In a previous blog post, we provided a 30,000 foot view of the Study Aid Finder that the GSU College of Law Library so kindly put together to aid your studies. The next series of blog posts will highlight certain aspects of the Study Aid Finder with the hope that it helps you take advantage of what it has to offer…and I hope you do, because who doesn’t love saving $$ by not buying resources on Amazon that the Law Library has freely available to you…AND who doesn’t like succeeding in your classes?

The 1L’s out there are only a few weeks away from completing a major milestone: the completion of the first year of law school! Definitely a cause for celebration. There are a few pesky speed bumps in the way of summer, however, one of which likely being the Property law final. Let’s take a look at the Study Aid Finder and see how it can help prepare you for the Property law final…

As noted in a previous blog post, when one goes to the Study Aid Finder, there is a menu bar on the left with 1L courses, 2L courses, and recommended electives. Clicking on the “1L Courses” bar gives a drop down menu, from which “Property” can be selected.

Clicking on the “Property” bar, you’re directed to a box with digital, physical, and audio and video resources that can help prepare you for the exam:

For a given tab, the resources are rank-ordered in an unscientific analysis of comprehensiveness, buts lets go through a few and go through the tabs of the box.

Let’s start with digital. Clicking on the “Digital” tab will display a list of resources. Let’s start with the “Glannon Guide to Property ” for no other reason than it is at the top of the list.  Clicking the link may or may not bring you to a landing screen to enter your GSU network credentials (depending on whether or not you are accessing the resources from campus or off campus). After entering credentials (if needed), one is directed to the Aspen Learning Library site for the Glannon Guide:

As you can see, it’s compatible with a variety of electronic devices (computer, tablet, phone) and can be accessed online or offline (note: offline reading must be done through the Aspen Learning Library App, available for PC/Mac/Android/iOS).

Utilizing the “Read Online” tab, you are brought to the table of contents, and from there, you can search the ToC, scroll through the ToC, etc. Chapters are broken out into the major topics (possession, gifts, title, etc.). The chapters discuss the topics generally, and even provide some discussion of case law. 

Looking at lost property and treasure trove (because who doesn’t like treasure??), the online viewer has a view like this:

The top left menu buttons bring you to the Aspen Learning Library (the publisher for this particular book) and a link to the table of contents, respectively.  The five menu buttons on the top right provide a “text to speech” function, a button for supplemental material, a full screen viewer option, a settings option (allows one to change the font size and font), and a search option. The chapter then ends with some examples. Other resources in the “digital” tab include examples and explanation books, the Emmanuel crunchtime series, and others. 

Clicking on the “Physical” tab brings a list of resources that are similar (some are identical) to those in the “digital” tab. These can be accessed physically in the Law Library, or the ISBN is provided and one can Google it and find a vendor-of-choice to obtain the book.

The “Audio and Video” tab has a list of resources that are, well, audio and video! These resources are not as comprehensive or have the depth of examples (a.k.a. “Hypos”) that other resources have, but, for those on the go, these resources provide a great opportunity for learning in traffic, in the gym, nursing a child, etc.

The amount of resources available can be overwhelming, but I’d recommend skimming a few, see which resource resonates with you, and go from there. You can’t go wrong. Happy hunting and best of luck on your upcoming exam!