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
A reminder to the community that the Mendik Library will be closed from December 24, 2014, through January 4, 2015. (We will be open on December 22 and December 23 from 9:00 am to 6:00 pm.)
If you have any reference questions, please email us at reference@nyls.edu and a reference librarian will get back to you as soon as possible. As noted below, because the email system will be unavailable on December 29 and 30, any emails sent on those days may not reach us. If you do not receive a response, please resend your email.
Due dates on borrowed materials will be adjusted to January 5.
On Monday and Tuesday December 29 and 30, the Office of Information Technology (OIT) will be performing upgrades and maintenance on the NYLS network. On those two days, the following Library services will be unavailable:
• Reference and Circulation Services (email, phone, IM)
• All content on the Library’s Website
• The Online Catalog
• Access to Electronic Resources
• Mendik Mobile services
Our best wishes to everyone for a happy holiday season.
Three important Library resources to keep in mind as you prepare for upcoming exams.
First: The Library’s Exam Preparation Resources web page 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
Governor Andrew Cuomo has nominated Justice Leslie Stein to replace Judge Victoria Graffeo on the New York Court of Appeals. A Democrat, Justice Stein currently sits in the Appellate Division’s Third Department, where she had been appointed by former Governor Eliot Spitzer in 2008. Cuomo’s decision to replace Graffeo, a Republican, has the potential to give Democrats a 4-3 majority on the Court. The Senate has 30 days to act on the nomination.
For more details on Governor Cuomo’s appointment, read the New York Law Journal’s article, Cuomo Picks Third Dept. Justice for Top Court and the Governor’s press release.
Happy Halloween from the Mendik Library!
As an early Halloween treat, here’s your opportunity to WIN one of more than a dozen great study aids, texts, and other prizes we’ll be giving away (samples below). Just answer any 3 of the 6 Haunted Halloween Info Hunt questions. Answer all 6 and we’ll double your chances to win by adding a second entry for you. Your answer doesn’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 this PDF answer sheet (or pick up a copy at the Reference Desk) and drop it in our Reference Desk Raffle Drum by 5 PM on Thursday, October 30. Drawing will be held on Thursday, October 30 at 5:30 p.m. right outside the library.
Winners will choose from these and more prizes:
A Lawyer Writes: A Practical Guide to Legal Analysis
A Practical Approach to Client Interviewing, Counseling, and Decision-Making: For Clinical Programs and Practical Skills Courses
Administrative Law Stories
Basic Legal Research: Tools and Strategies
Black Letter Outlines: Wills, Trusts, & Future Interests
Civil Procedure: Cases, Materials, and Questions
Civil Rights Law and Practice
Contract Law: Flowcharts and Cases
Demystifying the first year of law school : a guide to the 1L experience
Employee Benefits Law: Qualification and ERISA Requirements
Estates and Future Interests in a Nutshell
Inside Bankruptcy Law: What Matters and Why
Inside Property Law: What Matters and Why
Inside Sales and Leases: What Matters and Why
Just Writing: Grammar, Punctuation, and Style for the Legal Writer
Legal Ethics in a Nutshell
Legal Reasoning and Legal Writing: Structure, Strategy and Style
New York Criminal Statutes and Rules
Principles of Securities Regulation
Questions and Answers: Administrative Law
Questions and Answers: Family Law
Questions and Answers: Torts
Questions and Answers: Trademark and Unfair Competition
Questions and Answers: Civil Procedure
Questions and Answers: Environmental Law
Questions and Answers: Evidence
Questions and Answers: Professional Responsibility
Real Estate Finance in a Nutshell
Skills and Values: Evidence
Sum+Substance Quick Review Series: Constitutional Law
Sum+Substance Quick Review Series: Evidence
Sum+Substance Quick Review Series: Wills, Trusts, and Estates
Understanding Modern Real Estate Transactions
Understanding Secured Transactions
Wills, Trusts and Estates
Writing and Analysis in the Law
We are receiving complaints from students who feel that their fellow students are sometimes being too noisy in the Library. Remember that even if you are the type of student who can study well around noise and commotion, not everyone else feels the same way. Remember also that all reading rooms and stack areas in the Library are Quiet Study Zones. The only exception is the reading area immediately next to the Reference Desk on L1.
