2013 Law Library Dean`s Fellow Orientation Presentation
Download
Report
Transcript 2013 Law Library Dean`s Fellow Orientation Presentation
Dean’s Fellow Workshop
Pence Law Library
June 5, 2012
6:00 PM
Room 101
Welcome
Amy Taylor, Access Services Librarian
[email protected]
Access Services
Amy Taylor, Access Services Librarian
[email protected]
Access Services
Circulation
[email protected]
Interlibrary Loan
[email protected]
Circulation
Pence Law Library
18 weeks for general collection material
My Leagle
Network user name/password
University Library
6 weeks for general collection material
Proxy borrowing form
http://www.american.edu/library/services/upload/ProxyAuthorization.pdf
My Aladin
Last name/AU ID or barcode/affiliation
Check your accounts
My Leagle
MyALADIN
Interlibrary Loan (ILL)
Use ILLiad service via Pence
http://library.wcl.american.edu/ill.cfm
Create an account
Find material using WorldCat or enter citations manually
Include faculty sponsors’ name on every request
Borrowing period set by lending library
Check your account
WorldCat
Using Worldcat for ILL
Prefilled ILL form
Library Notices
Very important to keep your account clear for registration,
graduation, transcripts, etc.
If you have questions or problems, touch base with us and we
can help.
General Library Sources
Ripple Weistling
Reference Librarian
[email protected]
Summer Reference Services
Ask a Librarian
https://library.wcl.american.edu/ask.cfm
Email reference assistance
[email protected]
Instant messaging assistance
Summer hours M-F 1:00-5:00
Summer Reference Services
Reference desk assistance
M-F 1:00-5:00
In person
Telephone – 202-274-4352
Reference librarian office visits
Librarian offices, Rms. 109 -115 in Reserve Room
M-F, business hours
Appointments encouraged
Appointments with a librarian
John Heywood, Foreign and International Librarian, Rm 115
[email protected]
Susan Lewis, Associate Director for Public Services, Rm 114
[email protected]
Bill Ryan, Foreign & International Librarian, Rm 112
[email protected]
Amy Taylor, Access Services Librarian, Rm 105B
[email protected]
Ripple Weistling, Reference and Electronic Svcs Librarian, Rm 111
[email protected]
Remote access to
Pence/AU Library databases
Log in from anywhere in the world
Pence Law Library databases
Use your my.american.edu login/password to access
AU Library databases
Use your AU ID number to access
Pence Law Library website
library.wcl.american.edu
Encore or Leagle – Pence Law Library catalog
Your starting point for what’s available from the library
Research Tools link
Your guide to all library research resources
Articles indexes and databases
Your starting point to find articles (better than Lexis/Westlaw)
Information Resources links
Databases and websites
Topical
A-Z
Finding books and other library items
Encore or Leagle – Pence Law Library catalog
Your roadmap to what’s available from the library,
in any format:
Physical collection – books, periodicals, microform, DVDs
Databases and other electronic resources
Bloomberg BNA Library – US Law Week, etc.
HeinOnline
Arab Law Quarterly
Many more
Websites
Finding periodical articles
Legal articles indexes: Research Tools Page
Include LegalTrac, ILPB, Current Index to Legal Periodicals, Index
to Foreign Legal Periodicals
Large collections of journals indexed
Good place to do topical article searching
Some articles are available in full text; others are citations
If full text isn’t available, then HeinOnline or LexisNexis/Westlaw
LexisNexis, Westlaw, HeinOnline
Great for finding articles with known citations
Not so good for topical article searching
Smaller collections of journals indexed
Finding databases and websites
We have a large collection of legal databases and
websites on a variety of topics
Access them from
Information resources by topic link
(library.wcl.american.edu/resources/topics.cfm)
Information resources, A-Z link
(library.wcl.american.edu/resources/resources.cfm)
Databases You Need to Know About
ProQuest Congressional - the definitive source for legislative
history research
Bloomberg BNA Library – a large collection of databases on a
range of legal topics
Bloomberg Law – Legal, business, and news database; a good
source for docket information
(for access, go to bloomberglaw.com/activate and sign up using your WCL
email)
U.S. Supreme Court Records and Briefs, 1832-1978 - an excellent
source for historical Supreme Court research
Social Science Research Network - articles and working papers
from law and other social science disciplines
Non-Legal Resources - AU Main Library
Non-Legal Resources
AU main library has an extensive collections of non-legal
databases in arts, business, international studies, social science,
etc.
You have access to all main library resources (see slide on
remote access, above)
Search Databases or Find Journals
Find Journals (by title) when you have a citation
Search Databases when you’re doing topical research
Databases are organized alphabetically and by discipline
Find Journals
Select the appropriate journal
Search Databases
International & Foreign Law Sources
John Heywood
Foreign and International Law Librarian
[email protected]
Definitions
Municipal Law – A nation-state’s domestic law
Foreign Law – A foreign nation-state’s domestic law
Comparative Law – The study and comparison of the
domestic law of 2 or more nation-states
International Law – The law governing the inter-relations of
nation-states
Foreign & Comparative Law
This is not as easy as you think it will be
Each of the 192 or so nation-states in the world has a distinct
and complex legal system that, just like ours, requires years
of study to master
Most countries neither legislate nor adjudicate in English
The first place to start is the Foreign Law Guide, available on
our A to Z list
International Law
3 sources of international law:
Treaties
Custom
General Principles of Law
The last 2 would take us until sometime tomorrow to discuss
how to find….come see Bill or me
Treaty finding can also be daunting, but we have a few tips
that will help you 75% of the time
For the remaining 25%, come see Bill or me
General International Law Info
The Max Planck Encyclopedia of Public International Law, from
our A to Z list
Janis & the nutshell are both excellent
Research Guides from the American Society of International
Law, NYU, LLRX, etc.
