Inside this issue:

• Text a Librarian
• BC Law Library Mobile Site
• Cleaning the Stacks
• New Chinese law resources
• ABA Site Visit
• Sarah Westlake Sculpture
• Diversity Read
• BC network access for graduating students
• Rare Book Room news

Dear Students,

Congratulations on completing your academic year!  We have enjoyed working with you over the past year and look forward to seeing students from the class of 2012 and 2013 back here in the fall.  We offer our very best wishes to the departing class of 2011 – please come back and visit when you are here in the Boston area.

This summer, the Law Library staff will be embarking on some projects ranging from stack cleaning to preparation for the ABA inspection visit in March 2012.  We will be working with the summer research assistants as they tackle faculty research projects.

Enjoy your well-deserved summer break!

Peace,
Filippa

Text a Librarian!

BC Law Library now offers reference assistance by text message. Text your simple, quick questions to 617-70-BCLAW to get legal reference help on the go.  The legal information librarians will respond  during ordinary reference hours. If your question is received after the reference desk is closed, a response will be sent the following day when reference services are available. For more in-depth questions, please stop by, email or call the reference desk.

BC Law Library Mobile Site

We have recently launched a mobile website to allow smartphone users easy access to library hours, contact information, online catalog searching, research guides, library news and events, and the live BC Shuttle tracking. Point your mobile browser to http://www.bc.edu/schools/law/library/m to access all of this information on this go.

Summer cleaning in the stacks

Don’t be surprised to hear the noise of vacuuming in the library during the months of June and July. The Law Library staff normally takes advantage of the slower months to take on projects in the Law Library, such as shifting, cleaning, and weeding.  We also depend on our three summer student employees to help with the physical work. If you find yourself in a noisy area, please bear with us; there is always  the option of finding a quieter seat in another part of the library!

New Chinese Law Resources

The Law Library has recently updated and expanded its collection of Chinese legal resources.  In addition to iSino Law, a comprehensive, dual-language,  electronic library of Chinese law primary sources and legal forms, the Law Library now subscribes to the China Law & Practice database (CLP).  CLP has full-text translations of Chinese business and procedural statutes, case law, a legislative digest, scholarly articles, indexing, business law alerts, a “deals and dealmakers” feature and a “people and places” feature.  Both databases are accessible via the alphabetical list of databases on the Law Library’s research webpage.  The Law Library also recently added two important print Chinese law sources as well:  the 2-volume China Law Deskbook:  Legal Guide for Foreign-Invested Enterprises, KNQ 78 .B87Z56, and the Draft Civil Code of the People’s Republic of China (in English translation), KNQ 500 .D73.  The Draft Civil Code, the result of five years of work by a committee of 26 Chinese civil law scholars, is currently before the Legislative Affairs Committee of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress.

BC Law Readies for an ABA Site Visit in 2012

BC Law is getting ready for its sabbatical accreditation.  An important component of the law school accreditation process is the site visit.  BC Law’s site visit, which is required by the American Bar Association, will happen next spring--from Sunday, March 25- Wednesday, March 28, 2012

The ABA provides the rubric for law school accreditation with its Standards and Rules for Approval of Law Schools.  Site teams are organized by the ABA’s Office of the Consultant on Legal Education.  There are different types of site visits:  regular site visits for fully-approved law schools, which take place every seventh year; visits to provisionally-approved schools, which take place each year; visits to schools seeking provisional approval; and any special site visits that may be ordered by the Accreditation Committee or the Council in accordance with the Standards and Rules of Procedure.

So who is on site team ?  Teams usually have between 5 and 7 members.  They are: 

1) a chair—the person who runs the whole process and may come out to BC Law before the March visit;
2) a faculty member who represents the ABA and the AALS-- usually this person will report on the faculty;
3) a practitioner and/or an academic who is not a lawyer--in my experience this person usually examines law school finances;
4) a law school professor or two who will look at student issues and the program of legal education at the school;
5) a law library director --who usually looks at the law school’s library and technology; and
6) a clinician—this faculty member usually looks at the clinics, the research and writing program,  and experiential learning at the law school. 

Richard Schmalbeck is going to be the chair of our site team.  He is the Simpson Thacher & Bartlett Professor of Law at Duke University.  He has also served as dean of the University of Illinois College of Law, and as a visiting professor on the University of Michigan and Northwestern University law faculties.  He teaches in the area of tax.  His recent scholarly work has been focused non-profit organizations, and the federal estate and gift taxes.  He served as an advisor to the Russian Federation in connection with its tax reform efforts.  He is co-author of a federal income tax casebook.  Professor Schmalbeck graduated from the University of Chicago, and later from its Law School, where he served as associate editor of the University of Chicago Law Review. Prior to beginning his teaching career, he practiced tax law in Washington, D.C.

We will keep you informed about site visit and the accreditation process as the year progresses.  This is a time for a school to examine its programs and services, so be on alert for opportunities to weigh in at focus groups, town meetings and the like.

Diversity Read

The Law Library was thrilled to host its Third Annual Diversity Read on March 15, 2011.  In 2009, this community reading event was launched to encourage a discourse about issues of difference, diversity and identity through discussion of a book that explores those themes .  The Law Library organizes the discussion annually as part of Diversity Month at BC Law.  This year’s book was Little Bee, a novel by English writer Chris Cleave.  Little Bee is a dual narrative novel that explores the story of a young Nigerian woman who has fled her war-torn home country and has sought refuge with an English magazine editor, Sarah O’Rourke.  The perspective switches from chapter to chapter between Little Bee and Sarah as their intertwined pasts are revealed and explored.  We were excited to have a lively discussion of the novel that included participants from the faculty, staff and student body.  We anxiously await the Fourth Annual Diversity Read in 2012 and welcome any suggestions for books!  Past books were James McBride’s The Color of Water and Ann Patchett’s Run. 

Thank you again to all of the wonderful folks who participated in the discussion!

Network News for Members of the Class of 2011

Members of the Class of 2011 will have access to the BC network until the first week of August 2011.  Network access is usually discontinued on the first Friday of the month of August.  The University’s ITS department usually sends out a network access termination notice a couple of weeks before the actual cut off.  After your network access is terminated, you will not be able to log in to the lab and QUEST computers in the library, but you will be able to register your personal laptops for guest access to the wireless network.

There is some good news to share – and that is that your BC e-mail account will remain fully active until April 1, 2012.

Rare Book Room News: New Acquisition—Gallison’s Reports

We recently acquired a first edition of the Reports of the Cases Argued and Determined in the Circuit Court of the United States, for the First Circuit.The new acquisition consists of two beautiful volumes, published by Wells and Lilly of Boston in 1815 and 1817. At the time of publication, the court was primarily a trial-level court, and the judges rode circuit hearing cases. In 1891, our current Courts of Appeals were created and decisions were published in West’s Federal Reporter. In 1911, the original, federal circuit courts were abolished.

These lovely volumes are known as Gallison’s Reports, after John Gallison, who served as the Reporter of the First Circuit of the United States from 1812-1815. Gallison was a native of Marblehead, Massachusetts and the nephew of Chief Justice Sewall of the Supreme Judicial Court. Most opinions in these volumes were rendered by Justice Joseph Story and involved questions of admiralty and prize law.

We are excited to welcome Gallison’s Reports to our collection!

Sarah Westlake Sculpture

The lovely sculpture Fantasy Garden #51: Pungo River Grass has been installed in the BC Law Library. This beautiful piece was created by Sarah Westlake in collaboration with Harry Jones. Merle Westlake made a gift of the sculpture to the McMullen Museum of Art here at BC. We are fortunate to have this sculpture on loan from the McMullen Museum; we hope our law students will enjoy viewing it here in the Law Library. This link leads to a brief description of Sarah Westlake's work. Please stop by and admire the sculpture in its location near the Information Desk on the main floor of the Law Library.