Library Morning Hours Extended

You may have noticed a change to the library's schedule this semester -- the law library is now opening at 7:30 a.m. on weekday mornings, in an effort to provide more accessible law library hours and to better accommodate our early morning users. We hope these extended hours make it easier for students and faculty to use the library's resources and services.

Bloomberg Law Now Available to All Law School Faculty And Students

Bloomberg Law is now available to all students and faculty in the law school. Bloomberg Law is a comprehensive online legal research platform that provides access to primary legal content like cases, statutes, and regulations, as well as practical transactional and litigation resources, news and secondary source materials.

Students can use their Bloomberg Law password for the entire time they are a law student, including over the summers and wherever they work. Students also have free access for 6 months after graduation to help with bar prep, career research and new jobs.

You can obtain a user ID and password by visiting www.bloomberglaw.com and clicking on "Request a Law School Account," and then "Get Started Now." Once you reach the Registration Page, you will need to fill out the form in full, but ignore the blue Activation Code bar. Please also be sure to use your law school email address when filling out the form.

Once the form is complete, hit submit and you'll receive a confirmation email. After your registration is processed, you'll receive a second email with your user name and temporary password. You can then follow the instructions provided to set a new password.

If you have any questions, please contact our Bloomberg Law Relationship Manager, Noelle Petruzelli-Marino, Esq., at npetruzellim@bloomberg.net.

Law Faculty Research Assistant Program Completes First Semester

The library's Faculty Research Assistant Program, begun in the fall of 2012, will continue in 2013.  Catherine Lemmer, Head of Information Services and administrator of the program, reported that 27 faculty research projects totaling 450 hours of research were completed in the first semester of the program. The faculty research projects varied from family law to international piracy to sports law issues. The work is completed by three research assistants, Cliff Robinson ’12, Lisa Bonine ’13 and Rose Shingledecker ’13, under the supervision of the administrator of the program. 

A number of new projects are now under way for the spring semester. If faculty members have research needs that could be fulfilled by this program or if they have questions about how the program works, Catherine Lemmer can be reached at calemmer@iupui.edu or by calling (317) 278-6165. Students interested in becoming research assistants in the summer or fall of 2013 should send a resume and cover letter to Ms. Lemmer.

Library Research Guides Now Available

The library is now offering online research guides. So far, we have two published: Environmental Law & Natural Resources and Bankruptcy. You can find these and future research guides at http://iupui.campusguides.com/RLLLhome.  These guides are an easy way to link to relevant statutes, leading cases, journals, newsletters, study guides, and more. In addition to direct links, they contain search tips along with database and website suggestions.  Other topics are coming soon: Antitrust, Illicit Markets, Intellectual Property, Housing Discrimination, Health Care, and more. We’ll keep you posted.

IUCAT Beta: Teaching an Old Dog New Tricks

You now have a new option when searching IUCAT, the library’s online catalog. It is called IUCAT Beta and you can use it by clicking the button to the right of the normal IUCAT button.

IUCAT is a new and improved way to find out what is available in the Indiana University library system.  It features a simple search box, just like Google, and brings the items most relevant to your search to the top of the retrieval list, also just like Google.  Even better, IUCAT Beta gives you many ways to focus your search. The options on the left side of the screen allow you to search for items in a particular format, like books, or videos, or online resources.  You can also use the options to do things like narrow your search to an individual library (like the Ruth Lilly Law Library), discover items on a specific subject, or find resources published in a certain year.  IUCAT Beta also features nice extras like book covers and easy ways to create citations.

In the coming months, IUCAT Beta will become the primary catalog for the IU library system, but in the meantime you can get comfortable with its new look and feel.

Study Aids and Course Supplements

The library has recently expanded its collection of study aids and course supplements. These materials include items in the Examples & Explanations series, Questions & Answers series, Problems & Answers, and other course supplements, test preparation guides, and other study aids.  This newly-expanded collection has been moved to reserves at the circulation desk, but the materials are not tied to a particular class or professor and are available to anyone. The materials will circulate for one day.

You may search for these materials in the IUCAT class reserves module found under the header “More IUCat Searches.”

Treatises, hornbooks, and other materials remain in the open reserves collection on the first floor of the library and are also available for checkout. Don’t hesitate to check with a reference librarian if you need assistance in locating these materials.

New Title Useful for Students

The library has just purchased 2 copies of Finding Your Voice in Law School by Molly Bishop Shadel, professor of oral advocacy at the University of Virginia School of Law. Drawing from interviews with law students and with attorneys from leading law firms, Ms Bishop presents successful communication strategies for excelling in law school and life beyond.

