Video Research Guides

Did you know the Library's web site has links to online research tutorials?  We have just added some new webcasts on ethics, tax and municipal law research.  Scroll down to  find additional webcasts on a variety of research topics.

Watch the webcasts page -  in the next couple of months as we will be adding more.  As always, suggestions for video research guide topics are most welcome.

Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

Video on Instagram

If you love Instagram and have been waiting for video to arrive as part of Instagram's features, wait no more!  Instagram has announced that video has arrived.

For the basics on this new Instagram service read more here.

Do you want the quick and dirty version? Here are the facts about Instagram video in 7 steps.

And finally, if you are a Vine user...well, the war is on here where you can read about why Instagram video may be better than Vine.  You be the decider.

Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

Go Dark

Tired of studying and want to rest your eyes for a bit?  Try watching the earth spinning in the dark in this video.  Glimpses of illumination from space make for a bit of zen here on Flickr. 

This new feature of Google Maps can be found on their Earthbuilder site.  Read more about NASA's "Black Marble" video capture here.

Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

Breaking Video News at WSJ WorldStream!

The Wall Street Journal created their Worldstream video site as a way for journalists to share their news and videos and publicized their new site on their WSJ online webpage with a Twitter hashtag "#WorldStream."

Introducing #WorldStream

WorldStream, a global video platform for videos shot by journalists from across the Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones news organization. 

(Available at http://on.wsj.com/8ZTJ4i)

Visit the WSJ's global video platform here: http://stream.wsj.com/story/world-stream/SS-2-44156/?mg=inert-wsj, and explore the latest world news and reports streaming directly from the source.

Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

Grading Law School Exams

In the midst of exam week stress, have you ever taken a minute to think about your stressed out professors, faced with grading all those exams? For a humorous take on how law professors really grade exams, check out Assault and Flattery 2009, scenes from Louisiana State University Law School's annual comedy show and roast of the third year class, produced by the school's SBA. The professors are real. Hopefully, the exams were not.

A hat tip to Legal Blog Watch for the timely reminder.




Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

Exams, Papers, Perspective

It's the time of year when a virtual library cat senses that the stress of finishing papers and facing exams is taking its toll. Sometimes a shift of perspective can help. One of the best ways to get a different take on the importance of law school and lawyers is to spend less than six minutes watching this wonderful video with movie clips, Carl Sagan, and music--The Pale Blue Dot. Here is our planet and all that goes on here, viewed by the Voyager 1 astronauts from the edge of our solar system, nearly 4 billion miles away, juxtaposed with the world's momentous moments from our everyday point of view. A hat tip to Futurelawyer blog for pointing us in this direction.


Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

C-SPAN Video Library

While looking forward to Spring Break, you may have missed the recent news that all of C-SPAN's programming from 1987 forward--on all three C-SPAN networks--is now available free online in the just launched C-SPAN Video Library. This site is well organized, with a great browse page, and searchable to provide easy access to material such live and unedited Congressional debates and speeches actually made on the House and Senate floor and videos of Congressional committee hearings. In addition, hundreds of C-SPAN public affairs programs from the "America and the Courts" and "Newsmakers" series provide valuable background material on issues, legislation, and people for law school research papers. You'll find more about this constantly growing resource and how to use it to best advantage in this helpful article from Information Today.


Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

Forum Network Launched

Now there is another free online video site, created by PBS and NPR, with a wide range of quality academic lectures, interviews with business and political leaders, and series specials of interest to law students. Forum Network, which is both searchable and browseable by topic, includes titles from Harvard professor Michael Sandel's lecture series on "Justice: What's the Right Thing To Do?"(including "The Moral Side of Murder: The Case for Cannibalism" and "Hired Guns?/For Sale: Motherhood) and topics in constitutional issues, technology, and legal history, such as "Slavery and the Law in New England." This is a fun site to browse for videos on legal issues, and joins YouTube EDU as an excellent source for exploring new academic knowledge and challenging issues with leaders in their fields.


Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

YouTube EDU

Have you discovered YouTube EDU, launched earlier this week? By bringing together into one collection only material submitted to YouTube by colleges and universities, YouTube EDU makes it quick and easy to find university and law school class lectures, 200 full courses (including one in Environmental Law and Policy), and guest lectures and presentations on law and related topics given at some of the world's most prestigious universities. Many other fields, including science and psychology, are well represented among the more than 20,000 videos. You can also link to YouTube EDU from the YouTube home page. Try searching for "law," a favorite legal topic, or a professor or speaker's name. For example, Hofstra Law Professor Janet Dolgin's lecture on "Attitudes Toward Embryonic Stem-Cell Research" at Case Western University is quickly located on YouTube EDU.



Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

MetaVid

MetaVid is a relatively new site that archives videos of federal legislative action. Its contents are only from about the last two years, and because it relies largely on user uploads, it does not contain videos of everything that happens in Congress. But because MetaVid gives you the ability to find information on and videos related to a bill simply by entering its name, number, or a legislator's name (among other search options), it may become a valuable resource and it is already a good option for anyone researching recent legislation.



Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat