We have now concluded the 2013 Annual Student Survey for the Georgetown Law Library.  This year, 595 students responded.  Here's a quick overview chart showing the respresentation of student responses:

Thanks to everybody who responded.  

Congratulations to Jack Lescroart (L '14), who won an Amazon Kindle Paperwhite as part of the drawing for this year's survey.  He was chosen at random from all student responders who entered.  He is shown here with Associate Law Librarian Kumar Jayasuriya along with his new device.

Thanks again to our students for providing valuable feedback on library services, online content and resources.  We've already started to review all comments.  Over the coming weeks, we'll discuss all of this input and use it as a guide in helping us focus our efforts to provide useful services and resources.

This past Sunday, we wrapped up the law library's annual student survey.  More than 90% of our students answer that access to the Exam Archive is a reason for visiting the library's website. Hopefully 100% of our students know about this collection.  In case that's not true, here's what the system provides, as well as a technical note for Firefox users.

The library manages the Exam Archive to provide access to documents from our Registrar's Office. The system is available to all Georgetown Law students, where you can download past exams from 1998 to the present.  Using the system, you can download exam files in batches (as a zip archive) or individually by semester.

In the survey, one person commented about problems with the Firefox browser that's useful to know. If you are using the Firefox browser, a bug in Firefox’s built-in PDF viewer may cause the Georgetown Law watermark to obscure the text in exam files.

If you encounter this problem, please try viewing exam files in another browser (Chrome, Safari, Internet Explorer, etc.) or a standalone PDF viewer such as Adobe Reader. This page has more information about Firefox’s PDF Viewer, including how to turn it off or use a different PDF plugin.

Please join the Friends of the Law Library, National Equal Justice Library, The Innocence Project, Georgetown Criminal Law Association, the Georgetown chapter of the National Lawyers’ Guild, and Law Docs at the latest co-sponsored Law at the Movies event, part of the ongoing Georgetown Law Library Equal Justice Film Festival:

Movie: West of Memphis (2013)
Date: Tuesday, April 23, 2013
Time: 6:00pm (refreshments & seating), showtime 6:30pm
Location: Hart Auditorium, Georgetown University Law Center

This screening is free and open to the public - map and directions.

A 2012 Sundance selection, West of Memphis tells the infuriating, inspiring story behind an extraordinary and desperate fight to stop the State of Arkansas from killing an innocent man. The film lays bare the flawed police examination into the 1993 murders of three 8-year-old boys, and goes on to uncover new evidence surrounding the arrest and conviction of the three teenagers who spent 18 years in prison for the crimes, one facing execution and two life-imprisonment, until released in 2011.

After the screening, stay for a discussion of the film and the real cases it portrays with Stephen Braga, Georgetown Law alumnus, adjunct professor, and lead attorney in representing the "West Memphis Three."

For information on other upcoming events in the Georgetown Law Library Equal Justice Film Festival, visit www.law.georgetown.edu/library/about/125/filmfestival.cfm.

To learn more about the Friends of the Georgetown Law Library program and the benefits of becoming a member, visit www.law.georgetown.edu/library/visitors/friends.

Please join the Friends of the Law Library, National Equal Justice Library, The Innocence Project, Georgetown Criminal Law Association, the Georgetown chapter of the National Lawyers’ Guild, and Law Docs at the latest co-sponsored Law at the Movies event, part of the ongoing Georgetown Law Library Equal Justice Film Festival:

Movie: Gideon's Army (2013)
Date: Friday, April 19, 2013
Time: 6:00pm (refreshments & seating), showtime 6:30pm
Location: Hart Auditorium, Georgetown University Law Center

This screening is free and open to the public – map and directions.

A 2013 Sundance award winning documentary by Georgetown Law alumna Dawn Porter, Gideon's Army follows the personal stories of three young public defenders in the Deep South challenging the assumptions that drive a criminal justice system strained to the breaking point. 50 years since the landmark Supreme Court ruling Gideon v. Wainwright that established the right to counsel, can these courageous lawyers and their colleagues revolutionize the way America thinks about indigent defense and make “justice for all” a reality?

After the screening, stay for a discussion of the film and its context, led by:

• Jo-Ann Wallace, President and CEO, National Legal Aid & Defender Association
• Abbe Smith, Director, Criminal Defense & Prisoner Advocacy Clinic; Co-Director, E. Barrett Prettyman Fellowship Program; Professor of Law
• Alec Karakatsanis, Attorney, Special Litigation Division, Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia

For information on other upcoming events in the Georgetown Law Library Equal Justice Film Festival, visit www.law.georgetown.edu/library/about/125/filmfestival.cfm.

To learn more about the Friends of the Georgetown Law Library program and the benefits of becoming a member, visit www.law.georgetown.edu/library/visitors/friends.

The FY2014 Budget of the United States was released yesterday and is available through FDSys.gov, but did you know that you can actually review the federal budget back to 1923 through the Federal Reserve archive, known as FRASER? This resource provides a PDF version for each year and is already updated to include the 2014 release.

With summer just around the corner, the Library wants to be sure you’re aware of the options and requirements for continuing to use your student accounts with Westlaw, Lexis, and Bloomberg Law. A summary of the relevant policies and procedures is below and can also be found at www.law.georgetown.edu/library/about/services-policies/lexis-westlaw.cfm.

Of course, you’ll also want to check with your supervisor or librarian at your place of employment to understand any institutional policies or preferences they may have for using these platforms for your research over the summer.

