Book Giveaway!

The Charlotte School of Law Library is launching a Book Giveaway! These are treatises, reporters, and state statutory items that will not move with us when we relocate the Law Library uptown. These materials will be available for free on a first come first served basis. We are going to offer these items in phases with the students and alumni having the first opportunity to make reservations.  In our second phase, we will give the faculty, staff, and Law Library attorney members the option to reserve materials.  Finally, any remaining materials will be offered to local libraries and other institutions.

The dates of these phases are:

•  April 15 to April 26: Open to Alumni and Students

• April  29 to May 10: Open to faculty, staff, and attorney members

• May 13 to May 31:  Open to local libraries or other institutions and individuals

You will need to provide the means to pack and transport the materials you wish to have. The Law Library will provide book trucks to move the books to your vehicle. We expect many of these items to go quickly.

Go to this website to view a list of the items and to access the form needed to reserve these items: https://sites.google.com/site/bookgiveawaycsl/

~Brooke Rideout~

Summer Access to Westlaw

Wondering if you can use Westlaw this summer?

Password extension for acceptable uses is available at www.lawschool.westlaw.com.

Find the button above on the Westlaw landing page (see bottom right of page) and click GO.  Follow the instructions on the Password Extension page.  If you have any questions or concerns, please contact Mary Susan Lucas, Reference Librarian, at mlucas@charlottelaw.edu.

Happy researching!

Questions about LexisNexis summer access?

Check out our earlier blog here.

~Mary Susan Lucas~

I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream for Ice Cream!

In honor of National Library Week, the Charlotte Law Library is once again having our Annual Ice Cream Social.

Please come out and join us at Suttle or Gateway this week for some sweet treats!

Unlimited Access to Your Lexis Advance® ID this Summer

Worried about lack of access to legal databases this summer?

This is your LUCKY day!

LexisNexis has announced that your law school Lexis Advance ID will remain active during the summer and that you will have unlimited access to the content available to you in law school to be used for your academic, as well as any summer associate or internship/clerkship purposes.  This is a huge departure from past policy where you were forbidden from using your Lexis Advance ID for paid work.

This summer, for the first time ever, you can use your Lexis Advance ID for all research you perform for a firm, agency, or court. You simply need to be registered for Lexis Advance.

Stop by the Reference Desk at Suttle if you have any questions or need an ID.

Registering for Summer Access

• If you’re already a registered Lexis Advance user, you don’t need to do anything else to get Summer Access. Your current ID is all you need.
• If you aren’t a registered Lexis Advance user yet (or aren’t sure), click here for assistance from your Account Executive.

~Mary Susan Lucas~

Library Food for Fines Drive

The Law Library and ABA Law Student Division will host a Food for Fines Drive during the week of April 1 – April 5 to benefit Loaves and Fishes.

For every food item donated, you can get one of the following prizes:

• $1 in library fines forgiven (up to $20)
• 1 chance at a front-row parking spot at Suttle for a week
• 1 chance at a premium study table at Gateway and a goody basket during Finals week

Donations will be accepted at the Suttle Library Circulation Desk from 7:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. and at the Gateway Library Circulation Desk from 9:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.

Loaves and Fishes Priority Needs List:

• Canned meats
• Canned pasta (SpaghettiOs, ravioli, etc.)
• Cereal
• Canned fruit
• 100% fruit juices

For safety, no glass please!

~Kirsten Hallman~

Survey of CSL Student Opinion on Initial iPad Setup

In early 2010 Apple Inc announced the iPad and the tablet computer has caused quite a stir in both the education and legal fields. iPad applications allow users to interact with information in new ways and the portability of the device allows people to keep information, literally, at their fingertips.  Some modern courts have discussed going paperless and because of the the versatility of the iPad, it has the potential to replace the legal pad in the courtroom. Due to these developments institutions of legal education have begun adopting tablet technology into their educational models.

