Hunter's Query

Do you have to write a research paper or two this semester?  Do you want some help?  Come discover some of the resources that can help you with your research on Wed., Feb. 10 at noon in rooms 275/76.  We'll take 30 minutes to discuss some of the resources outside of Lexis and Westlaw that you'll want to be aware of.  Hope to see you then.

It's time to nominate your classmates and professors for awards that will be given out at the Annual Law School Awards Banquet on March 25.  This is a great chance to recognize those around you who make BYU Law School a better place.  You can access the nomination form here.

Some of the Awards include:

J. Reuben Clark Award: Presented to students in each class who exemplify the standards associated with the J. Reuben Clark Law School, namely, academic excellence, integrity, high ethical standards, and service.

National Association of Women Lawyers Award: This award is given to a graduating student who has shown academic achievement, motivation, tenacity, and drive and who will contribute to the advancement of women in society.

Ed Kimball Humor in the Law Award: This award is given to a graduating student who has kept a healthy and wry sense of humor through the rigors of law school.

Nominations will be accepted until Friday, Feb. 12.

Most of you are aware that Google Scholar added legal opinions late last year.  So far I've found it to be quite good.  Add in the fact that it's free, and it's definitely a resource all law students should be aware of.  In talking with some law students one thing I've found is that they are unaware of its capability to limit searches by jurisdiction.  This can be done through the "Advanced Scholar Search" link found on the main Google Scholar page.

Once you get to the "Advanced Scholar Search" page, scroll to the bottom and you will find options for limiting by jurisdiction.

Check what you need and you're ready to search.  This will keep your results targeted in your jurisdiction and will also eliminate journal articles from your results.

Professor David Dominguez's article Legal Education and the Ecology of Cultural Justice: How Affirmative Action Can Become Race-Neutral by 2028 has recently been published in the Oregon Law Review.

Earlier this week Robert Ambrogi previewed the new Fastcase iPhone App.  Now available for free from the App Store, the Fastcase App is the largest free law library on the iPhone.  For those of you unfamiliar with Fastcase, it is a low-cost legal research system that is available to members of several Bar Associations across the country.  The iPhone App allows users to search cases and statutes for free.  Students getting ready to head out to work this summer will want to become familiar with this app as it may come in handy.

The Hunter Law Library is pleased to announce its new Chat Reference service available to current BYU law students and faculty.  In addition to the reference service we currently offer (in-person at the 2nd and 3rd floor reference desks, by telephone ((801) 422-6658), and by email) we hope chat reference will make us more accessible to you as you conduct your legal research. 

To access chat reference (or email reference for that matter), simply click on the "Ask a Law Librarian" link in the top left corner of the Law Library webpage.

After authenticating with your Route Y ID, you will be taken to a page where you can access chat and email reference.  When a law librarian is logged into chat, you will see the following:

Once you select the appropriate link you'll see the chat box and you'll be ready to go.

If a law librarian is not logged on, you will be notified and asked to use the email reference form or contact us in person.  Law librarians staff the reference desk from 8am-5pm Monday through Friday and chat reference will generally be availabe during those times.  At times we will be helping patrons who have come to the reference desk in person and may be unavailable to chat, but give us a try later or send an email query and we'll get back to you.

We remind you that we cannot offer legal advice, but are available to help with your research needs.  We hope chat reference will be one more way that we can make life easier for you.

"Reports of looting and violence in post-earthquake Haiti are likely exagerrated and may hinder relief efforts, according to a Brigham Young University law professor," begins an article in the Deseret News last weekend.  The professor is Lisa Grow Sun, who's research focuses on the intersection between disasters and the law.

Attorney Peter Stirba was here for his annual lecture to the first year law students about appellate advocacy.  A portion of his time was focused on the case he argued before the U.S. Supreme Court in October 2008, Pearson v. Callahan.  You can listen to the oral argument of Pearson v. Callahan at the Oyez Project website.  The Oyez Project is a great place to find  audio recordings of oral arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court.  As I've mentioned before, you can even listen to the oral arguments of the founding Dean of our law school, Rex Lee.

Professor Lisa Grow Sun's recent blog post on Concurring Opinions examines the lessons Haiti can draw from Hurricane Katrina. 

Professor Lisa Grow Sun has recently co-authored the second edition of the disaster law textbook Disaster Law and Policy.  Professor Sun's co-authors are Professors Daniel A. Farber, Jim Chen, and Robert Verchick.  Professor Sun is currently teaching a Disaster Law course here at BYU.

