|
Library
New & Notable on the Web
January 2009 - Inauguration Special
Change.gov (http://www.change.gov)
First up is the official website of the Obama Transition team, where you can get information on election issues, apply for jobs, and submit your suggestions for changing government for the better. The “plum book” of job openings is available at http://www.gpoaccess.gov/plumbook/.
Inauguration Day 2009
The District of Columbia’s official Inauguration information site at http://www.inauguration.dc.gov, the Presidential Inauguration Committee website at http://www.pic2009.org, and the official tourism site of Washington, D.C. at http://www.washington.org, are all good sources if you are traveling to see the event.
America.gov – Telling America’s Story (http://www.america.gov)
This interesting website from the U.S. Department of State (http://www.state.gov) features historical and cultural information about America provided for potential immigrants or others outside of the United States. Publications by this department in print are only distributed overseas, but web versions (often in PDF format) are available on topics such as the history and geography of the U.S., arts, literature, and other topics.
Public Papers of the Presidents
The White House (http://www.whitehouse.gov) will soon have a new occupant, and a new set of web pages. The official Bush Whitehouse electronic documents will be administered via National Archives (http://www.archives.gov) which administrates the presidential libraries. For example, the Clinton Presidential Library includes at http://www.clintonlibrary.gov/archivesearch.html several versions of its Whitehouse website. The National Archives is bracing for more than ten times the amount of electronic data as the Clinton White House (see article at http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/27/washington/27archives.html).
There are various ways of finding public papers of presidents past. The official site for the series Public Papers of the Presidents is the Government Printing Office, or GPO at http://www.gpoaccess.gov/. Click on the “Presidential Materials” link on the top page. Archives.gov links to both National Archives and Presidential Library sources. For more information on Presidential Libraries, see the Congressional Research Service (CRS) report on Presidential Libraries (http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/secrecy/RS20825.pdf). In addition, see the American Presidency Project at UC Santa Barbara (http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/).
December 2008
Theme issue: Digital Archives and Repositories
There are many repositories of text and multimedia legal materials on the web outside of the more well known legal information portals such as Findlaw, Lexis One, the Cornell Law School Legal Information Institute and Justia.
Famous Trials provides background material of various types on over 30 famous trials throughout history from the Trial of Socrates (399 BC) to the trial of Zacarias Moussaoui (2006). The materials provided vary, but may include transcript excerpts, biographies, and selected exhibits.
The United Nations Audio Visual Library of International Law provides “Historic Archives containing documents and audiovisual materials relating to the negotiation and adoption of significant legal instruments under the auspices of the United Nations,” a Lecture Series featuring a multimedia collection of lectures on international law topics and a Research Library which includes links to documents and research guides. Recommended by Matthew McGovern.
The Yale Law School Avalon Project includes several digital archives of documents related to law, legal history, and diplomacy. Documents lists are organized roughly by century. The project also maintains Project Diana, a human rights documents archive.
OpenCRS provides the text of Congressional Research Service (CRS) Reports that normally are accessible only via a member of Congress. CRS is a division of the Library of Congress which provides reports on policy and current political events for members of Congress.
Public.Resource.Org, a non-profit organization devoted to “Making Government Information More Accessible,” has several archives of information from government agencies. The organization is currently involved in efforts to make federal legislative history material created and collected by the GAO (Government Accountability Office) between 1915 and the present available to the public. The material was provided to Westlaw and is the basis of the FED-LH database, which includes pdfs of a wide variety of legislative history materials for selected federal laws. Or, as Public.Resource puts it: “The Government Accountability Office shipped our federal legislative histories off to a multinational in return for a timeshare account …” More information on the controversy can be found at the Justia Law Technology & Legal Marketing Blog.
November 2008
Go Phillies!
In honor of the Phillies winning the World Series, this will be a special Philadelphia/Local themed issue of New and Notable on the Net.
The Philadelphia Lawyer
The Philadelphia Lawyer is a monthly magazine published by the Philadelphia Bar Association. Don’t miss this month’s issue which includes an article by Villanova Law’s very own Matthew McGovern on using a combination of print and online sources to find Pennsylvania regulatory materials. Click here for the article text.
PA Law Library
PA Law Library is a fee service provided by the Jenkins Law Library based in downtown Philadelphia. It includes U.S. Supreme Court Opinions, Third Circuit Opinions, PA Supreme Court, Superior Court, and Commonwealth court opinions. It also provides access to PA Attorney General Opinions, and PA Environmental Hearing Board cases. It includes opinions from the PA District and County Reports 3rd and 4th Series, as well as several reports not reported in the District and County reports. It also includes local court rules, a list of recent suits filed and an attorney directory. Members of the Law School community may access this service on campus by clicking on the "Law Databases" link.
