The Georgetown Law Library has launched a new data archiving service, the Georgetown Law Dataverse, to support the empirical research of Law Center faculty members, academic centers and institutes, and legal journals.

"Georgetown Law faculty are increasingly publishing scholarship with empirical data components," said Law Library Director and Professor of Law Michelle Wu. "This trend is reflected in the broader legal academy as well. As a result, free, open and reliable access to source data has become critical to the development of legal scholarship. With an eye towards facilitating such scholarship, the Georgetown Law Library is offering this innovative service to support the preservation and sharing of digital datasets."

The Georgetown Law Dataverse is a repository of digital datasets, collections of statistical information or other related data used in empirical scholarship. This service will allow authors to permanently preserve and publically release data that they have collected. Authors who continue to update their work after publication can upload revised data as it becomes available.

More information about the Dataverse is available here: http://www.ll.georgetown.edu/collections/dataverse.cfm.

Lexis and Westlaw both restrict student access over the summer, but continuing students and new graduates may request an extension of their passwords if they meet certain conditions.  For continuing students, examples of these conditions include:

• Taking summer law school classes that require access for their course preparation and assignments;
• Doing research associated with law review, law journal, or moot court work over the summer;
• Serving as a research assistant for a faculty member; or
• Working in an unpaid, nonprofit public internship or externship position for school credit or to fulfill a graduation requirement.

Note that this continued access must be for academic purposes only.  Using a Lexis or Westlaw password for a commercial purpose is in direct violation of our academic subscription terms.

The extension of student passwords needs to be done separately with each vendor and can be done directly from the home page of both Westlaw (lawschool.westlaw.com) and Lexis (www.lexisnexis.com/lawschool).  After you log in, there will be a rotating set of headlines in the center “announcements” box on both websites.  Select the “LexisNexis Summer Access” on Lexis and the “Need your Westlaw password this summer?” option on Westlaw and follow the ensuing prompts.

In addition, both Lexis and Westlaw allow graduating students to extend their passwords while they are studying for the bar exam.  Note that this access is limited to only a few hours per month (5 or so) through the end of July, and graduating students must affirmatively request this continued access using the same links referenced above.

Finally, Lexis continues to offer its Aspire program in 2011, which allows continuing access to certain tools and services for both current students and graduates pursuing public interest work.  For more details on the program restrictions and how to register, see the “Will you be part of the solution this summer?” option from the same rotating set of headlines in the center announcements box on the Lexis home page (www.lexisnexis.com/lawschool).

If you have additional questions regarding summer password extensions, please direct them to Jason Spray at Westlaw (Jason.Spray@thomsonreuters.com) and/or Tom Berdan at Lexis (Tom.Berdan@lexisnexis.com).

UPDATE: The Cali.org website is now up and running. [details here]. Lessons on DVD are still available for all Georgetown Law students.

Cali.org went down sometime this morning. The outage relates to problems with CALI's cloud service provider, Amazon.

We have CALI DVDs at both reference desks if you'd like to run a CALI lesson while the site is down.

CALI lessons are interactive, computer-based tutorials written by law professors and librarians. CALI publishes over 800 CALI lessons in 33 different legal subject areas. With so many options, there is likely a CALI Lesson available for most of the topics and subjects you wish to study before exams. If you are registering a free account at cali.org for the first time, note that you must use our school's authorization code to create a new account. Our authorization code is available to Georgetown Law students.

The Chicago-Kent College of Law at the Illinois Institute of Technology has developed a new iPhone app designed to, "appeal to all Supreme Court junkies." The OyezToday app allows iPhone users to access the content of the Oyez Project, an extensive collection of material from the Supreme Court of the United States. New opinions, as well as audio and transcripts from oral arguments, are available on OyezToday the same day they are released by the Court.

OyezToday is free and available in the iTunes App Store. Apps for the iPad and Android phones are forthcoming. For more information, see the press release from Chicago-Kent or the preview of OyezToday from Apple.

The law library's Spring 2011 Student Survey is now closed, with 403 total student responses. We use all feedback to help improve library services and materials for our students. We've published a selection of graphs from the quantitative questions, and we'll publish a written response to the valuable student input towards the end of the summer.  This will give us a chance to review comments and implement some changes and improvements.

Contratulations to Eric Swanson, a third year day student, who won the iPod Touch, drawn at random from all student responses.

For online preferences, the primary reason people visit the Law Library website is to get past exams from our online collection. 
The rest of the reasons are listed in this chart: 

This chart shows the reasons people visit either of the Georgetown Law Library locations.  Not surprisingly, the top reason is for quiet study.

You can view these and other published charts from the 2011 Spring Law Library Survey.

Thanks again to all students who responded.  If you have input or suggestions before next year's survey, our Online Suggestion Form is always available. 
Also, look to the Law Library Feedback Blog where we post questions and answers based on student input on specific topics.
 

Update: Survey closed Sunday, March 20.  Updates will be posted to the Georgetown Law Library website, including news on a winner of the Apple iPod Touch.

The Law Library is currently conducting a survey of all Georgetown law students. Please take about 10 minutes to give us your feedback about our reference services and research collections. We're also looking for your thoughts about our facilities and a few other library-related items. We promise to read every comment submitted, and we'll do what we can to act on and respond to your feedback.

Take the 2011 Law Library Survey [Georgetown login required]

One lucky student completing the survey will win an Apple iPod Touch (32 GB). We will keep the survey open through Sunday, March 20, and plan to announce the student winner during March after the survey closes.

