BLS Library Blog

In recent years, the Law Library Association of New York (LLAGNY) has focused on developing CLE programming tailored to small and medium-sized law firms, attorney networking groups and solo practitioners. The programs typically include presentations by both a practicing attorney and a research librarian who identifies and discusses important research resources on the chosen topic.

On March 19, 2025, Brooklyn Law School librarian Jean Davis presented in the CLE program 60 Days In: Unpacking the Trump Administration’s Rapid Overhaul of U.S. Immigration Policy and Forecasting the Road Ahead, organized by the "Deliberate Solos" attorney group and LLAGNY. Jean discussed immigration law resources that complemented practitioner Michael Carbone's presentation, including resources on tracking recent executive actions affecting immigration, ICE raids and "know your rights" documents, and litigation challenging recent executive actions of the Trump administration.  

In her presentation, Jean highlighted the work of Professors Faiza Sayed, Stacy Caplow and Susan Hazeldean both as scholars and as directors of BLS clinics. She talked about how BLS students gain invaluable skills through the Safe Harbor Clinic as they help clients in gaining immigration status and in asylum proceedings. She also discussed how BLS students in the LGBTQ Advocacy Clinic assist clients in asylum cases who are escaping from anti-gay or anti-trans persecution in their home countries. Jean’s program bibliography spotlighted a variety of resources on immigration law, many of them freely available, including the scholarship of Professor Maryellen Fullerton.

Participants left the event with helpful information on how to keep abreast of, and respond to the recent rapid changes to immigration law and policy.  If you are looking for guidance with your own immigration law research project, be sure to check out Jean’s immigration law research guide.

BLS students, welcome back from Spring Break! The library would like to know what YOU think about our services, space, and resources. It takes just 5 minutes to complete the survey, and your feedback is anonymous.  

As a thank you for taking the survey, you can enter our raffle and be eligible to win one of several fantastic raffle prizes: a 14" Triple Laptop Screen Extender, gift cards, laptop bags, and more! At the end of the survey you will be asked to provide your email address: this is solely for entry in our raffle drawing, and will not be connected to your responses.  

We look forward to hearing from you, and to using your feedback to help improve your library experience! 

Link to Survey

The First Step Act was enacted and signed into law with bipartisan support in December 2018. The statute includes numerous sentencing reforms, including a provision that allows a prisoner to file a motion for compassionate release if he or she can demonstrate “extraordinary and compelling” reasons for such relief. Data from the United States Sentencing Commission show that from October 2019 through December 2024, judges have granted 5,547 compassionate release motions.

In 1997, in his courtroom in the Eastern District of New York, Judge Frederic Block sentenced Walter Johnson to five life sentences for robbery, cocaine possession, and witness tampering.  According to a NY Times article, Johnson’s criminal misdeeds in the 1980s and 1990s included armed robberies on a bus, on the F Line of the subway, and in a church. Notably, he was a suspect in the 1994 shooting of Tupac Shakur in the lobby of the Quad Recording Studios in Manhattan. 

At the time of the 1997 sentencing, Judge Block had been on the bench for under three years. In the intervening years, the First Step Act was passed and on October 17, 2024, Judge Block granted Johnson’s motion for compassionate release, writing: 

“Just like prisoners who have evolved into better human beings during their lengthy periods of incarceration, judges also evolve with the passage of years on the bench. When I sentenced Johnson in 1997, I had been a judge for only two years. But judges gain insights that with the passage of time only can come with experience on the bench and their judicial maturation. Now, having been on the bench for almost thirty years, the First Step Act has given me a second chance to reconsider the sentences I imposed on Johnson 27 years ago. I will now also give him a second chance.”

Interested in hearing more about Judge Block’s reasons for granting Walter Johnson’s motion, or about the six compassionate release cases he highlights in his latest book “A Second Chance: A Federal Judge Decides Who Deserves It”?  Brooklyn Law School’s Center for Criminal Justice has organized “Sentencing, Second Chances & Justice,” a conversation between Judge Block and BLS Dean David Meyer about the book and the topic of compassionate release. The event is on April 1, 2025 at 6 PM, and further details can be found here (RSVP by March 27.)

If you plan on attending the event or have an interest in learning more about the topic and Judge Block’s views, BLS Library provides the BLS community with digital access to “A Second Chance.” Use the QR code above or click here for access. The library also has print copies of Judge Block’s earlier books Crimes and Punishment: Entering the Mind of a Sentencing Judge and Disrobed: An Inside Look at the Life and Work of a Federal Trial Judge as well as other works on sentencing reform.  For help accessing any of these resources, please reach out to askthelibrary@brooklaw.edu  

[Note: If you are a member of the BLS community and do not have access to the NY Times articles linked to above, information on how to sign up for free access to the Times and other news publications can be found at https://guides.brooklaw.edu/news]

What began as a local celebration of Women’s History Week in Santa Rosa, California in 1978, has since evolved into a nationally observed Women’s History Month. The theme for 2025, chosen by the National Women’s History Alliance, is “Moving Forward Together! Women Educating & Inspiring Generations.”  

