In 1958, President Eisenhower designated May 1 “Law Day, USA.” Law Day celebrates the rule of law and its contributions to Americans’ many freedoms. Law Day 2014 is especially significant as we approach the fiftieth anniversaries of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The theme for this year’s observance is American Democracy and the Rule of Law: Why Every Vote Matters, urging every American to reflect on the importance of the right to vote, and challenging them to ensure that all citizens have the opportunity to exercise this right. Additional information on Law Day can be found on the ABA’s Law Day web page.
Exam Prep Help!
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 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
Go Green for Earth Day
Earth Day this year (April 22) celebrates Green Cities, a campaign to help cities around the world become more sustainable and reduce their carbon footprint. Visit www.earthday.org/ for more details.
Here’s a suggestion from the Mendik Library: By drinking your coffee, tea, or other beverage from a spill-proof, reusable mug, you’ll help 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 $3.00. Although we already sell these mugs at a loss, for every one purchased through the end of this semester’s exam period librarians will contribute $1.00 to Earth Day Network (www.earthday.org/), which works with over 22,000 partners in 192 countries to broaden, diversify and mobilize the environmental movement.
We’re counting on everyone to do the right thing.
Finding Federal Court Records Online
Finding federal court records online has always seemed more difficult than it should be! While Westlaw and LexisNexis provide access to the federal docket sheets that list the filings for each case, the filed documents themselves are not always available. Instead, a service called “PACER” (an acronym for “Public Access to Court Electronic Records”) became the method of choice for obtaining federal court documents. PACER is not without its shortcomings: there is a $0.10 per page fee (but a maximum charge of $3.00 per document), and some users complain of PACER’s clunky interface, limited functionality, and inability to update more than once a day.
PacerPro is a free commercial service offering a better way of searching federal court records. Updating in “real time” from all 214 federal court sites, PacerPro provides a more streamlined search interface, the option of downloading an entire docket with a single click, and the ability to bookmark cases. Using PacerPro still requires a PACER account, however, and users will generally still incur the charge of $0.10 per page. PacerPro does not include documents from federal bankruptcy or appellate courts.
For NYLS students, Bloomberg Law remains an even better option. Bloomberg provides full-text searching of federal and state court dockets and available filings. Most importantly, all documents are available via Bloomberg for free to law students and faculty.
Tax Season—Forms and Resources
It’s that time of year again! Are you looking for tax forms? You can find federal forms on the IRS site here.
The IRS also provides a list of free resources to help you file your taxes.
If you are looking for New York forms, find them here. If you need forms from other states, there are links to all state tax forms from the Federation of Tax Administrators. The Journal of Accountancy has also compiled a list of additional tax filing resources for the year 2013. Taxhelp.org provides additional information relating to Tax Help for Students.
Curious to know what the first Form 1040 looked like in 1913? Click here to find out!
There is still time to enter the Mendik Library’s Info Hunt!
To enter the drawing, simply answer six questions using these easy step-by-step instructions. They’ll lead you right to the correct answers. You don’t have to get the answers right and you’ll learn a lot in the process! This year’s prizes include study guides, texts, NYLS OneCards, and more!
Submit your completed answer sheet at the Reference Desk or email it to reference@nyls.edu before 5 pm on Tuesday, April 1. The drawing will take place outside the Library entrance on Tuesday, April 1 at 5:40 pm. Winners need not be present, but an additional entry form will be given to all who attend the drawing.
Can You Outsmart the Jester?
Can you outsmart the Jester’s tricks? Find out by joining the Mendik Library’s Annual April Fool’s Info Hunt.
To enter the drawing, simply answer six questions using these easy step-by-step instructions. They’ll lead you right to the correct answers. You don’t have to get the answers right and you’ll learn a lot in the process! This year’s prizes include study guides, texts, NYLS OneCards, and more!
Submit your completed answer sheet at the Reference Desk or email it to reference@nyls.edu before 5 pm on Tuesday, April 1. The drawing will take place outside the Library entrance on Tuesday, April 1 at 5:40 pm. Winners need not be present, but an additional entry form will be given to all who attend the drawing.
Lexis, Westlaw and Bloomberg Reps
Mendik Library is pleased to welcome and introduce you to Maisa Chang, the new Westlaw Academic Account Manager for New York Law School, and Jed Lewin, our new Bloomberg Representative. We encourage you to get to know them, ask them questions, and attend as many of their training sessions as possible. Maisa can be reached by e-mail at maisa.chang@thomsonreuters.com and Jed can be reached at jlewin3@bloomberg.net.
Last but not least, we would be remiss not to mention Nejat Bumin, our longstanding LexisNexis rep. In the 15 years that he has worked at New York Law School, Nejat has become an integral part of the Mendik Library community and we are very happy to have him here. He can be reached at nejat.bumin@lexisnexis.com.
Researching the Affordable Care Act?
Are you interested in researching the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) but not sure where to start? The UCLA School of Law has put together an impressive LibGuide that features a lot of useful content, including an introduction to the law itself, legislative history, regulations, web sources, summaries and analyses, and even blogs! Be sure to check it out!
THOMAS Finds a New Home
Attention! Attention! There’s a new legislative information Web site in town and its name is Congress.gov! THOMAS.gov, the Library of Congress’s longstanding Web site for congressional and legislative research for nearly 20 years, will now automatically redirect users to Congress.gov. (THOMAS.gov will remain accessible from the Congress.gov homepage through late 2014 before it is retired.)
Congress.gov is intended to make legislative research easier and more convenient. The site’s design adapts to tablet or smartphone screens and features an easy-to-locate, front-and-center search field. As the site continues to be refined to improve functionality, public feedback is strongly encouraged!