Preparing your own taxes? Several resources in the Bloomberg Law Tax Practice Center that may be of particular interest for your own return preparation are "BNA Bloomberg Fast Answers: Federal Tax" and the "Tax Practice Series." Fast Answers provides quick, brief, explanations of common tax issues, and the Tax Practice Series provides additional detail in an easy-to-use format.

If you get audited, Bloomberg Law also has the "IRS Practice Adviser" with helpful instructions on the audit and appeals process, calculating interest and penalties, and collection.  

All three resources are in the "BNA Portfolios and Analysis" section of the Tax Practice Center.  

Although some of these same materials are available in the Bloomberg BNA Library database, the interface is significantly easier to use on Bloomberg Law.  

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

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!

The recent blog post, “Should a legal right to ‘archival privilege’ be established?” posted on the blog Off the Record poses an interesting question which centers around the Boston College case involving the Belfast [Oral History] Project.  In brief, Boston College was subpoenaed on May 11, 2011 by Federal District Court for access to closed confidential oral histories that could contain information that might shed light on a murder inquiry in Northern Ireland. While Boston College appeals the request maintaining the “confidentiality” of the oral histories and the case is “pending” in the Supreme Court, the questions among archivists linger — will confidential remain confidential and should there be an established legal right to "archival privilege"? This provocative blog post illustrates this current dilemma.  “Do U.S. courts currently recognize an absolute or almost absolute legal right to confidentiality for scholars or archivists? And if they do not recognize such a right, should they?” Many archivists have varying perspectives on this issue. Archivists have a professional duty to curate many types of materials, some of which contain confidential information.  More thought provoking is the potential outcome of this case and how it will effect what people will be willing to archive in the future, inevitably impacting what will be remembered for generations to come.

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.

New in the Library Atrium Exhibit cases is the Children and Advertising Collection exhibit.  From 1976 to 1978 the Georgetown Law Center held the Children and Advertising Seminar to discuss the effects of advertising on children. The Children and Advertising Collection is unique in that it contains varied sources discussing television broadcasting and advertising, focusing on children’s television issues related to, the First Amendment, nutrition, violence, minorities, women, sex, and child abuse. There are also numerous Government related materials including Senate subcommittee hearing documents; legislative materials; FTC & FCC regulatory codes, and Congressional transcripts and reports. Along with Industry related materials including commercial storyboards and industry reports that focus on advertising and children’s nutrition.  The collection has multimedia as well, in the form of commercials clips, such as Uncle Ben’s Rice Treasure Hunt 1976 and Post Grape Nuts Rookies 1974.  Stop by the Atrium to take a look and learn more about this interesting collection.

For more information on this collection, please visit Special Collections in Williams 210 or contact Hannah Miller at htm@law.georgetown.edu.

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)

The Law Library has recently acquired a collection of papers by esteemed international law scholar Quincy Wright (1890-1970).  Quincy Wright is considered the father of international relations.  He had a long career as a professor of social science and international law that spanned 40 years.  He began teaching at Harvard University and eventually ended up at Chicago where he taught from 1923-1956.  One of his main scholarly interests was war and preventions to war.  This scholarly interest contributed to his magnum opus The Study of War, written in 1942.  He was widely known and active in the international community, serving as adviser to Justice Robert H. Jackson at the Nuremburg Trials.  He also worked with and advised both the League of Nations and the United Nations on matters of international relations.  

The Quincy Wrigth Collection contains manuscripts, correspondence as well as many offprints from around the world spanning the years 1920-1965.  Quincy Wright was a great reader and his collection of offprints is filled with detailed notes and marginalia. The Quincy Wright Collection will be available for research soon in Special Collections.  For more information, please contact Hannah Miller at htm@law.georgetown.edu or 1-202-661-6602.

(Picture from http://www.asil.org/presidents/wrightq.html)

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.

Today, February 3, marks the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 16th Amendment, which gave Congress the power to create an income tax. Shortly thereafter, Congress enacted the Income Tax Law of 1913, 38 Stat. 114 (Oct. 3, 1913) -- the first of many! (The income tax provisions start on page 166)

The 1913 Form 1040 return was the picture of simplicity and was only 4 pages, including instructions. An annual exemption of $3,000 (the equivalent of $70,000 today!) enabled most Americans to escape the 1%--6% tax.

The legislative history of the Income Tax Law of 1913 is available in Seidman's legislative history of federal income tax laws, 1938-1861, which the Library has in its print collection. An extensive collection of pre-compiled legislative histories of federal tax laws is available on Hein Online in the "Taxation & Economic Reform in America Parts I & II, 1781--2012" library.

Photo: IRS 1040 Tax Form Being Filled Out by kenteegardin CC by SA 2.0