If you are a OneL and have had your required CALR training but have not yet participated in the CALR survey, please click here. After completing the survey, follow the on-screen instructions for a chance to win.

One lucky OneL has already won a $25 bookstore gift card and more chances to win remain!

If you are a OneL and have had your required CALR training but have not yet participated in the CALR survey, please click here. After completing the survey, follow the on-screen instructions for a chance to win. If you have not yet had your CALR training, you will receive a survey invitation via email after you have completed the class.

If you haven’t yet signed up for a CALR session, please do so right away as our last class is on October 20. Instructions for registration can be found here.

We are pleased to announce the second winner among those who participated in our ongoing CALR survey.  OneL Jeremy Rockman has won a $25 NYLS Bookstore gift certificate.  Congratulations, Jeremy!

You still have a chance to win!  If you are a OneL and and haven’t yet taken the CALR opinion survey, please click here. After completing the survey, follow the on-screen instructions for a chance to win. Good luck!

Now that the scheduled CALR classes for first year students have concluded, we wanted to remind you of the many opportunities that remain to continue to develop and hone your newly acquired skills.  The representatives from both LexisNexis (Nejat Bumin) and Westlaw (Stefanie Efrati) offer a variety of specialized and more advanced classes, including classes that will enable you to achieve “Certification” as a researcher on one or both systems.  Certification can be a valuable credential in the eyes of prospective employers.  There’s never a charge for any of these classes or for Certification itself and we encourage you to pursue as many of these opportunities as possible.  We also encourage you to pursue additional CALR instruction with us.  Each semester we offer a series of Research Skills sessions (40-50 minutes each), all designed to make you a better and faster legal researcher.  Look for the Research Skills Workshops link on our web page.   And don’t forget the for-credit classes we offer each semester — Advanced Legal Research (3 cr) and Legal Research: Practical Skills (1 cr).

We are pleased to announce the first winner among those who participated in our recent CALR survey.  OneL Nicholas Tambone has won a $25 NYLS Bookstore gift certificate.  Congratulations Nick!

More chances to win remain!  If you are a OneL and have had your required CALR training but have not yet participated in the CALR survey, please click here. After completing the survey, follow the on-screen instructions for a chance to win. If you have not yet had your CALR training, you will receive a survey invitation via email after you have completed the class.

If you haven’t yet signed up for a CALR session, please do so right away as our last class is on October 22. The sign-up binder is at the library reference desk.

As it does each spring semester, the Mendik Library Reference Staff is offering a group of Research Review Sessions focusing on the research tools and skills most legal employers require.

These sessions run for either 40 or 50 minutes and are taught in L403 (Mondays, Tuesdays  & Thursdays) or L715 (Wednesdays).

You need to sign up in advance for any of the sessions you wish to attend.  You may sign up in person (binder on Circulation / Reference Desk), by phone (431-2332), by e-mail (reference@nyls.edu) or AOL Instant Messenger (nylslib).

For more information on the sessions, click here.

Every first year student who attended a Library tour during First Week received
a LexisNexis activation code and a Westlaw password contract. 
You must use these documents to create your Lexis and Westlaw passwords,
which you’ll be using for the rest of your law school career.  The codes
in these documents are time-sensitive; if you do not register your passwords
within the next two weeks, the codes will expire!

You must have  both a Lexis and a Westlaw password registered in order to
participate in your upcoming mandatory Computer Assisted Legal Research
training session.  Thus you should register both passwords right away!

To register your passwords, follow the simple instructions on these Webpages:

For Lexis: http://www.lexisnexis.com/lawschool/login.aspx

For Westlaw: http://lawschool.westlaw.com

If you’ve misplaced your registration documents, or you have any difficulty
with the registration process, please contact the Library Reference Desk at
212-431-2332.

If you did not attend a Library tour, you will need to attend a makeup tour to
get your registration documents.  Makeup tour dates will be announced
shortly.

Follow these directions to request summer access to LexisNexis:

Log on at www.lexisnexis.com/lawschool (Law School Home page) and click the Register for Summer Access logo in the left side navigation bar. On the Summer Access Program page, click the red “Summer Access Registration” link in the middle of the page. On the final page, check the box on the upper right to certify your particular use, select a reason for use in the drop-down menu, and click SUBMIT. You must click SUBMIT or your password will not be registered.

If you do not register, your LexisNexis law school ID will be limited only to career materials as of June 1, 2008

Important: Graduating students must register for summer access as well. Access will run through August 1, 2008. Students who have changed their expected graduation date since first issued a LexisNexis ID their first year must contact customer service (800-45 LEXIS) to change their graduation date on the LexisNexis system.

Please contact your LexisNexis representative, Nejat Bumin, Esq., at nejat.bumin@lexisnexis.com with any questions or concerns.

West has recently released a new tool that is sure to enhance legal research using the West Key Number System.  Here is an excerpt of an announcement from West:

The Search for Key Numbers tool, released November 10, 2007, offers a lightning-fast solution: Type a short description of your issue and click Search. Key numbers—each with a link to a jurisdiction-specific Custom Digest result—are provided for you.

Done.

This new feature instantly identifies the key numbers assigned to your legal issue and retrieves on-point cases via the Custom Digest. To access the new Search for Key Numbers tool, click Key Numbers at the top of any Westlaw page or on the site map. A page is displayed that contains the Search for Key Numbers text box, as well as links to the West Key Number Digest outline and to KeySearch®.

To use the Search for Key Numbers tool, type a description of your issue, e.g., landlord duty of care to trespassers, in the text box. To select a jurisdiction, click Change Jurisdiction and use the check boxes provided. (If you don’t select a jurisdiction, the default jurisdiction is your home state.) Using West’s exclusive CaRE® technology, the same technology behind the scenes of ResultsPlus®, the Search for Key Numbers tool displays key numbers potentially relevant to your issue. Click a key number, and you retrieve jurisdiction-specific headnotes classified under the key number.

There is no charge for using the Search for Key Numbers tool to identify key numbers. If you click a key number and retrieve headnotes via the Custom Digest, you are billed in the same manner as with any other Custom Digest search.

You can access more information about the Key Numbers Search Tool here.