Celebrate Earth Day!

Sunday April 22, 2018 is Earth Day.

This year’s Earth Day Network campaign focuses on ending plastic pollution. You can sign the End Plastic Pollution Petition or make a pledge to reduce your use of plastic.

You can also drink your coffee, tea, or other beverage from a spill-proof, reusable mug, which will go a long way towards helping to reduce the volume of plastic, Styrofoam, and paper cups piling up in landfills or requiring energy for recycling. At the same time, you’ll be complying with the Library’s food and drink policy and earning our thanks!

If you don’t have a spill-proof mug, pick one up at the Circulation Desk for $5.00. For every one purchased through the end of this semester’s exam period, librarians will contribute $1.00 to Earth Day Network, which works with over 50,000 partners in nearly 195 countries to broaden, diversify and mobilize the environmental movement.

For complete information about Earth Day, visit Earth Day Network.

Selecting Your Courses for Next Year: Why You Should Consider Legal Research

Among the most important skills all lawyers rely upon is the ability to do legal research– to find what’s needed to to interpret and analyze legal issues. Legal research is an integral part of the “competencies” that NYLS and the ABA require of law students. Effective research skills are vital to students engaged in any type of legal writing, to those who are clerking or participating in externships, and to those entering legal practice.

To help you prepare for the realities of law practice, we offer a number of courses that build upon skills learned in the first year and will make you a more efficient, confident and successful researcher.

Legal Research: Practical Skills (1 credit)
Builds on fundamental research skills through refining students’ techniques, introducing shortcuts and new approaches, and developing effective strategies. The course focuses on finding legislation, administrative materials, and related cases; using the secondary sources relied on by practitioners; attaining greater proficiency and comfort with Lexis, Westlaw, Bloomberg BNA, and other online research tools, including reliable free and low-cost sources. We also offer this class with a focus on a particular substantive practice area, including Corporate & Business Law; Criminal Law; Family Law; Foreign and International Law; Intellectual Property Law; Labor and Employment Law; and Real Estate Law.

Legal Research: Skills for the Digital World (3 credits)
Continues to build on the fundamentals described in Legal Research: Practical Skills. Students concentrate on more advanced techniques and strategies and learn to evaluate online and print materials in order to choose the best and most cost effective source for particular projects. Some assignments are geared to students’ individual subject interests. Take-home assignments test and enhance students’ ability to perform various research tasks and strengthen their understanding of important research process and strategy considerations.

Want more information? Contact Prof. Camille Broussard or Prof. Michael Roffer

Celebrating Women’s History Month

In 1869, Myra Bradwell, who had passed the Illinois bar exam, was denied admission to the bar, on the grounds that a married woman couldn’t enter into contracts because of the common law doctrine of coverture and also because of her gender.  In the Illinois Supreme Court’s view, women weren’t entitled to practice law. Voting 8-1, the United States Supreme Court, 83 U.S. 130, affirmed that decision in 1872.  Undeterred, Bradwell continued advocating for women’s rights and continued to publish the Chicago Legal News, which she had founded in 1868 and which had become the most widely circulated legal newspaper of the time.

 

 

In 1890, the Illinois Supreme Court reconsidered Bradwell’s 1869 application and granted it nunc pro tunc, retroactively making her the first woman lawyer in Illinois.

Congratulations to our Valentine’s Day Info Hunt Winners!

Thanks to everyone who participated in this year’s Valentine’s Day Info Hunt!

We want to thank ALL of you for putting your research skills to work and joining us in what we hope you all found to be a great learning experience. Here are the 22 winners drawn from our renowned Raffle Drum:

Those winners who haven’t claimed their prize, please drop by the Circulation Desk to pick it up.

