Faculty Newsletter Winter 2007


Dear Friends and Colleagues,

The Law Library�s focus is squarely on faculty research. Your success as a scholar is one of our top priorities. Please take a look at this newsletter and learn about some of the resources that we can provide � from rare books to the way back machine on the Internet. There is also news about the University-wide computer backup initiative with Iron Mountain. Learn how you will be able to keep your pre-publication research and ongoing projects safe.

We hope that you enjoy this issue of the Law Library Newsletter. This winter has been relatively kind; let�s keep our fingers crossed that spring comes soon.

Peace, Filippa


Filippa Marullo Anzalone

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



Be a Star!


Some of you may have participated in the recent effort to have your make-up classes digitized. The library staff would like to report that students have been very appreciative of this new service. No longer will they have to share a single tape!

Here�s how the process works: Wayne Daley of Media Technology Services records the class on either a mini digital video cassette or standard VHS. This is sent to the library where we digitize, compress, and upload the file to our streaming server. Links for student access are then placed in the library�s online course reserve catalog and with permission from you, on your WebCT/ Vista site.

In addition to being used by students who miss class or want to call up lectures for later review, this service can also be used for guest lectures and other special events. For more information, please contact Wayne Daley or Irene Good.


New Database

International Law in Domestic Courts (ILDC) is a case-reporting service that provides the text of approximately 150 cases annually, which have been selected because of their significance in international law. The service provides analysis of core legal issues, highlights the most salient points of the cases, and provides an historical and legal context to each decision. Translations of key passages of non-English judgments appear alongside the full text of the judgments in the original language. (Law Library Access).




Computing News




  Good News! IT Announces a University-wide back-up system

ITS will soon begin to roll-out a new service providing remote, automated backup of faculty and staff OFFICE computers through a contract with Iron Mountain. This system will not be available for personal machines.

Iron Mountain Connected Backup is a web-based system that runs in the background, with minimal user intervention and no interruption to computer use. Your data is securely stored in Iron Mountain's data vaults in redundant remote locations. The electronic data vaults are also backed up to tape so your data is off-line protected from viruses and worms. You can recover files yourself quickly and easily via a web browser.

Members of the ATR staff have been testing the Iron Mountain system for the past two months. We are very pleased with the performance, reliability, and ease-of-use. ATR will be working with ITS to schedule implementation of Iron Mountain at the Law School.

Click here for additional detailed information.


  Giving a Presentation Off-Campus?

The Law Library has several Dell laptops available for you to borrow and take with you if you don�t have a personal laptop. We also have two infra-red pointers that you may borrow. Please send a note to atrinbox@bc.edu at least a week in advance of your presentation and we will reserve a laptop/pointer for you if one is available.


Google Desktop


Search your computer for Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, Power Point presentations, Outlook email, music, photos and more. The Google Desktop tool creates an index of documents on your local hard drive, maintains cached versions (a user option) of documents as you make changes, and conducts its searches on its index. Since you can add Boolean connectors to search words, the tool permits more targeted searches than the "Search for File" feature. (The "Search for file" feature searches each word of each document.) Similar free desktop search tools are available from Yahoo, Alta Vista and others. For more information or to download the Google Desktop go to http://desktop.google.com/.

Once the download is complete, an icon appears on your computer's desktop labeled Desktop Setup.exe. Double click on this to begin the installation. You can opt out of providing Google with nonidentifying search usage information and can set other preferences. After the installation is complete, documents on the user's hard drive will be indexed (this will happen behind the scenes). To use the Google Desktop Search, double click the icon that appears on the desktop.

A recent article by Carole Levitt and Mark E. Rosch in the May 2006 issue of Los Angeles Lawyer, a publication of the Los Angeles County Bar Association, which is available on Lexis and Westlaw, contains more information.


New Books List!

The New Books List is now available on the Law Library�s website. The list, which consists of recent book acquisitions arranged by subject headings, is created every month by library staff. Faculty can click on a title and go to the Quest record to request delivery of the book. Previous lists are archived, and all are available at http://www.bc.edu/schools/law/library/about/collection/curraccarchives.html.

The Way Back Machine


Content on the Web disappears with alarming frequency � here today and gone tomorrow. The Internet Archive is building a digital library of Internet sites and other cultural artifacts in digital form. Access is free to researchers, historians, scholars, and the general public. The archive includes over 144,000 articles; over 51, 500 movies; over 36,400 items (2,239 bands) in the Live Music Archive; and there�s more. Not everything is archived, but it�s a good place to begin, if the website you want has disappeared. You can browse the Archive, or, if you have an old URL, begin your search with The Way Back Machine. Try typing the URL into the search box and click �Take Me Back�.


New in the Rare Book Room...

Recent Additions to the Collection

You are invited to visit the Daniel R. Coquillette Rare Book Room to view our latest exhibit: Recent Additions to the Collection. Many of the books on display came to the library in 2006 thanks to the generosity of Professor Daniel R. Coquillette. The exhibition, which is loosely organized by themes, begins with striking early examples of printing and bookmaking, including a 1561 edition of Chaucer�s works, early printed editions of Greek and Roman classics, and an Ethiopian manuscript Old Testament dating from the 1500s. The exhibit continues with important editions of Blackstone�s Commentaries, including the first American edition by Robert Bell. It concludes with a sampling of justice of the peace manuals and documents, a few works owned by notable early American lawyers, and original slip opinions from two cases that continue to be relevant today. [more about the exhibit].


Regulations Research


Locating and tracking the status of federal and state regulations can be a cumbersome process. Luckily, the major online research vendors, LexisNexis and Westlaw, provide strong resources for ready access to this information. Public access is also available from the U.S. government for the CFR and the Federal Register.

   Finding Federal Regulations

The introduction of Westlaw�s RegsPlus service in February 2006 streamlined federal regulatory research. Entering CFR as the database identifier automatically takes a researcher to a unique set of resources: an electronic index to CFR; links to notes of decisions (both court and agency decisions); KeyCite flags to indicate if any proposed regulation is pending; links to full-text references to Federal Register and links to prior versions of a particular CFR cite.

LexisNexis offers access to the CFR, a separate archive of CFR back to 1981, and a complete backfile of Federal Register, as well as agency decisions, all as separately searchable files. Shepard�s symbols will alert searchers as to status of promulgated regulations and citing documents; there is no equivalent to the Westlaw alert system for pending federal regulations.

   Finding State Regulations

Both Lexis in the STREGS file and Westlaw in the ADC-ACAD database allow access to all states� administrative codes with one search. Entering this sample search statement: nicotine /5 yield retrieves the three states� regulations governing nicotine levels in cigarettes or smokeless tobacco products. These regulations from Connecticut, Massachusetts and Texas can then be checked with a KeyCite search for history or citing references. Learn more about state regulations here.