Legal Ease

The Newsletter of the Moakley Law Library

Volume 16, Issue 1 Fall 2006 www.law.suffolk.edu/ library/about/newsletter/
Moakley Law Library 120 Tremont Street Boston, MA 02108 Reserve/Circulation: (617) 573-8177 Reference: (617) 573-8516 lawref@suffolk.edu

Learning Legal Research

Rick Buckingham, Reference Librarian During your first few months of law school your introduction to legal research will focus solely on using print materials. You will have Lexis and Westlaw passwords, but your access will be limited to pulling up a case or statute by citation, and you wont be able to run searches or browse tables of contents. Some students may feel that this focus on print materials means that theyre being taught old-fashioned research, while state-of-the-art research is kept tantalizingly out of reach. They may even believe that print research is obsolete, having been replaced by electronic research tools like Westlaw or Lexis, which they perceive to be quicker and more efficient. The truth is that law continued on page 6.

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In This Issue
Learning Legal Research..................1 Welcome........................1 Access to Lexis and Westlaw...................2 Getting Started in the Library....................3 Frontlines at the Library....................4 Behind the Scenes at the Library....................5 Law School Survival....5 Finding Material in the Library....................7 Trivia Challenge I........8

Welcome
Betsy McKenzie, Law Library Director and Professor of Law Welcome back to our returning students and faculty. A special welcome to our new students and faculty! Please know that we are here to help you learn and be successful at Suffolk Law School. We have computers available in Labs A and B, on the sixth floor of the library, as well as table-power and data ports for laptops throughout the library. Our reference staff are knowledgeable and helpful -- look for the Reference Desk across the atrium as you enter the main doors of the library on the sixth floor. Our library catalog is available on computers in the library as well as the web at:

http://library.law.suffolk.edu
Please remember that food is never allowed in the library. You may bring in drinks in a permanent, spillproof container, such as a sports continued on page 2.

Access to Lexis and Westlaw

Ellen Delaney, Reference Librarian Your Legal Practice Skills instructor will distribute Westlaw passwords and LexisNexis activation codes during orientation week. When you receive your LexisNexis activation code, it is vital that you create a Customer ID and Password right away at http://www.lexisnexis.com/ lawschool/. Otherwise, you will be unable to access Lexis. You will receive full training in both Westlaw and Lexis later in the semester. In the meantime, your access will be limited to retrieving documents. You will also be able to access course outlines and web pages created by your professors on TWEN in Westlaw and using LexisNexis Web Courses. Once you are trained, you will have full access to LexisNexis and Westlaw. Your use of LexisNexis and Westlaw is for educational purposes only, i.e. research related to your course work. Trainings will take place in November and February. First-year students are given a 50-minute class on Lexis and Westlaw. If you are trained on Lexis in the fall, you will be taught Westlaw in the spring. In addition to the basic training that you will receive in the fall and spring semesters, the librarians offer refresher and advanced classes. For information about these classes, speak with one of the reference librarians or call the Reference Desk at (617) 573-8516. LexisNexis and Westlaw also offer certification programs for advanced training. Look for notices in the library or check the web sites for LexisNexis http://www.lexisnexis.com/ lawschool/ and Westlaw - http:// lawschool.westlaw.com to find information about the certification programs or to contact your representative.

Lexis and Westlaw hire a number of student representatives to answer questions and help you with online research. Their hours will be posted in the labs in the library and also on the web sites of these services. Reference librarians are also available anytime to answer questions and help you with your Lexis/Westlaw research. Please see the reference librarian on duty at the Reference Desk, call (617) 573-8515 or e-mail: lawref@suffolk.edu.

WELCOME ...cont. from page 1. bottle or lidded reusable coffee mug. The Library has books to help you studyB Betsy McKenzie hornbooks, Library Director nutshells, Blackletter series, Examples and Explanations,
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and our own Professor Glannon=s Guide to Civil Procedure. We also have books and journals to help you write papers for class, as well as access to special databases to take you beyond Google. Take a look at the library=s resources at www.law.suffolk.edu/library/ research/ If you have a seminar class that requires a paper, make an appointment to talk with a reference librarian. Either stop at the refer-

ence desk on the 6th floor, call (617) 573 8516 or use e-mail: lawref@suffolk.edu. Don=t forget that we also have museum passes for those times you just want to relax. You can check them out from the Reserve desk on the 6th floor. We hope you will find the Library a good help as you start this year at Suffolk University Law School. Best wishes for a year of growth, learning and joy.

Getting Started in the Library and Online

Ellen Beckworth, Reference Librarian encyclopedias. Regional reporters for state cases along with their digests are also located here.

Below you will find information that can help you make the most of the law library and the online world during your first year. Try out some of these resources. They just may help you have a more successful experience at Suffolk Law. Library Website The law library has its own website: www.law.suffolk.edu/library. Be sure to check out the navigation bar located on the right side of the main page useful info is available at the link About the library. Other useful links can also be found there; e.g. a list of selected online resources, research guides, and legal databases. Library Maps Arranged by floor, the interactive library maps allow you to pinpoint the location of an item by title or call number. Check the maps out at www.law.suffolk.edu/library/ maps/. Book and Journal Locations Circulation/Reserve You will find some of the most useful books for your first year studies here. These include hornbooks, nutshells, and other study materials that can help elucidate some of the legal concepts that you will learn about in your classes. Sixth floor The sixth floor has federal materials including statutes and reporters, along with research tools such as digests, periodical indexes, and

Law of Contracts, Calamari & Perillo. Fourth ed. 1998 - KF801. C26 1998 Law Reserve. Treatises These are usually very detailed discussions of a major area of law such as evidence or torts. They tend to be multivolume and updated with supplements, e.g. Corbin on Contracts, 1993 - KF 801 .C67 1993 Law Reserve. Restatements Restatements provide a summary of various areas of common law, as established by court decisions and then expanded upon by statutes. These are also large sets that are supplemented on a regular basis; some have gone into a second series, e.g. Restatement of the Law, Second: Torts 1979 - KF1249.A4 R47 1979 Law Reserve. Nutshells Nutshells are concise examinations of various areas of law. Covering everything from Admiralty to Wills, these soft-cover volumes are wellorganized and easy to understand. An example is Contracts in a Nutshell, Fifth ed. 2000 KF 801 .Z9 R62 2000 Law Reserve. Online Help The Legal Information Institute at Cornell Law School has a useful list of legal topics, such as contracts and constitutional law at:

Fifth floor This is where you will find most of the state materials, along with the librarys general collection of books. In addition to legal tomes, the library also has a wide range of books relating to the law, both fiction and non-fiction. Seventh floor The seventh floor has the bound volumes of law reviews and journals. Current issues of these items are located at Reserve. Study Materials There are a number of particularly useful resources for first year students, located mainly at Circulation/Reserve. To find treatises, nutshells, and hornbooks on particular topics, look at the treatises listed at:

http://www.law.suffolk.edu/ library/research/a-z/index.cfm.
Hornbooks These are usually one volume summaries of a particular area of law such as contracts or torts, e.g.

http://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/ index.php/Category:Overview.
See the complete guide at:

http://www.law.suffolk.edu/ library/research/a-z/webography/ start.cfm.

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Frontlines at the Library Public Services

Susan Sweetgall, Assistant Director for Public Services
The Public Services Department consists of the Reference Department, the Circulation/Reserve Department, and the Computer Services Department. The Public Services staff is dedicated to making your use of the Law Library pleasant, efficient, and educational. Suffolk University Law Library Facts Over 300,000 titles in the collection. CD-ROM, Lexis, Westlaw, and other online databases are available. Hours: Generally, 8 AM to11 PM Monday through Thurs. and 9 AM to 11 PM Friday through Sunday and Holidays. Web site: http:// www.law.suffolk.edu/library/ Online Catalog: http:// library.law.suffolk.edu/ Reference/Research Help Available at the Reference Desk on the 6th floor. Hours: 9 AM to 9 PM Monday through Thurs. and 9 AM to 5 PM Friday through Sunday and most holidays. Email reference service is available at lawref@suffolk.edu Phone: (617) 573-8516 Answer reference questions for students, faculty, staff, and alumni. Well help you find relevant resources, online, in the library and through interlibrary loan. Conduct Westlaw and Lexis tutorials and advanced training. Provide basic and in-depth research assistance. Get passes for free or reduced admission to local museums. Get earplugs during study periods. Phone: (617) 573-8177