In the summer of 2011 the Dean of the Charlotte School of Law Library, Roberta (Bobbie) Studwell, mandated that the Law Library purchase and begin circulating iPads by the end of fall 2012 semester. Dean Studwell had informed the library staff she would be taking a position at a law library in Florida and that the library staff would be responsible for establishing the policies and procedures associated with the new library iPad program. To prepare the library staff for this venture into new technology iPads were ordered for the library staff to use in their daily work.  Over the next couple of months the staff became familiar with the different applications and resources offered by this new technology.

An iPad task force was established to make decisions on tablet circulation policy, iPad security measures, and to make decisions on installed applications. The task force consisted of the library circulation manager, two reference librarians, and two members of the circulation staff (myself included in the last group.) Over the course of several semiweekly meetings, the task force discussed our opinions on the applications and circulation policy.  Each member of the task force did their own separate research on applications, looked into the way other schools (specifically law schools) circulated tablets and presented the information back to the group. We based many of our decisions on the policies used by our sister school, the Phoenix School of Law.  PSL’s iPad policies did not fit the scope the Charlotte iPad program so additional research was needed and other school policies were consulted.   In the end, policies were decided, iPad applications were earmarked and 20 iPads were purchased.

Over the course of the next year the implementation of the Charlotte School of Law Library iPad program was stagnated by a number of technological hurdles as well as some schedule conflicts. Until, October of 2012, I was asked to take on the responsibility of the initial iPad setup and making the final push in integrating the iPads into the library.

Concerns, Problems, Areas of Interest and Methodology

Even with over a year spent on preparation, a few questions needed to be addressed before the iPads could begin to circulate. After meeting with the library leadership team and explaining my idea it was decided that a short questionnaire would answer some needed questions and help to inform students about the upcoming iPad program. I wanted to keep the survey short and simple so I could hit a broader audience. Historically it has been hard to get busy law students to give more than a few seconds of their time, unless you bribe them with food which for the purpose of this survey I was not willing to provide.  I decided to conduct the survey at the circulation desk of the Charlotte School of Law Library.  It is one of the most visited desks in the building and it would insure we gain the opinions of the people that regularly used the library.  I setup three iPads with the decided upon applications and placed them at the circulation desk. I then asked the students to “play around” with the new technology and then take a short survey when they finished.

I created the CSL iPad survey by using the website www.surveymonkey.com. I chose to use this website because it is free to use, tracks the data, and allows the students to complete the survey on the actual iPad they were trying out. Using Safari, the default web browser on the iPad, I made a shortcut to the survey webpage that looks like an application icon and placed the short cut on the home screen of the device. This also made it much easier to have students participate in the survey when all they had to do was tap the icon labeled “iPad Survey.” Below is a screenshot of the survey taken from one of the demonstration iPads.

These questions were chosen for a number of reasons. The first and most important reason was to allow students to begin thinking about how they would use this device.  Simply providing a piece of technology will not get people to use it. You have to let people make a personal connection to the technology. This is why it was essential to have the students explore the iPad and take the survey using the iPad.  By placing the device in their hands, the iPad stops being a concept and starts being a tool.  Secondly, most of the applications we installed on the iPads were law research related and I did not want this to stifle students’ ideas about the possible uses for these devices. It is my opinion that libraries provide resources and should not dictate how these resources are used. This is why I chose to ask several questions about the possible entertainment uses for these devices. Thirdly, I realize that even with all the research done by the library our student body may know of additional application that could be useful to our library patrons. Lastly, buying applications and study aids for 20 individual devices can be rather pricy and I wanted to use this survey to justify this expenditure. For this reason I wanted to get very specific information from individual students about what study aids they wanted to see on the circulating iPads.

Findings

Early in the CSL iPad project one of our reference librarians conducted a focus group on student opinion on the law library circulating iPads. The pool for the focus group consisted of students with experience using smartphones and tablets. The overall consensus of the study was negative toward the library integrating iPads.  I had hoped that opening the survey to a broader audience would lend more positive results. After two days of surveying the students coming to the circulation desk, 83% of the students said that they would checkout an iPad when they came available.

The majority of students stated that they would most likely use the iPads to do legal research. Many of the students were also interested in web browsing and other entertainment applications.

There was a stronger divide in student opinion over the installation of entertainment focused applications. Of the students that said they were interested in more entertainment applications, Facebook and Pandora were the most requested.

As far as additional legal applications suggested by the student body there was no great consensus. Black’s Law Dictionary, a bar preparation application, and a language translator were all requested. Students appeared to be the most interested in question 6 regarding the purchase of study aids. Q&A appears to be the front runner of the suggested study aids to be purchase with Examples and Explanations, Glannon Guides, and Fins following close behind.  By using the data collected in this survey we will determine the applications to be used in the final product.

~Aaron Greene~

A Candid Discussion on Law Library Fines

Law School is expensive, this is understood. Therefore, when you as a law student receive notice or learn you have a fine to pay from the Law Library it feels like one more dig at your already limited resources. I have had students shout at me, (yes they shouted) that they pay too much already so why should they have to pay a fine for a late book? The conversation becomes very tense when the student is looking at replacement costs of a lost Law Library item. I know the student is thinking that because they already are paying tuition and trying to pay for gas, rent, food, etc., that a fine for something that they feel should be covered by their tuition fees just appears unjust. Then there are the other students that understand that they have a professional responsibility to their fellow law students to return items on time and pay the cost if they are late.

Fines for late library materials is not a new concept. Public libraries could probably solve some of their budgetary short falls if they charged more robust fines and had a means to aggressively collect those fees. Sadly they do not, and there is not a public will to pursue such a policy. Much of this comes down to the fact that a core element of librarian philosophy is providing access to the library patron. Fines by their very nature run somewhat counter to that axiom. The knowledge that one might have to pay a fine could inhibit someone from making use of a library. Libraries and librarianship is about providing information and making it easy to access information.

The reality is that books, DVDs, online databases, and the plethora of other materials that libraries have in their collections are expensive both to purchase and maintain. Libraries are facing considerable challenges and costs trying to keep up with the constant changes in digital formats, and operation systems. However, the access to information is a benefit that cannot be reflected in simple dollars and cents.

How does this relates to the issue of fines? As stated, it is expensive to maintain the collection of a library. A specialty collection such as a law library is particularly difficult to afford. Treatise must be regularly updated to stay current with changes in the law, as do physical annotated statutory materials, and reporters have to be licensed in order to continue to receive the annual volumes. Yet the main service that law students frequently make use of are the Course Reserve materials and legal study aids. These materials circulate more than any others in the Law Library collection and are the materials required and recommended by the law professors for the students to use. As any law student knows, a single law text book can run anywhere from $80 to over $150 per book. Some classes require multiple text books plus supplements. As the Charlotte School of Law Library was being created, a careful and considered decision was made to provide copies of these materials for students to borrow. Part of the consideration was that law students should purchase their own books; however, it was understood that because of costs many students could not or would not purchase these materials. It was determined after investigating the practices of similar academic law libraries that the Course Reserves would circulate for three hours before they would have to be returned. Initially, all of this was based upon the honor system and professional conduct. Fines were not part of borrowing policy.

Sadly, in practice there were individuals that felt they were entitled to keep Course Reserve materials as long as they liked, thus denying their fellow students “access” to those materials. Regardless of censure or other methods of reprimand there remained a persistent problem in getting Course Reserves returned in a timely manner. A decision was made to institute fines across the board, and to make the fines hefty enough in order to dissuade the behavior that had become endemic. A policy was also put in place that unpaid fines would prevent a student from being able to register for classes or graduate until the fines were paid. The result has been a significant decrease in Course Reserves being taken for days instead of hours and an effective way to the get the attention of those who violate the policy.

While to some this might seem harsh, it is important to remember that foremost in the minds of the Law Library staff is the success of our students. Our goal is to provide access to the materials and information a student needs. A polite and professional e-mail to me to arrange an appointment to discuss whether or not one owes a fine is an important first step toward a solution. I should also note that the money collected for Law Library fines do not go toward the Law Library budget. Instead, the funds go into the general budget of the Law School.

~Kim Allman~

From the Desk of Alexandria Andresen: Referencing Shark Week

This past week has been orientation at Charlotte School of Law for the incoming 1Ls.   As an incoming 1L, I stood in line to check-in to orientation on Monday with many emotions, including but not limited to: excitement, eagerness, apprehension, panic, curiosity, and delight – all mixed together.

One of my friends and I spoke about the irony of the fact that orientation just so happened to land on the same week as Discovery Channel’s widely-known “Shark Week.”

Although neither of us expected any literal sharks to appear at orientation, the stereotypical lawyer (and maybe even the stereotypical law school student) has been compared to a “shark” through jokes, cartoons, and various other media.

“Counsel Approaching the Bench” Painting by Jeff Leedy

I wondered to myself how many “sharks” I would encounter this week.

On the first day, we were divided into our sections, where we finally got to see the people that we will be spending the majority of the school year with.  During the first few polls that were taken of the group, one faculty member said, “Raise your hand if you want to practice [type of field] law.”  She named various fields of law.

One thing that really impressed me about my section was that we had such a largely diverse group of students.  There was not one category of the law that a clear majority was interested in, and at least one person raised his or her hand for each of the categories of law that had been brought up.

This is when it began to occur to me that my section consists of all very intelligent people, with different backgrounds, who all want to make a positive contribution to the world through the law profession in their own way.

I had pleasant interactions with my colleagues, and noticed that everyone else was, too.  No one seemed vicious or cold-blooded, just as one would imagine a “shark” to be.

I have always admired the law for many reasons, including the variety of categories of the law and the fact that it is a man-made phenomenon, which promotes order and justice throughout the world (or at least tries its very best to).

During the week of orientation, I had come to admire many of my colleagues, too – the people who are very similar to myself in the sense that they want to know and practice law, but also very different in that each person has his or her own particular reason for pursuing this arduous path.

Throughout the week, I met many 1Ls, a few 2Ls, as well as members of the administration, faculty, and staff.

Although my perspective may change after the first couple months of classes, one thing was tremendously clear to me this week: Everyone really is looking after one another, and not simply out to get each other.

I am already proud to say that I am a member of such a great community.

~Alexandria Andresen, Charlotte School of Law 2015~

Civil Engagement Blogging Contest Winners Revealed!

Charlotte Law is pleased to announce that Charlotte School of Law students, Andrew Cheek and Curtis Thomas are the winners of the Civic Engagement Team blogging contest, a portion of which was hosted on our very own Charlotte Law Library blog.  They were selected based upon four submissions each of them submitted over a 6 week period. Both Andrew and Curtis will be awarded $150 and will blog on an official CET blogging site during the DNC week (September 3-7).

Let’s revisit their final posts and offer them hearty congratulations.

Their topic: Is politics a laughing matter? The Impact of Stephen Colbert, Jon Stewart and their ilk on politics and election related discourse.  

Curtis A. Thomas – Funny or Die Trying   (And the Joke is On?)  

“What’s real?  What’s not?  That’s what I do in my act, test how other people deal with reality.”  — Andy Kaufman

There’s a war going on outside no (wo)man is safe from.

No, I don’t mean the “War on Terror” or our country’s entanglement in Afghanistan.  Nor am I referring to the Republican Party’s “War on Women” perpetrated by CNN, or the President’s purported covert “War on Religion” ginned up by FOX News.

The battle I speak of poses more of a threat than the one between ‘real’ America, and, I suppose, ‘fake’ America residing between the ears of VP candidate-turned-‘Today’ Show-host Sarah Palin, but thankfully requires far less funding than the installation of a Romney family car elevator.

This war takes place weekdays in living rooms all across the country, inciting both fear and division, laughter and indifference; but the bounty isn’t land, freedom or treasure, but what one man has coined as: “truthiness.”

In one corner, sits leviathan heavyweights CNN, FOX News, NBC and ABC News; and, in the other, hailing from Comedy Central, satire powerhouses Jon Stewart and Stephen T. Colbert.  Yes, in the information age, where knowledge probably yields more power than it ever has, it appears we left the most important battle to a bunch of comedians.

Long eclipsing their closest contemporaries at SNL, so-called ‘fake’ news hosts, Stewart and Colbert, nightly pummel those pusillanimous pussyfooter politicians and pundits of all political stripes, Agnew once bellowed about.  Ask them their political leanings and many will assume Democratic, but the two largely operate above the fray due to their seamless dual roles: part pundit, part parody, or in other words, Bill O’Reilly meets Ron Burgundy.  This two-ness, has left many in mass media and beyond, wondering are they comedians or civic activists?  And, better yet, is the joke on the networks or us?

For six years, the tag team of Stewart/Colbert has sought to “Restore Sanity and/or Keep Fear Alive” in our political discourse by blurring the lines of satire and reality.  Colbert, alone, has testified before Congress, created a Super PAC and held a political rally on the Washington Mall.  Masterfully, the two entertainers have inserted themselves into the vein of the mainstream, creating a political looking-glass for us to better examine our own political culture and beliefs by examining theirs.

Though many question if they are diluting the very “seriousness” of our politics, it is undeniable that they are engaging a segment of the population that would be turned off to politics otherwise.  Their comedic format has allowed for a more in depth and unhinged approach to discussing issues that the networks have long abandoned.  Wonder why there are no viable third parties?  Why watch a panel moderated by Anderson or Hannity when you could watch a dramatization of a third party being formed through a Stewart/Colbert party filing in your home state?  In my opinion, they are the animated, more mature, modern day version of Schoolhouse Rock’s “I’m Just a Bill.”  And, in the end, if in fact the joke is on us, then fortunately for us don’t we usually remember the best ones?

Andrew Cheek - Politics is a laughing matter. 

Politics is a laughing matter. However, Jon Stewart, Steven Colbert, and the like are not to blame for the humor in the political spear especially this political season. It was just a few months ago a Republican candidate forgot three simple agencies that were a platform to his election campaign, during a nationally televised debate “oops”. Another couldn’t tell the difference between Libya and Syria. The same candidate even openly admitted he did not need to master the every detail of foreign policy and stated, “I’m ready for the ‘gotcha’ questions and they’re already starting to come. And when they ask me who is the president of Ubeki-beki-beki-beki-stan-stan I’m going to say, you know, I don’t know. Do you know?” True the comedic news reporters had a field day with these two incidents but shouldn’t they? In 2008 nearly 23 million young Americans voted between the ages of 18-29. In a 2004 poll by the Pew Research Center, 21 percent of people ages 18 to 29 cited Jon Stewart’s “The Daily Show” and NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” as places where they regularly learned about presidential campaign news. Although some in society may find that alarming, it just further more speaks to the way in which our politicians conduct themselves.

Without these satirical comedians some of the individuals voting would not have a clue about the candidates. For instance Saturday Night Live in the 2008 election made satirical comments about the entire candidate field. Jon Stewart constantly takes jabs at the political process and the partisan lines the politicians take. Jon Stewart made just as many jokes about Anthony Wiener as he did about Herman Cain or Rick Perry. These late night comedians help shed light on a serious issue and that’s the political process. Without these shows many would never care about the political process or even take time to vote.

True theses shows are geared toward younger audiences generally but that is the greater percentage of individuals that tend not to vote. In 2008 according to Forbes Magazine only 51% of all eligible voters from the ages of 18-29 chose to vote. Compare this to the national percentage of 64% of the total population voting in 2008. With approximately 46 million individuals from 18-29 that leaves roughly 23 million voters in that demographic not voting on Election Day.

These satirical shows are funny, but the shows use humor to show people who the candidates truly are. People need to know if a candidate believes they can see Russia from Alaska where at the closest point Alaska is 80 miles from Russia, or if another brags about being from the same town as a serial killer. Who are these people running for office? Yes politics is a laughing matter not because of the comedians, but because of the politicians. The comedians should not be blasted but they should be praised for the work that they do in spreading the word about the politicians running for office.

Thank you to everyone in the community who cast their votes and congratulations to our winners -we look forward to hearing more from you in September!

UPDATED: Summer Access to Lexis Advance & More

Have you heard the news?

Lexis Advance will be available all summer for students engaged in the following pursuits:

•          Summer course preparation and assignments

•          Research associated with Moot Court, Law Review, or Law Journal

•          Research associated with pursuing a grant or scholarship

•          Service as a paid or unpaid research assistant to a professor

•          An internship, externship or clinic position for school credit or graduation requirement

•          Study for the bar exam

•          Research skill improvement for educational purposes

Students do not have to do anything extra to “register” for summer access besides just registering their Lexis Advance ID like many have already done.  If you need any help in registering, stop by the Reference Desk in the Library or contact our Lexis Representative, Carmela Orsini at carmela.orsini@lexisnexis.com or 678-646-8721.  See the Policy on Use of LexisNexis Law School Educational IDs for more information.

UPDATE: Students may also register for Lexis.com (Lexis Classic) for summer access for the same academic reasons as Advance.

Here’s the full policy:

Full Access to Lexis Advance™ this Summer for Academic Purposes
We are happy to announce that you will have full access to Lexis Advance™ to complete your research this summer. You simply need to be registered for Lexis Advance and use it for educational purposes only.

Registering for Summer Access

• If you’re already registered for Lexis Advance, you don’t need to do anything else to get Summer Access.
• If you aren’t a registered Lexis Advance user, click here for assistance from your Account Executive.

Guidelines for Summer Access
You may use your Lexis Advance ID from June 1 – August 1, 2012 for academic purposes** which include, but are not limited to:

• Summer course preparation and assignments
• Research associated with Moot Court, Law Review, or Law Journal
• Research associated with pursuing a grant or scholarship
• Service as a paid or unpaid research assistant to a professor
• An internship, externship or clinic position for school credit or graduation requirement
• Study for the bar exam
• Research skill improvement

Register for Summer Access to lexis.com®
If you require access to lexis.com for educational purposes this summer, you must complete the lexis.com registration form. This form will grant you full access to lexis.com from June 1, 2012 – August 1, 2012.

Rewards and Support throughout the Summer
Continue your research throughout the summer with your Lexis Advance ID – and earn LexisNexis Rewards points. In June and July, complete the monthly Spotlight YouTube video and quiz and you will earn 200 points for each.

Your school’s LexisNexis Account Executive is available to you during the summer for training and support. Feel free to contact him or her early to let them know your summer research goals.

You also have access to 24/7 customer support for help with Lexis Advance, summer access or research questions at 1-800-45-LEXIS (53947).

*Students and graduates (including December 2011 graduates) engaged in verifiable 501(c)(3) public interest work may apply for access to Cases, Codes, Law Reviews, Shepard’s, and Matthew Bender treatises on lexis.com through the ASPIRE 2012 program, which will be available in early April. Verifying documentation is required. Exclusions apply.

**“Academic purposes” do not include research conducted for a law firm, corporation, or other entity (other than a professor or law school) that is paying you to conduct research, or that is passing along the cost of research you conduct to a third party. These are deemed “commercial purposes.” LexisNexis is committed to ensuring that its educational IDs are used by authorized users for legitimate purposes. To ensure that the highest standards of consumer privacy and data security are met, LexisNexis regularly monitors search activity and reviews usage patterns. There can be consequences when inappropriate searches are performed.

 

Need summer access to Westlaw?   Go to Westlaw Password Extension for more information.

Come see us in the Library if you have any questions or concerns!

~Mary Susan Lucas~