CALI Lessons Offers Interactive Lessons to all Widener Students
Posted by admin on Oct 4, 2007
Don’t forget to check out the CALI lessons.
If
you are unfamiliar, CALI lessons are interactive, computer-based
tutorials provided by the non-profit Center for Computer-Assisted Legal
Instruction (www.cali.org). There are over 625 lessons available to help you study 32 different legal subject areas at www.cali.org.
Lessons
are completely free for our law students. They are great for mastering
material during the semester and for studying for exams.
When registering a new account at cali.org, you must use our schoolís authorization code to create the account. Please contact the reference desk to get the CALI authorization code for Widener.
You
only need to use this authorization code once. After that, you may use
the email/password you used to sign up in order to login at cali.org.
If you need a CALI CD stop by the reference desk, we have plenty of CDs available (The CDs are optional but can be great for using CALI when you can’t get internet access).
Good luck with the rest of the semester!
Exam Archive Now Online
Posted by admin on Oct 4, 2007
The Delaware campus library’s archive of old exams is now available online. To access the exams visit the library web site: http://law.widener.edu/LawLibrary/Services/ExamArchive.aspx. To get the username and password for the exams, please contact the reference desk, by phone 302-477-2114, in person, or by email at Law.LibRef@law.widener.edu
The exams are now only available online. You can no longer get them from the library circulation desk.
Access to Variety and The Hollywood Reporter
Posted by admin on Sep 25, 2007
The Dean’s Leadership Forum Speaker, Kyle Bowser (’91), suggested that
students interested in entertainment law keep up with developments in
Hollywood through the publications Variety and The Hollywood Reporter.
Although the library does not subscribe to either of these publications
in print, Widener law students and faculty have access to these
publications through the subscription databases Westlaw and Lexis.
Variety is available in Westlaw as abstracts only (Westlaw database=
VARIETY). Lexis has the full text of the most recent two weeks
(Lexis database= DLYVTY).
The Hollywood Reporter is available in Westlaw as selected full-text
(Westlaw databases= HOLLYWDR). Lexis has the most recent 2 weeks
available (Lexis database= THR).
Please contact a reference librarian if you have trouble accessing
these titles or would like help setting up email alerts from these
publications.
Delaware Campus: New Spaces in the Library!
Posted by admin on Sep 13, 2007
We hope everyone has noticed the recent changes to the Delaware Campus Law Library.
The PC Lab has moved across
Main Street and is now located on the 1st floor of the library. A new
entrance to the library has been added on the 1st floor to provide
easier access to this space. The new copiers located in the PC Lab are
configured to handle print jobs from the PC Lab workstations.
Additional Study Rooms added.
The reconfiguration of the 1st floor has allowed the edition of a new
study room on the first floor, just past the computer workstations.
Also a new study room has been added to the 3rd floor of the library
(it was formerly a Law Review Workroom.)
New Classroom added to the 3rd floor.
A new conference / classroom has been added to the third floor of the
library. This room will be named the Marshall- Dennehey Room (you may
see it referred to as the ìMD Roomî.)
Due to the meetings and classes being scheduled in the Marshall-
Dennehey Room on the 3rd floor, you may occasionally notice more noise
than previous semesters on this former ìquiet floorî. You will still
find many quiet places to study in the library including the back areas
of the 1st and 2nd floors- we apologize if this causes any
inconvenience.
Busy Person’s Guide To Current Awareness
Posted by admin on Aug 22, 2007
Is there a law review or non-legal journal you would love to read but
never remember to look for the new issues? What about a topic
that you would like to keep up with?
There are a multitude of online services that are willing and eager to
fill this need for Widener law school faculty and students.
Westlaw and Lexis have alert services that provide regular updates for
almost all of the information they cover.
The Bureau of National Affairs (BNA) offers e-mail delivery of their many newsletters.
http://www.law.widener.edu/Law-Library/new/research/legal_databases_bna.shtml
Commerce Clearing House (CCH) offers newsletter sign-ups on its web
sites dealing with banking, securities and business law, health and
human resources law, and taxation.
http://www.law.widener.edu/Law-Library/new/research/legal_databases.shtml
Non-legal journals and major newspapers can be tapped for alerts using
databases such as Ebscohost, ProQuest or JStor. These services
are located on the database page on the Widener Law Library web site.
For help defining an alert or getting it set up, contact a Reference librarian. You will be glad you did.
DE Campus: New Copiers and New Recycling Bins
Posted by admin on Jun 26, 2007
The Campus Services Department has been busy this week preparing for
Xerox to install new photocopiers around campus. The library copiers
will be replaced on Tuesday, June 26th. Our hope is that theses new
copiers will eliminate the constant paper jamming problems of the past.
As always, please let a library staff member know if you have trouble
with the copiers in the library- if we can’t fix the problem we will
call someone who can.
