All you have to do is suggest the winning name for the Library’s website on Law and Law Schools at http://www.nyls.edu/pages/6353.asp.   This website is a multimedia listing of books and films about law school, social justice and the law.  There are serious works like A Civil Action as well as light works, such as Legally Blond.  There are books about succeeding in law school, and books about finding a job.

So, go to http://www.nyls.edu/pages/6353.asp , take a look, and then click to enter the contest.  Contest ends Monday, May 12 at 5 pm.

During the final exam period, please take care to abide by the Quiet Study Rules in Mendik Library reading rooms.  Even if you are the type of student who can study well in noise and commotion, remember that not everyone else feels the same way.  At this time of year, the volume of student noise complaints always rises dramatically.  Making noise – even a little noise for a short time – around your fellow students who are trying to study for finals is the height of rude behavior.

Note that all reading rooms and stack areas in the Library are Quiet Study Zones.  The only exception is the reading area next to the 4th floor Reference Desk.  Within Quiet Study Zones:

• Never engage in conversation.  A few words at a whisper should always suffice.  If you must engage in conversation, take it to the Library stairwells or outside.

• Don’t ever use your cell phone, and don’t put it on vibrate – mute it completely or turn it off.  Even a humming cell phone can disrupt your neighbor’s study.  If you’re waiting for an important call, you can study someplace else until you receive it.

• Cell phones aren’t the only electronics that make noise.  If your laptop has a sound card, don’t forget to mute it.  If you’ve got an IPod, make sure to keep the volume at a level that others can’t hear.

• When you enter or leave a Group Study Room, remember to close the door behind you.

• If you become aware of a noisy facilities condition – a squeaky door, a thumping photocopier, a rumbling equipment room – report it immediately to the Library staff at ext. 2332; on AIM at nylslib, or to Maintenance at ext. 2820.

During the finals period the Library gets very crowded, and tensions can mount.  The only way to maintain an appropriate study atmosphere is through student cooperation under these simple rules.  Please keep this in mind always, and especially at this time of year.

The Mendik Library is experiencing technical difficulties with the Online Journals, Databases and Indexes that we make available through our Home Page and through links from the NYLS Library’s Online Catalog.  These problems will result in service interruptions that will persist through this weekend (Oct. 20 – 21) and into early next week.  When you click on the links to access these services, you will get either a page with an error message or a page that asks for a username and password that you do not have.

Please note that these problems are NOT effecting Lexis or Westlaw for users with NYLS passwords.  Both Lexis and Westlaw are functioning properly.

We on the Mendik Library staff apologize for the inconvenience caused to our users by these service disruptions.  We are working hard with our vendors to correct the technical problems, and we will send a follow-up message when the problems are resolved.

Online renewal of books is once again available. Please go here to renew your books or view your Library record:

http://lawlib.nyls.edu/patroninfo

Students are temporarily unable to renew books online by logging into their patron record.

Please call the Circulation Desk at 212-431-2333 and a staff person will help you renew any books you hae checked out.

We’re posting new signs in the Bar Study Room, rm. 1417 on the 14th floor, reminding our users of its special purpose. This room has  been designated as a quiet enclave for NYLS graduates who are  studying for the upcoming Bar Exam. Students are asked to yield  seats in this room to Bar studiers, and all users of the room are  admonished to maintain the strictest silence. Our graduates’ special  need for quiet study space at this time should be obvious to all.  The New York Bar Exam will be administered on February 27 and 28.  After this date, the room will revert to an ordinary quiet study
space for all students.

The Library now has a subscription to the RIA Checkpoint database, an electronic tax research service which provides access to primary tax law sources as well as editorial content and explanations of tax law. It can be accessed via the Library’s Online Databases page.

Room 1417 at 40 Worth St. has been designated as a study room for NYLS graduates who are preparing for the Bar exam in February.  The
room is intended as a quiet enclave; we ask that its users maintain the strictest silence.  The Library administration welcomes our  graduates, and wishes them good luck on the exam.

It’s often said that the best technology is simple, intuitive, and does just one thing well.  The Mendik Library has just initiated a new Web-based service that fits this description to a T.  We call this new service Journal Titles, A-Z.  Here’s what it does:

When you click on the “Journal Titles, A-Z” link in our Online Catalog, you get a screen with a field that says “Find e-journals by title.”  The default setting is “Title begins with…”  If you type in some words from the beginning of the journal title you’re looking for, you get a screen that tells you where you can get articles from the journal in electronic form through services that our library subscribes to.

Let’s say you were looking for a 1991 article from the Buffalo Human Rights Law Review.  Using Journal Titles, A-Z if you typed in <buffalo human rights> you’d find out that Lexis has issues of this journal from 1995 to present, but HeinOnline has them from 1988 to 1999.  You could then click on the “HeinOnline” link, and you’d be taken to that service, where you could identify the specific article you were looking for, and download it in PDF format.

There are other ways of searching Journal Titles, A-Z.  For example, you can search by typing in words that you know appear somewhere in the title, without knowing the exact title.  But we think most of our users will use it in the way we’ve just described.

Journal Titles, A-Z can’t take you directly to the article you’re looking for.  Nor can it be used to find journals that our library holds in paper.  It does just one thing:  It identifies journal titles for which we have electronic access.  And it does it well.  It keeps track of new content added to the various services to which we subscribe.  It includes all journals found on Lexis and Westlaw.  And it’s updated frequently.

Try it out yourself. [http://lawlib.nyls.edu]  You’ll probably be surprised at the number and scope of titles that we subscribe to in electronic form, both in law and other disciplines.  If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask us.  But this service is so simple, we’re not really expecting many inquiries!

Click here to view the Mendik Library’s fall semester hours.