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New Research Guide on Legislative History

The Law Library created a guide to legislative histories, a common summer research project. Find the guide at http://libguides.law.uci.edu/legislative_history.

Highlights include information on:

  • Full legislative histories that have already been done by experts, in the form of compiled legislative histories. If you find yourself in the delightful position of having to research the legislative history of  a statute,  it’s generally best to see if another researcher’s already found everything and put it all together in a tidy bundle for you.
  • Finding and citing the basic documents, including bill versions, hearings, reports, floor debate, and committee prints.
  • State-law starting points, with a focus on California. State legislative histories can be particularly challenging; this page can get you started in the right direction.
  • Off-campus access to databases, with a short FAQ. Protip: get the VPN set up on your laptop before you go away for the summer.
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Court documents on Scribd

Minutes after it was announced, the 9th Circuit’s Prop 8 decision was available this morning at Scribd.com, among other places.

So what’s Scribd? It’s a newer website that lets authors, reporters, bloggers, and other folks upload documents (of all sorts) and share them in a web-friendly layout. Librarians and research specialists here at UCI Law have found that Scribd can be a great source for court documents from recent cases in the news. If you see links to Scribd in your search results, go ahead and click through to check them out!

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What’s happening – new titles

Several new titles commemorate the student reading groups at the Law School. They’re on display in the Reading Room, along with titles from earlier groups.

  

Law students: contact us if you’re in a reading group and you’d like the Law Library to consider adding the group’s books to the collection.

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New Research Guide for Jessup International Moot Court

The Law Library created a guide with resources for UCI Law students who are participating in the Jessup International Moot Court, at http://libguides.law.uci.edu/jessup

The Guide has tabs for:

  • Jessup-specific information;
  • basic international law resources, including links to in-depth research guides, as well as Encyclopedias;
  • treatises on international law in the Law Library;
  • major databases with international law resources; and
  • news and websites devoted to international legal issues.

Additional resources may be added in the future. Please send comments or suggestions to Ellen Augustiniak, Research Law Librarian for Web Resources, at eaugustiniak@law.uci.edu.

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Portable desks

Several  portable desks are now available in the Law Library. You don’t need to check them out, but you do need to leave them in the Library. There are:

  • two in the copier room on the Main level, and
  • two at a small side table downstairs.

Please feel free to use them whenever you like, anywhere in the Law Library (but not outside of it.) We ask that you return them to their original location when finished.

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Students: you can store your books in the Law Library.

Law students interested in storing research materials inside the Law Library can now reserve a book truck for the semester.  When you store books on your reserved book truck, library staff will leave them there (instead of shelving them or putting them in the lost and found.)

Some key points:

  • Book trucks are in the Law Library’s computer lab, and must remain there at all times.
  • Only books may be stored here. This can include your personal books, books from other libraries on campus, or books you have checked out from the Law Library.
  • All Law Library items stored on your book truck must be checked out to you. Please do not pull materials off the shelves and leave them on your book truck without checking them out, even for a short time. Get a colored flag from the Service Counter for all Law Library materials you will be storing on your book truck, so that staff know which items should be there.
  • The Law Library is not responsible for the security of anything stored on a book truck. This includes Law Library items – Law Library items lost, stolen or damaged while on a book truck are the same as Law Library items lost, stolen or damaged anywhere else. You are still responsible for overdue or replacement charges.

For more information, see the Book Truck Brochure or speak to a Law Library staff member.

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New Research Guide for Pro Bono Projects

The Law Library created a new guide with resources for UCI law students working on select pro bono projects that may require intensive research. The guide is available at: http://libguides.law.uci.edu/probono.

The guide is organized by tab, with one for each of the following types of pro bono projects:

  • Asylum (with a particular focus on forms): to assist the HIV Asylum Project and the Iraqi Assistance Project
  • Environmental Litigation: to assist students working the Surfrider case involving Dana Point
  • Mississippi: to assist students working on various projects at the Mississippi Center for Justice over winter break
  • Native American Law: to assist the Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition Research Project

Additional resources and projects may be added to the guide throughout the year, so continue to check back for updated content. Please send any comments or suggestions to Jackie Woodside, Research Law Librarian for Experiential Learning, at jwoodside@law.uci.edu.

A full list of this semester’s projects is available on the UCI Law School website: http://www.law.uci.edu/pro_bono/project_list.html.

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What Can I Check Out?

You might be surprised to learn that quite a few of our books are available to check out. About a quarter of our collection is available to circulate (if you don’t count the case reporters and digests downstairs).  Like most law libraries, we keep the primary sources and most multi-volume secondary sources here in the Law Library so that they will be available for everyone to use. But that means that there are still many secondary sources you can check out!

ANTPAC record for a book that can be checked out

If you are unsure whether the book you want circulates, just look inside the front to see whether it is stamped “Library Use Only.” You can also double-check by looking it up in ANTPAC and checking the status column. If the status says “NOT CHCKD OUT” (as opposed to “LIB USE ONLY”) you’re free to check it out.

The standard check-out period for law students is three months.

Related links: UCI Law Library – Borrowing

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