Interlibrary Loan For materials not available at Suffolk. Forms are available at the Reference Desk. Computer Facilities Two computer labs located on the 6th floor. Computer classroom located on the 7th floor. Almost every seat in the library is wired to access the law school network. Computer terminals dedicated to accessing the online catalog (all floors) and to accessing CD-ROM materials (6th floor). The primary purpose of the library staff is to aid and instruct you in using the library. Dont worry about so-called dumb questions. Some of the most interesting questions start with the phrase: This may be a dumb question, but.... The only dumb question is a question not asked. We look forward to helping you, so please come see us.

Reference Librarians

Circulation/Reserve Located on the 6th floor of the library. Request material that faculty members have placed on reserve.

Circulation/Reserve Staff Members

Check out a circulating book here. Reserve a study room for two or more individuals. Get audiovisual materials. Assistance with the microforms collection. Borrow a laptop.

Behind the Scenes at the Library Technical Services

Jeff Flynn, Serials/Bibliographic Control Librarian Technical Services is responsible for procuring, cataloging and processing new library materials, and making them available to patrons. The Department is divided into four units; Acquisitions, Serials, Cataloging and Systems. Acquisitions Unit: Acquisitions orders/purchases library materials (book, journal, microfiche, audio, video and computerbased titles), either directly from the publishers or from a variety of vendors, for the librarys collection and for the faculty. Students and alumni can also suggest titles to be added to the Law Library collection. Serials Unit: Approximately 90% of the law librarys collection is subscription based, and the Serials Unit is responsible for receiving and processing these materials; which includes both creating records on the online catalog and getting the physical items on the shelf.

Technical Services Staff Members and David Turkalo, Asst. Dir. for Technical Services

Cataloging Unit: The cataloger retrieves bibliographic and call number information from a national database, and affixes this information to all new book and serial titles. Thereby, allowing the library user when searching Archer, the librarys online catalog, to identify and locate material in the collection.

Systems Unit: Our automated library catalog, Archer, is an integrated university wide system. Almost every library function is now system related, and the System Librarian is responsible for maintaining the system and assisting the library staff in its use.

Law School Survival

Diane DAngelo, Reference Librarian The Law Library offers countless resources and services thatll help you succeed in law school. Take a look at the Law School Survival display on the 5th floor, right outside the Massachusetts Reading Room. The display includes a number of guides such as Law School Confidential : A Complete Guide to the Law School Experience : By Students, For Students & Acing Your First Year of Law School : The Ten Steps to Success You Wont Learn in Class. If you work miracles and somehow find time for pleasure reading, read some side splitting legal humor in The Law School Trip: The Insiders Guide to Law School & Amicus Humoriae : An Anthology of Legal Humor or if fiction tickles your fancy, take a look at The Law Review or Letters From Law School The Life of a Second-Year Law Student. To maintain your sanity, its important to make some time for socializing and networking. Take a look at continued on page 8.
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Learning Legal Research continued from page 1. students must become proficient in both print and electronic legal research in order to be successful in law school and beyond. There are many reasons why its important to be able to do legal research using both print and electronic tools. Not all print legal resources are also available electronically. For those that are available electronically, it is sometimes easier to use a resource in its print form. For example, it is often easier to find a statute using a print index rather than by running searches on Lexis or Westlaw. Mastering all forms of legal research is good preparation for future employment. Not all law firms, government offices, or other legal employers provide attorneys full access to Westlaw and Lexis, and some that do limit when it can be used.

