BLS Library Blog

Among the several articles included in the newly posted Lewis & Clark Law School Legal Studies Research Paper Series, part of the SSRN Legal Scholarship Network, is Think [And Practice] Like a Lawyer: Legal Research for the New Millennials. The authors are Prof. Aliza B. Kaplan, Lewis & Clark Law School (and former Brooklyn Law School Associate Professor of Legal Skills) and Access Services/Reference Librarian and Adjunct Assistant Professor of Law Kathleen N. Darvil, Brooklyn Law School. The abstract of the article reads:

It is time to heed the calls for legal education reform. In our changing economy, new attorneys need to be properly trained in law school to be competent at providing effective legal services for their employers and clients. Law schools must remain open to and interested in legal reform; they must partner with practitioners to incorporate more practical skills into the law school curriculum. Updating how we teach legal research by making it accord more with how attorneys actually conduct and use legal research in practice will help accomplish this and will also more actively engage our Millennial students. There is no question that making some timely changes to legal research instruction would better prepare new attorneys to be competent practicing lawyers and would be a win-win for students, law schools and employers.

The full article appears in Vol. 8, 2011 of Legal Communication & Rhetoric, the Journal of the Association of Legal Writing Directors.

The employees of Brooklyn Law School Library are committed to providing a high level of service to our community.  In addition to our librarian liaison program to faculty and to the staff of our school’s journals and moot teams, we are engaged in a number of initiatives:

1) Responding to a request made by the Technology Secretary of the SBA, there is now a printer and release station on the first floor of the library (location: alcove near the reference desk).

2) To aid clinic participants and faculty, I licensed PsycINFO database, and it will become available to patrons on October 1.  I believe that articles identified through this database will help clinic participants to better understand and represent clients who have experienced trauma.

3) A number of our librarians are currently evaluating the cost and content of databases to support the interdisciplinary research needs of our patrons.  As part of this project, Reference Librarian and Adjunct Assistant Professor of Law Sara Gras is compiling a spreadsheet of  databases available through BLS Library that  pertain to medical topics.  She will compare this list to resources available at New York Academy of Medicine Library, which accommodates members of the public by appointment.  Then, our staff will evaluate whether there are key indexes (or other sources) that are not covered by either BLS Library or NYAML.  Ms. Gras also plans to create a publicly accessible web guide to assist students in next semester’s Bioethics class.

4) In conjunction with Professor Fajans, Reference/Access Services Librarian and Adjunct Assistant Professor of Law Kathleen Darvil held a Seminar Paper Workshop on September 14, 2011.  The web guide and video of this Workshop are available at http://guides.brooklaw.edu/seminarpaper.  I will partner with Professor Fajans to reprise this popular Workshop next semester.

5)  Over the past few weeks, I have made presentations to the following classes to highlight research sources: Consumer Law; Safe Harbor Clinic; and Investor Rights Clinic.

6)  To ensure that the library responds rapidly to the increased number of requests made through the new ILLiad electronic interlibrary loan system, three librarians have received supplemental training and are now actively supporting this initiative.

I want you to know that the BLS Library staff is working very hard for you.

Jean Davis, Interim Library Director & Adjunct Professor of Law, Brooklyn Law School

Lists are a new feature of our new and improved library catalog.  Lists are exactly what you would expect them to be: lists of items that are somehow related.  The library maintains several public lists (lists that are accessible to everyone) including the new book list and the course reserve list.  To access these lists simply go to the following web address: http://catalog.brooklaw.bywatersolutions.com and click on the “Lists” button.  You should see a list of all the public lists.  See screen shot below.  Selecting any of the lists will allow you to view the items in that list.  

Besides the library’s maintained lists, users can create their own lists to keep track of their library research.  To do so, you first need to login to your account with your BLS username and password.  Once logged in, click on the “Lists” button again and then click on “Manage Lists.”   See screen shot below.

At the next screen, click on the link for “New List.”  You will be prompted to create either a public list or private list.  As stated above, a public list, as its name implies, would be available to the public.  A private list can only be viewed by you when you are logged into SARA. 

To add an item to your list, simply run a search query.  Once you have identified a relevant item, click on the link “Save to Lists.”  See screen shot below.

You will then be prompted to select the list to which you wish to save the item.  We are excited about this new feature and hope it helps students and faculty members to organize and to keep track of their research.

After six years of litigation in the securities class action case of In re Smith Barney Transfer Agent Litigation, Judge William H. Pauley III of the Southern District of New York in the an Order dismissed the Lead Plaintiff based on the fact that it had never purchased any of the Smith Barney funds at issue. Stating that one of the foundational grounds for a motion testing the pleadings is lack of standing, the judge cited “epic failures” by the lawyers on both sides of the case, and called the effect of the error “seismic” causing the litigation to take on “Sisyphean dimensions.” 

“After six years of litigation, including extensive motion practice, an appeal to the Second Circuit, remand, more motion practice, and discovery, lead counsel learned that the lead plaintiff never purchased any of the securities at issue in this action,” Pauley wrote in today’s decision. “Lead counsel’s failure to confirm the most basic fact — that its client purchased the securities at issue in this action — has resulted in a considerable waste of time and resources,” Pauley said. Criticizing the lawyers for all of the parties in the case for failing to exercise due diligence, Pauley wrote “In retrospect, it was something so obvious that every lawyer in the case should have recognized the problem and reacted immediately. But no one did.”

The Brooklyn Law School Library has in its collection A Practitioner’s Guide to Class Actions by Marcy Hogan Greer (Call #KF8896 .P735 2010), an ABA publication that is a comprehensive guide providing practitioners with an understanding of the intricacies of a class action lawsuit. It also has a state-by-state analysis of the ways in which the class action rules differ from the Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23.

FDsys, formerly GPO Access,stands for Federal Digital System and is America’s Authentic Government Information website. This free service is funded by the Federal Depository Library Program and has grown out the Government Printing Office Electronic Information Enhancement Act of 1993.

Through FDsys, you are able to

Search for documents and publications – FDsys provides advanced search capabilities and the ability to refine and narrow your search for quick access to the information you need.

Browse for documents and publications – FDsys offers browsing by collection, Congressional committee, and date.

Access metadata about documents and publications – FDsys presents information about Government publications in standard XML formats.

Download documents and publications in multiple renditions or file formats
With FDsys, download a single file or download content and metadata packaged together in a compressed file.

The featured collections in FDsys include

The Brooklyn Book Festival will celebrate its 6th anniversary on September 18, 2011. The festival celebrates authors and their work by presenting challenging, provocative and thoughtful programming in the areas of fiction, non-fiction and poetry. Organized by the Brooklyn Literary Council and Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz’s office, it has a reputation as the premier, free literary festival in New York City. The 2011 festival takes place next door to Brooklyn Law School at historic Brooklyn Borough Hall, outdoors on its beautiful plaza, and at St. Frances College and the Brooklyn Historical Society. Multiple outdoor stages and indoor venues will feature adult and children’s programming, panel discussions, and spoken word performances.

More information is available here. In preparation for the Book Festival, Brooklyn Public Library is hosting a librarians-only talk and reception with Marilyn Johnson on Saturday, September 17 at 4 pm. Marilyn Johnson who wrote This Book Is Overdue! How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save us All! will discuss current issues in librarianship, such as digitization, eBooks, and the constant threat of budget cuts. The lecture will be at the Dweck Center for Contemporary Culture at Central Library, Central Library, 10 Grand Army Plaza, Brooklyn.