  Whether you're a Supreme Court junkie or just interested in following one particular Supreme Court case there are few resources better than SCOTUSblog.  With timely commentary and analysis on the cases and cert. petitions before the Court, legal researchers can find quality information as news from the Court breaks.  SCOTUSblog's companion site, SCOTUSWiki, is a legal researcher's dream.  Here you will find a one-stop shop (minus the paywall) for documents relating to cases pending before the Court.  Merits Briefs, Amicus Briefs, Cert. Docs., as well as analysis on the cases and links to other news sources are some of the things you'll find.  Check it out!

Professor Gordon Smith has recently posted his essay, Legal Precursors of Transaction Cost Economics, to SSRN. 

For all of Prof. Smith's articles and essays on SSRN, click here.

Welcome back!  I hope everyone had a great break and recharged their batteries for the new semester.  I thought I'd start off the year by plugging a few of our resources that many of you know about, but that can really be of great help to you throughout the semester. 

The first is CALI.  Many of you use CALI to help study for finals, but CALI can also be used to help clarify things during the semester.  CALI has over 600 interactive, internet-based lessons on a variety of legal topics.  BYU law students who need our school's CALI authorization code can shoot me an email at neverss@law.byu.edu.

Another great resource is AudioCaseFiles.  The Law Library's subscription to AudioCaseFiles allows BYU Law students and faculty to download mp3 audio files of court opinions that are commonly read in law school classes.  In the past year BYU law students have downloaded nearly 5,000 opinions from AudioCaseFiles.

We're in the midst of final exams and students are looking for all the help they can get.  The Wall Street Journal Law Blog recently asked 7 law professors to complete the following sentence: "A good law exam answer is ________"  

Today the Deseret News has a brief article about the history of the Utah Supreme Court.  The article contains a link to a gallery of photographs of the court and its justices throughout the years.

Professor Fred Gedicks has posted two new articles to SSRN.  The first, The Recurring Paradox of Groups in the Liberal State, will be published in the Utah Law Review.  The second, American Civil Religion: An Idea Whose Time Is Past, is a working paper. 

See more of Professor Gedicks' papers here.

I hope some of the posts I've done on Finals Prep (CALI, Sample Exams, Study Aids, Library Rooms, CDs) have been useful in getting you ready for finals.  I wanted to pass along a few resources that may help in preparing for and taking final exams.  CALI has a number of podcasts with law professors that address these issues and may be helpful.  They include: Exam Taking Skills, Outlines, and Advice for Law Students: Panel 1 PodCast, Exam Taking Skills, Outlines, and Advice for Law Students: Panel 2 PodCast, Tips for Multiple Choice Exams in Law School Podcast, Top 10 Tips for Successfully Writing a Law School Essay.  Above the Law has also recently posted All You Ever Wanted To Know About Law School Exams.  Last year the Legal Profession Blog posted Beyond IRAC: Law School Exam Taking Tips. 

   The Law Library's HeinOnline subscription now contains a collection of 55 Bar Journals that may be useful to you in your research.  Like other HeinOnline content, the Bar Journal content contains scanned .pdf images of the journals back to inception.  Westlaw and LexisNexis have some bar journal content for the past 15 years, but HeinOnline's collection is the most complete electronic collection of bar journals.  Those of you that have looked for bar journal articles in microfiche will be quite happy with this upgrade.

The Utah Bar Journal is one of the journals included in the first release of the Bar Journal Library.  Other bar journals will be added to the collection in the future.  You can access the bar journal collection by clicking on the "Bar Journals" link on the main HeinOnline page. 

In addition to print study aids, the law library also has a collection of CDs and audio tapes that may help you brush up before finals. Searching the library catalog for "sound recording" provides a good list of what we have.  The circulation desk also has a binder that contains a list of all our Sum and Substance CDs and tapes. 

While the library carrels are great, sometimes you just need a change of scenery when you're studying for finals.  Luckily, we have some options for you.  If you're looking to study in a group the law library offers 16 study rooms, many of which have flat screen monitors for projecting laptops.  You can find the study room sign up page here.  These study rooms are quite popular near finals time, so plan on signing up early if you're interested.

The 4th Floor Reading Room is a great place to study if you're looking for silence.  The carrels can get a bit noisy at times, but silence is enforced in the 4th Floor Reading Room.

The Rex E. Lee Conversation Room on the 3rd floor is where you can head if you want a distraction from studying.  We encourage you to take your conversations and phone calls in that room in order to keep the noise level down in the carrel area.