computer only secondarily. (Id. at 40.) Another law firm partner, Mark Herrmann, tells new associates, When you work for me, do not begin your research with a computerized database unless I expressly tell you to do so. (This is What Im Thinking: A Dialogue Between Partner and Associate . . . From the Partner, 25 Litigation 8, 64 (1998).) He says that using print resources like treatises and digests helps attorneys develop a sense for the area of law they are researching. But Herrmann is not opposed to using electronic tools. In fact, he believes that research is never finished until a computer has been used. (Id. (emphasis in original).) So if its important to develop skills in both print and electronic legal research, why do you learn print research first? Teaching legal research using print materials first gives students a basic conceptual framework of the research process and the organization and structure of the principal resources used. For example, when you learn how to find cases using digests and reporters you will also be learning about the structure of court systems and the publication process for judicial decisions. These concepts should become clearer when you actually see the bound volumes of decisions and read case summaries in digests. Legal research is unlike any other research youve done before. In your LPS class you will learn the process in gradual steps, first using print tools and then electronically. Reference librarians will be available to answer questions and

help you understand the research process. Take the time to develop your research skills because they are essential to becoming a successful law student and attorney.

Library Research Labs

Before you tackle your first legal research assignments, come to a library research lab where you can practice research as part of a group with the help of reference librarians and LPS professors. Last year, most students who attended a lab and filled out an evaluation said that it helped them to understand the legal research process, and many said it helped them on the library assignments. Dates and times of the research labs will be announced in your LPS class. Students who attended labs last year wrote on their evaluations: The labs were a great introduction to the step-by-step research process. Nothing beats learning by doing. The most daunting aspect of learning legal research is doing it the first time. The lab, obviously, is an easier way to jump that hurdle. It was a good way for me to familiarize myself with the books and how to navigate them. It gave me the opportunity to have a 1st run before doing the assignment. I think they were really good because you got a lot of one on one attention.

Two partners from different law firms have written in recent years about their preference that attorneys working for them use print resources when doing legal research. In The Corruption of Legal Research, 46 For the Defense 39 (2004), Scott P. Stolley gives two examples of a new associate failing to complete research assignments because she could not find the materials he requested through electronic research. In each case he found the materials himself using print resources in less than 30 minutes. His policy now is to usually ask that [new associates] go to the books first and to the

Finding Material in the Library

Sarah Boling, Systems Services Librarian One of the many new friends you will make at Suffolk Law School is Archer, the online catalog. The catalog is on the Web at http:// library.law.suffolk.edu. There are also catalog terminals on all 3 floors of the law library. Several are clustered near the circulation and reference desks on the 6th floor, where you can ask for assistance, and several more face the stairs as you walk down to the 5th floor. Online at the Library You should get acquainted with three web pages valuable for finding library materials. The first is the Law Library menu at http://www.law.suffolk.edu/ library/, which you will find off the main Suffolk Law School page. This menu will lead you to the online catalog, and also to a list of legal research databases available free to all Law School students, a list of pathfinders, bibliographies and other research guides prepared by the reference librarians, and the library information pages. The Library Catalog The main catalog search menu is at http://library.law.suffolk.edu/ search/ . This is the joint online catalog for the Law School, the main university, the School of Management, and the New England School of Art and Design. All titles held by the above libraries are listed in the catalog. Many electronic publications are available through the catalog; when available, a live link to the on-line copy of the title is in the catalog record. You can search the catalog by author (which includes such authors as the American Bar Association), title, subject, keyword, call number, and author/ title. All search types have onscreen help. If you have a handheld or PDA, or even a cell phone with Internet capability, you can also use the PDA-modified version of the online catalog at http://library.law.suffolk.edu/ airpac/jsp/airpacIndex.jsp The search menu at http:// library.law.suffolk.edu/search/ also lists the search options course, professor and electronic reserves. Your professor probably has a list of materials maintained in the online catalog, with direct links to the catalog record for each item listed. You can search courses either by course name or by professor; the catalog record for each book will tell you how many copies are on reserve and which ones are checked out. If your professor has posted electronic copies of handouts directly to the catalog, you will see *Electronic copy available* next to the handouts title in the course record. A course password may be necessary to get to electronic handouts. Links to Library Information and Your Patron Records The third menu worth exploring is http://library.law.suffolk.edu/, the main online catalog page. Besides the bright yellow Search the online catalog bar at the top, the menu offers links to interlibrary loan services, information about the main university library (Sawyer Library), and your own patron record. You can get personalized access to your patron record by logging on using the Your Circulation Record link in the left-hand column (it will ask you for your name and Suffolk University ID number). You can review, and in many cases renew, items checked out to you, update your contact information and, when you search the catalog while logged in, you can save any particularly useful searches (click on the save this search for re-use button). When you return to your patron record, or log into the catalog in the future, you can rerun the search looking for new materials. Metafind Searching multiple Databases The library catalog also has a feature called Metafind, shown in the left-hand column. Metafind is a federated search engine that will run a keyword search on a selection of databases simultaneously. It is a novel way of finding out which of the databases the University subscribes to has the most information on your topic. If a catalog search proves completely fruitless (no matches found), and no typo was responsible, a reference librarian can help you search more resources or arrange an interlibrary loan. Reference Librarians are available at the reference desk on the 6th floor of the law library, by telephone at 617-573-8516, or by email at lawref@suffolk.edu.