HeinOnline
HeinOnline is pleased to introduce its newest library, the National Moot Court Competition. Now for the first time, you will have digital access in HeinOnline to the winning records and briefs from the 1st-58th annual National Moot Court Competitions. Now moot court team members can search the documents from 1950-2008 to find on point discussions from the briefs and records written by the winning teams. To access HeinOnline go to the Law Library webpage, and select “Law Databases.”
New York Times Historical Database
Falvey, Villanova's main library, has discontinued their New York Times microfilm subscription. Fortunately, though, for PDFs from the beginning of the publication up until the past 2 years or so, the New York Times Historical database should suffice to serve our research needs. You can access the main library databases at http://www.library.villanova.edu. Click on "Databases A-Z" and then "Historical New York Times (ProQuest)."
October 2008
Election 2008
As election day approaches you can get more information about the issues and candidates from websites such as Factcheck.org, Congress.org, and Real Clear Politics.
Lexis/Westlaw Directories
Ever wanted to find out if a publication is on Lexis or Westlaw without logging on? You can search the Westlaw directory online at http://directory.westlaw.com.
You can search the Lexis directory online at http://w3.nexis.com/sources/.
Happy Belated Constitution Day!
Constitution Day and Citizenship Day is celebrated September 17, the day the U.S. Constitutional Convention signed the Constitution in 1787. The Constitution is celebrated during Constitution Week, which this year was September 17 through September 23, 2008. Constitution Day/Week materials are still available at websites such as the National Constitution Center (which is based in Philadelphia), the National Center for Constitutional Studies, and the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Legal Self-Help Sources
Interesting Web 2.0 community sources are springing up, such as Expert law and LawGuru. Whether some of these sites encourage the unauthorized practice of law is an open question. Good sources of information for legal referrals include the ABA Lawyer Referral Directory and LawHelp.
LawHelp for the various states such as Pennsylvania may include references to free interactive legal forms. For example, see the National Legal Services Document Assembly Server, which uses Hotdocs document assembly software from LexisNexis. Another place where you can see free samples of Hotdocs for creating legal forms is at the LexisOne website. Free registration is required to use LexisOne.
September 2008
Search the West Digest system on Westlaw
Click on “Key Numbers” at the top of the Westlaw Screen to access the West Digest system. You can search the digests in three ways: 1) do a keyword search of the digest system in the search box, 2) browse the digest system, or 3) use the KeySearch service to browse by legal issue.
Searching the web- through Lexis and Westlaw?
Both Lexis and Westlaw have recently introduced web search services which are advertised to search law related websites. Westlaw’s services is called WestlawWebPlus and can be accessed via the Westlaw lawschool portal page, or the “Search the Web” tab which can be added by clicking on the “add a tab” link. Lexis’s "Lexis Web is a legal-specific search engine that serves up free Web content only from legal sites validated by LexisNexis attorney editors."
Docket Developments
Another new Westlaw development is that you can search the Pacer federal district and appellate court docket summaries at http://courtexpress.westlaw.com. Login using your regular Westlaw ID. If you don't remember your Westlaw number, you can click on "Switch to sign on using your own Username and Password." You do not have access to attached fulltext documents but it is a step up from searching PACER itself. Ask a reference librarian if you need assistance obtaining a PACER document.
Some PACER docket summaries and court documents (and some state dockets as well) are integrated into Westlaw. Click on "Court Docs" at the top of the screen. In addition, you may see links to dockets and other documents when you are viewing a case on Westlaw.
Probably the most direct path to docket databases on Lexis is to click on the "Public Records" tab and then select "Find Filings." Most docket databases are under that directory. On the main Legal tag, select "Court Records from CourtLink" to get to a service called Litigant, Attorney, & Judge Strategic Profiles. Strategic Profiles pulls information from the docket database to create a report on the types of cases undertaken by a given judge or attorney.
If you want to try individual courts, http://www.legaldockets.com has a directory of federal and state court websites which contain docket information. Some are free while others are fee services. Ask a reference librarian for the username and login.
P.S. Note that PACER is starting to include trial transcripts starting in this past summer.
To view the New and Notable on the Web Archives - Click here.
Back to the Top
|
