How many times have you gone home at night with a sore neck because you have been looking down at a casebook or outline all day? Or maybe your wrists are hurting because you tried to hold your book up to read before class. Law students already have enough to deal with on a daily basis, without throwing in a few aches and pains. Have no fear though, the Law Library has just the product for you…bookholders.

If you are not currently using bookholders when you study, then you are missing out on one of the greatest engineering feats of our generation (slightly exaggerated). Think about it, a device that actually holds a book up for you so you don’t have to hold it up yourself or look down at it on a table. Genus!

Use it when reading cases for class.

Casebook

Use it for reading your outline before the big exam.

Outline

Use it when reading a magazine at lunch. 

Magazine

The possibilities are truly endless. And the best part of all, we have 7 at the Circulation Desk that you can checkout. That’s right, you can use one of our bookholders for FREE! So next time you get that pain in your neck, stop by the Circulation Desk and check out a bookholder.

Photo by Flickr user Sydigill.

While you’e staring at your outlines, study aids, casebooks, or computer screens, you may have recently noticed an odd sight: library employees staring very, very hard at shelves. We’re not doing this to prank you, or as a part of some incredibly boring performance art piece. What we’re doing is something called “shelf reading.” Shelf reading is a process where the library staff systematically looks at all of the books in the library to make sure everything’s okay. Every year around this time we divide the library up among the library staff and assign rows of books for each person to “read.” If a book is out of place, we’ll put it in the right spot. If a book looks like it needs some attention, like repair or rebinding, we’ll take care of that, too.

So if you see one of the library employees standing in a row for an inordinately long period of time staring at a shelf, don’t worry about us. We’re okay – we’re just shelf reading, making sure that the library’s collection is all okay. Well, unless you see one of us sprawled out face-down on the floor. In that case, please go get help.

image by Flickr user probonobaker

It’s almost exam time again, which means it’s also almost time for the library to provide you with that sweet, sweet elixir known as coffee. We’ll be having coffee (and tea) throughout the day on these dates in December:

• Thursday, Dec. 5
• Monday, Dec. 9
• Thursday, Dec. 12 and
• Monday, Dec. 16.

Stop by and enjoy!

By Meghan Starr

With exams closing in, the stress levels are rising.  When you feel like you just can’t outline any more, but feel too guilty to watch your favorite show or pick up that romance novel, try watching one of the movies or TV series from our Law Leisure collection.  If you’ve had Professor Morrison’s evidence class, you already know that movies can be a fun way to work through the material.  (But don’t forget the outlines!  They really do help.)

If you want a little extra guidance, you can read Movie Therapy for Law Students while you watch. The book suggests different movies for each subject area, then provides “relevant statutory material, rules, case law, and other resources to guide you in thought process.”  You can find most of the movies right here in our library and check them out for a week.

Civil Procedure or Family Law?  Try Kramer vs. Kramer.  Contracts? Try Liar, Liar. Evidence, Constitutional Law or Criminal Law?  Try Young Mr. Lincoln.

Also, please remember that the upper floor of the library is reserved for quiet, individual study, and that ear plugs are available from the circulation desk.

Good luck!

Photo by Flickr user Mr. T in DC.

Thanksgiving is almost here, so we wanted to let you know about our hours this week. The library will be open:

•  Monday & Tuesday, Nov. 25 & 26 – 8 a.m. to 9 p.m.
• Wednesday, Nov. 27 – 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.
• Thursday – Saturday, Nov. 28 – 30 – Closed
• Sunday, Dec. 1 – 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. (regular hours resume)

Have a wonderful break!

by Nirvi Shah

Photo from the National Library of New Zealand’s photo commons

You’ve probably heard by now that “nothing is as terrifying as 1L first semester exams” or “you’ll never go through this feeling again.”  And for the most part, it is true.  It feels like you’re swimming in the dark and whatever flotation devices and tips that are given to you don’t exactly make sense and you can’t exactly grasp how to use the advice.  You are in the dark, after all.  Fortunately, however, once you’re done with exams this semester, you will know what to expect (for the most part) for the remainder of law school.  If you’re outlining, practicing hypos, reading through sample answers, and freaking out (just a little bit), you’re on the right track.  If you’re looking for a bit more guidance on that, try this helpful guide. And once you’re done with all of your exams, you have 25 entire days to not fret about your grades and just relax, sleep, eat, and spend time with everyone you said goodbye to on August 19, 2013—the day you were thrown into this whirlpool called Law School.

