve docket documents through one of those services) if you need to see the actual motion/document.

Article on Clickers from RIPS

Yasmin Alexander wrote a Blog post about Audience Response Systems (clickers). To ready the post click here. To read the Perspectives article click here.

I haven't ever used clickers in the classroom, but I have used them during meetings with fellow librarians. Some people do not like having to use the clickers, but I found that it helps you get a sense of what everyone is thinking, whether or not they spoke on the topic.