Faculty Newsletter Fall 2006


Dear Friends and Colleagues,

I cannot believe it, but here we are at mid-semester. Depending on where you live, the leaves are in the midst of their annual recital of riotous color. Here at the Law School everyone is busy and absorbed, and the academic year is happily humming along.

The Law Library is introducing this electronic newsletter to highlight some of the resources and services that we offer. One of the banner services that the Law Library inaugurated this year is its three-part workshop for faculty. If you missed the September 25th workshop--Library Services That Support Faculty Scholarship (hosted by Mary Ann Neary, Irene Good and Deena Frazier)--do not fret, there are two more:


Filippa Marullo Anzalone

Professor and Associate Dean for Library and Computing Services, Law School


  • Monday, October 30, 3:30-4:30 pm / Stuart House - Room 409 Faculty Workshop: Building the Library's Collection to Support Faculty Scholarship( Karen Beck); and

  • Monday, November 6, 3:30-4:30 pm /Stuart House - Room 409 Faculty Workshop: Finding Electronic Journals & Organizing Search Results ( Mark Sullivan and Marguerite Most)

    The Law Library is both an intellectual resource and a service organization. Our mission is fulfilled when we successfully meet your information needs. Please read this newsletter to learn more about what the Law Library offers. We wish you a happy and productive fall semester.

    Peace, Filippa


    • Tax Research Training

    RIA Checkpoint, which is accessible from the Law Library�s �Alphabetical List of Databases� webpage, provides full-text access to a wide variety of RIA federal, state and international tax resources, including US Tax Reporter, Federal Tax Coordinator 2d, US tax treaties, a citator service, a dictionary, tax alert services, and selected journals and WG&L tax treatises. Use the drop-down menu on the left to select a practice area -- e.g. Federal, International, State & Local, etc.

    You are invited to join the legal information librarians in room 253 of the Library on Thursday, November 16 at 2 pm for RIA Checkpoint training. A trainer from RIA will conduct the session.


    E-discovery Rules Effective December 1, 2006

    The new Federal Rules of Civil Procedure addressing electronic discovery will take effect on December 1, 2006 unless there is last minute action by Congress. Approved by the Supreme Court on April 12, 2006 without comment or dissent, the rules revision package is now before Congress. Revisions and additions to Rules 16, 26, 33, 34, 37, 45, and Form 35 are pending. The new rules, which are designed to account for current practices in document storage, management and retrieval, will redefine what a �document� is, and how parties handle the discovery process. Incorporated into the rules changes is an emphasis on early communication between the parties (Rule 16 changes) and provisions for specifying the form in which electronically stored information will be produced (Rule 34(b) changes). See http://www.uscourts.gov/rules/newrules6.html for the text of the pending rules amendments.


    Research Tip: Shepardizing West Headnotes

    LexisNexis recently announced that it is no longer adding West headnotes to its Shepard�s databases. Additionally, beginning in September Lexis began removing historical West headnote analysis from Shepard's reports. This means that once the removal process is complete, researchers will no longer be able to access information using a West headnote for which a case is being cited. On a more positive note, Lexis is including its own headnotes in Shepard's online reports, and the researcher can use Shepard's FOCUS � Restrict By Feature tool to zero in on specific references.


    Reel Justice


    Take off those thinking caps and close that laptop. Give yourself some needed respite and join the Law Library for our first Movie Night on Sunday, October 29 at 7:00 pm in EW 120. Movie Night is a student-focused evening, but we would love to see a few faculty faces in the audience! Showing on the big screen will be Adam�s Rib, the classic 1949 George Cukor film starring Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy as husband and wife attorneys working opposite sides of a criminal case. Prof. Frank Herrmann will bring his considerable criminal defense experience to a discussion of the film and its issues. (If you have a favorite film you'd like to see, or if you're available to speak at a future library Movie Night, please contact Mary Ann Neary or Marguerite Most.) There will be popcorn and soda � and you won�t have to wait in line for tickets! Check out a review of the film.


    One of Your Library's Many Services: Document Delivery!


    Do you need a book or an article from main campus? Request delivery to the Law Library!

    1. Find the item you need in the Quest catalog.
    2. Click Volume to request delivery.
    3. You will be prompted to sign in using your BC username and password.
    4. Select a pick-up library (Law).
    5. The book will be delivered to your mailbox in Stuart when it arrives.

    You can return any BC book to the Law Library. We�ll send it to the appropriate library for you.


    New in the Rare Book Room...

    Kitty Preyer and Her Books

    This exhibit, now on view in the library�s Daniel R. Coquillette Rare Book Room, honors the memory of Kathryn �Kitty� Preyer and celebrates the bequest of her magnificent collection of rare books to BC. Highlights include multiple editions of Blackstone�s Commentaries on the Laws of England, and early English and American legal �self-help� manuals such as Every Man His Own Lawyer. [more about the exhibit]. Please stop in and take a look. The exhibit will be on view through early December 2006.


    The Distinctive Aspects of American Law Project from Duke Law School

    Hate speech and the First Amendment:
    Virginia v. Black 538 U.S. 343 (2003)

    Punitive Damages:
    BMW of North America, Inc. 517 U.S. 559 (1996)

    Intellectual Property:
    Moseley v. V Secret (coming soon)

    Religion & the First Amendment:
    Van Orden v. Perry 545 U.S. ____ (2005)

    Takings & Eminent Domain:
    Lucas v. South Carolina Coastal Council 505 U.S. 1003 (1992)

    This on-going project focuses on educational videos related to Supreme Court cases. Here is how Tom Metzloff, the director, describes the project: �� the documentaries stop with the Supreme Court granting certiorari (or sometimes at the close of oral argument). The goal is to prepare students to engage in discussion of the competing interests that inform the Court's decision-making.�

    Each documentary (listed here) is about 20 minutes long and consists of interviews with the parties and their lawyers. For example, in Virginia v. Black, students can view interviews with Barry Black, head of the Ku Klux Klan, who was arrested for burning a cross during a Klan meeting; the arresting law enforcement agents; Black's attorneys, including David Baugh, the African-American lawyer who represented him at trial, and Dean Rod Smolla, who handled the appeal; the local prosecutor; and William Hurd, Virginia's Solicitor General, who argued the case on appeal and before the Supreme Court. The case includes footage from Klan rallies led by Black, including a similar cross-burning ceremony.