Well, the atmosphere here at UB is nowhere near as crazy as at some other lawschools. In fact, the other law school in our fair city got lenghty write-up in this regard. Ah, exam time.
Filed under: Fun, Law School, Library, exams
• 12:36 am 0
Ponderings
I wonder how many more months it will take for them to fix the urinals in the law llibrary? The one on the 3rd floor has been out of order for over 2 months and the one on the 4th floor for a month an a half.
Filed under: Library, University of Baltimore
November 19, 2009 • 7:53 pm 1
♫♫ Google Killed the Altlaw Star ♫♫
But the death is…amicable. Altlaw.com announces that they will be shutting down in early 2010.
Filed under: Cool links, Courts, News, Technology, U.S. Law, legal research
November 17, 2009 • 6:43 pm 0
Google Scholar Now Includes Law Journals and Cases
From Google’s Official Blog:
Starting today, we’re enabling people everywhere to find and read full text legal opinions from U.S. federal and state district, appellate and supreme courts using Google Scholar. You can find these opinions by searching for cases (like Planned Parenthood v. Casey), or by topics (like desegregation) or other queries that you are interested in. For example, go to Google Scholar, click on the “Legal opinions and journals” radio button, and try the query separate but equal. Your search results will include links to cases familiar to many of us in the U.S. such as Plessy v. Ferguson and Brown v. Board of Education, which explore the acceptablity of “separate but equal” facilities for citizens at two different points in the history of the U.S. But your results will also include opinions from cases that you might be less familiar with, but which have played an important role.
Filed under: Cool links, Courts, News, Technology, U.S. Law, legal research
November 6, 2009 • 2:57 pm 1
Holy iPhone App, Batman!
Once again, proving the usefulness of Twitter, I find out (via @elizabethf) that Lexis has released a free iPhone/iPodTouch app that allows users to get cases from Lexis and to Shepardize them. You do need to have a current Lexis account. Still, how cool is that?
Filed under: Cool links, Technology, Web 2.0, legal research, social networks, software
October 29, 2009 • 5:54 pm 0
Final Exam Information
Fall 2009
FINAL BLIND GRADING ID NUMBERS AND EXAM DEFERRAL REQUESTS
BLIND GRADING ID NUMBERS:
All students have been assigned new Blind Grading ID numbers for Fall 2009. Please note that this number is to be used for Fall 2009 final exams ONLY (Not To Be Used For Mid-Terms). You cannot access your Blind Grading ID number without your assigned Network ID and Password. If you have questions about your Network ID and Password, please call the Help Desk at 410-837-6262.
Students who were issued “0″ as a Blind Grading ID number, please see Cheryl Cudzilo in LC 103.
You may retrieve your Blind Grading ID number via the Student Portal:
1. Go to http://myub.ubalt.edu
2. Click on “Get Blind Grading ID” on the lower left side of the page, under “Links for Law Students”
Please do not mistake the term 1094 as your blind grading ID number. This number has not been assigned. All blind grading ID numbers have one to four digits.
EXAM DEFERRAL REQUESTS:
Please review the deferral procedures at http://law.ubalt.edu/template.cfm?page=280.
Exam Deferral Requests will be accepted from October 30, 2009 through November 13, 2009. Late deferral requests will not be accepted. Deferral Request Forms are available on the Law School website at http://law.ubalt.edu/template.cfm?page=490 (under Fall 2009), and in the Dean’s Suite (LC 103). The Dean’s Suite is open the following days and times:
Monday – Thursday 8:30am – 7:00pm
Friday 8:30am – 4:30pm
Please read all instructions. NO REQUEST WILL BE GRANTED WITHOUT A BLIND GRADING ID NUMBER AND EMAIL ADDRESS ON THE REQUEST FORM. Deferral forms may be turned in to the Dean’s Suite (LC 103) or emailed to exams@ubalt.edu.
NOTE: You will be notified via email the status of your deferral request.
Best wishes,
Office of Academic Affairs
Filed under: Law School, exams
October 8, 2009 • 7:00 pm 0
About those GAO legislative histories…
Despite all the controversy about Westlaw getting exclusive rights to the digitized legislative histories compiled by the GAO (see e.g. http://dukelawref.blogspot.com/2008/07/who-owns-legislative-history.html), I really didn’t take a close look until I needed some examples for class. There really is a lot of information in that database, and good quality PDF images. On the other hand, there are some questions about coverage, and some really annoying features in the database organization and search facility.
Coverage starts nominally in 1915, but more fully in 1921 (when the GAO was created). Since the GAO was mostly a green-eyeshade operation up until 1970, the legislative histories must have been to help decide if expenditures were proper. In any case, not all statutes have GAO histories. (Class example: ch. 359 of 1948 – nothing in GAO; use USCCAN instead). When a GAO history is available, especially in more recent years, it is extremely detailed, including texts of amendments. The table of contents for the PDFs, however, is broken up into several pages, sometimes with only one or two entries per page. Presumably, this preserves some information about the contents of bound volumes provided by the GAO, but it makes the set unnecessarily hard to use, and may cause some users to go away disappointed, unaware that more is available for the clicking. The default search template can also be frustrating since it doesn’t have a blank to fill in for chapter number. This is a handicap for earlier session laws that are cited only by chapter number.
Take-away: a big step forward in online access to federal legislative history material, but not one-stop shopping, and with room for improvement. -WT
Filed under: U.S. Law, legal research, library 2.0, research guides
October 5, 2009 • 1:23 pm 0
New! New! New!
2 new printer-related notices from OTS:
1. The printers in the computer lab now have double-sided printing capability. The instructions are posted on the lab doors, and there is a print-out with instructions at the library’s Information Desk.
2. Even better, students can now add printer pages online, rather than having to call OTS. Look for the “Additional Printer Pages” box on your MyUB portal page.
Filed under: Law School, Library, Technology
September 25, 2009 • 5:38 pm 0
Why you should pay attention during your legal writing classes
Failure to pay attention might get you some unwanted publicity. Just ask David Glasser, an attorney in Floriday, who was chastised by a U.S. District Court judge for poor writing skills (among other things). Be sure to click on the link to the full motion at the end of the article.
Filed under: Law School, Writing, advice
September 21, 2009 • 12:45 pm 0
Two social networking sites for law students
Playing whisper down the lane, I’m imitating the Law Librarian Blog in alerting you to 2 social networking sites for law students. Enjoy.
Filed under: Cool links, Web 2.0, social networks
