Thursday, March 27, 2014

Interesting Overview of Court Rulings on Cellular Phone Searches

Are you curious about the status of warrantless cellular phone searches by police, and how lower courts have ruled on this issue? This article offers a brief but interesting overview of the subject in anticipation of the forthcoming U.S. Supreme Court decision later this term.


Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

Wednesday, March 26, 2014

Legal-Abbreviations.org


If you are after a legal abbreviation, try  Legal-Abbreviations.org.  Legal-Abbreviations.org is a "free online resource for defining common legal abbreviations, legal terminology and law terms, it will help you uncover the meanings of various legal acronyms and legal citation abbreviations via browsing the glossary list or searching the index."

hat tip  to Legal Scholarship Blog
Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Hofstra Law Library/IT Survey

Hofstra Law Students, this is your chance to let us know what you think about Hofstra Law Library and IT Department services.  Take the SURVEY today!

Don't forget to enter your email address for a chance to win an iPad mini! But, don't worry...all responses remain confidential!



Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

Monday, March 24, 2014

Law, Logic & Technology Research Laboratory Informational Open House

Law, Logic & Technology Research Laboratory
Informational Open House
Law School | Room 113


Monday, March 24, 2014 | 10 a.m.-2 p.m.

Tuesday, March 25, 2014 | 11 a.m.-3 p.m.


Wednesday, March 26, 2014 | 12 p.m.-4 p.m.

The Research Laboratory is dedicated to inventing and making available tools that make legal practice and legal education more effective and more efficient.
Find out who we are and what we do.

Everyone welcome, especially 1Ls who might be  interested in joining the Lab in August 2014.

Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

Sunday, March 23, 2014

Congressional Hearings on HeinOnline

Congressional hearings have been available on HeinOnline’s in the U.S. Congressional Documents Library for over two years now.  The collection has expanded to over 27,000 hearings with hundreds more being added regularly.  There are a number of ways to search the hearings which include Congress session, chamber, committee and text.  An advanced search is also available which allows searching by topic, time frame and more.  To learn more about how to search hearings in HeinOnline, click here.

Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

Saturday, March 22, 2014

Business Environment Snapshots

The World Bank has combined its own data with that of other publishers to produce Business Environment Snapshots, a free internet resource providing a measurement and analysis of the business climate in 183 countries (or,"economies"), with links to the text of selected business-related laws and regulations. In addition to key data, including each country's rankings on criteria such as political risk, corruption, and Institutional Investor's country credit ratings, each snapshot includes an "Analytical Work" section of World Bank reports on the country published in the last five years.

For law students interested in locating statutes and regulations from Asian, African, South and Central American, Middle Eastern, or Eastern European nations, this is a resource not to be overlooked. The "Legislation" section draws from, and links to, World Bank's Doing Business Law Library, a free collection of business-related legislation from official sources where available (in English and other languages), along with some unofficial English translations.    

Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

Friday, March 21, 2014

Did you know Google has advanced searching techniques as well as cloud storage and collaborate document drafting tools?  To find out more, register for our Googlerific workshop - the last in our Research Life-line workshop series.

Date:  Wed. March 26
Time:  12:10 - 1pm
Location:  Room 014
R.S.V.P:  lawdek@hofstra.edu

Lunch and surprise gift included.

Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

Wednesday, March 19, 2014

Research Resources: Census Bureau Research Data Product

The Census Bureau offers a wide variety of data resources, largely microdata, for applied social science research.  If you are interested in poverty rates or median household income for school districts, counties, and states, try Small Area Income and Poverty Estimates Interactive Map Tool.

Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

Tuesday, March 18, 2014

Secure Password Hints and App

As we spend more of our time online and are using software for all aspects of our lives, it is more important than ever to make sure our information is secure.  The start of that security is your password.  How can you make sure your passwords stay secure?  Here are some tips:

1. Use a unique email address for your passwords
2. Provide extended answers to security questions
3. A phrase is better than an alpha-numeric password
Read more about these hints here: http://www.legalproductivity.com/apps/secure-password/

For a more secure login, try the app 1Password. "In addition to web usernames and passwords, 1Password saves a variety of information that you might find in your wallet (licenses, social security numbers, credit cards, etc.), software serial numbers, non-web account information (like iTunes and e-mail) and freeform secure notes to store any data you’d like to keep safe from prying eyes." Read more here: http://www.legalproductivity.com/apps/app-of-the-week-1password/

Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

Sunday, March 16, 2014

Notes in HeinOnline

HeinOnline now allows you to add notes to your saved search queries, bibliographies and eTOCs.  The new feature in MyHein will enable users to create comments for saved searches, saved bookmarks and eTOC alerts.  In addition, the notes will also appear on future email updates.  Click here to learn more or click here for the instructional brochure.

Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat