Google's New Book Search (Beta)

An interesting new online tool is Google's new Book Search. Here is how Google describes it:

Just do a search on Google Book Search or on Google.com. When we find a book whose content contains a match for your search terms, we'll link to it in your search results. Click a book title and you'll see, like a card catalog entry, some basic information about the book. You may also see a few snippets of text from the book showing your search term in context. If the publisher or author has given us permission through our Partner Program then you'll see a few full pages from the book and if the book is out of copyright, you'll be able to page through the entire book. In all cases, you'll see links that lead directly to online bookstores where you can buy the book.

FBI's 2005 Crime Report

The FBI has released its annual Crime in the United States report for 2005. They have improved the web based report, with "tables grouped by topic, "browse by" options for major areas of interest, bulleted overviews for each main topic and most tables, and "data declarations" for each table to provide pertinent information that may help users understand the data presented."

It can also be downloaded in sections (PDF format) or printed out.

EDotW part 5

BNA Online.
The library has switched our BNA looseleaf services from paper to electronic. Users can access it on our legal research links page. Access is limited to computers in the law school, though UT law professors do have home access; please see me for the password.

The BNA reporters cover a broad range of topics, including corporations/financial, criminal law, labor, environment, ethics, family, health care, intellectual property, taxation, litigation, trade, international issues, and homeland security. Users can access by subject or title. The reporters give news about what is going on in an area, as well as news about cases, with links to those cases. For example, the Sept. 19, 2006 issue of the Homeland Security Briefing has a story on the US and EU attempt to exchange airline passenger data. Over on the left hand column, one can browse through all the issues, focus on major topics (such as the 9/11 Commission). There is also the option of viewing cases on the subject, alphabetically or by issue date. The links take the user to reports about cases with links to the actual cases.

The positives about the electronic versions are that they are updated more quickly and going between issues is faster. Once you have the navigation down, researching using BNA Online should be a breeze.

As always, if you have any questions, just ask.

OSBA Is Expanding Casemaker

The Ohio State Bar Association has announced that it is expanding its Casemaker legal database to include case law for all 50 states. These additions will be in place by the end of 2006. Other additions to Casemaker will include all state constitutions, rules of court, and current statutes.

Supreme Court Oral Arguments To Be Available Immediately

This news was sent to Law Libraries by Jill Duffy at the U.S. Supreme Court:

"Beginning with the October 2006 Term, the Court will make the transcripts of oral arguments available free to the public on its Web site on the same day an argument is heard by the Court.
In the past, the transcripts had been posted on the Web site approximately two weeks after the close of an argument session. Previously, transcripts could be obtained sooner than they were posted on the Court's Web site by making arrangements in advance and purchasing them from the Court's contract reporting service.

"In the past, oral arguments had been transcribed off-site from audio recordings. The Court's current contract reporting service, Alderson Reporting Company, will now utilize the services of a court reporter in the Courtroom and high-speed technology to transcribe the oral arguments more quickly.

"Transcripts can be located by clicking on the "Oral Arguments" prompt on the home page of the Court's Web site and selecting "Argument Transcripts."

"Transcripts will be listed by case name and the date of oral argument. Transcripts are permanently archived beginning with the 2000 Term on the Court's Web site. Transcripts prior to the 2000 Term are maintained in the Court's Library."

Library to close at 5 pm on Friday Sept. 15

In order to prepare for the law school's Centennial Anniversary celebration this weekend, the LaValley Library will close at 5 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 15. The library will reopen at its normal time on Saturday of 9 a.m., though access to the rest of the building will be limited.

We apologize for any inconvenience.

EDotW part 4

OHIOLink is much more than a super catalog of Ohio colleges & universities. It also features many databases. You can search via Subject, Type or Name or just do a quick search. Quick Search allows the user to search for articles in all databases, or predefined areas, such as political science, law and government (as one database) or business.

Subject searching allows one to bring up various databases on a single subject. For instance the Law and Legislation subject brings up databases such as Criminal Justice Abstracts.

Type searching allows one to search for books or articles. There is also Facts and Stats, which takes a user to various encyclopediae and dictionaries.

Later on, I'll delve more deeply into single databases. And as always, if you have any questions, please talk to one of us librarians.

News archive searching in Google

Google now has the ability to allow you to search news archives. It goes back to the Eighteenth Century and you can do a date limited search. Some of the results do lead to fee based publications, while others are free. The service is a bit limited now, but Google intends to broaden the depth of its coverage as well as its scope to include international and foreign sources. This is an excellent way to search multiple databases, such as NY Times archives, Washington Post and Time magazine, along with smaller newspapers. The archives also can go back further than what is available on Westlaw or Lexis.

Electronic Database of the Week part 3

Taking a detour away from looking at all the OHIOLink goodies for a week, I want to highlight an important source for law students and faculty.
HeinOnline is an electronic database of American law reviews and journals.

To use it, go to our Legal Research Links page and click on the link. You will get a "Subscribers, Please Click Here" page. Click on that link, it will take you to their welcome page/index. The link only works for computers in the law school, as it is tied to our IP addresses. (for UT Law faculty members who want home/road access, please see me.)
The Law Journal Library link at the top gives an alphabetical list of law journals. There is a search function that lets you search by author, title or full text. Westlaw and Lexis search interface may be easier to use, but their drawback is that for most law reviews they do not go back to the journal's inception. You can also use HeinOnline's navigation feature, if you have a citation to an article. For example if you need to get 4 U. Toledo L. Rev. 25 (from 1972-73), go to the alphabetical listing, click on "U" scroll down to University of Toledo, click on the title. This will bring up the list of all University of Toledo L. Rev. volumes. Clicking on 4 will bring up volume 4. HeinOnline shows the articles in PDF format, so you can view it just as it appears in paper (helpful for when you are cite checking). There is a downloading/printing option as well.

As always, if you have any questions, please ask a librarian.

Conference on Nuremberg Trial-- Oct. 6-7

On October 6-7, the College of Law will be one of the co-sponsors of an important conference to be held at Bowling Green State University. It is titled The Nuremberg War Crimes Trial and Its Policy Consequences Today. You can obtain detailed conference information, including registration forms, here. For background on the Nuremberg Trials, there is an excellent website (part of the Famous world Trials site) that will give you background, chronology, the indictments and sentences, transcript excerpts and more.

Labor Day weekend hours

The library will be open normal hours on Saturday and Sunday. On Monday, we will be open 9 am to 11:45 pm, with reference hours from 2 pm to 9 pm.

Have a good weekend.