Suffolk Law Library

120 Tremont Street Boston, MA 02108
Reserve/Circulation: (617) 573-8177 Reference: (617) 573-8516 Fax: (617) 723-3164 E-mail: lawref@suffolk.edu www.law.suffolk.edu/ library/
Editors: Susan Vaughn svaughn@suffolk.edu Diane DAngelo ddangelo@suffolk.edu

Trivia Challenge 2005-I

Scott Akehurst-Moore, Reference Librarian Test your legal research skills -take the Law Library Trivia Challenge! The first place winner will receive a $50 Borders Gift Card courtesy of the library. All law students are eligible. Entries may be dropped off at the reference desk on the sixth floor of the law library until September 30, 2006. The Library will randomly draw entries on October 4th. The student whose entry is drawn first with all the correct answers will be our grand-prize winner. If no one answers all the questions correctly, the submission with the most right answers will be our winner. 1. What company is the principle publisher of English and Welsh statutes? 2. Provide the name, address and phone number of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Idaho. 3. Which of the following are not federal statutory compilations? a. U.S.C.A. b. U.S.C.C. c. U.S.C.S. 4. What floor of the library contains the Federal Rules Decisions reporter set? 5. Does an international student who received a law degree from abroad need only to complete an L.L.M. to take the Mass. bar?

SURVIVAL...cont. from page 5. the list of national and local law student organizations. For a complete list of student organizations at Suffolk Law School, go to: http://www.law.suffolk.edu/ highlights/stuorgs/index.cfm We also have guides that focus on female and international law students such as A Womans Guide to Law School and The International Students Survival Guide to Law School in the United States: Everything You Need to Succeed. The display also contains information on various library resources such as virtual library maps, Westlaw and Lexis, library computer labs, study rooms and reference service. Stop by the

reference desk and speak to a reference librarian if youre interested in checking out a display item.

Be Aware
http://www.livejournal.com/ userinfo.bml?user=supeersupport The Suffolk University Support Network is a safe space for students, faculty, and administrators of Suffolk University to talk about depression. If you feel depressed, if youve been there before, or youd just like to help, youre encoraged to visit this live journal. If youre looking for professional help, please contact the Suffolk University Counseling Center at (617) 573-8226.

Library Hours:
Monday - Friday: 8:00 AM - 11:00 PM Saturday & Sunday: 9:00 AM - 11:00 PM Holidays and Study Periods, check: www.law.suffolk.edu/ library/about/hours.cfm