Westlaw:

Westlaw passwords will automatically remain active over the summer for a limited number of hours of research each month. Students can get full access over the summer if they have a valid educational need under one of the following provisions:

• Summer School
• School-Related Research Assignment
• Moot Court Research
• Law Review or Journal Research
• Working as a Professor's Research Assistant
• Non-Profit Externship (receiving academic credit AND unpaid)
• Unpaid Internship/Externship (receiving academic credit AND unpaid)

If one of the above describes your summer activities, please apply to extend your full access at Westlaw's Password Extension page. If you take no action, your account will remain active but limited in the number of hours for June and July. Live Chat support on WestlawNext will remain active throughout the summer.

Graduating students can extend access while studying for the bar by registering for Westlaw’s Grad Program. Once registered, May graduates will retain access to Westlaw through November 2013. Please note that this extension will be limited in the number of hours allowed. All graduates will automatically retain access to a number of career-related databases for 18 months.

Questions can be directed to our Westlaw account representative, Pedro de Lencastre, at pedro.delencastre@thomsonreuters.com.

Lexis:

For summer 2013, Lexis offers students unlimited use of Lexis Advance for any research purpose, educational or commercial/job related. No additional steps are necessary for access besides registering your Lexis Advance ID (please contact the Reference Desk if you need an ID).

Lexis.com will also remain active over the summer, and may be used to access materials (e.g., international legal materials) that are unavailable on Lexis Advance. To use Lexis.com over the summer, you may log in the same as during the school year at www.lexisnexis.com/lawschool using your Lexis.com ID, until the consolidation of IDs into a single Lexis Advance ID/password and portal in late June or early July. After this, Lexis.com will be accessible by logging onto Lexis Advance and selecting the Lexis.com link in the system.

Questions can be directed to our Lexis account representative, Lori Sorenson, at lori.sorenson@lexisnexis.com.

Bloomberg Law:

Bloomberg Law accounts remain fully active over the summer for registered law students, including access for research conducted during summer employment. For additional information, contact Georgetown's Bloomberg Law representative, Beth Goldfinger, at egoldfinger@bloomberg.net.

The Law Library is conducting a survey of all Georgetown law students. Please take about 10 minutes to give us your feedback on the law library's collections, services and a related matters. We promise to read every comment submitted, and we'll do what we can to act on and respond to your feedback.

Take the 2013 Law Library Survey [Georgetown login required]

One lucky student completing the survey will win an 3G Kindle Paperwhite. We will keep the survey open through Sunday, April 21, and plan to announce the student winner by the following Tuesday.

It should only take a few minutes to complete the voluntary survey.  Based on feedback in prior years, we revised the past exam archive, created an online group study reservation system, relocated the reference desk in the Wolff Library and purchased new chairs for the Williams Reading Room and Williams library fifth floor. In addition, we have added book scanners, and we enhanced frequently-used library collections, including our collection of DVD and study aids.

You can review a summary of survey responses from 2007 to 2012 on our website. 

Follow the daily activities of the President with this recently released mobile app. The Government Printing Office has coordinated with the Office of the Federal Register to create this functional app which allows users to search by keyword, review documents by date or limit results by type of document. Some of the material available include:

• executive orders
• appointments and nominations
• bill signings
• speeches

Feel free to ask at the reference desk if you need any assistance with locating presidential documents.

Interested in learning strategies and techniques for conducting efficient legal research?
Attend a one-hour library session on developing a research plan,  tips for using Westlaw Next and Lexis Advance, free and low-cost legal research resources, and how to select the right resource and method for your research. 

These are the same classes we provide to the first-year JD students in the Legal Research and Writing program. 

Please sign-up for a class online, “Cost Effective Research Class (LL.M. & J.D.).” If you have questions, please stop by the Reference Desk.

Cost Effective Legal Research Class (LL.M. & J.D.)
•    Tuesday April 9, 2013 11:10am
•    Wednesday April 10, 2013 3:30pm

Classes held in the Williams Library Computer Learning Center (CLC).

Please join the Friends of the Law Library, National Equal Justice Library, Outlaw, and Law Docs at the latest co-sponsored Law at the Movies event, part of the ongoing Georgetown Law Library Equal Justice Film Festival:

Movie: Bully (2011, runtime 98 mins)
Date: Wednesday, April 3, 2013
Time: 6:00pm (refreshments & seating), showtime 6:30pm
Location: Georgetown University Law Center - Supreme Court Institute Moot Court Room (Hotung 2nd floor lobby)

Filmmaker Lee Hirsch gives a window into the lives of five school-age children in communities across America, all of whom face regular abuse, ridicule, and intimidation from their peers in this headline-grabbing 2011 documentary. The movie is the centerpiece of The Bully Project, an advocacy movement that spreads awareness of and solidarity against childhood bullying in all forms.

Space is limited, so please arrive promptly to secure a seat.

After the screening, stay for a discussion of the film and the ideas it presents, led by:

• Kisha Webster - Associate Director of Welcoming Schools, Human Rights Campaign
• Joseph Wardenski - Attorney at U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division

For information on other upcoming events in the Georgetown Law Library Equal Justice Film Festival, visit www.law.georgetown.edu/library/about/125/filmfestival.cfm.

To learn more about the Friends of the Georgetown Law Library program and the benefits of becoming a member, visit www.law.georgetown.edu/library/visitors/friends.