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.
• Make sure the sounds on your laptop, phone, and/or tablet are off and that any music you may be listening to through headphones is not loud enough for others to hear.
• When you enter or leave a group study room, remember to close the door (quietly) behind you.
• If you become aware of a noisy condition—e.g., a squeaky door, a thumping photocopier, rumbling equipment— report it immediately to the Library staff at ext. 2332 or reference@nyls.edu.
Need to draft a contract or pleading and don’t know where to start? Don’t re-invent the wheel because…there’s a form for that!
Practicing lawyers will often refer to forms when drafting standard legal documents. Legal forms can be found on the Internet, on subscription databases and in print. Because there are so many places you can look, we suggest you start with the Mendik Library’s Legal Forms guide; it will direct you to sources that provide forms for a variety of practice areas.
When using a form, remember that it is important to review all relevant laws and rules. Forms are not etched in stone and should be tailored (and updated) to conform to your particular case!
Constitution Week was first established in 1956 to encourage Americans to learn more about the world’s longest surviving written charter of government. Later in 2004, Constitution Day was created to encourage public schools and governmental offices to promote a better understanding of the Constitution.
As a day of education about, and celebration of, our constitutional rights and freedoms, Constitution Day commemorates the date on which thirty-nine of the Philadelphia Convention’s delegates signed the Constitution. The original document is held at the National Archives in Washington, D.C. You can read the Constitution online, or pick up your own pocket-copy at the library’s reference desk! For deeper coverage, you can also download the Library of Congress’s free app containing the official, annotated version of the United State Constitution, U.S. Constitution: Analysis and Interpretation.
We are pleased to announce the winners of our Legally Clueless Info Hunt held last Thursday, August 28.
Congratulations to: Juliet Knapp-Vega, Barbie Melendez, John Michalski, Amelia Maddox, Kevin McLafferty, Daniel Oquendo, Kyle Reed, and Laura Rion. Among the prizes our winners picked were Black’s Law Dictionary, study aids in Contract Law, Torts, Civil Procedure, and Property Law, a $10 OneCard guest card, and 500 Lexis points. We also wanted to thank ALL participants for joining in what we hope you found to be a fun learning experience!
Congratulations also to our “Keep your coffee off us for a chance to have coffee on us” winners: Evelina Sierzputowska, Jacqueline Henry Lucio, Eddie Balkus, and Ally Rockolf, each of whom will receive a $5 OneCard guest card.
There will be more chances to win later this semester. Stay tuned! Our next Info Hunt will brew in time for Halloween (but don’t be scared).
Have you submitted your Legally Clueless Info Hunt entry? The deadline is fast approaching. The drawing is this Thursday, August 28, 5:45 pm, outside the Library. We’ll be awarding lots of prizes, including NYLS t-shirts, OneCards, Lexis points, dictionaries, and a great variety of study aids. Here are some of the titles:
Acing Property
Contract Law: Flowcharts and Cases
The Lawyer’s Practice: A Context and Practice Case File
Legal Analysis: 100 Exercises for Mastery
Plain English for Drafting Statutes and Rules
Personal Property
Property: Black Letter Outlines
Property: Examples and Explanations
Property: Quick Review
Property Stories
Questions & Answers: Civil Procedure
Questions & Answers: Property
Questions & Answers: Torts
Real Property
The yellow Legally Clueless Info Hunt form is in the packet you received on your library tour. You can pick up another copy at the Reference Desk. Remember, you can work with a partner or a group and you should always feel free to ask one of the reference librarians for help.
Good luck to all!