It should only take a few minutes to complete the voluntary survey.  Based on feedback in prior years, we 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 library book scanners, and we enhanced frequently-used library collections, including our collection of DVD and study aids.

Read a summary of survey results from the last four years, together with our response each year: Annual Law Library Student Survey

Here's a profile of the 607 students who replied last year. We hope to you'll take the time to help us get at least this many responses this time around.


 

The Georgetown Law Librarians regularly evaluate mobile applications related to legal research activities. To date, only a few native mobile applications exist specifically to perform legal research. However, enough good apps exist to give us an insight into the types of applications and services we might expect in the coming years. Here, we present a few insights into mobile applications for legal research.

Narrowly-Focused Tasks Make an App Easy to Use

The hallmark of most native mobile apps is quick information access. Apps can best answer simple research questions or verify laws quickly. Also, if these needs are recurring, an app can be very helpful.

FastCase

FastCase provides a legal research application that lets you search federal and state case law from their servers without charge. They provide an iPhone and iPad version of the application, and both are free after creating an account. FastCase makes their money by selling access to their databases through individual subscriptions as well as bulk deals with bar associations. The mobile app describes the FastCase website and its additional features, but there is no upgrade path from one to the other.

LexisNexis Get Cases and Shepardize

The name no longer does justice to this app that allows researchers to find and update all U.S. statutes and cases available through Lexis.

Statutes include all of the annotations found through the Lexis website. For example the USC code sections includes case annotations and citations to related administrative law.

A further advantage of this app is that it contains Lexis annotations to all federal and state cases. Covering all cases available in the Lexis database, the app provides relevant value-added Lexis features such as case briefs, headnotes, and summaries of the case written by legal experts.

With a found case or statute this app provides an overview of the item's subsequent legal treatment through Shepard's. A researcher may also use Shepard's to discover newer cases which distinguish the known case based upon the facts of the case.


A Great App Might Not be An App at All

Westlaw

So far, the ThomsonReuters strategy seems to be to develop Westlaw products so content is web-friendly instead of creating apps for specific devices. The main focus is on optimizing the WestlawNext platform, and the mobile applications page about WestlawNext touts flexible display for multiple mobile device types, including the iPhone. The result is app-like in features and usability, but it is accessed through a browser, such as Safari. The WestlawNext mobile site is fully-featured and simplifies finding Westlaw content. Because you must use your Westlaw password to access the site, it lets you access folders saved on WestlawNext, your favorites and any recent research activity.

There is one device-specific app for WestlawNext, created for the iPad, described on this page from ThomsonReuters.

Downloading Westlaw Document to a Kindle

As we noted back in December, WestlawNext allows users to download individual documents or groups of documents to a Kindle device. Before doing so, however, you need to add WestlawNext to your Kindle's Approved E-mail List. Simply access the "Your Account" section of Amazon.com and select "Manage Your Kindle"; from the Digital Content options. From that page, add "westlawnext@westlawnext" (no quotes) to your "Approved E-Mail List." Also, be sure to note your "Kindle E-mail Address" located near the top of the page, as you will need to enter it on WestlawNext in order to download to your Kindle.

Note that there is no fee for documents received wirelessly on a Kindle. If received via 3G, however, a nominal fee will apply (15 cents per megabyte for users living in the U.S.).

Iinformation on transferring, downloading & sending files to a Kindle is available on the Amazon website.

Government Apps May Provide More than Legal Research

IRS2Go from the Internal Revenue Service

As we noted in a January blog post, the Internal Revenue Service announced that a new mobile app has been released and is now available for your iPhone, iTouch or Android. Known as IRS2Go, this official IRS app will provide daily tax tips and updates for tax planning and preparation purposes.

Additionally, you'll be able to check your refund status for the 2010 Tax Year. As usual, the app is available by visiting the iTunes app store or the Android Marketplace.

For additional tax research needs, make use of the Library's Federal Tax Research Guide which explains how and where to find tax documentation.

More than thirty device-specific apps are available from the federal government, found in the USA.Gov Apps Directory. For instance, on this site, you'll find a White House iPhone app, an Android app for Product Recalls,

The Internal Revenue Service announced that a new mobile app has been released and is now available for your iPhone, iTouch or Android. IRS2Go will provide daily tax tips and updates for tax planning and preparation purposes. Additionally, you'll be able to check your refund status for the 2010 Tax Year. As usual, the app is available by visiting the iTunes app store or the Android Marketplace.

For additional tax research needs, make use of the Library's Federal Tax Research Guide which explains how and where to find tax documentation.

A revamped interface for LexisNexis debuted this week, accessible for Georgetown Law users at http://www.lexisnexis.com/lawschool/research.

In addition to freshened aesthetics and a screen space-optimized layout, the new Lexis offers improved navigation and features for increased user customization and research efficiency. Tools for finding jurisdiction-specific materials and free info from the internet via LexisWeb are among the enhancements.

According to Lexis, the recent changes were inspired in large part by feedback and suggestions from users, so be sure to give it a try and let a librarian or Lexis rep know what you think!

More from Lexis on the new interface is available at http://www.lexisnexis.com/lexisenhancements.

A recent feature on LLRX.com compiles articles from the news, professional journals, law reviews and other secondary sources on the behavior of juries using social media and internet resources. The articles examine the impact this behavior is having in the courtroom and identifies cases that have been influenced by postings on Facebook or juror "tweets".