MoreUs Law Library Blawg

International Law Cite Checking Made Easier

You’re probably already used to using HeinOnline to quickly look up cite-check-worthy PDFs of law journal articles or U.S. Supreme Court cases. Did you know you can now do the same thing with United Nations treaties? If you have a citation for the United Nations Treaty Series or the League of Nations Treaty Series, you can get a PDF reproduction of that treaty through Hein’s UN Law Collection. Go to “Enter a United Nations Treaty Series Citation” under Finding Aids and type in the volume and page number just as you would to get a law review article. No more having to figure out how to navigate the UN’s own online collection of treaties. The Hein UN Law Collection also includes the International Court of Justice’s official Reports of Judgments, Advisory Opinions and Orders back to 1947, along with UN publications on international trade, the Law of the Sea, disarmament and other issues.

Still not finding the treaty or international document you need? Try our International Law Guide, or check with a librarian (come to the reference desk or email lawlibref@virginia.edu).

- Ben Doherty 

New Database: NAACP Papers

The first release of the new NAACP Papers collection is now available to students, faculty, and staff through the ProQuest History Vault database. The material now available includes records from the national office and documents emanating from the NAACP’s efforts to promote equality in education, voting, housing, employment, and the armed forces. Later this year, documents relating to Scottsboro, lynching, criminal justice, peonage, labor, and segregation and discrimination complaints will be added, as well as the Legal Department’s working files for over 600 cases from the 1950s through early 1970s. A full description of content is available on ProQuest’s website. Materials that are not yet available online can be found at Alderman Library on microfiche.

- Amy Wharton 

Where Book Meets Glass: Our Newest Scanners

New Scannx book scanners are now available in myLab and the Reserve Room. These self-service scanners offer high speed scans as pdfs, searchable pdfs, Word, tiff, and png files. The Scannx is designed to allow the spine of an open book to be placed on the edge of the scanning glass. This lets the page lie flat so that it can be captured without distortion. If you need only part of the page, you can crop as you set up the scan. A touch screen guides you through the process of choosing the file format, scan quality, and file name. Scans are at 600 dpi for excellent clarity and will automatically crop, straighten, and orient each page for uniformity. (For very thin pages, gray scale/standard may work better than black and white/high quality.)

The scanner saves only to a USB Flash drive. If you don’t have one on hand, you can buy one at Courts and Commerce Bookstore or check one out at the circulation desk. 

While its primary use is as a book scanner, you can also use the Scannx to scan individual pages. However, if you have multiple pages to scan, you might prefer the Ricoh copier for its automatic document feeder. Ask a member of the library staff if you have questions or run into any problems.  

- Micheal Klepper  

Yellow Books Now Online

They (yes, the immortal “they”) say it’s not what you know but who you know that counts in this world. Being in academia, we think it’s actually a bit – okay, a lot – of both. Whether your summer or post-law school aspirations involve a judicial clerkship, working for a large law firm, finding a job in government or the nonprofit sector, or foreign relations work, you now have a resource at your fingertips to identify the right people to contact. The Law Library has just subscribed to the Leadership Directories Online (LDO) service, which is the online version of a series of print directories known as the Yellow Books. There are fourteen Yellow Books in all: Judicial, Congressional, Federal, Federal Regional, State, Municipal, Government Affairs, Law Firm, Corporate, Financial, News Media, Associations, Nonprofit Sector, and Foreign Representatives in the U.S. By combining the data from all of these sources into one database, LDO gives you the ability to generate graphs and lists of people from across multiple organizations, subject specialties, and even your alma mater. Now, instead of battling your fellow students for the library’s copy of the Judicial Yellow Book for information on judges, you can create your own list of names and addresses from the comfort of your laptop.

Access to LDO is limited to Law School students, faculty and staff and can be accessed only through LawWeb. Look for the link at the bottom of the “Library” section. We encourage you to take the LDO Quick Tour before you go exploring. Note that we don’t subscribe to the downloading and alerts features. If you have questions about using LDO, please contact us.

- Amy Wharton 

New Catalog Feature: Follow the Map!

