Happy soon-to-be-Halloween from the Mendik Library

As an early Halloween treat, here’s your opportunity to WIN great prizes—study aids, law dictionaries, NYLS commuter mugs, Starbucks gift cards, Lexis points, Westlaw fleece blankets, a bluebook or two and more! That’s no treat bag full of rocks!  Just answer the six Halloween Info Hunt questions.  Your answers don’t need to be perfect—just close!

Click here to access the questions.  Each slide includes just one haunting question, along with step-by-step instructions that will get you to the answer.  Complete and submit your answers by noon on Tuesday October 31.  The drawing of winning entries will take place just outside but in front of the library at 5:30 p.m. on October 31. Although you don’t need to be present to win those in attendance will receive an extra entry, giving them an extra chance to win!

If you prefer, you can print out a copy of the questions, write in your answers, and drop the completed entry into the raffle drum stationed at the reference desk. (Pre-COVID, the raffle drum was a sometimes-steady fixture at the reference desk, and we are thrilled to see its return!)

And don’t forget to stop by the Reference Desk for Halloween candy (no costume required).

 


First Monday in October 2023

The new Supreme Court term will begin this Monday, October 2d, 2023.

The Court has an active term ahead with cases surrounding the ADA and hotel online reservation systems, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and whistleblowers, racial gerrymandering in South Carolina, and a statutory interpretation question under the federal sentencing statute.

You can find more information on the upcoming Supreme Court term at HeinOnline’s Preview of United States Supreme Court Cases or the SCOTUS Blog (includes case summaries).  You can also view the case briefs at the Supreme Court’s website (under CASE DOCUMENTS click the link for Docket Search and enter the docket number of the case you are interested in).

The Court will again be making available to the public live audio of the arguments.  Click the ORAL ARGUMENTS link on the Supreme Court’s web site on the day of argument.

 



Announcing the Legally Clueless Info Hunt Winners

Thanks to everyone who participated in the Legally Clueless Info Hunt during your Finding the Law class last month.  We have randomly selected 15 lucky prize winners, each of whom can choose a prize from our selection of study aids, law dictionaries, NYLS commuter mugs, Starbucks gift cards, Westlaw fleece blankets, Lexis points, maybe a Bluebook or two and who knows what else.

The lucky students are:

  1. Stevye   Rose
  2. Cassidy DiPaola
  3. Madeline Dill
  4. Hailey    Kennedy
  5. Kyle Dressel
  6. Mary McCafferty
  7. Heather Creamer
  8. Nicole Dos Santos
  9. Michael Ribeiro
  10. Tony Gradante
  11. Sebastian Guccione
  12. Joycelyn Berbec
  13. Israel Vargas
  14. Jessica Anastasia
  15. Race Johnson

 

Prize winners will receive a separate email from Michael Roffer with instructions for claiming their prize.

If you didn’t win this time, fear not. Next month you’ll have the opportunity to enter the Haunted Halloween Info Hunt for a chance to win more great prizes and maybe learn a little more about legal research.

Congratulations to all the winners.

–Mendik Library Staff



Remembering 9/11

September 11, 2023 marks the twenty-second anniversary of “9/11,” the horrific terrorist attacks on America that took nearly 3,000 lives.

New York Law School sits just blocks away from what became known as ground zero, the site of the former World Trade Center’s “twin towers,” which collapsed after being struck by two hijacked jetliners.

In the weeks immediately following the attack, NYLS students, staff, and faculty—eyewitnesses all—were asked to put their thoughts about what they had experienced that day on paper. These essays and reflections were compiled and published as Eight Blocks Away: Memoirs of September 11, 2001.

A PDF of Eight Blocks Away is available on the NYLS Digital Commons.  You may access it for free here.

If you would like to pick up a free copy of the book, please stop by the Mendik Library Reference Desk. Only a limited number of copies are available.




Easy access to New York State and New York City Public Records

How can you find unclaimed money owed in New York State?  Need to get a birth certificate for someone born in New York City?   Find all sorts of vital statistics about persons, companies, government, building codes, attorneys and other licensed professions, police and fire department data, incarcerated persons and more in New York State and New York City by checking the Public Records Research LibGuide.  Get there by accessing the Library home page/Academics/Resources and Services/Research Tools.  In the left column, choose Research Guides.  Scroll down to Public Records and you are ready to find all that elusive information.  And most of it is free.