The text provides step-by-step methods to overcome the most challenging tasks law students face, from mastering the Socratic Method, preparing for moot court competitions and mock trials and leading student organizations, to speaking informally with professors and colleagues. Ms. Shadel, a former Justice Department attorney and Columbia law graduate, also explains how to use excellent speaking skills to help establish a firm foundation for building a stellar professional reputation.

Ms. Shadel believes that effective communication, whether with faculty, in social settings, or with supervisors and colleagues during summer employment, will have lasting impact on your legal career.

Ben Keele, Research and Instruction Librarian, Joins Law Library Faculty

Benjamin Keele joined the library faculty in December 2012. Previously Ben was a Reference Librarian and Adjunct Professor of Law at the Wolf Law Library of the William & Mary Law School. He taught legal research courses and served as liaison librarian to William & Mary’s law journals. He is vice chair of the AALL/LexisNexis Call for Papers Committee, co-editor of a book review column in Law Library Journal, and has presented at professional association meetings. Ben's research interests include copyright, scholarly publishing, and privacy law. He has written numerous articles and co-authored a book, The Librarian’s Copyright Companion 2nd Edition, with James S. Heller and Paul Hellyer. Ben earned his JD (magna cum laude) from Indiana University Maurer School of Law, where he served as Editor-in-Chief of the Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies. He earned his MLS from Indiana University.

Librarian and Staff News

PRESENTATIONS

Catherine Lemmer, Head of Information Services, and Susan deMaine, Research & Instruction Librarian, presented a session entitled "Partnering for Pro-action: Using talent not titles to deliver the unexpected," at the Mid-America Association of Law Libraries Annual Meeting, October 25, 2012, in St. Louis, MO.

Ms. Lemmer also presented a workshop on "Locating Company Information for Business Development and Due Diligence Purposes," for the National Business Institute, in Indianapolis on December 20, 2012. Her program, “‘Don’t Assume the Peanut Butter is in the Pantry!’: Demystifying Project Management,” has also been accepted for presentation at the 2013 American Association of Law Libraries Annual Conference, in Seattle, WA, in July 2013.

Susan deMaine, Research and Instruction Librarian, presented a seminar on “Legal Ethics in the Digital Age” for the National Business Institute on December 20, 2012, in Indianapolis. She will also be presenting on the role of screencasting in online instruction at two upcoming conferences: the Southeast American Association of Law Libraries in Atlanta, GA, in April, and the American Association of Law Libraries in Seattle, WA, in July. In December, she received a grant from the Indiana University Librarians’ Association to help support these projects.

Additionally, she participated in the law school’s partnership with Shortridge High School, teaching the students to find and use free internet sources for legal research.

PUBLICATIONS

Ed Finn, Educational Technology Specialist, had two articles published in December 2012. "Global Leadership in a Changing World" was published in Leadership and Organizational Management Journal, Vol. 2012, Issue 4, pp. 43-53 and in Insights to a Changing World Journal, Vol. 2012, Issue 4, pp. 18-30. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2188414. "Constructing a Leadership and Scholarship Worldview" was published in the Journal of International Diversity, Vol. 2012, Issue 4, pp. 51-60. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2188456.

CONFERENCES, SEMINARS AND INSTITUTES

Judith Anspach, Professor of Law and Director, Miriam Murphy, Associate Director, Debra Denslaw, Research and Instruction Librarian, and Richard Humphrey, Reference Librarian, attended the Ohio Regional Association of Law Libraries Annual Conference at Valparaiso University, October 17-19, 2012.

Staff members Pam Mueller-Anderson, Senior Serials/Cataloging Assistant , and Sandra Osborn, Senior Cataloging/Serials Assistant, attended an Indiana Library Federation workshop titled "Digging into RDA: A Practical Lab for Copy Catalogers,” in November, 2012.

APPOINTMENTS, AWARDS, GRANTS AND SCHOLARSHIPS

Debra Denslaw, Research and Instruction Librarian, has been appointed a member of the Conference Program Planning Committee for the Association of College & Research Libraries/Law & Political Science Section annual conference in Las Vegas, NV, in 2014.

Wendell Johnting, Cataloging and Government Documents Librarian and Gifts Officer, has been appointed to the Executive Committee of the Indiana Library Federation Technical Services Division for the coming year.

Richard Humphrey, Reference Librarian, has been appointed to the Executive Board of the Ohio Regional Association of Law Libraries.