Digital Commons

What is the Digital Commons, you ask? It is a digital repository which is a digital archive for Touro Law Center. From the Gould Law Library's home page you can click on the link or go to http://digitalcommons.tourolaw.edu/. From here you can look for articles written by your favorite professor or check out some student films from Professor Post’s class. If you click on SelectedWorks, you will see web pages for your Professors.

Remember, items are being uploaded every day, so please visit the DC early and often!

You don’t want to be the last one to know what has been posted on the DC!!

Loislaw

Gould Law Library provides access to a comprehensive legal research database called Loislaw, published by Wolters Kluwer, which also publishes CCH. Unfortunately many law students, as well as attorneys, are unfamiliar with this database. Loislaw is a cost-effective legal research solution, as it offers an all-inclusive flat rate subscription. It is also quite user-friendly and intuitive. It contains a completely up-to-date Primary Law Collection, which includes case law, statutes, administrative regulations and court rules for all state and federal jurisdictions, as well as collections of public records, treatises and legal forms.

Loislaw also has two useful and innovative tools, GlobalCite and LawWatch. GlobalCite allows you to pull all of the citations out of a case or brief and read or print those cases and statutes. It also allows you to sort by document type or jurisdiction. All of the citations are hyperlinked to the full document at no cost, even if the documents are outside the subscription plan. GlobalCite also allows you to see all of the cases, statutes, and treatises that cite to the case that you are viewing. LawWatch allows you to save your research trail. You can choose simply to save it or you can have LawWatch continue to run that search automatically.

For a more detailed explanation of Loislaw, check out their tutorial at: http://image.loislaw.com/prosite/flash/gettingstarted/

Next month I will detail Fastcase, another legal research database available at Gould Law Library.

HeinOnline's YouTube Channel

Every law student is familiar with Westlaw and LexisNexis, however, Gould Law Library has access to so many other databases that are excellent resources for legal research and scholarship. In an attempt to familiarize more people with these databases, the following article is the first in a series of posts that will profile these databases.


A database many law students are already acquainted with is HeinOnline. HeinOnline contains a tremendous assortment of law journals, government documents and historical legal documents. It is a great resource for legal research and analysis, as well as for compiling legislative histories. I recently discovered HeinOnline’s Channel on YouTube, http://www.youtube.com/user/HeinOnline08.

Both beginners and experts will appreciate this website. Visitors can view more than 30 “how to” videos that will help them navigate HeinOnline and utilize all of the resources this database has to offer. For beginners, there are videos entitled “Quick Start Guide to HeinOnline” and “How to Find an Article in the Law Journal Library.” For advanced researchers there are videos entitled “Subject Compilations of State Laws” and “Cross-Library Searching for Legislative Histories.” This website also has videos detailing recent changes and enhancements to HeinOnline, such as, “Faceted Searching Available in the Law Journal Library” and “Browsing Legislative Histories by Public Law Number or Popular Name.”

Also, check out the HeinOnline wiki at http://heinonline.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page, which includes quick reference guides, training videos and FAQs.

In the next installment of this series, I will be profiling Loislaw.

Google Books Ngram Viewer

Google Books NGram Viewer was launched last week. This tool allows you to search though Google’s corpus of books to see how frequently certain words or phrases appear during a specified time period. The results are displayed graphically and allow you to compare a few different words and phrases. For example: I entered: LP record (blue), compact disc (red), and iPod (green) between the years 1950 and 2008 from the corpus of English Fiction, and this result was returned:

Then I compared the mainly obsolete legal term demurrer (blue) with its replacement, motion to dismiss (for failure to state a claim) (red) between the years 1900 and 2008 from the corpus of American English. I received the following result:

I'm sure the possibilities of this are endless. Of course there are always caveats to a tool like this, such as different meanings for the same word and that pesky medial s (that is sometimes mistaken for an "f"). Nonetheless, it is amusing.

To try it go to: http://www.ngrams.googlelabs.com/
For more information on the Ngram Viewer go to: http://www.ngrams.googlelabs.com/info.

BNA Database Training- Tax and Accounting

On Wednesday, Nov. 17, at 4pm in the library’s computer lab (L308) a webinar will be held on BNA’s Tax and Accounting database for students. If you are interested in heading into corporate, tax or a related area of law or just plain interested in the subject, this training is for you. Candy will be served. If you plan on attending, please RSVP to Leslie Wong at lwong@tourolaw.edu.

Study Hall Hours for Fall Semester 2010 Final Exams

In preparation for fall semester final exams, the Gould Law Library will be open as a 24-hour study hall from Sunday, November 21 – Thursday, December 23 – except for Friday evening through Saturday evening, in observance of the Jewish Sabbath. The library will close on Fridays at 3:15 p.m. and will reopen on Saturdays at 5:30 p.m. With this exception (and the Thanksgiving closing listed above), the library will remain open 24 hours a day. Students using the library after midnight must sign in and out at the security desk. Library services will not be available during the extended hours or overnight period, although a security guard will be on duty. The library (with the exception of the Circulation Desk, Reference Office, and enclosed study rooms) is a “quiet study” zone during the final exams period.
Library hours are subject to change. Please verify hours by calling the Circulation Desk at 631.761.7150, or by visiting the library’s web site at http://www.tourolaw.edu/LawLibrary/ and clicking on “Library Hours.”

Gould Law Library Online Survey

Please take the Gould Law Library survey on Survey Monkey: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/HQG6BSW. The name of each student who completes the survey will be placed in a drawing. First prize is dinner for two at Carraba’s. Ten runner-up prizes will be awarded -- $5.00 gift certificates for Starbucks. The survey is brief – and your input is invaluable in helping us evaluate and improve library services. The survey will be online from Thursday, November 4 – Friday, November 19. Thanks for your help and participation!