Saturday, March 12, 2011

Business Source Premier

Most law students know that law journal articles are available on Lexis, Westlaw, and perhaps HeinOnline and some other legal databases. But where do you turn when you need scholarly and other journal articles from the world of business, economics, finance, marketing and advertising, human resources or communications? One of the best databases for for business and business-related interdisciplinary articles is Business Source Premier. Available to all Hofstra students and faculty, this database includes full text articles from more than 2200 journals, with coverage back to 1965.

To access Business Source Premier from the Law Library web site, click on "Commercial and Corporate Law" in the Online Resources Subject List. Then select "Business Databases (Axinn)." You will be redirected to the Hofstra portal. After logging into the network, select "Accounting/Business/Finance/Marketing" and click on Business Source Premier. If you need help searching business sources, ask one of my favorite reference librarians.
Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

Friday, March 11, 2011

Research Skills Employers Want You to Know

Employers expect you to know how to research. According to law firm librarians you should “Know the Basics”, “Know Where to Start” and “Know efficiency on Lexis and Westlaw is essential”.

To help you refresh your skills, the Library will present TOP 10 Research Skills Workshops March 14-30. Pizza will be served.


Start with: Know the Basics-Civics 101: What Every Lawyer Should Know But Doesn’t"

Monday, March 14, 12:10-1pm in Room 242

and

"Find the Basics: Where to find Statutes and Regulations”

Monday, March 14, 5:10-6pm in Room 242

And don’t miss our feature workshop on Monday, March 21, 12:10-1:30pm in Room 242 . Law firm and corporate librarians will share their insights on Law Practice Survival Tips and Cost Efficient Research.

A full schedule for all 5 workshops is on the Library’s LexLounge group page in the Discussion Forums.


No need to sign up.




Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

Wednesday, March 09, 2011

Google and Content Farms

Google has been getting some press over the last two weeks for its attempt to purge "search engine spam" from its search results. Santa Clara Prof. Eric Goldman posted some related links and thoughts here. Part of Google's purge is aimed at online stores that use less than savory methods to get their products to appear ahead of their competitors' products in Google search results. Another part of its purge is aimed at "content farms": sites like eHow that pay (often unqualified) contributors around $10 or $15 a pop to write short, quick articles that will turn up in Google search results. (We mentioned these before when talking about the new search engine blekko.)

For people using Google for legal research (usually to get background before using specialized legal research sites and databases), Google's purge should not make much of a different, since the top results in searches for legal research usually lead to sites (government websites, law firm websites, and wikipedia) that may offer incomplete or out-of-date information, but don't often offer information that is simply wrong, the way content farms can. But if you are a lawyer or law student and do happen upon something like eHow's "How to Research Federal Law" and consider it reliable, we just hope that you're not affiliated with Hofstra.

Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

Tuesday, March 08, 2011

Research Resources: The Economists' Voice

If you are looking for serious economic analysis about public policy and current issues, try The Economists' Voice. Edited by Aaron Edlin and Joseph Stiglitz, recipient of the 2001 Nobel Prize for Economics, together with Jonathan Carmel, J. Bradford DeLong and Jeffrey Zwiebel, The Economists' Voice offers access to full text (PDF) articles on a broad range of policy issues.

To access The Economists' Voice:

  • Go to the Library's home page, click "Online Resources"
  • Click the "Commercial and Corporate Law" link
  • Scroll down to "Economists' Voice"

Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

Monday, March 07, 2011

Comparative Criminal Procedure research guide

From the terrific librarians at the University of Chicago's D'Angelo Law Library, Comparative Criminal Procedure is a guide to English language resources. The "Resources by Subject" page contains materials organized by 1) country or region and 2) notable sub-topics within criminal procedure. t focuses on journal articles, book chapters, and treatises covering comparative criminal procedure generally, criminal procedure in multiple jurisdictions, and specialized research topics in comparative criminal procedure.

Sunday, March 06, 2011

Law Student Social Networking survey

The National Law Journal recently published an article on law student social networking. A survey of 400 law students across the nation was taken with interesting findings. Most law students reported having problems following up with potential employees, fostering meaningful mentoring relationships and lack of confidence in their networking skills. However, more law students are using professional social networking tools and microblogging which was found to serve them better in a profession which is undergoing enormous transformation. Read the entire article here.
Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat