Professor Rosa Brooks has written an "unofficial" guide to getting a political job in the Obama administration in the latest issue of Foreign Policy. Of course, her tips on networking are important for obtaining a great job, whether you dream of working on 16th and Pennsylvania or 16th and K Street.

For more job-searching resources available in the Library, please consult the Library's Job-Searching Research Guide.

It’s time to start researching and writing seminar papers and the library’s Policy Research Guide highlights excellent starting points for identifying “hot topics”, as well as conducting background research. Recently updated, the guide links researchers to databases beyond Lexis and Westlaw featuring access to:

 ·         public opinion poll data

 ·         Congressional Research Service (CRS) reports

 ·         Government Accountability Office (GAO) reports

 ·         public policy think tank reports

 These reports highlight the latest thinking and often provide in-depth analysis on topics all across the legal spectrum ranging from affordable housing to air pollution to terrorism to implementation of the Dodd-Frank Act.

 Please feel free to consult a reference librarian for more information on using any of the resources identified in the Policy Research Guide!

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)

A pilot program between the U.S. Government Printing Office and the Administrative Office of the Courts is now posting court opinions on FDsys.gov. Court opinions from 3 appellate courts (2^nd, 8^th and 10^th Circuit) and almost 20 district courts are now searchable and freely accessible on FDsys. The associated dockets and court documents are also being uploaded for most opinions.  The site claims that “the content of this collection dates back to April 2004, though searchable electronic holdings for some courts may be incomplete for this earlier time period.”

This resource is most useful for those looking for a specific court opinion, especially with a known docket number or named party. A search for a docket number will retrieve a list of opinions and documents associated with that case. Simply click on the case name to read the opinion or click on the “more information” link for access to the docket and supporting court documents.

While still in the beta stage, it is the expectation that more federal court material will be added to FDsys as this program expands public access to court opinions.

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.

What happens to a person's Facebook page after they die? What about other social media accounts and digital assets? In New Hampshire the House is considering a bill  that would give control over a decedent's social media accounts (e.g, Facebook, email, blogs) to the executor of the estate. Other states have addressed the issue via legislation as well, but not all. And the laws vary across the states.

The Uniform Law Commission (also known as the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws (NCCUSL)) establishes uniform state legislation that states may adopt, providing some consistency across jurisdictions. In early 2012, NCCUSL established a Study Committee on Fiduciary Powers and Authority to Access Digital Information. The Committee's description states:

"A fiduciary who is administering a decedent's estate or the affairs of an incapacitated individual needs to be able to find, access, value, protect and transfer the individual's online accounts and digital property.  Because of the need to provide protection against fraud and identity theft, in recent years it has become increasingly difficult for fiduciaries to obtain the necessary access to digital information promptly and efficiently.  Beginning in 2005 a number of states have enacted legislation covering some of these issues, but the legislation varies greatly.  The study committee will consider and make recommendations concerning the authority and powers of a fiduciary to access digital information related to a decedent's estate or the affairs of an incapacitated individual."

The draft document the Drafting Committee reviewed at its first meeting (in the Fall of 2012) is posted online. According to the document, only five states have enacted legislation dealing with fiduciary access to digital assets but several are considering it. The work of the Committee should provide needed guidance to all states.

On January 10th, House Speaker Boehner and Majority Leader Cantor announced that starting with the 113th Congress (2013), the Government Printing Office (GPO) will make all bills and resolutions under consideration by the House, as provided by the House Bill Clerk, available to the public for bulk download in XML format. They have posted a User Guide.  GPO also provides access to individual House and Senate Congressional bills (from the 103rd Congress; 1993 forward) via the FDsys website.

In 2011, the House directed the Clerk to create docs.house.gov, providing public access to committee documents and legislation (bills, amendments, resolutions) being considered by the House. Additionally you can access live video streaming from the House floor with your mobile phone or tablet via the House of Representatives’ Houselive website or House Committee activity via the Library of Congress.

Since 1995, as directed by the 104th Congress, the Library of Congress has been making federal legislative information available to the public via the THOMAS website. Here researches can find House and Senate legislative status information (when was a bill was introduced, who sponsored it, a summary of the bill, and legislative activity on the bill). THOMAS includes the text of bills and resolutions (from 101st Congress; 1989 forward), the Congressional Record (from 101st Congress; 1989 forward), committee information (104th Congress; 1995 forward), schedules, calendars, and more. The Library of Congress is working on the next generation of this website, Congress.gov, making it more user-friendly and improving the technological infrastructure.

As state legislatures reconvene in 2013, many bills relating to the Affordable Health Care Act will be introduced and debated at the state level. The National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) maintains a Federal Health Reform: State Legislative Tracking database allowing you to monitor this hot topic. It will be updated every Tuesday, beginning January 14th, to include newly introduced legislation. Currently, all legislation on this topic from the 2011 and 2012 legislative sessions can be searched by state, year, keyword, status and/or primary sponsor.

This is only one of the "Hot Topics" databases maintained by NCSL. These resources allow you to monitor such issues as immigration, education and labor and unemployment across all 50 states.

Whether researching the 1860 General Laws of Kansas or a 1720 law from Virginia, the HeinOnline Session Law Library is the best starting point for researching state legislation.

Since 2007, HeinOnline has been digitizing the official bound session laws for all 50 U.S. states, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. The D.C. Register and the U.S. Statutes at Large are also included in this collection on HeinOnline. Currently, session laws from all states are available from the state's inception through the latest official bound version and the libraries are updated on a regular basis as new session laws are published by each state.