Just remember, you’ve made it this far.  There is only one more month left until you’re done with your first semester of law school.  You can do it–Good luck!

Flicker photo by pamhule

By Mark Stuckey

If you’re like me, and have quite a trek home after an arduous day at College of Law, you might just want to plug in your head phones and space out to some Devo, or whatever the kids are listening to these days, but you shouldn’t, because there are better ways to use your time on your commute home!

Read For Class

If you take MARTA, reading on the train can be a lifesaver. Using your time wisely on the train allows you to prepare for that cold-call tomorrow (well maybe), and frees up time at home for more worthwhile pursuits (like GTA 5). Pro tip: I have found that if you seem really engrossed with your case book and mutter to yourself a little, no one will sit next you… so there’s that.

Use Flashcards

Whether you make them yourself or sell your first born for some commercial ones, flash cards are extremely helpful when attempting to memorize important general terms, and elements. Plus, that guy who is looking over your shoulder on the train needs to know the elements of a prima facie negligence case. You can check out flash cards at the Circulation desk.

Also, there is a website called Quizlet where you can make flashcards and use them on the website or download an app and use them on the go. Find Quizlet here! Some law students have already made flash cards so if you are feeling lackadaisical, just use theirs. (if you trust them)

• Random Torts Flash Cards
• Random Contracts Flash Cards

Listen to Sum and Substance Audio Recordings/Audio Case Files

Whether you’re on the train, in the car, or riding your bike, you can listen to top law professors who literally complied the casebook. Check out the sum and substance Audio Cd’s from the Circulation Desk put them on your Ipod and never look back. I especially enjoy these tapes, because it is like having a lecture on demand. See what subjects we have at the library here!

Every GSU Law student has access to Audio Case Files, which has edited audio versions of judicial opinions, as well as full opinions, fact summaries and all sorts of wonderful things to make your life easier. You can create a free account by using your GSU email address. Find out more information here.

Reflect on the Lecture

A gruff professor recommended this gem on one of the first days of my Contracts 1 class so there’s probably some merit to it. As I gather, the idea is to try to pull out the key points of the Lecture without looking at notes, and organize them in a way that make sense. Writing this down would probably be good, but a tape recorder might serve just as well.

There you have it, a few very obvious ways to get the most out of your commute home. Comment below if you have any other ways to study on the go!

by Joshua Kahn

A lot of the legal bibliography exam boils down to memorization and, frankly, memorization is boring.  For many people, memorization means reading a list over and over again, or, for the more industrious among us, flash cards.  Neither really works all that well.

Personally, if I had to do it over again, I would try using a memory palace.

A memory palace is an old, simple, effective tool for using your spatial memory to remember non-special information (like how often different legal authority sources are updated).

Essentially, you bring a physical location you know well into your memory—like the house you grew up in, or your route to school—and populate it with vivid images representing the information you want to remember.  Then, when you need the information, you just “walk” back through your memory palace and look at the images.

You don’t need to buy any books to learn the technique, here are a few places you can look at online for free:

http://litemind.com/memory-palace/ (a helpful modern explanation)

http://www.utexas.edu/research/memoria/Ad_Herennium_Passages.html (Ad Herennium is the an ancient text that sets out the technique, don’t worry, it’s translated and very short)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Method_of_loci

http://www.wikihow.com/Build-a-Memory-Palace