OIT has been working to bring back the NYLS portal, which has been offline since yesterday.
Students can access Blackboard through this link:
https://nyls.blackboard.com/webapps/login
Students can access their email through this link:
Login: NYLS email address
Password: your portal password
If you need you exam number, please email registrar@nyls.edu
Would spill-proof mugs have helped BP? You decide. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2AAa0gd7ClM
We know they help here. Please use them and keep the library free of spills and stains.
Thanks. And best of luck with your remaining exams.
Exams are almost here and your easygoing nature probably is diminishing quickly. There is so much studying and outlining to do — on top of reading and classes. Because of that, little things that you ignored last week are a big deal today. So, if it bothers you, say something.
Tell us about the light bulb over your favorite study spot that is out; and about the person who always brings in those delectable garlic fries which are too garlicky and too greasy for the library; and, about the guy in the stairwell talking on his cell phone at full volume.
Tell us about the printers and copiers that are jammed, out of paper, or just plain uncooperative.
And tell us about the person who insists on using the library catalog terminal as a personal computer when you need to look up a resource. And the woman who spilled her coffee all over the table and floor but didn’t clean it up before she walked off. And the “one-person group” complete with contraband pizza that refuses to share a study room.
If you see, hear, or smell something, say something. We can’t address “it” until we know about it. It’s your library and you’re here to study without distractions. Let us help.
DRAGNET (Database Retrieval Access using Google’s New Electronic Technology) is a popular feature of the Mendik Library’s Website that searches more than 80 recommended Websites of interest to legal researchers. You can access DRAGNET directly from our homepage. Now we’re incorporating Google’s Custom Search feature into two other areas of our site.
First, for more than a year, we’ve been linking to approximately 150 online legal journals whose Websites offer free access to their current issue, and often back issues as well. We’ve now added a Google Custom Search bar that lets you simultaneously search the full text of all those journals. Second, we now employ the Google Custom feature to let you search the constitutions, statutory codes, and administrative codes of all 50 states simultaneously.
We’re continuing to develop and improve DRAGNET as well as adding to the collection of sources searched. We always welcome your suggestions.
The Mendik Library now subscribes to HeinOnline’s World Constitutions Illustrated, an excellent resource for anyone researching constitutional history. Organized by country, the site provides links to historical constitutional documents throughout the world in reverse chronological order. Additional resources include Country Studies, the CIA World Factbook and the Modern Legal Systems Cyclopedia. Researchers will also find selected scholarly articles for download or print, a bibliography of constitutional works, as well as news feeds and external links relating to each country. HeinOnline plans to provide constitutions in every official language, and at least one English translation, for each of the 195 countries in the world.
To link directly to this terrific new source, search “World Constitutions Illustrated” in the Mendik Library Catalog, or go to the alphabetical list of libraries in HeinOnline (found on the Library’s home page under Electronic Resources)and click “World Constitutions Illustrated.”
Here are three important Library resources to keep in mind as you begin to prepare for upcoming exams.
First: The Library’s Exam Preparation Resources web page (under Library Materials) offers a host of materials containing practical advice and strategies designed to help you navigate the exam process.
Second: The Library maintains an archive of previous years’ exams for most courses. You can access these exams by course or professor name. From the Library’s home page, click Find Sample and Practice Exams under How Do I…?
Third: CALI offers a variety of lessons and podcasts with helpful tips and advice from faculty on preparing for and taking exams. To access these materials, log in to CALI; under CALI Topics, click Legal Concepts and Skills and scroll down to one or more of these lessons:
Exam Taking Skills, Outlines, and Advice for Law Students: (Panel 1 PodCast)
Exam Taking Skills, Outlines, and Advice for Law Students: (Panel 2 PodCast)
Exam Taking Skills, Outlines, and Advice for Law Students: (Panel 3 PodCast)
Tips for Multiple Choice Exams in Law School (Podcast)
Top 10 Tips for Successfully Writing a Law School Essay
Writing Better Law School Exams: The Importance of Structure
We wish everyone the very best of luck!
A new, networked printer/copier has been installed on the 5th floor of the 185 West Broadway building, in the lounge space at the far end of the cafeteria. This printer works the same as the ones in the Library, and you may configure your laptop to print to it, following the Information Technology Instructions under the Portal’s “Info Tech” tab. This printer is named W500, and it is available 24 hours a day, even when the Library is closed.
Meanwhile, the printer/copier has moved out of the Information Technology Help Desk room next to the Library Reference Desk (L100). If you have configured your laptop to send jobs to that printer, the jobs you send will be automatically routed to the printer in the Reserve Room (L101). If you want to print on the first floor of the Library, you don’t have to change anything.
The printer/copier that moved out of the Help Desk room has been relocated to printer/copier room L204, which sees the highest volume of printing. Installation of that machine is not yet complete; you will be notified when it is up and running.
Effective Monday November 8, 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 24 through Sunday November 28. Study Hall resumes on Monday November 29.
Remember, remember the fifth of November
Gunpowder treason and plot
We see no reason
Why gunpowder treason
Should ever be forgot.
English children’s chant when collecting money for fireworks
on Guy Fawkes Day
Guy Fawkes Day celebrates the foiling of the Gunpowder Plot, in which a group of conspirators aimed to restore Catholic rule to England by assassinating King James I and members of Parliament via gunpowder explosion. The celebration is named for the man in possession of kegs of gunpowder when he was arrested shortly after midnight on November 5. The trial for this now infamous act of high treason quickly followed the torture of the conspirators, whose conviction was a foregone conclusion despite pleas of not guilty. The executions were, by statute, quite grisly. Guy Fawkes Day is still marked in the United Kingdom with bonfires and fireworks.
At present, sentences for treason are no longer so gruesome, but still very serious. For their crime today, Fawkes and his co-conspirators would face up to life in prison. (Treason Act, 1998, c. 146, § 1.) In the United States, however, a defendant can still be sentenced to death. (18 U.S.C. § 2381 (2006.)
The last prize drawing of the semester for those who register and remain registered for the Mendik Law Library News blog will be held on Friday, November 12, 2010. Only OneLs who remain registered for Mendik Law Library News as of November 12, 2010 are eligible. Winners will receive one of three NYLS Guest Cards ($5 each), which can be used for printing and copying as well as food purchases at the coffee bar and the café.
If you are already registered (or, once you do register), all you need to do to enter the drawing is forward a copy of the FeedBlitz email that announces the posting of the blog entry that will appear on Thursday November 4 titled “Remember the 5th of November” to reference@nyls.edu. Winners will be contacted by email.
If you are not already subscribed it’s not too late – go to this page, enter your email address and click Submit (under email notifications); then follow the instructions above.