We would like to highlight the following events and resources at BLS Library in celebration of Women’s History Month:

Alcove Academy - Reading and Research with Jean: Wednesday, March 5, 12:45 pm at the 1st Floor Library Alcove. Join Librarian Jean Davis to explore library resources on gender and the law, that can help with your seminar papers or your submissions to writing competitions. More information about this event below: 

Book Display:  We invite you to explore the array of books on women and the law in our collection, that are on display on the library’s first floor.

Digital Display: Please look through our library’s digital display for Women's History Month at https://guides.brooklaw.edu/digital_book_displays/women_history_month. The display include books by and about members of the BLS community; titles about women judges, law professors and practitioners; and books covering key topics on women and the law. 

Finally, if you are attending the IBL Lecture: Women's Property Rights Under CEDAW on Monday, March 3, at 5:30 PM (Subotnick, 10th Floor), BLS Library has multiple digital copies of the book co-authored by speaker Professor José E. Alvarez. You can access the book at https://sara.brooklaw.edu/cgi-bin/koha/opac-detail.pl?biblionumber=492581 or use the QR code below.

BLS Library recently switched to a new and improved format for our list of subscription databases. This updated list has new ways to search and filter results that we think you'll find helpful and easier to use. 

You can find the new A-Z Databases list on our research guide homepage or at https://guides.brooklaw.edu/az/databases.

On the new list, you can now search by database name or keyword. Additionally, you can filter the list by database subject, such as international law or legislative history. You can also narrow down the list by types of databases or vendors.

We hope you like the new list. If you want to learn more about our databases or need research assistance, please reach out to us at askthelibrary@brooklaw.edu. We're here to help!

During February 2025, BLS Library observes Black History Month, a celebration of the rich history, culture, and achievements of Black and African American communities.  While its origins date back to historian Carter G. Woodson's efforts in the 1920s, the first Black History Month celebration took place in February 1970, at Kent State University. President Gerald Ford was the first President to officially recognize the observance of Black History Month in 1976. Congress took on the mantle in 1986 by passing Public Law 99-244 which designated February 1986 as "National Black (Afro-American) History Month.”  Since 1996, Presidents have issued annual proclamations observing and celebrating National Black History Month. 

Book Display (1st Floor):

To celebrate Black History Month 2025, the library has an array of books in our collection on display on the library’s first floor, near the circulation desk and alcove. On display are titles about BLS alumni including the first Black woman from Queens admitted to the New York bar, Florence Victoria Lucas ‘39 and former New York City Mayor, David Dinkins ‘56. We have books on Martin Luther King, Jr., Thurgood Marshall, the history of the civil rights movement, Barack Obama, and more. 

Digital Display 

In addition to our physical book display, we also have a digital display of BLS Library resources relevant to Black History Month.  Browse the titles in the digital display at https://guides.brooklaw.edu/digital_book_displays/Black_History_Month 

Do come check out both our physical and digital displays! If there are additional resources that you think would be of interest to the BLS community, let us know at askthelibrary@brooklaw.edu

If you use Google Scholar for research, you may have noticed that not all materials in your search results are freely available online – you might frequently hit paywalls or only have access to a portion of a resource you need. However, Google Scholar also allows you to link BLS Library's electronic resources, so that our full-text materials will display in your search results. No more frustrating research dead ends!

Follow these steps to link Google Scholar to BLS Library:

1. Navigate to https://scholar.google.com.
2. From the menu bar (three horizontal lines) in the upper left corner, select Settings.
3. Click Library links.
4. In the search bar, type Brooklyn Law School, then click the blue magnifying glass.
5. Tick the box next to Brooklyn Law School, then click Save.

To view full-text materials from BLS Library, click any hyperlink that reads “Full-Text @ BLS Library”.

If you are searching remotely, don't forget to implement the proxy server for uninterrupted access to all of BLS' electronic resources.

Please reach out to hannah.freeman@brooklaw.edu if you run into any issues. Happy searching!

If you want to say hello while fixing a pumpkin spice coffee, register for prizes, learn about free newspaper subscriptions and/or need help with research: visit BLS librarians and vendor representatives at today's LIBRARYFEST!    

