HeinOnline Wiki

If you would like some tips and tricks on using HeinOnline, take a look at the HeinOnline wiki. The wiki offers some really helpful things such as a faq, training guides, and a list of new content. I even have it bookmarked in my Diigo account.



Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

Shepard's in Print

This post is about something that doesn't come up too often in law schools now: using Shepard's Citations in print. Here are a couple of places with quick primers on how to use these red books.

U. Delaware has a decent guide, with a picture, that goes over the basics here. And this is pretty similar to what you'll see in Legal Research in a Nutshell (on Reserve and behind the Ref. desk in our library).







Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

Landmark Voting Cases

Election law and the story of who has the legal right to vote in the United States has been marked by a key group of landmark court cases. These cases, brought together and summarized by the American Bar Association on its web site, are a good starting point for both law students and the general public. For a brief historian's overview of the cultural and political background behind the legal landmarks, check out "Winning the Vote: A History of Voting Rights," in History Now, a free online journal published by the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History.


Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

Following the Money

With the campaign season now in full swing, we will all want to find a way to track the financial claims of both candidates and their campaigns. A great resource to do just that is the Sunlight Foundation - with its associated sites OpenSecrets.org and FedSpending.org.

According to their site, the Sunlight Foundation was founded to "to make information about Congress and the federal government more meaningfully accessible to citizens" and to serve "as a catalyst for greater political transparency and to foster more openness and accountability in government."

OpenSecrets.org focuses on "money’s influence on U.S. elections and public policy."

FedSpending.org provides spending data for federal contracts t and federal assistance data.



Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

Google U.S. Government Search

According to its Web site, “Google U.S. Government Search offers a single location for searching across U.S. government information, and for keeping up to date on government news. You can choose to search for content located on either U.S. federal, state and local government websites or the entire Web -- from the same search box. Below the search box, the homepage includes government-specific news content from both government agencies and press outlets”.

You can also personalize the page by adding content feeds about government or any other topic that interests you.

Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

Library Audio Tour

If you missed the Law Library walking tours it is not too late! Take a self-guided tour of the Law Library by downloading our seven part Library Audio Tour to your MP3 player and listen at your leisure.

Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

Educate'08

Are you taking advantage of the Educate'08 activities on campus? Hofstra University is to host the third and final Presidential debate on October 15, 2008, and the University has taken this as an educational opportunity to engage in a year-long series of conferences, events and lectures. Plus, there are student only receptions designed to give Hofstra students one-on-one time with the distinguished guests. This is an extraordinary year on campus so extend your educational experience and participate.



Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

Laptops in Class

Law students may or may not be aware of this, but the distraction that many law professors think is created by allowing students to take notes on laptops in class is an ongoing topic of discussion. One recent development in this discussion is noted here, with Eugene Volokh experimenting with a one-laptop policy, where one student in the class takes notes on a laptop and shares them with the other students.



Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

Politico

Just as the academic demands of Fall Semester weigh in, the world of politics is heating up and changing fast. If you are looking for a smart, continuously updated web site to keep up with the latest political news, Politico may fit well with your schedule. Founded and edited by a diverse group of experienced journalists committed to a professional approach and to finding unique angles on Congress and all the twists of the 2000 presidential election, Politico offers up-to-the minute news, columns, poll tracking, and more. The Campus section of the site recently posted an article identifying Senator Barack Obama's law student case comment that was originally published in the Harvard Law Review in 1990 with unattributed authorship.



Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

Factbites Search Engine

According to its Web site, Factbites is a search engine, currently in beta, that searches for matches on the basis of your entire topic area, and not just based upon the keyword that you use. This means that it can return relevant, informative results about your topic that do not necessarily mention the keyword that you used.

Factbites also provides full, meaningful sentences from every site in the search results, which allows users to glean useful information on a topic without ever having to leave the search page.

Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat