The Digital Commons Law Network

Open Access has become one of the new hot topics in academic scholarship, especially in law schools. What is open access?  Well, open-access materials are digital, online, free of charge, and free from most copyright and licensing restrictions.

Did you know that in November of 2008, directors of some of the major law library players, such as the University of Chicago, Columbia University, Harvard, Stanford and Yale met in Durham at the Duke Law School to discuss open access in the legal environment?

As a result of this meeting, the “Durham Statement on Open Access to Legal Scholarship” was created, calling for law schools to no longer publish in print format, instead focusing only on electronic publication in stable, open digital formats.

Since then, libraries and academic institutions have begun a movement towards the use of “institutional repositories”, which provide open access to institutional research through archiving, promote the institution as well as the scholars through the visibility of these words, collect content within a single platform and location and store and preserve additional digital assets.

While institutional repositories are developed as databases, there is almost no capacity for the reader to browse.  Repositories don’t necessarily allow connections between their own materials, much less those created and housed at other institutions.

In response to this, the leading hosted institutional repository (IR) software platform, bepress, has created the Digital Commons Law Network, which draws together open access content from nearly 300 repositories that use the Digital Commons IR platform.  Anyone with an Internet connection can access this resource, with no pay-walls, embargoes or subscriptions.  This Network currently contains almost 650,000 works from 275 institutions, with over 113,000 of these works specifically devoted to the topic of law.

The Digital Commons Network brings together scholarship from hundreds of universities and colleges, providing open access to peer-reviewed journal articles, book chapters, dissertations, working papers, conference proceedings, and other original scholarly work. This constantly growing body of publications is curated by university librarians and their supporting institutions, and represents thousands of disciplines and subject areas—from Architecture to Zoology.

The intuitive interface invites you to explore discipline-specific Commons, where you can view and follow popular authors, institutions, and publications in your field. And you’ll never run into pay walls or empty records, because only full-text, open-access research and scholarship are included in the network.

Check out this resource for yourself at http://network.bepress.com/, and explore all of the amazing resources that are available free to you, complete with search functionality and browse capacity.  

Be sure to check out our Open Access LibGuide for more information on the Open Access movement.

~Ashley Moye~

Weed ‘em and Reap

With the school’s impending move looming on the horizon, the library has undertaken some significant weeding projects, where old and non-updated versions of materials are being withdrawn from the collection and discarded.  Much as when you’re moving to a new house, it’s always best to clear your clutter before you start anew.

Even though discarding books sometimes feels a little like death to librarians, weeding is a vital part of library collection management.  Think about it – your library takes in new books almost every day.  Can you imagine how quickly a collection could get out of hand if there weren’t policies and procedures in place to cull irrelevant and older materials?  No library has unlimited space available for their resources, and sometimes hard decisions have to be made.

Luckily, we’re part of a law school where new and updated materials are part of every day life, making it easy to determine what should be weeded and what’s out of date.  When the not so easy decisions rear their ugly heads, it behooves libraries to take into account feedback from other librarians and staff, their patron base, their collection development policy and their circulation statistics.

You would be amazed at the things you can unearth in the library when undertaking a weeding project.  And sometimes, you run across things so entertaining, you just have to share.

Awfullibrarybooks.net is a site run by Mary Kelly and Holly Hibner, public librarians in Michigan.  They state that their site is “a collection of library holdings that we find amusing and maybe questionable for libraries trying to maintain a current and relevant collection.”  And amusing they are.

For instance, Diet, Crime and Delinquency is a book that was published in 1981.  The back of the book states that this tome ““…demonstrates how ‘junk’ food diets, sugar starvation, vitamin deficiencies, lead pollution and food allergies can convert a normal brain into a criminal mind.”

But even books published recently can spark a need to weed.  Check out My Beautiful Mommy, published in 2007, in which Mommy picks her child up from school to take her along on a trip to the plastic surgeon.

The little girl asks Mommy about the trip and her Mommy tell her she is getting a tummy tuck and a nose job and why.

The girl worries that her Mommy will look different, but is corrected that Mommy will just be more beautiful. You have to see it to believe it, right?

One more, and then I’ll let you check the site out for yourself.  Macrame Accessories: Patterns and Ideas for Knotting was published in 1977, and features some of the grandest macrame phantasmagoria I’ve ever laid eyes on – with a little something for everyone.

Are you a shy hot pants wearer?

In need of a new vest for that moot court competition?

In the mood for a his and hers set?  This book has you covered.

The moral of the story is, weeding in libraries is a necessary survival skill.  Painful sometimes, as librarians, to physically let go of materials.  But gratifying both by making additional room in the collection for even better materials and by running across treasures like these.  I’m hoping we find something half as fun during our project…

~Ashley Moye~

A Competent Lawyer Will Keep Current with Technology

Recently the American Bar Association revised its model rules, specifically addressing the need for an attorney to keep current with advances in technology.  The change in rules was proposed by the ABA’s Commission on Ethics 20/20 and was adopted during the annual meeting, held in Chicago, August 2-7. The affected Model Rule 1.1 speaks to the importance of an attorney understanding the “benefits and risks associated with relevant technology.”   As stated in the Report to the ABA House of Delegates, “[A] lawyer would have difficulty providing competent legal services in today’s environment without knowing how to use email or create an electronic document.”

The impetus behind the changes had everything to do with developing a set of guidances to assist attorneys in not only representing their clients, but in understanding how to maintain the confidentiality which corresponds to competent representation.  The American Bar Association has made practice resources available through its Legal Technology Resource Center.  Its Law Practice Management Section’s eLawyering Task Force has also provided resources.  The amended Model Rules have rounded back and have now imposed a duty on attorneys to embrace technology.

So how has Charlotte School of Law addressed the need to remain knowledgeable regarding technology and the practice of law?  In July, the library staff conducted two student focus groups which addressed how students were accessing legal resources.  Another purpose of the focus groups, moderated by Adjunct Professor and Reference Librarian, Cory Lenz, was to ascertain which legal apps students were accessing through mobile phones and tablet technology.  This evaluation has been continued into the fall semester by the Advanced Legal Research class.  As part of the class, every ALR student is evaluating a specific legal research app and will post the evaluation to the CSL Library blog.  So watch this space!  In the interim, please take a look at the “There’s an App for That”  research guide, created by Metadata & Serials Librarian, Ashley Moye, and available on the Library’s electronic resource page.

~ Susan Catterall ~

Check Out Our Video Tutorials!

Want to know more about using our specialized legal resources such as HeinOnline, ProQuest Research Library or JSTOR?  The Charlotte Law Library has tutorials for that.

Want to learn more about our library catalog?  Placing holds?  Accessing electronic resources from the comfort of your own home?  Searching our your course reserves?  Yep – we’ve got tutorials for those too.

Need some assistance with your legal research?  Stymied by legislative history?  In need of some guidance with your common law research?  Want to know more about resources like the USCA, ALR and CJS?  We’ve got you covered.

Just head on over to our Going Digital: Electronic Research Resources LibGuide and click on the CSL Video Tutorials tab to find all of these tutorials and more.

Check out this one on using the ScholarCheck feature in HeinOnline!

HeinOnline ScholarCheck

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~Ashley Moye~

Hotmail Email Accounts banned at CALI.org Website

Are you suddenly unable to log on to the CALI.org website?  It could be because you used a Hotmail email address during your registration process.

Due to an influx of spammers and their like, CALI.org has banned all accounts currently affiliated with a Hotmail email address.  While this is just a small percentage of total users, it still will impact quite a few people.  Are you one of them?

If you’re one of these banned Hotmail users, you have two options.

1. Send an email to webmaster@CALI.org with your name and a non-Hotmail email address you’d like to use with your CALI account.  This may take a bit of time to process, depending on the number of people who end up choosing to go this route.
2. Create a new account using a non-Hotmail email address.  If you go with this option, know that you’ll lose all access to previous lesson run information.  You’ll also need to dig up your Charlotte Law authorization code from your original registration.  If you can’t find your code, reach out to the library reference desk and they’ll be happy to assist you.

And as always, if you still have any questions or concerns, feel free to contact the library!

~Ashley Moye~

Is the Payphone an Anachronism or an Opportunity?

If you were walking down the streets of New York in Manhattan Valley or Morningside Heights, you might be lucky enough to happen upon one of the coolest things I’ve seen in a long time…

Architect John Locke has repurposed phone booths into communal libraries based off of the “take a book, leave a book” principle.  He’s taken guerilla librarianship to the next level, quietly installing these structures and outfitting them with donated books from local residents, ready for other residents and passerbys to take, borrow and exchange whatever they wish from the fluid collection.

These phone booths are part of a larger plan, his ‘Department of Urban Betterment‘ interventionist project.  Check out the link to learn more…

So what are the details on these structures, you may ask?  They’re nothing but machine-cut and assembled plywood shelves, designed to hang securely inside the phone booth without any additional fasteners, leaving the signage on the phone booth visible and the phone itself completely operable.

Here’s what Locke has to say:

Even as they are rendered obsolete by the ubiquity of smartphones, I’m interested in pay phones because they are both anachronistic and quotidian. Relics, they’re dead technology perched on the edge of obsolescence, a skeuomorph hearkening back to a lost shared public space we might no longer have any use for. Something to be nostalgic for, in the way I can’t think about a phone booth without conjuring up images of an old, impatient woman banging on the door to one while I was inside using a calling card to ask for money. And of course they are nuisance, basically pedestrian level billboards that only blight certain neighborhoods (good luck finding a payphone in Tribeca, while there are eight separate phone kiosks on one block between 108th and 109th streets and Columbus Ave). But they can also be a place of opportunity, something to reprogram and somewhere to come together and share a good book with your neighbors.

(all images courtesy of the rock star himself, Mr. Locke)

So what do you think, people?  Anachronism or opportunity?  This librarian here says opportunity and eagerly awaits more iterations of Locke’s parasite library.

~Ashley Moye~

A Few New Apps…

Did you know that there’s an app that gives you simple mobile access to the world’s largest image-based legal research database?  Yes, I’m referring to HeinOnline.

With their new iPhone/iPad app, you can:

• view and download image-based PDFs
• access content by citation
• browse by volume
• navigate a volume with the electronic table of contents
• use full advanced searching techniques

Visit the Apple iTunes store to download this FREE app at http://itunes.apple.com/tw/app/heinonline-2011/id466881844?mt=8.

And are you aware that the Library of Congress recently launched a Congressional Record App that allows you to easily read the daily edition of the Congressional Record on your iPad?

Here you can:

• Browse editions of the Congressional Record by date: January 4, 1995 (the 104th Congress, 1st Session) to the present
• Perform keyword searches within individual documents or sections within documents
• Share documents via email
• Save documents to your preferred iPad PDF reader
• Identify the latest bills and resolutions considered daily on the floor of the US House of Representatives
• Identify the latest bills, resolutions, treaties and nominations considered daily on the floor of the US Senate

Visit the Apple iTunes store to download this FREE app at http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/the-congressional-record/id492077075?mt=8.

Interested in checking out more mobile applications geared towards the law community?

Visit our There’s an App for That? LibGuide for apps for legal research, news, law school, bar study and more!

~Ashley Moye~

New and Improved: Study Room Reservations Online!

Can you believe it? Yes, you heard correctly.

You can now reserve your study rooms online from anywhere and avoid having to make a trip to the Circulation Desk. You can see what rooms are booked when, find out more information on the rooms, such as the number of outlets or the size of its whiteboard, and you can even add a nickname to your booking so your study group can find you!

It’s this easy…

1. Go to http://studyrooms.charlottelaw.edu
2. Choose your type of study room from the menu on the right
3. Choose a room number
4. Choose a time
5. Confirm it through your CharlotteLaw email address

Here’s the fine print on our policies…

• Study rooms are available to be booked up to 7 days in advance
• Rooms are booked in 30 minute increments
• You can book up to 4 hours a day
• Please cancel at least 30 minutes prior to your start time, to allow other students the opportunity to book the room. Repeated non-cancellations will result in you being denied future room bookings.
• Be sure to confirm your booking through your CharlotteLaw email address within 30 minutes of the booking.

