While legal research isn’t rocket science, it can be quite challenging, especially when you are just getting started with a project. Why not try our Developing a Research Strategy template? It’s designed to help guide you through important stages of the research process, serving as both a roadmap and a checklist. Copies are always available at the Reference Desk, but you can also find them on our web site.
Author: farrah nagrampa
A Really Crummy Situation
Are you sometimes grossed out when you use the computers in the library labs? Well, you’re not alone! Here’s an excerpt from an email a student sent us during finals time:
“Dear [library administrators]:
“… Do you happen to know whether the maintenance staff cleans the
computer lab keyboards each night? I’ve noticed several times when
I’m here that the keyboards are messy with crumbs or sticky keys or
white dust….”
The answer is that computer keyboards are sensitive equipment. It’s not feasible to have maintenance staff clean them. The only way to keep the keyboards clean is to keep food and drink out of their environment.
NYLS rules prohibit bringing food or drink into the library labs. If everybody honored these rules, then there’d be no more keyboard gross-outs.
Library staff patrol the labs, and work to enforce the rules. But we’re not trained as cops, and we can’t do it all by ourselves. We need your help to solve this problem. Only heightened awareness, and a little bit of peer pressure, are likely to improve this crummy situation.
Happy 2012
Welcome back!
Hope you all had a relaxing and rejuvenating winter break. Alas, all good things must come to an end.
All of us at the Mendik Library wish for you a rewarding and fulfilling semester. We’d love to be a part of your success and hope you will let us help you with all your research projects and information needs.
Good luck and best wishes for a great semester! We’re looking forward to strengthening our partnership.
The Mendik Library Staff
Your Classmates Say: Shhhhhhhh!!
That’s right; it’s not us, but your fellow students, who want the library to remain QUIET during finals. Please do your part. Even if you can study amidst noise and commotion, remember that not everyone else can. At this time of year, even a little noise for a short time around those who are preparing for finals, doing take-home finals, or writing papers, is the height of rude behavior.
Please remember, all reading and stack areas in the Library are QUIET STUDY ZONES. You should avoid conversation and unnecessary noise. Be particularly mindful of the need for quiet as you enter and leave the Library. Voices in the corridors and elevator vestibules carry into the reading areas and disturb those trying to study.
The Library can get crowded, and tensions can mount. The only way to maintain an appropriate study atmosphere is through student cooperation. Please keep this in mind always, and especially at this time of year.
Thanks to everyone for their anticipated cooperation. And best of luck to you all on your exams.
ABA Journal’s Top 100 Law Blogs
The ABA Journal has just released its fifth annual list of the top 100 law blogs (or blawgs). The alphabetical list is annotated, with short descriptions of each blog.
Included this year is NYLS’s own Legal As She Is Spoke (LASIS) blog, a product of the Program in Law and Journalism under the direction of Michelle Zierler. The staff and writers for the blog are all students in Professor Zierler’s Legal Reporting classes. Congratulations LASIS! The ABA’s description of LASIS is below.
New York Law School students from the Program in Law and Journalism rip cases from the headlines, break them down and assess their merits (and the media’s accuracy in reporting the case). Though its name pays homage to English As She Is Spoke, a laughable, incoherent 19th century Portuguese guide to the English language, these bloggers have shown they know of what they write.
24-hour library study hall
Effective Monday November 7, study areas and computer labs in the Mendik Library at 185 West Broadway will remain open to NYLS students 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. This Study Hall schedule will remain in effect through the end of the exams period, except over Thanksgiving recess.
During the Study Hall period all areas behind the Circulation Desk, including the Reserve Collection and the Reserve Reading Room, will close at 11 p.m. on Monday through Thursday, and 10 p.m. on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The Library opens for business at 8 a.m. on weekdays, and 9 a.m. on weekends.
During overnight Study Hall hours there are no librarians on duty; security guards patrol Library rooms and study areas. All Circulation transactions, including borrowing and return of books, as well as charge-out and charge-in of Reserve materials must be complete by regular closing time. Policies regarding food, drink and quiet study remain in effect.
Overnight Study Hall is for NYLS students only; you’ll need your NYLS ID to stay at closing time, and to enter the Library after closing. Please have your ID ready to show the guard.
Extended Study Hall hours are suspended for Thanksgiving break, Wednesday November 23 through Sunday November 27. 24-hour Study Hall resumes at 8 a.m. on Monday November 28.
Spilled Coffee Imperils Airliner . . . and your Library!
For those Library patrons who tend to minimize the impact of spilled coffee, read about the nightmare that ensued on a United Airlines flight last year from Chicago to Frankfurt, Germany. The Wall Street Journal report is here.
If you’d rather watch than read, check out the referenced movie, Fate is the Hunter. Follow Glen Ford as he discovers the cause of the fatal plane crash he is investigating – a spilled cup of cockpit coffee (which short-circuited the plane’s instruments). Here’s the less than stellar New York Times movie review (from December 10, 1964).
Moral: Use spill-proof mugs!
TAX BNA Training
If you are taking any tax classes or are interested in tax law, you may want to sign up to learn about the BNA Tax and Accounting Center. BNA offers the very popular Tax Management Portfolios with in depth discussion and references to tax primary sources. Portfolios are available on a variety of topics ranging from Doing Business in Brazil to Golden Parachutes. BNA provides access to primary sources as well as detailed analysis of tax issues in the areas of U.S. Income, Federal Estates and Gifts, and Foreign and International Tax. Classes will be taught by Tome Tanevski, an attorney editor of the BNA Tax Management Portfolios.
When: Thursday Oct. 20 6:00-6:50
Where: Library Room L206
Sign up: Send email to Rosalie Sanderson at rsanderson@nyls.edu
Don’t miss this great opportunity!!
Mendik Mobile: See the App in action!
What’s Mendik Mobile? It’s an App that will let you access some of the Mendik Library’s key services on your smartphone. It’s a free download and is now available for Apple, Android, Blackberry and a wide variety of other smartphone platforms.
Want to see the App in action? Visit the Library Reference Desk on Tuesday, October 18, at 12:45 pm and/or 5:45 pm. As an added bonus, you can have your photo taken with your favorite librarian while enjoying some sweet pre-Halloween treats.
TAX CCH Intelliconnect Training
Are you interested in tax law? Don’t pass up the opportunity to learn how to use one of the premier electronic tax research systems: CCH Intelliconnect. This system gives you access to all primary sources for tax law, plus detailed explanations. The system is organized by Internal Revenue Code section but allows you to do Boolean searching as well. Learn how to find Internal Revenue Code sections, regulations, tax cases, tax rulings and much, much more.
When: Thursday Oct. 13 6:00-6:50
Where: Library Room L206
Sign up: Send email to Rosalie Sanderson at rsanderson@nyls.edu
Don’t miss this great opportunity!!