My own online IL list is useful (it links through the WCL
proxy server):
http://internationalcourts.net/presentations/InternationalLegal
ResearchOnline.php
Finding Treaties
US Treaties
If the US is a party, it is US domestic law, and fairly easy to find
HeinOnline has a Treaties & Agreements Library with almost
everything you need
The most current US treaties & agreements are on either the
State Department or Trade Rep’s websites
Treaties not yet consented to are on Thomas
Lexis/Nexis & Westlaw are useful, especially if you want to see
how US courts have interpreted a treaty
Non-US Treaties
May be much more difficult to find
A UNTS or LNTS cite makes life easier
A treaty between 2 foreign countries, especially if neither
have English as an official language, and also especially if they
are developing nations, can be a real challenge
Come find Bill or me
Zotero & EndNote
John Heywood
Foreign and International Law Librarian
[email protected]
Reference Management Software
Tools to help you collect,
organize, cite, and share
your research sources
There are many competing
products
We will talk about the two
most popular:
Zotero & EndNote
Free open-source software
(both free as in beer and
free as in speech)
Developed by scholars for
scholars
Organizes all of your
sources: bibliographic info,
notes, pdfs, websites, etc.
One-click source collecting
Automatically senses what
type of source you are
storing
Grabs database search
results from library
catalogs, LegalTrac,
amazon, Google Scholar,
etc.
Will not import from
Lexis/Nexis or Westlaw
Lets you tag your sources
and notes
Integrates with Word,
LibreOffice, & GoogleDocs
so you can insert sources
into footnotes in whatever
style you choose
1500+ different styles,
including the Bluebook,
Chicago, & Oxford
Syncs with zotero.org so
your info is available on the
web or on multiple
machines
Work with your data on
any web browser
anywhere…just login to
your free zotero.org
account (300 Mb free,
$20/year for 2 Gb)
You can share your
research
Easy backup of all your
work
Easy to generate a
bibliography
Mobile apps for iOS &
Android which you can use
while offline or on
2 versions:
One that lives inside
Firefox as an extension
One that is standalone with
plugins for Firefox, Safari,
& Chrome (IE works as
well, but it is very clunky)
Both versions work with
Windows, Mac, & Linux
Get it at:
zotero.org
Proprietary software
owned by Thomson
Reuters, the folks who own
WestLaw
Will not import from
Lexis/Nexis or Westlaw
Works well with most
other databases
Very similar in function to
Zotero
A standalone app with
plugins for Word and IE
Has a web app called
EndNote Web which allows
collaboration
Works in Windows or Mac
Has 5000+ styles,
including the Bluebook,
Chicago, & Oxford
Has a mobile web app, but
you must be connected to
the web while using it
No user-defined tags
Retails for $299.95, but
you can download it from
AU for free while you are a
student
Go to:
myau.american.com
Which to choose?
They are both very useful
Zotero is always free, and
your data is in an open
format
EndNote is free while you
are a student, and your data
is in a proprietary format
Most folks I know despise
Endnote, but your mileage
may vary
Research Strategies &
Useful Print Materials
Amy Taylor
Access Services Librarian, Pence Law Library
BEGINNING YOUR
RESEARCH
Get organized!
Create a research log, whether in paper, on a spreadsheet or
in a word-processing document.
You will need to keep track of the sources you consult and
use for your paper in order to provide complete citations and
full bibliographic information of every source you cite or use
generally.
Be thorough!
Source Gathering
If you need a source that is not available at the Pence Law
Library, you can obtain it through interlibrary loan.
Be sure to leave enough time to obtain your source through
ILL – it may take as long as 2 weeks to get your material.
Additional information on interlibrary loan is posted at
http://library.wcl.american.edu/ill.cfm
Your Research Strategy
Depends on what you know
The less you know the more you need secondary sources
Legal pubs are either chronological, by subject or both
ALWAYS update your research (Keycite/Shepardize) and
generally pay attention to the dates of what you are using
Evaluate websites
Rely on authoritative and
Use Google Scholar – an
unbiased sites
Know your search engines
and how they work
NEVER use (or admit to
using ) Wikipedia
Keep a record of the sites
you visit and preserve their
URL’s
amazing resource but it’s
complicated
Use more than one search
engine
NEVER rely exclusively on
the Internet (or Lexis and
Westlaw)…
More
Legal research sources derived from the print - “human
ordering” (key numbers, indexes, citators). Your skills are
derived from the online world – you need to bridge that
divide to do the BEST research
Let someone else do the initial and basic work for you (and I
don’t mean the office paralegal!)
Update Your Research!
Always be sure to use the most current information
available.
Use Shepards and Keycite to insure that the cases you use are
still good law, and consult the most recent version of
applicable statutes and regulations to determine if they are
still in force and have not been amended.
Keeping your Research Updated
LexisNexis Shepard’s
Updates
Google Alerts
Westlaw Alerts
CONCLUDING YOUR RESEARCH
Ask yourself the following:
Did you answer the question you originally started with?
Have you checked and updated all the sources you used and
cited?
Are you seeing the same sources every time you attempt to
do further research.
If you do you are probably finished, especially if your deadline is
approaching.
More questions?
or
Still looking for a source?
Consult an expert reference librarian. Come to the Reference
Desk in the library or email us at [email protected] If it
takes you longer than 10 minutes to find something you are
better off asking the experts – your librarians!
Please do not forget to fill out
your evaluation forms
Thank You,
Pence Law Library