Celebrating Black History Month

Did you know that NYLS’s 57 Worth Street building encompasses the site (236 Church Street) that was once home to Freedom’s Journal, the first newspaper published in the United States by and for black Americans? Founded in 1827 to provide a voice against racism and intolerance, it denounced slavery and lynchings and advocated for black suffrage. The surrounding neighborhood was once home to a large number of free northern blacks who, at that time, constituted a small minority in the city. Just steps away from 236 Church Street a plaque commemorates the site of the Mother African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, which occupied the space from 1800-1864. The church was the first church built for and by black Americans, and had strong ties to Freedom’s Journal.

To learn more about Freedom’s Journal, seek out a copy of the Fall/Winter 2010 issue of New York Law School Magazine, which contains a more in-depth article regarding NYLS’s connection to the newspaper. You can also access a copy of the article here.

 

 

Valentine’s Day Info Hunt- Can you find love in the Library?

The Valentine’s Day Info Hunt is back! Can you find love in the Library?

With Valentine’s Day right around the corner, here’s the Library’s sweet treat for you: an opportunity to WIN study aids, Lexis points, NYLS swag, and Starbucks gift cards. Just answer any 3 of the 6 Valentine’s Info Hunt questions. Your answers don’t need to be perfect—just close!

Click here to access the questions. Each slide includes just one question, along with step-by-step instructions to get you to the answer.

Print the PDF answer sheet (or pick up a copy at the Reference Desk) and drop it in our Reference Desk Raffle Drum by 3pm on Wednesday February 14th, and then join us outside the library at 5:45 for some sweets and the prize drawing at 5:45pm.

Resources on Moving the U.S. Embassy in Israel

On December 6, 2017, President Trump recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and instructed the State Department to develop a plan to relocate the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. On December 21, 2017, two weeks later, the United Nations voted 128-9 (with 35 abstentions) to demand that the US rescind the declared move.

Oxford University Press has made available a number of free resources explaining the legal and historical background of the issue and providing an account of the governing law.

Pizza Survey Results Delivered- 2017 First Week Pizza Survey Results

For the eleventh consecutive year, the Mendik Library surveyed 1Ls during First Week about some of their digital inclinations. For the complete survey results (along with the questions) and how they compare to results over the past ten years, here.

Spoiler alert—pepperoni once again repeated as the most popular pizza topping, this time based on the preferences of 347 members of the classes of 2020/21. These students also responded to questions about:

• their preferred platforms for electronic communication;
• their usage of Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Snapchat, Twitter, Blogs & Podcasts;

• the digital devices they owned and used, including Macs v. PCs, Smartphones, Tablets and E-Book Readers.

Here are some of the highlights:

Communication

• Email remained decidedly less preferred as a means of electronic communication, with only 19% of the class preferring it over text messaging (72%). Social media apps were the preferred means of electronic communication for just 9%.

Social Media

• For the first time in ten years, Facebook is no longer the dominant social networking platform for these students. Instagram was the choice of 36%, up from last year’s 27% figure. Only 29% of this class labeled Facebook as the social networking platform they used most often.

• Snapchat also continued to gain ground over Facebook, increasing from 15% in 2016 to 18% this year.

Preferred Devices

• Continuing the previous ten-year trend, the popularity of Mac laptops versus PC laptops increased to 73%, up from last year’s figure of 68%.

• Ownership of iPhones increased to 86% of the class, with 14% owning Android phones.

E-Books

• Students are taking advantage of e-books using a variety of devices, though the large majority (79%) have done so on a computer (desktop or laptop), nearly twice as many as those using iPads (43%) and nearly four times as many as those using Kindles (20%). Only 10% of respondents indicated they had not read or viewed any e-books.

• Perhaps most significantly, students continue to manifest an aversion to the use of e-books for classes. Asked whether they had used an e-textbook for classes, only 41% said yes, a steep decline from last year’s 58% figure.

• When those who had used an e-textbook were asked if they preferred it to a print textbook, 86% said “no,” a slight increase over last year’s 85% figure.

Pizza

• Pepperoni continues to reign supreme as students’ favorite pizza topping, pulling in 29% of the vote, up from last year’s 22% number. The only other toppings in double figures were Extra Cheese at 17% and Mushrooms at 12%.