If you need help using Google Forms,  iMovie or Office for Mac, members of the Georgetown University community can now access software training videos through our subscription to Lynda.com. This resource features over 1500 online tutorials covering an extensive array of software packages. The topics featured include Business (Excel, Word, etc.), Audio (ProTools, Logic Pro, etc.), Video (Final Cut, iMovie, etc.) and Photography (PhotoShop, etc.). You can review the courses offered by subject or software title, as well as search by keyword.

Access is through the main campus library subscription, so law students, faculty and staff will need to sign in with your Georgetown netID and password to begin using this resource.

On Tuesday, February 12 at 5 pm in the Williams Library CLC, Ben Snipes of Bloomberg Law will demonstrate the Bloomberg Law Tax Practice Center. This new feature of Bloomberg Law provides ready access to primary tax legal materials, Tax Court decisions and dockets, transactional forms and agreements, and secondary legal materials including the BNA Tax Management Portfolios and Practicing Law Institute treatises.

All interested students and faculty are invited to attend. If you have any questions, please contact Jason Zarin. Students and faculty interested in requesting an account on Bloomberg Law may obtain one by following the instructions available in the Library's catalog.

The library hosted its 125th anniversary symposium, Big Data and Big Challenges for Law and Legal Information, this past Wednesday. We were delighted to welcome dozens of participants from law schools, libraries, news organizations, government agencies, and law firms to discuss data-driven initiatives in many disciplines at the Law Center. Thanks to all who presented, attended, and tuned in online – we hope you enjoyed the day as much as we did!

Video from the event, speakers’ slides, and the conference program including an extensive bibliography are now available on the symposium’s website.

Also, if you have feedback or ideas to share about the symposium and the topics it addressed, we’d love to hear from you. Please take a brief survey to share with Georgetown Law Library your thoughts on moving forward in our ever-growing world of big data.

Members of the Georgetown Law community can now read BNA Law Reports on your mobile device with the Bloomberg/BNA Law Reports mobile app in the iTunes store. Whether you're following the Daily Labor Report, the World Data Protection Report or any of the other BNA reports, you'll be able to access them on your mobile device, by following these easy steps.

1. In the iTunes store, search for Bloomberg Law Reports - you will see two apps.
2. Download the ORANGE app.                  
3. Sign On with your Georgetown Law School Bloomberg ID.
4. Read any of the BNA Law reports you have previously selected through your Bloomberg Law account.

Please feel free to ask a reference librarian if you need assistance!

On behalf of the Federal Judiciary, the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts recently released the judicial caseload statistics for the fiscal year which ended September 30, 2012. The Federal Court Management Statistics system provides data for the 12 courts of appeals and the 94 district courts. Whether interviewing for a federal clerkship or researching the caseload of federal judges, these statistics detail the number of civil vs. criminal cases filed in each court, as well as the cases termintated on the merits vs. procedural terminations.

Archival statistics are available back to 1997 through the Federal Court Management Statistics system.

Speaking at the Law Library’s 125th anniversary symposium, Big Data and Big Challenges for Law and Legal Information, on Wednesday, January 30th is Dr. Spiros Dimolitsas, Georgetown University’s Senior Vice President for Research and Chief Technology Officer.

He will be delivering the lunchtime keynote address Leveraging Georgetown University’s Strengths to Create Opportunities in Big Data.

Dr. Dimolitsas’ expertise in large-scale science and technology, high-tech/high-risk project management and technology commercialization has formed the basis for advice that has been provided on innovation and on complex-systems risk management to the U.S. Government and others. He also represents Georgetown University in a variety of fora on climate issues, including the World Economic Forum’s Global University Leadership Forum on Sustainability.

Dr. Dimolitsas has authored 60 papers and holds multiple patents. He holds a B.S. in Theoretical Physics, an M.S. in Nuclear Engineering, and a Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering.

The Georgetown Law Library's 125th anniversary symposium, Big Data and Big Challenges for Law and Legal Information, will explore a range of topics related to the applications of big data in legal scholarship, practice, and policy.

One of our panelists, Professor Paul Ohm, with academic credentials both in computer science and in law, will provide a fascinating introduction to his interdisciplinary approach to internet privacy issues. Companies soon will be able to collect personal information about us, but without ever receiving that information directly from us. Can and should privacy law respond to this challenge?

To learn more about Professor Ohm’s research and scholarship in this area, see his investigation of inadequate privacy protections revealed in Broken Promises of Privacy: Responding to the Surprising Failure of Anonymization, 57 UCLA Law Review 1701 (2010) and his work on the potential intersection of internet privacy practices with trademark law in a forthcoming article, Branding Privacy, 97 Minnesota Law Review ___ (forthcoming 2013). Visit http://paulohm.com/ or look for his posts at the blog Freedom to Tinker. You may watch the symposium live online on Wednesday, January 30.

On January 30, the Georgetown Law Library's 125th anniversary symposium, Big Data and Big Challenges for Law and Legal Information, will explore a range of topics related to the applications of big data in legal scholarship, practice, and policy.

Vicki Arroyo, executive director of the Georgetown Climate Center, is among numerous panelists from academia, government service, and private practice set to speak at the conference. Professor Arroyo will present on how the Georgetown Law-based organization is using data and data platforms to strategically position itself as a “go to” resource for policy makers, consumers, and reporters on climate, energy, and transportation issues.

Professor Arroyo recently gained national attention with a high-profile TED Talk (watch below) on preparing for climate change in June 2012, which continues to draw views and spread ideas online. She teaches experiential environmental law courses to both law and public policy students at Georgetown, and has previously served as a vice president at the Pew Center on Global Climate Change and in positions with several federal and state government organizations dealing with the research, policy, and economics of environmental issues.

Professor Arroyo will participate in the third panel of the symposium, Big Data Applications in Scholarship and Policy II, from 1:00 to 2:15 in Gewirz 12th floor. To find out more about the day’s events and watch the symposium live online, visit the symposium homepage.

The Georgetown Law Library's symposium, Big Data and Big Challenges for Law and Legal Information, will explore a range of topics related to the applications of big data in legal scholarship, practice, and policy.

One of our panelists, Professor Joshua Teitelbaum, will provide a fascinating introduction to risk preferences, and how data sets can illuminate why people choose certain insurance policies or 401(k) investment strategies over others. 

To learn more about Professor Teitelbaum's research and scholarship in this area, see Joshua C. Teitelbaum, et al., The Nature of Risk Preferences: Evidence from Insurance Choices, American Economic Review (forthcoming), and Joshua C. Teitelbaum, et al., Unlucky or Risky? Unobserved Heterogeneity and Experience Rating in Insurance Markets  (working paper),  and watch the symposium live online on Wednesday, January 30.

Bloomberg Law has added Taxation to its Practice Center interface. The Tax Practice Center provides ready access to

• Primary statutory and regulatory tax materials, including the Internal Revenue Code, Treasury Regulations, and IRS administrative guidance
• Tax case decisions and dockets, including the United States Tax Court
• BNA Tax Management Portfolios
• Practicing Law Institute treatises
• Selected tax journals
• M&A and related transactional forms and agreements

Students and faculty interested in requesting an account on Bloomberg Law may obtain one by following the instructions available in the Library's catalog.