But the death is…amicable.  Altlaw.com announces that they will be shutting down in early 2010.

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.

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?

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

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

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.

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.

Playing whisper down the lane, I’m imitating the Law Librarian Blog in alerting you to 2 social networking sites for law students. Enjoy.

There is often confusion surrounding the CALI authorization code among new students. Here are a few tips and a 2 minute video that to help you and your students avoid confusion.

Please pass this on to your students:

1. Before creating a new account at cali.org, find your school’s authorization code and have it handy. Contact your school’s rep at www.cali.org/contacts or just ask a librarian.
    
2. Use your school’s authorization code just one time. During your first cali.org registration/account creation process, enter it into the box entitled “Authorization Code.” You’ll never, ever type or even have to think about your school’s CALI authorization code again after your new cali.org account is created.
    
3. Your school’s authorization code IS NOT your cali.org username or password: You create your own username during registration. You create a unique password by following a link CALI will send you in an email immediately following the first registration step.

   This may sound confusing, but take two minutes to watch the video and you should understand.
    

    4. Once you’ve registered, use the username/password you created during registration to login at cali.org. Once registration is complete and your account is created, you use your own           username and password — not your school’s authorization code, which you can officially scrub from your memory.

Starting on Monday, August 10th, the library’s hours of operation will change. These are permanent changes that reflect the new budget realities and the pattern of student use.

The new hours are:

Monday through Thursday: 8:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m.
Friday: 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.
Saturday: 9:00 to 8:00 p.m.
Sunday: 12:00 noon to 11:00 p.m.