Seeking your next great read?  Convo with thought-provoking authors?  Fun projects and performances for kids?  Grab a “Smashing Pumpkin” from Gregory’s Coffee on Court St. and visit the 2024 Brooklyn Book Festival!  A digital guide to this weeklong Festival (Sept. 22 – 30, 2024) will be available through the free Bloomberg Connects arts and culture app.

Everyone can be a part of Virtual Festival Day on Sunday, Sept. 22, 2024 (noon – 5 pm).  Whether you seek a new food book (panel: Memory & Flavor: An Expansive Vision of Food & Recipe Writing) or a recent book from an international author (program: Who? New! International), there will be a virtual program to engage you.

Brooklyn Law School will host one of the Festival’s Bookend Events on Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2024: Protect Your People: Challenging Mass Incarceration Together (RSVP required for this free event.) 

• This event will highlight the recent book Protect Your People: How Ordinary Families Are Using Participatory Defense to Challenge Mass Incarceration (The New Press, 2024).  

• The event will feature: Raj Jayadev, the book's author and a MacArthur Fellow, Heather Lewis, Executive Director of the Reuniting Family Bail Fund, and Justine “Taz” Moore, Director of Training at the National Council for Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated Women and Girls.  These speakers will converse with Brooklyn Law School Professor & Associate Dean Jocelyn Simonson, author of Radical Acts of Justice: How Ordinary People are Dismantling Mass Incarceration (The New Press, 2023). As noted here, this program will highlight “the innovative storytelling techniques of groups of people who have changed the outcomes of criminal cases by intervening collectively through ‘participatory defense.’”  Brooklyn Law School's Center for Criminal Justice is a sponsor of this event.

  • Date & Time: Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2024, 6:00 pm - 7:30 pm  
  • Place:  Brooklyn Law School, 250 Joralemon St., Brooklyn, NY

This Festival’s Children’s Day will be on Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024 from 10 am – 4 pm in Brooklyn Commons (= MetroTech in downtown Brooklyn). 

• Activities will include: 

  • Goosebumps & Beyond: A Spooky Conversation with R.L. Stine

  •  Mad Libs: Graphic Novel Edition!

  • Puppet Making Workshop with writer Vojtěch Mašek

  • A gameshow, Are You Smarter than an Author?, in which participants can test their skills against middle grade novelists.

Festival Day & Literary Marketplace will be on Sunday, Sept. 29, 2024 from 10 am - 6 pm.  It features local, national and international authors, publishers and vendors. Many of these programs will occur in Brooklyn Law School and in our “front yard”: Brooklyn Borough Hall.   Click here to view the many authors participating in Festival Day.  

These are two of many Sept. 29, 2024 Festival Day events that will occur at Brooklyn Law School (w/ links to entries for the authors' books in BLS Library's catalog):  

Dreaming of Freedom: How We Move Beyond an Expanding Police State 

• Brooklyn Book Festival's program description: "With 'robot dogs' at the border, automated surveillance, and arbitrary decisions controlling probation and parole, a system of policing and punishment seems less concerned with fairness or safety than with social control. What does it all have to do with justice?"  Program participants will be: sociologist Ruha Benjamin (author of Imagination: A Manifesto), journalist Ben Austen (Correction: Parole, Prison, and the Possibility of Change), and lawyer and anthropologist Petra Molnar (The Walls Have Eyes: Surviving Migration in the Age of Artificial Intelligence). The moderator will be Vincent Schiraldi, former Probation Commissioner of New York City and author of Mass Supervision: Probation, Parole, and the Illusion of Safety and Freedom. 

  • Date & Time: Sunday, Sept. 29, 2024, 4 pm 
  • Place:  Brooklyn Law School, Moot Court Room, 250 Joralemon St., Brooklyn, NY 

Debt, Solidarity, and Economic Justice presented by Brooklyn Law School 

• Brooklyn Book Festival's program description: "A conversation about the legal, political, and economic forces shaping debt markets and horizons for change and the abolition of debt featuring: Luke Messac (Your Money or Your Life: Debt Collection in American Medicine), Chrystin Ondersma (Dignity Not Debt: An Abolitionist Approach to Economic Justice), Melissa Jacoby (Unjust Debts: How Our Bankruptcy System Makes America More Unequal) and Astra Taylor (co-author of Solidarity: The Past, Present, And Future Of A World-Changing Idea and founder of the Debt Collective).  Moderated by Vijay Raghavan, Associate Professor of Law, Brooklyn Law School."
  • Date & Time: Sunday, Sept. 29, 2024, 5 pm 
  • Place:  Brooklyn Law School, Moot Court Room, 250 Joralemon St., Brooklyn, NY

See you at the Festival!