While you are checking out the new copiers, take a moment to notice the
new blue recycling bins located in each copy room as well as the CALR
Lab (room 274 in the library where the Westlaw and Lexis printers are
located.) These recycling containers are for paper only. Please help us
with this recycling effort by discarding unwanted paper in the blue
containers instead of the normal trashcans.
Summer Reading
Posted by admin on May 22, 2007
Have some free time this summer? Here are some light summer reading suggestions. Most of these books aren’t available at Widener Law Library but you should be able to find them at your local public library or bookstore.
Jeremy Blachman. Anonymous Lawyer.
Publishers Weekly review: Blachman’s side-achingly funny debut, derived from his popular blog of the title, is written in the candid, sanctimonious voice of Anonymous Lawyer, an ill-humored, ill-tempered hiring partner at a prestigious New York firm. Anonymous Lawyer is an 18-year man whose compulsion to blog is almost as strong as his desire for the firm’s chairmanship. When he’s not facing off with his nemesis, The Jerk, in the race for the chair, he takes solace in degrading his summer interns and hapless associates for his quickly developing cult of readers (who e-mail with guesses at his identity).
Reed Arvin. Blood of Angels.
Publishers Weekly review: Thomas Dennehy, assistant DA of Davidson County, Tenn., is about to become famous. Unless he can figure a way out of it, he’ll be certified as the first lawyer in the country to have sent the wrong man to the death chamber. As if that isn’t enough, he must also prosecute a charismatic member of the local Sudanese community, Moses Bol, accused of killing a prostitute, in a trial that threatens to engulf Nashville in a full-scale race riot. Dennehy is tough, in court and out, and has plenty of interesting personal problems-primarily an ex-wife for whom he has conflicting feelings and an 11-year-old daughter he adores. He’s a highly sympathetic figure, as are Arvin’s other characters-except the bad guy who’s harboring a deadly grudge and a diabolical plan that confounds both Dennehy and the police. While trying to sort through his problems, Dennehy falls for an unlikely lady, Fiona Towns, a local minister and Moses Bol’s alibi. Perhaps this material isn’t quite as original as Arvin’s debut, The Last Goodbye, but the author is among the top handful of legal thriller writers working today, and this is another winner that thriller, mystery and general fiction readers alike will relish.
Shiya Ribowsky and Tom Shachtman. Dead Center: Behind the Scenes at the World’s Largest Medical Examiner’s Office. RA1025.R53 A3 2006
Review: Dead Center is an intimate and moving account of life in the ME’s office and how a nice Jewish boy wound up in a place many think of as ghoulish. The book opens on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, but it is about more than that fateful day. It explains how deaths are really investigated in New York City, rather than the somewhat-glorified pictures of homicide investigations often painted by crime shows and movies.
Richard North Patterson. Exile.
Library Journal review: Patterson (Conviction) pens a big legal thriller that is light on suspense but compelling nonetheless. David Wolfe, a successful Jewish lawyer with political ambitions, had a clandestine affair with Arab activist Hana Arif while in law school, but Hana left him to enter an arranged marriage. Thirteen years later, Hana is vacationing in San Francisco with her family when the visiting Israeli prime minister is assassinated by a suicide bomber, which brings a new level of terrorism to the United States. Hana stands accused as the mastermind of the murder and asks David to represent her, dramatically disrupting both their lives. While David isn’t entirely sure he believes his former lover is innocent, he finds many inconsistencies in the evidence against her. When it begins to appear that Hana is being framed, he goes to Israel in search of the truth. The stories of the Israelis and Arabs with whom David meets are unforgettable, but the central plot line and main characters are a bit thin. Still, Patterson delves evenhandedly into both sides of the Arab-Israeli conflict, making this a fascinating and timely read.
William Martin. The Lost Constitution
Publishers Weekly review: A rare, annotated draft of the U.S. Constitution is at the heart of Martin’s entertaining third novel to feature antiquarian book dealer Peter Fallon. As in Harvard Yard (2003), Martin tells two stories. The first chronicles the loss and recovery of the document at the time of the constitutional convention, where young Will Pike attends Massachusetts delegate Rufus King, and its passing through generations of the Pike family to the present. The second traces Fallon’s search against deadly competition to find the draft. Throughout, Martin makes clear that people have always tried to use the Constitution for their own purposes, including right-wing Christian fanatics, survivalist gun nuts, liberal gun-banners and greedy entrepreneurs now seeking the lost draft. The Pike family motto: “In America, we get up in the morning, we go to work, and we solve our problems” serves as a unifying theme, and Martin also makes clear that the Constitutionódrafts and allówas intended as a unifying agent. This is a good mystery, a better examination of constitutional issues and a superb paean to New England, its people, natural beauty and resources.
Nick Laird. Utterly Monkey
Publishers Weekly review: Lairdópoet, former lawyer and husband of Zadie Smithódebuts, lad-lit style, with this sometimes entertaining story of childhood friends whose paths diverged radically and then reconverged. Danny Williams is a well-paid (if deeply unenthusiastic) lawyer at a prestigious London firm; Geordie Wilson, his boyhood chum from Northern Ireland, is “officially an unemployed labourer” who’s just showed up on Danny’s doorstep desperate for a place to stay. Geordie’s in trouble with the Ulster Unionists back home, primarily because he has a sack full of their cash; Danny’s been told he needs to go back to Northern Ireland to deal with a corporate takeover. Geordie joins forces with Danny, more out of idle curiosity than a sense of urgency (though the Unionists are planning something nasty). Laird’s writing is clear and amusing, and both his protagonists are likable. But their aimlessness impedes the building of any narrative momentum, and the book’s climactic scene is as rushed as it is contrived. The novel is well intentioned, clever and occasionally quirkyóbut the whole feels like less than the sum of its parts.
Martha Kimes. Ivy Briefs: A privileged and Confidential Law School Story.
Publishers Weekly review: First time author Kimes is entertaining and funny in recounting her
three years at one of the country’s premier law schools. A smart young
woman with a good, but not always engaged, sense of perspective, Kimes
jumps from the University of Wisconsin to Columbia Law School on the
wings of a spectacular showing on the LSATs. Once there, she faces the
predictable sadistic professor, hypercompetitive fellow students and,
of course, rampant elitism. Kimes is happy to treat with an equal
measure of humor the highly stylized courting dance between summer law
clerks and mega law firms, as well as the foreboding horrors of the bar
exam. Though some stories seem hyperbolic and re-created conversations
can be suspiciously pat, Kimes captures with accuracy the gestalt of
the law school experience. Kimes did get a job at what she calls
“Lavish Law Firm.” But she eventually left to join the Make-a-Wish
Foundation, which may be her final comment on the world of big-time
law. The self-deprecating wit, catty observations and healthy sense of
the absurd with which Kimes describes her approach-avoidance reactions
to the world of law school raise the book above the ordinary.
Douglas Litowitz. The Destruction of Young Lawyers: Beyond One L. KF298 .L58 2006
Amazon review: Doug Litowitz’s book on young lawyers is a must read for lawyers, law professors, law students, and potential law students. Although Litowitz occasionally overstates a point–for example, I disagree that all, or most, law professors were unsuccessful lawyers and that all, or most, law professors employ the Socratic method to demoralize students–authors are permitted poetic license if the general message they are trying to convey is important and true. Litowitz’s message is both of these things: the systems through which we train and employ young lawyers is broken and needs to be fixed. Litowitz’s book is also extremely well-written, and holds the reader’s attention from start to finish. I recommend it unreservedly and I commend Litowitz for his brave and profound book.
Widener Law Graduate wins Common Pleas Judicial Primary
Posted by admin on May 18, 2007
Widener Law graduate, Jennifer W. Levy-Tatum (’97), won the democratic
primary for Judge of the Court of Common Pleas, 15th Judicial District
(Chester County). She will face attorney David F. Bortner in November’s
election. More information can be found here. Official poll results can be viewed here.
CALI Lessons Offer Free Exam Preparation Help
Posted by admin on Apr 30, 2007
With finals time here, don’t forget that CALI lessons are a free way to help you prepare.
If
you’re unfamiliar, CALI lessons are interactive, computer-based
tutorials provided by the non-profit Center for Computer-Assisted Legal
Instruction (www.cali.org).
There are over 600 CALI lessons available in 32 different legal subject
areas. The lessons, written by law faculty/librarians, are free to all
law students at our school because our law school is a CALI member.
If you are registering a free account at cali.org for the first time, note that you must use our school’s authorization code to create a new account on www.cali.org. To get the authorization code, call the reference desk at 477-2114 or email jslindenmuth@widener.edu or IM widenerlawlib.
We also still have some CALI CDs for those without internet access. Stop by the reference desk to pick one up while supplies last.
Good luck with finals!
National Library Week Contest – Delaware Campus – Win Bookstore Gift Certificates! – Free M&Ms
Posted by admin on Apr 16, 2007
This week (April 15th through 21st) is National Library Week. Celebrate at the library by completing our Library Research Quiz. Everyone who completes the quiz will receive a fun size bag of M&Ms!
First and second place winners will be chosen from all correct entries to receive a Widener bookstore gift certificate.
First prize: $30 gift certificate
Second prize: $20 gift certificate
Quizzes are available at the reference desk in the library. Quizzes must be submitted to a reference librarian during regular reference hours. Deadline for entries is 5:00 Saturday, April 21st.
The contest is open to all Delaware campus Widener Law School students, faculty and non-library staff.