Questions about the process?

Check out our detailed walkthrough on booking your own study rooms.

StudyRooms

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So enjoy your new-found freedom and book away!

~Ashley Moye~

LibGuide Updates – Mobile Apps and Troubleshooting

Do you know about our Research Guides page?  Here’s where you’ll find a range of information tools that are designed to assist you with your research and study at Charlotte School of Law.  Created by CSL librarians and staff, they are a pathway to library resources most relevant to your area of study and contain recommended library resources – books, databases, journals and websites, as well as helpful research tips.

But did you also know that we also feature guides less devoted to research and more devoted to providing you with tools to assist you during your journey through law school?

With the close of 2011 and the dawning of 2012, we’d like to highlight two new LibGuides that the Charlotte Law Library has recently published…

Mobile applications are becoming increasingly popular and relevant to our daily lives - There’s an App for That? highlights a number of mobile applications that might be of interest to law students and lawyers, including a list of hand-picked CSL student favorites.

And our Database Troubleshooting Guide provides tips and solutions to the some of the most common access issues our patrons encounter, including off-campus access, authentication problems, PDF display issues, and secure connection errors.

So check us out over your holidays, and be sure to let the library know if there’s anything you’d like to see added to our growing Research Guides list…  We’re always eager to take on new challenges, especially for our patrons!

~Ashley Moye~

Obscure Laws that Make Me Thankful I Live in Charlotte…

I’m thankful don’t live in Harlan, Kentucky, where it is unlawful to throw coal at another person if the size of the lump exceeds three inches.  Because you never know when you’re going to have to take out a stingy Santa.

I’m thankful I don’t live in Pittsburgh, where policewomen aren’t allowed to use lipstick.  Does strawberry ChapStick count?

I’m thankful I don’t live in Maryland, where lions can’t be taken to the theater.  Who else am I supposed to share my three gallon tub of buttered popcorn with?

I’m thankful I don’t live in Georgia, where it is against the law to buy, sell, raise or give away a parrot.  Those poor Georgia based pirates…

I’m thankful I don’t live in North Dakota, where it is illegal for anyone to go to bed wearing shoes or boots.  Here, it’s simply an invitation to get written on with Sharpie – especially after a long night of carousing out on the town with friends.

I’m thankful I don’t live in West Virginia, where a person may not persuade another to kill a frog for him.  No bribing your way out of biology lab there.

I’m thankful I don’t live in Florida, where you aren’t allowed to crack more than three dishes per day, or chip the edges of more than four cups and/or saucers.  I’m quite prone to crockery accidents.

I’m thankful I don’t live in Jackson, Mississippi, where you aren’t allowed to burn down your house without removing the top first.  Does anyone have a pop top house these days?

I’m thankful I don’t live in Toledo, where you aren’t allowed to throw reptiles at another person.  Sometimes they’re just asking for it.

I’m thankful I don’t live in Denver, where it’s unlawful to lend your vacuum cleaner to your next door neighbor.  Isn’t it punishment enough when they give it back broken?

I’m thankful I don’t live in Greene, New York, where you cannot eat peanuts and walk backward on the sidewalks while a concert is on.  That’s just good clean fun.

I’m thankful that I don’t live in Galveston, Texas, where it’s illegal for camels to wander unattended in the streets.  I love looking out my window at night knowing that there’s a chance, however slim, that I just might see one.

I’m thankful I don’t live in Massachusetts, where it’s forbidden to put tomatoes in clam chowder.  Culinary creativity should never be stifled, regardless of the disgust factor.

But most of all, I’m thankful that I have an amazing ten year old who owns World’s Dumbest Laws by Dick Hyman.  Thanks to him, I had a blog post.

Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours from the Charlotte School of Law Library!

~Ashley Moye~