Scholars researching the history of the law consider law books and related works from the period covered vital sources of information.The value of these sources increases when they contain contemporaneous annotations that can provide vital clues to the mental world of lawyers of the day. If those annotations were made by a significant historical figure, such clues are priceless. Georgetown Law Library’s Special Collections holds several annotated imprints, including:

Sir Edward Coke's (1552-1634) copy of the 1569 imprint of De Legibus et Consuetudinibus Angliae [On the Laws and Customs of England] (ca. 1230-50) by Henri de Bracton (1210-1268), the first treatise of English law now commonly known simply as Bracton; and,

Sir Matthew Hale's (1609-1676) copy of the 1640 imprint of one of the most significant medieval chronicle histories of England, Monachi Albanensis Angli Historia Major by Matthew Paris (1200-1259), the 13th century scholar, polymath, and member of the court of Henry III.

Annotated Imprints features selected facsimile images from these two unique books. The exhibit is currently on view in the Special Collections exhibit case outside Rm. 210 in the Williams Library.

To view these and other rare books and historical materials, contact Erin Kidwell - kidwelle@law.georgetown.edu or Special Collections - specl@law.georgetown.edu, or visit us in Williams 210 M-F from 9am to 5pm.

Beginning this month, Bloomberg Law will hold training sessions open to all students, staff, and faculty here at Georgetown Law.

Also called “BLaw” for short, Bloomberg Law is a comprehensive online research platform that includes primary legal materials, detailed business information, helpful practitioner tools, and timely news and current awareness resources. On BLaw, you can search across databases for federal and state court opinions, dockets, statutes, and regulations, learn about areas of law in many major treatises, law reviews and other secondary sources, access real-life examples of litigation forms and transactional documents, and perform career research through company and firm news and people profiles.

If you haven’t already, visit http://about.bloomberglaw.com/lawschools to activate your free account and learn more. Also be sure to sign up for on-campus Bloomberg Law Introductory Training by clicking on any session below. If you have questions, please email bloomberglaw@law.georgetown.edu or contact a reference librarian.

Thursday, February 21:
11:30am-12:20pm (Williams CLC)
3:30pm-4:20pm (Williams CLC)
8:00pm-8:50pm (Williams CLC)

Friday, February 22:
10:00am-10:50am (Williams CLC)
11:00am-11:50am (Williams CLC)
12:00pm-12:50pm (Williams CLC)

Monday, February 25:
9:30am-10:20am (Williams CLC)
11:30am-12:20pm (Williams CLC)
3:30pm-4:20pm (Williams CLC)

Tuesday, February 26:
11:30am-12:20pm (Williams CLC)
3:30pm-4:20pm (Williams CLC)
8:00pm-8:50pm (Williams CLC)

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.

Georgetown Law Center graduate Nathaniel Burney (L '97) recently published The Illustrated Guide to Criminal Law, which is available from Jones McClure Publishing.  Started as as a series of online comics to debunk popular myths about criminal law, the collection of writings and illustrations now covers seventeen chapters across more than 300 pages.

The five parts in the book cover an introduction, purposes of punishment, guilt, inchoate crimes, defenses and a summary of related topics.

Here's an example illustration from a series of comics relating to questions of police entrapment: 

Stop by the library to check out a copy, read the Tumblr site where this all began, or pick up a copy online.

We are pleased to announce the availability of a room in the Williams library where we provide access to assistive technology.

• Do you learn better by listening or by reading? 
• Is it easier for you to dictate than to type? 
• Would it be easier to proofread your documents by listening to them read back to you?

What if you don’t know the answer to any of these questions?

The Law Library and the Office of the Dean of Students are launching a new service to let members of the law center community use two unique productivity tools:

• Dragon Naturally Speaking: A program that transcribes dictation, reads back your text, and allows users to control the computer using voice commands.
• Kurzweil Educational System: A web-based program which allows the user to listen to text, either electronic or scanned printed information.

Both products are available in Room 111 of the E.B.Williams Law Library, and installed on a dedicated computer.

To try either system, simply reserve the room online and go to the Williams library circulation desk to borrow the headset and instruction sheet that will help you get started. When not being used for assistive technology, this room, EBW 111, is still available for group study purposes.