Study rooms are now available in the library for groups of three or more UC Hastings students during exams. You can reserve a room for your group by following the directions on the SIC office website .
During the exam period, Study Room 412 is available on a first-come-first-served basis when it is not reserved for Dog Therapy sessions. Dog Therapy sessions are Monday through Friday, 10:30am – Noon and 2:00pm – 3:30pm; Room 412 is cleaned M-F 5:00pm – 5:30pm.
Here’s a link to a good explanation from The Scientific American on the changes to your Google based accounts (Gmail, Youtube, Google+) from Google’s new privacy. The US Congress also wants some explanations. They’ve sent a letter to Google CEO, Larry Page requesting clarification.
The Hastings Encore Catalog is a new search engine available on our website. You can get to Encore on our home page or through our Catalogs page. Put keywords (or a phrase in quotes) in an Encore search to find books, access full text articles and explore Google Scholar. The Hastings Law Library subscribes to a broad range of print and electronic resources and you can search them through the Encore search box.
These are the resources that are covered in the Encore Catalog search:
If you have any questions about the Hastings Encore Catalog, just ask a reference librarian to find out more.
The video and handout materials from the 2011 edition of “Prepare to Practice: The Crash Course on Legal Research” are now available:
Crash Course (Prepare to Practice 2011) (powerpoint)
Crash Course (Prepare to Practice 2011) (presentation video on iTunes University for viewing or downloading on your computer, ipad or smartphone)
Public.Resource.Org an organization committed to making government information more accessible, will begin providing in 2011 a weekly release of the Report of Current Opinions (RECOP). The Report will be freely available in electronic format and consist of all slip and final opinions of the appellate and supreme courts of the 50 states and the federal government. The feed will be available for reuse without restriction under the Creative Commons CC-Zero License and will include full star pagination. Once available we will make the feed accessible through the Hastings Law Library web site. More details here.
Also coming early 2011, the Hastings Law Library is working with Public.Resource.Org and the Internet Archive to provide free internet access to 3 million pages of 9th Circuit briefs from 1892 to 1968. We all hope to have the project up and running within the first quarter of 2011.
The Hastings Law Library now offers Chat Reference to all our patrons. Chat Reference is great way for students and faculty to ask quick questions of a reference librarian while they are off campus, or from the remote recesses of the library. Chat is available whenever the reference desk is open, just go to the Ask A Librarian page on the Hastings Law Library web site. One reminder, though, questions asked in person at the reference desk have priority over questions asked through chat, so chat may be unavailable while the librarian is assisting other patrons at the desk.
Library Hours for the Thanksgiving Holiday:
NOVEMBER 2010 – Thanksgiving Recess
Wednesday November 24 8:00 AM – 6:00 PM
Thursday November 25 CLOSED
Friday November 26 9:00 AM – 6:00 PM
Saturday November 27 9:00 AM – 6:00 PM
Sunday November 28 9:00 AM – 11:00 PM
The Reference Desk will be closed on Thursday and Friday, November 25- 26, 2010
CourtListener is an impressive master’s thesis project from Michael Lissner at the UC Berkeley School of Information that provides real time alerts to decisions issued by the US Circuit Courts of Appeal and the US Supreme Court.
From the about page: “The goal of the site is to create a free and competitive real time alert tool for the U.S. judicial system. At present, the site has daily information regarding all precedential opinions issued by the 13 federal circuit courts and the Supreme Court of the United States. Each day, we also have the non-precedential opinions from all of the Circuit courts except the D.C. Circuit. This means that by 5:10pm PST, the database will be updated with the opinions of the day, with custom alerts going out shortly thereafter.”
On November 16th, 2009, via a cryptic message on Twitter from Product Manager Rick Klau, Google announced that they will now provide case law free on the internet though Google Scholar
Here are the details of the available opinions:
Search and read opinions for:
US state appellate and supreme court cases since 1950
US federal district, appellate, tax and bankruptcy courts since 1923
US Supreme Court cases since 1791
“Internet for Lawyers” has a thorough examination of the new service and links to blogs and resources with additional information.
Google Scholar has indexed law review articles on Heinonline since 2008 and now, with the inclusion of full text opinions, Google Scholar is a much richer legal research resource. Just remember to read the fine print: ” Legal opinions in Google Scholar are provided for informational purposes only and should not be relied on as a substitute for legal advice from a licensed lawyer. Google does not warrant that the information is complete or accurate.”
The Hastings Law Library is pleased to announce the launch of the Hastings Faculty Publications Database. The Library has created a comprehensive repository of Bluebook citations and links (when available) to the scholarship of the current Hastings College of the Law faculty. Now you can search Hastings faculty publications by Name, Subject, Publication Type, Journal, Keyword and Date. Or you can browse the list of Regular, Distinguished and Emeritus Faculty by name. The database is kept up to date regularly.
Thanks to everyone who has been involved in this project from the start: Librarians Hilary Hardcastle, Chuck Marcus, Susan Nevelow Mart; David Seward for greenlighting the project; Holly Gatto for data derivation programming; Derek Christiansen for database programming; Marilyn Smith for technical advice; Jenni Parrish and Evan Lee for insight and encouragement; Dan Taysom for server implementation; Interns and Temps – Alysa Gerard, Christina McKennerney, Michelle Dipuma.