The Law Library can be a very large place when you’re trying to find a book by its call number. To help simplify the hunt, we’ve just added maps of the stacks to the UVA Libraries catalog (a.k.a. VIRGO) to direct you to the section of the library where a specific book is located. To find a map, first run a search, then click “Availability” link:

If there’s an active upside down teardrop on the “Availability” page,

click it to retrieve the map:

(The map will be larger than this screenshot.)

Of course, human help remains available, as always, at the Circulation and Reference Desks.

- Amy Wharton 

 

Mark Your Calendar. Bloomberg Law is Coming!

The Law Library is about to debut a new legal research database that’s gaining rapid adoption by law firms and select law schools. Bloomberg Law, or “BLAW” as it’s known to friends, offers a growing body of legal information such as court opinions, statutes, regulations, secondary sources, and news, as well as the range of corporate and financial information you’d expect from a product by Bloomberg.

One particularly noteworthy feature of BLAW is its exceptional dockets database. Federal district, appellate, and an increasing number of state court filings can be searched and retrieved through the site. You can even sign up for email alerts to keep on top of new docket activity.

If you’re a law student or faculty member and you’d like to have a password for Bloomberg Law, please drop by the library computer lab on January 31 or February 1 between 9 and 6. Representative Beth Goldfinger will be here to register new users and help them get started. Beth will also hold a training session in the Fox Seminar Room (WB114 in the library) on February 1 at 2 p.m.

- Jon Ashley 

New for Spring, The Sequel: The Law Library DVD Browser

The Law Library is excited to announce the launch of its new DVD Browser. This online tool makes browsing the library’s extensive DVD collection easy and accessible from anywhere. The DVD Browser puts our collection at your fingertips with film synopses, reviews and ratings, related films, and up-to-date availability information. Explore the DVD Browser and check out your next film in the Law Library’s Reserve Room next to the circulation desk. A link to the DVD Browser is available on the Library’s homepage or you can visit http://lib.law.virginia.edu/dvdbrowser/.

- Loren Moulds 

 

"They're Like Individual Fortresses!"

That's what one library user said when she first noticed our brand new study carrels on the second floor. They do offer the privacy of a miniature fortress, but you won't have to cross a moat to reach them. They're open, airy and comfortable, with new high quality adjustable chairs. Each of the twenty carrels is individually lighted and features four electrical outlets so you can plug in at will. These carrels are non-reserve and may be used on a first-come, first-seated basis. We hope you will enjoy them!

- Amy Wharton

 

 

A Dramatic Beginning to the New Academic Year

Mother Nature’s boisterous greeting on Tuesday is a tough act to follow.  Nevertheless, we’d like to welcome our new and returning students. We feel very fortunate to be able to tell you that the earthquake, though it was centered just a few miles from here, left our books on the shelves and our digital resources online.

As classes begin in earnest today, we’d like to share some news to help new students get acclimated and let our “old” students know about some of the changes that took place over the summer:

Not your father’s Reference Desk. You may already have noticed that the Library has been spruced up with new carpet, new chairs, and a brand new Reference and Information Desk. The new desk features a seating area where librarians can offer more in-depth help. We’re still moving in, but the desk is now open for business.

Where are the Ks? You’ll notice that we’ve shifted some materials to make better use of our space. Check the call number maps before you go out into the stacks, or stop by the Reference or Circulation Desks if you need help.

VIRGO looks different. VIRGO continues to evolve from a traditional library catalog into a powerful tool for finding information. Last week, an article search feature was added that allows researchers to search for books and journal articles from a single box. You can choose to search both the catalog and the articles database individually or simultaneously. The article search feature aggregates content from many different journals. Not all journals we can access are covered, so you might want to use it in addition to (not instead of) article searches in Lexis and Westlaw.  Ask a reference librarian if you have questions about finding articles with VIRGO.

More new library services, collections and features are planned for this fall. You’ll hear about them first right here. Meanwhile, as always, let us know how we can help you as you settle into research assignments and cite-checking projects.

- Amy Wharton